TRAGESER: Escondido: business friendly? Not

By JIM TRAGESER - Staff Writer | Sunday, July 6, 2008 12:16 AM PDT ∞

Over the last few years, as the Escondido City Council has lurched from one harebrained scheme to another to get rid of poor Latinos from our environs, the one consistent message has been that they weren't targeting poor Latinos at all: they were just trying to improve the city's business climate.

Whether it was trying to ban renting to illegal immigrants or outlawing overnight parking or, of late, chasing job seekers off the sidewalks, the council majority has always insisted that its intent was to make Escondido the sort of place new businesses would want to move to, a community that existing businesses could thrive in.

But recent decisions to jack up the annual fee downtown businesses have to pay and to force business groups to foot the bill for police services at large events leaves one wondering just how well thought out the council's devotion to promoting Escondido businesses ever was.

While increasing the annual Downtown Business Association fees by a couple hundred dollars per business isn't going to drive anyone into bankruptcy, it still flies in the face of the council's previous message about supporting the city's merchants ---- particularly when you take into account the vehement protests from the affected businesses.

Honestly, though, why anyone owning a business in Escondido's downtown would still believe the City Council gives a hoot about them after cutting a deal with Palomar-Pomerado Health to move the hospital out past Auto Park Way is beyond me. That one decision is going to make earning a living along Grand Avenue awfully tough in years to come as more and more medical offices move with the hospital, leaving many fewer bodies to eat, dine and shop along Grand on a typical day.

And adding tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of some of the most high-visibility events on the city's annual calendar is going to help Escondido's business climate exactly how?

Forcing organizers of Cruising Grand, First Night Escondido, and the annual Christmas parade, Grape Day Festival and Fourth of July fireworks shows to pay for police protection is likely to lead to the demise of at least a couple of these events. While the Fourth of July fireworks, Grape Day Festival and Christmas parade are civic celebrations taken on by private organizations as a public service, Cruising Grand has been touted as being a boon to area businesses.

All of them have reputations beyond Escondido's borders that bring visitors to our town.

So the idea that this City Council puts economic prosperity atop its priority list is pretty hard to swallow right now. The $68,000 the city says it will save by billing for police protection at the above events could have been saved earlier by never pursuing an unneeded parking ban, with the accompanying $50,000 outside study (which ended up showing the city has no real overnight parking problems).

This is what it's come down to: The council majority's desire to chase Latinos out of town has led to the point where instead, we're far more likely to be chasing our Christmas parade and Fourth of July fireworks shows out of town.

Contact staff writer Jim Trageser at (760) 740-5408 or jtrageser@nctimes.com.

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