Serving San Diego’s Premier Urban Communities for 21 Years sdnorthparknews.com
SEE THE BEST OF NORTH PARK WINNERS PG. 21
Vol. 21 No. 8 August 2013
The Mansion on the Hill NEIGHBORHOOD LEADERS Quartermass/Wilde house a monument to Golden Hill’s elite status of the late 1800s BY JIM MILLER
Coming up Broadway from Downtown, it’s the one thing you can’t miss: the Quartermass/Wilde house, the Xanadu of Golden Hill. In the heart of a district of historic homes, this one serves as a monument to the elite status of Golden Hill in the beginning of the last century. One of the biggest of the remaining Victorian mansions in the city, it is also one of San Diego’s most spectacular historic structures. With its marvelous rococo tow-
North Park’s Omar Passons: Passionate About his Community It’s common sense that the future leaders of this city will come from the neighborhood ranks. Omar Passons, a land-use attorney, married and lives in North Park, is someone who has taken the high road by becoming involved in neighborhood issues. He’s gone the extra mile. He was interviewed by North Park resident Thomas Shess, a former San Francisco Examiner reporter, founder of North Park News and currently creative director for San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles. Q: You’ve volunteered countless hours on behalf of North Park. What are some of the organizations and what motivated you to support them?
Omar Passons at a recent craft beer symposium on business opportunities in craft beer
SEE OMAR, Page 6 brewing for the local economy.
SEE MANSION, Page 16
NORTH PARK SCENE
North Park Women to Filner: Get Healthy, Then Get Out NEIGHBORHOOD SURVEY BY THOMAS SHESS
simply curious, why people do not come forward the What do women in North Park think about the revemoment someone puts them in an unwanted headlock for lations, allegations and accusations surrounding Mayor instance. I don’t understand why people wait. I believe Bob Filner? Here is a cross section of opinions exclusive sometimes people don’t want to upset things. I at a to North Park News. younger age worked for a large plumbing company and construction men numbering 90.. they would say innuenRebecca Zearing, Rebecca’s Coffee, dos, but even at age 21 I could handle the situation and South Park/ North Park within a few weeks of seeing that I could not be baited it I have always thought Mayor Filner was a good person. stopped. I would never let that go on and on and then Prior to being mayor he was a visible, viable, work-on-theyears later bring it up. On the other hand, I was drugged behalf-of-his-constituents kind of guy. I believe there at a party of so-called friends once and I never reported should definitely be justice if the women were sexually it. I felt I should have been smarter and I was the new kid assaulted or touched inappropriately or spoken to inappropriately. A lot of what I have read makes me wonder, SEE FILNER, Page 7
University Heights Celebrating 125 Years University Heights is celebrating its 125th anniversary in and around Trolly Barn Park on August 10 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a series of community events, raffles, music and other activities. Activities include a costume walkabout, student art SEE SCENE, Page 5
Landscape Architects: Artists with the Earth as a Canvas The Plaza de Panama fountain was designed by Vicki Estrada.
When I was growing up in the ’60s it seemed like my choice of professions was limited to being a teacher, a secretary or a nurse. Being under 5foot-2, flight attendant was not an option. I don’t know why I never heard about the profession of landscape architecture. After all, the term “landscape architect” became common after 1863 when Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux designed New York’s Central Park. Yet, even today, the profession continues to be elusive to much of the general public. According to Thaisa Way, author of “Unbounded Practice: Women and Landscape
Architecture in the Early Twentieth Century,” women have practiced as landscape architects for over a century, since the founding of the profession in the U.S. in the 1890s. They practiced as gardeners, garden designers, horticulturalists and fine artists. These women, then and now, will tell you they are some of the luckiest professionals in the world because they get to work with nature every day, making the world even more beautiful. They love what they do and the fact that they can make the world a better place, not just for people, but for every living thing.
BY DELLE WILLETT
They’ll also tell you they are on a mission to lead, educate and participate in the careful stewardship, wise planning and artful design of our cultural and natural environments. (A perfect fit for ’60s greenie me!) An elevator speech for landscape architects might be: Architects design buildings; landscape architects design the environment for the buildings, from airports to zoos. The professional organization for landscape architects is the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), established in 1899 by 11 SEE LANDSCAPE, Page 10