Tag: bankers hill

Photos of St. Patrick’s Day Parade 2026!

A big San Diego event today! It’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival 2026!

The parade this morning was as epic as ever, lasting well over an hour as it headed through Bankers Hill. The festival is taking place on the west side of Balboa Park, near Laurel Street.

Everyone was wearing green–parade participants and those lining the sidewalks cheering them on.

Irish organizations were front and center, with Irish clubs and societies and dance school students strutting their stuff. Law enforcement and fire fighters were a huge presence, too. There were Shriner clowns, high school marching bands, Irish setters, Irish wolfhounds, roller skaters doing their routine, cars decorated with shamrocks, dignitaries, beauty queens, ballet folklorico dancers, fierce Vikings in their longship, happy leprechauns . . . you name it!

I took many photos before the parade and during it. These are some of my better shots…

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Captain America arrives in San Diego!

Captain America has arrived in San Diego. He was spotted in Bankers Hill this morning with his awesome Capmobile!

The Marvel superhero and Avenger would participate in St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival 2026!

This was too cool not to share right away. I’ll be posting photos of the parade coming up once I sort through them all.

I learned this gentleman who was engaged in Captain America cosplay is part of the Science Fiction Coalition. I’d never seen his car before because, he told me, it was wrapped with these cool graphics just recently.

Red Skull, Hydra and Baron Zemo, BEWARE!

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San Diego AIDS Memorial at Olive Street Park.

You might remember how, years ago, KUSI television consumer advocate Michael Turko sought to develop a neglected plot of land on Olive Street in Bankers Hill into a city park. According to this webpage, in 1909, the Ford, McKee, and Woods families generously donated the 0.6-acre property to the city for the specific purpose of creating a public park for the community to enjoy.

I posted a blog that included the still undeveloped park back in 2015. See that old post here.

Today Olive Street Park welcomes one and all. It is also the site of the San Diego AIDS Memorial, which opened on World AIDS Day, Sunday, December 1, 2024.

With various plaques and signs, the memorial remembers the over 8,000 San Diegans who have lost their lives to HIV/AIDS, and honors those who’ve supported them and have worked to defeat the devastating disease. Many compassionate people and organizations throughout San Diego County are recognized.

The neighborhood park is a grassy oasis with flowers and beautiful views, where people can play or relax and reflect.

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History at First Avenue Bridge in Bankers Hill.

San Diego history can be viewed during a walk across the First Avenue Bridge in Bankers Hill.

Two identical bronze dedication plaques remain at either end of the arched steel bridge, which was built over Maple Canyon in 1931. The impressive structure was originally called the Peoples Bridge.

Today, looking down into Maple Canyon, you can also observe history being made. The Maple Canyon Restoration project has been underway for a couple years, replacing storm drains in the canyon, and expanding the channel to establish streambed and riparian habitats along the canyon floor.

Ten years ago I walked down Maple Canyon Trail and under the First Avenue Bridge. You can see photographs that I took here.

First Avenue Bridge…Length 463.24 feet…Height 104 feet…Erected by property owners under Improvement Act of 1911…R.E. Hazard Contracting Co…Tom Johnson Allen, Civil Engineer…R. Robinson Rowe, Structural Engineer…John C. Shaw, Consulting Engineer…R.M. Gregory, Superintendent of Streets

STANDARD IRON WORKS SAN DIEGO is indicated in many places along the 1931 steel bridge that spans Maple Canyon in Bankers Hill.

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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Autonomous cars test on San Diego streets!

In the past few days, I’ve spotted autonomous Waymo cars navigating streets in San Diego. Bankers Hill is where I saw two of the cars, to be exact. Both had drivers behind the steering wheel. I had my camera at the ready this afternoon to capture the above photo. Yes, there is a driver in there.

Waymo is the company that has those driverless autonomous taxis operating up in San Francisco. You hail them with your phone and input the destination.

Here in San Diego, and other test cities, Waymo cars are being driven through certain neighborhoods in order to gather data, refine maps, and learn about the peculiarities of different places. Here’s an article that thoroughly describes the Waymo tests in San Diego. They began very recently.

I can see how many people are wary of driverless cars. The concept is revolutionary and still pretty new. One hears of glitches.

I suppose, however, that at some point in the future, driverless cars will be ubiquitous in every city around the world and taken for granted, just as other groundbreaking technologies eventually become the norm. I grew up with a rotary dial telephone . . . and an astounding invention: the electronic push button calculator!

We live in exciting, uncertain times when technology is taking gigantic leaps forward. Artificial intelligence, chips in heads, advancing robotics, virtual reality worlds… Where will all of this take us? How will this change us?

I wonder. Will the automation of practically everything make life more fulfilling?

I guess humanity will take the journey and find out…

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share this!

Gerardo Meza street art in Hillcrest and Bankers Hill!

The distinctive street art of Gerardo Meza (@mezarte) has been showing up in both Hillcrest and Bankers Hill!

I’ve noticed several electrical boxes painted in the last year in the two neighborhoods by the prolific artist. His colorful street art can be observed in communities all around San Diego.

Should you walk through San Ysidro just north of the Mexican border, you’ll find many examples of his work. Gerardo Meza is Chairman of the Border Public Arts Committee. Among other accomplishments, he’s also Coordinator of Art Box San Diego and Cofounder of the San Diego Art Society.

Gerardo’s artwork with its Mexican flavor is unmistakable. It can be weird, distorted, humorous, frightening, sexy, hip, mythological, ironic… It’s very original and definitely attracts your attention!

My first four photographs are of two boxes in Hillcrest…

And here come photos of two boxes in Bankers Hill…

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

A very colorful, unique mural on Bankers Hill!

I spied this very colorful mural in Bankers Hill on the north side of West Hair Salon on Fifth Avenue. It appears to uniquely combine elements of Día de los Muertos calavera face painting and Pride rainbow imagery!

The artist signature is that of Genaro Garcia (@artegennaro).

I took this photograph over a parked car the other day, but you can see most of the artwork.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Murals at world’s first vegan drive-thru!

Evolution Fast Food, located in San Diego’s Bankers Hill neighborhood, bills itself as the world’s first fully vegan drive-thru restaurant.

A sign near Evolution’s drive-thru window invites hungry customers to enjoy their 100% plant-based “housemade sauces, softserve, burger patties, cashew cheese, bacon, and soft drinks.”

Sadly, I must admit I haven’t eaten there yet. But when I walk or drive down Fifth Avenue, I always find myself gazing at their very colorful murals!

Enjoy these photographs, which I took yesterday.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Four Seasons slowly turning in Bankers Hill.

A kinetic metal sculpture in Bankers Hill turns with the wind. It’s titled Four Seasons.

The abstract public art, created by San Diego based artist Amos Robinson in 2007, stands in front of the office building at 1855 First Avenue.

Four Seasons slowly revolved as I paused near it a few weeks ago. (I was walking down the sidewalk back toward downtown after touring the very cool Hawthorne Historic Inn.)

Another unexpected discovery!

And look what I spied outside one corner of the same office building… An apple!

(Appears that someone has large, very strong teeth!)

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Smiles and Irish green in the big parade!

This morning the big annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade was held in San Diego!

Almost a hundred separate entrants in the parade would entertain thousands of people lining sidewalks in Bankers Hill.

Can you believe it? Over the course of almost eleven years, this is the seventh (lucky?) time I’ve taken photos of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. And this year it was just as wonderful as ever!

What is it like before the parade begins, as smiling people gather for the joyful green spectacle?

These photos provide a glimpse…

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!