Crying ‘Shame!’

On Nov. 5, 1984, the San Diego City Council rejected a plan that would have modernized the look of Horton Plaza and put in it several undesirable features, such as shelters and towers. The council arrived at its decision after many tiring and stormy public hearings. At the time there was much talk about how preserving the original facade of what was then the Bradley Building, with its Italian Renaissance trim, would enhance the historic look of the old plaza. Not surprisingly, the Los Angeles Times’ San Diego County Edition decided this wasn’t good enough, and, acting in the time-honored way, it offered to pay for an arts ticket center in front of the former Bradley Building (now Glendale Federal).

Once again, public input and the intention of restoring the plaza to its early 19th-Century appearance were discarded. How often has this happened to Horton Plaza and to Balboa Park? It is too late to undo the damage that has been done to the only public meeting and resting place in downtown San Diego. But it is not too late to cry, “SHAME!”

San Diego is a city of rich and poor, with everything for the first. I am sure the yuppies who will buy tickets at the new building will care less that it is on an extension of a public plaza. It will not even cross their minds that the ticket booth should have been put somewhere else.

My thoughts go back to the words of Julius Wangenheim, Jan. 10, 1919, to the Board of Park Commissioners, on which he had served for many years:

“It is with keen pleasure that I wish to thank you for the very generous attitude toward the Liberty Loan in the dedication of the plaza for that purpose. It was only the urgent need of the nation in time of crisis that would have tempted me to ask you to infringe on the inviolability of the plaza.

“Might I not suggest, now that the war is over, that the plaza be protected against any infringement for any other purpose. It is so small, so dainty and so centrally located that every inch should be carefully guarded. And might I not also suggest that all signs, booths and everything else of this nature on the plaza be discontinued.”

RICHARD W. AMERO

San Diego