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Is San Diego Done Building its Downtown?

The Centre City Development Corporation was created in 1975 when downtown San Diego was a dump. Now that's no longer the case, and much credit is due the CCDC. But what has its mission become, and do

Is San Diego Done Building its Downtown?

Tom Fudge: The founding of San Diego's downtown redevelopment corporation, called the CCDC, dates to a different time. The CCDC was founded in 1975 by the city council and then-mayor Pete Wilson. And it took on the challenge of revitalizing a downtown that was very down at the heels. Today, 33 years later, downtown is a very different place, filled with retail, shopping and high-priced condos. But the CCDC is about the same. It's a private non-profit corporation run by a board of directors. Questions have been raised about the continued relevance of the agency. And those questions have come to a head now that the CCDC is looking for new leadership. The old executive director, Nancy Graham, left amid a controversy over her financial conflicts of interest. The question underlying all the talk about the CCDC asks us what redevelopment has become in San Diego, and what it ought to be. What do we want our center city to become?

Guests

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Howard Blackson, principal urban designer for Stantec Architecture.

Marco LiMandri, administrator of the Little Italy Association.