Riga and San Diego: One connection, two cities, three projects
Embassy of Latvia in the U.S.
If cities around the world can join hands to work on educational and cultural projects, why not neighborhoods?
This question is the foundation of a connection between Riga, Latvia and San Diego, California. Riga is the capital of Latvia with a population of nearly 700,000 people, while San Diego is the seventh largest city in the United States that is often called “America’s Finest City.”
The neighborhood partnership idea dates back to the summer of 2014 when Martin Kruming, an attorney who lives in the Switzer Highland area of San Diego, walked into Riga City Hall looking for someone to answer that question. There, he met Dace Stroberga and Laima Lupike of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Riga City Council, and for over an hour, the three talked about all that could be accomplished when two neighborhoods and their cities worked together despite being thousands of miles apart. The two neighborhoods paired up were Switzer Highland and Riga’s Eastern Executive Directorate. Today, the partnership is thriving with projects involving photography, food, and two elementary schools — and more on the way!
From the left: Dmitrijs Pavlovs, Executive Director of the Eastern Directorate of the City of Riga; Matthew Thompson, Assistant Public Affairs Officer of the Embassy of the United States of America in the Republic of Latvia; Andris Ameriks, Deputy Chairman of the Riga City Council, Juris Kalniņš, photographer and author of the exhibition.
In April 2016, a delegation from Riga including photographer Juris Kalnins and Dr. Arch. Janis Lejnieks visited San Diego to begin The Photography Project, where they photographed “San Diego through the Eyes of a Rigan: Photography Travel Notes.” Three months later, Riga hosted an opening reception in its City Hall to display the photographs — an event that drew scores of enthusiastic Latvians as well as the Cultural Affairs Officer of the U.S. Embassy. Next spring, San Diego photographer Barry Carlton will visit Riga to continue The Photography Project and photograph “Riga through the Eyes of a San Diegan: Photographic Travel Notes,” with a similar reception and exhibition planned for San Diego. As a present from Riga, Juris Kalnins’ photos have been sent to Switzer Highland to be exhibited and then stay in San Diego. The same will occur with Carlton’s photographs.
The Chef Project involves the exchange of a San Diego and a Riga chef to bring San Diego food to Riga and Riga cuisine to San Diego. Starting in August 2016, Daryl Biggs of San Diego’s “The Curious Fork” visited Riga and offered San Diegan menu sets in the Rigan restaurant “Entresol”; he then participated in the Riga City Festival serving street food alongside the Entresol team. A return visit of a chef from Riga to San Diego will take place in 2017.
One of the most exciting projects is The School Project, which involves a similar relationship between Riga Secondary School №64 and McKinley Elementary School in San Diego. Deb Ganderton, the principal of McKinley, is enthusiastic about the partnership because it will allow pupils to learn about different cultures and countries, and for teachers to exchange teaching methods and techniques.
These three projects are possible simply because two neighborhoods and their cities reached out and embraced one another through a Letter of Intent signed in Riga on August 15, 2014 between Riga’s Eastern Executive Directorate area and the San Diego’s Switzer Highland neighborhood. In addition, this partnership has allowed San Diegans to connect with a growing Latvian community in San Diego headed by Janis Legzdins.
What lies ahead is even more exciting for Riga and San Diego in terms of education, culture, and business. “Riga is a beautiful and vibrant city that many San Diegans have discovered through our special partnership,” said Kruming, “the possibilities that lie ahead are endless.”
This story is part of the #SisterCitySunday series on Medium. Each Sunday from October 2, 2016 to May 7, 2017, new stories from the 28 European Union Member States will be published. Stories will also be shared on social media using #SisterCitySunday.
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