Lauren Cazares is running for La Mesa City Council against Shawn Townsend, Genevieve Suzuki, and former councilmember Kristine Alessio. Cazares, D, 26, is a lifelong La Mesan, homeowner, and daughter of small business owners. She is a policy advisor at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, specializing in environment and sustainability, education and workforce, small business, and economic development. Casares serves on the city’s Community Police Oversight Board, represents La Mesa on the San Diego Power’s Community Advisory Committee, and serves on other regional and national boards. She resides in La Mesa with her rescue dog and runs a women’s book club in her free time.
Cazares said she decided to run for city council because she loves La Mesa, and that the city has given her so many opportunities. Her parents started business. She was the first person in her family to go to college, and growing up in La Mesa, the city gave her everything.
“My parents lived the American Dream. They both grew up in poverty. La Mesa helped them achieve that dream, and I was able to go to college, get a job in the big city, and I think everybody should have that opportunity. For the first time ever, we have generational wealth in our family.
Cazares said it is important to her that other people have those opportunities and that access that her family had, and she wants to give back to the city that raised her and make La Mesa a greater place and continue to move forward. She said the city has made great strides, and with her experience in bureaucracy, policy, and as a lifelong La Mesa homeowner, she believes she is uniquely qualified to help the city make the critical decisions that it will have to make moving forward.
“I like to say that unlike many cities, La Mesa doesn’t have any huge mountains to overcome, but we do have some important hills we need to work on. I think the three biggest issues are increasing homelessness, lack of resources for public safety, and street accessibility. La Mesa’s homeless population grew by 86% in 2024 per the point-in-time count and that is unacceptable, we need to ensure that La Mesans can afford to stay in their homes and those that do fall into homelessness have access to essential services to get back on their feet. Our police force and firefighters need help recruiting and additional positions to be funded, understaffed crews mean our service levels decrease and so does employee morale. While La Mesa streets are generally safe, many streets and transit stops lack appropriate lighting and multiple crosswalks throughout the City have medians that go through them, creating accessibility issues for kids, older adults, disabled folks, and parents with strollers. We need to address these accessibility issues first and foremost to keep our community safe, and to protect our city from costly litigation,” she said.
Cazares said that the city needs to continue to fund its Homeless Outreach and Mobile Engagement Team.
“They have helped get folks off the street and into housing, and often into jobs. That is not the case with all individuals, but when we can I think it is important that we get them back into work, school, as their next step is to reintegrate them back into the workplace, La Mesa, and society. I would like to prioritize not just maintaining that program but expanding that program. It is through the La Mesa Police Department, but not through a sworn officer, but you have a dedicated team of people. We also need to be working together with the other East County cities, because we do not have a real homeless shelter that has wrap around services. We need to help get people clean off drugs and alcohol. It is a big issue. We need to treat them humanely, and we need a homeless shelter in East County. This is a long-term problem that we need to be laser focused on,” she said.
Cazares said the encampment bans are cruel when the city has no shelter to provide to the unhoused.
“It is pushing homeless into other cities and potentially sending folks to jail, which is paid for with our taxpayer’s dollars, and giving them a record for something that is not really wrong. I think we can have conversations about where those homeless encampments are, but without a homeless shelter it would be cruel to ban encampments,” she said.
Cazares said as a lifelong resident, she is committed to the city’s future.
“As we look to the future, we need to remain committed to the things that have made La Mesa a place where families, small businesses, and residents thrive. This means continuing to address public safety, keeping our city clean and our roads safe, working on real solutions to keep our housing costs affordable, and ending the homelessness crisis on our streets. As a policy advisor at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and a member of the City of La Mesa Community Police Oversight Board, I have already started this work. At the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, I have advocated for policies that provide incentives to working families and small businesses, such as tax credits for childcare expenses, rebates for energy-efficient upgrades, and grants for small business development, ensuring no one is left behind or bankrupted by legislative mandates,” she said.
Cazares said it is proven that people have better health outcomes when they live in walkable cities.
