Development Firm Started by Cawthorne

Former San Diego Urban League President Herb Cawthorne unveiled his new venture Friday--a for-profit development company “with a social philosophy.�

In a luncheon speech Friday, Cawthorne, who resigned his Urban League post June 7 amid rumors of financial improprieties and conflict within the organization, championed free enterprise as a means of solving inner-city problems.

Cawthorne said economic development is the key issue for minorities and backed the creation of “free enterprise zones.� Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp recently proposed tax breaks and other incentives for businesses relocating to such zones in underdeveloped neighborhoods.

“Capital will not come here because it is sentimental,� Cawthorne told an audience of community leaders and corporate executives. “Capital will come because it gets a return. I want to make the return here better than any place else in San Diego.�

Looking for Permanent Home

The newly established Cawthorne Co. will “improve the opportunity to create wealth in (the) community� by developing Southeast San Diego, Cawthorne said. The business, now operating out of a church, is still looking for a permanent home, he said.

Last year, Cawthorne opposed tough development curbs sought by slow-growth activists and argued in favor of a less restrictive proposal.

Business investment can cure many of the social ills afflicting San Diego, Cawthorne said. “Education and health care are not social work problems, they are business and economic problems,� he said in his speech before the Logan Heights Family Health Center Foundation. “Social work is important, but you feel like you are walking on a treadmill,� he later added.

Cawthorne refused comment on his resignation from the Urban League, and on last Tuesday’s departure of league chairwoman Carolyn Smith after a four-week tenure. He has previously said that Smith left because she lacked the support of Urban League board members.

‘Move Beyond Controversy’

“The Urban league was not made up of Herb Cawthorne, or of any single member of the board,� Cawthorne said in his address. “It should move beyond controversy to provide the services needed in the community.�

School Principal Cecilia Estrada introduced Cawthorne as “a man who will always be controversial because he is willing to take risks.� She later said she was referring to Cawthorne’s stands on public issues, rather than to “that Urban League fight.�

Estrada said Cawthorne “is very effective, and his ideas are excellent, but he just takes on the issues that aren’t popular with the majority.�

Cawthorne pledged Friday to start an association of small businessmen in free enterprise zones, and to seek such zone designations for parts of the downtown and much of Southeast San Diego. He also said he would lobby in Sacramento and Washington to require greater bank lending in the poor neighborhoods, and seek to revitalize Market Street.

“If San Diego is to remain a strong and powerful city, if its businesses are to continue to grow . . . you need the black and the Hispanic community,� Cawthorne said. “You cannot have one part of the community that’s bleeding.