In an open two-seat election, Genevieve Suzuki is running for La Mesa City Council against Shawn Townsend, Lauren Cazares, and former councilmember Kristine Alessio. Suzuki, D, 48, was born in Washington and raised in Hawaii, where she earned a degree in journalism from the University of Hawaii. She worked in journalism for seven years before moving to San Diego with her husband in 2005. She moved here to get her law degree from California Western School of Law. They began living in downtown San Diego and moved to La Mesa after having their first child 11 years ago.
“We love La Mesa. We were lucky. It is private. My neighbors are fantastic. My two children attend schools here. My children gave me a shift of perspective. Before I became an attorney, I had blinders on and was not paying attention to what was going on around me. With my kids, things became more important to me. Infrastructure and parks became more important. I served with the La Mesa Community Service Commission, received a great education about our parks and learned about governing, and then became a director on the La Mesa Park & Recreation Foundation. I love our parks. We have 14 wonderful parks, and while I was canvassing, I found several small little park areas where the city determined that they can be considered a park. I wonder how many more little parks like these we have.
Suzuki is a family law attorney with her office on Baltimore Drive. She recently merged her practice and is now with Envision Family Law and runs the San Diego office. She said she is very involved in her children’s lives, serving on the president of the parent-teachers group at St. Martin of Tours Academy and brought back its fall festival.
“I think we need to start bringing things like that back. I would love to see more community events where we all get together and get to know each other again. I think the pandemic damaged us in more ways than we thought, because we really do need each other,” she said.
Suzuki said living in Hawaii, she is a hapa, half Filipino and half Hawaiian, so if elected, she believes she would be the first mother with school-aged children on council, and the first Asian American and Pacific Islander woman to serve on council. Suzuki said her campaign platform is evolving as she is becoming more informed as she meets people throughout La Mesa.
“Canvassing has been extremely informative. My platform includes addressing homelessness humanely, ensuring the availability of affordable housing, increasing investment in La Mesa by people buying homes here and living here. Infrastructure is important. We need to continue working with our parks so they can continue to be fantastic places for our families to gather. I would like to take the library into 2025 and beyond. There are plans to take over the post office space and I am excited about that. I would like to see a library that offers programming, concerts, and attracts our community in a way that is beyond what we know of. I would like to see a café in the library beyond just a kiosk selling coffee, to encourage people to gather, meet, and share their ideas, and educate each other. It would also give the city another platform to inform residents of what is going on,” she said.
Suzuki said she supports public safety, the fire department, and first responders. She said her 90-year-old mother lives with them, and this year, for the first time, she had to call an ambulance. “The firefighters and EMTs that came, I am a huge fan of our Heartland Fire & Rescue officers. They are fantastic. They are kind and professional. I want to support them. I want to support our police, so they have training, they are fully staffed, which neither are. I think our police oversight has done a great job, so supporting that is just as important. It is important to me to keep the public’s trust,” she said.
Suzuki said it is important to have a mixture of affordable housing, beginning housing, middle-income housing, and higher end housing.
“I like the idea of mixed-use housing. For instance, Grossmont Center. I always hear from the food court people they do not know how much longer they will be there. I do not want to lose that, but at the same time we need housing. The population is growing. I think mixed use would be great at Grossmont Center. I think that we need to have a small hotel-type component, housing, and at the bottom, retail. Hotels make a lot of money that goes back into the city. If the hotel is near the hospital, that would be great for families who have family in the hospital. It would be especially great if the retail encouraged local businesses, retail stores to encourage more people to walk around and stay in La Mesa, that is the best,” she said.
Suzuki said she supports Proposition L, the three-quarter sales tax extension on the November ballot.
“One of the things that I would like to see is that the city is spending money wisely and is being used in the most efficient and effective manner. We need to pay for our fire department and police department. Every Wednesday for the past few weeks I have participated in Heartland Fire’s Citizen Academy. I am learning about the costs of everything they use to help people. It is expensive. Many do not think about it unless they need it. I need it this year three times for my mother. It is important that we maintain these services so they can continue to take care of our citizens. The good thing is this is not creating a tax, it is only extending it,” she said.
Suzuki said in canvassing, street infrastructure is probably the number one issue with residents.
“Everybody thinks that are being maintained well. But you can tell what streets are where La Mesa begins and San Diego ends. San Diego is not doing as well in maintaining their streets as La Mesa does. One of the things people have talked about that I agree with is speeding. People speed across La Mesa is a great hub. You can get anywhere in San Diego County within 20 minutes. People using our residential streets are not maintaining the posted speed limits. I live on Baltimore Drive, and I hate the way people speed, and there are no crosswalks there, and there is no stop sign, no light. I would like to address the speeding in our residential areas. One of the things that they all have in common is that it is right off the freeway. People are moving in, which is a great infusion of people and ideas, but we are not providing them with the support they need, especially when they are walking kids around. Another thing a father told me is that he would like to see more small ramps on the streets so that he can easily get his stroller around the city without having to jump the curb or pick up the stroller. And the same applies to wheelchairs. The Boomer population is huge and aging. If we do not figure something out, we are going to be facing a huge problem,” she said.
Suzuki said the city needs to have a homeless facility in East County.
“A place where they can fill supported, have wrap-around services, and not just be dumped out of sight up in Vista. I look at the unhoused, and I do not know if that is going to be my son someday, or your nephew, your brother, or your sister. We need to learn how to loop in everyone in our community so that they feel cared for. That way, we can figure a way to move forward in a positive way so that we all feel that we are humans taking care of humans,” she said.
Suzuki said she would like to see the Village to encourage more restaurants to pop up that have diverse offerings.