“La Mesa has historically been a walkable city, but we have ignored areas outside of The Village, our downtown. We have the best village downtown area than any other city in our region. But we have many issues outside of that area that have not been focused on because a vast majority of councilmembers that we have had over the last two decades have lived within a half-mile radius of The Village. I do not live in that area. I could not afford to live in that area. It is important that we are focused on our streets and sidewalks in other areas in the community and focused on our businesses. Storefront Improvement programs is something the city funded using American Rescue Plan Act dollars. But primarily, they were used for businesses in the village. That is important, and important to continue to invest. But what about all the other strip malls and small businesses throughout our city? All of them need to have access to those funds and to those programs,” she said.
Cazares said she had no idea how bad some of the city’s crosswalks are, with several of them having mediums in the middle, giving problems to those who use wheelchairs and strollers while trying to cross the road.
“Having inaccessible crosswalks is not what a city that cares about its residents should have. It takes conversations with different community members to understand their needs. I think this is something that should be addressed as soon as possible,” she said.
Cazares said another issue she talked about when campaigning is the disrepair of streetlights.
“They have had these streetlights that have been there for years. They may turn on, but they are orange and dingy and provide little light. That is a safety issue for people walking their dogs, for kids who may be coming home late from school because of soccer practice, and they are coming home in the dark, so that is something we need to address,” she said.
Cazares said she is in full support of Proposition L, to continue the three-quarter sales tax in La Mesa.
“Since I launched my campaign in April of 2023, my platform has been creating a clean and safe La Mesa. Proposition L is critical funding for a clean and safe La Mesa, especially for our police officers and firefighters and our infrastructure maintenance. La Mesa is the Jewel of the Hills because of this sales tax and without it we would have to make millions of dollars in devastating budget cuts to an already lean city budget,” she said.
Cazares said the city did an independent staffing study for the police department, and bottom line, the city needs many more personnel.
“Not all sworn police officers. We need more dispatchers, non-sworn officers, and more folks doing administrative work. Right now, the administrative work is going to police officers and that is not a good use of resources. I have talked with the firefighters’ union and some of our fire chiefs, and it is very apparent that we have not kept up with how the city has grown. We should have the best paid police officers and firefighters. They are still doing outreach to fill outstanding positions, and in the bi-annual review this summer, they were asking for five more positions to be filled. I was advocating for them to get them, and they did. We need to continue to do that. Although fiscally we cannot ramp up too quickly, at every opportunity we have in every budget and budget review, we need to fund more positions. You do not want to work for a fire or police department that does not have strong, up to date equipment. When we can modernize and bring in newer technologies, firetrucks, and police vehicles, we need to be doing that. We need to talk with our unions and personnel to find out what would make their jobs easier, smoother, and make response times faster. Right now, both departments are doing incredible work, but both departments need a lot of help from the city, and most of that is having additional staff,” she said.
Cazares said she purchased her home in 2021 and is a second generation La Mesa homeowner.
“This has offered home ownership for me and my generation. For millennials and Gen Z, it is getting so difficult to buy a home. If you cannot buy your first home, you certainly will not be able to buy another one,” she said.
Cazares said she does not believe everyone should be living in condos, but opportunities for home ownership is important. Having more two to three story complexes, some of them mixed use, she wants to see more of that.
“Walkable cities have mixed-used housing because it makes everything more convenient. It is also a good way to fund housing because you have those other investors. It is very likely that the next city council, the Grossmont Center redevelopment will come forward. We need to have a conversation about what is the future of Grossmont Center. I want to see mixed used housing. I want things like the Ceramic Café, San Diego Oasis, childcare spaces, gymnastics, to stay. They should have priority and be on that first floor. I also think we need housing. That is such a huge property, and it is a good spot for housing. We need to meet our regional housing assessment goals. For moral reasons, I think this is something we need to do for society, but also, there are other cities that are in threat of being sued for not building and not trying to meet those goals. We need to talk about the fact that we have empty parking lots and office buildings in other places in La Mesa that we could rezone for mixed use or residential. I am in support of finding more opportunities for housing, mixed use housing, and rezoning across the community. We have major investments, and it is just like owning a single-family home. It is wonderful that someone can own an $800 million home, but I was able to buy my first home in my 20s for $322,000, and now I have a lot of equity in it. Everybody needs to be able to do that. With my equity, I can reinvest in a single-family home one day, and I can continue to have generational wealth,” she said.
“I am proud to be endorsed by the La Mesa Firefighters Local 4759, La Mesa Police Officers Association, San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, San Diego Democratic Party, and other organizations and local leaders,” she said.
