The large crowd of people mingling at the Catamaran Resort Hotel in Pacific Beach March 13 was a testament to community interest in City Councilman Kevin Faulconer’s plans for District 2, which includes downtown, Mission Beach, Pacific Beach, Point Loma and Ocean Beach.
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 portion 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, which has eliminated unnecessary positions to streamline city services. The initiative has netted 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, [business processing re-engineering] 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.
“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.
Faulconer also touched on the progress of the undergrounding of utility wires across the district. He said it is a long process but he is working to expedite the work. He also assured that all District 2 neighborhoods are on the undergrounding schedule, however he did not know when those neighborhoods would be complete.
In issues specific to downtown, Faulconer praised the progress in creating the Quiet Zone downtown to alleviate the late-night noise pollution created by trains.
According to Faulconer, the lengthy process is “worth the effort.
“We are attempting [to create] the largest quiet zone in America,” Faulconer said.
Faulconer also cited the beach smoking ban as a success, which not only prohibits smoking on city beaches but all city open spaces as well, including Balboa Park and all golf courses.
Faulconer ended the address on a positive note.
“As we start my second year, I just want to say thank you,” he said to residents. “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.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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