A Few Snapshots of San Diego from Above

[craigs]

Just a few snapshots with my phone from a 25th floor hotel balcony looking out at downtown San Diego:

[EastSideHBG]

Lovely!

[plinko]

San Diego is so damn photogenic. You guys got to the Marriott and you said ‘I would like a high floor with a city view, who wants to look at the ocean?’ didn’t you?

[craigs]

Originally Posted by plinko

San Diego is so damn photogenic. You guys got to the Marriott and you said ‘I would like a high floor with a city view, who wants to look at the ocean?’ didn’t you?

Haha, city view for the win! Apparently most people want the "bay" view, but not us. Top floor, baby!

[LAsam]

SD is looking great! Only bone to pick is with that glaring surface parking lot next to Harbor Club. There has to be a plan to redevelop that, right?

[destroycreate]

Originally Posted by LAsam

SD is looking great! Only bone to pick is with that glaring surface parking lot next to Harbor Club. There has to be a plan to redevelop that, right?

I am equally shocked by that! Absolute prime development right there..

SD is my hometown and I'd argue and say that Downtown SD is the overall nicest of any west coast city. There may not be striking skyscrapers and it may be smaller, but it feels safer, cleaner, and more generally more livable than any of the major West Coast cities I've lived in, though it could use a few more grocery stores (Seattle I'd given an edge for pre-pandemic, but now it's downtown has become overrun by the Fentanyl set post WFH). The waterfront, Gaslamp District, Little Italy, and East Village have really come together and blended together super nicely. I love how alive the Gaslamp comes at night, and the historic architecture on 5th and 6th ave is pretty damn cool. Once the waterfront scene gets completed, it's going to be pretty incredible.


https://i0.wp.com/timesofsandiego.co...hwy_.jpg?ssl=1


https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/d...on.0000000.jpg



I really miss the safety aspect of SD...I've never felt nervous walking around anywhere. For some reason it just has such a comparatively low crime rate all around. Locals complain about the homeless problem but it pales in comparison to here. There's a couple of areas where they congregate and fortunately, they tend to stay there and not add blight to every street corner. You can't even drive through Beverly Hills or West Hollywood without stretches of piles of junk and tents on the sidewalk.

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by destroycreate

I am equally shocked by that! Absolute prime development right there..

SD is my hometown and I'd argue and say that Downtown SD is the overall nicest of any west coast city. There may not be striking skyscrapers and it may be smaller, but it feels safer, cleaner, and more generally more livable than any of the major West Coast cities I've lived in, though it could use a few more grocery stores (Seattle I'd given an edge for pre-pandemic, but now it's downtown has become overrun by the Fentanyl set post WFH). The waterfront, Gaslamp District, Little Italy, and East Village have really come together and blended together super nicely. I love how alive the Gaslamp comes at night, and the historic architecture on 5th and 6th ave is pretty damn cool. Once the waterfront scene gets completed, it's going to be pretty incredible.


https://i0.wp.com/timesofsandiego.co...hwy_.jpg?ssl=1


https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/d...on.0000000.jpg



I really miss the safety aspect of SD...I've never felt nervous walking around anywhere. For some reason it just has such a comparatively low crime rate all around. Locals complain about the homeless problem but it pales in comparison to here. There's a couple of areas where they congregate and fortunately, they tend to stay there and not add blight to every street corner. You can't even drive through Beverly Hills or West Hollywood without stretches of piles of junk and tents on the sidewalk.

You just never stop lying. Where in Beverly Hills or West Hollywood are stretches of junk and tents? I want an exact address and it better be bad to make another dumb comment.
I walk down Santa Monica blvd all the time from La Brea to Fairfax, never seen a tent. Where on Sunset? Oh wait....

I go through Wilshire in BH all the time. Where? Where is it?

The BH police doesn't even allow tents, they kick them out. STOP. LYING. ALREADY.

Anyways, great pics of San Diego. I've stayed at the hotel myself two years ago and had a similar view.

[craigs]

San Diego is definitely the cleanest major West Coast city, and I always felt safe walking around, no matter the hour. After sundown, the Gaslamp Quarter always seems to have tons of people out, drinking and eating well into the night. Having Petco Park right downtown definitely keeps the summer crowds coming.

[Buckeye Native 001]

[sopas ej]

Nice photos of downtown San Diego, craigs!

Originally Posted by destroycreate

There may not be striking skyscrapers and it may be smaller, but it feels safer, cleaner, and more generally more livable than any of the major West Coast cities I've lived in...

