Opinion: As Washington pulls back, it’s time for San Diego to bet on itself

As the first year of the second Trump administration draws to a close, San Diegans are taking stock of how new federal priorities have impacted the region. 

Yet this moment demands more than simple reflection or a singular focus on Washington. As larger policy, technological and economic forces exert new pressures, how local leaders respond will critically shape San Diego’s future. 

The arrival of a new White House in January wrought immediate change. The detention and deportation of unauthorized immigrants have roiled workplaces and communities. Dramatic proposed cuts in federal funding for basic science have jeopardized the region’s world-class universities and biotech institutions. High and unpredictable tariffs have introduced uncertainties for businesses. And local governments and nonprofits are struggling to meet residents’ basic food, health and shelter needs as Washington trims support for all three.

These effects have also resurfaced longer-running challenges. The region’s economy is slowing; the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp shows that several key innovation industries have been shedding jobs. Upward mobility has stalled; Harvard University’s Opportunity Insights finds that among the nation’s 50 largest regions, San Diego registered the third-largest decline in income mobility for children born to low-income parents. The region is projected to begin losing population, thanks in part to increasing unaffordability and uneven economic opportunity.

In short, 2025 revealed that change is constant, and inaction is not an option. 

The good news is that San Diegans have confronted big challenges before. As the region faced massive defense job cuts after the end of the Cold War, local leaders unleashed a new wave of investment in science and technology. As the region confronted the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders joined forces to protect and support local residents and businesses. 

However, San Diego is not alone. Other U.S. regions are also striving to adapt. As a new year approaches, San Diego leaders should find inspiration not only in past successes, but also in a growing number of peer regions that have worked in new ways over the past decade to design, finance and deliver “big bets” on quality growth and opportunity.

In Chicago, philanthropic, business, government, university and nonprofit leaders developed a strategy to make the region a world leader in quantum computing while addressing historic inequalities. The result is a massive quantum computing park in Chicago’s South Side, generating new quality jobs and economic activity in a long-disinvested community. 

In Minneapolis-St. Paul, a cross-sector group of regional leaders co-designed the Groundbreak Coalition, mobilizing more than $1 billion in private and public capital to close longstanding economic gaps by race and neighborhood.

What’s the secret? These regions have built four critical capabilities: They forge a common vision to advance inclusive prosperity. They build cross-sector teams, both across the region and with state and federal leaders. They secure capital to finance their efforts. And they execute, designing, overseeing and coordinating initiatives to deliver on their collective ambitions. 

San Diegans can learn from these regions to respond to policy and economic headwinds and capitalize on significant new opportunities: new federal investments in maritime defense capabilities; reshoring of pharmaceutical research and production facilities; billions in statewide investment for clean energy; and the potential for a new public university serving the South Bay, to name a few.

To truly deliver on San Diego’s potential will require a “whole of region” effort. San Diego leaders are already beginning to collaborate in new ways. Three major philanthropic partners — San Diego Foundation, Prebys Foundation and Price Philanthropies — have joined to support vulnerable San Diegans. Cross-sector leaders, convened by our two organizations, the Policy & Innovation Center and the Brookings Institution, recently explored other ways the region might collectively leverage emerging opportunities to its long-term benefit. 

Washington’s impacts on the region will inevitably wax and wane. What’s known is that San Diegans have a track record of taking care of each other. As we have in the past, San Diego leaders can come together in 2026 to make bigger collective bets on a vibrant, inclusive future. 

Wier is chief policy and strategy officer at the Policy & Innovation Center and lives in San Diego. Liu is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia.