La Mesa Boulevard through the downtown village was the scene of excavation, grading, utility trenching and loud and dusty demolition of outdated concrete sidewalks, street lighting and landscaping.
After several years in planning, the grant-funded downtown streetscape renovation project triggered both hopeful optimism of a revitalized business district, and fear of revenue crippling disruption for the Downtown Merchants Association members.
As the project moved through construction, regular customers of the downtown businesses apparently shifted their loyalties to businesses with unfettered free parking such as at Grossmont Center. One village merchant noted he was “doing about 50 percent of the business” since construction had commenced.
Some merchants were doubly disappointed in the timing of the construction project. The economy had just begun to stabilize and rebound from a five-year long inflation-filled recession characterized by exponentially growing fuel costs and consumer belt-tightening.
But the work moved forward amongst the challenging disruptions.
For those living through the 2014 Downtown Streetscape Improvement Project this chronicle may sound like a current report—but in fact it is from 35 years ago.
These comments and descriptions come not from today’s project, but from the 1970s-era project that installed the sidewalks and other street improvements that the 2014 work is now replacing.
Newspaper headlines such as “Street Renovation Will Last Summer,” “La Mesa Remodels Downtown,” and “New Trees Taking Parking Spaces, Merchant’s Moan” were closely read by concerned La Mesans in the spring and summer of 1979.
Unlike the current complex construction schedule of today’s project, meant to diffuse the work to individual blocks at a time, the 1979 project disturbed La Mesa Boulevard from Nebo Avenue on the west to 4th Street on its east end along with improvements on Lemon Avenue to the south and Allison Avenue on the north — all at once — for five straight months.
The City Council had approved the $1.2 million project, paid for with two federal grants, nearly two years before, in October 1977. The proposed scope included undergrounding utility lines, newly paved alleys, enhanced parking areas and all new concrete sidewalks.
The design, created by the planning firm of Lawrence, Fogg, and Smith, included a patterned motif of cobblestone and red tile pavers within the new sidewalks. Downtown intersections were also to be replaced with the same pattern, as was the city’s parking lot on Allison Avenue.
Landscaping included over 40 new trees, such as elms, evergreen pears and purple leaf plums. The character of the new street lights were to be in an “Alpine Village” theme, all odes to the recently established and growing Oktoberfest event.
Mayor Paul Fordem and City Manager Gayle Martin both recognized the need to coordinate the construction to benefit, and not injure, not only the existing merchants but the concurrent redevelopment project to the west of Spring Street (including what is today’s La Mesa Springs Shopping Center).
Fordem and Martin had promised that the construction would not occur during the holiday season. Yet rain and “drying out time” during early 1979 had pushed the construction start from the hoped-for January to late April. Thus, it was a difficult summer of 1979 for many merchants who suffered from disrupted traffic and hindered access — especially those businesses without rear entrances.
Although some suggestions had been considered to shorten the project schedule such as eliminating the patterned tile paving, La Mesa’s Public Works Director Charles Bras worked with Merchant Association president Dale Wittman to calm fears, accrue support and complete the full scope of the project, even the somewhat controversial street trees.
The city had also assigned engineer Paul Fabares to help address concerns and complaints — especially when La Mesa Boulevard had to be closed for seven days in late July for “curing.”
In the end, the contractors met their early September completion date. The streets were re-opened with their brand new improvements. The visitors flocked into the fifth annual Oktoberfest event that October.
And for 35 years those improvements served the crowds that arrived to visit their favorite businesses, restaurants, Oktoberfests, car shows, parades — and enjoy the experience and “old time” downtown feel of the La Mesa Village — perhaps today’s most iconic community symbol.
So, as we all scramble around construction barriers to get into our favorite local village businesses for the near future, let’s hope again for some positive déjà vu occurring from this latest version of downtown improvements — and a new face for our old friend, the village.