I really miss the safety aspect of SD...I've never felt nervous walking around anywhere. For some reason it just has such a comparatively low crime rate all around.

I do agree that downtown San Diego has come together really nicely although I do realize you're much younger than I am (if I'm guessing your age correctly), but I'm 52, and I remember back in the 1980s and into the 1990s when there were some parts of downtown San Diego that you didn't want to be in during the daytime, and parts you definitely didn't want to be in at night. Back then, the Gaslamp Quarter was still a "transitional" area. You can tell by the way Horton Plaza was designed that downtown was still kind of a sketchy area, parts of it not being open to the street. BTW, isn't Horton Plaza being revamped now, maybe even being demolished? I haven't been to downtown San Diego in a few years.

Anyway, I figure you're probably too young to remember downtown San Diego's really seedy period, so your perspective contrasts with mine; I guess my point is, from my own perspective, downtown San Diego has changed very greatly from what it was when I first explored it 40+ years ago---so your comments about San Diego feeling safer/cleaner to you and never feeling nervous about walking around anywhere kind of made me chuckle a little. But again, I realize you probably never experienced downtown San Diego's really seedy period.

[destroycreate]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Nice photos of downtown San Diego, craigs!





I do agree that downtown San Diego has come together really nicely although I do realize you're much younger than I am (if I'm guessing your age correctly), but I'm 52, and I remember back in the 1980s and into the 1990s when there were some parts of downtown San Diego that you didn't want to be in during the daytime, and parts you definitely didn't want to be in at night. Back then, the Gaslamp Quarter was still a "transitional" area. You can tell by the way Horton Plaza was designed that downtown was still kind of a sketchy area, parts of it not being open to the street. BTW, isn't Horton Plaza being revamped now, maybe even being demolished? I haven't been to downtown San Diego in a few years.

Anyway, I figure you're probably too young to remember downtown San Diego's really seedy period, so your perspective contrasts with mine; I guess my point is, from my own perspective, downtown San Diego has changed very greatly from what it was when I first explored it 40+ years ago---so your comments about San Diego feeling safer/cleaner to you and never feeling nervous about walking around anywhere kind of made me chuckle a little. But again, I realize you probably never experienced downtown San Diego's really seedy period.

Actually my family bought a sailboat back in 1995 (I'm 34 now) that was in the marina next to the convention center/Marriott, and we would drive down from Poway where we lived at that time and spend nearly every weekend in DTSD. I think having a European father, we were pretty unusual for SD suburbanites to be going to downtown all the time...I think my Dad was just desperate to find any sort of "city vibe" he could get because North County was so sterile. That said, I definitely remember the vibe you're speaking of. There was maybe 8-10 blocks of action on 5th but you didn't want to veer off more than a block or two. Where the ballpark is today, that was definitely sketch. I feel like after 2001 and 2002 things really started to take off. Broadway was definitely a little seedy as well compared to now. I guess I was just referring to how SD has been as an adult...it certainly is for the most part very safe.

Re: Horton Plaza, it's wild to see how derelict that place is now. I do believe it was poised for a complete rehaul and then covid hit, so I'm not sure what the status of it is now. But I remember this was considered the cool mall when I was a kid and teenager.

[destroycreate]

Originally Posted by LA21st

You just never stop lying. Where in Beverly Hills or West Hollywood are stretches of junk and tents? I want an exact address and it better be bad to make another dumb comment.
I walk down Santa Monica blvd all the time from La Brea to Fairfax, never seen a tent. Where on Sunset? Oh wait....

I go through Wilshire in BH all the time. Where? Where is it?

The BH police doesn't even allow tents, they kick them out. STOP. LYING. ALREADY.

Anyways, great pics of San Diego. I've stayed at the hotel myself two years ago and had a similar view.

I find it so funny you are dead-set in policing the opinions of others while trying to prove to people on here that LA doesn't have a severe homeless problem (that's now also creeping into historically nice/safe areas), when 99% of everybody but you agrees that it is. Go onto any subreddit, message board for LA or news site, and itsathing.mp4

I'm not going to chase around for photos and google map links for a teen that lives in Thousand Oaks like I have in the past. I live *in* the core of the city and pass through these areas every day, broski. I actually live 100ft down from Wilshire Blvd (and you're right, no encampments on Wilshire in BH, those tents are just a bit further East scattered alongside LACMA and the La Brea Tar Pits right on this beautiful thrufare).

Let's stay focused on SD now.

[Murphy de la Sucre]

Yea San Diego do look like a California version of Miami, what a weird sentence to state.

