Head of the City’s New Multi-Modal Section, Brian Genovese: We’ve got a lot to do
The motor vehicle is an unfortunate condition of our society and it’s not something we can easily let go based on our history. But I made a conscious decision [to live downtown] because I didn’t want to rely on a motor vehicle. I wanted to walk the walk not just talk the talk. – Brian Genovese, Head of the Multi-Modal Section at the City of San Diego’s Transportation Engineering Operations Division.
Two Fridays ago, I sat down with Brian Genovese to talk about the city’s new focus on bicycles. Genovese is a Senior Traffic Engineer in the Transportation Engineering Operations (TEO) Division in the City of San Diego. Since being made the head of the newly created “Multi-Modal Section” within the Division earlier last winter, Genovese has been busy working on getting a handle of the opportunities available to make changes within our transportation system to emphasize multi-modal transportation: bicycling, walking and transit issues.
The City’s Transportation Department has undergone some changes in its organizational structure over the last year. When Genovese was hired a little over a year ago, Linda Marabian was the Acting Deputy Director of Transportation. When Marabian became the permanent Deputy Director she reorganized the Department to emphasize the multi-modal program. The idea behind Marabian’s vision was to ensure that her department focused on all modes of transportation and not just the motor vehicle. The focus thus changed from a fragmented and reactive approach to a more proactive method of dealing with the transportation system in the city. Marabian’s vision was to bring the appropriate staff together to highlight the city’s commitment to multi-modal transportation.
The department also spent a lot of effort on the capital side of bike projects which Genovese moans is “so laborious” primarily because of the lengthy California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process which is an issue that cities around the state are having to contend with. Marabian’s focus was to implement complete streets. Genovese credits Marabian for being very insightful and placing people in areas where they would “do the greatest good”. So on his new assignment at the Multi-Modal section, Genovese says, “I think she made a wise decision.”
Originally from the Lakewood/Long Beach area, Genovese went to college at UC Irvine, often commuting by bicycle, and left with a civil engineering degree. He says the draw to civil engineering came from a childhood interest for building things and “being good at math”. As an adult, he understood the practitioner’s side of things and wanted the tools needed to build things and says that he was drawn to the idea of using existing “resources to build what he [could] for the betterment of society.” That coupled with him wanting to be a steward of the community drew him to the government sector.
After college, Genovese began working for the City of Bueno Park. After becoming a father, Genovese and his wife decided they wanted to raise their children in a different environment and moved to Oregon which, to Genovese, “seemed like a really nice place”. So the Genovese family moved up north in 1995 and lived there for sixteen years before being lured back down to Southern California’s great climate to tackle the challenges presented by the nation’s eighth largest city, San Diego.