The Start article of this issue is based upon Little Italy's charm and its unique neighborhood character in San Diego.  I would like to say a few words about this discussion and how it will guide the activities of the new Board of Directors.

Little Italy's charm is based upon its neighborhood character, its deep history of the working people that have lived here and raised their families here, the human scale of its buildings, its spiritual ties to the street and its proximity to the San Diego waterfront.  In a city as relatively young as San Diego, having a history that dates back even 100 years is significant. This neighborhood has been around that long.

Our responsibilities are to continue the fine traditions of this neighborhood.  We have done so over the past few years by creating the Business Improvement District in 1996, by the property owner vote to create the Maintenance Assessment District in the summer of 2000 and the creation of the Association Design Review Committee in 1999.  Each plays an important function in keeping the character of Little Italy.  The BID funds the Association programs and capitalized the corporation of business and property owners in Little Italy.  The BID has also been instrumental in

attracting hundreds of thousands of public improvement grants over the past five years.  The Maintenance Assessment District provides over 1/4 million dollars per year in funding for enhanced services to sweep the sidewalks and gutter, painting out grafitti, planting and watering trees and shrubs and provides for general beautification services.  The Design Review Committee reviews all new developments, (mostly on former parking lots), to insure that the scale of the neighborhood is maintained.

Little Italy is changing before our eyes.  The quality and quantity of development in this community over the last five years is unprecedented since before World War II.  We have seen ourselves as one of the remaining Little Italys in North America and have rallied around that sense of identity.  We have used the assets built into this neighborhood to market and promote the glory of its history as well as the offerings of the present.  We have understood that to be a good urban neighborhood, you must maintain programs that provide for clean, safe and beautiful services.  We understand that to move in the direction that we want to move, we must manage our public rights of way as a Mall management company

would run a mall.  We have understood that design of our public amenities and the new structures, will increasingly become the elements that re-define our identity.

We have the resposibility to accommodate not only the business needs, but our cultural and historic needs.  The work around the Piazza Basilone is not only a tribute to the boys and families that sacrificed their lives for this country but also pays honor, in a neighborhood way, to all veterans that ever served this country.  We cannot fathom the horror and pain that these young men and their families suffered through, we can only pay tribute and thank them every day.  The Piazza will be that daily reminder.

We have the responsibility to need to understand that our function is changing and evolving.  Though we started out as a corporation dedicated to business promotion, we now encourage the community to help out at Washington Elementary School.  The School, as Our Lady of the Rosary Church and many

of the businesses along India Street are the foundation of this neighborhood and must be consistently supported as they grow into the next century.

We have heard a lot about "the City of Villages" concept in San Diego.  Mayor Dick Murphy, the City Council, the Planning Department and Supervisors Ron Roberts and Greg Cox of the Board of Supervisors are all talking about the need to plan for new people, to adhere to policies of "Smart Growth".  I would offer an alternative term, namely, "Dynamic Density".   What a suburban housing developer or single story commercial developer sees as "smart growth" is based upon their interests in business.  They are just as smart as others, though their style of planning will not be conducive toward accommodating the millions of new people expected in California.

In Little Italy, we are not afraid of density, in fact we embrace it.  What makes