What $200,000 Could Do for The Village

With the La Mesa Parking Commission deliberating whether to invest $200,000 of parking meter money toward the installation of two public bathrooms (not including maintenance, supplies or monitoring), I investigated what $200,000 could do for the Village and discovered $200,000 could pay for Six Years of Downtown power-washing, street sweeping and flowers in the planters. (See financial chart below)

Every Wednesday morning, the City of La Mesa, via a contractor, street sweeps the entire downtown La Mesa area at a cost of about $300-$400, according to a staff member of public works. He added that were the streets to be swept twice a week in lieu of once a week, the cost could go down slightly.

Curt Betz, owner of VIP Janitorial Service, a company that power-washes many of San Diego County city sidewalks, quoted 2 nights (midnight-dawn) and $3,000 to power-wash La Mesa Boulevard from University to Grant.

Up until two years ago, a gardener, paid for by the La Mesa Village Merchants Association, planted and maintained flowers in the large planters that line La Mesa Boulevard for about $4,700 per year. He also removed trash and cigarette butts from the planters.

JOB                                                                            ANNUAL COST

Sidewalk Power-Washing                                                $12,000

Street Sweeping                                                             $15,600

Flowers in the Planters                                                    $  4,700

                                                Total:              $32,600 x 6 years = $195,600

The parking meters annually collect between $250,000 - $300,000, so $32,000 represents only 10% - 13% of yearly revenue. 

Please see attached before photos (taken the week of Sept. 12, 2011) and the what-could-be photo (the Village cleaned up courtesy of my graphic artist) to see what an impact a sparkling clean, flower-filled Village could have on the shopping/dining experience of Downtown La Mesa. 

As a side note, I always felt like I was the only member of the Parking Commission who thinks the Village needs to be cleaned up until this last Tuesday night when Parking Commissioner Jim Wieboldt, speaking in support of a proposed $375,000/year PBID (a mechanism that pays for downtown cleaning, marketing, security through raised property taxes), shocked me by saying to the City Council, staff and audience that he “can’t wait for the Village to get cleaned up!” 

If he “can’t wait” for the Village to be cleaned up, someone needs to ask him why in the seven years he’s been on the La Mesa Parking Commission, he has never recommended meter funds be used to clean up the Village. 

Now I know he wants to clean up the Village; he’d just rather do it through government expansion, raised property taxes and bloated administration fees than with quarters already collected.