A mural full of whimsy decorates a fence at the north end of San Ysidro’s Cultural Corridor. Painted by local artist Gerardo Meza (@mezarte), the colorful street art encourages residents to become vaccinated against COVID-19!
I walked up the Cultural Corridor today and noticed a variety of new murals that were painted since my last visit. I’ll be sharing the rest of them in my next blog post, but this particular mural is so creative and visually fun I thought I’d post it first, to get things started.
Last time I passed this section of the fence–about a year and half ago–it featured Día de los Muertos artwork, also created by Meza. You can see a portion of it in the final two photos here.
As you can see, the San Diego Trolley passes very close by–just southeast of the Beyer Avenue station. The Cultural Corridor, with its many murals, runs south down Cypress Drive.
Casa Familiar, a nonprofit service and community development organization, reminds those passing by that Las Vacunas Salvan Vidas–Vaccination Saves Lives.Composite creatures, seemingly emerged from mythology, capture the eye.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Roaring San Diego officially opened today in the lobby of the City Administration Building!
Throughout the month of October, the Office of the City Clerk is presenting the 4th Annual Archives Month. In 2022 the event focuses on the history of San Diego a century ago during the Roaring 1920s. The educational event includes an exhibit, lectures at the Central Library, and a very special tour of the City Archives!
I listened this morning as the City Clerk and other notable speakers introduced Roaring San Diego in front of the exhibit inside the City Administration Building.
The archive photographs in the exhibit provide a fascinating window to our shared past. I paused to gaze at notable moments in history, wondering what life might have been like during the 1920s. It was a very different era–and yet people remain people, and you can see the humanity in their faces.
To learn more about Roaring San Diego, and how you can attend a lecture or take a tour of the City Archives, click here!
The City Clerk Archives has been preserving public records in San Diego since 1850.San Diego City Clerk Elizabeth Maland introduces Roaring San Diego.San Diego Mission Beach, Opening Day. August 4th, 1925. The historic old wooden roller coaster looks much the same today!Early Black Firefighters in Logan Heights, circa 1927.Several dresses in the Roaring San Diego exhibit represent American fashion in the 1920s.Morena Bridge during the Great Flood in 1927.People in pose front of Charles Lindbergh’s plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, which was custom built by Ryan Airlines in San Diego.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Quick renderings of scenes provide a sense of how very talented artists might glimpse this beautiful and complex world during a walk through life. Many of the images are of familiar San Diego locations.
Some of the works in different media appear like very brief sketches, while others works seem a bit more detailed.
Your eyes will move from piece to piece as if you are viewing ephemeral dreams– each canvas providing a unique moment of wonder.
Like a fast sketch this exhibition also ends soon–it runs through October 9th, 2022. So you better go check it out before, like a dream, Explorations in Urban Sketching vanishes.
Explorations in Urban Sketching is in memory of Dominique Eichi, an artist who shared a studio in Balboa Park’s Spanish Village.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
In mid-September I noted colorful new trashcans are being placed in the various neighborhoods of downtown San Diego. The one’s I photographed back then celebrate the Business District and Cortez Hill.
Today, during a downtown walk, I noticed additional new trashcans that celebrate East Village and the Columbia District!
These colorful trashcans are being placed on street corners by the Downtown San Diego Partnership’s Clean and Safe program.
Here’s what I spotted today…
The East Village trashcan design features Petco Park on one side and a flowery East Village mural on the other.
(To see photographs I once took of the actual flower mural, click here.)
The Columbia District trashcans depict three prominent downtown buildings: Emerald Plaza, One America Plaza, and the Santa Fe Depot. On the other side is an image of the America Plaza trolley station at night.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
New trashcans are being rolled out by the Downtown San Diego Partnership’s Clean and Safe program. And these cans celebrate the neighborhoods in which they’re placed!
I saw the first such trashcan a few weeks ago on the corner of C Street and Sixth Avenue, next to the Clean and Safe headquarters. Today, as I walked down from the top of Cortez Hill, I noticed multiple cans have recently been installed that celebrate the Cortez neighborhood, with images of the landmark El Cortez building.
The next two images are different sides of the above trashcan. I love the fact they are relatively mess proof and foot activated. No touching a dirty, germy handle!
The next two photos are of that first can by the Clean and Safe headquarters. It celebrates the “Business District”–an area of downtown sometimes referred to as the City Center or Core–with images of skyscrapers and the interior of historic Symphony Hall.
I’ll keep my eyes open for new cans in additional neighborhoods. Watch for updates here!
UPDATE!
I took photos of new East Village and Columbia District trashcans a couple weeks later and posted them here!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
The 4th Annual Archives Month, presented by San Diego’s Office of the City Clerk, is returning in October!
The theme for 2022 is Roaring San Diego. The public will be invited to view exhibits in the lobby of the City Administration Building (202 C Street) that focus on our city’s history during the Roaring 1920s.
