As the election for Coronado Mayor is picking up steam, the candidates are continuing to ask voters for support. While some residents already have their minds made up on whom they will vote for, like current Mayor Casey Tanaka endorsing Councilwoman Carrie Downey, others are continuing to sit back and watch how the campaigns play out before they are required to fill out their ballots.
Both candidates have made a footprint in the community and have experience serving on the City Council. Additionally, many of their plans for improving the city and addressing community-related issues align.
During a sit-down interview with the candidates, we discussed how each of them plans to lead the community in the future. I asked what they believe are the top three issues in Coronado and their proposals for resolving them.
Richard Bailey believes the issues are enforcement, traffic, and using taxpayers’ money wisely.
“What I am hearing from residents is that they feel the city hasn’t been as diligent as we should have been, in the past, on enforcing our existing laws. Whether it’s traffic enforcement, bicycle infractions, or code enforcement for a lot of illegal vacation rentals, I feel as though the community wants us to take a greater role and be more proactive in enforcing the laws we already have. The second issue, and it will always be an issue, of course, is the traffic here in town. There is very little we can do at this moment.”
Bailey says, “There isn’t much the city can do to control the volume of traffic that comes through Coronado, but there is a lot it can do to improve the safety of motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists.”
The third issue is being a good steward of taxpayer dollars. “Making sure we have a good understanding of what the priorities for our community are and effectively spending taxpayer dollars wisely to accomplish those priorities.”
Downey believes the top three issues that Coronado faces haven’t changed since the first time she ran for election.
“First, we need to figure out what can legally be done to help make traffic a little more aware of the village nature of our community and encourage everybody to operate as a village and not a highway. The second [issue] is, we have some opportunities to change how we are developing, but we have to comply with the law. So, we need to figure out the best way to do that. Third, now that our community has finished redevelopment, we have beautiful facilities, both at the city level and at our school district level, and [determine] how we can best use all of them to help all our residents. Everybody you talk to in Coronado thinks one of the solutions is to put a hawk light on 3rd and 4th Streets. The problem is, it’s not safe to do so yet,” said Downey.
According to Downey, “We have requested Caltrans investigate putting those in, we’ve even offered to pay for them. The problem is, unlike some other streets, there is poor visibility approaching the intersections where we would want to put a hawk light. The engineers at Caltrans, who are the experts in traffic planning, say we have to find a way to either increase visibility or change the direction drivers are looking at before they approach the intersection.”
She says the city has several proposals to look at redesigning the roadways, but they are pricey.
As for solving the problem of how motorists treat the community roadways, Downey cites the city’s commitment to working with Naval Air Station North Island to encourage motorists to comply with safety and speed regulations.
“Many people have commented to me that we are seeing more respect, as people are leaving the base – letting people cross the lettered streets as they are leaving on 4th Street. We need to appreciate the effort that the commanding officer on the base has made and the many commuters that are departing the base are exercising, but we need to keep encouraging more of that. One of the ways we have done that over the years since I was first elected in 2004 is returning 3rd and 4th into streets that remind people that it isn’t a highway. “
Two ways the city has accomplished this is by allowing street parking on 3rd and 4th Streets and narrowing the lanes.
“One of the ways you can change driving behavior is to have drivers themselves realize their behavior needs to accommodate the surroundings. So, making the lanes narrower reminds them they are not on a freeway,” said Downey.
The third issue Downey believes the city faces comes in lieu of the absence of redevelopment funds.
“We need to work on other opportunities to keep our facilities first class and to make our residents aware of what options are there and make it so people have choices and the school district and the city can work together to open up all of our facilities for everyone in Coronado to use.”
Both candidates are committed to running strong campaigns that are community focused. To learn more about the candidates and donate, or to volunteer for or contact them, please visit their websites using the following links:
The current mayor’s term will end in December 2016.
