San Diego reinvents itself - and gentrifies

Ringed by silhouettes of palm trees and building cranes, Barbara Edelson stands on the balcony of her new loft apartment. Blocks from the Petco Ballpark, center of a downtown renaissance, she sings the praises of urban renewal.

"This is intimate, human-scale community building in a downtown that used to close down on nights and weekends," says Ms. Edelson, who's seen the value of her condo jump $50,000.

Blocks away, Ahmad Masdaq says developers are pushing him aside, "abusing the power of eminent domain," says the Afghan immigrant, owner of Havana Cigar Factory and Coffee Lounge in the historic Gaslamp Quarter. "People are angry and confused on why a redevelopment agency can close down a legitimate business."

Edelson and Mr. Masdaq articulate a clash brewing in the shadows of new high-rises here in the downtown's once-decaying industrial district - part of the development surrounding Petco Park, where the San Diego Padres will have their opening day April 11.

Coping with twin national trends - suburban empty-nesters returning to urban living and cities creating more human-scale communities in old industrial districts - San Diego is confronting a perennial issue for urban-renewal projects from California to Cleveland to Boston: When money pours in and property values rise, do poorer, more ethnically diverse neighborhoods get shoved aside? Does gentrification preclude diversity?

"San Diego is on the cutting edge of the nation's new urbanism," says John Norquist, president of the Congress for the New Urbanism. In large part, says Mr. Norquist, it's an effort to offset urban sprawl by promoting new building codes and zoning laws. "If done right, it could actually increase the chances that those with different incomes can work and live in the same place."

In San Diego, a 15-block area has had thousands of residential units - mostly high-end - snapped up. Officials say more modest housing will come eventually. For now, in the adjacent neighborhood of Golden Hills, residents report a tripling of real-estate values. And to the south, in Barrio Logan, there's been a steady closing of missions, housing, and food establishments for the poor and homeless.

"The upper scale is going higher and the lower scale is going lower here," says Neil Morgan, author of a book on migration patterns in the American West and senior columnist for the San Diego Union Tribune. The process, accelerating over two decades, has changed the profile of this once-sleepy border town, a California cul-de-sac ringed by the Mexican border and Pacific ocean and once known primarily as home to the world's largest Naval base.

"We are seeing the specialized migration of people from all over middle America who want to live in a region where cutting-edge research and high-tech firms are taking off," says Morgan.

Then there's that other urban trend: a growing desire among empty-nest suburbanites to trade one American dream for another - the house with a picket fence for a penthouse with iron rails and views.

"People are selling their homes in suburbia to move to a much denser, livelier environment where they can see opera, symphony, plays, and theater in their own backyard," says Mitch Mitchell, spokesman for the San Diego Chamber of Commerce. Beyond the 15,000 apartments and condos that are spoken for, thousands more are planned, and even the waiting lists are full.

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