City Councilman Faulconer says things are looking good here in San Diego
By Mic Porte
Wednesday April 10, 2013, Paradise Point Resort – Sounds like the name of the sequel of a sci-fi film, but it was actually a fantasy island dream moment with our San Diego district 2 elected official, Councilmember Kevin Faulconer, and his team, at beautiful Paradise Point Resort in the middle of beautiful Mission Bay in beautiful San Diego, on a beautiful evening and with all the beautiful people around, you wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
And according to Councilmember Faulconer, things are looking pretty beautiful around here, and with a little more bi-partisan effort on the part of the city council and everybody else in San Diego and the great state of California, and regional funding, we might even be able to finally get the crumbling oldest part of the seawall in front of Belmont Park repaired in time for the rising ocean levels, and balance the city budget too, and get back to pursuing happiness, something we do great here in San Diego.
Boys and girls, are we lucky? Yes, thank you.
New districting in 2013 has eliminated downtown from our jurisdiction, but we gained parts of Morena Blvd, at the base of Clairemont, so with Point Loma, Ocean Beach and Pacific Beach, all surrounding the San Diego river valley mouth and Mission Bay, we are District 2. Come on down to the beach, y’all.
Introduced by Lee Ann Kim, executive director of the Pacific Arts Movement, heralding the new era for San Diego as a leader in arts and culture, longtime overdue considering the size and diversity of our border town, California’s FIRST city, and flanked by the Point Loma Boy Scouts, and Mike Johnston of the Challenged Athletes Foundation to present the colors and pledge of allegiance (should that be capitalized?) Mr. Faulconner presented an optimistic and exciting program for the future of our district.
Point Loma will get a new world-class, Olympic-sized swimming pool and aquatic center at Liberty Station for children’s swim classes.
DeAnza Cove mobile home park’s expired leases will finally get resolved after 20 years of debate and the beach in east Mission Bay returned to the public. His office will soon be setting up a “public input” department for this future development, so everybody, check it out, and give your ideas for the east bay scene. One of the key aspects of this project is to restore Rose Creek watershed to the adjacent freshwater starved marshlands to improve the health of the Mission Bay eco-system through natural means.
Having served many years on the audit sub-committee, Mr. Faulconer is also optimistic about the “principles of fiscal reform” being established, the opening and reviewing of “the books,” and after years of “financial chaos and public embarrassment, facing reality head-on,” declares San Diego “on the good track to spend within our means and hold city hall as accountable as any householder’s budget.”
$ 51 million dollars will be saved because of recent audit reviews, and with “accountability and management competiton,” $ 20 million more can be saved every year, he believes, to provide for the necessary approximately $1 billion budget needed in San Diego for government services.
Within 30 days, he intends to ask city council for “voter approval of management competition initiatives.”
Immigration reform got a unanimous vote from city council recently to send a request to the federal government to work in a non-partisan and neighborly way, a “good faith effort,” to really come to grips with this issue.
Ocean Beach was not really mentioned, so we presume everything is okay there.
Councilmember Faulconer and his team, hosted a delightful coffee and dessert reception afterwards on the sunset deck, overlooking beautiful Mission Bay, with the San Diego High School Mariachi Band playing some traditional south of the border favorites which was most excellent. I never miss a chance to enjoy some of my taxpayer money in action. Then, as always, when I roam Paradise Point Resort, as I have been doing since I was a child, I climbed the cool tower. Yup, we’re lucky here in San Diego.
Photos by Mic Porte
Micaela Shafer Porte
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Thanks Douglas for saving me some time, now I can simply re-post this; and thanks Mic Porte for covering the event.
I’ve recently been added to the 2nd District – the pending accomplishments have been in the works for a long time and are good things for MB and Pt Loma and the citizens of San Diego. Expanding the Rose Creek wetlands is especially important. But there’s still much that needs doing, and has needed doing for a long time. Councilmember Faulconer is feasting on the low hanging fruit. Hopefully he’ll go after the festering fruit that’s harder to reach. Like our well known broken streets waiting to be repaired. The frequent sewer and water line breaks perpetuated by low cost repairs. The undergrounding of utilities for which the older neighborhoods of San Diego have been paying into a fund since 1974 and we are told it’s still decades away. And, here in the technology age, the 2nd District does not have uniform broadband coverage. And that’s not mentioning trash/landfills, public transit, unemployment especially among the under 30’s, affordable housing and homelessness and medical care (w/ the closing of Sharp’s, the closest ER is UC Medical in Hillcrest over 6 miles away). So best of luck Councilmember Faulconer, you may find an ally in Mayor Filner.