San Diego leaders broke ground Sunday on an open space oasis in Hillcrest that city officials call a model for future neighborhood parks in San Diego and a crucial welcoming space for the region’s LGBTQ+ community.
The Pride Promenade will transform tiny Pride Plaza and unusually wide Normal Street into a large linear park spanning from University Avenue to Lincoln Street.
The promenade, which is expected to open in roughly two years, will be the new home of the Hillcrest Farmers Market and the San Diego Pride Festival held each July.
It’s also expected to boost local merchants by creating a new neighborhood focal point and enlivening the area’s business district by making it even more of a draw.
But, perhaps more importantly, the promenade is expected to serve as a model for how San Diego can create community gathering spaces amid the high-rise buildings expected in many neighborhoods in coming years.
Because neighborhoods across the city lack wide open tracts that can be turned into traditional parks, promenades and linear parks have become the city’s new solution.
Assemblymember Chris Ward, who spearheaded creation of Pride Plaza in 2018 while serving on the City Council, emphasized that point during Sunday’s groundbreaking ceremony.
“We are built out,” said Ward, D-San Diego. “To be able to find an opportunity for a few more acres of linear park is just a dream come true.”
Ward said the promenade is also an example of how hard it is to get ambitious projects built, describing the effort it took to secure funding, gather community support and work with other agencies.
As part of the project, county officials will construct the Eastern Hillcrest Bikeway, a 1.1-mile series of separated bikeways and buffered bike lanes on Normal Street, University Avenue, Lincoln Avenue, Herbert Street, Robinson Avenue and Park Boulevard.
Councilmember Stephen Whitburn, whose district includes Hillcrest, said the new promenade is especially important with the national conversation about gay rights shifting since Donald Trump was re-elected president.
“It is important that we create welcoming spaces for our community, particularly in the current environment,” Whitburn said.
Mayor Todd Gloria said it’s evidence how important the promenade is that the last four council members to represent Hillcrest attended Sunday’s standing-room-only groundbreaking ceremony.In addition to Ward and Whitburn, Gloria and former state Senator Toni Atkins represented the area and were in attendance Sunday.
Gloria said the promenade can be seen as one in a long line of recent projects that cement Hillcrest as the center of San Diego’s LGBTQ+ community.
The other projects include the 30-foot-tall Pride flag, an AIDS memorial that opened recently on Olive Street, a gay cultural district included in a new blueprint for the area, and the naming of a street after gay rights leader Harvey Milk.
“By investing in public spaces that celebrate our city’s diversity and sense of community, we are creating a lasting legacy honoring Hillcrest’s rich history,” Gloria said.
The promenade will include a children’s play area, new historic lampposts, seating and shade structures, and roughly 115 new trees.
The project will convert traffic lanes on the west side of Normal Street, from University Avenue to Lincoln Avenue, into a paved promenade and a rainbow-colored bikeway. The eastern lanes will remain open to cars.
The promenade will also include a fully restored trolley car, which commemorates that trolley service between Hillcrest and University Heights a century ago helped make those two neighborhoods among San Diego’s most vibrant.
Ward and Gloria both credited City Hall staffer Brittany Bailey for playing a key role in making the promenade happen.
