Blurred Borders - International Community Foundation

the border region necessitate taking a harder look at how one can make a difference,
particularly in the San Diego/Baja California region where the needs are so great. With the
growing need for cross-border collaboration among the non-profit organizations on both sides
of the border, expanded philanthropy among the region’s funders is also needed --including
foundations (community, corporate, family), corporations, government and individuals.
We Need to Focus on Our Collective Regional Assets:
It is easy to dwell on the wide-ranging problems and challenges as opposed to focusing on our
collective assets as a binational region. San Diego and Tijuana are blessed with an ideal climate,
geographical location along the Pacific Ocean, proximity to major port facilities, and a diverse
economic base that continues to attract skilled workers from around the world. Each, city also
has their own unique assets and strengths that complement the relative weaknesses of the
other. If the collective region is to prosper, it is critical that these mutual strengths and
weaknesses are better understood by civic leaders to promote the San Diego-Baja California
region’s competitive advantage.
Much More Needs to be Learned About the San Diego-Tijuana Border:
The U.S-Mexico Border is the front line where the impacts of globalization and human
migration collide along the geo-political fault line of the industrialized and developing world.
Nowhere else on earth are the contrasts and contradictions so great as along the San
Diego/Tijuana border. In this sense, the San Diego-Tijuana border region is a living laboratory
for research on issues of urban poverty, migrant health and education issues, as well as class
and socio-economic issues arising from growing levels of economic disparity.
The San Diego-Tijuana region is also endowed with a number of important academic and
research institutions that are making significant contributions to increasing the collective
knowledge and understanding of our border region, including: San Diego State University’s
Institute for Regional Studies of the Californias; the University of California, San Diego’s Center
for U.S.-Mexican Studies; the University of San Diego’s Transborder Institute; and California
State University-San Marcos’s Border Pedagogy Literacy Institute; the Universidad
Iberoamericana; and the Colegio de la Frontera Norte (COLEF). Collectively, these institutions
are undertaking research and initiating a wide range of border-specific programs and initiatives
in the areas of urban and regional planning, education, health, and the environment. More
needs to be done to support these programs through increased funding.
Measuring Our Progress is Critical:
In November 2000 the San Diego Dialogue released their study entitled “San Diego-Baja
California Global Engagement” that provided a benchmark for the current state of our border
region as well as recommendations for future binational civic engagement. The events of 9/11
changed some of the underlying assumptions in the report but not its overall vision. As the San
Diego-Tijuana border region continues to grow, so does the need to measure binational
progress specific to the level of civic engagement, job creation, and the quality of life measured
in the areas of education, the environment, health and human services, and arts and culture.
Here it is recommended that a “State of the San Diego-Baja California Border Region” be
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