In this weeks column in The Paper, I compare San Marcos past with Escondidos future: Why not Escondido? By: Kirk W. Effinger I was having breakfast the other day with a former San Marcos official and the subject of what makes cities different came up. He was justifiably proud, as I have been, of the strides the city has made during the last thirty plus years. Given the inextricable ties between the two cities, our conversation included comparisons between my soon to be former city of residence (San Marcos), and my new hometown of Escondido. We both acknowledged that San Marcos has been the beneficiary of not only very good leadership over the years, but a significant amount of luck. Much of that luck is due to timing. While I was born in San Diego, my formative years were spent in the growing metropolitan Los Angeles-Orange County region of the mid-twentieth century. Because of the combination of weather, jobs, and geography, this region exploded with development and I had the opportunity to watch its effects, both positive and negative. For much of this period, San Diego, city and county, remained a sleepy, relatively benign area, with the first real impacts of growth beginning to show their effects in the late 1970s to early 1980s. When growth did start to escalate, this entire region reacted with a collective mentality that was, in effect, set purposefully in the notion it would not become “another LA.” As a result, even though many in the development community rail against it---with some justification---this region has avoided many of the mistakes made in the early development of our neighbors to the north. In much the same way, San Marcos had been able to take into account the positives and the negatives of the much earlier development of the cities around it and make the effort to emulate the good while eliminating the bad. Some things---establishing a huge redevelopment area, for instance---were made necessary by the city’s unfortunately lowest in the county tax increment, which was locked in by Prop. 13. Others were the happy result of having relatively abundant land available to develop. Escondido, meanwhile, has been dealing with an aging infrastructure and the relatively fewer development opportunities brought on by both being close to build out (without annexation) and its own self-inflicted roadblock, the growth-control initiative known as Prop. S. Against this backdrop, however, there is much about Escondido that is positive and that can and should be built upon. First among these positives in my view is its downtown area, especially the heart that is the Grand Avenue corridor. The city council has been wrestling with this part of town for several years, with some positive results, and others less so. Another is the swath of downtown the city acquired in its abortive attempt to lure a minor league ball park. And, both of these potential jewels in the Escondido crown are joined by the efforts to revitalize Escondido Creek to make it more than a concrete gash through the city. Escondido’s best days can be ahead if the city’s leaders seize the opportunities that lie at their feet.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 16:09:19 +0000
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