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eburress Aug 21, 2010 5:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SDfan (Post 4954493)
20 million dollars? Jesus.

And what is going to happen to all of those investments once HSR comes downtown and they've buried/lowered all of the train traffic below ground?

I guess this is an interim solution. Expensive still...

Rest easy - HSR is never coming downtown. Never.

That's what I thought though. $20M+ for intersection improvements seems like a lot of money.

sandiegodweller Aug 22, 2010 2:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Filambata (Post 4945639)
The renderings of the Two America Plaza look awesome. I love how OAP is reflecting off of TAP!

http://www.scb.com/images/project/74...reflective.jpghttp://www.scb.com/images/project/74...reflective.jpg

The Irvine Company is defaulting on downtown buildings. As someone else mentioned, both of these are dead.

bmfarley Aug 22, 2010 7:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eburress (Post 4955242)
Rest easy - HSR is never coming downtown. Never.

That's what I thought though. $20M+ for intersection improvements seems like a lot of money.

When all is taken into consideration.... probably not. Several intersctions will have major improvements. One street will be converted from 2-way to 1-way. A couple streets might be widened a marginal amount at crossings to provide room for raised center medians... and relocated and new crossing gates installed. Additionally, a lot of communications equipment located along railway to tell gates when to go up or down need to be relocated too... or new altogether.

HurricaneHugo Aug 23, 2010 6:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Derek (Post 4952499)
I was looking forward to watching the Beavers play at PGE Park next year when I move to Portland... :(



I guess I'll have to stick to the MLS team they're getting and the Trail Blazers. :(

Even if the Beavers stay in Portland they won't play in PGE Park anymore as it's being converted to soccer/football only.

Also if I were CEO of the Padres I'd move the Padres to somewhere in southern Riverside county to try to steal some of the Angels fanbase.

HurricaneHugo Aug 23, 2010 6:38 AM

This is a cool video of our freeways in '75:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7FtlrQr7nk&fmt=6

And a cool picture site:

http://members.cox.net/mkpl2/hist/sdhist.html

Derek Aug 23, 2010 6:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HurricaneHugo (Post 4956543)
Even if the Beavers stay in Portland they won't play in PGE Park anymore as it's being converted to soccer/football only.

Also if I were CEO of the Padres I'd move the Padres to somewhere in southern Riverside county to try to steal some of the Angels fanbase.



Oh I know that, I was just being sarcastic. :P


I'm looking forward to the MLS coming to Portland! :D




Why would you move the Padres?!!??! Did you mean Beavers? :P

Derek Aug 23, 2010 7:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HurricaneHugo (Post 4956544)
This is a cool video of our freeways in '75:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7FtlrQr7nk&fmt=6

And a cool picture site:

http://members.cox.net/mkpl2/hist/sdhist.html



That was freaking awesome! Especially the video!

SDfan Aug 23, 2010 6:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HurricaneHugo (Post 4956544)
This is a cool video of our freeways in '75:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7FtlrQr7nk&fmt=6

And a cool picture site:

http://members.cox.net/mkpl2/hist/sdhist.html


The video really shows you how little some things have changed in SD. 35 years and some of those shots are my commute to a "T".

Thank you for sharing.

staplesla Aug 31, 2010 3:29 PM

Plaza plan for Balboa Park unveiled
 
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs unveiled a $33 million plan Monday to remove cars from Balboa Park’s main square, but the price for creating a pedestrian-only zone might be to charge for parking in the park for the first time.

The plan, which would require City Council approval, calls for removing the 67 parking spaces in the Plaza de Panama and building a two-level parking garage with up to 900 spaces south of the Spreckels Organ Pavilion.

Jacobs, who has donated tens of millions of dollars to local causes, said he has formed an 11-member committee to raise the necessary funds. But he said if they come up short, the city might have to issue a bond and charge for parking in the garage to cover bond payments. Neither Jacobs nor any of his committee publicly pledged what they will contribute to the effort. But the group has several generous donors who have backed other park improvements.

“There are many people who would prefer not (to pay for parking),” Jacobs said. But considering the time wasted in looking for spaces on busy days, “I would much prefer to pay a parking fee if it comes down to that.”

Sanders and Jacobs want to complete the transformation in time for the 2015 centennial of the Panama-California Exposition that made the park into the city’s crown jewel and cultural hub it is today.

The focus Monday was not on parking fees but on the vision of returning the plaza to what it was like as a pedestrian-only zone for the 1915 exposition and the 1935-36 California Pacific International Exposition that left behind the Old Globe Theatre, Starlight Bowl and the Air & Space Museum.

