Tag: city life

Art workshop for seniors in Balboa Park!

Do you love to create art? The Senior Lounge in Balboa Park should be your destination every other Saturday! You don’t need to be a senior, either. Anyone age 18+ is welcome to take part in a free Intergenerational Artist Workshop!

I poked my nose into the lounge early this afternoon and found a friendly group of people having a lot of fun being creative. I saw a beautifully crafted flower! A greeting card was about to be made!

Some basic art supplies are available, and of course you can bring your own. Not only is the activity free, but the new friendships are free, too!

I was told this artist workshop is now held every other Saturday, from 1:30 to 3:30 pm. It and other activities for seniors around San Diego can be found on the City of San Diego’s AgeWell Services quarterly Newsletter (it used to be called The Scroll).

Find all the information you need by clicking here!

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Blazing sunrise photos along Harbor Drive!

Enjoy these photographs, taken early this morning around sunrise.

I walked through downtown San Diego along Harbor Drive, then on down Martin Luther King, Jr. Promenade, which parallels Harbor Drive. The sun would rise almost directly in front of me behind thin clouds.

You can see how dramatic the blazing sunrise was!

These photographs taken by my old camera are unaltered, except for some cropping. (I’m feeling lazy. Yes, I could’ve sharpened a few of them.)

What a beautiful day! What a beautiful city!

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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.

Thank you for sharing!

San Diego’s first Smart City touchscreen kiosk!

San Diego’s first Smart City touchscreen kiosk was installed last month in downtown, on the corner of Fourth Avenue and B Street. I encountered it for the first time several days ago during a walk!

The big, bright, digital touchscreen kiosk provides information in a way that might remind you of your smartphone. All sorts of great up-to-date information is available for tourists, residents, those who work or play downtown, and even those who are homeless.

The kiosk I observed is the first of 50 that are planned for downtown San Diego! The project is made possible by a partnership between the City of San Diego, IKE Smart City, and the Downtown San Diego Partnership.

Not only do these high-tech kiosks provide passersby with transit updates, event information, city attractions, maps, services and more, they provide free Wi-Fi!

I spent a few minutes goofing around with this first downtown kiosk and was really impressed! It’s a brilliant resource that anyone can freely and easily use!

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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.

Thank you for sharing!

Art and history at the Boulevard Transit Plaza.

Those walking through or waiting for a bus at the Boulevard Transit Plaza in City Heights might feel inclined to pause for a moment. This landmark bus station on El Cajon Boulevard over Interstate 15 features colorful public art and a collection of historical photographs.

The large transit plaza is split in two, divided by El Cajon Boulevard. Opposite sides serve east and west bound buses. Stairs and elevators also descend to Interstate 15 below where passengers can catch Route 235 rapid buses.

Public art and photographs are found on both sides of the split plaza. On either end of each platform, a post is decorated with colorful mosaics and dedicated to an adjacent community. The four communities served by the Boulevard Transit Center are Normal Heights, Kensington, Corridor and Teralta West.

I recently got off a Route 215 rapid bus at this stop to walk around the plaza. The artwork I’ve photographed here was installed in the past year or two–if you know more about the project, please leave a comment!

(There’s additional public art on the freeway level platforms–both here and at the nearby City Heights Transit Center–that I’ll document at some future time.)

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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.

Thank you for sharing!

Antique bottles at Little Italy parking structure.

The parking structure that stands beside the County Center/Little Italy trolley station contains a fascinating exhibit. Just inside the Cedar Street door, a glass display case holds rows of antique bottles. These old bottles were discovered in 2014 during the early stages of the building’s construction.

A nearby sign explains why these bottles are on public display…

Artifact Display Project

The display to your right contains a sample of artifacts recovered during the summer of 2014 as construction began on the Cedar/Kettner Parking Structure. These bottles date from the late 1880s to early 1900s and contained various kinds of milk, carbonated and alcoholic beverages, oils, inks, perfumes and pharmaceuticals.

The area where this building now stands was a densely populated multiethnic neighborhood of predominantly Italian and Portuguese immigrants working in the fishing industry. Residents’ homes were in close proximity to stables, dockyards, boarding houses and second hand shops. In the early 1900s, the area began to develop as a commercial and industrial center supporting the nearby waterfront and railroad.

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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.

Thank you for sharing!

More creative street art in downtown Escondido!

It seems every time I walk through downtown Escondido, I discover more street art! That includes last weekend!

I believe that some of the art in these photographs is fairly new. The above electrical box, for example.

