[quote=spdrun]…Wasn’t San Diego’s downtown area also deprecated a few decades ago?[/quote]
Actually, spdrun, dtn SD as a place to live didn’t really “take off” until after 2000 (the year Petco Park [baseball stadium] broke ground). The new stadium, along with the convention center expansion, served as an anchor for high-rise condo construction and the commercialization of the Gaslamp Disrict.
Before that, there were a handful of scattered condo complexes in the downtown core, the oldest being 18 years old (Marina Park – built 1982).
Dtn SD’s “urban renewal” began in full force in 1987-88. Prior to that, it only had a handful of buildings which were 12+ floors.
The only “residents” of the downtown core prior to 1982 were those living in a handful of scattered SFR’s (zoned residential/comm’l), the YMCA and YWCA and those living under bridges and out of cardboard boxes :=0
Note that dtn SD’s zip code “92101” extends over 1 mi north of the dtn core on the west side of Balboa Park. This is “Banker’s Hill” from Elm St to Maple St and has always been residential. This is not considered the “downtown core.”
