City Planners Now Focus on the Harbor View Area, a Long-Neglected Enclave

The train whistle drifts through the old bayside neighborhood, just as it has for more than 100 years, offering a mechanical serenade to a succession of residents, first American Indian, then Italian and now Mexican.

But the sound from the slow-moving trains is soon overwhelmed by the piercing roar of low-flying jet airliners on their way to landings at Lindbergh Field a few blocks away.

Between the waves of planes, there is the steady drone from the cars and trucks rushing over the wide and heavily traveled one-way thoroughfares, a plaid of asphalt known as India, Columbia, Laurel, Ash, Kettner, State and Grape.

Welcome to Harbor View, 50 blocks of some of the oldest and oddest real estate in town. It is a place where businesses and houses stand side by side, where auto body shops and garages dot many a corner, were homes are being demolished to make room for parking lots, small office complexes and motels.

Though there are pockets of blight, there is also a substantial amount of renovation under way, instances where lawyers and architects have decided to rehabilitate old brick buildings and where businesses have spent thousands of dollars on extensive remodeling.

It is a place at once well-known by outsiders as home to Little Italy, a short strip of restaurants and bakeries remaining from a formerly bustling Italian enclave, also largely ignored by City Hall officialdom. That is, until now.

The San Diego Planning Department has recommended that Harbor View be included in a massive expansion of downtown redevelopment, a proposal that would increase what is now 325 acres under the authority of the Centre City Development Corp. to about 1,200 acres. That would cover most of what lies west of Interstate 5 from Laurel Street to Harbor Drive.

Somewhat of a Surprise

Though expansion into other downtown territory such as Centre City East has been actively talked about for some time, the inclusion of Harbor View was something of a surprise, particularly to many property owners, some of whom want nothing to do with redevelopment, even though they acknowledge that they would like to see their community upgraded.

If nothing else, the debate caused by the proposal has brought Harbor View under the scrutiny of downtown planners for the first time in many years--some would say since the 1960s, when the construction of the broad Interstate 5 freeway split the neighborhood in half, radically changing its character.

The attention comes at a critical time, say those who live and work in the neighborhood, defined on City Hall maps as bounded by the freeway and Front Street on the east, Pacific Highway on the west, Laurel Street on the north and Ash Street on the south.

The old neighborhood, with its stucco and wood houses, is in transition, a change pushed along by the success of the downtown core, where the march of high rises and other new mid-rise office buildings has already brushed Harbor View’s southern boundary.

On this southern fringe, for example, are the 19-story John Burnham Co. building at 610 W. Ash St., the 5-story Pacific Professional Center at 555 W. Beech St., the 7-story San Diego National Bank building at 1420 Kettner Blvd., the 4-story Union Land Title structure at 444 W. Beech St. and the 11-story office building under construction at 350 Ash St.

As its name implies, one of the neighborhood’s strongest assets is its views of the harbor, and even though there are limitations on height

imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration because of the approach to Lindbergh Field, there is little to stop a proliferation of mid-rise construction.

It is this very concern over unbridled encroachment that is on the minds of government planners, residents and property owners alike. Where there is disagreement, however, is whether the remedy is redevelopment.

“I think we’re in a very critical transition period right now,” architect Rob Quigley said. “We can either have wall-to-wall anonymous office buildings or this area can keep its existing character.”

The question, said Quigley, who generally favors the idea of CCDC becoming involved, is whether change in the community can be done “with taste. Or will there be anarchy that will destroy everything that makes it wonderful?”

In about a week, Quigley’s new office building, which he hopes will also serve as his family’s residence, should be complete.

Unique Building

His building is unique. Built on a tiny lot on Cedar Street, between State and Columbia streets, the middle part stands 50 feet high, with transparent glass facing the bay. On each side is a spire 75 feet high topped by a small red light.

While proponents of redevelopment say it would, among other things, bring more guidance over the quality of development and land-use patterns in Harbor View, it is clear, even to opponents, that something must be done to help define the community’s future, which is governed by an ambiguous and outdated 12-year-old community plan.

That is why both CCDC and the Ernest Hahn-led Centre City Planning Committee are involved in attempting to determine what that future might be.

“Harbor View is one of those areas that belongs appropriately in a redevelopment zone . . . but whether they want one is something else,” said Larry Monserrate, principal planner for the downtown and one of four City Hall planners assigned to help Hahn’s committee.

‘A Lot of Attention’

“It’s a low-density area that has not had a lot of attention” from City Hall, he said. Whatever planning method is finally selected for Harbor View, Monserrate says that, from the city’s perspective, the residential quality of the community needs to be protected and something should be done to preserve and enhance what’s left of Little Italy.

“The worry is that development may come in at a scale that spoils the unique views and overwhelms the neighborhood. You get one or two buildings going in there and another two or three over there, and all of a sudden you have a big impact,” said Monserrate.

At the moment, CCDC is accumulating data on Harbor View, doing things such as documenting, parcel by parcel, who the landowners and what the land uses are. Whatever happens, it won’t be soon. Any expansion of the downtown redevelopment area is at least a year and half away, said CCDC spokeswoman Kathy Kalland. And, she says, “We definitely won’t force it on anyone.”

The power behind redevelopment is money. Once an area is designated blighted and thus eligible for redevelopment, the law allows special tax incentives that provide a redevelopment agency with funds to pay for improvements. Along with the tax incentives, though, comes the power of condemnation.

Different Mentality

It is that aspect of the law, or more precisely the fear that it will be used against property owners, that has some Harbor View property owners unnerved.

“There’s a different mentality toward redevelopment here,” said Mike Daniels, owner of H.G. Daniels, a successful business on India Street that specializes in merchandise for draftsmen and artists. Daniels is a member of the Harbor View Revitalization/Redevelopment Committee, a group formed in 1982 to try to get government money for improvements in the neighborhood, an effort that has yet to bear fruit, except for the city’s agreement to accelerate a program of placing utilities underground on India Street and Kettner Boulevard.

