Balboa Park History 1988

January 1, 1988, San Diego Union, C-6. Local table-tennis club (San Diego Table Tennis Association) bounces into new home (Federal Building).

“It’s a good, healthy change because we’re going from white tile floors to a dark, solid wood floor,” association president Gary Hranek said. “It was hard to see the white balls against that white tile.”

January 5, 1988, San Diego Union, B-1. Green fees at Torrey Pines, Balboa to soar for non-locals, by Michael Abrams.

January 6, 1988, Los Angeles Times, (L) I, 3:3. Article on efforts of San Diego Zoo to reorganize by climate and habitat rather than species (photos).

January 14, 1988, READER, 5. Unpleasantness at the Balboa Club, by Brae Canlin Chess players gained a majority on the Board; senior citizens and City want club to be for the elderly; “The Balboa Club is not supposed to be a private club (for chess players),” said Al Weiss, seventy-three years old

January 14, 1988, B-1. San Diego Tribune, B-1. San Diego Automotive Museum shifts into park; antique cars go on display this weekend, by Rita Calvano.

January 14, 1988, B-7, San Diego Tribune, B-7. Armand V. Campillo, Water Department chief retires; in 1978 he was appointed director of Parks & Recreation; served for five years, by Kathryn Balint.

January 17, 1988, B-3. San Diego Union, B-3. Hundreds preview S. D. Automotive Museum: The museum’s Board of Directors has been granted a 25-year, zero-cost lease on the Conference Building. . . . In return the Board has agreed to renovate the building and construct a second building behind the museum within three to five years. Total cost of the project, financed by private donations, is estimated at $6 million.

January 18, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-7. The Old Globe: The best is yet to come, by Darlene Davis: Mayor O’Connor outlined bold measures to catapult San Diego to international status in the arts . . . on the stage of the Old Globe Theater.

January 18, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-6. Letter, Dub Hicks: Mayor O’Connor’s fetish for sailboats and culture may in the end saddle beer drinkers with a champagne budget, which the majority opposes.

January 28, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-4. San Diego is counting on a $2.7 million state grant to provide a new gymnasium for square dancers, handicapped floor hockey teams and ping-pong players.

January 31, 1988, Los Angeles Times (M), VIII, 1:4. Article looks at new San Diego Naval Hospital, world’s largest medical facility, scheduled to open this weekend (photo).

February, 1988, The Neighborhood Reporter. Balboa Park’s traffic study: an open letter to George Loveland, the Planning Commission, Mayor Maureen O’Connor, the City Council and concerned citizens.

We have no use, per se, for a car count on all the streets and parking lots in an within three miles of Balboa Park.

We must establish the priority that the “Great Park Comes First” to direct all our studies and planning..

February 4, 1988, San Diego Tribune, A-1. Balboa Park site picked for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial: A group of civic leaders has selected a site near the Casa del Prado in Balboa Park as their top choice for a memorial to honor slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Park Director George Loveland doesn’t “anticipate problems.” . . . “we’ve got portions of the park named after a lot of people.”

February 5, 1988, Los Angeles Times, II, 1. Balboa Park site eyes for King memorial; Panel expects no opposition, by Leonard Bernstein: The chamber committee was formed November 3 to allay anger in San Diego’s black community after city residents voted November 3 to strip King’s name from Market Street; monument to cost about $250,000.

February 5, 1988, San Diego Union, B-2. Park site urged for King memorial, by Steve Schmidt.

February 6, 1988, San Diego Union, B-2. Photograph of model of proposed monument to Martin Luther King by artist John Paul Jones.

February 6, 1988, San Diego Union, B-6. Zoo reports daytime theft of two rare Australian cockatoos.

February 8, 1988, San Diego Union, B-1. Director Hal Mahan hopes to magically transform Natural History Museum, by Kristine Moe: His plans include a $12 million expansion project to build a new wing and revamp most of the exhibits.

February 8, 1988, San Diego Union, B-1. A suggestion by a San Diego task force to use Mission Trails Regional Park as an Olympic training site has created a stir among two other groups planning the park’s future, by Barbara Moran.

February 8, 1988, San Diego Union, B-6. Zoo doesn’t profit from condor program; article by William Toone, curator of birds, San Diego Wild Animal Park.

February 11, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-8. Letter: Park inappropriate for life-size statues, by Richard Amero: Parks should not be a dumping grounds for institutions, buildings and statues that the city cannot put anywhere else.

February 11, 1988, San Diego Union, B-3. Park Department youth center plan at old San Ysidro Boys Club backed 3-0 by Public Facilities & Recreation Committee, by Michael Abrams.

