We sit at a back booth in a back-street caf?, two old San Diego friends who believe in this city's future. We agree that we have never seen city government so irresponsible. Its crises seem ingrained. City Hall is becoming a closed shop.
My guest worked his way up through San Diego State and then City Hall to become a respected figure in California and national affairs.
He asked why we are botching our civic future with so many hick-town blunders - misjudgments that block civic progress - and cost us opportunities to fix things.
Most of us react only with cynical despair, and say, "all that's just politics." We don't hold elected officials to acceptable standards. We don't punish those who abuse their power. We watch them delay urgent decisions....like just now, until after elections. even then, they are prone to appoint more committees or call another election. But there's a huge paradox here.
Great deeds are being done all across this region, making City Hall seem an artifact from another era...to study our juvenile court reforms, teams come from across the nation. High-tech high and the Preuss school...and monarch, for homeless kids, attract national attention.
The theater world everywhere knows the work of the Old Globe and La Jolla playhouse. Consultants seek out our universities and research labs to study the phenomena of their rapid emergence and worldwide prestige.
The San Diego idea of connect, linking campus and industry, has spread around the globe. Now, if political leaders dared to seek help from such sources, a curtain coould rise on a new San Diego. We could save the best of the old and adopt the new. But city pols won't do it. They won't risk being bared, or sharing credit. They hide from truth. The city has gone on the defensive....over a huge pension deficit, over traffic, overcrowding, and stadium contracts. Over drug crime, and border problems - but it's not all their fault.
Things would not have got this bad, my friend and I agree, if we San Diegans were not so passive......and so much of our media distracted or adrift. It's our turn now...to spend an hour studying our election pamphlets before we vote. And to join in emerging citizen action groups to help make more activecitizens of you and me.
In this election, instead of belittling each other over who caused this mess, candidates should give us plans and goals, and tell us how we will pay to fix this mess. Before we vote, let's save an hour of our time to understand our options.
We are the ones who must force reform on a reluctant City Hall.
