25/01/2023
Please join us for the groundbreaking of the Boat People Garden, a mini-park to be built within the Little Saigon District.
This community space is being built using the profits collected from the 2020, 2022, and the SD Lunar New Year we just had over the weekend + financial support from many of our grantors and contributors.
The Boat People Garden will be the first in an ongoing series of Little Saigon Revitalization Initiatives to redefine and transform public sidewalks and city streets into public gathering areas and reshaping the sidewalk experience. Increase in walkability will put more “eyes on the street” and therefore will increase safety and community vibrancy. More importantly, city parks provide residents with contact to nature, improve public health, and enhance well-being.
The health and well-being of the people are the foundation toward a healthy and vibrant community. Nothing great can be accomplished alone. You were there for us in 2020, supported us through the pandemic, and again over the weekend with an amazing turnout--and now, it's time to collect the sweet fruit of our labor. Let's celebrate this tremendous progress we've made together this Wednesday, January 25th at 9am. See you there!
Information about the Boat People Garden:
Little Saigon San Diego is seeking to convert an unused private space and integrate with existing pedestrian pathways for an innovative mini park. The proposed location is 15 feet by 75 feet under-utilized private property. The mini park will include public art benches, artistic movable seats, picnic style table, drought tolerant plants and landscaping, and pagoda decorated with lanterns.
The amenities of the park including approximately 6 benches, 4 moveable seats, 1 pagoda, and 1 moveable art fence will be designed and built by our neighborhood high school students lead by 3 Hoover Highschool directors/instructors and 1 community freelance artist. We envision a combination of public art and outdoor furniture into an innovative artistic amenity for the park that is not only candy to the eyes but also useful and practical for the residents to use on a daily basis.
The mini park will also include a sculpture of an interactive boat, dedicated to the courage, determination, and willpower of the many Vietnamese refugees who did not yield to suppression and to honor those refugees who perished while still holding onto the dream of freedom. The design of this sculpture will be open to the public through a Boat Sculpture Design contest schedule to be in April – June 2023.
More importantly, the proposed location is known for being a prostitution hotspot and a haven for drug dealing and derelicts. By turning this underutilized area into open-gathering space, light up the area, and invite residents and visitors to gather, sit, relax, and socialize, this will add more “eyes on the streets” to help lessen criminal activities and create a safer environment for pedestrians, especially women, to walk and be able to enjoy the outdoors.
This is a 24-month project (July 2022 – June 2024.) This project is being partially paid by San Diego Foundation, Price Philanthropies, California Arts Council, San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher’s Office, and donations from various local businesses and individuals. Currently, we've reached 76% of the overall budget for the entire project. We are still seeking donations for the last 24% --Yoo-hoo!