Letter: Beautify Streets to Promote Walking

I would like to see the city to improve the aesthetics and beautify the streets that connect Bankers & Cortez Hills, the Gaslamp and Little Italy, especially Beech and Cedar, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Front streets, especially the areas close to Interstate 5. With a city blessed with a great weather, residents and tourists would be greatly encouraged to enjoy walking around these communities, instead of driving, which can support the local businesses and restaurants in all of these small communities without worrying about paying for parking or even finding one without driving in circles. The streets that connect these small towns could be promoted as walking streets and should also be well-lit at night. These streets can be patrolled to make sure that loitering would not be tolerated.

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Facades of buildings that look rundown need to be painted or re-painted (residential inns, low-income apartments, motels, car repair shops). Do we have a city designer who can actually talk to these business owners?

2. Put some corner potted plants or do something to beautify open parking lots.

3. A better-looking fence underneath the freeway exit on Front Street in front of The Holiday Inn could be installed. The city could also make use of the space by offering it to a group that would be interested in using it as an urban city vegetable garden.

Jet Prudencio lives in San Diego.

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