WASHINGTON - NTC Foundation · 1914, the Botanical Building is just one of four remaining permanent...

sandiegouniontribune.com SATURDAY • JUNE 15, 2019

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H OM E + G A R D E N U - T I N D E X

A HOUSEWORK WRINKLE

WASHINGTONPresident Donald Trump on

Friday again shook up his immi-gration team, appointing a hard-liner to coordinate border policyfromtheWhiteHouseandsendingamessagethatheisredoublinghisefforts to prevent unauthorizedmigrants from en-tering the UnitedStates.

ThomasHoman, his choicefor the job, servedas the acting headof ImmigrationandCustoms Enforce-ment early in theadministrationand retired last year when hisnomination for thepermanentpo-sition stalled in the Senate. Sincethen, hehasbeena fierce support-er of the administration’s policiesduring frequent appearances onFoxNews.

“He’ll be aborder czar,”Trumpsaid, announcing the appoint-ment during a phone interview on“Fox & Friends.” “He’ll be verymuch involved in the border. He’llbe reporting directly to me. He’llbe probably working out of theWhite House but spending a lot oftimeat theborder.Andhe’sagoodman.He’s a goodman.”

The appointment to the newlycreated position comes at a timewhen Trump has expressed frus-tration and anger at his own offi-

TRUMPNAMESHOMANBORDERCZARNewly created post willcoordinate immigrationpolicy across agenciesBYMICHAEL D. SHEAR& ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS

ThomasHoman

SEE CZAR • A11

An immigration judge has or-dered the Department of Home-land Security to keep aHonduranasylumseeker intheUnitedStateswhile he waits for his court pro-ceedings instead of returning himto Mexico again under a Trumpadministrationprogram.

JudgeScottSimpsonsaidafterevaluating theman’smental com-petence inaspecialhearingonFri-day, he found that theman wouldneed safeguards in his case to en-sure due process. He ordered onesafeguard immediately put inplace— to remove theman from aprogram known officially as Mi-grant Protection Protocols andmore widely as “Remain in Mexi-co.”

“I find that he lacks a rationaland factual understanding of thenature of the proceedings,” Simp-son said in issuinghis order.

This is the first time that a

JUDGE:DON’T SENDASYLUMSEEKERTO MEXICOMental competence ofmigrant spurs jurist toorder he remain in U.S.BY KATEMORRISSEY

SEE ORDER • A10

Thanks in part to a strongeconomy, the state of Californiawill doleout financial gifts to someof San Diego’s most recognizablelandmarks. Thatmeans the city’soft-called crown jewel, BalboaPark, is receiving enough funds tojump-startstalledefforts to fix thestoried Botanical Building in theheartof thepark.

Friday, state Sen. Toni Atkins(D-San Diego) announced at anews conference that the parkwillreceivemillions in funding for twokey projects; $8.26 million hasbeen designated for a long-plannedBotanical Building reno-vation project and $400,000 is setaside to help construct structuresas part of theHouse of Pacific Re-lations InternationalCottages.

An additional $9 million hasbeen earmarkedby the state to re-

store ahistoric structure, building178, at Liberty Station in PointLoma,Atkins said.

The financial commitmentsfollow theCalifornia Legislature’spassing this week of the state’sbudget, which is in the hands ofGov.GavinNewsom.

“These are monies that couldhave gone into reserves,” Atkinssaid of the $17.66 million desig-nated for local cultural projects ina Friday morning interview. Thestate Senate’s president pro tem-pore emphasized the importanceofspendingthemoneyonthecity’smost pressing deferred mainte-nanceand infrastructureneeds.

“When you look at this,” shesaid pointing to the BotanicalBuilding, “this is something thathelps us generate local dollars.Peoplewanttocometoseethis.Soit is really incumbent upon us to

State Senate leader Toni Atkins announced Friday that $17.6 million in state funding has been appropriated for three arts andculture programs in San Diego, including $8.2 million for restoration work on the Botanical Building in Balboa Park.

JOHN GIBBINS U-T

BALBOA PARKBENEFICIARYOF $8.66MFROM STATEHistoric Botanical Building to be renovated;Liberty Station building upgrade gets $9M

BY JENNIFER VAN GROVE

SEE FUNDING • A6

His arms paralyzed by a rare virus threeyears ago, MaxNg has struggled to push, pulland poke his way through the world with thegleeful ease thatmost 5-year-olds enjoy.

Butadevicebuiltby fourcleverUCSanDi-ego engineering students delivers just thehelp he needs to reach out and touch theworld inwaysthathave longbeenoutof reach.

With cameraswatchingFridaymorning atRady Children’s Hospital, Max was strappedinto a pair of motor-assisted orthotic braces,

his fingers sliding into sensor-loaded gloves.Once the contraption was in place, tilting

his wrist up caused his arm to raise, bendingat the elbow. Tilting down accomplished theopposite motion, andMax was quick to startroughhousing with his father, Dr. Ted Ng,landing a few light punches before reachingup and grabbing his dad’s nose.

While that kind of play drew laughs, TedNg said he has been looking forward to aslightly different maneuver that has been dif-ficult for his boy to accomplish.

Max Ng, 5, can move his arms, paralyzed by acute flaccid myelitis, with help frommotorized orthotic braces made at UC San Diego. His dad, Ted Ng, lends a hand.

