By Kris Michell, President/CEO, Downtown San Diego Partnership

Over the next 40 years, the San Diego region is expected to grow exponentially. We’ll need to accommodate an additional 1.3 million residents, 400,000 housing units, and 500,000 jobs—and all of the basic services that come with a growing economy.

To do this, we must focus on innovative solutions and an urban core that will allow us to accommodate this expected growth, and house and employ thousands of San Diegans. Because there are no more land tracks for which we can expand, we must go vertical. Downtown San Diego has the ability to do just that.

Today, Downtown San Diego is a diverse, vibrant community with nearly 30,000 residents, 75,000 workers, and millions of year-round visitors. It’s an urban core that serves as a regional asset and economic engine to Greater San Diego. Many live, work, play, learn, shop, and dine here.

While Downtown San Diego has come a long way the past several decades, there is more to be done. The world is changing—technology is more prevalent than ever, consumers seek innovative and effective products and concepts, and accessible public transportation and alternatives rank high for urban metropolis.

Vital downtowns are becoming increasingly important to cities throughout the nation as demographics and global trends shift. And for Downtown San Diego, the time is right to establish new priorities and solutions to respond to new economic realities and the need for reinvention following the loss of redevelopment.

As a community, we also have the opportunity to enhance our 2006 Community Plan and build upon a Vision that has been created for the Greater San Diego region by the San Diego Foundation.

In concert with the San Diego Foundation’s Our Greater San Diego Vision, the Downtown San Diego Partnership is embarking on an Our Downtown strategic planning process to develop a post-redevelopment vision, framework, and action plan to advance Downtown San Diego. Our Downtown will provide an opportunity to inform the city and region on the importance of Downtown, plus seek input from the region on Downtown’s future.

Before we move forward with this regional planning effort, we want to make sure that Downtown’s neighborhoods first define improvements and priorities for our future.  Collaborating with our neighborhood partners, the Downtown San Diego Partnership is conducting a series of neighborhood workshops that will aim to prioritize the best ideas from past planning efforts, plus seek any new ideas that might benefit Downtown moving forward.

The Partnership has scheduled workshops during February and March in each of the neighborhoods that make up Downtown. To inquire about a workshop in your neighborhood, or for more information about Our Downtown vision, please contact Staci Ignell, Director of External Affairs at the Downtown San Diego Partnership at [email protected] or 619-234-0201.

To learn more about the Downtown San Diego Partnership—the leading advocate for the economic growth and revitalization of downtown—please visit www.downtownsandiego.org.