The box in my last photo I’ve noticed in the past, but I walked right past it as I hurried down Valley Parkway to or from the Escondido Transit Center.

Enjoy!

This great street art is by Shirish Villaseñor. If you’ve walked around during Comic-Con and seen fun window graphics painted at Sweet Things Frozen Yogurt near the San Diego Convention Center–that’s her art, too!

I believe this agricultural artwork is by Zane Kingcade. His amazing murals can be found all over Escondido.

Passion Flower was painted for the City of Escondido by Cedar Covington in 2023.

More beautiful flowers painted in Escondido, by artist Brenda Gunderson Townsend.

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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.

Thank you for sharing!

An epic lucha libre match in Hillcrest!

Those who’ve passed through Hillcrest recently might have observed an epic lucha libre wrestling match taking place near the sidewalk. When I walked by last Saturday, a fierce luchador had his opponent in a devastating head lock. Several onlookers were cheering! And a young would-be luchador was standing by, emulating his masked hero!

The big wrestling event, as you might have guessed, is colorfully painted street art. Two electrical boxes have become canvases for the scene!

The artist is Gerardo Meza. Here’s his Instagram page. You’ve quite possibly seen other examples of his work around San Diego, particularly down in San Ysidro near the Mexican border. That’s where I originally discovered some of his very unique street art many years ago.

You, too, can watch this fun lucha libre wrestling on Sixth Avenue, a bit south of Anderson Place!

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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.

Thank you for sharing!

Help beautify Tweet Street in downtown San Diego!

A public park clean-up event will take place this weekend in downtown San Diego. Neighbors will be coming together to beautify the Tweet Street linear park on Cortez Hill!

You are encouraged to join the community volunteer effort! It’s led by the Cortez Hill Active Residents Group (CHARG).

I saw the above flyer posted at one end of Tweet Street Park. The beautification project takes place on Saturday, November 16th, 2024.

Meet at the corner of 9th Avenue and Date Street, near the playground. Equipment will be provided! Downtown San Diego’s Clean and Safe Program will be on hand to help out!

Very cool!

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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.

Thank you for sharing!

A colorful Día de los Muertos in the Gaslamp!

Is that the Ghostbusters cool ECTO-1 car . . . with a skeleton and a señorita? I wasn’t expecting to see this when I walked up Fifth Avenue during San Diego Gaslamp Quarter’s annual Día de los Muertos celebration!

I arrived around 5 o’clock, just as all the classic and lowrider cars were starting to depart. Unfortunately I was too late and missed their unique hood ofrendas.

I did observe several static Day of the Dead altars around what is essentially a big street festival. And elaborately face-painted Catrinas. And live music on a stage, and lots of food and vendors and people in a late Saturday party mood.

The very colorful, family-friendly event continues this evening until 9 pm. It returns tomorrow, Sunday, November 3, from 11 am to 6 pm. You can learn more about the Gaslamp’s Día de los Muertos Festival by clicking here.

(I’ll probably swing by again tomorrow, when I go to the nearby Fall Back Festival!)

Enjoy a few photos!

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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.

Italian Digital History Initiative in San Diego.

Over the weekend, as I walked through the Bella Vita Fest in San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood, I noticed a large display of fascinating old photographs.

Convivio, a cultural organization that works to preserve the Italian community’s history in San Diego, was showing images from our city’s past!

There were photographs of tuna fishermen and boats and cannery workers, old restaurants and businesses on India Street, Our Lady of the Rosary Parish, Washington Elementary School, families, neighbors playing bocce…

It was pointed out to me that many of the houses and buildings that were photographed generations ago can still be recognized on the present-day streets of Little Italy!

Checking out the Convivio website, I see they are undertaking an important history preservation project. Their Italian Digital History Initiative hopes that residents of San Diego will contribute to a growing archives full of memories. The current cornerstone of Convivio’s preservation focus is the Italian Digital History Initiative, established in 2006, which preserves the local Italian community’s heritage through photographs, documents, oral histories, and other new-media resources.

If you have interesting material that helps tell the story of Italian immigrants in San Diego, you can bring it down to the AMICIBAR (the historical Amici House) next to the Little Italy Dog Park on Sundays, between 10 am and 2 pm. They’ll digitize photos, documents (marriage, birth certificates), awards/certificates of recognition, personal letters, permits and licenses (fishing or retail industries, for example), and whatever tells THE STORY OF YOUR FAMILY HERITAGE!

Learn more about this important project by clicking here.

View the historical archives here!

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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.