SAN DIEGO.- The office representing the city of San Diego in Tijuana will continue to operate despite Mayor Bob Filner's resignation, it was confirmed this Tuesday by Mario Lopez, the Director of Bi-national affairs in San Diego.

The Government employee highlighted that during Bob Filner's administration, relations between both cities that make this bi-national region were consolidated, and that the President of the City Counsel, Todd Gloria, who will take over as Acting Mayor, will follow up on the projects both cities were working on.

Lopez considered the office's inauguration as a "paradigm shift" and a major step in the mutual recognition of how important the collaboration between the two cities is. He also pointed out that Tijuana has had an office in San Diego for years, and it wasn't until Filner's administration that San Diego was able to bring an office to Tijuana.

Mario Lopez says that since the office has been working, it has had a "great deal of acceptance" both from the community in the business sector as well as civilian organizations on both sides of the border.

Bob Filner was known for giving priority to issues that affected the border since he was a congressman, in which he represented San Diego for over 20 Years.

During his speech last Friday when he announced his resignation, Bob Filner told the City counsel members that "great relations with Mexico and Tijuana have been achieved" during his time in office, and he requested that they stay that way.

With the inauguration of the office located in downtown Tijuana, an initiative made by the democrat Bob Filner, the plan is to wager on the so-called "Mega-region" and promote the economical and cultural development of both countries.

"I don't foresee a change" Lopez highlighted. "The acting mayor Todd Gloria has publicly stated that he has a great interest in keeping relations with Tijuana strong".

In the beginning of August, Todd Gloria visited Tijuana and met with Mayor Carlos Bustamante, where they discussed the intention of continuing to promote Bi-national projects, despite Bob Filner's resignation.

For years, San Diego and Tijuana have been sharing projects that impact both sides of the border.

The Director of Bi-national Affairs highlighted that a timely follow up has been given to initiatives such as the construction of the second port of entry in the Otay Mesa area, as well as establishing the project of the Bi-national terminal, which would be a connection between the San Diego to the Tijuana International Airport.

There is also work on keeping up the proposal so that San Diego and Tijuana become candidates for the 2024 Olympics so they make it a Bi-national Event.

Although this initiative was originally discarded by the Olympic committee, due to the international rules that prevent that both cities host the event, a civilian organization in San Diego has been created to solidify the proposal and are working to make this a reality.

"A decision has been made to continue with this project to make a Bi-national proposal" he added.

"The idea is that even though the Olympics would be hosted by a single country, that does not exclude the surrounding cities, including those over the border, from being part of the Olympics, and that is the strategy that the committee is still working on" he continued to explain.

The fundamental subject being the need to convince federal authorities of increasing the budget to improve the Port of Entry infrastructure in the United States, thus improving the border crossing and the wait time.

According to information from the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), every year $7k Million dollars and 62,000 jobs are lost every year in the border region, as a consequence of long wait times at the border.

San Diego will have an extraordinary election this November to elect the city's next mayor. Lopez recognizes that Bob Filner's successor might have other priorities, but will have to value the importance of promoting the bi-national region.

"That was the agenda the majority of voters voted for in the past election", he mentioned in regards to Novembers elections, where Bob Filner won. "I believe you can interpret that most voters are interested in actually working on these types of issues"

He also pointed out that the San Diego – Tijuana relations have made the world set it's eyes on this region, and proof of that is the amount of coverage it has had in the past month from different media sources, not just locally, but internationally as well.

"These past few months have been without precedent. All of a sudden reporters, media from Spain, Germany even Singapore would show up, to report on what is happening on this side of the world"

He considers that it should be recognized that both cities have a common destiny, and should be seen as the "modus operandi" of whoever takes over the mayors office.

Bob Filner, the 35th mayor of San Diego, will officially resign this Friday at 5pm.

Editorial@sandiegored.com