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Listen live to September 14
RTP public hearing
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Comprehensive Fare
Ordinance amendments proposed rule
Draft 2007 Regional
Prosperity Strategy
available for review
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RideLink Employer Spotlight - StratEdge
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Drug use prevalent among adult arrestees rule
Smart Corner -
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SANDAG Board Actions available online
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   the rEgion
 

Draft 2007 Regional Prosperity Strategy
available for review
Chart 1 - Click for larger view
The Regional Economic Prosperity Strategy identifies the demographic and economic challenges facing the San Diego region, and promotes a regionwide strategy to meet these challenges and improve the competitiveness of our local economy.

What’s our region’s most important economic challenge? One of our most significant and insidious challenges has been with us for some time. Over the past three decades the rate of increase in the region’s standard of living has not kept pace with the nation’s (see Chart 1 - Slow Growth in Standard of Living). Our research shows that this has been occurring for two reasons: first, the San Diego region has been adding proportionately more jobs at the low end of the pay scale than jobs in the middle or at the high end of the pay scale. Second, this “unbalanced job growth” problem has been made worse by a widening gap between wages received at the high and low ends of the pay scale (see Chart 2 - Slow Growth in Average Wage per Job). These two trends combined with a relatively high rate of inflation (high cost of living) are responsible for the low rate of growth in the region’s standard of living (see Chart 3 - Corrosive Combination). 

One of the primary objectives of the Prosperity Strategy is to reverse this decades old trend of slow economic growth and get our standard of living rising on par with or at a rate greater than the nation’s.

So what caused this problem? The Prosperity Strategy points out that although all businesses and industries contribute to economic growth, it is important to distinguish between industries that are primarily local serving and those that sell their products and services nationally and internationally. This latter group of businesses, referred to “traded clusters,” set the pace for economic growth. Our research shows, for example, that our region has a long track record of investing public resources in “traded clusters” that offer low wage jobs that require a low or minimal amount of education and training. Our region has provided the companies in this select group of traded clusters with world class infrastructure; providing them with the foundation to be competitive and successful worldwide. In turn, these low wage clusters are setting a slow pace of economic growth in the region; think of it as a “rate of return” on our public investments.  Furthermore, these low wage traded clusters are not likely to disappear anytime soon; more likely they will continue to grow because the region continues to invest and create new capacity.

So what are we to do? The Prosperity Strategy points out that our region needs a more balanced approach in our public investment strategies; identifying and investing public resources in areas that support traded clusters that offer higher paying jobs that require higher levels of education, skill, and training. In other words, our region’s actions, through public policies and capital investments, have influenced the demand and supply of production inputs, through businesses retention, expansion and attraction, which in turn influence the rates of productivity, economic growth and income in the region.

To put our region on a new economic growth track and sustain its upward momentum depends on our ability to connect companies in our high value added traded clusters to world-class infrastructure and supportive public polices. Our strategy to accomplish these objectives is ambitious, yet simple. The Prosperity Strategy’s recommended actions call for infrastructure investments and public policy support to strengthen the region economic foundation. Our investments and public policies will allow the region to reinvent itself, influencing the quality and balance of our economic growth. Above all, the recommended actions are designed to create middle-income jobs that will provide the opportunity for a rising standard of living for all our residents.

We hope we have sufficiently stirred and peaked your interest in this two volume, comprehensive, and ground breaking study. To find out more, we encourage you use the links below to access the full draft study.

Also, SANDAG encourages the public to submit written comments regarding this draft report to: SANDAG, Attn: Monika Clark, Associate Research Analyst, 401 B Street, Suite 800, San Diego, CA 92101 or mcl@sandag.org. Comments will be accepted through Wednesday, October 31, 2007.

The recently completed, two volume draft report is titled Preparing for Regional and Global Collaboration:

Volume 1: San Diego’s Regional Economic Prosperity Strategy
Volume 2: Evaluating the Competition and Assessing our Strategic Position

Project Manager:
Marney Cox, Chief Economist
mco@sandag.org, (619) 699-1930