The former Cabrillo hospital on Wing St has been empty for many years. There is a 5-story building next door that is half empty that used to be doctor offices. I went on a tour 5 years ago when I was looking for office space. The hospital next door looked depressing.
Language education is a great source of clean jobs. I studied abroad at a language school when I was 17 and 18 and it was a wonderful experience, I am glad foreign students will be coming to San Diego to do the same.
–there was talk of the hospital potentially serving as a large homeless shelter or as temporary housing for refugees.–
That would not have been good for Peninsula property values! Now we just need to move SAN up to Miramar.[/quote]I’m not surprised that Pt Loma/Loma Portal hasn’t needed all the public elementary schools it had in the past decade-plus (it only has 2 MS’s and one HS). The area has become way too expensive for young families to buy into (esp for a SFR) and its longtime homeowners have staunchly stayed in their homes until their deaths and continue to do so. After their deaths, their homes were handed down to their (likely boomer) children (whose children were grown) pursuant to Props 58 and 193. The only reason Dewey Elem is still open is due to the remodel of the Gateway Village/Lincoln military housing complex (formerly “Gateway”) to add density and provide more units on NTC (former US Naval Base, now on city land). Otherwise, it would be closed, as well.
The exact same scenario is true of Central and Southwestern Chula Vista and Bonita which have at least FOUR elementary schools (and likely six) which could be closed down and the land sold to put money in the District’s coffers. These schools are filled to capacity due only to students traveling up from MX every day to fill them (after using “fake” US addresses to enroll). The few straggling students who actually still reside in these attendance areas (many with grandparents) could easily be bused to another elementary school (which would have room for them IF they weren’t taking in non-resident students by the droves). The CEA and the school administrators want to justify their hierarchies and student numbers at all costs. Therefore, they’re going to take students wherever they can get them by “overlooking” discrepancies and red flags they find when enrollment documents are presented to them by (purported) parents and “guardians,” many of whom cannot even speak English.
Families have not been moving into the “gentrified” older coastal urban areas of CA in any significant percentage since the eighties. Thus, there is no reason to have the number of elementary schools in operation in these areas. Other well-established cities, such as Denver, CO, began closing down elementary schools as early as the late ’80’s when there weren’t nearly enough students in their attendance areas to fill them. Even sitting empty, these public school buildings’ utility bills were huge … especially in winter (to keep the pipes from freezing). It made more sense to raze the buildings and sell the land to the city.
SD County school districts are great examples of Big Gubment when it is not needed (and hasn’t been needed for decade(s)) :=0
