SAN DIEGO — In only his fourth day as mayor, Kevin Faulconer explained what he wants to get done south of the border.
Faulconer will be in Tijuana Friday to meet with city leaders to foster business relationships.
On
e way he wants to do that is by re-staffing the San Diego City government office in Tijuana.
“Having that office down there is a very good thing,” said Faulconer.
It was San Diego’s former Mayor Bob Filner who opened the office but after his disgraced resignation, it was left vacant.
San Diego gets the space free of cost inside a government office building in the Mexican border city.
First on his cross border agenda are the border wait times.
“You’ve seen the trucks that are stacked up, they’re trying to get on the other side of the border, it’s taking over two hours to do that, that’s costing us jobs, that’s costing us opportunities, that’s costing us tax revenue to the city of San Diego” stressed the new leader.
But border wait times is a federal issue, tied to funding problems causing delays in construction to grow the number of lanes at the San Ysidro port on entry.
It’s something Faulconer has no final say on, but he says he’s ready to play lobbyist in Washington D.C. if he has to, in an attempt to help speed construction at the border.
He hopes giving San Diego a presence in Tijuana and fostering relationships there will help his cause.
