“Thirty years ago, I was teaching art in a large high school outside of Houston, after having just graduated from the University of Houston in 1972 with a degree in Art Education,” recalls Linda Bridges Pennington.

It was 1974, and shortly thereafter Bridges Pennington moved to Singapore, considered to be one of the world’s cleanest cities. Bridges Pennington lived in one of three apartments above the Singapore Armed Forces Club.

“The city was immaculate,” recalls Bridges Pennington. “And it was so safe.”

How appropriate, then, that Bridges Pennington would be honored this year at Pride for her ongoing work in creating a clean and safe neighborhood in Azalea Park. Like Singapore, which is considered an oasis in the middle of the Asian urbanized sprawl that surrounds it, Azalea Park is considered a diamond in the rough.

“I think I loved the cleanliness in Singapore and I always thought that people should clean up for aesthetic value,” says Bridges Pennington, ever the artist at heart. “I think, though, that I just always thought that we had to accept the fact that there would be this one part of town that would be run down and hopeless. My experience in Singapore fundamentally changed that belief.”

Returning to the United States, Bridges Pennington moved to Dallas and then Phoenix, before settling with her husband in San Diego in 1978. It was Hillcrest, actually, that inspired Bridges Pennington to transition from being an artist to an activist.

“I loved Hillcrest,” says Bridges Pennington. “My husband worked at night and so I would stroll around. Soon, Hillcrest was transformed by the gay community. My friends and I, who were already hard at work in 1983 with Project CLEAN [an all-volunteer cleanup organization that tackled overgrown brush, litter and graffiti throughout City Heights], had an epiphany.”

“We knew we had to have people with energy, creativity and resources to fix up the houses in our community,” says Bridges Pennington. “So I said to my friend Vicki [Davis] one day, ‘Look at Hillcrest. We need some of those gay people.’”

In 1993, Bridges Pennington and Davis attended the San Diego Pride parade, even entering a float, and went on to the festival to promote their community, their passion, their Singapore: Azalea Park.

Bridges Pennington knew it would be a hit — but there was no mistake that it was still going to be a battle. Bridges Pennington is neither a realtor nor a business person.

“We had to fight peoples’ perceptions,” says Bridges Pennington. “We had to fight home owners’ perceptions that the homes they were living in and renting to others was worth being choosy about tenants. We had to fight the perceptions in San Diego, in general. Every time there was a problem, the press blamed City Heights. It was all about bringing in the right energy, creativity and resources.”

The work has clearly paid off, both personally for Bridges Pennington and for the community in which she lives. Bridges Pennington was honored in 1994 by President Bill Clinton with the President’s Volunteer Action Award and by San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor, when the Mayor designated November 7 as “Linda Bridges Pennington Day.”

And for Bridges Pennington today, besides continuing to be the catalyst for Azalea Park’s involvement with Pride, Bridges Pennington conducts home tours the week following Pride every year. She was also instrumental in securing a Community Development Block Grant for the area and she produces a newsletter for the 800 households in Azalea Park. Bridges Pennington does all this, she argues, only at the grace of her husband.

“Well, my husband thought he was going to be supporting a starving artist,” says Bridges Pennington. “I don’t think either of us thought he was going to end up supporting a starving activist!”

And for Azalea Park today?

“Azalea Park has always had some of the best geography in San Diego,” says Bridges Pennington. “We are 20 minutes from anything in San Diego, 10 minutes from Hillcrest, five minutes from downtown. We have canyons, parks and a constant ocean breeze. And now we have homes and neighbors who appreciate, protect and promote the wellbeing of the community.”

“We knew we just had to look across the fence,” says Bridges Pennington. “Ninety percent of those who attend the Azalea Park Neighborhood Association meetings are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. And frankly, we couldn’t be happier.”