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by destroycreate

I find it so funny you are dead-set in policing the opinions of others while trying to prove to people on here that LA doesn't have a severe homeless problem (that's now also creeping into historically nice/safe areas), when 99% of everybody but you agrees that it is. Go onto any subreddit, message board for LA or news site, and itsathing.mp4

I'm not going to chase around for photos and google map links for a 16 year old who lives in Thousand Oaks. I live *in* the core of the city and pass through these areas every day, broski. I actually live 100ft down from Wilshire Blvd (and you're right, no encampments on Wilshire in BH, those tents are just a bit further East scattered alongside LACMA and the La Brea Tar Pits right on this beautiful thrufare).

Let's stay focused on SD now.

Because you are never honest. And you just admitted you lied about BH. Why not be truthful in the first place? I never said it doesn't have a homeless problem. But you (and others) lie to make things worse than they are.
Policing opinions? No, I'm correcting a lie. It's not a opinion to say Beverly Hills has all these tents when the city doesn't even allow it.

Next time, just be honest. That's all I ask. It's not that hard.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Nice photos of downtown San Diego, craigs!

Thanks!

We're the same age, and I have the same memories. My Dad dragged me along on a business trip to SD in summer 1985, and we stayed at what is today the Westgate hotel downtown. There was a full-bore skid row not far from the hotel, in what is today the Gaslamp Quarter. It was shocking to a suburban kid at the time--the homeless were living every bit as badly then as they do today, but without the tents to hide inside. Horton Plaza was built already, but it didn't open for another couple weeks after we left. Honestly, I wouldn't have cared about a mall back then, anyway. I had already explored Boston, New York, DC, etc. by that time in my life and loved them all, but San Diego wasn't vibrant then. My Dad gave me $40 a day, and I used it all taking taxis so I could spend my days in Mission Beach. Downtown has come a long, long way in subsequent years.

Originally Posted by LA21st

Because you are never honest. And you just admitted you lied about BH. Why not be truthful in the first place? I never said it doesn't have a homeless problem. But you (and others) lie to make things worse than they are.
Policing opinions? No, I'm correcting a lie. It's not a opinion to say Beverly Hills has all these tents when the city doesn't even allow it.

Next time, just be honest. That's all I ask. It's not that hard.

This is a photo thread about San Diego that I posted. Please take any arguments elsewhere.

[Streamliner]

As a local, it's nice to hear outsiders say how clean and nice downtown SD is. Locals love to complain about it, though I guess locals of any place love to do that.

That parking lot has had proposals on it for seemingly as long as I've been on this forum. I don't know why it never got developed. Comic Con will use it sometimes for overflow events. I am particularly looking forward to the redevelopment of Seaport Village (leftmost low-rise area in the first photo). Destroycreate posted some good renders there. I believe the stack of dishes tower is designed by BIG.

As for nightlife, I think Little Italy at the north edge of downtown has edged out Gaslamp. The last few times I went there it was buzzing with activity, and not just the bar/club crowd you see in the Gaslamp. There's families, old people, tourists, locals. Everyone seems to hang out there now.

[SLO]

Nice shots, downtown SD just keeps slowly adding buildings mostly residential and hotel, but thats good. 20 years ago it was pretty sleepy down there, but its come along nicely.

[Doady]

San Diego looks like a beautiful city from above, and I am sure it is beautiful from the ground as well.

I am always pointing my camera upward so it is always interesting to see cities from a different perspective.

[geomorph]

You had a nice variety of skies during your stay!

[Rooted Arborial]

I have not been to San Diego, but I have always wondered why the skyline looks so uninspired. I looked at these images hoping I might be surprised, but I

still am struck by how much this downtown looks like a rather forgettable suburban corporate accumulation.

So, I did a little digging because I can't believe the 8th largest city in the US would lack someone with a better sense of design. There are a few larger towers

there which stand out from the majority which look crudely truncated and blocky. It is a shame that even Helmut Jahn was apparently beaten down in this

city.

I wondered. Is it the strong presence of the military? is it the tourism? Is the city just a stopping off point on journeys to other places?

The worst of the bunch of less than inspiring designs is the cluster known as Emerald Plaza.

So, I did some more digging. I went around on a brief Google street view tour and the city looked better. Then, I did some reading about the city and I think I

found my answer.

The airport is right next to the downtown.

Apparently, in San Diego, the sky IS the limit. Air traffic has officially stunted the ability of this city's skyline to soar.

San Diego's skyline is a very good example of what can happen when urban planning lacked sufficient vision and the seeming inescapable result seems stunted.

I hope it works much better at ground level.