Parking has been allowed in the plaza since 1917 — aside from during the two World Wars, when the park was taken over by soldiers and sailors — and many master plans have called in vain for it to be eliminated.

“The plaza was designed as a grand, ceremonial space, a gathering place for visitors and a hub of cultural activities in the heart of Balboa Park,” Sanders said. “As you can see, previous generations traded in that vision and all they got in return was a few dozen parking spots and a steady drone of automobiles searching for an empty spot.”

The city last tried to impose a $5 parking fee in Balboa Park and at the beaches to fill a budget hole in 1993. But public outcries prompted the City Council to reverse itself and raise parking fines instead.

This time, charging for parking in a garage might be acceptable, said park activist Betty Peabody, who sits on Jacobs’ committee representing the Friends of Balboa Park.

“There’s a time and place for everything,” she said.

Leo Wilson, chairman of the Uptown Planners group that will review the Jacobs plan, said parking fees in a garage might be acceptable if free spaces continue to be available elsewhere.

“I’m not necessarily putting a big, red flag up,” Wilson said.

Richard Rider, chairman of San Diego Tax Fighters, said he also could accept a parking charge but cautioned that the city will have to find alternate funding sources if parking revenues come up short.

The parking issue is just one of many that Jacobs and his committee will have to address as public presentations begin next month before the Balboa Park Committee. Some key areas include:

• Traffic: The plan envisions only eastbound traffic across the Cabrillo Bridge. Visitors would have to exit via Presidents Way and Park Boulevard and return on surface streets or freeways to their westside origins.

• Fountain: Under the proposal, the fountain donated by the late Mary Elizabeth North in the 1990s would be moved from the center of the plaza to the Plaza de California outside the San Diego Museum of Man. Mark Johnson of Civitas, who has been hired to develop the Jacobs plan, said the fountain, while called for in the park master plan, is not typical of Spanish-style plazas and was not a feature in the park at the time of the expositions.

• Public art: Jacobs said the plaza might be a suitable place for the sculptures in the San Diego Museum of Art’s sculpture garden. If that takes place, museum board President Tom Gildred, a member of Jacobs’ committee, said the museum could then proceed to build a new wing — something park supporters have supported as long as it is modeled after the 1915 Science of Man Building that was demolished in the 1960s to make way for the museum’s present west wing.

• Future plaza: If the Plaza de Panama becomes pedestrian only, some park activists want to move on to another goal in the park master plan and replace parking at the Pan American Plaza with reconstruction of the fountains and landscaping that existed at the 1935-36 exposition. The new garage would be large enough to compensate for lost parking in this area outside the Starlight Bowl and Air & Space Museum.

Vicki Granowitz, former chairwoman of the Balboa Park Committee, said the review process is as important as the design details.

“We need a very robust public process,” she said.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2...park-unveiled/

http://media.signonsandiego.com/img/...c82dae770b93ac

brantw Aug 31, 2010 11:26 PM

Meh, I wish we could get some new buildings.

voice of reason Sep 1, 2010 4:55 AM

Yea, lets start a movement to get those shitty old buildings at the park torn down and get some modern stuff up. I hear they are tearing down that crap in Rome and building highrises. Cool!

Jobohimself Sep 1, 2010 5:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by voice of reason (Post 4966779)
Yea, lets start a movement to get those shitty old buildings at the park torn down and get some modern stuff up. I hear they are tearing down that crap in Rome and building highrises. Cool!


Nice to see your tactless negativity is still plaguing this board, VOR. :rolleyes:

brantw Sep 1, 2010 2:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by voice of reason (Post 4966779)
Yea, lets start a movement to get those shitty old buildings at the park torn down and get some modern stuff up. I hear they are tearing down that crap in Rome and building highrises. Cool!

Idiot, I wasn't even referring to Balboa Park.

staplesla Sep 1, 2010 4:18 PM

For riders on the San Diego Trolley’s aging Blue Line, “green with envy” has its own unique meaning.

After all, the relatively new Green Line, which runs from Old Town to Santee, has the brightest and most comfortable trolley cars. You walk into them; you don’t climb up into them. They glide like butter over the rails. The stations are airy and sheltered from sun and the occasional storm.

“The rest of the riders look at the Green Line and say, ‘When do I get that?’ ” said Paul Jablonski, CEO of the Metropolitan Transit system.

And now there is an answer: Over the next three years.

