San Diego Vet Center Controversy Update

Residents of the Old Town neighborhood in San Diego continue to resist a planned Veterans Affairs Department transitional housing facility in their upscale neighborhood; upping the ante on the crazed veteran card they originally played last month.

VA plans to build its 40-bed "Aspire Center" for recent veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffering from PTSD or readjusting to life after mild to moderate Traumatic Brain Injuries across the street from the Old Town Academy, a charter school with 196 students. As the San Diego Reader reported today, this could put the charter tykes in harm's way.

Christopher Celentino, co-founder of the Old Town Academy, characterized the planned vet center at a community meeting as "an open facility across the street from children who . . . if there is a problem will not have an opportunity to defend themselves. . . It is not the right location, across the street from an elementary school," the Reader reported. Celentino stated that 196 parents at his school signed petitions stating that they would withdraw their children from the academy if the Aspire Center opened. If that were to happen, the school would likely be forced to close, the paper said.

As I said before, I find this anti-vet attitude in a city whose economy thrives on military personnel and facilities hard to comprehend. The Old Town Academy, for example, is located just over a mile and a short walk from the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, the only institution of higher learning I ever managed to graduate from, and I have not heard any beefs about its presence -- and the jobs it provides -- from Old Town residents.

FYI - I arrived at MCRD 49 years ago today, for the start of a four-year Marine stint which has served me well all these years.