The San Diego Union-Tribune - North County February 25, 2007


Gary Knight is the president and chief executive officer of the San Diego North Economic Development Council.

The council is a coalition of public and private entities whose main objective is to attract, retain and develop business in North County. The council has a staff of three and has 110 members. It has almost doubled its membership since Knight took over in 2004.

As president, Knight is pushing for improved transportation and power, and he supports proposals for a desalination plant in Carlsbad and a Chargers stadium in Oceanside.

For more information, go to www.sandiegonorthedc.org.

How economically healthy is North County compared to other areas?

I think that the kinds of business in North County are reflective of the same kinds across the entire region. And that is a positive thing because they're diverse. We don't have an over-preponderance of, let's say, one kind of industry over another. We have manufacturing, we have service industry, we have high-tech, biotech. We have software if you want to put that in the high-tech area. We have companies like Hewlett-Packard and Sony and then you have a smaller metal manufacturer that only hires three or four people.

Right now if you want to look at the demographics, we have between 1.4 (million) and 1.5 million people. There's 2,000 square miles that is considered North County and there's roughly 49,000 businesses in the area. So we're well positioned and we're not overly burdened with one kind of industry.

Are there any weaknesses?

I think our biggest weaknesses in North County are like a lot of other places, but specifically, we have two transportation corridors, the (interstates) 15 and the 5. And if you ever try to travel those roads during the height of rush hour you know that the commute times are getting really strenuous on people.

Is that the type of thing you would get involved with?

Oh yes, we get involved in all of this. Economic development deals not only with businesses. It's all the things that go into supporting businesses. We get involved with employee quality-of-life issues. We're dealing with housing so it's affordable. We get involved with water and power because you've got to have those to run a business and to live in an area. We work closely with the colleges and the school districts to try and look at what will be the jobs in the future.

What do you think about the Oceanside stadium proposal?

We're excited. Our organization has formed a Keep the Chargers in San Diego committee to help facilitate the ongoing process of working with the Chargers and working with the city. And then helping other communities get involved, because it's going to take more than just the city of Oceanside. It's going to take a partnership between other cities and the Chargers to make that happen if it's going to happen.

So we're trying to bring the business community together with the civic leaders along with the Chargers themselves. We think it's a good possibility. It's just like everything else: Will the site work for everyone? It has to work for the city, it has to work for the county, and it has to work for the Chargers.