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Longtime San Diego Union-Tribune Journalist Retires

Roger Showley, growth and development reporter for U-T San Diego, talks to KPBS about the history of redevelopment in downtown San Diego, Dec. 3, 2012.
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Roger Showley, growth and development reporter for U-T San Diego, talks to KPBS about the history of redevelopment in downtown San Diego, Dec. 3, 2012.
Longtime San Diego Union-Tribune Journalist Retires
Longtime San Diego Union-Tribune Journalist Retires GUEST: Roger Showley, former reporter, The San Diego Union-Tribune

reporter had one of the first items he covered for the paperback in 1974. was about approval for a day front project, which 44 years later, has still never been built. Covering growth involvement in projects in San Diego, can be a frustrating job. he developed what he calls his privileged perspective on the building of San Diego. Roger Shelley retired at the end of March. Roger, walk on >> thank you. >> You say San Diego's progress follows a pattern. Lots of problems, few results. From your perspective, why? >> I can say people have a great idea back to the time I wrote in the 70s, and long before that, to the present, one of the things you have in San Diego to San Diego Bay to new airports or bullet trains and flyover freeways and parks, we have posed it. Then we get to the reality of budgets and politics. we realize, all the dreams are that until someone acts on the proposal. that's where we ran into problems in San Diego. can take a long time to get things done. we decide to do them. then the decision is made but so often it gets caught up in litigation and controversy in elections. it drifts away into great ideas that never go away. >> looking around San Diego today, there is a lot of construction and development going on. San Diego has never stopped growing. what direction would you say we are going to now? >> We are going slower than we used to percentagewise. likes 50,000 residents a year and we are past that, these days. we are not speed in the long. growth at that level requires a lot of improvements and services. they are not always possible to finance. >> you write about your two more memorable interviews. >> the first one was about Mr. Fuller and Ernie Harmon. was a developer of shopping centers. Mr. Fuller was a futurist without spherical building. he was the commencement speaker at 1970. I met them at a shopping center in Vegas one time. There were on panels. I called them and said can I put you two together and talk about things? They never met each other. off the sidelines of the convention, we had a half an hour chat. we had a lovely time. this is really cool to get to people like that together and see what they had to say. most of my job had been in real estate development. I like to get them to pop culture from time to time. the Harry Potter books came out. then I saw the movies. do you want to go interview the mental a sometime. I got to go there and stayed in a hotel I had half an hour chat. >> and you got the autograph. >> I got two of the last books he had a written. do you mind autographing it for my kids? Speak up, and >> and one of those you talked about temporary paradise. that was just about the time he started at the union. what can you learn from that document now? >> 1908 or 1926, what I like about those documents, is that they are not the typical planning lingo that you get in today's plans. they are visionary, they are poetic there simply stated, and they have nice illustrations and photographs. they give the public an idea of what the problems are and what you can do about them. the important thing about that name is that it is followed by a question mark. San Diego is a paradise, in many ways. if you don't secure it, it will not be. remains very relevant today's issues. you can read that and you can find all sorts of thoughts that apply today. it is in a store, it is an inspirational message printed these are things you can do. these are not necessarily realistic, but think about them. >> you are candidly retired but you do not call it a retirement, you cautery positioning, what do you mean by that? >> I feel like, I left at this point in my life, because I have done all the development stories you can do until you repeat yourself. I will close the book on my journalism career. I will take what I learned, and apply it to organizations that can make a difference. have joined several already. I'm in a privileged position to watch from the inside, how San Diego is shaped. it is up to me to take that knowledge and share it. we are all in this together. my hope is that, I will help bring different sides together in some way. I made want to encourage people to do that. talk to each other. have these dialogues. >> I have been speaking with newly repositioned former Caribbean reporter, Roger Shelley. >>

San Diego journalist Roger Showley opened his last story for The San Diego Union-Tribune on Sunday with one of the first items he covered for the newspaper back in 1974.

It was about approval for a Chula Vista bayfront development project, which 44 years later, has still not been built.

Covering growth, development and public projects in San Diego can be a frustrating job but one that Showley took to heart as he developed what he calls his, "privileged perspective on the building of San Diego."

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Showley, who retired last month, joins KPBS Midday Edition to reflect on his career and the city's growth and evolution.