ONE THING THAT YOU CAN ALWAYS count on Mayor Christy Weir for is an eye for the aesthetics of her city. Since initiating her "Beautify Ventura" award several months ago, she has honored a citizen or business every month who has contributed to the attractiveness of our surroundings.

So that graffiti-covered atrocity of a train bridge over the 101 Downtown has been on our mayor's hit list for a long time. It's one of my pet peeves, too, as I reported in an earlier entry.

"It's such an eyesore," Weir said. "And because of its prominent location, people
traveling on the freeway identify it with Ventura, which isn't good for business."

So recently Weir went to Assembly member Pedro Nava and asked for assistance. Nava in turn wrote a letter to CalTrans. And slowly the wheels of change are grinding along.

There's been lots of finger pointing going on between the City, CalTrans and Union Pacific over who is actually responsible for this unwelcome mat to our city. "Both CalTrans and Union Pacific could not agree up until almost a month ago," explained Jerry Breiner of the Downtown Ventura Organization. "Finally CalTrans took the ownership of the maintenance."

The goal is to not just paint the bridge, but prevent future graffiti with increased security, fencing, and perhaps lights and cameras, Weir said.

The Downtown Ventura Organization has even grander ideas, Breiner said. "There has been much talk from the Downtown community to do something special there, to make it a true gateway with something other than silver paint. Public Art could get involved: pretty much anyone other than CalTrans painting it would be great."

In the mean time, if you know of an uglier bridge anywhere in the world, please send me a photo. I'll post it.

THE PROSPECT FOR CAPTURING more revenue for Ventura's city coffers is looking bleaker these days with a skidding economy sending collection of sales taxes down 10 percent and a faltering housing market setting off alarm bells that property tax revenues will soon be on the decline. City Hall has announced belt-tightening measures that will cut back some city services.

Yet in the middle of this gloom and doom is a bright ray of Ventura sunshine: our Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) collections are up. What does that mean to those of us who don't converse in "Cityspeak"? More and more tourists are coming here and staying in our hotels. They are also eating in our restaurants and shopping in our boutiques. They are going out to visit the Channel Islands, hiking in the nearby mountains and relaxing on our beaches. All this activity brings TOT revenues to the general fund, keeps locals employed and brings in sales tax revenues, too.

According to Jim Luttjohann, director of the Ventura Visitors & Convention Bureau (VVCB), annual TOT revenues have grown from $3 million in 2003 to $4 million as of December 2007. We've also enjoyed an increase in revenue per available room of 7.9 percent while nearby Oxnard has remained nearly flat, he said. According to a recent study, visitor spending in Ventura was $458,315,800 in 2006.

Unfortunately, the engine helping to drive this mini-economic boom is falling under the budget axe itself. The VVCB's contract is housed within the City of Ventura's Cultural Affairs Division, which is being recommended for an across-the-board 11 percent reduction in funding. Cultural Affairs also supervises other revenue-generating activities like ArtWalk and the Street Fairs.

The VVCB budget will likely see a reduction of $83,000 from current year funding (about $132,000 from anticipated funding based on a contract funded at 2% of collected TOT). The cut will greatly affect the VVCB's ability to reach the tourist market, Luttjohann noted. "For us to shrink right now is potentially devastating."

IS SHRINKING A REVENUE-GENERATING portion of
city government a good idea in bad economic times? Not according to Monterey's City Manager, Fred Meurer. In 2002-04, when Monterey experienced a loss of $8 million in revenue over three years, it actually grew its tourism budget while cutting other services, Meurer said. "One area the City Council wanted to increase was tourism and marketing promotion to help build its coffers," he said.

"When business is down, you should be working on increasing your bottom line."

Bill Watkins of the UCSB Economic Forecast Project also noted an uptick in county tourism in his latest report: "Sectors that we expect to add a significant number of jobs from 2008-2010 include trade and leisure hospitality."

Ventura's VCB has been successful in drawing visitors interested in three major areas, Luttjohann explained: heritage and cultural tourists, gourmet diners or "foodies," and outdoor adventurers. "The foodie tourism market has been great to us," he said.

Two new hotels are also scheduled to be built here within the next few years: an Embassy Suites near the Fairgrounds and a Hyatt Place near Seaward and the 101 Freeway. "It will be very difficult to sell more rooms with fewer dollars," Luttjohann said.

But marketing all these great amenities involves employing a sales force to attend trade shows in addition to placing stories and making expensive ad buys in magazines like Sunset, Westways, Southwest Art, Gourmet and National Geographic Traveler. "We have to be in the really high-profile publications," Luttjohann said. "That's where you're getting your leisure travelers." And a state-of-the-art online presence is essential. "Sixty percent of travel planning is now done online," he said.

AN 11 PERCENT REDUCTION in marketing will certainly mean fewer visitors, Luttjohann said, which could also mean millions in reduced spending. A cut in Colorado's tourism and marketing budget a few years back, he said, caused a decline of 37 percent in overnight stays. And Monterey's Meurer pointed to nearby Pacific Grove, which recently withdrew from a regional cooperative advertising contract only to quickly opt back in the following year.

The bureau is considering taking on additional services for the city in exchange for maintaining its current budget structure, Luttjohann said. "Alternatively, we will have to reduce staffing and media placements and programs like the non-profit marketing grants that help our local organizations reach tourists in marketing they would not otherwise be able to afford."

Is cutting $130,000 from the Visitor's Bureau and then potentially losing millions from tourists a wise budget move?

It's time to visit this again.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE seven days makes.

Tonight's State of the City address by Mayor Christy Weir was a breath of fresh air after a trying week of public debate over the 911 fee. It was a reminder of why we all love Ventura and are so very passionate about our town.

Weir, our second female mayor in 141 years, led the evening off with charming suggestions on how to improve the city sent in by 5th graders at Mound Elementary. I can't resist listing a few:

"We don't need a Wal-Mart," "We need a Wal-Mart," "All city cars should be hybrids," and my favorite, "Stop shopping in Oxnard, P.S. I'm happy that you're a girl mayor."

Our new mayor even had her own "Hillary" moment, choking up a bit at the beginning as she gazed at a photo, projected on a nearby screen, of her 93-year-old father and her two young granddaughters. "Bad start," she apologized. "No, good start," a nearby colleague said.

But the balance of the evening was reserved for an overview of the city's goals and progress made over the last year. I was particularly interested in the new projects being built in the city and coming soon. Among them: a beautiful new Embassy Suites near the beach, a four-story office building Downtown, and three large retailers for the long-vacant north end of the mall.

While Weir didn't gloss over the stark realities of budget cuts and a looming recession, she didn't go into a lot of detail, either. She was at her strongest when conveying the sense of hope we all feel for our city and it was heartening to hear it.

Back to the 5th grade wisdom: "There's a lot to be done in Ventura, but it's still a nice city," one child wrote.

My sentiments exactly.