San Diego Mayor Bob Filner's plan to open an office south of a border has been known for some time, but he offered first details in his state of the city address Tuesday night.
San Diego’s border affairs office will open Feb. 1 in one of Tijuana’s swankiest high-rises. The mayor said his staff will work with business leaders on both sides of the border to "reformulate our economic development efforts" to put a greater emphasis on attracting international business.
"We not only need to think of ourselves as a binational community, but we need to market that community to international investors seeking the unique advantages of locating in a binational region," he said.
Tijuana has long had an office in San Diego. But the reverse has not been true. Filner’s move has leaders on both sides hopeful for more cooperation to fix problems intrinsic to the border, like regional planning and environmental concerns, and ones that hamper cross-border economic activity, like the reluctance of Americans to visit Tijuana, and border wait times that make getting back into San Diego an hours-long ordeal.
