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Ballpark Study Confesses: "We Hastened and Greatly Worsened the Glut"
EXTENDED Why don't you look at Los Angeles, Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio, Dallas, San Jose and ummm SAN DIEGO. As for the trends...use google guy. There is plenty to read. Here is a little bit of info for you...God is not making any more land. So the only way to go is in and up. Let that sink in for a second. Let me make it clear. My thinking on the whole process is the ends justify the means. People want to complain about downtown developers making a profit but fail to identify the developers behind their cookie cutter subdivisions and the cost of that. If people want to have a discussion on the development downtown in a more cost effective manor...so be it. But to say that the development plan did not work or is not needed is just stupid. Even more ignorant to boo the cost of this from a sprawl region. Let me put it another way. If dense urban development does not happen downtown, it is going to happen in your back yards. Take a look at Pacific Beach. What USED to be a great community of family housing is overrun with renter and duplexes in the back yards where kids played 40 years ago. Try getting in and out of places like OB or PB...it is a bitch. The reason is the street system is NOT designed to handle that kind of density. Downtown, on the other hand, IS. Just how far do you want to take the 5-805-15 expansion? 12 lanes? 15? I am happy Petco Park was built because it was one of the reasons I purchased downtown. I will be even more happy when the new football stadium goes up next to it. Not only will my property values go up but my quality of life will improve. So enjoy your time in the car on the way home to your 4bed slice of life. I will enjoy a stroll downtown and look to look at what is going to be.— July 21, 2010 7:34 p.m.
Ballpark Study Confesses: "We Hastened and Greatly Worsened the Glut"
@ Burwell - Post 87 While you take that view of migration, I have another. I was paid to move to San Diego from the east cost. Probably because they could not find someone with the same skill sets that I have. To consider someone with an MBA a slob...well that is just funny. I do think some sections of San Diego need to razed. Mainly the parts of downtown from Park to 17th and from Balboa Park to the water. @ Don - Post 89 I disagree 100% that there is no concern for the unfortunate in San Diego. But you simply cannot put these people first. The reason for this is to service the unfortunate requires money. The better the tax base you have the more money you have for programs that help others. I have mentioned where I live and where I am from. Nobody else has done the same. Odds are this is because they live in Carmel Valley or La Jolla and simply want to keep their lifestyle without the burden of growing the region. Post 87 Yes, WATER is a huge issue. Which is why the lawns in front of homes all around San Diego are unsustainable. My building has 2 4ft by 4 ft planter boxes on a concrete sidewalk. What San Diego needs to do is stop the growth as it stands today and work backwards to the core. That is all I am saying. They project San Diego to grow to 1.6M by 2030. San Diego County to 3.8M in that same time frame. THE ONLY PLACE you can put that many people is downtown without creating more harm than good. But in order to get people to move downtown, you MUST create a community. You MUST create a sense of place. This can come from retail, library's (just for you) or entertainment complexes. The other advantage to downtown is it DOES NOT require more infrastructure. It already has the trolley and coaster and by 2030 it will have HS rail to all of California. Could DT grow without Petco? Sure. But not at the pace you need it to develop. @ Paul - Post 96 I am not confusing public infrastructure with a huge subsidy to a private business because to me they are one in the same. They are simply tax dollars at work. I get little to no benefit in the I15 project but my money is paying for it. So while Petco, in your opinion, might be wasted on a couple of private business owners..I say the I15 money is being wasted on PRIVATE HOMEOWNERS. As for the population growth...it is comical you point out Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and New York.— July 21, 2010 7:34 p.m.
Ballpark Study Confesses: "We Hastened and Greatly Worsened the Glut"
EXPANDED--- As for the subject of affordable housing, I agree there needs to be more. But it should not be done in a way where those who invest top dollar are put at risk. A perfect example of this risk is how the elected 'leaders' push the homeless around without regards to the neighborhood property values. So I like the CCDC because it protects me to an extent and some politician who does not represent me can not put his trash in my front yard. Lastly, the argument that libraries are needed to provide internet access is comical. The overhead of a library is a massive waste if one of the main uses is access to a computer. San Diego should rethink how it distributes services. Operating an internet cafe for the public would be so much cheaper than operating a library that the main purpose it to provide internet.— July 20, 2010 1:56 p.m.
