-In this situation where eminent domain is coming in
they want to take away from the people that have invested and rooted their heart
and souls into this community to
maybe bring more lucrative
companies into town.
We fixed up the place and we made a gun store into a youth center providing hope
for inner city kids; that's redevelopment.
Rather than complain about the problems in our community,
we decided to do something about it.
We put up two punching bags
and we just went after it in the back yard of my house. It was really interesting-we started
this program
to fight juvenile delinquency
with the boxing, it was a two-fold success story:
providing juvenile diversion and fighting
childhood obesity in the latino community.
Here in National City one of the lowest income neighborhoods in San Diego we're providing a
resource and a center free of charge
to low-income kids
and we're going, we're combating against playstation and hanging out in the house and we're getting
the kids out,
we're running and doing some good things.
-I get physically fit, I stay mentally focused it helps me stay
coordinated in school. Exercise like this is not easy, it's discipline.
-We started out with one punching bag in the backyard of our house, progressed to a small
gymnasium on the outskirts of National City, and then with the help of a board of directors
and help of the supporters we were able to get the facility where we're at right now.
It's easy access to the buses to the trolleys.
A kid just picks up his bike and rides right in and so it's really important that you
know
we're located here in the heart of National City. -In 2007 National
City declared almost 700 properties blighted
in order to be able to use eminent domain against them for constitutionally illegitimate
purposes. -It is our property, we've invested into it and for somebody else to say that your
property
is blighted
just because they have a different idea of what they want to do and say that you have to move
is wrong.
-National City's blight designation
is a sham.
-National City had decided to declare 700 properties blighted before it even did
its blight study. -What we have here
is eminent domain being used to give to a wealthier landowner so he can rake in some
bucks on the jeopardy of the backs of these kids, and that's where the problem
lies. Since we've been here for so long it's become a part of growing up in National City
to come through a program like this. A kid can come in
free of charge,
they could go to school,
and get some tutoring; boxing is just the actual hook,
it's the actual avenue to get these kids
into school. A lot of these young people that come to
our school is through a juvenile court community school.
They're removed from actual public schools
They're involved with the foster system, the juvenile probation department and so they
come to our school. They get their grades up, they get the credits up,
and they're transitioned back into actual regular public school. And what's happening
in the transformations that are happening that kids came in
that were doing some bad things in the community now are police officers, now they're going on to
college, now they want to be attorneys and what we're doing is just providing and using
the sport of boxing to get these kids to school and with the help of IJ
has brought education even to the kids about eminent domain. -Many of the kids at CYAC
are troubled,
at-risk kids
but every day they're fighting for their own American dream
and they've inspired us to come out and fight for them. -For IJ to step aboard and support
us in this situation that we're in is a lot of help because we would've never been able to do
it by ourselves.
-To me it's sad because right
here in National City, we don't have that many programs that help kids out. Why would you take down
something that is good for the community? -We have decided not to move.
If this was to be a park,
if this was to be a library, a road
that everybody can use then that would be a public use to me.
But to build actual luxury condos, that is wrong. Using eminent domain
and bogus blight designations to transfer property
from people of modest means to
wealthy people is unconstitutional, and it's illegal under California law. -So we're gonna
work hard to stay where we're at
and keep on working for our goal and objective and that's reaching
kids in our community.