The apartment was at 1919 Citron St. in Honolulu. Genevieve Suzuki moved in when she was 3 years old and stayed until she graduated from high school. Her mother was the building’s resident manager. When her parents divorced, the apartment was what held the family steady.
On June 23, near the end of the discussion of a 73-unit condominium project on Jericho Road, Suzuki — now a lawyer and a La Mesa councilmember — set aside the procedural question in front of her and answered a different one. Earlier in the meeting, a resident had told the council its housing projects were “a bunch of ugly boxes,” not homes, “just places to house people on top of each other.”
Suzuki’s voice hitched as she responded. She said it was the second time she had heard apartments described that way.
“Please try to think of your fellow person when you’re speaking about others and saying that their apartment is not a home, because that home was everything to me,” she said, sounding close to tears. “It meant everything to my mom and my dad, and to my mom when my parents got divorced.”
Moments later, the council voted 3-0 to approve the final map for the development at 9407 Jericho Road, the last procedural step for a project that has divided the surrounding neighborhood since it was first proposed. Residents have objected to its density, traffic and parking, and questioned whether the for-sale condominiums will stay owner-occupied. Mayor Mark Arapostathis and Vice Mayor Lauren Cazares were absent.
Those concerns were back in the room Tuesday. During public comment, Martha Bechdel, who lives near the project, described a neighborhood she feels is slipping: a park she no longer walks in, weeds growing through cracks in the streets, construction trucks lining up on Amaya Drive as early as 6 a.m. despite assurances that work would not begin before 8. She said the project was sold to the community as a path to homeownership, but that at a recent community meeting the builder said investors could account for all of the buyers, which she argued would turn the project into rentals.
Councilmember Laura Lothian pulled the item from the consent calendar for a separate vote so she could put her concerns on the record, citing congestion, traffic and parking. She noted some units have three or four bedrooms but only two parking spaces.
“Since the beginning I’ve listened to that neighborhood, and I feel like the council should listen to that neighborhood,” Lothian said. “It’s a done deal, but I just want to be on the record.”
The council’s discretion was limited. The 3.49-acre site at Jericho Road and Broadmoor Drive, less than half a mile from the Amaya trolley station, received its entitlements — a general plan amendment, zone change and tentative tract map — in May 2025. Tuesday’s action confirmed the final map matches what was already approved, a step City Attorney Glenn Sabine described as ministerial. After Sabine explained that a 2-1 vote would only delay the approval and return the item to the council, Lothian voted yes, saying she did so “for the city’s convenience.”
Planning Commissioner Jerry Jones, speaking as a resident, defended the project. He reminded the council the units are for-sale condominiums, which he called a rare homeownership opportunity in a market where most new construction is built to rent. He also credited the developer for adding parking in response to public comment — something the city could not legally require given the site’s proximity to the trolley station.
“Buying opportunities are really hard to come by these days,” Jones said. “This is very much in that missing middle of opportunity that is so important for folks to get established in our community.”
Suzuki, for her part, said her own path — college on a scholarship, then a law degree — never made the apartment on Citron Street less of a home. She lives now in Strawberry Hills, in a three-bedroom home with five people, including her 92-year-old mother.
“People who are moving into these apartments, they have dreams too,” she said. “We’re lucky to live in La Mesa. La Mesa is a damn good city. The reason we’re a good city is because of our heart, not because of the spaces that we have for our cars.”