C Street Keeps It Green for Earth Day!

A special Earth Day event was held today in downtown San Diego. C Street Keeps It Green was the name of the fun environmental event, which took place–surprise!–on two blocks of C Street.

I saw inspirational art being created, spoke to representatives of the Downtown San Diego Partnership, checked out info presented by I Love a Clean San Diego, San Diego Community Power, and the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, and enjoyed learning more about the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum–did you know every second Sunday they are open free to the public? There were smiling vendors, too, and music!

Enjoy some photographs and read the captions…

Inspirational art and messages are created on C Street in San Diego.

Three Falls Brand had all sort of cool merch–many of the designs were a fusion of lucha libre wrestling and hard rock music.

I learned the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum has an exhibition titled Poem ‘ Li Sao’, Qu Yuan & Dragon Boat Festival. The featured, very famous poem, by the father of Chinese romantic poetry, consists of more than 2,470 Chinese characters!

Old photographs show how the Chinese played an important role in early San Diego history.

Smiles by representatives of San Diego Community Power, which provides cleaner electricity from renewable sources like solar and wind at competitive rates.

Another smile! Oside HandMade provided fun small potted plant projects for the Earth Day event.

Creativity in action.

San Diego County Bicycle Coalition provided all sorts of useful information.

I Love a Clean San Diego told me about their recent Creek to Bay Cleanup. Tons of trash were removed from our precious waterways.

I’m shown how small positive choices we make add up! And another big smile!

Music for the event across C Street!

Our beautiful planet Earth.

A quote about nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Shayna Goodwin, a San Diego Clean and Safe Ambassador, creates her first mural. And it’s absolutely incredible!

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Help make Balboa Park more beautiful!

Would you like to help San Diego’s world-famous Balboa Park become even more beautiful? There are many volunteering opportunities for you to explore!

Today I spotted a bunch of volunteers picking up litter in the park. I learned from a friendly lady at the Forever Balboa Park canopy in the Plaza de Panama that a similar cleanup is scheduled for next weekend! Get your coworkers and friends involved!

I also learned an Arbor Day Tree Planting event that you can join is coming up! It will be on April 26th, from 9 am to 11 am.

Would you like to learn more? Check out the Forever Balboa Park volunteer web page here! And to remain informed, join their email list!

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)!

Community clean up in Old Town San Diego!

Old Town San Diego became even more beautiful today because of the work of about 60 volunteers during the 2024 Community Clean Up!

As I walked today, I noticed dozens of orange trash bags near a parking lot in Old Town. The bags were filled with litter, weeds and trimmed tree branches. I had stumbled upon an annual clean up organized by the Old Town San Diego Chamber of Commerce. Volunteers from Caltrans District 11 and the Mormon Battalion were pitching in, too!

A huge area was beautified–the entire Old Town community–from the entrance of Presidio Park, through the State Park, and all through the business district.

Thank you to everyone!

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)!

Help keep San Diego clean and beautiful!

I Love a Clean San Diego is a sentiment shared by many. It’s also a local environmental nonprofit that works to keep our city healthy and beautiful!

The above smiling folks were in Balboa Park today, greeting those passing over the Cabrillo Bridge. They were handing out flyers about preventing pollution, and letting people know of many community clean-ups and other environmental activities that would love your participation!

As I crossed the bridge and proceeded toward the heart of Balboa Park, I saw volunteers walking along picking up trash!

I checked out the I Love a Clean San Diego website and learned about their latest effort. A couple weeks ago, more than 5,000 San Diegans joined I Love A Clean San Diego (ILACSD) for the 39th annual Coastal Cleanup Day. Volunteers across the region restored, beautified, and preserved the health of over 100 local parks, canyons, creeks, and beaches and joined volunteers in 150 countries across the globe. As of 2:30 p.m. and with 85% of sites reporting totals, over 76,800 pounds of litter and debris was diverted from San Diego communities.

Wow!

Did you take part? Would you like to participate in future cleanups and make a definite positive change? Check out the I Love a Clean San Diego event calendar by clicking here!

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)!

Community composting project in Balboa Park!

Territorio autonomo de lombrices. Autonomous territory of worms.

Hey, San Diego! Did you know there’s a community composting project in Balboa Park? The public is invited to participate!

I met the above super nice people today and learned about this environmentally friendly project.

The message is: Everyone, bring your compostable food scraps and grass clippings to the colorful structure you see in these photographs. The composting operation is located behind the Centro Cultural de la Raza at 2004 Park Boulevard. You can’t miss it!

From time to time, a batch of composted material is ready for use, and the organically rich soil is set out for participants to take home for their plants and gardens.

I learned the best time to come by is Saturday around noon. Smiling project volunteers are usually present around then. They can help you out, and perhaps even convince you to volunteer, too!

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 Twitter!

Earth Day pledges on C Street.

Today I spotted these Earth Day pledges in downtown San Diego while riding the trolley down C Street. I jumped off to take photos.

Help clean the local communities…

Replenish landscapes with native plants…

Composting and building raised planter beds…

Use less plastic…pick up trash…

Recycle at home…

Enhance the beauty of the environment…

Love life.

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 Twitter!

The colorful birds of PB’s Wild Side!

Black-crowned Night Heron by David Krimmel.

A flock of wild birds has descended on Garnet Avenue’s trashcans in Pacific Beach!

The colorful artwork, created by professional and student artists, allows those walking down the sidewalk to explore PB’s Wild Side!

My visit to Pacific Beach yesterday happened to involve a leisurely walk down Garnet Avenue. I found eight different birds on trashcans. If there are more of these plaques out there, I didn’t see them.

The birds that are depicted can all be spotted in the wild here in San Diego.

You can learn more about this project of beautifulPB (who’ve also provided a mural map of Pacific Beach) at this website!

Common Loon by Hilary Dufour.

Ridgway’s Rail by Makena Seiler.

Belding’s Savannah Sparrow by Kyla Yu-Swanson.

Brown Pelican by Makena Seiler.

Double-crested Cormorant by Makena Seiler.

Least Tern by Makena Seiler.

Great Blue Heron and Anna’s Hummingbird by Hilary Dufour.

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 Twitter!

Additional new trashcans celebrate San Diego!

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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New downtown trashcans celebrate neighborhoods!

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!

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!

Fun trashcan tile art at J Street Viewpoint!

Check out this fun artwork on trashcans at the J Street Viewpoint in Encinitas!

I saw this public art during my last walk in Encinitas.

While enjoying the J Street Viewpoint park that overlooks the ocean, I also photographed a plaque remembering John Denver, which you can see here, and an extraordinary sculpture titled Humanity, which you can see here.

I don’t know anything about these trashcans. It appears the tiles were painted by community members, including lots of kids. If you know anything, please leave a comment!

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!