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Balboa Park SAVED!
SOHO and allied groups and individuals take great pleasure in celebrating a major preservation victory: The most recent battle to save Balboa Park, San Diego's "Crown Jewel." This world-renowned cultural and historical resource has appeared on SOHO's Most Endangered List since 2011, but no longer qualifies in 2019 as "imminently threatened" and therefore has been removed from the roster.
News this past spring that the City of San Diego was shelving the ill-conceived Plaza de Panama Project came as a welcome relief to preservationists who had spent nearly a decade fighting to save the park's prestigious National Historic Landmark District. For SOHO, which took the lead on several legal challenges, this victory was the culmination of years of advocacy and public outreach that ensured the threat would remain prominent in the public eye. We were also faced with the prospect that the destructive project would be quietly approved at the behest of a wealthy, politically influential private citizen. Thankfully, Balboa Park has now been officially spared the Plaza de Panama Project's proposed freeway-like offramp from the iconic Cabrillo Bridge, the destruction of Palm Canyon and Alcazar Garden, and a slew of other intrusive, non-historic contemporary features.
Neglect, deferred maintenance, and vandalism still persist throughout Balboa Park, however. Over $500 million is currently needed to address critical repairs and safety upgrades, including long overdue earthquake retrofits. Now that the divisive and distracting Plaza de Panama controversy is finally over, City officials need to live up to their responsibilities as stewards of one of America's most beautiful city parks. Like District 3 Councilmember Chris Ward, who has made maintenance and improvements to Balboa Park one of his priorities, his colleagues, and Mayor Kevin Faulconer must demonstrate that they understand, respect, and promise to protect its historical and cultural importance. Looking forward, SOHO hopes that by clearly establishing and prioritizing the needs of Balboa Park and other city-owned historic resources, no philanthropist can override public opinion. The City must finalize preservation and maintenance plans and guarantee that public park and historic resources projects are thoughtfully considered and vetted by the public early in any planning process.
Read about the save
(Scroll to view more photos)
Historic photos courtesy Coons Collection; current day photos by Sandé Lollis
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