Mission Beach steps up efforts to fight flies

Mission Beach will finally get some relief from the buzzing flies that have swarmed the popular resort community the last six summers.

San Diego’s recently approved $3.4-billion annual budget includes $80,000 to restore the area’s second weekly trash pickup between Memorial Day and Labor Day, which was eliminated in 2010 as part of city budget cuts.

Residents and businesses, especially restaurants with patios, say the fly problem began that summer, has gotten steadily worse and can be solved only by restoring two trash pickups per week.

They say the millions in sales tax and hotel tax generated each year by tourists who visit Mission Beach, money that has been jeopardized by the fly infestation, warrants the relatively modest expenditure of $80,000.

City officials have previously balked at restoring the second pickup based on concerns that all neighborhoods should be treated equally and potential legal problems that could arise from singling out Mission Beach for enhanced service.

The city and community leaders have tried several incremental remedies in recent summers, including street vacuuming, special liners in trash cans and door hangers to educate tourists.

A city-hired scientist said in 2013 that Mission Beach struggles with flies more than other parts of San Diego because it has high-density housing, relatively little open space and scavengers who pry open trash cans and rip into bags searching for recyclable items, which allows flies to enter and lay eggs.

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The winter population of Mission Beach is 5,700, but tourists increase that number to an estimated 20,000 in the more fly-friendly summer.

Many of those additional people stay for only a week or two in vacation rentals, leaving them confused about trash handling and not focused on snuffing out flies.

Because most vacation properties are rented weekly from Saturday to Saturday, departing tenants across Mission Beach typically throw away all of their uneaten food simultaneously when they leave on Saturday mornings.

So the City Council voted Monday to include the $80,000 for a second trash pickup in a series of last-minute budget adjustments.

Councilwoman Lorie Zapf, whose district includes Mission Beach, said it has become clear that this is the only viable solution.

She said the extra pickup will pay for itself with additional tax revenues and more jobs at restaurants, where Yelp reviews about the fly problem have damaged business.

“The restaurants there are really victims,” Zapf said.

Sarah Madison, who owns the Olive Cafe on Santa Clara Place, said county fly experts visited her restaurant and said she couldn’t do any more to solve the problem herself.

“They said that I’ve done everything I could, from fly lights, to pest control, to fans, to locking garbage cans,” Madison said. “We are not only losing revenue and hurting our image, but our employees are suffering.”

Residents are also suffering, said Fred Day, president of the Mission Beach Town Council.

“Imagine my kitchen and these kitchens in Mission Beach with these flies swarming in every time we open the door,” said Day, noting that flies were the No. 1 concern listed by residents in community surveys in 2015 and 2016. “We have to run around with swatters and disinfectants to get rid of them.”

Concerns about the second pickup stem from a 1919 law known as the People’s Ordinance, which generally provides for once-a-week trash pickup for single-family homes in non-gated communities, at no charge beyond paying property taxes.

City officials say the Environmental Services Department must create an administrative regulation defining eligibility for the second pickup based on some reasonable basis, such as health and safety concerns.

The $80,000 is one-time money that might not be included in next year’s budget. Officials have said Mission Beach may need to create a maintenance assessment district for long-term funding of a second trash pickup.

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com

Garrick writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

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