The 2008 San Diego Regional Economic Prosperity Strategy identifies the demographic and economic challenges facing the San Diego region, and promotes a set of strategic goals and recommended actions to meet these challenges and improve the competitiveness of our local economy.
The Prosperity Strategy identifies three main challenges facing the region today: first, unbalanced job growth, more low paying jobs being created than high and middle income jobs; second, a widening gap in the earnings of low and high paid workers; and third, a high cost of living that has zapped the purchasing power and standard of living of residents. At the current rate, for example, it will take San Diego residents twice as long, about 70 years or two generations, to double its living standards; while the nation is on a course to achieve the same results in half the time, about 35 years or one generation.
In addition to identifying the region’s most pressing economic challenges, the Prosperity Strategy lists the most probable causes, an important step in determining what can be done to reverse the trends. The report offers ten strategic goals and 27 actions steps, as well as listing who should take responsibility for carrying out the actions.
The Prosperity Strategy offers a blue print for investing in public infrastructure and instituting supportive, flexible polices that will create opportunities for increasing the number of high paying jobs in the region, helping to balance our economy and spur the growth of our standard of living.
SANDAG hopes this report will inform and encourage those interested in economic prosperity to respond to its call for collaborative action.
The two volume Prosperity Strategy can be accessed through the links below:
San Diego’s Regional Economic Prosperity Strategy (Volume I) includes an executive summary, the strategic goals and recommended actions, and a list of public comments and responses; a must read for elected officials and executives.
Evaluating the Competition and Assessing our Strategic Position (Volume II) identifies the region’s economic strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and opportunities by benchmarking our performance against 24 similar regions as well as state and national trends; designed for technical experts and others that want details. | 
