La Jolla Village Merchants Association held its annual candidates night for members seeking spots on the board to state their cases before the group\u2019s Oct. 14 election. “We have eight total candidates for seven available seats,” said Sheila Fortune, association executive director. Candidates were given a couple of minutes to introduce themselves and discuss why they were running for two-year board terms. Here\u2019s what they said: \u2022 Nancy Warwick, owner of Warwick’s Books, said, “I\u2019ve enjoyed being on the board for three reasons: I like working on projects, helping develop projects and enhancing and focusing on the success of the business community.” Warwick added she\u2019s enjoyed collaborating in the group\u2019s design division. “We\u2019ve initiated the Sparkle & Shine (clean-up) program,” Warwick added, “and made a lot of changes with (reducing) trash in La Jolla. We now have someone working six days a week picking up trash three hours a day.” Warwick also said sitting on the La Jolla Traffic & Transportation Board has been interesting, as that group deals a lot with parking time limits, special events and street speed limits. She added she\u2019s involved with the association because “it\u2019s a good way to give back to the community and to learn from others how to work better.” \u2022 Brett Murphy, owner of La Jolla Sports Club, asserted that “I really want to do public service. I\u2019m new to the area, and I\u2019m a young guy. I\u2019ve come to listen, and I have some ideas.” Promoting local business and a strong economy is “very important,” Murphy said, adding, “I look around and see a lot of (other) people who own businesses in this town and put their money back into the town, and that is so important, and I look to help with that.” Pointing out there are some “vacant facilities around town,” he said, “I have some ideas on what we can do to fill that.” He concluded, “We moved here to build our life and family here, and we\u2019re really excited to be here, and I thank you for the opportunity.” \u2022 Claude-Anthony “CA” Marengo, incumbent association president, a principal at Marengo Morton Architects and owner of Goldfish Point Cafe, noted he was involved with community planning for years and returned after a hiatus because, he said, “I still think I can do a lot more.” He said he\u2019d like to polish the Jewel and return its luster. “I\u2019m looking for ways to bring La Jolla back to the way it used to be,” he said, characterizing the community as a “Hollywood playground” during the ’60s to the ’80s. “The ’80s really changed La Jolla, and I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve ever come back,” he said, noting, “I do see a great surge, since I\u2019ve been involved with the merchants association, in restaurants coming back. I\u2019ve also seen more substantial retailers coming in.” He said he was excited about the Lot movie house and the Conrad arts center coming to town, which he said together constitute a new entertainment district. “This town has much more to offer than it does,” he said. “It just needs to be brought back up \u2014 and celebrated. Hopefully, I can add to that.” \u2022 Ike Fazio, owner of San Diego Fly Rides, which has a small electronic bike shop in the Village, said he\u2019s moved from the Gaslamp Quarter to the Village. “I felt like I was an island down there,” he said, “but here I\u2019m part of the neighborhood, run into people I know everywhere I go.” Pointing out he likes everything about La Jolla, from its wildlife to its restaurants and art galleries, the retailer noted, “It\u2019s too wonderful a place for people to be passing up and not know about.” He said he would like to get involved and get La Jolla “back in the game” in order to make it the “go-to spot in San Diego.” “I think it\u2019s lost a little of that edge,” he said, adding he appreciates the chance to “come in and be part of the community.” \u2022 G. Michael Dorvillier, the financial planner who manages La Jolla\u2019s annual Concours D\u2019Elegance classic car show each spring, said he\u2019s “proud to live and work in the Village.” “I have tried for years,” he said, “to do my part to bring the \u2018flash\u2019 to the Village, bring it back to its glory days.” He noted he does all his shopping and other business in the Village. He added there\u2019s noticeable work to be done cleaning up trash and sprucing up the business district. “I\u2019m willing to do whatever I can to add value to help this community,” he said. \u2022 Christophe Cevasco, a managing partner at Eddie V\u2019s Restaurants, Inc., said he\u2019s worked in La Jolla 14-plus hours a day for the past four years, noting, “I pretty much live here.” Working on the waterfront and seeing the “beautiful side of the community,” Cevasco said, “I also see some things we need to work on in the Village. I think we (merchants) can work together, bring our ideas together to think outside the box and go above and beyond,” he said. Describing himself as a “go-getter,” Cevasco said, “I\u2019m passionate and can really bring something to the (association) board.” The restaurateur said he\u2019s seen the “electricity” in San Diego\u2019s Gaslamp Quarter, adding, “There\u2019s no reason we shouldn\u2019t have that right here in La Jolla.” He exhorted the merchants to “work together and make a difference.” \u2022 John Clarke, a Realtor, asked Fortune to read his statement, which said: “We must do something for the La Jolla merchants in order for them to cling to the few remaining customers they have. With a budget of $200,000, we need to offer valet parking with merchant validations to our local shops. This concept should be helping us pay our property taxes. Adding valet parking could bring a whole new customer to La Jolla with spending cash.” \u2022 Adam Barno, owner of Dick\u2019s Liquor on Pearl Street, said he is running, but he did not submit a candidate\u2019s statement.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
La Jolla Village Merchants Association held its annual candidates night for members seeking spots on the board to state their cases before the group\u2019s Oct. 14 election. “We have eight total candidates for seven available seats,” said Sheila Fortune, association executive director. Candidates were given a couple of minutes to introduce themselves and discuss why […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":257428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Candidates have their say for Merchants Association board","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-257427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}