SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – A meeting at a Little Italy church on Monday drew dozens of people set up by community organizers looking out for various communities.
“San Diego Neighborhood Coalition is not just Little Italy. It’s East Village. It’s Downtown. It’s Hillcrest. It’s North Park,” Kevin Arnold, Founder of San Diego Neighborhood Coalition, said.
During Monday’s meeting, the coalition gave people from the downtown neighborhoods the chance to address safety concerns in their communities.
“We come together as a unified force to be able to support because the issues are the same. Homelessness, crime, business break-ins and things that so, these are the issues that we are concerned about,” Arnold said.
He said Monday’s meeting was spent hearing from housing, law enforcement, and other local leaders about the strategies, solutions, and resources available to help people in the neighborhoods deal with the issues Arnold said residents are seeing.
“We heard loud and clear that they want more police, they want to feel safer in their communities and the police department is committed to providing the best possible service in all of our communities,” Cpt. Adam Sharki of the San Diego Police Department said.
Sharki encouraged people at the meeting to continue to contact police about their concerns and remain engaged with them about the issues surrounding their communities in Little Italy and beyond.
“We can’t fix what we don’t know about. We can’t address issues if we haven’t gotten calls. If we think an issue’s been resolved and it hasn’t, the more we know, the more we can do,” Sharki said. “So, we're asking our community to stay engaged. Stay engaged with the police department. Stay engaged with the other groups that were here tonight and create a better situation.”
Arnold said people are hoping to hold people in charge accountable for the safety of their community.
“We want them to know we’re not going to tolerate that anymore. We’re going to work to get something done. We’re going to work with our elected officials. We’re going to work with the Police, we’re going to work [with the] Board of Supervisors. We want to have a neighborhood where people feel comfortable in,” Arnold said.
Arnold looks forward to bringing some of his ideas to the residents and powers that be, including a neighborhood patrol who can observe issues and report back to law enforcement.
He said there are plans to bring similar discussions to other communities in the future.
