Mayor Filner Unveils Plan to Make Balboa Park a Park: Making Parts of it Car-Free

Yesterday evening, the mayor presented his plan to prepare San Diego for the upcoming 2015 Centennial Celebration. His plan articulates an actual park like vision that builds on a discussion begun over three years ago that initially got us excited but then quickly devolved into a series of oddities which included a proposal to build a bypass bridge with a price tag of $45 million, along with the construction of a new parking garage, a stranger proposal by the local preservationist group to build an additional road, a lawsuit and some heated (and long) city council sessions.

After all that hubub and the judicial ruling stating that the council approved plan to build a bypass bridge was a non-starter, the mayor proposed a $500,000 plan last night that takes the Blackson Stepner plan and makes it even better by making the historic Cabrillo Bridge car-free on weekends. This plan also includes a car-free Plaza de Panama that was the original vision that got us excited to begin with.

And not unlike how other city leaders around the country have received public support for similar plans, Filner’s proposal largely is temporary and can be implemented with minimal investment. We hope that this plan becomes permanent and we take this as a sign that it is part of the Mayor’s larger plan to make this city more bike friendly. Inviting our friends and neighbors to visualize and experience San Diego’s potential will be key to ensuring this plan’s success. But the challenge remains: San Diego’s streets aren’t truly bike-friendly unless the cars disappear and this is another one of those steps to getting our city to be more bike friendly.

According to Paul Jamason, Council President Todd Gloria, whose district includes the city’s jewel that is Balboa Park stated that he wanted to hear from his district about their support for the Mayor’s plan:

Gloria said he needed to “hear from his district” when he refused mayor’s request for $500K to study plan announced today.

— paul jamason (@sdurban) April 25, 2013

We’re very excited about the mayor’s plan and encourage you to voice your support by emailing Council President Gloria at: toddgloria@sandiego.gov. Do copy us at talk@bikesd.org so we can track your support as well.

For more information about car-free spaces in world-class cities, watch the videos from Street Films.