This month, MTS and its engineering and planning partner SANDAG will start shelling out $600 million in a mix of state, local and federal funds to bring the 30-year-old Blue Line and its slightly younger sibling, the Orange Line, up to Green Line standards.

The fabled but threadbare Blue Line launched the county’s trolley system, from downtown to San Ysidro, on the cheap in 1981. “There wasn’t a whole lot thrown at it to start the south (Blue) line,” says E. Wayne Terry, chief operating officer of the MTS rail division. “We’re going back and making the Blue Line right.”

What will it take to make it “right”?

It means replacing a lot of the 100-year-old railroad ties and mismatched rails. It means replacing the overhead power lines that keep breaking. It means installing a fiber-optic communication line for security cameras and “next train” boards. It means rebuilding all of the stations so they can accommodate the “low floor” trains used on the Green Line.

And as that work is completed, MTS will be retiring the system’s original train cars, which have logged as much as 2 million miles each — replacing them with 57 new low-floor cars being built by Siemens USA in Sacramento at a cost of $233 million.

The newer cars are not only convenient, officials say, they are key to running the entire system on time.

On low-floor cars, commuters, wheelchair users, moms with strollers and cyclists all board together. On the older trains, some 12,000 wheelchairs a month must use antiquated, slow lifts to get onboard. They account for 70 percent of the system’s late trains, officials say.

There’s even a bonus for Green Line riders in all this. Once all three lines are compatible, the Green Line will be extended to the 12th and Imperial station. Riders will no longer need to get off in Old Town and switch trains.

The Trolley Renewal Project, as it is called, has taken three years of planning for SANDAG engineer John W. Haggerty and MTS’ Terry and their teams. The trolleys will be running during construction; much of the work will take place late at night, when ridership is at its lowest.

“Quite a ballet we’ve got going here,” said SANDAG’s Haggerty.

“We’ve been through nine service startups,” says Terry. “This is by far more intense and aggressive than any we’ve done.”

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2...ing-beefed-up/

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4074/...08cf312e_z.jpg

Filambata Sep 2, 2010 2:09 AM

Exciting!
 
I'm so excited for the San Diego region, especially for the next five years. There are so many projects going on or about to start that will really make our region even more wonderful and competitive!!

-San Diego Central Library
-North Embarcadero Visionary Plan, Phase I
-Cruise Ship Terminal Expansion
-Convention Center Expansion
-Balboa Park Improvements
-New Chargers Stadium(?)
-San Diego Civic Center(?)
-Mid-Coast Trolley Expansion
-Blue/Orange Line Trolley Upgrades
-Mercado del Barrio Commercial/Residential Project
-San Diego International Airport Expansion
-SR-905 Extension
-San Ysidro Port of Entry Expansion/Upgrades
-UCSD Campus/Medical Facility Construction
-San Diego Community College District Construction
-Chula Vista Bayfront Master Plan
-San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge Lighting

:banana: :banana: :banana:

OneMetropolis Sep 2, 2010 2:36 AM

^^^^^
And here's a look at reality.



-North Embarcadero Visionary Plan, Phase I: (Never Happening)
-Convention Center Expansion: (No Funds)
-Balboa Park Improvements: (No Funds)
-New Chargers Stadium: (Not Likely)
-San Diego Civic Center: (Good as Dead)
-Mid-Coast Trolley Expansion: (not in our life-times)
-Blue/Orange Line Trolley Upgrades: (could happen)
-Chula Vista Bayfront Master Plan: (Please)
-San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge Lighting: (In your dreams)

SDfan Sep 2, 2010 6:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OneMetropolis (Post 4967872)
^^^^^
And here's a look at reality.



-North Embarcadero Visionary Plan, Phase I: (Never Happening)
-Convention Center Expansion: (No Funds)
-Balboa Park Improvements: (No Funds)
-New Chargers Stadium: (Not Likely)
-San Diego Civic Center: (Good as Dead)
-Mid-Coast Trolley Expansion: (not in our life-times)
-Blue/Orange Line Trolley Upgrades: (could happen)
-Chula Vista Bayfront Master Plan: (Please)
-San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge Lighting: (In your dreams)

Hmm.

Aside from the Chargers Stadium and Civic Center, I don't see why those other projects you listed as "never happening," "good as dead," etc, wouldn't come to fruition.

The North Embarcadero is actually moving in the right direction with community groups and the Port moving together to find a compromise. That will get done in time.

The Convention Center expansion will be built. San Diego's businesses will be more then capable of hobbling up the funds necessary (through a hotel tax increase, or through a downtown vendor fee, or a bond, or a mix of the three) to get it built. These conventions are big bucks, unlike a new Civic Center or Chargers Stadium.

