With two open seats, Jessica “Jessyka” Heredia is running for Lemon Grove City Council against Councilmember George Gastil, Seth Smith, and Sitivi “Steve” Faiai. Heredia, D, 50, ran in 2020, and for the past three years has been recording City Council meetings because Lemon Grove is the only city in the county that does not record or livestream its meetings.
“I have a disabled roommate, so it was important to me that people had access to those meetings,” she said. “That got me involved doing that as a commitment. People were relying on it, so I record live. That way they can get the information as it happens without media coverage that might only give you part of the information and might have a certain slant to it. That is what got me here.”
Heredia has owned a hair salon, Hair Suite It Is in El Cajon for 26 years.
“I built that up all on my own from the ground up, back in the days when we were not using the internet to advertise,” she said. “Through that, after 26 years, I am getting ready to retire from that business. So, I have created a media company because of my videotaping of the meetings. That is how I how I became able to freelance report for East County Magazine, and I also do social media managing for the La Mesa Chamber of Commerce.”
Heredia said she decided to run as she has seen the community vocalizing that they are not begin heard by the current council.
“Many of the decisions that the city is making, the residents do not like,” she said. “Being at the meetings every two weeks, you see that there are things that are not working simply because they are outdated. Some of these people have been there for a long time, and I have a new vision that I would like to bring. I want to update our zoning laws and our general plan because they have not been overhauled since we were incorporated. I found a passion for things that I could bring to the table. And I really want to get the community the ability to be heard. There is a discourse up there between the council members, and sometimes the audience feels like they are being yelled at and condescended to.”
Heredia said council meetings should be livestreamed, and the city has collected funds from the Public, Educational, and Governmental (PEG) funds.
“The money is there. It is just the fact of making it a priority,” she said. “I will make that a priority, first thing.”
Heredia said the city needs to work on its infrastructure, especially the street conditions in Lemon Grove.
“As every city does, they always prioritize the streets that are already in good condition because they are cheaper to pave. But we are doing our community a disservice, because every street that has a park or a school on it is deteriorated. Our kids deserve better than that. It is a safety issue. Some residents have told me that their streets have never been paved in the 30 to 40 years that they have lived in their home. We cannot keep deferring our maintenance like that because the inflation of costs, it is costing us way more to address it now,” she said.
Heredia said she does support Measure T, the one-cent sales tax measure on the November ballot, but with exceptions.
“I do not support the fact it is just going to go into the general fund. In our city, and our city council, there is not much trust in that. I am having a hard time saying that I will vote for it because I do not know if I trust that it will go where it belongs. It is a shame that it is at the same time when we could possibly be voting for a new mayor and two new council members. If the shift changed to different candidates, I think people would feel differently. But it is going to be a hard sell to the public, and people are struggling right now. To ask them to give more of their money in a time like this, and them constantly saying they are going to fix our roads, and we do not see it, it is like the gas tax that gets pushed in there and we will not see it go to the things that we hope it to. They are not providing specific things. ‘It could go to,’ is how it is worded,” she said.
Heredia said the current council has been dysfunctional as a body, calling it a “mean girls club” across the board in some ways.
“We cannot get things done like that,” she said. “It is not productive. I have covered other city councils, and you do not see this in other cities. You have councils that have mixed party affiliations, and they get along great. You see cities that are all one party, like El Cajon, and they are doing fabulous things. They get along. They seem to cooperate, and the seem to work together as a team. I really want that for our city council. I think it takes just one or two people to change the dynamics. I hope that we get a couple of new people in there and shake it up. We are all neighbors, and we should act like neighbors.”
On affordable housing, Heredia said she is not opposed to have some type of mixed-use property in the downtown area.
“I really want to address our zoning and general plan for the areas where they are allowed to do mechanic work,” she said. “A different type of zoning for what we really want in our downtown area. We could start to address it there. We obviously do need more housing, and we need affordable housing. But we need a diverse approach to housing. I do not want to see all high-density. Lemon Grove is a small town that still has a little rural charm to it. They majority of the people who live here would like to keep that. I do not want to see tall apartment buildings in the middle of our single-family home areas, and I know a lot of developers are trying to move in that direction. If we are going to do high-density housing, I believe it belongs along Broadway and certain areas of town, and support that. Someday we will be this great walking town, and all these things will be addressed into the perfect little Lemon Grove. But it is going to take time to make a sensible plan and a vision. I think that is what we have been lacking here. We have been allowing multiple things that do not suit where they are at, but that is because our zoning is outdated, and we cannot tell them no.”
As a business owner in Lemon Grove, Heredia said she has built a good relationship with other business owners, and finding out what their challenges are.
“Many of them do complain that the city does not support them. Our downtown is dirty, and it does not feel safe there. One of the best ways that our city could support them is to address that. It would not be that difficult to power wash on a regular basis on both sides of Broadway as now there is no camping bans. Get the homeless out of the area and make it less desirable for them to hang out there. It is very poorly lit. We need to really come at it with some type of action plan for downtown, and again, change some zoning there so we attract the right businesses there and put them in the right parts of the town. They just approved a Rasing Cane’s and a carwash on Broadway, which will be exiting out into the neighborhood on residential streets, not Broadway. That is not a great safety plan for neighborhoods. People tend to use those side streets to barrel down. But we do need to attract better businesses. We attract a lot of fast food because we have a lot of fast food. Lemon Grove residents are really hoping for a revitalization, like La Mesa, and have a village kind of feel,” she said.
Correction: The original version of this story said Heredia owned Sola Salon Studios in Lemon Grove. This was an error. Heredia owns Hair Suite It Is, located in El Cajon. The East County Californian regrets this error.
