joint visit to the area<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m here as part of the administration\u2019s continuing effort to listen to this issue, make sure that we\u2019re aware of it, and to hear directly from small businesses today,\u201d Briggs said.<\/p>\n
Following the roundtable, Briggs joined the delegation for a visit to pollution sites\u00a0along the Tijuana River corridor, including the Saturn Boulevard hotspot \u2014 a stretch of the river on the U.S. side where sewage and industrial waste is aerosolized into harmful gases, including hydrogen sulfide, and carried by the wind into surrounding communities.<\/p>\n
During discussions, business owners described years of sustained revenue losses they attributed to the pollution crisis.<\/p>\n
Mike Hess, owner of Mike Hess Brewing, said business at his Imperial Beach location is down roughly 28% from its 2022 peak and that the declining numbers have had consequences beyond the local market. He said 25 banks declined to finance a separate expansion project in Los Angeles after flagging the brewery\u2019s IB performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem that we\u2019re having isn\u2019t marketing our businesses to locals,\u201d Hess said during the discussion. \u201cEverybody knows where we are, 7-Elevens and restaurants, et cetera. The problem is reputational damage across the country that\u2019s causing people from not just Arizona, but Chicago and New York, whoever, that\u00a0are not coming because of the sewage.\u201d<\/p>\n
McKay told Briggs the city has experienced nearly four consecutive years of beach closures, with the Tijuana River currently flowing at approximately 42 million gallons per day. He said an estimated 200 billion gallons of sewage-contaminated water have passed through the area over the decades.<\/p>\n
Sandi Crosby, president of the Imperial Beach Chamber of Commerce and a local real estate broker, said property values in the city are down an estimated 12 to 15%, describing Imperial Beach as the only beach community in California where values have declined in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I offer IB as an option for someone who wants affordable beach property, their answer is, \u2018Absolutely not, I cannot put my family at risk,\u2019\u201d Crosby said.<\/p>\n
Several business owners pushed back on the prospect of loan-based relief, saying additional debt would be untenable given suppressed revenues. The consensus across the table was that resolving the pollution itself \u2014 not financing \u2014 was the primary need.<\/p>\n
\u201cLoans are not going to be an option for some of these smaller businesses because they\u2019re already choking as it is,\u201d said Katy\u2019s Cafe owner P.J. McCandless. \u201cWe\u2019ll just see more casualties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Briggs acknowledged the scope of the problem but stopped short of announcing specific programs or timelines.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will not be the last administration official here addressing this issue,\u201d Briggs said. \u201cI guarantee you that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"William Briggs, deputy administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, traveled to Imperial Beach on Tuesday to hear…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,929,181,23,100,74,84,76,75,3055,1696],"class_list":{"0":"post-246155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-imperial-beach","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-county","15":"tag-san-diego-headlines","16":"tag-san-diego-news","17":"tag-south-county","18":"tag-top-stories-sdut"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}