SAN DIEGO — Mayor Todd Gloria signed two pieces of legislation on Thursday clearing the way for the city of San Diego to invest roughly $293 million to repair or upgrade roads, stormwater systems, parks, recreation facilities and libraries, and to purchase public safety and waste management equipment.
Gloria signed the bills in a ceremony at Mesa Verde Park, which sits on the north side of Gold Coast Drive, a crumbling thoroughfare in Mira Mesa that the community has been trying to get reconstructed for years. The new funding will include $11 million to reconstruct portions of Gold Coast Drive and nearby Parkdale Avenue.
"San Diego has a long, unfortunate history of neglecting its infrastructure needs. That ends with this administration," Gloria said.
"San Diegans deserve to live in a city they can be proud of. By signing these two resolutions today, I am setting in motion nearly $300 million for critical infrastructure projects to improve neighborhoods in all corners of San Diego. We have much more to do, but this is a first step in the right direction," he concluded.
"Since my first day in office in 2014, it has been my top priority to repair Gold Coast Drive and Parkdale Avenue," Councilman Chris Cate said. "Throughout my past two terms, we have held two community forums, issued annual budget priority memorandums, walked door-to-door to speak with residents, and worked in concert with the Mira Mesa community to ensure their voices were heard.
"I thank the mayor's office for supporting our office to identify the needed funding," Cate continued. "I look forward to beginning the total reconstruction of Gold Coast and Parkdale as soon as possible, and providing these long-needed repairs and infrastructure investments in the Mira Mesa community."
The funding breaks down into these categories:
- Public safety: $97.7 million
- Mobility and transportation: $59.4 million
- Environmental services: $50.4 million
- Stormwater: $49.6 million
- Parks and recreation: $20.7 million
- City facilities: $14.7 million
- Information technology: $550,000
"This $293 million investment is the kind of holistic approach to making a tangible impact on the lives of San Diegans by tackling infrastructure problems that have been ignored for years," Council President Jennifer Campbell said.
The public safety funding will allow the city to spend $56.4 million to replace outdated police and fire radio equipment during the next two years, and $41.3 million for 34 heavy-duty fire trucks.
The environmental services funding will allow the city to implement a new refuse and recycling collection system to comply with state requirements to recycle organic waste.
Nearly half of the funding for transportation upgrades -- $28.4 million -- will go to Gloria's "Sexy Streets" initiative, which prioritizes road repairs in historically underserved communities. This funding supplements the roughly $10 million for road repair that Gloria included in his unanimously approved budget.
Specific projects slated to receive funding, which Gloria highlighted include:
- $11 million to reconstruct Gold Coast Drive and Parkdale Avenue in Mira Mesa
- $4 million to realign Alvarado Road in the College Area
- $2.7 million to repair the roof of the federal building in Balboa Park
- $2.1 million to improve public access to the coast at Bermuda Avenue in Ocean Beach
- $12.6 million to help renovate the Botanical Building in Balboa Park;
- $1.7 million to plan the new Chollas Triangle Park in El Cerrito
- $1.6 million for Hickman Fields Athletic Area in Kearny Mesa;
- $940,000 for libraries in Ocean Beach and San Carlos
- $250,000 for the fire station in Skyline Hills
- $40,000 for Wightman Street Neighborhood Park in City Heights
- $10.3 million to install or upgrade streetlights
- $4.8 million to repair sidewalks;
- $280,000 to improve guard rails;
- $30.4 million to improve drainage; and
- $18.7 million for watershed management
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