Joint Projects with La Mesa - Spring Valley School District

$975,390 in Grants for New Sidewalks and Programs
will Benefit Citizens and our Public Schools

The City of La Mesa was just awarded two separate grants totaling $975,390 from the Federal Safe Routes to School Program.

The goal of this federally funded program is to make walking and bicycling a more appealing way to get from place to place.

New Sidewalks to Provide Safe Route
to Lemon Avenue Elementary School

The first grant is in the amount of $522,300 to construct a new sidewalk on Glen Street. The new sidewalk is proposed to run from Lemon Avenue to Alpine Avenue linking two existing sidewalks together along a heavily utilized pedestrian corridor.

For many years, the community has expressed concern about the lack of sidewalks along this corridor that leads to Lemon Avenue Elementary School. Parents, residents and members of the La Mesa Youth Commission conducted a walk audit of this street to highlight the barriers and obstacles that prevent or make walking a challenge in this area.

"The high level of community and civic interest in adding sidewalks to Glen Street was an important consideration to apply for these funds.

The City can now continue its efforts to create a walkable community in this neighborhood. " said La Mesa Mayor Art Madrid.

La Mesa Kids Walk & Roll to School Program

The second grant is for $453,090 over four-years to implement "The La Mesa Kids Walk & Roll to School Program."

This multi-faceted program will conduct education, encouragement, enforcement, engineering, and evaluation activities in 6 elementary schools and 2 middle schools located in the City of La Mesa.

Activities will range from tracking the number of children who walk to school for evaluation purposes, conduct community walk audits, create walking programs, walking maps and traffic education and enforcement.

The program is a partnership with the City of La Mesa, Walk San Diego, the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District and the County of San Diego Health and Human Services.

The goal of the grant will be to enable and encourage children in kindergarten through eighth grade, including children with disabilities, to safely walk and bicycle to school and to make walking and bicycling to school a more appealing mode choice.

Both of these grants support the City of La Mesa’s and the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District’s Live Well Initiative. This collaboration envisions shaping La Mesa and Spring Valley into more livable, active and healthy communities.