66th and Herrick

The residential area we observed was at the corner of 66th and Herrick St. In general, the houses were one story, stucco and wood with tar paper roofs. Bars on the windows and chain link fences were popular. Most of the homes had one car garages, with clothes lines and basketball rims in the yards. Among the things we saw in the yards were: old furniture, shopping carts, children's toys, a roll of old carpet and old cars. While some of the homes were in need of repair, others were well-maintained. These homes had well kept lawns and appeared to have been painted recently. Other homes had dirt instead of grass, peeling paint, and needed roof repairs. While graffiti was not prevalent, there was some tagging noticeable on the garbage dumpsters. Most cars were later model and parked in the driveways or on the street in front of the houses. We heard the sounds of televisions, radios, children in the houses, and residents speaking English, Spanish, and a variety of Asian dialects. Noise from traffic on busy Imperial Avenue and the passing trolley drifted in from a block away.

From talking to people in the area, the residents felt that the students they encountered from both O'Farrell and Morse were basically good kids. They mentioned the students were polite, well-mannered, and focused. A few of the people that we talked with had children in either O'Farrell or Morse and remembered it as being a positive experience. The only negative was that one parent removed her Mexican-American daughter from Morse after she complained of numerous problems with Latino gangs. Overall the people thought the students at both schools were a positive influence on the community.

Postscript: Seven Months Later

Upon revisiting the neighborhood we found that little had changed physically. The area seemed to be quieter than it was during our first visit, but that may have been due to the time of the year.

We now have a greater understanding for the student populations. For the most part the students are well behaved. Recently, there has been heightened racial tensions on the Morse campus, echoing earlier comments about school violence. During one lunch period there was a large fight between a group of African-Americans and Mexican-Americans. During that week there were as many as four other fights between these two groups. The crossing of gang lines was evident when one group claimed dominance by calling for MOB (Mexicans Over Blacks). While, the other group called for BOM (Blacks Over Mexicans). The tensions between these two groups has since died down. Interestingly, the largest ethnic group at Morse is Filipino and, although we have not witnessed any outright violence between Filipinos and other ethnic groups, many teachers have mentioned there have been occasional problems due to the fact that Filipinos have replaced African-Americans as the majority at the school. These incidents reflect the larger incidence of violence in the area. The March 16, 1997 issue of the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the "deadliest zip code in the county" included the Encanto and Skyline communities, with 13 homocides in the past year. Despite these incidents and antedotes, there is generally racial harmony on campus, especially in light of the wide ethnic diversity found at Morse.