![]() “We have also seen the diversification of these new industries into downtown San Diego,” Betsy Brennan, the director of Downtown San Diego Partnership, said, noting the emerging biotechnology industry.Īccording to CoStar, a real-estate tracking company, about 2.8 million square feet of newly developed mixed-used space is slated to open over the next two years, the biggest stock of inventory in two decades. Leaders credit recovery to other areas, too. (Meg McLaughlin / San Diego Union-Tribune) “That was when I felt we are getting back on track,” Ulloa, 35, said. The return of conventions was a special turning point. Sheyla Ulloa, an assistant manager of the Gaslamp Garage, a souvenir shop, stood in the store one day as lanyard-wearing conventioneers scooped up gifts. Conventions, particularly Comic-Con, came back to town. Though San Diego’s downtown is less office-centric, it was still decimated by the dramatic retraction of its bedrock leisure and hospitality industries - about 9,840 jobs were lost in 2020, wiping out four years of job growth, according to the Downtown San Diego Partnership.īut tourism, especially domestic travel, returned with gusto in 2021. “San Diego has an unusually large and diverse set of activities, which I think is part of what’s leading the way,” said Bill Fulton, an urban planner and San Diego’s former planning director. A few blocks away, fans formed a line outside the American Comedy Club to see Kevin Fredericks’ show, the latest leg of his national tour.ĭowntown San Diego is whirling again, a place that was in a developmental sprint until 2020 momentarily slowed it down. ![]() Across town in the historic streets of the Gaslamp quarter, dozens of customers queued up to order ice cream cones and cups from Cali Cream. Tourists strolled the sidewalks, illuminated by string lights overhead. Tables at Buon Appetito and Barbusa were filled with diners, giddy from the reprieve of California’s wild wintry weather. On a Thursday night in Little Italy in downtown San Diego, the restaurants along India Street were buzzing. “There is tremendous diversity in who’s coming back,” said Karen Chapple, a professor emerita of city and regional planning at UC Berkeley and director at the School of Cities. San Francisco leaders have been working to turn things around and prevent what some experts have described as a potential “doom loop.” The lack of commuter traffic has also devastated that downtown’s retail life. San Francisco, on the other hand, was far more dependent on office workers and has suffered from companies shifting to remote work. San Diego was more reliant on tourism and residential development, which helped its recovery. San Francisco remained at only 31% of pre-pandemic levels.Įach of California’s largest downtowns has rebounded differently. San Diego has bounced back to 99% of previous foot traffic levels while Los Angeles is at 65%, according to a study by the School of Cities at the University of Toronto that recorded foot traffic based on cellphone data in 62 North American cities from 2019 to November 2022.
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