Tag: downtown

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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Chalk art at Little Italy’s Bella Vita Fest!

Enjoy this collection of photographs. I took them late this afternoon in Little Italy at the inaugural Bella Vita Fest event, along India Street.

The Italian-themed event is produced by ArtWalk San Diego. Appropriately, it’s taking place during a sunny weekend in October, which is Italian American Heritage Month.

In addition to the work of some 30 chalk artists, visitors to the festival can enjoy live entertainment, wine tastings, great Italian food and lots of unique vendor booths. Bella Vita Fest continues tomorrow, Sunday, from 11 am to 5 pm. Learn more here!

These photographs include many of the chalk art works. Ones that were just begun or badly disrupted by shadows I might have skipped. Most chalk artists will continue their work during Bella Vita Fest on Sunday!

Chalk art by Tonya Neilson.

Chalk art by Cecelia Linayao.

Chalk art by Pappricci.

Chalk art by Dawn Wagner.

Chalk art by Meg Beverly Canilang.

Chalk art by NIKIMEG.

Chalk art by Joyce Hatzidakis.

Chalk art by Gutierrez Family.

Chalk art by Team Zamora.

Chalk art by Isaiah Hernandez.

Chalk art by Raziah Roushan.

Kids create fun chalk art at Bella Vita Fest in San Diego’s Little Italy.

Chalk art by Steele Canyon High School.

Chalk art by Shawndell Smith Art.

Chalk art by Kim sisters.

Chalk art by Maddalena and Rogalski.

Chalk art by Michelle Lubin.

Chalk art by Jen Swain.

Chalk art by Monika Petroczy.

Chalk art by Canyon Crest Academy.

Chalk art by Jose Noe Hernandez.

Chalk art by Fia Soisson.

Chalk art by Gloria Ing.

Chalk art by Sarah Conley.

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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.

History of El Hispano Americano newspaper in San Diego.

A fascinating exhibit on the 9th Floor of San Diego’s Central Library concerns the history of the old El Hispano Americano newspaper, founded in San Diego by Hernando Limón Hernández, who had been a general in the Mexican Army.

Display cases in the library’s Marilyn & Gene Marx Special Collections Center contain photographs, printed art, old newspapers and documents, detailing the life of General Hernando Limón Hernández and his groundbreaking newspaper in San Diego.

While living in Mexico, the General had been tasked with designing and building lighthouses across Mexico’s main ports. He and his family would settle in San Diego by 1916, where the retired General became a Spanish teacher at the military compound in Coronado.

He soon purchased the new El Hispano Americano newspaper, and began to operate its print shop in downtown San Diego.

El Hispano Americano was the first modern Spanish language newspaper published in California. It would become the first binational newspaper that circulated simultaneously in Southern California and Northern Baja California. At its peak, in 1932, El Hispano American averaged 25,000 daily readers.

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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.

San Diego Padres fans: Beat LA!

Beat LA! Beat LA!

That’s the phrase for the day if you’re a San Diego Padres fan!

A home game . . . National League Division Series tied 1-1 . . . The greatly disliked (I almost used another stronger word) Dodgers in town . . . Petco Park is going to go completely bonkers once the game begins!

Around the time the gates opened, the Beat Los Angeles sentiment was visible on streets and sidewalks in the Gaslamp Quarter and near the ballpark. As were other optimistic messages!

Go Pads!

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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 pile of rubble near the USS Midway Museum!

Lately, if you’ve walked along San Diego’s Embarcadero past the USS Midway aircraft carrier museum, you’ve probably noticed heavy machinery and a pile of rubble near Navy Pier!

The old Naval Supply Depot headhouse is being torn down, to make way for the future Freedom Park!

I took these photographs on Sunday after jumping off the Coronado ferry. Having walked past the old headhouse hundreds of times over many, many years, seeing its destruction in progress is a trifle jarring.

Early this summer I shared photos when the demolition had barely begun. If you want to see those previous photos and find more information about the landmark Freedom Park project, click 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.

Forgotten mural atop Horton Plaza garage.

In 2011, a large mural was installed on the top level of Horton Plaza mall’s parking garage in downtown San Diego. Today that mural can still be seen, although it is badly damaged from its long exposure to sun and weather.

