One of the virtues of the Opinion & Comment page of this newspaper is that it attracts the widest, most diverse range of opinions from people throughout the San Diego area.

Some opinions reflect a careful analysis of the subject issue; others fall far short of that attribute.

For example, in one recent issue there was an opinion piece by Julie Meier Wright of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. talking about the negative impact the high cost of housing will have on our region’s economic prosperity. Hers was a very reasoned essay on the need for all of us to get in the faces of our appointed and elected officials to support high-quality growth in order to ensure an adequate supply of housing for the employees who work in our community.

Parenthetically, on that same page was a letter to the editor by one of our community’s leading malcontents decrying the concept of a new library for downtown San Diego being built by tax funds and suggesting that the library proponents build it with their own money “just like in New York.” New York, of course, is a sterling example of what we want San Diego to become.

Through such public discourse about these and the myriad development issues that face San Diego, our community will require powerful and insightful political leadership in the short-term future by people who understand how high-quality growth contributes to the economic prosperity of us all.

In particular, the next mayor of our city will need to be clear and unambiguous about the need for quality development and have the political muscle to lead our city to achieve its economic destiny. Much of that development has begun and needs to continue to be in downtown San Diego — the economic and cultural core of the entire region.

For example, the San Diego Padres ballpark, now in the initial phases of site preparation and construction after months of costly delays, is paving the way for a massive redevelopment of the city’s dilapidated East Village neighborhood. Nobody much remembers what the area that now surrounds Horton Plaza looked like before that downtown shopping center opened a decade and a half ago. Likewise, I predict not too many years hence that we will not remember East Village as it exists today. Rather, we’ll soon take for granted the dynamic entertainment, residential and commercial neighborhood this area will have become.

While I am not as ardent a supporter of a new downtown library as many are, I do recognize the merit of having a state-of-the-art facility that not only serves people who need access to the resources only a quality library can provide but also makes a statement about community identity that a central library can uniquely express. As a region, we are not and must never become a mishmash of suburban villages having no central identity. A new central library can help prevent us from becoming so.

The city of San Diego’s administrative complex and adjacent performing arts and convention complex likewise needs to be replaced in order to better serve the city that San Diego has become since the complex was built nearly 40 years ago. Some have suggested that the civic center be moved elsewhere, but its present location is not the problem; rather it’s a valuable advantage.

The existing structures need to be razed and replaced with a facility that will house the leadership and administrative workings of a new and rapidly changing city.

Our political leaders, in particular the next mayor, need to realize that downtown San Diego actually has the most potential for hosting the bulk of quality development our region needs. There is a shrinking supply of developable land left in the more desirable suburban locations. Meanwhile, the redevelopment opportunities downtown are abounding. The next mayor and others need to have the experience and professional background to recognize that potential and see to it that high-quality development continues to characterize our new downtown.

It also would help if the next mayor is given the tools he needs to get the job done. Our present council-manager form of government, otherwise known as the weak-mayor system, might work just fine for smaller burgs where elected officials can serve and still keep their day jobs. But our city requires full-time elected leaders, and the time has long since arrived when we need to adopt a system of governance that equips our city’s top elected official with the executive powers that heretofore have been exercised by an appointed professional administrator. We need to grow up, San Diego.