Balboa Park celebrated the 100th anniversary two years ago of its coming-out party, the Panama-California Exposition, that made it what it is today, the region’s cultural crown jewel.
But an even bigger birthday falls next year: the 150th anniversary of the city setting aside 1,400 acres of public land for a park, and at a time when fewer than 1,000 people lived in town.
And in the view of many, the park needs a giant cleanup before invitations go out for a sesquicentennial sheet cake arrives.
“What city mothers and fathers for decades have done is shameful,” said longtime resident Helen Roe Allen. “Starlight is ruined, facades are crumbling. Shame on all of us for allowing that to happen.”
Councilman Chris Ward, whose district includes the park, held a pre-party planning meeting of sorts recently, when dozens of residents, including Allen, gathered in the San Diego Museum of Art auditorium to dream big thoughts about the future.
“I think the responsible thing is to have the public, the actual decision makers, decide what those priorities are,” Ward said.
After landscape architect Vicki Estrada reviewed the history of the park and its many plans and improvement projects, Ward returned with the bad news: The price tag on a lengthening to-do list totals some $300 million, and that doesn’t take into account inflation or yet-to-come engineers’ construction estimates.
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