William Jones is President and CEO of City Link Corporation, a real estate development investment company focusing on the urban core, with an emphasis on neighborhood revitalization. He was a member of the San Diego City Council from 1982 to 1987 and on the staff of City Councilman Leon Williams for ten years. He received San Diego Dialogue's Civic Excellence Award last year for his work in City Heights. Appointed to RGEC by Gov. Gray Davis, he chairs RGEC's Subcommittee on Transportation.

San Diego Dialogue Report: What has been your experience on RGEC as a private citizen among representatives of public agencies?

Commissioner Jones: This has been a very enlightening, intense and, I think, promising experience.  There are many different interests that have very specific views, in some cases very rigid positions about what the future should be. Depending on what group is in front of us, we may hear that everything's okay and that San Diego's quality of life and future prosperity and environment are well taken care of with the status quo and that the only thing that we're lacking is money.  Others say that everything is not okay.  That is, we're not just lacking money, but we lack the political will and community will to make significant structural changes so that more enlightened decision-making can occur.

SDDR: Your work in San Diego has focused on developing our older, poorer communities in a way that respects their interests. Yet the regional growth problems that we face today look like they can only be solved by increasing densities in these communities.  Do you believe that we can do that in the best interests of these communities without fundamental changes in the way in which regional planning takes place?

Jones: I do not believe it can be done without fundamental changes on a regional level.  That's because, typically, the well-endowed neighborhoods and the politically-connected and well- represented constituencies are able to influence the process and determine the outcome much more ably than the poorer communities, communities that typically do not have the infrastructure and the economic engines.  So I think it's really important that if we're going to ask communities to accept density and affordable housing, then that should apply throughout the region, not just in one neighborhood or a handful of neighborhoods.

There's also a larger issue, a much more significant issue having to do with long-term transportation and land use planning so that we encourage intelligent use of the limited natural resources that we have and minimize the pollution of our environment.  If we continue to have low-scale density and urban sprawl in the outlying areas, and people are still driving 45 minutes to an hour and a half to work, then we're going to have freeway congestion and we're not going to be able to build enough freeways or trolleys or rail lines to meet the demand, and we're not going to be able to get cargo in and out of the airport or the port in order to get to the places where it needs to be to stock the stores and the industrial facilities.

So we have a very practical, functional predicament, and that is? how do we get people and goods to and from places in a fashion that will allow the region to prosper economically and at the same time not waste the limited natural resources that help make San Diego one of the most beautiful places to live?

SDDR: What is the single biggest challenge that RGEC faces in getting to solutions to the problems you just articulated so well?

Jones: I think the biggest challenge is being able to overcome the natural tendency for jurisdictions, for groups, for individuals to be self-interested as opposed to regionalist.  And the irony is that the success and wellbeing of the groups, the institutions, and the individuals depends upon the success of the region.

SDDR: So we need a little enlightened self-interest on the commission?

Jones: We need enlightened self-interest that will allow us to put our regionalist hats on and at the same time not forget that we are a region of unique neighborhoods, communities, and that each community should have in front of it a blueprint for intelligent growth, intelligent planning, and also for infrastructure investment.

SDDR: What's the biggest disappointment, if there has been one, so far?

Jones: I think the biggest disappointment is what I see as an inclination on the part of too many to be focused on their self-interest.

SDDR: And where do you think this is going to come out?  Are we going to get something that moves moderately or significantly away from the status quo, or are we going to get the status quo?

Jones: This commission is made up of highly capable people.  I believe this group is determined to make a set of recommendations that will move us forward a significant distance, and that means a set of recommendations anchored in regionalism. I'm hopeful that will happen.  I have guarded optimism.