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Business & Tech

Mayor Sanders Says Redevelopment is the "Only Economic Generator" in Chamber Luncheon Speech

Mayor Jerry Sanders on Thursday had harsh words against Gov. Jerry Brown's efforts to nab cities' redevelopment funds.

"Don’t rip us off!"

That was the message San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders delivered to the 100 members and guests of the San Diego North Chamber of Commerce attending a State of the Region luncheon Thursday at the Officers Club at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

Sanders covered a wide range of topics in his 12-minute review, ranging from crime to city worker pension reform but reserved his strongest words for Gov. Jerry Brown, who is seeking to shutter city redevelopment agencies statewide to help erase a $25 billion budget deficit.

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“The issue keeps me awake at night; it was not on the radar screen [a few weeks ago],” he said, dismissing Brown’s argument that the state faces a choice between helping school children or helping well-heeled private developers.

“With the state’s black hole getting bigger every year, there is no balance in the way they tax, and no balance in the way that they spend,” he said.

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"For those of you who live in the northern part of the city, you might be asking, ‘Why should I care?’” Sanders said. “Well, I’ll tell you why you should care.

“Redevelopment is the only economic generator in this community or any other community in the state of California,” he said. “It creates jobs, it creates opportunities, it creates affordable housing and it creates new business.

“We’re going to go down fighting to protect that,” he said.

To prevent the state from grabbing more than $1 billion from San Diego’s Centre City Development Corp., he said the city’s redevelopment agency is moving ahead with a number of different projects to tie up funds from the state, including $340 million for new library construction projects and $88 million for four new fire stations downtown.  

Sanders said efforts to transform San Diego into a clean tech mecca have met with much success, which has the added impact of benefiting efforts to create a clean tech-focused business corridor along Interstate 15.

He said the region is now home to more than 700 companies in the sector, with more on the way, compared to just 100 a few years ago.

And he commented on the progress being made to expand the downtown convention center to accommodate larger conventions, pointing out that the expansion would benefit businesses all over the city.

“A lot of North County businesses cater to the convention center,” he said. “That’s why they support it.”

Finally, Sanders was boastful about the city’s new, drastically lower crime rate.

“I don’t get to give a lot of good news, usually it’s bad news,” he said in noting that the city’s homicide rate of 29 murders in 2010 was at a 40-year low. “Crime was reduced in every single category that we capture statistics in,” he said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) appeared as the last speaker, and focused on recent efforts in Congress to reduce spending.

He said the issue is a vital one for the region, because of the large concentration of the military and defense contractors.

In fact, he said, the concentration has helped San Diego sidestep the worst effects of the current recession.

“Defense is huge here,” Hunter said. “It saved us from getting hit compared to other parts of the country.”

Like Sanders, he was critical of the way the state’s finances have been handled.

“This state is messed up,” he said, adding that Sacramento shouldn’t expect a bailout from Washington. “We’re not going to bail out anyone.”

Other speakers included Randy Ward, superintendent of the county schools system, Tom Jackiewicz, CEO of the UC San Diego Medical Center and Joel Ayala, director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, who spoke about efforts in Sacramento to bring more businesses and more jobs to San Diego.

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