In a March 6 speech to the city’s economic development
committee, San Diego Mayor Bob Filner presented a plan to add 6,000 waterfront
jobs by the year 2020, while reducing waterfront pollution by 20 percent during
the same timeframe.
“My vision for the port, which I intend to develop as a
regional asset, with the help of my fellow mayors from National City, Chula
Vista, Coronado and Imperial Beach, contemplates an economy that combines our
region’s ‘green’ sectors – alternative energy, efficiency technology – with the
‘blue’ sectors – maritime trade, ship building, defense, ocean research – into
an ‘aqua’ economy,” he said.
The ‘aqua’ jobs, Filner said, would span blue-collar, white-collar
and green-collar jobs; would be well-paying; oriented toward the water; and
include “innovations for sustainability.”
The plan focuses on five strategic areas: increasing global trade;
strengthening ties with the US Navy, which has a strong presence in and around the
San Diego Harbor; investment in roads, rails, bridges and other forms of
infrastructure; develop a “marine highway” for short sea shipping; and revitalize
the area’s fisheries by building a San Diego version of Pike Place Market,
which overlooks the waterfront in Seattle.
Filner also said he would like to see several marine-based
technology and intellectual pursuits started, including a “PortTechSD,” which
would be created in the mold of the PortTechLA technology incubator system; a
partnership between the city’s Youth Development Office and the maritime
industry to expand economic opportunities for young San Diegans; and the
establishment of a Clean Water Technology Center and a Maritime Robotics
Center.
“I have identified a multi-faceted approach that focuses on
targeted strategic objectives, by working with many of our best regional
leaders at all levels of government and by embracing and growing one of our
finest assets: the Port of San Diego,” Filner said.
For his plan to come to fruition, the mayor would need the
support of the seven-member Board of Port Commissioners. San Diego appoints
three members of the panel, but the other four are chosen by the neighboring
cities of National City, Chula Vista, Coronado and Imperial Beach.
In his speech, Filner said San Diego should set minimum
qualifications for its appointees to the board and that representatives should
at least have several years of professional experience in the maritime, real
estate, hospitality, cruise, sustainability or diplomatic fields.
In January, Filner vetoed two City Council appointments to
the board; the positions remain unfilled.
