A New Downtown for La Mesa? One Writer Has a Vision

Should La Mesa be seeking a new downtown?

The editor of La Mesa Today thinks so.

Chris Lavin, the editor, suggests such a site could be set up as an attraction for the San Diego region's millions of visitors, even invoking the Gaslamp as something it could rival.

He calls the area that runs near Interstate 8 and along the trolley line, including the 1.5 acre site once set aside for La Mesa's police station “a gold mine.”

The energy expended over debates on the improvement district should instead, he said, be invested in a potential “game changer” like that promised in developing the vacant parcels along Spring Street.

“Rather than fussing forever over how much to polish the few blocks between Fourth Street and Acacia along La Mesa Boulevard, let's encourage the building of a new downtown,” he wrote.

Is this a good idea, a proposal worth pursuing? What would you like to see developed there? Tell us in the comments.