Discover Pacific Beach (DPB), the Pacific Beach Business Improvement District (BID) and District 2 City Councilman Kevin Faulconer’s office are joining forces with the community this month to spruce up Pacific Beach for the summer. The greater improvements include powerwashing sidewalks, sweeping, weeding planters and wells, repaving Garnet and replacing old trash receptacles. The cleanup is made possible through $21,000 from discretionary funds from Faulconer’s office that has paid The Urban Corps of San Diego County to work on the cleanups. “Unfortunately, many of the big cleanup projects tend to cost more than, for example, promotional efforts … Something of this size is really unique and we are grateful and excited for the opportunity,” said Sara Berns, director of DPB. The discretionary funds include money saved from the District 2 budget by the end of each fiscal year. The Urban Corps is a certified local conservation group and charter school. Its mission is to provide youth with an education that combines job training and community service in the fields of conservation and recycling to help youth become more employable while protecting San Diego’s natural resources and instilling the importance of community service. The corps was established in California in 1976 and has had a chapter in San Diego since 1989. In addition to The Urban Corps efforts, Garnet Avenue between Cass and Lamont strees has already seen repaving, with more scheduled in the areas west of Cass and east of Lamont after the city’s water-main project is completed. DPB and the Pacific Beach Planning Group have also worked together to repaint the colored curbs and other minor repairs. DPB is also offering a storefront improvement program (SIP) for small businesses in the Pacific Beach area. “The program provides an incentive award to reimburse the businesses for certain storefront improvements, as well as providing free design assistance by a licensed architect,” Berns said. Only small businesses — those with 12 employees or less — are eligible to apply for the SIP, and must be planning to improve the exteriors of their business. “If a business is planning to do any of these types of improvements, they must apply before beginning the work,” Berns said. For more information, call (858) 273-3303, or visit www.pacificbeach.org.