While I agree with Scott Lewis that the CCDC downtown survey was not well conceived, I disagree with his degrading remarks about downtown. No, it’s not New York City (I, incidentally, was born and raised in New York City). But New York City is 300 years old.
The growth of the city is organic. Structures are built, people move-in, retail shops follow, shops fail and are replaced with others, restaurants come in, etc. How can you judge downtown at this point, when many of the new residential buildings are unfinished and the retail has not come in? The planned parks, pedestrian bridge over Harbor Drive, etc. also have not been built.
Despite this half-built condition, there are still some very interesting walks in downtown, besides going through Gaslamp. What about strolling on the Martin Luther Promenade or on the span of J street, with its burgeoning new shops and restaurants? San Diego’s downtown is now a very promising infant. Give it a chance to grow and blossom.
I further do not understand Lewis’ comparison of downtown to the suburbs. I live downtown and drive a total of 5,000 miles per year. I walk to work, to the movies, to shop, to restaurants and picnics in parks. I never have to put up with rush-hour traffic jams or rows of houses that all look alike. I have friends in my building and others in our downtown neighborhood (the Marina District). In fact, I now know proportionately more of my neighbors than when I previously lived in my single family home. Life is just so much easier living downtown!