S.D. Holds Preliminary Meeting for New City Hall

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published September 6, 2007 at 6:20 AM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

Mayor Jerry Sanders mentioned in his State of the City speech this year that he wanted to explore the possibility of building a new City Hall downtown. This morning the city's redevelopment arm holds

Mayor Jerry Sanders mentioned in his State of the City speech this year that he wanted to explore the possibility of building a new City Hall downtown. This morning the city's redevelopment arm holds a preliminary meeting for interested developers. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Deferred maintenance on San Diego's aging City Hall is estimated at over $10 million. The Center City Development Corporation holds a conference for developers today. It's to talk about a possible public private partnership to redevelop buildings around the Community Concourse, including City Hall.

CCDC President Nancy Graham.

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Graham: They have a building over there that doesn't even meet environmental compliance. It's got asbestos in it. You don't know the answer if you can do something and save money for the taxpayer and get a better situation unless you ask the question. At some point, you've got to go out there and take a risk and see what you can do.

Graham says redevelopment might pencil out cheaper than fixing the existing building. Also City hall only holds 600 employees -- thousands more work in leased buildings around town and those leases expire in 2012. Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.