Mayor seeks to turn over a new leaf in San Diego governance.
For decades San Diego has been governed by the principle that what’s good for our big corporate employers is good for San Diego as a whole, resulting in an arguably outsized influence by private moneyed interests over our elected officials, often leading to sweetheart deals and diminished public control over public assets.
That characterization manifested itself in last November’s mayoral election. The ballot reflected not only a choice between Carl DeMaio and Bob Filner, Republican and Democrat, last November’s election offered a referendum on the way San Diegans wanted business conducted at City Hall on their behalf. DeMaio represented a move even further toward deference to the Doug Manchesters of the region, while Filner offered a shift in focus toward neighborhood development over corporate development; a middle out approach rather than a top down approach.
Bob Filner won convincingly, signaling that San Diego was anxious for a change, with the fight over the Tourism and Marketing District reflective of the changes represented by Filner’s election.
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