Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009 | San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders has taken bold steps to attempt to make some much needed improvements to the city. He has found ways to use specific funds to build a central library upgrade City Hall and improve the Convention Center, without using the general fund.
I grew up in San Diego, before there was a Carmel Mountain Ranch, Del Mar Highlands and most of Rancho Penasquitos, but during that time, our current City Hall met the need of our then smaller city. We are spending a great deal of public funds to house whole departments in privately owned buildings and making repairs to the current building that is asbestos ridden and is not up to current earthquake codes. The mayor is proposing that we look at a cost benefit analysis of our current costs and weigh them against a modern building that will meet our present and future needs. That just makes good common sense.
Let’s support our mayor and get behind a new central library that can be built with a combination of private donations, state grants, CCDC redevelopment money and a joint use agreement with the San Diego Unified School District.
Let the beneficiaries of an expanded convention center pay for it themselves, Mayor Sanders wants to expand the current building by calling on the tourism industry to bear the cost.
Troubled economic times call for bold ideas, and Mayor Sanders is trying to find creative ways to solve many of our city’s problems in a cost-effective manner.