First Democrat mayor in two decades sees importance of neighborhoods

Por Morgan M. Hurley | Asistente de edición SDUN

In less than four weeks, after a grueling and historic campaign, the new mayor of San Diego will have completed his transition process and taken the reigns of the country’s eighth largest city.

Identifying his recent election as “humbling,” Congressmember and soon-to-be Mayor Bob Filner addressed a crowd in an impromptu press conference held Wednesday, Nov. 7 at Trolley Barn Park in University Heights. He spoke briefly about the election, formally introduced his fiancée and laid out plans he has for San Diego.

“You’re gonna see a team that is aggressive and visible,” he said of the city’s new first couple.

Just hours before, City Councilmember Carl DeMaio – Filner’s sole opponent since the June primary – had walked hand-in-hand with his partner Johnathan Hale to a lectern at the US Grant Hotel to deliver what Filner later called a “gracious statement.”

“I know that ballots are still being counted and I will absolutely ensure that every vote counts,” DeMaio said to the gathered media. “That process will happen irrespective of my decision to concede this race.”

Though an unknown number of city votes were still left uncounted in what amounted to 450,000 ballots countywide the morning after the election, 10,000 votes separated the two candidates in their race for mayor.

DeMaio said his choice to concede was also to give the new mayor “as much time as possible” for the transition. “He has my commitment that I will help in any way possible … it may be the end of the campaign, but it is not the end of my involvement with a city that I love.”

In University Heights, after thanking those who supported him, Filner reached out to those who did not, saying “they’re going to be welcome as we move forward. I am going to need them in the administration.”

Throughout his remarks, Filner emphasized the importance of neighborhoods, reminding those in attendance that his time in Congress has been spent representing families in these San Diego neighborhoods, not the “power” culture of Downtown, which was the reason he was now speaking to media in an Uptown neighborhood.

The setting proved a good choice for community attention, as many passersby in vehicles, motorcycles and on foot took notice of the commotion. Pedestrians and dog walkers gathered, while others honked horns, revved their engines and shouted congratulatory remarks to the mayor-elect from their car windows.

Filner acknowledged the many experts in the region who come from all backgrounds – calling them untapped resources – and said he plans to utilize them, regardless of political ideology.

“There’s gonna be new seats, new people at the table … of economic and political power, people whose faces have not been seen. It’s going to be a new City Hall,” he said.

“I purposely had this press conference not at City Hall to show that we are going to respect and concentrate on neighborhoods,” Filner said. “Here we are in University Heights. This [was] the Old Trolley Barn. It’s where streetcars [came] up from Downtown, where they maintained them and they stored them.”

Calling the neighborhood one that needs the support of the city, Filner said people want a “livable,” “walkable” and “bikeable” city.

He also spent time promoting the streetcars – originally put into place 100 years ago during the Panama Exposition – that used to travel up Park Boulevard, connecting Uptown with Downtown. Some of the old cars have been restored, and Filner said their tracks are just under the asphalt along the boulevard.

“We could probably use those tracks to build relationship between Downtown and Uptown … not only [for] public transportation, but a sense of community,” he said.

He asked San Diego to “dream of a new future,” and promised to be a very open and visible mayor with the press, saying he would meet with them regularly and unscripted. He also said he would be available on Saturdays in the lobby of City Hall for anyone who wished to come speak to him.

“The people are gonna see me and know what’s going on,” he said.

Though when asked, the mayor-elect said he has not made any plans to bring former mayoral candidate Nathan Fletcher on board, he did mention several people he planned to tap as resources.

One of those is Alan Jones, Filner’s chief of staff from his council days, who will head up his transition team. He said he also asked Donna Frye to take over his Open Government Department. Frye served on the city council from 2001 to 2010.

Filner also made it clear he would use DeMaio as a resource.

DeMaio crafted the “Pension Reform” initiative Proposition B, which passed during the primary and was a heavy focus of his campaign. Though Filner did not support the proposition, as mayor he must implement it and may need his opponent’s support.

“[DeMaio] understood the budget and he understood the kinds of approaches to deal with budget that we need to tap into,” Filner said. “I didn’t agree with all of it, but I did agree we have to look at this stuff in a very rational way [and] a very cost-effective way, and we have to make some decisions. … I think he can help with that and I’ll ask him to.”

Filner, a democrat, said he does not see his new role as partisan, but rather one that will bring everyone together for the good of the city.

“Each of the individual [council member’s] have been elected and they deserve respect,” he said. “I see us working together to revitalize all the neighborhoods and the economy as we move forward.”

Explaining why, after two decades in Congress, he chose to come back to city government, Filner said, “I loved my job in Washington. … As we became a more dysfunctional congress and the minority party was able to do less and less, I thought I could do more as chief executive of the eighth biggest city.”

Though it is viewed that local labor unions played a large part in his election, Filner said he did not feel indebted to them. “It’s the working people in this city that put me into this office,” he said.  “These people were not the source of the city’s problems … I am devoted to making sure that this city works for all people.”

Before ending, Filner told the crowd that his fiancée Bronwyn Ingram, whom he plans to wed by next October, will hold an active, but unpaid, role in his administration. He described her as a “different first lady,” and as an expert on disability issues including how homeless “can be helped in ways we really have not done before,” he said.

Filner takes office on Dec. 3.