La Mesa First United Methodist Church will host a Virtual La Mesa City Council Candidate Forum on Wednesday, September 23, 2020, at 6:45 p.m. The forum will be held via Zoom and moderated by Pastor Christian DeMent. Candidates will be asked questions about homelessness, affordable housing, policing, and La Mesa's economy.

All six candidates—Kristine Alessio, Allan Durden, Laura Lothian, Mark Papenfuss, Colin Parent, and Jack Shu—have been invited.

To receive the Zoom link and confirm your attendance, please register online at http://bit.ly/lmfumc2020

A new program offers business owners in the unincorporated area up to $8,000 to help improve the front exteriors of their buildings; applications will be accepted Oct. 1–15, 2020

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has established the Business Revitalization and Assistance Grant Program, a grant initiative administered by Planning & Development Services that provides funding to small-business and commercial property owners in the unincorporated area of San Diego County to improve the front exterior of their buildings. For permanent upgrades such as painting, landscaping, lighting and the addition of outdoor dining or workspace, qualifying applicants can be awarded up to $8,000 (registered historic properties are eligible for a grant of up to $12,000). Grant funds will be provided as a reimbursement.

The goal of the grant program is to add value to the local economy and enhance the community experience by creating a positive visual impact and increasing customer traffic to community-based businesses in the unincorporated County. Additionally, these funds are intended to assist businesses recover from impacts to their operations incurred from COVID-19 by helping them comply with current public health orders.

If you have any additional questions, please contact Michael De La Rosa at (858) 495-5308 or Businessgrant@sdcounty.ca.gov.

The COVID-19 infection rate was not slowing enough to reverse the current ban on large gatherings, so many of the meetings scheduled for San Diego have cancelled. The American Society of Hematology, one of San Diego’s biggest conventions that brings 30,000 physicians and researchers to San Diego filling 88,000 hotel room-nights, second to Comic-Con has cancelled. For San Diego, long a top destination for large conventions, as well as smaller meetings held in hotel ballrooms has had a growing list of cancellations, that have had a devastating impact on the economy. Thousands of hospitality workers have been pushed into unemployment, slashed occupancy rates at downtown hotels by 60 percent or more and depressed business at restaurants, bars and shops that rely on a regular influx of conventioneers for their financial survival. Source: The San Diego Union Tribune – Lori Weisberg.

San Diego home prices continued to rise in the fourth month of the pandemic and outpaced all other California cities and much of the nation. Prices in San Diego were up 5 percent, more than

the nation-wide average of 4.3 percent and San Diego’s gains were the seventh fastest of the 19 metro areas included in the index. Analysts say low mortgage interest rates and limited supply because potential sellers are keeping homes off of the market out of COVID-19 concerns, are pushing up prices. The San Diego County median home price for a resale single-family home in June was $655,500. Rising prices reflect the very limited supply of homes that keeps pushing up prices, and low mortgage rates that attract many first-time buyers. Source: The San Diego

The U.S. economy added 1.4 million jobs in August, sending the unemployment rate below 10 percent for the first time since March, a glimmer of good news as the pandemic continues its march across the country. The unemployment rate fell to 8.4 percent – a positive indicator that the economy continues to slowly recover. Yet just over half of the 22 million total jobs lost between February and April have not returned, and prominent economists are warning about the potential for a downturn in the coming months. Source: The San Diego Union Tribune – Eli Rosenberg.