Art Kids Allowed to Use Some Parks with Certain Restrictions; Complaint Not VALID

After over six weeks of waiting, Assistant City Manager Greg Wade issued a plan that allows The Art Kids of San Diego County to use the parks again for their art lessons.

I'm the founder and director of TAKOSDC, and was in court yesterday the 22nd of May concerning another issue and found out who made the complaint and how it came about.

The person making the initial complaint is not a resident of Imperial Beach but instead lives in south San Diego. This person was checking on TAKOSDC to see if we have a valid license to be doing some art work at their residence.

Since he lives is south San Diego his complaint should have had nothing to do with whether or not the artistic group should have had this issue come up.

Whether or not the group had a license should have never been an issue as the work was being done in South San Diego.

During the court case which was won by, "TAKOSDC," this information was given during the testimony of the person who complained that, TAKOSDC did not have a valid business license. The complaint should have never been taken as the project being done by TAKOSDC was not being done within the city limits of Imperial Beach.

The rest is history.

Taking more than six weeks to fix the problem was suspicious because this reporter feels that the city was trying to cover their mistake.

The issue of the license was resolved over seven weeks ago as the fees were paid, yet the City had to create an issue that indeed made the use of some tables at the pier in Imperial Beach. The Art Kids were made to pay for this issue as they were not allowed to use any public areas for their lessons. Yes, we had some problems over a year ago about cleaning up of some tables. We asked at that time if we could use some water to clean the area and were denied. The tables and area were cleaned and TAKOSDC was billed for the cleaning of the area. TAKOSDC have since used artistic canvas to protect the tables and chairs from any paint or artistic materials. There have been no complaints since that time.

The three hours that the tables are in use, are from 9 a.m. til 12 p.m. There have always been tables open for use. Most people do not come to the beach until the class is over. The class is gone and the area cleaned of any artistic materials within 15 minutes. So, the other complaint about the use of the tables should have never been an issue. It is again my opinion that the city had to have some reason for issuing the notice of violation and therefore had to make something up to cover their tracks.

I cannot understand the city doing something as terrible as this, punishing talented, artistic young people for doing absolutely nothing but creating art, making the city of Imperial Beach a more beautiful place to live and staying out of trouble. While there exists groups of young people that smoke, drink and destroy property, the city decided to pick on The Art Kids of San Diego County who have done nothing but good for the city and the residents of Imperial Beach. All one has to do is see the new murals on Bibbey's Shell Shop to realize the value of these kids and their talents to know that they are as asset to the community.