San Diegans can brace for a neighborhood growth year now that Mayor Bob Filner told the town during the annual State of the City Address the government officers needed to make fair weather markets a reality will open their doors. Though all the officials who gathered at the Balboa Theater at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, January 15 to hear the new mayor call on everyone to "get to work" at the end of the address were told this year the city will have a 40 million dollar budget deficit.
A deficit Filner said comes from the last administration's budget practices that were not all paid for.
Certainty on a deep rooted recovery economy has been reexamined. But, the need to strengthen the weakened "financial structures" in the city's diverse neighborhoods will get first rate attention. The Mayor plans on deepening the investments made in the neighborhood markets.
Building work will largely not be new. Workers will keep hammering away at projects already on the city's approved list.
Old redevelopment work will not be out of date during the Filner administration. The work load has shrank, but, a new department, called Healthy, Safe and Livable Communities, will guarantee there is not an end to the productive work done to give San Diegans the home neighborhoods and paths they need to walk and bike to nearby workplaces and stores. The development agency renamed Neighborhood San Diego will invest money in doing the building work needed to get the city through the recovery period.
Opening more business doors in the city is at the heart of the mayor's plans for growth.
Talk across the U.S.-Mexico border on making new growth deals for the binational border area will open a lasting cooperative working relationship with Mexican officials. A Border Affairs center settled in on the Mexican side of the border will keep open opportunities to get work done that gives workers and enterprise professionals a clear way in to the neighbor's country .
San Diego's Chamber of Commerce will cooperate with Mexico's commerce organization to strengthen the border area's enterprise economy. Getting rid of the red lights binational enterprise workers run into is work the two sides have agreed on.
Filner sees more revenue from the city's growing economy ahead. The city budget, though not easy to balance, will keep city productivity stable during the months additional money will get spent.
And, San Diegans, even city government workers, will not have to give up more pocket money. Tax increases were not on the mayor's agenda the crowd who watched the address heard. City workers can count on "good faith bargaining" and "mutual respect" instead of the tough cost cutting reforms that lowered their pay and health benefits during the critical recession years low and volatile revenue left the workers with no guarantees.
This is a Front Story Clip.
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