IKHRATA DOOMED BY HIS DISDAIN FOR POLITICS

The announcement by Hasan Ikhrata that he would step down as CEO of the San Diego Association of Governments at year’s end after running the region’s lead transportation planning agency since late 2018 came as no surprise. His accomplishments include completing a long-planned trolley line connecting Old Town to La Jolla during the pandemic; winning funding for an urgently needed project to improve and preserve the Los Angelessan Diego-san Luis Obispo (LOSSAN) rail corridor; building momentum for the economy-boosting Otay Mesa East Port of Entry project; and securing $1.5 billion in federal and state grants. But last November, he said he didn’t want to lead SANDAG if its board didn’t support his ambitious vision of a “multimodal” approach — expanding transit and all types of travel to respond to the climate emergency.

In an interview with two editorial writers, Ikhrata said his accomplishments came “despite having a dysfunctional board” — a knock he said applied to its Democrats as well as the Republicans who were his loudest critics. This is extremely telling and gets to a crucial but rarely cited fact: There is a gap not just between the parties in how to respond to a changing climate but also between pragmatic and deeply progressive liberals. This was plain on two huge issues: his push for a bold $160 billion commuter rail program and for per-mile fees on drivers.

The rail plan had the nominal support of a SANDAG board majority and the active support of environmentalists and construction unions. But

Ikhrata was never able to effectively answer how the project would escape the same complicating factors — starting with extreme costs and difficulties in securing land for track routes — that have led to endless delays of the state’s high-speed rail project and made it a target of national derision. Without help from local elected officials, advocates weren’t even able to get enough signatures to place an initial sales-tax hike to pay for the project on the ballot.

The per-mile fee may be an inevitable necessity as electric vehicle mandates make fuel tax revenue dwindle. But Ikhrata saw it as a good idea in the here and now to discourage driving. This won the applause of environmentalists but was disavowed by high-profile Democrats like San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria. What did win near-universal applause? Initiatives like Youth Opportunity Passes, which gave those 18 and under unlimited free rides on the bus, Trolley, COASTER and SPRINTER, tripling monthly transit use among the young.

Alas, when it comes to the dramatic changes in human behavior needed to respond to the climate emergency, this is a triumph that will pay off to a greater extent over decades, and only if these riders find transit reliable, convenient and safe as adults. The next SANDAG CEO will almost certainly have the same medium- and long-term goals as Ikhrata. But visionary leaders need to build political support, not to disdain the task, so that their ambitions become actuality. That Ikhrata didn’t appreciate and accept this will be a central part of his legacy.