Read during public comment by Hillcrest resident Nancy Moors
at the beginning of the August 6, 2009 Uptown Partnership board meeting
I would like to comment on the July 14th update sent out by the Partnership.
re: the second item “City Council Budget and Finance Committee Hearing of July 8, 2009” —
Committee members Young, DeMaio, Emerald, Faulconer and Gloria voted unanimously to forward the plans and budget for the Downtown, Uptown and Mid-City Community Parking Districts to the City Council for consideration.”
In reality, the Uptown Partnership’s budget was singled out by councilmembers Faulconer, Gloria and DeMaio. The Partnership received the same advisement from all three. Gloria “More needs to be done to engage the community”; Faulconer wanted “several community forums”; DeMaio “hear my message loud and clear…build greater communication.”
re: the third item “Uptown Partnership Public Forum – July 2, 2009” —
The Partnership reports that 30 members of the public attended. In reality, only 12 people were from the community….10 of them from Hillcrest. The balance were board members, staff and committee members of the Partnership. The Partnership went on to say that the responses to the questions would be posted the week of July 20.
In reality the posting appeared this week, over a month later, with little or no response to the questions that were posed by community members. Interestingly, the posting says…
“the City of San Diego’s budget shortfall has prompted the Mayor
and City Council to exploit all possible funding sources, the Board recognizes
the possibility that the City could re-direct unallocated parking meter revenues
from the Uptown CPD to the General Fund.”
I would like to hear from the Mayor’s office or our council offices that
the City would really lay claim to meter money that is designated for enhancing
parking in the Uptown area.
And only today did I receive answers to the questions
posed at the forum.
Under Community Projects the Partnership says:
The City has evaluated several “blue zones” (disabled parking) on Richmond Street and will convert one of three “blue zones” to public parking.
These “blue
zones” were originally established to serve the needs
of clients using the Access Center which has been closed
for nearly two years. The opportunity to convert these spaces to public parking
was pointed out to the Partnership in early Spring. After several months
of follow-up attempts with the Partnership I would have hoped that they would
have advocated for the businesses in the area instead of saying that it is
up to the businesses to petition the City to convert these spaces to public
parking. Perhaps with the advocacy of the Partnership, the City would have
converted more than one of three spaces back to public parking.
Atlas Meter Replacement — The City Meter Shop
is working to expedite replacement of the meters along Fourth, Fifth and
Pennsylvania that were removed during construction of Atlas Hillcrest. It
was reported that the replacement could come as early as the end of July.
The
return of the meters is long overdue and the community would expect the Partnership
to have advocated long ago to have the meters returned to these streets. As
of today, the meters have not been replaced.
These are a few of the examples of the Partnership’s continued manipulation
and embellishment of their accomplishments and outreach to the Uptown Community,
Hillcrest in particular. I encourage the Partnership to be more honest and
frank in reporting its accomplishments. Thank you.
Nancy Moors
What do you think? Let us know!