Rudy Ramirez is running for Chula Vista City Council District 4 against Cesar Fernandez. Ramirez, 63, served on City Council from 2006 through 2014.
“I served two terms,” he said. “An important part of that is that I served when we could serve citywide. I have never served as a district representative.”
Ramirez, a Democrat, is a business owner, went to local schools graduating from Castle Park High School, and has always lived in the same neighborhood.
“I never left southwest Chula Vista,” he said. “My business was on Main Street in Chula Vista,”
Ramirez said he began as an advocate for small businesses.
“Back in the 90s, I served on boards and commissions. The Board of Ethics, International Friendship Commission, General Plan Update Steering Committee, Citizen’s Advisory Commission, then got elected in a citywide council seat. I am a state licensed contractor in the metal fabrication business. Working on the Steering Committee is what made me fall in love with understanding land use, which is a very important responsibility of municipal government,” he said. “I went to the Advisory Commission on the bayfront development as a representative of the Steering Committee. That committee met for two years in the early 2000s. It was an enlightening and eye-opening experience in terms of civic engagement. It made me aware and understand good civic engagement process for coming together on a particular plan that was controversial for many years. There were many starts and stops for the bayfront development. It was not until we put together this civic engagement process that got this project off the ground. There were about 24-25 different groups and individuals that participated in this committee to lay out the plan for the bayfront development. You had environmental groups, business groups, labor, the educational community, that sat around and had monthly meetings, often with the Port of San Diego, city of Chula Vista, world-class professional planners, who taught us how plans like this come together. It ultimately led to what people thought was impossible. Coastal Commission approval.”
Ramirez said it has been his criticism of the city of Chula Vista for not engaging in another important planning process.
“You cannot have a billion-dollar development adjacent to your city and not expect there will not be some effects. There are going to be good effects, positive impacts, and negative impacts. My question has been is what you are going to do to get more of the things that you want and get less of the things that you do not want. This is something that needs to be vetted and run through another community process to begin thinking about these things and planning them as a city to take necessary actions to get ahead of this. You want economic vitality. You want good, high paying jobs. You want some of the economic impact from all the people travelling here from all over the country to benefit Chula Vista.”
Ramirez said things that you do not want from the development of the bayfront is gentrification, and its effects.
“How do you preserve mom and pop businesses to allow them to stay in business?” he said. “These small mom and pop businesses help create the character of the community. How do you retain the character of the community while you are growing and catering to a new community that will be visiting your city? How do you preserve access to the local community? Western Chula Vista, the rest of Chula Vista, and the region, how are they going to have access to our bayfront? That was put into the plan because it was important to me as a lifelong Chula Vista resident. That my family and community could have access to our bayfront. It was also important to the Coastal Commission. Not just physical access, but economic access.”
Ramirez said many people see the homeless crisis as an intractable issue.
“I have endorsed and believe that the Sunbreak Ranch concept is a step in the right direction,” he said. “It is a concept where you have one large facility in San Diego where you can triage people. As you are clearing the streets, which we must do, camping on streets and sidewalks is something we must stop because it does not help anybody. It does not help the people living there and it certainly does not help the community it impacts. But you need to be able to take these people to a place where they can get services. Having one large facility where you can triage people, find out what their issues are, and provide the people the help and support they need where they need it. Then we can send people to countywide resources that can help them in their situation and help them transition out. This will not cure homelessness, but it will cure the crisis that we are seeing right now.”
Ramirez said he wants to confront and deal with these big issues.
“The things that most politicians are running away from, I want to confront. We cannot sit around and do nothing. It is a complex issue, but I plan to do it,” he said.
Ramirez said the city is under resourced in public safety.
“I support the police. My brother is a police officer, so I understand the work, the strain, and we need to help them get to the issues of crime. They want to do it, and we need to help them do it. There is more crime going on than statistics would show. People are frustrated and I believe that is why some crimes are not reported. We have a good chief, and we need to be supportive of our public safety personnel. I am in support of Measure P, but I have my own opinion. I am disappointed in the city of Chula Vista in how they have managed the oversight,” he said. “Southwest Chula Vista is supposed to have a representative on the oversight committee. To date, we do not have one. From what I am told, many times the committee does not meet because they do not have a quorum. That is troubling. I think the money was probably spent well. They did the street improvements they said they would make. I think transparency was missing in the process.”
