Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | S | San Diego Business Journal

Frye claims her activism doesn't mean she's anti-business.

Article Excerpt
City Councilwoman Donna Frye--the late entrant in the Nov. 2 San Diego mayoral race as a write-in candidate--made her name as an environmental activist. But that doesn't mean she's anti-business.

"I am a small business owner," said Frye, 52, of Clairemont, who does the books and some ordering for Skip Frye Surfboards in Linda Vista, the shop she runs with her husband.

"I have a great relationship with small businesses, and large ones, too. On Monday, I had a meeting with the Chamber of Commerce. I work with them on a lot of different projects, renewable energies, working with SDG&E. We've got bankers and developers together to start funding renewable projects."

Renewable energy will be a key to stimulating and attracting business to San Diego, Frye said.

"If we commit as a city, I believe that manufacturing companies will start coming into San Diego to start producing chips and panels for solar," she said. "These are decent-paying jobs and would attract industry. It seems like everything is being shipped out. I'd like to get our industrial lands back to doing industrial things.

"But there are obstacles.

"We need to do a whole lot better job of lobbying and gutting legislation passed in Sacramento that allows municipalities to increase the cap on net metering as an incentive for people to use solar," she said. "The upfront costs are more expensive.

"Builders are getting excited about it, with the cost of gas, the electricity spiking up, of not having that fluctuation," she said. "You'd have better control of what the costs will be in energy with solar."

Affordable housing is another obstacle in attracting business to San Diego, said Frye.

"It's hard to attract employees if they can't afford to live in the city," she said.

But there are limits to how much new housing the city can support, said Frye.

"We're running out of land, so there are only so many places you can build."

Her solution?

"First thing, we need to honestly identify what the impacts are from new growth and development," Frye said. "Too often, we continue to grow and build and...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!