HAYNE PALMOUR IV U-T

UC SAN DIEGO ENGINEERING STUDENTSRESTORE MOTION TO 5-YEAR-OLD’S ARMSBY PAUL SISSON

SEE BOY • A8

LEONARD GETS A SHOTTO PICK HIS NEXT STOPD1 • After the Raptors’ victory and a

second NBA Finals MVP trophy, will SDSUalum Kawhi Leonard stay in Toronto orhead home to Southern California?

AIRPORT SEEKS IDEASFROM STARTUPSC1 • The Airport Innovation Lab is

looking to startup companies forout-of-the-box products and services toenhance the airport experience.

WINSLOW II WILL BERETRIED ON 8 COUNTSB1 • Onetime NFL player Kellen

Winslow II, convicted of forcibly raping ahomeless woman, will face a new trial oneight felony and misdemeanor counts.

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figureouthowtopreserveit.”Originally constructed in

1914, the Botanical Buildingis just one of four remainingpermanent structures builtfor the Panama CaliforniaExposition and was in-tended tobe thepark’s heartofhorticulture.It isapopularattraction for both touristsand localswhowant tocheckout its 2,100 different plantvarieties. It’s visited bymorethan a half-million visitorsevery year, according to thenonprofit Balboa Park Con-servancy, which has beenleading the yearslong effortto fund raise for the struc-ture’s renovation.

“It is in dire need of resto-ration due to termite dam-age, rust and years of de-ferred maintenance,” saidJoyceGattas, who chairs theconservancy’sboard.

The$8.26milliongift fromthe statewill pay for thebulkof the roughly $11million res-toration project, with theconservancy on the hook fortherestof themoney.

The fix-it effort dates to2015 when the conservancy,established in 2011 to solicit

donations for park upkeep,selected the building as itsfirst major undertaking. In2016, architectural and land-scape plans were completedbyRNTArchitects,SpurlockLandscape Architects andhorticultural designer TresFromme.Althoughprogress

hasbeenmadeatthecity lev-el, the project has lacked thenecessary funds tomove for-ward.

Now the conservancy isworking to finalize the futurevisitor experience,whichwillemphasize education, saidTomás Herrera-Mishler,

who runs the nonprofitgroup.His groupwill need towork with the state and thecity to figure out how thecash infusion is ultimatelydispersed, but the hope isthat a much improved Bo-tanical Building and Gar-dens will debut to the publicinaroundtwoyears time.

“Right now (the Bo-tanical Building is) a lovelyexperience but it doesn’thave any sort of educationalcontent to it,” said Herrera-Mishler. “Wehave the oppor-tunity to introduce theworldto the amazing universe ofplants that can grow in SanDiego, and the value and im-portance of plants to ourcommunity.”

The state’s budget sur-plus will also allow for a$400,000 payment to helpcomplete Balboa Park’s In-ternational Cottages, Atkinssaid.

Theexistingcottagesrep-resent 32 different cultures,although a decade-long en-deavor by the House of Pa-cific Relations organizationhas sought to construct fiveadditional structures tohouse nine more culturalunits. The nonprofit group,which secured building per-

mits in2016,ranintoafinanc-ing snafuwhen constructionbids came in over budget.The organization chose tomove forward with buildingjust four of the five plannedstructures.

The timely $400,000 giftfrom the state means, how-ever, that all of the cottagescan likely be constructed atthe same time, said EugenieKing, who is president of theHouseofPacificRelations.

“This is an incredibleday,” King said during thenews conference. “I feel asthough I’m flying away. ... Itstarted with a dream. Wewanted to increase the num-ber of the cottages that wehad so that we could showmore of the diversity of SanDiego.”

The state’s generous con-tributions to Balboa Parkcomeas thecityofSanDiegostruggles to keep pace withthe maintenance needs ofthe park’s aging structures.Areportpreparedforthecitya few years ago priced thecost to return all park facili-tiestogoodconditionat$79.2million in 2017 dollars. Aseparate report prepared bya park advocate estimated,that by 2020, Balboa Parkbuildingswouldneedat least$285 million in repairs to re-verse structural deteriora-tion.

Beyond Balboa Park,Atkinshasselectedanasbes-tos-ridden Liberty Stationbuilding, which was built in

1941andhas sat empty for 20years, to be the recipient ofsubstantial state support.The just-passed budget in-cludes $9 million to restorethe abandoned Navy struc-ture, building 178, and makeitaperformingartscenter.

“What this means for us,is that it allows us to beginrenovating building 178,”saidAlanZiter, theexecutivewho oversees the nonprofitNTC Foundation. The foun-dation,established in2000, isworking to restore andman-age 26 historic Navy build-ings as part of Liberty Sta-tion’s arts district. “We cannow begin the planning, thedesign work and the reno-vation of a shell, although itwill take considerable timeand more funding to com-plete.”

The performing arts cen-ter project has been in theworks for two years, Zitersaid, and is estimated to cost$17.2milliontocomplete.

Altogether, the statefunds budgeted for San Di-ego arts and cultural proj-ects, while substantial, rep-resent just a fraction of themoney Atkins plans to doleout in the region thisupcom-ing fiscal year, which startsJuly1.TheSenate leaderalsoFriday announced that mil-lions in financing will go tomajor transportation proj-ects in town.

jennifer.vangrove@sduniontribune.com

FUNDINGFROM A1

The state has earmarked $9 million to start the restoration of historic building178 in the Arts District at Liberty Station, formerly the Naval Training Center.

JOHN GIBBINS U-T PHOTOS

At a news conference Friday in Balboa Park, stateSen. Toni Atkins announces $17.66 million in statefunding for Balboa Park and Liberty Station.