What is important to you when you contemplate San Diego’s future?
You are being asked this question and more by San Diego Foundation and the place-making project called Our Greater San Diego Vision. San Diego County will grow by 40% over the next 40 years! That’s nearly double the population which will apply tremendous pressure on all of our resources. What types of transportation, education, jobs, recreational opportunities, cultural experiences and natural spaces are you 
interested in seeing created, expanded, protected or enhanced?
While our leadership gets bogged down with short-sighted, short term solutions to short term problems, taking the long view and bringing real solutions to the table is up to people like you and me.
We are asking you to get involved with this program and let the project coordinators know exactly what it is you care about. Through Our Greater San Diego Vision, the attempt is being made to give everyone who gets involved with this process a voice in shaping our region’s future.
How will our historic, cultural, and natural resources fit into the coming population boom? What about mass development? How do we address water needs and mass transportation issues?
What about housing? Do you want to see towering condos and parking structures along our bayfronts or a sea of houses where valleys and mountains exist now? Is the look and size of an Otay Ranch development your idea of a greater San Diego? Or do you favor a different look and style? Do you want to see more parks, and what about Balboa Park, do you want to see it developed? Should we focus on building more freeways or expanding existing ones or is mass transit an option that fits into your idea of a greater San Diego?
Through Our Greater San Diego Vision, you can answer these types of questions and help ensure that the next generation inherits something worthwhile and that San Diego survives and thrives in a way that you would be proud to pass on to coming generations.
The stated goal for Our Greater San Diego Vision is to hear from tens of thousands of San Diegans before the end of the year, to “generate a vision for the next 25, 50, and 100 years, shaped by shared values and priorities.” When San Diego’s early founders and leaders planned communities and parks and began many of the major institutions
we still have today, they looked at the greater picture; they didn’t think of building for a 50-year “shelf life” or creating communities without providing the infrastructure or planning for the next century.
150 ambassadors with individual and diverse expertise and focus representing the entire region have been working together to put the most crucial questions forward, and we’re now asking all residents of SD County to get involved. Share your voice in preserving and
creating a better future for our region.
There are two ways for you to express your opinions & ideas. Go to OurGreaterSanDiegoVision.org to contribute. Or attend any of these six public workshops to make sure that our historic, cultural, and natural resources are a major part of the conversation; otherwise the conversation will end up centered on how best to develop and make room for the coming population growth.Seriously, whatever your ideas on San Diego’s future are, make sure you are heard. This program is going to be utilized, and so it really is important that the outcome reflects as many voices as possible.
(Although the workshops won’t be convenient for people with jobs, please try to attend if you value our future. One meeting will be held downtown on Wednesday
morning, September 14.)