Ballpark Study Confesses: "We Hastened and Greatly Worsened the Glut"
@SurfPuppy619 I am simply a resident of Downtown San Diego for the last 11 years. I have watched from my window the development. FWIW, San Diego transplants make up most of the population. I come from Buffalo, NY where the backwards politics delivers ZERO results. So I know the difference. Perspective is about perspective. I have a view based on living here and other places. It sounds like you have an ignorant view of just San Diego. All I know is this. San Diego is going to grow. No denying that. It also is limited on resources. Don't think you can deny that. San Diego needs to create a dense urban core. Population trends around the US prove that the migration is going to happen back to the core. Now is the CCDC perfect or corrupt? Who knows and to be honest I really do not care. The results are all that matters. It is not like San Diego is a bastion of fiscal responsibility. Look are the sprawl issues and the cost of that. People want to bitch about Petco Park yet the taxpayer is shelling out $1.3 BILLION for the I-15 express lane project. If you add up the cost of all of the transportation infrastructure, the cost of downtown development is a drop in the bucket. The reason, I feel, why people are not adding up those numbers because it is their cars that drive to the 3rd and 4th ring burbs and have no problem wasting money on their needs. @ Don (Twit) Bauder I have yet to read of a redevelopment project that does not make someone rich. I have yet to find a redevelopment project that was done in a non-profit state of mind. If you agree that sprawl is bad, how about providing that perspective in your posts? As I said before, San Diego is known for wasting money. If you want to see what unsuccessful redevelopment looks like, take a visit to the rust belt. THAT is where true FAIL happens. Urban development takes time as in decades not years or months. You have to ride the ups and downs of the real estate market and economy. Right now it is in a slump but it will rebound. I walk the streets of downtown every.single.day. I see the small bits of improvement. I lived in the east village before there was a single place to dine, minus a grease spoon, west of 7th. Now there are several. I have watched the slow progress along Broadway between 3rd and 9th. Yes it is very slow but it is still progress. I am all for a conversation on how it could have been done better and how it can be done better going forward. However, the position that no positive product has occurred is ignorant.— July 20, 2010 1:55 p.m.
Ballpark Study Confesses: "We Hastened and Greatly Worsened the Glut"
@18, Wow..for someone who uses ignorance in a comment, you sure as heck do not know how things work. First off, again let me say the development downtown has not been perfect. However, no mater how you slice it, it is needed. Secondly, I still stand by my point that dense urban neighborhoods are better for the taxpayer overall than the SoCal sprawl that most people commenting live in. So this urban neighborhoods need some help to accelerate the progress. Why you ask? Well San Diego can not afford to continue to develop new subdivisions at the pace it has in the past. So people here do not like Petco Park...I can see that. But the fact that it has helped spur development can not be denied. Are the numbers as good as some claim right now? Maybe, maybe not. Who cares. Only a bloody fool thinks that at some point San Diego and the taxpayer is not going to better off. As for the Law School Burwell...that is a part of the mixture you twit. The Law School takes up about 40% of a city block but will put hundreds of people in that area during the day. Right now, it is pretty much 100% residential, meaning people are only around (outside of Padres games) at night. When you have a steady flow of foot traffic all day long, you increase your retail. Retail pays taxes and when added makes the neighborhood more desirable. More desirable neighborhoods lead to higher real estate prices, which in turn mean more taxes. Anyways...most of you are twits. You want to cry about how much a ballpark costs and fail to ignore the infrastructure costs for your freaking cars that make the ballpark a drop in the bucket.— July 17, 2010 5:13 p.m.
Ballpark Study Confesses: "We Hastened and Greatly Worsened the Glut"
Question for Don Bauder.... If you can get past your slant, I would love to hear your answer on the following? How much does it cost to maintain a city block in the East Village home to say 300 condos like M2i between Market and Island IN COMPARISON TO a new subdivision off the 56 that is home to 300 houses? How many more MILES of road are needed on the subdivision in comparison to the city block? When you complain about the city not filling potholes...does it not make sense to make LESS roads and therefore LESS potholes. How much water is needed for the lawns of those 300 homes? How much more is that than the city block. What about police protection...fire protection. You complain about the closing of libraries but are ignorant to the fact of the internet giving access to most of what people wanted in the library. You talk about slant but you are shilling it just fine old man.— July 17, 2010 10:38 a.m.
Ballpark Study Confesses: "We Hastened and Greatly Worsened the Glut"
Not that downtown development has been perfect but the comments here sound like a lot of whining from sprawl residents. So how much money was spent/wasted on building the massive amounts of infrastructure to support the sprawl? Was that more than the amount that people are complaining about in the East Village. I am 99.9% positive it is? How much did the 56 and 52 expansion cost? What about the 805/15 and 5 projects. Not all of the work but the money spent in just the last 10 years. Every single item that people are complaining about with the ballpark district cost is repeated around San Diego.— July 17, 2010 10:26 a.m.