Many San Diego streets have been eyesores and potholes for decades. Now, the streets are being fixed. San Diego and Duval County officials have partnered to get the streets repaired.
County employees from different precincts have been working hard to get the streets restored.
This week, Duval County Precinct 2 employees started fixing a portion of St. James and King Street.
“Seeing something like this is really awesome. I mean our streets have been bad for so long,” said Glenda Perez, San Diego neighbor.
She doesn’t remember the last time the roads were maintained.
“It was terrible. We couldn’t even go to the post office. It was so bumpy. It was so - so we’d have to route around to the highway. And now it’s awesome. I hope it’s going to be awesome. It looks awesome,” Perez said.
Over the last year, county commissioners and city officials have been brainstorming and turning their ideas into reality.
“We already have eight projects that we did on the Northside, precinct 2,” said Ruben Galvan, Duval County Precinct 2 Foreman.
With the partnership, Galvan said, the county is doing the labor at no cost and the city is funding the equipment. It costs around $40,000 per block.
The funding for the work comes from the city’s business sales tax.
“I know that it was a problem. And that’s what we had to work on, to fix (be)cause the people - they don’t want potholes. That’s our problem here - potholes,” Galvan said.
Commissioner Adalberto Vera said new streets mean fewer broken vehicles for our neighbors.
“They’re going to have a good street to travel on,” he said.
“This is the first step, after all these years, to get it done. Help our businesses. To help our people that live here. That have a hard time to get in and out of their homes,” said Viviana Saenz, San Diego Mayor Pro-tem.
She and other officials said they all want the same thing - better streets to drive on.
“The streets needed to be done already,” said Aleida Luera, San Diego City Manager.
Luera said the town is moving forward with each project and asks neighbors to be patient.
“I’m just happy to see that our town is getting fixed little by little, but everything takes time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, guys,” Perez said.
City officials said they will be applying for a multi-million-dollar grant to continue the street projects in town.
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