Hi. Tell me something about yourself.

My name is Mustafa, and I'm eighteen years old. I'm currently a freshman at junior college, Grossmont College. I live in Oak Park Webster community. I don't know, I'm usually involved in the City Heights area.

How much do you know about City Heights neighborhood?

I know that it's very diverse. It's like the most diverse community in San Diego and I don't know too much actual facts about it but from my perspective it's like now, it's not as dangerous as it was, now, but like five years ago it was pretty dangerous, it was a lot of gangs, a lot of gang violence, a lot of drugs in this community. I think the poverty rate was worse, it decreased, it was very, the environment was yknow, very dirty, very clean, not clean, it was very dirty, but now it's more clean than it was, more construction around here. A lot of improvement, yeah.

How your safe do you feel in City Heights neighborhood when you walk around and hang around?

Honest, I feel more safe around here than around where I live. Cause where I live is very quiet, and its highly gang-affiliated. Here there's like, a lot of police preserve City Heights, you know, and City Heights, it's a lot of teenagers around here, a lot of us. A lot of teens who are active and dedicated to their community. 

Do you think your family accepts different cultures, like, personally, yourself, and your family, how do you guys accept the diverse community?

My family is diverse themselves, you know? Like raised me to be a diverse person and accept different ethnicities, yeah. Like, when I started going to high school, for example, there were a lot of refugees coming in here from Burma and Thailand, and the majority of them were Karen people, some were ???, and over time I've learned a lot from those groups, and surrounding myself by them.

What kinds of things did you learn from the refugee migrants?

I learned a lot. I learned about where they came from, their culture, and how they feel about their community. They're very active in the community, and let's see, they're very active in their community, they're very, they stick together, they help each other, and personally, some of them, they're very hard-working people actually. They want to, some of them want to get out of City Heights because it's a very low-income area and yeah, some feel like they're not getting their fair share.

Where do you hang out with your friends, like most of the time?

Most of the time, City Heights. Pretty much all my friends live in City Heights, so you know?

City Heights – Like which area exactly do you guys hang out?

Like, [pause] usually you know, I have friends who live around 50th street, 50th street, but I was going, before I used to play soccer a lot at Colina Park, but you know, people don't play soccer too much nowadays, you know, everyone's busy. Colina Park, that's a specific area.

How would you describe City Heights neighborhood to someone who hadn't been before here?

I would tell them, you know, don't come to this neighborhood unless you really want to be active in this community because there are people who don't even live in this neighborhood, who live in, like, rich neighborhoods who say things like, City Heights is a dangerous place, City Heights is very poor, and you know, even though the majority of the time maybe it's true, you should at least be doing something to help, instead of criticizing what's going on around here. If you're going to move here then be aware that you're going to have to be very involved with your community, like with Karen, they don't have a choice you know? They're put here, government  gives them houses here, they make the best out of their community, they even organized a protest to you know, for the city to, you know, fix the streets around here because a lot of people get hit crossing the street. 

So basically you're trying to say, if you come to City Heights, you have to have an open mind and be able to accept more things in an open way?

Yeah.

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