Three year’s ago, National Geographic profiled San Diego as one of the world’s “smart cities.” The recruitment of Los Angeles’ top regional planner to oversee our growing metropolitan area’s road and transit infrastructure is truly a smart move.
The San Diego Association of Governments choice of Hasan Ikhrata as its new executive director brings to San Diego one of the nation’s most respected planners at a critical time.
“SANDAG is at a critical juncture in its history. It needs a proven leader with impeccable credentials,” said San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who was on the SANDAG subcommittee that chose Ikhrata.
Faulconer was referring to the scandal over inaccurate revenue estimates for a failed ballot measure that led to the previous executive director’s resignation. But this is also a critical juncture for the San Diego region’s future growth.
Long-time San Diegans often define our city by what it isn’t: Los Angeles. But with continued growth, we are facing the same challenges, and can learn from the bigger city to our north. To put this in perspective, San Diego County’s population is now as large as Los Angeles County’s was in 1945 as the post-World War II boom began.
San Diego’s challenges include opposition to new housing, roads and transit at a time when rents are skyrocketing and commutes get longer and longer. They also include often doctrinaire views of highways versus transit, high-density residential versus single-family homes, and sustaining the environment versus economic growth.
SANDAG, with its 370 employees and annual budget of $1.3 billion, is the agency charged with defining the implementing the long-term solutions to these issues.
Ikhrata told members of the press after his announcement that it’s important to strike a sustainable balance and build consensus around a vision for the future.
“This region deserves a great vision,” he said. “We have challenges, but we have opportunities to do great things.”
Though he has been a planner in Los Angeles for three decades, Ikhrata began his career in the former Soviet Union. That perspective is also helpful, as an excess of planning can be just as dangerous too little.
Perhaps most telling and most welcome is his emphasis on building consensus, something that must be the cornerstone of successful planning for the future.
“My goal coming in will be to listen and learn,” Ikhrata said. “I will need a deep knowledge of all the communities and stakeholders of the San Diego region if I am to do my job — which will be to help all of us build a shared vision for the future and then make that vision a reality.”
Chris Jennewein is editor and publisher of Times of San Diego.
