Tony Young Heads New Nonprofit Rise San Diego

TOM FUDGE: Pretty young was president of the San Diego City Council, until the end of 2012, when he left to become the executive director of the San Diego Red Cross. He left that position six months ago, and now he is back in politics as a lobbyist. He has also founded a new nonprofit that he calls Rise San Diego. Young was born and raised in Southeast San Diego, an area that has many problems with poverty, crime, and a lack of services. You want Rise San Diego to be a vocal for recording and mentoring neighborhood leaders to improve urban life. Tony, thank you very much for coming in. TONY YOUNG: Thank you. TOM FUDGE: On Rise San Diego's website, you talk about building a real neighborhoods first agenda. What do you mean by that? TONY YOUNG: One of the things I was concerned about as a city council member, at times we would have these issues, and they would really concerned some of these neighborhoods, but these leaders in neighborhoods were not able to express or even engage with the policymakers. This Rise San Diego concept is identifying new leaders who are emerging, and making sure they are prepared to take leadership. TOM FUDGE: When you talk about a real neighborhood first agenda, it sounds like that is taking a crack at some partitions who claim that they have a neighborhood first agenda, do you think that? TONY YOUNG: I don't think I was taking a crack at anyone. I don't think any of us are doing that. This is one of my frustrations as a councilmember, and Council President. Some of these issues would be defined by individuals who would come into the neighborhood, and basically, I would call it parachuting into the neighborhood, to find the discussion and the conversation. The conversation should start with those urban communities, and then awesome out and engage individuals that would be impacted. TOM FUDGE: What is your mission? TONY YOUNG: Our mission is twofold. One is to identify, encourage, and prepare leaders in the urban communities to be able to take a position as leaders, and become better leaders. The other part is to engage citizens when it comes to the issues, and make sure that they have an opportunity to express ideas to policymakers on their own terms. We're going to do both of those. TOM FUDGE: In the media, we are always looking for those neighborhood leaders, so we have somebody to give us a quote when we're doing a story about a neighborhood. What are these neighborhood leaders that you're thinking of? TONY YOUNG: First, I want to make sure that we are clear that we're talking about urban communities, areas from San Ysidro to East Village. There are individuals in these communities. The first question we will have with these civic engagement activities, the first question is what is a leader? Sometimes we get confused about what exactly a leader is. In certain communities, I have a community I grew up in where the leader has to give a good sermon, and have charisma, and that is what you called a good leader, and I do not think that is a true leader. We are trying to identify individuals who have truly taken leadership in urban communities, and making sure that we provide them with the necessary skills. TOM FUDGE: So you want to identify good potential leaders and train them in some way? TONY YOUNG: Correct. We are working closely with the University of San Diego, which has the preeminent leadership program here on the West Coast. We're going to identify 25 to 30 emerging leaders, and identify them as fellows. For a year, we will give them training, allow them to do introspection on who they are, and also engage with them when it comes to opportunities for issues. TOM FUDGE: Are you targeting neighborhoods like Southeast San Diego with this? TONY YOUNG: All urban communities, Southeast, Midcity, Barrio Logan, all of these great neighborhoods have great leaders and the potential for greater leaders, but want to expose them to those ideas that we talked about. TOM FUDGE: We have all heard, and I think it is true, people in wealthy neighborhoods have the connections, and know how to work the system. Is that one of the issues that you are trying to address to create opportunities for those in lower income neighborhoods? TONY YOUNG: Certainly the technical skills to be able to engage with policymakers is important. And these institutions that are supposed to serve neighborhoods, to be a leader, you also have to understand who you are as a leader, what your skills are, and how to employ and use those skills to affect the issues that are important to you. It is a combination of technical introspection, and understanding how to exercise true leadership in your neighborhood. TOM FUDGE: You are a community leader, you certainly were when you were on the city council. How did you get involved in politics? TONY YOUNG: Being elected official does not make you a leader. I will tell you that. I was involved in politics early on, and I got a chance to work with my friend Charles Lewis and became his chief of staff. The opportunity to serve the community of district for was a great one for me. I will always cherish that. This is an opportunity to continue that work. But because you have a title, that is not make you a leader. We will make that point very clear to our fellows that will go through our program. TOM FUDGE: It sounds like with Rise San Diego you have teamed up with a former political rival, who is that? TONY YOUNG: I ran against Duane Crenshaw in 2004. Middle rivals, going at each other, trying to win that election, but throughout the years, we were able to see each other threat different events, at the coffee shop, or whatever. We decided to show people that you do not have to disagree with every issue. If you do, you can do it civilly. We decided to do that, so Duane and I have created this organization together. TOM FUDGE: I remember, I had a conversation with you a few years ago, when we were talking about the possibility of Walmart establishing grocery stores in San Diego neighborhoods, and you told me in your city council district, you did not have one routes, not one of persons, not one bonds. I was shocked to hear that. Are those the kinds of problems that you're trying to address? TONY YOUNG: That is a great example. Some of those stores are where we get our groceries, and liquor stores, which is unfortunate. It is a great issue, because you had an issue when you had the Walmart, and the business community who obviously wanted to build these around Walmart. Had labored that did not want that because they did not agree with practices that the workplace, but that is exactly what the discussion was about. But it was