{"id":116073,"date":"2025-08-03T16:57:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T16:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/116073\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T16:57:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T16:57:11","slug":"two-years-ago-san-diego-got-money-to-restore-a-beloved-statue-locals-are-still-waiting-to-see-our-history-back-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/116073\/","title":{"rendered":"Two years ago, San Diego got money to restore a beloved statue. Locals are still waiting to \u2018see our history back.\u2019 \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly two years after city leaders announced state funding for it, little progress has been made toward a long-promised restoration of a historic sculpture in a beloved Mountain View park.<\/p>\n

For community advocates like Jeffrey Hayes who have pushed for years to install a recreation of the artwork known as \u201cThe Black Family,\u201d it\u2019s discouraging, and feels emblematic of a history of neglect.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll my friends were telling me that I couldn\u2019t get it done, because it\u2019s the city \u2014 and it was true,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For decades, \u201cThe Black Family\u201d stood at the edge of Mountain View Park, now Neal Petties Mountain View Community Park, honoring local football star and community hero Neal Petties.<\/p>\n

\"CaroleCarole Wade Boyce stands next to the current weathered statue her father, Rossie Wade, had created at the San Diego College of Continuing Education\u2019s Educational Cultural Complex, back in the 1970s. (Courtesy of Carole Wade Boyce)<\/p>\n

The six-foot wood sculpture, built in 1974 by the late Rossie Wade, then a student at the San Diego College of Continuing Education\u2019s Educational Cultural Complex, symbolized the neighborhood\u2019s pride, family and belonging through a family of four figures reaching for the sky.<\/p>\n

Years of weathering and vandalism led to the sculpture\u2019s complete disintegration, leaving only a similarly worn-down plaque and red-brick pedestal.<\/p>\n

Hayes, a longtime Mountain View resident who saw the sculpture go up decades ago, has since seen it vandalized and has returned to clean up the deteriorated sculpture. \u201cI went and cleaned the side all up, got some paint remover, took it back to the brick,\u201d Hayes said.<\/p>\n

The disrepair prompted Hayes \u2014 joined by Wade\u2019s daughters, Carole and Lynn, and other neighbors \u2014 to spend years pushing for its restoration.<\/p>\n

\"TrashTrash is seen inside the crumbling brick pedestal where \u201cThe Black Family\u201d once stood at Mountain View Community Park on Thursday, July 31, 2025. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

Despite interest from the city, for a long time no commitment or planning emerged, leading then-Assemblymember Akilah Weber to help move the efforts along.<\/p>\n

In August 2023, Mayor Todd Gloria announced that his office and San Diego\u2019s state lawmakers had secured nearly $25 million in state funding for \u201ccritically important projects in San Diego communities\u201d \u2014 including $195,000 to restore the sculpture.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaken together, these projects will help us make neighborhoods safer; address homelessness; improve our parks, libraries and streets; and expand housing opportunities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Two months later, Weber and local leaders gathered at the park<\/a> to detail plans for the restoration: It would be carried out by welding students at the San Diego College of Continuing Education, led by their professor, Mike Bradbury \u2014 and they would also restore a smaller version of the same sculpture Wade had completed for the school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt so lovely,\u201d Hayes said. \u201cThat was a great feeling to know that, you know, I get to see our history back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AssemblymemberAssemblymember Dr. Akilah Weber speaks to a group of community members in Mountain View to announce that she secured $195,000 for San Diego to restore and rebuild the historic \u201cBlack Family\u201d statue near Mountain View Park on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune<\/p>\n

So far, he\u2019s only gotten to see part of it.<\/p>\n

The college\u2019s replica \u2014 separate from the park\u2019s, and entirely funded by the school \u2014 debuted on a parade float<\/a> in the 42nd annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade the following January. It is now on display on the college\u2019s campus.<\/p>\n

The team expected work to begin on the restoration of the park\u2019s sculpture quickly after \u2014 especially once the City Council approved the allocation of state funding to the park landmark weeks later, in March 2024.<\/p>\n

That was the expectation of a community group that supports the park, too, emails reviewed by The San Diego Union-Tribune show.<\/p>\n

The Neal Petties Mountain View Community Recreation Group, which meets once a month, periodically emails the city\u2019s Commission for Arts and Culture asking for updates on the project. In the spring of 2024, the city\u2019s chief of civic art strategies, Christine Jones, replied that the city anticipated the restoration project to begin that fall and be complete by fall 2025.<\/p>\n

But no construction work is underway, and the restoration is not even yet in the pre-construction phase \u2014 to the frustration of residents, including Wade\u2019s daughters, who contacted the group in February for an update, not understanding the delay.<\/p>\n