It’s looking less likely that a big San Diego streets bond will happen two years from now.
Andrew Poat, the former Economic Development Corp. official who’s been spearheading the loan plan, said there isn’t enough time to include the community when identifying the streets, parks, sidewalks and other infrastructure improvements that the loan might finance.
“It would be difficult to have meaningful neighborhood involvement in this decision and still be on the 2014 ballot,” Poat said.
Neighborhood involvement in pinpointing priorities for the bond is seen as key to building grassroots support for an effort that would require voter approval. A San Antonio official told San Diego’s City Council last year that community groups provided the push for the Texas city’s successful infrastructure ballot measures.
San Diego has a backlog of nearly $900 million in streets, facilities and storm drain repairs and will need much more to build new facilities. City Council President Todd Gloria endorsed the concept of a big streets bond in his inaugural address last month. Gloria also created a new council committee dedicated to the city’s infrastructure problems. Mayor Bob Filner peppered his State of the City address this week with references to the city’s infrastructure needs, and said a top deputy would lead a new group to address funding concerns.
Liam Dillon is a news reporter for Voice of San Diego. He covers how regular people interact with local government. What should he write about next?
Please contact him directly at liam.dillon@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5663.
Disclosure: Voice of San Diego members and supporters may be mentioned or have a stake in the stories we cover. For a complete list of our contributors, click here.
Like VOSD on Facebook.