Balboa Park will get its money. Its the city's crown jewel and it's turning 100 in 5 years. If one project out of this will get money from philanthropy it will be Balboa.

Mid-Coast trolley expansion is 2014 or 2015. Maybe not in our lifetimes if we were horseflys or if 2012 is the end of it all...

Blue/Orange line upgrades... read the article, I need not say more.

Chula Vista Bayfront... actually this one is more tricky to pin. I don't see there being much demand in the near future, but I think within ten years there will be a boom on their shores. It will get done, it just needs time (demand).

San Diego Bridge Lighting will be done. The Port wouldn't have wasted its money on an international design competition if it hadn't thought it to be a viable plan otherwise.

I think San Diego suffers a lot from nay-sayers. In reality we won't get all of what we want, but most of the civic projects listed here will get done, plus who knows what is going to come next? I read an article advocating for an MLS stadium to be built at the old Balboa Stadium by city college. Plus look at what SANDAG has been proposing transit-wise. There is a lot to be excited about. We are in a rescission...now. Not necessarily forever...

eburress Sep 2, 2010 4:27 PM

My concern about San Diego (aside from way too many NIMBYs) is how it is not putting itself in a position to be successful economically. Companies are leaving because of the cost of doing business here and because of a lack of business infrastructure (i.e., an airport). Until the city does something to change this, the its financial situation is only going to get worse.

brantw Sep 2, 2010 5:45 PM

Cruise Ships
 
Does anybody know what happened to all of the cruise ships? I haven't seen one in months. I know they are constructing the new terminal, but I didn't know that meant they shut down the old one?? That doesn't seem to make much sense as the new one is a couple hundred yards away and doesn't really affect the old one. Are the cruise ships packing up and leaving as well?

OneMetropolis Sep 2, 2010 7:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SDfan (Post 4968125)
Hmm.

Aside from the Chargers Stadium and Civic Center, I don't see why those other projects you listed as "never happening," "good as dead," etc, wouldn't come to fruition.

The North Embarcadero is actually moving in the right direction with community groups and the Port moving together to find a compromise. That will get done in time.

It will eventually hit another wall and be stalled, than come back agian 2 yrs later. How long has this thing been trying to happen agian?

Quote:

The Convention Center expansion will be built. San Diego's businesses will be more then capable of hobbling up the funds necessary (through a hotel tax increase, or through a downtown vendor fee, or a bond, or a mix of the three) to get it built. These conventions are big bucks, unlike a new Civic Center or Chargers Stadium.
If its going to happen than why haven't we seen or heard of any progress on this issue if it's so "needed." It's already obvious that tax increase will only anger people and cause the project to be stalled even more.

Quote:

Balboa Park will get its money. Its the city's crown jewel and it's turning 100 in 5 years. If one project out of this will get money from philanthropy it will be Balboa.
So a lot of things turn a certain age it dosen't necessarily mean it's going to get first priority cause of it.

Quote:

Mid-Coast trolley expansion is 2014 or 2015. Maybe not in our lifetimes if we were horseflys or if 2012 is the end of it all...
... Not really sure about this one either. Last time they said that it would take 10 years to do the expansion and now it's been narrowed down to a shorter timeline?

Quote:

Blue/Orange line upgrades... read the article, I need not say more.

Chula Vista Bayfront... actually this one is more tricky to pin. I don't see there being much demand in the near future, but I think within ten years there will be a boom on their shores. It will get done, it just needs time (demand).
Haha... Your quite the optimist, but sorry. This project is way too big and will cost somewhere in the billions. Where do you think the city will get that money from?

Quote:

San Diego Bridge Lighting will be done. The Port wouldn't have wasted its money on an international design competition if it hadn't thought it to be a viable plan otherwise.
So what? A lot of projects get international compaines to plan and dream up things. For Example the Hollywood Sign wanted a makeover so they also had a international design competion, but there's no money.

Quote:

I think San Diego suffers a lot from nay-sayers. In reality we won't get all of what we want, but most of the civic projects listed here will get done, plus who knows what is going to come next? I read an article advocating for an MLS stadium to be built at the old Balboa Stadium by city college. Plus look at what SANDAG has been proposing transit-wise. There is a lot to be excited about. We are in a rescission...now. Not necessarily forever...
Whatever be a optimist I'll just be a realist. MLS really? Sorry to say, but San Diego isn't really a soccer type city.


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