Wednesday, April 9, 2008 | Mayor Sanders is doing too little too late by budgeting $5 million from CCDC to partially service the Petco Park bonds. In fact, CCDC has outlived its usefulness as a catalyst to redevelop downtown, and its primary role now is to provide undeserved developer subsidies from taxpayer public funds hidden from view by opaque accounting by the agency.
Its current overpaid president has too much power that she regularly misuses, and she does not view her role as serving the public good. The CCDC Board uses their appointments to further their own business interests.
A much better plan would be to phase out CCDC as soon as possible and return its responsibilities back to the Redevelopment Corporation so elected officials would have to take direct responsibility downtown redevelopment.
The savings to the city and taxpayers would be substantial.
The downtown redevelopment areas suck money out of the city’s general fund so that older San Diego communities continue to decay. The downtown redevelopment areas should be phased out in the next decade so other parts of the city can receive their fair share of funding to maintain and create much-needed new infrastructure.