Councilman Kevin Faulconer treated Mayor Jerry Sanders to a guided tour of his district on April 21.
The two visited Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, Ocean Beach, Point Loma and Little Italy. Excluded from the three-hour trip were downtown, Old Town, Mission Hills, Bankers Hill and La Jolla, all of which will be toured at a later date.
Sanders said that exploring the districts with their representatives is an effective method of familiarizing himself with important community issues.
“I’ve had an opportunity to see the concerns that Kevin [Faulconer] has about the district,” Sanders said. “It gives me a pretty good idea for what they need and how I can help him.”
Infrastructure is the number one District 2 concern that Sanders and Faulconer will tackle together. The bumpy ride through Ocean Beach highlighted the need for street repairs, while the crumbling seawall in Mission Beach and cliff erosion in Pacific Beach underlined the scope of the problem.
“The biggest issue is how we’re going to put some of the deferred maintenance money out here,” Sanders said. “I’ve got a pretty good idea of some pretty bad locations.”
While the there is no timeline for action in place yet, Sanders emphasized that the city is not waiting idly for the budget to pass. He said that input from the Public Works Department and City Council is helping prioritize badly needed improvements so that systems are in place when the money becomes accessible.
To date, city crews have begun cutting exposed rebar from the dilapidated Mission Beach seawall and marking sections to be temporarily capped. Faulconer is also spearheading an effort to find funding for long-term repairs. The two last visited the seawall on March 9 to publicly announce their plans for the eyesore.
Faulconer and Sanders also toured streets and parks in Ocean Beach, and canyons in Point Loma.
Concluding their outing in Pacific Beach, the mayor and the councilman walked to the wooden beach access stairs near the end of Diamond Street, where erosion along the cliffs is visible.
There, Sanders addressed other Pacific Beach issues, such as crime and the recently cancelled PB Street Fair. He said he supports Faulconer’s efforts to coalesce a more wholesome community event.
“When something turns into a drunkfest instead of a family day, that’s not what we want,” Sanders said.
Faulconer added that another attempt at a city permit a summer street fair would require a shared vision by the Pacific Beach Town Council, Business Improvement District and Discover Pacific Beach
When asked about attempts to lower crime in Pacific Beach, Sanders responded that he was unaware of a problem.
“I think that’s something we need to take a good overall look at,” he said. “The police department needs to work much more closely with the neighborhoods.”
Faulconer added that the beach police forces do a great job with limited resources.
Conspicuously absent from the discussion were potential sites for the county’s only detox center. Faulconer said that a tour of downtown would follow at a future date, implying that the issue would be addressed at that time.