What's the Point? - Loma Association??
A lifelong Point Loman and community activist, Robert Tripp Jackson, current president of Point Loma Association (PLA), is busy trying to build the organization, which promotes the Peninsula community. Jackson comes by the calling naturally. His late mother, Ann, preceded him as the PLA’s first female president. She was also an early chair of the Peninsula Community Planning Board (PCPB), which makes land-use recommendations to the city. Ann Tripp Jackson is perhaps best remembered for having been in the Dana Coalition, a grassroots group that campaigned successfully to prevent the Dana Junior High School site from being condemned and turned into condos. “She saved it (Dana) from being sold off to private development,” said her son.
These days, Robert Tripp Jackson is continuing his family’s legacy of public service. He pointed out Point Loma Village years ago was once “cluttered” and “not very attractive,” with lots of “tacky signage” and a surplus of gas stations, power poles and billboards. Through the hard work of dedicated volunteers, the landscape has gradually changed for the better. One of PLA’s initial generation was the late Hugh Story, who has a memorial named after him, is credited with leading the way in establishing numerous group practices including the high profile “mean green team.” “It’s a group of about 30 people, all volunteers, who go out on Fridays and work in the community getting their hands dirty and cleaning up,” said Jackson. An example of the group’s progressive bent is the long-term, large-scale median improvement project that the PLA has undertaken. “We’re enhancing the whole stretch of Nimitz all the way from West Point Loma Boulevard to Harbor Drive,” Jackson said. The PLA has been busy turning barren medians into handsome, well-landscaped surfaces with native plants and public art. Under Jackson’s administration, the PLA has also been trying to extend its reach out into the community. “We’re on Facebook, and we’re really trying to enhance our social media,” he said. “We also sent out a survey to all our members recently because we want to hear what the community wants (done).”
Jackson said another of his goals is to “grow our memberships.” He said the PLA currently has about 965 individual memberships. That figure has declined from as many as 2,000 a decade or more ago. The 2010 census estimated there were nearly 48,000 people living in the Point Loma-Ocean Beach area. Jackson said the goal now is to “find people who have a passion about wanting to do something.” PLA annual membership dues range from $30 to $1,000. For more information, visit http://www.plaweb.org.
From “Longtime Point Loma Association looks to build community membership,“ in Peninsula Beacon, Feb. 5, 2015.
Robert was a member of the Point Loma Rotary Club from 1996 to 2004.