The Stockton City Council unanimously voted down an expanded business improvement district that the mayor says would cost people who live downtown too much.
I am in favor of the Downtown Stockton Alliance,” Stockton Mayor Christina Fugazi said. “I just said we need to revisit the map and who is included.”
Fugazi said a proposed expanded downtown community improvement district fails to consider the price people who live inside it would be forced to pay.
“Are you going in there and mowing their lawn, you know, what are you doing to clean the front area of their home, because it might just be the gutter there, I don’t quite know. Are you power washing the sidewalk inside someone’s house?” Fugazi said.
Besides residents, business owners lined up in opposition to the proposed community services district expansion.
“It’s vague, it’s ambiguous, it does nothing to benefit our businesses on Fremont Street,” a resident said.
Supporters called for supporting the bigger downtown district for the greater good…
“Without taxes or investment, you have anarchy and you have chaos,” another resident said.
Now the city council is voting against the expanded improvement district, the mayor says she’s not down on the downtown’s future.
“I mean, we just replaced every single light downtown. Those are special lights and we just replaced all of them with LED lights,” Fugazi said.
Fugazi said she is hopeful a different improvement district proposal will be presented to the council. The district is set to expire at the end of next year.
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