Located just East of I 15 and South of I 8, the City Heights Community is home to a diverse array of immigrants and low-income residents from various regions of the world. Although the community possesses these rich vibrant cultures, it suffers from economic and political challenges. In addition, language barriers and lack of experience with planning decisions makes it more difficult for residents to participate   in community planning processes. Because of these difficulties, our community faces a challenge that is vastly different from other regions. We have the option of approaching this challenge through the lens of the community’s needs or approaching it from the status quo.

CHCDC has chosen to meet this challenge by working actively with residents in the community to understand their unique transportation needs. Our method is to establish a variety of focus groups from different language and cultural groups to get a more comprehensive perspective of the residents most dire transportation needs.

Goals

• • Make it feasible for residents to traverse through the hilly terrain of the neighborhood to reach destinations such as schools, shops, agencies, and health clinics, as well as regional bus stops on El Cajon Boulevard, University Avenue and 54th Street • To gather an accurate and representative survey of the neighborhood to adequately demonstrate need in order to possibly receive transportation funds in the future • To gather possible solutions from global perspectives on transportation issues and combine them with local transportation needs to effectively create a plan of alternatives to present to residents and other community stakeholders

Actions

• At this moment, there are no current actions. We are still in the process of gathering data. Also see above.

Solutions

No Solutions have been added to this Challenge.

Opportunities

No Opportunities have been added to this Challenge.

We are interested in learning about creative transportation options from other multi-lingual low-income communities. We have engaged transportation planning consultants who will integrate current MTS/SANDAG solutions with models existing throughout the world.