Saw a sad thing as I was rolling down Kettner Boulevard this morning – they’re taking the San Diego National Bank sign off its headquarters building.

San Diego National Bank was known for the Wyland mural of whales on the side of its main building and its “whale” logo. Its parent company, FBOP Inc., failed in October, making SDNB the largest local bank to fail during the recent financial crisis.

Let’s hope whoever occupies the building next will be a marine-mammal-loving organization inclined to keep and maintain this landmark mural.

Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs replaced Irwin Jacobs as company chairman  March 3 and also told shareholders he’d be taking a 25 percent reduction in salary for fiscal 2009.

Qualcomm President Steve Altman is taking the reduction too. The Fortune 500 San Diego company’s senior execs say it’s their way of showing solidarity with the rest of the employees who were asked to take a wage freeze.

The Associated Press reports that Paul Jacobs made $18.6 million last year. His base salary was about $1 million. And the company  reported net income of $341 million in its first fiscal quarter, so it’s doing relatively well despite the economy. So very good news for San Diego.

While the company is not expanding, it is planning “significant” R&D spending.

If you work at Qualcomm, what do you think?

What’s a healthy community these days? Well, one that’s financially sound and San Marcos has a balanced budget this year despite forecasting a $3 to $4 million decline in annual revenues over the next three years.

It would also have to be one that’s creating a sustainable community. And in San Marcos, the newest fire station to open (the one up on San Elijo Road) is one of only five in the nation to be LEED certified.

The CSUSM library is one of campus's newer buildings and overlooks San Marcos.

I heard these things from Mayor Jim Desmond at his state of the city address which I attended with colleagues from Cal State San Marcos March 10.

A new park was opened this past year and two more are in various stages of creation. New business tenants are opening in a development across from City Hall. (Including Pizza Nova–I have a weakness for their bread.) 

Mayor Desmond shared the credit with his council but gave a big shout-out to his city manager Paul Malone plus the former city manager Rick Gittings. (more…)

UCSD is home to the Center for US-Mexican Studies. The center strives to lead the way in social science research and economic and social policy on Mexico and U.S.-Mexican relations.

While visiting Vancouver, Canada this past weekend, I spoke to a Ph.D. in resource management and environmental studies from the University of B.C.

If my conversation with Raul Pacheco-Vega is any indication, to academics in the field of Mexican studies, the Center at UCSD is a mecca. He gets positively giddy with the idea of doing his post-doc work for this center. (more…)