While some blocks in Harbor View are owned by only a few people--thereby making them easier to assemble for large building projects--many others are split into many small parcels, remnants of a once-strong Italian community. Although the Italian presence has dwindled, as the second- and third-generation offspring of the original settlers have moved off to places such as Mission Hills and Point Loma, many families still retain ownership of the original homestead.

“What you have is second- and third-generation family descendants with strong emotional ties to the neighborhood. Mom and Dad lived here. They were born here. It’s more than just land ownership, it’s emotional ties,” Daniels said. “If it comes down to (redevelopment) hearings at City Hall, they will come out in force against the plan. It will look like the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.”

Frustrated by Bureaucracy

Daniels said this without passing judgment, more as a point of fact, a reality. “I don’t care one way or another,” he said. “We’d like to have control of our destiny rather than have someone else do it.

“I get frustrated by the bureaucracy. There are simple things that could be done along India Street, like widen the sidewalks for cafes. We were supposed to get a traffic study, but it never happened. We could have such a fine neighborhood. I think the city planners would be drooling over the opportunity. The city has allowed a great ethnic community to die.”

There is no argument about that statement from Mario Cefalu, owner of Solunto Baking Co., a fixture on the few blocks of India Street that make up Little Italy.

“I don’t see the city doing anything to preserve the Italian flavor here,” he said in a thick accent, a remnant of his 19 years of upbringing in the Sicilian capital of Palermo. “They do what they want. . . . make you believe what they want.”

Cefalu said he is approached almost daily by developers and land speculators asking him whether he wants to sell his property, which he has owned for 22 years. To the question, what about redevelopment? Cefalu shrugs his shoulders.

The Italian influence stems from the turn of the century, when San Diego’s bountiful fishing industry attracted Italian and Portuguese immigrants. The Italians settled in Harbor View, building houses, opening businesses and paying for the construction of Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church, a mainstay on Columbia Street that still holds Mass in Italian. It is the focal point for many San Diego County Italians.

Worked Very Hard

“My dad came here in 1906 after the fire in San Francisco,” said a 62-year-old man of Italian ancestry who grew up in the neighborhood and now lives in Mission Hills. He asked that his name not be used.

“He worked very hard to get this,” he said, pointing to a small, four-unit residential complex built in about 1920. With redevelopment’s power of eminent domain, he fears, “we’d lose the whole area. It’s really just urban renewal but they call it redevelopment now. I’m all for upgrading the neighborhood, but who’s going to profit from it? The developers. When we lose our property rights, we’re going socialist.”

He vowed to help lead a revolt of his fellow Italian landowners against any redevelopment expansion.

Steve Wood, president of the Italian Community Center of San Diego, which meets in a small house behind Our Lady of the Rosary Church, said that, for the most part, the Italian landowners are a very conservative group “who are afraid of what redevelopment might do. . . . They’re afraid of giving up control.” Even modest proposals for improvements have met with resistance, principally because it’s difficult to get everyone to agree, he said.

“We’d like to see a revitalization of India Street, with more of a restaurant section, more pedestrians, wider sidewalks, outdoor cafes and narrower streets,” Wood said.

The irony of Harbor View is that, although the Italian economic influence is still strong, as illustrated by property ownership, the rest of Little Italy is just that-- little. Aside from the handful of popular restaurants, delis and bakeries on about two blocks, one has to hunt for signs of anything Italian anywhere else in the neighborhood.

Mostly Immigrants

The children who play on the streets, the young people who stroll the sidewalks, the families who relax on porches, the men and women who live in the low-rent apartments are Latinos, most of them immigrants from Mexico. They, as much as anyone, give Harbor View its flavor today.

“I think we have about six kids of Italian heritage . . . and none of them speak Italian,” says Raul Contreras, principal of Washington Elementary School, crammed into a corner of Union Street and bordered by I-5. Of the 330 students at the school, 76% are Latino.

Most of the students’ families live in Harbor View apartments or downtown hotels. Although Washington is the public elementary school for most of downtown, Contreras has yet to see any students from some of redevelopment’s highly praised residential complexes such as Park Row and Marina Park.

No, the parents of Contreras’ students hold low-paying jobs cleaning houses or offices or working at fast-food restaurants. There may be professionals working throughout Harbor View, but few who have any school-age children living there.

This helps explain why, of the 107 elementary schools in the San Diego Unified School District, Washington is rated the poorest, based on household incomes and families receiving government assistance. About 96% of the students are eligible to receive lunch either free or at a reduced price.

Its academic ranking, based on student test scores, puts it in 105th place in the district.

One thing Contreras has noticed in his four years as principal is that more and more homes and apartments, where the families of his students live, are being torn down to make way for parking lots and mid-rise buildings.

Subjective View

As is often the case in Harbor View, perspective is a very subjective commodity.

Ten years ago, Cherie Ninnis helped found Scarab Pottery, a business on India Street. The store, in a building that once housed an Italian shoe repairman’s shop, is a success, drawing customers from throughout San Diego.

Ninnis has also noticed changes--for the better. Some shoddy places have been demolished, the neighborhood has gradually upgraded itself and her customers are now more upscale. The pottery store itself was recently remodeled.

“There’s not a lot of the sleaze factor here,” she says. “This area will be developed because of its location regardless of what you do. How do you bring one unified plan for a neighborhood like this? The Italians are gone.”

“And it seems,” she says, that the area “is upgrading itself.”

“I don’t think this area needs redevelopment. . . . Businesses are coming in all the time. This isn’t a poor area. This isn’t a God-forsaken place that needs redevelopment.”