Former U.S. secretary of labor Robert Reich came to San Diego on Monday to screen a documentary about inequality that he said has increasing local relevance.
In a press conference prior to the screening of "Inequality for All" at the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla, Reich said the cross-border region has the opportunity to tackle its unique inequality problems in a way that can serve as a global model.
“We have in the San Diego and Tijuana area some of the wealthiest people in the entire world and also some of the poorest people in the entire world within 20 minutes of one another,” he said.
He said the San Diego community must work in partnership with organizations across the border to create policies to address inequality within the cross-border region.
Reich said more than 85,000 people live in Tijuana slums, which he called “some of the worst in Latin America.”
The screening was organized by the San Diego Foundation Center for Civic Engagement and the UC San Diego Blum Cross-Border Initiative. Teddy Cruz, the Initiative's co-director, said the university is conducting research across the border in some of the most marginalized communities in Tijuana.
“We occupy one of the most uneven regions in the world,” Cruz said at the screening event. “Very few geographies in the world are like San Diego-Tijuana.”
"Inequality on one side of the border is felt on the other side," added Fonna Forman, the initiative's co-director.
He said some of the most expensive real estate in the country is located around UC San Diego, a short drive from Los Laureles Canyon, the largest slum in Tijuana. Cruz said the best way to address these issues is to engage the communities where some of the problems are concentrated.
“Communities and universities can be meaningful partners in fighting poverty,” Cruz said.
"Inequality For All" was produced in 2013. It won a U. S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Achievement in Filmmaking at that year's Sundance Film Festival.