not coming from the community members, and what the community members needed and wanted. You had a debate at the city council of these two groups going at each other, but the urban community really did not get a chance to voice but that that was important TOM FUDGE: And I guess what is important in a situation like that is to have good full-service grocery stores available to people in the neighborhood. TONY YOUNG: Exactly, and we want to make sure that we have a community engaged on the issue, whatever that is, including grocery stores, it also having individuals who are clear enough on the issue, and able to exercise leadership to move the issue forward on the behalf of neighborhoods. TOM FUDGE: Ultimately, through creating these leaders and neighborhoods, you're trying to solve some problems in the neighborhoods. We have talked about one, in some neighborhoods, no full-service grocery stores, what are some of the other problems you would like to address? TONY YOUNG: Examples would be the issue of minimum wage. Of course, you have heard these issues and opinions about minimum wage. What do the community members think? The Barrio Logan plan would have been a great opportunity to have community members voice what they thought without interference from others. But of course, affordable housing, and issues of infrastructure and education, these can all be solved. They can be solved with community members and should be. At the city council, it seemed as if we would address these issues with one hand tied behind our back, because we did not engage everybody. We did not employ the ideas of some of these individuals in these communities. If we just did that, we would be a great city. TOM FUDGE: I am glad you brought up the issue of Barrio Logan, because that is very interesting. If I could give a quick synopsis, the city council came up with the zoning plan for Barrio Logan two separate industrial and residential uses. But the shipping industry did not like it. They got an initiative on the ballot, and it was overturned. What did you think of that? TONY YOUNG: It was unfortunate, because again, you saw two very powerful entities, and lobbying groups having this discussion almost above the heads of the people who actually lived there. I would have appreciated hearing what the neighborhoods and members had to say without being prompted by either side. So, to me, this organization is going to be agnostic. We're not going to be for or against an issue, we're going to engage and support the engagement of activities between community members. TOM FUDGE: How important is it to foster leadership do the success of the community? TONY YOUNG: It's extremely important. If you do not foster leadership and engage these communities from their own terms, on their own terms, you get a solution that is not appropriate, accurate, and it is not going to get the desired results for neighborhood. TOM FUDGE: I would be very interested to see what kind of success that you have in terms of meant touring these community leaders. If the leadership of neighborhoods something best done by volunteers? By nonprofits? Again, who are these people who should be the leaders? TONY YOUNG: They're already there, and we want to foster them. You have great individuals throughout the community doing stuff. We have a lady that does work on Whitman Avenue. She started planting trees one day, did not ask the city, just said I'm going to do it, I am tired of looking at the street the way that it is. And you know what? Whitman Avenue looks great. She has kids employed working on it, and the city of San Diego started to improve Whitman Avenue, because of her efforts, not because of the city's efforts. That is true leadership. We want to make sure that a leader like that is supported and continues to grow. TOM FUDGE: You recently appeared at a city council meeting. I think you were lobbying on behalf of cab companies. Tell us that part of your life. TONY YOUNG: There are two parts. One, of course, my love, Rise San Diego, and the work that we're doing with the University of San Diego. Also, one of the things I've always like to do is to help guide, support, and teach individuals. As a lobbyist and the consultant, that is what I am able to do, show people how you work through the process, voice your opinion, and better understand individuals making decisions on your behalf. That is an example of some of the work that I'm doing with Civic Link Strategies, my lobbying firm. TOM FUDGE: What does it feel like to be on the other side? TONY YOUNG: It feels great. The fact is, I feel for ten years I worked hard and served as well as I could, but now, it is time to do other things. I am getting closer to my true purpose. TOM FUDGE: So you do not think you will be going back into politics, you don't think you will run for office again? TONY YOUNG: I was told by someone if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plan. I will just say, that is not my purpose at this point in time. TOM FUDGE: Why did you leave the Red Cross where you were the Executive Director? TONY YOUNG: You look for new opportunities, and this is a perfect one for me. I have been engaging young people and emerging leaders to grow, and so, I thought it was a great opportunity to work with the University of San Diego, teach there, help people, and continue to do things that I love to do. TOM FUDGE: So Red Cross was not the right job for you? TONY YOUNG: Red Cross was a great job, I loved it, I was able to run a large organization, work with volunteers, address investors small and large, I really enjoyed it. But this life is about a journey, and the journey I am on now is continuing to get closer to who and what I can do best. I think this is it. TOM FUDGE: Are you still taking the trolley to work? TONY YOUNG: I do not have an office downtown, so don't do it as much. Whenever I to go downtown, usually jump on the trolley. TOM FUDGE: Finally, Rise San Diego has a breakfast event coming up. Tell us about that. TONY YOUNG: This is our urban breakfast club, we will do it every month, focusing on urban issues. The first issue is going to be a question, basically what is community leadership? We will use the issues in Ferguson as a backdrop to this discussion, we will have great speakers, and great panelists, and we will hear what people have to say. The great thing about this, we will actually use social media throughout the month to discuss issues, and we will share some of that information during the breakfast. We will have it at the Jacob's center on October 17, at 8 AM, and we will continue to move throughout the city talking about these issues. TOM FUDGE: Thank you very much.