La Gente Disturbing the Gentrifiers in Chicano Park - Barrio Logan - San Diego

The 53rd annual Chicano Park Day Celebration and Car Show was held on Saturday April 22, 2023, in the traditionally Mexican American Barrio Logan neighborhood. This very popular event honors the movement started when the people of this neighborhood organized to stand up against the City of San Diego after the city made several unilateral moves without input from the residents. These included giving large sections of the neighborhood to the US Navy and cutting off the resident’s access to the beach and the San Diego Bay. Then the city changed the zoning of barrio logan to allow industrial businesses to move in. Noise and air pollution from junk yards and other industries mixed in with the residential homes made life in Barrio Logan intolerable. The Interstate 5 freeway and the on-ramps for the Coronado Bay Bridge were built and bisected the neighborhood. The last straw was the city reneging on their promise of building a park for the residents in Barrio Logan but then without warning beginning construction of California Highway Patrol station in its place instead. The people revolted, banded together and physically stopped the construction project. They occupied the land for 12 days while negotiating with the city. The city, seeing that they could no longer do as they wanted without significant opposition, acquiesced and the 32,000 square foot park was built on the site later that year. It features a large collection of outdoor murals and has been designated a national historic landmark.

Ironically, upwardly mobile young professionals have been moving into the neighborhood and are displacing long-time residents. In prior years they might not have felt safe here, but they now see this area as a desirable place to live. I think all the noise and crowds that attend this show must disturb these new residents. Hopefully they take the time to understand the importance of the day.

This wide-angle view depicts one of the murals painted on the concrete support for the bridge on-ramp. It reads “Varrio Si Yonkes No!” This does not mean Yankees go home or anything similar. It means neighborhood yes, junk yards no! Just beyond the park’s borders you can see a building containing new condos.