Meet Jim—Founder, Artist, & Neighbor (Story 3/40)
How better to celebrate 40 years of work in the community than going back to day one?
Jim Bliesner is a City Heights CDC founder, activist, mixed-media artist, and passionate neighbor with extensive history in the City Heights community. There are only a few of the founding members of our organization still in the region, but Jim graciously offered to sit down and reflect on the early days:
“So much of this started out simply. I bought a house on 42nd street, a fixer upper. The roof leaked, the plumbing leaked, my son's bike got stolen, and I had a neighbor who blasted music all hours of the day and night. Then I remembered the saying of an old labor organizer: "Don't mourn, organize!" So I did.
“When we started, it was just a few of us knocking on doors. We’d introduce ourselves and say ‘Hi, we live in the neighborhood and want to improve the community…’ and we’d just chat with them. We asked about their concerns, told them some of ours, and just got to know each other.”
Jim and his neighbors spent about five years stirring conversation and planning projects, all on a volunteer basis and in response to community need.
“We planted a thousand trees in City Heights, one at a time. We just asked people if they wanted a tree and were willing to water it. If they said yes, we brought them a tree.”
As the community conversations and engagement grew, people began volunteering for more. Jim recalls how many everyday folks went from front-porch conversations to testifying down at City Hall—all of it through relational community engagement.
“We started a newspaper specifically for our community called The Voice of City Heights to help keep people engaged and informed. We bought up known crack dens and converted them into affordable housing. We fought for better sidewalks and signage, we battled the growing problem of ‘eight pack’ apartments, and we did it through community engagement.
“Without community engagement, you can’t last. That’s the key to making meaningful change.” —Jim Bliesner
Today, Jim is still working in and alongside the community to create change. We’re grateful to partner with him at Tierra Central, an event space where we plan to throw our 40th Birthday, the second annual Street Food Fest!
As we tell these 40 stories to celebrate our 40 years as an organization, we stop to acknowledge the shoulders on which we stand. People like Jim and his passionate volunteer neighbors are the reason the City Heights CDC exists, and they are a reminder that this transformative work doesn’t have to be complicated, perfectly planned, or even funded!
Jim said it well: “The foundation of our success was community engagement. Consider all these larger nonprofits that manage housing units all over California. They may run great housing units, but they don’t listen to the community and make contextual change in response. That’s what we do, it’s the foundation of being a community based nonprofit.”