The Circle (on 7 Lemon) is named after the mural’s circular design and its location: the seventh level of the large parking garage in a section that is designated “lemon.”

As you can see from these photographs taken yesterday, the top of the garage was completely empty. Horton Plaza mall and its shoppers have vanished–the property is being redeveloped. The mural is all but forgotten.

A plaque still can be found by the old mural. It explains that the art was created by Chor Boogie and Writerzblok. Mural commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and Horton Plaza in conjunction with the exhibition Viva la Revolución: A Dialogue with the Urban Landscape…

Here’s on old web page that describes that exhibition, which featured works both in the Museum’s galleries as well as at public sites throughout downtown San Diego.

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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.

Ghosts on San Diego’s haunted Star of India?

Have you ever had an eerie experience on the Star of India, San Diego’s world-famous tall ship? The old ship does have a long history of ghostly encounters. Are you curious?

Haunted Star Tales is an experience now available at the Maritime Museum of San Diego, in time for Halloween. Several signs posted around Star of India tell how visitors to the historic tall ship have had possible encounters with ghosts from the ship’s past.

For example, people have reported a mysterious cold chill in the boatswain’s locker, just above the chain locker where a death occurred in the year 1909.

And there are those instances when ship caretakers, night watchmen and others have felt a finger in their back when nobody else is present–possibly by the ghost of one John Campbell, a stowaway boy, who, in 1884, working for his passage, fell 100 feet to the ship’s deck.

Wander the decks and darker areas inside 1863 Star of India, oldest active sailing ship in the world, looking for informative signs that tell of possible hauntings. You will find many human stories and so much fascinating history.

Whether you encounter a ghost–who knows?

Souls lost and mysterious sightings… Come aboard and find out for yourself!

The bo’s’un’s locker, where unexplained cold chills have been felt.

The chain locker, where a death occurred.

Visitors come to the ticket taker or volunteer tour guides and ask… Did someone die 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.

A new park and public art in San Diego!

A new park is coming to downtown San Diego! It’s called Progress Park, and it’s located at the corner of Broadway and Harbor Drive, at one end of the new Research and Development District complex (RaDD).

Check out that new public art near the center of Progress Park! It’s titled Shhh Pavilion: The Hopekeeper.

According to a plaque that I photographed from a distance through a construction fence: Shhh Pavilion: The Hopekeeper is a sculptural landmark pavilion that symbolically and functionally integrates with RaDD Life, fusing art and science. Inspired by childhood memories, the natural world, and its relationship with mathematics, the creators have fashioned a geometric structure utilizing Voronoi tessellation. The piece resembles a shell covered with barnacles and recalls memories of childhood games at the beach, where hope seemed infinite.

What is Voronoi tessellation? Learn all about it here.

The creator of the pavilion is gt2P (Great things to People), a Santiago de Chile based collaborative studio collective.

I can’t wait for the fence to come down. Progress Park is full of greenery and outdoor space–a fine addition, it would appear, to San Diego’s world-class waterfront!

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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.

Mark Zuckerberg’s super yacht in San Diego!

Two amazing ships owned by billionaire Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg are now docked in downtown San Diego at Broadway Pier!

LAUNCHPAD, seen in the above photograph on the right, is a 387-foot megayacht that, according to articles I’ve found, cost Zuckerberg around $300 million. It’s one of the largest private yachts in the world!

The second ship, with the bow that comes to a sharp point, is 220-foot superyacht support vessel WINGMAN. It’s nearly as impressive at LAUNCHPAD!

I took these photos yesterday late afternoon under a gray sky, while walking along San Diego’s frequently surprising Embarcadero!

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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.

Fun, creativity before Padres Postseason game!

San Diego Padres fans are very creative!

On the streets outside Petco Park, before today’s Postseason game, not only did I see dozens of different shirts that root for the Padres, but some of the designs were created by the fans themselves! For example, the Crone Zone shirt (and sign) above!

I also spotted fans with homemade signs to hold up in the ballpark during the game. Lots of creative swag chains, too!

Do you have a favorite Padres player: past or present? A favorite season? A favorite baseball memory or meme?

What you wear makes a statement!

That includes the smile you wear on your face!

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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.