Let’s see. When last we visited National City’s new Mayor Nick Inzunza, the ex-Saint, regrettably getting cut off in mid-sentence, we were paraphrasing his goals for the South Bay city during his first term, a prelude to his State of the City address, which he delivered March 13 in his typical running shoes rather than the dress shoes he wore for his swearing-in ceremony in November. Like his swearing-in, his State of the City address was spoken mostly in English and partly in Spanish and Tagalog, without notes, although he was aided by a PowerPoint presentation this time.

When was the last time you saw a mayor deliver a State of the City without notes? It worked. He connected. “He tried to be inclusive,” says a developer. “He told the business community that he wants to make it easier for them to do business while acknowledging that the city’s residents deserve better. So both sectors warmly received him. At the reception, the buzz was one of excitement and high expectations.”

Among his goals, Mayor Nick Inzunza wants to convert 500 apartments annually into for-sale condominiums to infuse pride of ownership and begin edging up National City’s household owner-occupancy rate from only 35 percent. He wants to create a South County Art Center out of the old library and Kimball Bowl, a $2 million project; do for Pepper Park along the Sweetwater River channel what SDSU did for the Mission Bay Aquatic Center, including swimming, sailing and kayaking; and connect all those Filipino restaurants along Plaza Boulevard off 805 with sidewalk pavers, lampposts, signs, sambagitas, orchids and Paradise Palm trees reminiscent of Manila to create a “Filipino Village,” like San Francisco’s Chinatown or San Diego’s Little Italy.

He also intends to:

• Establish Highland Avenue redevelopment as a major priority between 14th and 22nd streets, home of 22 Mexican eateries, each with its own specialties, from seafood to fast food, including homestyle soups, sit-down restaurants and stand-up taco joints as in Tijuana. “We have to attract folks there during the lunch hour,” says Inzunza. “If you want real Mexican food, don’t waste your time going to Old Town. Come to Highland Avenue. We’ll fix you up.”
  
  
• Cut the ribbon for the opening of a 127,000-square-foot Wal-Mart at the corner of Plaza and Highland, a project that’s already topped out. “That is so important to have affordable diapers at walking distance 24 hours a day,” he says.
  
  
• Continue development of the University Education Village, something the mayor’s father, former Councilman Ralph Inzunza Sr., got started by bulldozing the Pussycat Theater and similarly undesirable businesses along National City Boulevard. Covering about two and half blocks at Eighth Street and National, the $21 million project is a collaboration of the city, County Office of Education, Southwestern College and SDSU, to accommodate 15,000 students, up from the 3,000 currently studying in the vicinity.
  
  
• Begin construction in five months of the $20 million library at Kimball Park.
  
  
• Advance an in-fill program that allows developers to delay paying fees to local governments until the completed projects are sold.

And then there’s the new fire station, squeezing the semi-popular 9-hole National City Municipal Golf Course to see if new condos could be built on its edge, and the operation of 10 neighborhood councils to advise the city. Oh, and he’s eager to hear Westfield’s plans to expand Plaza Bonita as soon as Westfield figures it out. The guy’s got a lot on his plate.

“He’s looking at the strengths of National City and taking off from that point, an asset-based analysis, as we’d say in the community development field,” says Robert Villarreal, president of the San Diego County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “National City can be a model of a city that is predominantly Latino, successful and prosperous.”

So when is he running for governor?

Inzunza gives himself four years to get his projects either completed or so far down the road that his re-election is secured, and then, frankly, he’ll look beyond. The county Board of Supervisors, state Assembly, Senate and Congress are all possibilities. Supervisor Greg Cox is a close friend; Rep. Bob Filner isn’t, although Filner showed up for the mayor’s swearing-in. Inzuzna’s ambition is not exactly a secret, but he quickly answers whether he or brother Ralph Jr. will run for governor first. “Ralph,” he says, “because I want to be his campaign manager,” the same position he held during Ralph’s first campaign for student body president in the sixth grade.

Much depends on the ambition of Ralph and Assemblyman Juan Vargas, both of whom Nick got elected. Not that Ralph and Vargas didn’t get themselves elected, but Nick was very helpful. And the aid is mutual. At $10,000, Vargas was Inzunza’s largest mayoral campaign contributor, National City having no limit on campaign donations or spending, the last of the Wild West political cities in San Diego County. Inzunza raised and kept $109,000, a National City record, and raised and returned another $40,000 because he didn’t need it, he says.

So who will be San Diego’s long-overdue first Latino mayor since the middle of the 19th century, Vargas or Ralph Inzunza?

The National City mayor isn’t sure, because Vargas and Ralph Inzunza aren’t sure either, he says. But they’ll figure it out, soon, and you’ll be among the first to know. Neither would have run against Dick Murphy, says Nick, but since the mayor has decided not to run for re-election, some pretty hot family discussions are taking place. Remember the adage: Blood is thicker.

“Juan and I will decide who’ll run for mayor the same way Nick and I come to our decisions,” says Ralph. “You talk and come to a reasonable decision. Brothers don’t run against each other, and Juan and I are friends and won’t run against each other. We’ll talk, sit down and have a beer.”

Juan is 42. Ralph is 33. Both are under the influence of Nick. Seems odd, getting the word out of the South Bay. Get used to it.

Oh, the crack about the Saints? All three Inzunza brothers attended St. Augustine High School in North Park. Ralph and Michael graduated. (Michael, 30, is now the editor of a Sweetwater Union High School District publication called blurb magazine, and an enthusiastic supporter of his brothers.) In the 1980s, Nick was removed to Castle Park High School for beating up a Saints teacher. He, for sure, ain’t no saint, but proved quite the scholar at universities in Mexico City, Brazil, Spain and SDSU. He’s had his nose broken four times in fights, nothing he picked, he assures, just kid’s stuff he had to defend as an adolescent. He’s outgrown that behavior, and seems just the opposite of a hothead. He’s energetic, but gentle. He still trains on weights three nights a week at the San Diego Athletic Club, one floor beneath the lobby where he was arrested for unruly picketing in 1994.

So, just don’t pick on Nick Inzunza. Work with the guy and he’ll work with you.