Racial Stress Called High in San Ysidro : Situation Between Blacks and Latinos Is ‘Potentially Volatile,’ Study Finds

Racial tension between blacks and Latinos in San Ysidro has created a “potentially volatile situation” that could explode into violence at any moment, the County Human Relations Commission reported Friday.

“Racial prejudice in San Ysidro, coupled with an extraordinary lack of resources, due primarily to ineffective planning, has resulted in one of the most potentially volatile situations in the county,” the commission concluded after an eight-month study.

In the 11-page report, the commission alluded to many social, economic and political problems that plague the border community of 18,000. But the group laid much of the blame for those problems on poor planning decisions by San Diego and the city’s decision to concentrate subsidized housing in San Ysidro.

Language Barriers

The San Diego Housing Commission came under sharp criticism for failing “to provide proper transitional support” to ease cultural differences when it placed 125 black families in the 225 subsidized housing units it operates in San Ysidro. The report notes that the community is overwhelmingly Latino and that Spanish is the prevailing language, making for serious communication problems between both groups.

But the report also cites a misperception by “longtime” San Ysidro residents that has contributed to hostilities between blacks and Latinos. The report says that local residents believed the housing units had been built for them and became resentful when the apartments were alloted to blacks.

According to the report, blacks are viewed as “the aliens” by Latinos, who “believe they have a right to move (black) residents out of the community.”

The reports findings include:

- The placement of large amounts of subsidized housing in San Ysidro was done with little consideration for social ramifications. It notes that the community’s percentage of black elementary schoolchildren went suddenly from zero to 15%.

- Social and community services in San Ysidro are desperately under-funded.

- Ineffectual planning for the community, lack of cultural sensitivity and inadequate resources have exacerbated racial tensions in San Ysidro.

- The community does not perceive that there is a successful educational program in intergroup relations, multicultural education, self-esteem building or drug- and gang-related issues.

“Here is a socioeconomic problem that didn’t just happen. It is a crisis created by government . . . . There is a responsibility that the city can’t just walk away from. The developers got their way,” said County Supervisor Brian Bilbray, whose 1st District includes San Ysidro. He was one of several county, city and community leaders who attended a press conference at which the report was released.

Bilbray, a lifelong South Bay resident, was especially critical of the city’s land-use plan for San Ysidro. He suggested that city officials were too accommodating to developers who preferred to build apartments rather than single-family homes, which were preferred by local residents.

Pointing Blame

Although most speakers said several government entities, including the county, have contributed to the community’s problems, every politician, including San Diego City Councilman Bob Filner, whose district includes San Ysidro, blamed the City Council for creating the crisis.

Filner said other council members have repeatedly reneged on promises to the community and have taken funds earmarked for San Ysidro for projects in their own districts, in order to advance their political careers.

“On at least two occasions, the council has broken its promise to provide $2 million for a cultural center in the community, for example,” Filner said. Community services are sorely lacking or are seriously under-funded, he added.

Several speakers noted that San Ysidro has very little political clout within the City Council. Because of its location and detachment from central San Diego, San Ysidro is “out of sight, out of mind,” said Bilbray.

“People being disenfranchised is classic here,” he said. “San Ysidro has been seen as an area to raid the coffers and take it to your district.”

Supervisor Susan Golding, board chairman, said she will appoint a subcommittee composed of other supervisors to study the problems in San Ysidro and offer solutions. Golding said she will ask Mayor Maureen O’Connor to appoint a similar subcommittee of council members to work with the county group.

“The report points to problems in the community that are not any longer below the surface . . . . Racial tensions have no legitimate place in our society. They are usually a symptom of other problems in our society,” Golding said.

Findings ‘Nothing New’

Andrea Skorepa, executive director of the Casa Familiar/Amanecer and a longtime San Ysidro activist, said the report’s findings are “nothing new.” She expressed little hope of any action being taken to solve the community’s problems.

“We have been telling people what our problems are since a long time ago, and nothing has been done,” Skorepa said.

She reminded Bilbray and Golding that the Board of Supervisors has also contributed to racial tensions in San Ysidro by cutting programs that benefited the community.

Skorepa said she was concerned that the public will think that all of San Diego’s racial problems are in San Ysidro. “To single us out and say this is something peculiar unto ourselves is wrong,” she said.

Mayoral spokesman Paul Downey said O’Connor is out of town and has not seen the report.

Housing Commission spokeswoman Mary Jo Riley acknowledged that there are problems in San Ysidro but said the report fails to mention some of the things her office is doing to help public-housing tenants.

“We’re involved in job training, and we’re trying to get grants for child care. We’ve worked on drug-education programs and gang-diversion workshops. We’ve hired a professional to help us with bicultural workshops. . . . We work with many agencies on job training,” Riley said. “When you have a high concentration of poor people, you’re going to have problems. Why do we think that, because they’re poor, we’re not going to have problems?”

Housing Concentration

As for criticisms that the Housing Commission has concentrated too many subsidized housing units in San Ysidro, Riley said:

“We have 80 public housing sites throughout the city, and 1,350 units. There was land down there, and the need was there. We had the funding to do it. The question always comes up, ‘Do you get the social services first or the housing?’ Our job is housing. We get that first and then work very aggressively with social service agencies.”

The Human Relations Commission’s report offers a dozen recommendations to correct the problem. Most recommendations are straightforward and would break no new ground, such as encouraging local residents to become politically active and establishing a mediation program to resolve racial conflicts. A few, such as calls for new programs and better social services, would require money.