Today’s newsletter is presented by Kaiser Permanente.
Hello, Downtown!
Downtown gets slammed in July. Get ready. There’s just one more June weekend before the big-ticket events churn close to a million people through city turnstiles.
First, Independence Day on the Fourth of July. This’ll be the 250th time the country’s celebrated the birth of our country. Hundreds of thousands of people will tilt their heads to the night sky above Seaport Village for the annual Big Bay Boom fireworks show. Everybody wants to ooh and aah over a simulation of bombs bursting in air, synchronized to a radio soundtrack on 91X. Great, but downtown becomes wall-to-wall with cars and pedestrians.
Then it’s time for Pride. Another couple hundred thousand visitors or so come to Hillcrest and downtown for our annual salute to the LGBTQIA+ community. Yes, June is National Pride Month. Still, we march, parade and serenade in July. Get over it. This year’s colorful Pride Parade & Festival Weekend is July 18-19. A rainbow of events take place the week prior.
The dust settles for about four days after Pride. Then cosplayers take center stage at the San Diego Convention Center. More than 130,000 pay for tickets to attend Comic-Con International. Nearly as many people watchers come down to participate in free popups and activations outside the convention center. The celebration of superhero fandom takes over Fifth Avenue and the base of the Gaslamp Quarter from July 23 to 26.
Since the Summer Solstice on June 21, San Diego’s daylight hours have peaked. It’s going to feel that way all of July. My advice for the remainder of June is to nap regularly. Then, Red Bull July. Come August, we’ll kick back with feet up, IPAs in hand and orange-red sunsets signaling the city is nearly all ours, again.
Ron Donoho
Downtown News newsletter host
Downtown story spotlight
Crime is down, but SDPD use of force is up — and Black San Diegans are seven times more likely to face it
By Dorian Hargrove • Times of San Diego and Andrew Keatts • Times of San Diego
Police data shows that despite reduced crime, officers are using more force now, and Black people are seven times more likely to be targeted than whites.
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