Mike Gotch

Gotch grew up in San Francisco. He graduated from San Diego State University with a bachelor's degree in public administration.{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-may-20-me-passings20.s1-story.html |title=Ex-assemblyman from San Diego |work=Los Angeles Times |date=May 20, 2008}}

Gotch's public career began in the 1970s as president of the Mission Beach Town Council while working as analyst and then director for the San Diego County Local Agency Formation Commission. He was then elected to the San Diego City Council in 1979, representing the Mission Beach and Pacific Beach communities. He was reelected in 1983 with a record 91.4 percent of the vote. His community support, however, fell in 1988 when he pushed through a development project to turn historic Belmont Park, an amusement park that had fallen into disrepair, into an $18-million shopping center, which the council approved.{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-04-19-me-1171-story.html|title=Developer Wins Fight Over Belmont Park|first=LEONARD|last=BERNSTEIN|date=19 April 1988|via=LA Times}}

He was appointed to the Stadium Authority Board from 1988 to 1990 and was instrumental in instituting a smoking ban in the facility. He worked on former Sen. Gary Hart's short-lived presidential campaign before returning to run for a beach-area Assembly district.

He was elected to the 78th District of the California State Assembly, serving from 1990 to 1992, and then elected to the 76th District from 1992 to 1994.{{cite web|url=http://www.joincalifornia.com/candidate/3471|title=JoinCalifornia - Mike Gotch|work=joincalifornia.com}} On the city council and in the Assembly, he represented areas that included coastal communities. He retired from the Assembly at the end of his second term. He went to work as a lobbyist for the Tribal Alliance of Northern California.{{cite news |url=http://www.sandiegomagazine.com/San-Diego-Magazine/November-1996/Whatever-Happened-To/|publisher=San Diego Magazine|title=Whatever Happened To...|author=Thomas K. Arnold and Tom Blair}}

Gotch returned to Sacramento in 2000 as the legislative liaison for then-Gov. Gray Davis until 2003.

Gotch married his wife, Janet Clare, in 1988. They bought a home in Yountville in the Napa Valley in 1992. Gotch died of melanoma cancer in 2008.

In April 2012, the San Diego City Council officially renamed the 260-foot Rose Creek Bikeway and Pedestrian Bridge as the Mike Gotch Memorial Bridge, which now connects a bike and pedestrian path that traverses around Mission Bay.{{cite web|url=http://obrag.org/?p=58738|title=Mike Gotch Memorial Bike and Pedestrian Bridge Finally Opened in Mission Bay|work=OB Rag}} The bridge was dedicated to him at its opening on April 26, 2012.

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [http://docs.sandiego.gov/council_reso_ordinance/rao2012/R-307381.pdf San Diego City Council resolution, Mike Gotch Memorial Bridge]
• [http://www.pbtowncouncil.org/2012/04/mike-gotch-memorial-bike-and-pedestrian-bridge-dedication/ Mike Gotch Memorial Bike and Pedestrian Bridge Dedication]
• [http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2000/jul/20/cover-something-stinks-mission-bay/# "Something Stinks in Mission Bay," San Diego Reader]

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{{succession box |title=California State Assemblyman, 76th Assembly District |before=Tricia Hunter |after=Susan Davis |years=1992-1994}}

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{{succession box |title=California State Assemblyman, 78th Assembly District |before=Jeff Marston |after=Dede Alpert |years=1990-1992}}

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Category:1947 births

Category:Democratic Party members of the California State Assembly

Category:San Diego City Council members

Category:2008 deaths

Category:Politicians from San Francisco

Category:San Diego State University alumni

Category:Politicians from San Diego

Category:Activists from California

Category:20th-century members of the California State Legislature