In addition, historical lectures by distinguished speakers will be presented at the San Diego Central Library, and there will be very special tours inside the archives!
If you’ve never stepped foot into the City Clerk Archives, in the basement of City Hall, where documents are carefully preserved for posterity, you really should sign up. The archives folks are super friendly and enthusiastic. I went on the tour three years ago and blogged about it here.
I’ve also blogged about two previous Archives Month exhibits that should interest history buffs. You can revisit those old posts here and here.
If you’d like to participate in this year’s Archives Month activities, please check out the City of San Diego webpage by clicking here. Make sure to sign up for the educational lectures that interest you and, of course, the very cool archives tour!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
How many big events are scheduled for this coming Labor Day weekend? Searching online event calendars, I haven’t noticed too many. That certainly wasn’t the case five years ago!
Back in September 2017, during Labor Day weekend, San Diego hosted an amazing international sand sculpture competition on Broadway Pier, another beautiful Festival of Sail on the Embarcadero, and there was the traditional stickball tournament in Little Italy.
Then later that September I recorded even more fun and inspirational stuff! Like Brazilian Day in Mission Beach, Fiestas Patrias in Old Town, the Trolley Dances downtown, and a special Remember Me Thursday in Balboa Park!
Here’s your opportunity to relive some of those moments. Check out the upcoming links for all of the colorful photographs!
Do you know of any fun public events coming up this weekend? Leave a comment! I might head on over with my camera!
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A performance in the Ford Bowl (now the Starlight Bowl) during the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition in Balboa Park. No known copyright restrictions image from Flickr.
The historic Starlight Bowl in Balboa Park has been out of operation since 2011. The organization Save Starlight has been working diligently to bring this beloved open air amphitheater back to life!
If you’d like to lend a hand, consider signing this online petition. Add your voice to others who urge the City of San Diego to grant Save Starlight a lease, so that they can begin the needed renovations and finally open to the public!
I added my name to the petition a moment ago. Will you?
You, too, can sign the petition, or learn more about the project, by clicking here!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Summertime? A sunny Sunday? San Diego’s always amazing Balboa Park?
Combine these three to discover lots of fun, festive stuff!
Come with me. Let’s walk around Balboa Park this afternoon, taking in various cool sights…
Performers on and off stage in Balboa Park at the 35th Philippine Cultural Arts Festival.A big outdoor audience enjoys Filipino culture in Balboa Park.Kids dance on outdoor stage at the SAMAHAN Filipino American Performing Arts and Education Center’s annual festival in Balboa Park.Filipino food was plentiful at the 35th Philippine Cultural Arts Festival, in San Diego’s Balboa Park.Walking around Balboa Park at the Plaza de Panama.Super cool guys promote the San Diego Loyal soccer team. They’ve got a home game coming up on August 24th versus Oakland. The team is currently in second place!An amazing film about Balboa Park plays in the auditorium at the San Diego History Center.A beautiful summer day near the Japanese Tea Pavilion.Visitors walk toward the Exhibit Hall at the Japanese Friendship Garden. There’s a new exhibition concerning Japanese dolls that I will blog about soon.People sit in the shade of the Spreckels Organ Pavilion colonnade during the Sunday two o’clock concert.Colorful rented umbrellas provide more shade for the pavilion benches.Organist Amanda Mole plays a musical piece on the Spreckels Organ. It’s a preview of her Monday night performance for the 34th San Diego International Organ Festival.A variety of lowriders were parked between the Spreckels Organ Pavilion and the Plaza de Panama.Taking photos near flowers at one end of the Balboa Park Lily Pond.A Spanish speaking church group sings joyfully along El Prado, hoping to attract passersby.Dancers in folk costume perform for the House of Panama lawn program at the International Cottages.Cultural lawn programs can be enjoyed almost every weekend in Balboa Park during summer months!
If you’d like to see more colorful photographs from today’s House of Panama lawn program, click here!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
All of San Diego is buzzing with excitement. Something truly extraordinary is now happening in our city. Millions of ordinary people–like me–are feeling the electricity.
San Diego Padres owner Peter Seidler is someone I’ll probably never meet. He’s someone millions who live in San Diego will never personally meet.
Thank you Peter Seidler for making the Padres instant World Series contenders.
Thank you for millions of sudden cheers, smiles, high fives, great days. Thank you for all the precious lifelong memories that are surely coming. Thank you for fresh feelings of hope–a sustained anticipation for tomorrow . . . the next game . . . the next series . . . the next October.
Thank you for strengthening a diverse city’s sense of unity. Thank you for reinforcing a feeling of pride enjoyed by millions who live in San Diego.
Thank you for all the lives that will be enriched and brightened.
Parents, their children, their grandchildren and countless generations will remember. And celebrate.
Lastly, thank you from a blogger who loves the Padres. Yesterday, as I listened to the game, I experienced goosebumps.
I’ll probably have more goosebumps this afternoon.
Cool San Diego Sights! 