February 11, 1988, San Diego Union, B-9. Clubhouse plan to place a clubhouse on the city’s Robb Field in Ocean Beach backed 4-1 to Public Facilities & Recreation Committee.

In dissenting, Bob Filner said allowing a private clubhouse on city park space sets an unfortunate precedent.

February 18, 1988, San Diego Tribune, A-1. Rising costs crimp city parks plans, by Rita Calvano: Move beyond the city’s recreational meccas — Balboa Park, Mission Bay and the beaches — and San Diego faces a chronic shortage of parks and recreational space.

February 19, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-6. Park & Recreation Board, city advisory panel on parks feels neglected; irked at being bypassed; members compile list of grievances to submit to Council, by Rita Calvano.

The Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater & Science Center planned a $17.5 million expansion in Balboa Park that would double its size.

Neither the Park Board not the Balboa Park Committee was consulted during the planning or before the unveiling in July. At the same time the Board was studying a proposed master plan for Balboa Park and eventually recommended the City Council keep the park as free as possible of new buildings.

February 21, 1988, San Diego Union, B-1. Rising from the ashes; Park’s Aerospace Museum bigger and better than ever, by Kristine Moe.

February 21, 1988, San Diego UnionF-1. The Romance of Hispanic Design: Every street corner echoes a legacy, by Kay Kaiser.

February 21, 1988, San Diego Union, F-8. First-phase of a $1.5 million two-year renovation of 40,000 square feet in Balboa Park’s California Tower Building; Lee Roundstream designed and prepared construction drawings for the renovation of the California Tower.

February 22, 1988, San Diego Tribune, C-1. Aerospace organizations mark anniversary of fire, by Gregory Nelson Joseph.

February 23, 1988, San Diego Union, B-3. Assemblywoman Lucy Killea seeks $6 million funding for improvements at Mission Bay and Balboa Park, by Daniel C. Carson.

February 28, 1988, San Diego Union, F-10. Letter: Don’t sacrifice city’s parkland to expand museums, theaters, by Don Wood, president of Citizens Coordinate for Century 3.

March, 1988, San Diego Magazine, Vol. 40, No. 5, 146-153, 265-266, 268, 270. Out of the Ashes: The 25th Anniversary of a Brilliant Aero-Space Museum, by Muriel Tierney.

March 2, 1988, San Diego Union, B-6. EDITORIAL: Spirit of San Diego: We are enjoying one of our happy civic moments just now in celebrating how San Diegans responded to twin disasters 10 years ago after arsonists burned down the Old Globe Theater, the San Diego Aerospace Museum, and the International Aerospace Hall of Fame.

March 3, 1988, READER, 5. Wired, by Neal Matthews: disheartening fence that lines of new city nursery beside Pershing Drive.

Balboa Park is unzoned land, according to chief zoning administrator Joe Flynn, and therefore it is not subject to zoning laws. So the city can place a dump there, pour oil on a landfill for the zoo, or rip out canyons and erect razor-wire fences with impunity.

March 3, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-3. Council’s Public Service Committee spurns temporary jail in Balboa Park, by Kathryn Balint.

March 7, 1988, San Diego Tribune, C-1. Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center 15, growing; future plans are out of this world, by Gregory Nelson Joseph: Fleet’s executive director Jeffrey W. Kirsch looks ahead to a $17.5 million expansion of the theater/science center.

March 7, 1988, San Diego Tribune, D-1. Fire ignited new age for Old Globe Theater, by Gregory Nelson Joseph.

March 7, 1988, San Diego Union, C-4. Parking at issue for Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit, by Christopher Reynolds: Museum officials want to erect a full-scale, 1,800 sq. ft., Usonian Automatic House, designed by Wright in 1955 in the parking lot in front of the museum, which they acknowledge would usurp 64 parking spaces from the already crowded center of Balboa Park. For 2-1/2 months. In the height of the summer tourist season.

March 10, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Mayor O’Connor urges boost in tax on hotel rooms to fund arts, by Kathryn Balint.

Mayor O’Connor is proposing to raise the city’s tax on hotel and motel rooms by 1 percent to 2 percent to help fund the arts and establish a city office of protocol.

Each 1 percent increase in the so-called Transient Occupancy Tax, now 7 cents on every dollar, would generate $3.7 million in additional revenue a year.

March 11, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Park site backed for King memorial, by Linda Keene: Chamber of Commerce committee chooses site between the Children’s Theater, Spanish Village and the Natural History Museum.

March 11, 1988, San Diego Tribune, D-3. Automobile buffs rev up nostalgia at museum fund-raiser, by Nancy Scott Anderson” “Southern California has the largest number of car enthusiasts in the country, Director Barry Humphrey said, “but San Diego has been slow to get on the bandwagon.”

