The large crowd of people mingling at the Catamaran Resort Tuesday evening, March 13, was a testament to community interest in District 2 City Councilman Kevin Faulconer’s plans for beach-area issues.
The event marked Faulconer’s second State of the District address and was attended by Mayor Jerry Sanders, City Attorney Michael Aguirre and Chief of Police William Lansdowne. He discussed the district’s achievements and goals for the future before a crowd of nearly 100 people.
“You wonder why you do these things sometimes, if anybody’s going to come,” Faulconer said to the group. “But I’m delighted that we have so many people here from so many different places.”
Faulconer devoted a significant amount of his speech to the city’s fiscal health. He repeatedly mentioned improvements in budget analysis and department audits to better monitor the money going through City Hall.
“It is critical that we continue to expose these problems and missteps of the past so we can correct them and never ever repeat them,” Faulconer said. “The picture down at City Hall is daunting. I don’t want to sugarcoat it to you, and I won’t tonight.”
Faulconer also talked about Sanders’ business processing re-engineering (BRP), which has eliminated unnecessary positions to streamline city services. The initiative has saved the city $7.4 million in annual savings to date by cutting 88 positions “without having to affect the service level of those departments,” he said.
“In my mind, BPR is really a fancy term for common sense,” Faulconer said.
Among the recurring themes from last year’s address was the poor condition of city streets.
“Our streets are still in some of the worst conditions that I’ve ever seen,” he said. “But I was proud along with my colleagues that we were able to have funding of an extra $10 million for one of my pet peeves, which is street repair.”
Faulconer explained that two years ago, the city was paving only 25 miles of streets per year. This year, however, the city plans on paving 101 miles.
“While that’s a step in the right direction, there are still so many miles more that we need to go,” he said.
Other community issues discussed included aging community plans, which largely serve to shape development that defines a community’s character. He said the documents are “some of the most important” the city has, adding that they are long overdue for a makeover.
According to Faulconer, the Pacific Beach plan is 32 years old, the Point Loma plan is 20 years old and the Ocean Beach plan is 24 years old.
“The biggest challenge that we have in updating these plans is finding the money and resources necessary to conduct the studies,” Faulconer said, explaining that each update costs $1 million to complete.
He said he plans to combine the efforts of three community updates into one study to reduce costs.
Regarding more local issues, Faulconer mentioned the added security measures at South Mission Beach and Belmont Park, including additional lighting along El Carmel Place, one of the darkest neighborhoods in the area, as well as state-of-the-art security cameras to be monitored by San Diego Police Department’s Northern Division. Through this same effort Faulconer also pressured the city to fix 50 burned out streetlights in the area.
The state of the boardwalk and seawall ” running from South Mission Beach to Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach ” is another important project to Mission Beach and Pacific Beach residents. Last year the city began patching parts of the wall that were crumbling and exposing rebar.
While the city’s Public Works Department is now on a maintenance schedule to prevent such decay, Faulconer explained that this is a temporary solution.
“I’m going to need everybody’s help in this room this year as we’re working on identifying money to fix the entire seawall, which is going to be very expensive,” Faulconer said. The estimated cost to fix the seawall is $12 million, however Faulconer is working with Rep. Susan Davis to get the seawall on the historic registry for eligibility for state and federal funding.
Faulconer was also successful in securing $1 million generated through Mission Bay Park to replace a lifeguard dock in the bay.
Also, last years creation of the Beach Alcohol Task Force to discuss alcohol not only on the beach, but also in the entire beach community, continues into this year. So far the task force has discussed liquor licenses, the relationship between the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) and the city in issuing liquor licenses and controlling house parties.
(This month’s meeting is schedule for March 26 at the Santa Clara Rec Center. The group will discuss alcohol on the beach, following that meeting the task force will enter into the recommendation phase to look for a consensus solution.)
In the end, the atmosphere of the room was positive and optimistic.
“As we start my second year I just want to say thank you,” Faulconer told the audience. “You are the ones that, in my opinion, really make the district what it is, which is the absolute best place, best neighborhoods to live in San Diego. It’s not what happens in City Hall, it’s what all of you do here in this room.”