Pacific Grove candidates have eyes set on mayoral position

The mayoral race for the city of Pacific Grove sees two current council members vying for the position alongside a longtime resident.

From what the candidates are saying, the buzz words certainly seem to be “Housing” and “Downtown” in this election as each candidate wants to lend a hand making Pacific Grove not only more affordable, but also lively.

Candidates hope to boost foot traffic in an effort to help the small businesses in the area which help the city’s economy.

Keeping those small businesses means keeping housing prices from increasing and possibly even getting them to lower.

“We don’t want people to feel like they’re one month away from getting priced out because their rent went up,” says Pacific Grove mayoral candidate, Dionne Ybarra.

Ybarra says she hopes to improve the amount of affordable housing in the city.

Meanwhile Councilman Bill Peake says he is also looking into solutions for the housing issue.

“Maybe work with developers to make it a win-win for them,” Peake explains. “It would also be win-win for the city to add some component of affordable housing with market rate housing.

Peake also suggests providing for added mixed-use housing in the downtown area, which would provide small businesses with the foot traffic to possibly boost sales.

Councilman and mayoral candidate Rudy Fischer agrees the foot traffic is vital to keeping the Pacific Grove economy moving upward.

Fischer wants to adds his interest in working with other cities to maintain heavy traffic which may flow into Pacific Grove and other areas during big events or during high tourism seasons.

“They’re trying to figure out how to make traffic move faster through Monterey,” he says. “Wel when it gets to Pacific Grove we need to be ready. We need to work with them to make it an integrated process.”

Each candidate expresses an interest in limiting short term rentals in some way or another. That will be on the ballot in the form of Measure M on election day.