March 11, 1988, San Diego Union, B-1. Chamber of Commerce panel urges Balboa Park site for King memorial, by Steve Schmidt

March 12, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Balboa Park activists voice doubts about site chosen for King tribute, by Linda Keene: “It’s a beautiful, accessible part of the park,” said Chamber of Commerce committee member Jack Morse. “There’s a lot of young traffic there.”

March 12, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-3. Letter: While the public is forced to pay admission to our public art galleries, the city continues to spend scarce public money – however derived – on low-priority “public art” every year, by Mary B. De La Croix.

March 14, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-6. Letter: Space Theater funding questioned, by Don Wood . . . If the Fleet Space Theater wants to continue to serve the public in the park at its present size, I have no problem. On the other hand, it if wants to expand what has become a purely commercial venture, let it do so outside Balboa Park without further taxpayer subsidies.

March 15, 1988, San Diego Union, A-1. Super Bowl fans passed the bucks; task force says county impact at least $136 million, by Barry Lorge.

March 18, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-8. Balboa study backs parking garage need, by Rita Calvano: Balboa Park would need four parking garages and more than 3,300 new parking spaces over the next 22 years according to a new $10,000 study by P&D Technologies commissioned by the City Council.

March 19, 1988, San Diego Union, B-3. The Park & Recreation Dept. is recommending continued traffic for Cabrillo Bridge, by R. B. Brenner; report done for the city by P&D Technologies presents six alternatives, including closing the bridge and created new access to Balboa Park from Quince Street.

March 20, 1988, San Diego Union, F-10. Letter: Don’t forget institutions, by Richard Bundy: The Natural History Museum’s official position on the Balboa Park master plan states that it should not be approved until it incorporates and adopts policies, criteria, goals, etc. for the physical expansion of any and all institutions in the park.

March 22, 1988, San Diego Union, B-2. Park-to-bay pedestrian link proposal is revived; the City Council agreed to fund a $15,000 study that will examine possible routes for a bay-park link.

March 23, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-7. Let’s quit whittling at Balboa Park, by Herb Fredman: Balboa Park is a commons. Each new or expanded use by itself does little harm. Together, they spell disaster.

March 24, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-3. Zoo’s $6 million Rain Forest opens Saturday, by Rita Calvano; the new exhibit recreates the world’s most threatened environment.

March 27, 1988, San Diego Union, F-2. Balboa Park offers an artistic capstone close to downtown, by Roger Showley: Kathy Kailan, spokeswoman for the Centre City Development Corp., said that Balboa Park’s location next to downtown means that park museums and theaters do not need to be relocated to take advantage of growth in Centre City.

March 28, 1988, Los Angeles Times. Times Poll: Most would pay to fix up City’s aging Balboa Park, by Barry M. Horstman: those who use the park least prefer a minimal parking fee or entrance fee over an annual tax.

March 28, 1988, San Diego Union, B-6. EDITORIAL: Breathtaking zoo exhibit . . . zoo’s newly completed tropical rain forest in the $6 million Tiger River exhibit.

March 29, 1988, Los Angeles Times (L), IV, 9:1. Some have doubts about ability of organizers to pull off Air/Space American Exposition in San Diego (photo).

March 29, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-6. Letters: Limit encroachment of non-park uses, by Maureen O’Donnell, R. J. McClure, C. H. Bowman.

March 31, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-12. Letter; Park institutions’ plans are overlooked, by Richard Bundy. The current (master plan) proposal lacks a clear vision or overall plan for the park. The emphasis of the master-plan effort seems to have been focused on Cabrillo bridge traffic through the park and parking in the park, rather than working to make the park a park.

April, 1988, San Diego Magazine, Vol. 40, No. 6, 124-129, 224, 226, 279. Museum of Photographic Arts at Five, by Mark Elliott-Lugo.

April 7, 1988. Agenda of City of San Diego Historical Site Board

Report, April 4, 1988, Amendment of local historic designation and the National Historic Landmark boundaries and the Historical Site Board’s advisory role in Balboa Park issues and projects.

Recommendation

  1. Amend the local historic site and National Historic Landmark designations to make them coterminus and to include all of Spanish Village, the carousel and miniature train ride.
  2. Direct staff to formalize the manner and procedure of Historical Site Board, Park and Recreation Board and Balboa Park Committee review of development and policy issues concerning historical properties in Balboa Park.

(Signed) Ron Buckley, Secretary to the Historical Site Board.

April 8, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-6. The Park & Recreation Board is recommending that the City Council impose a building moratorium in Balboa Park until an entire master plan for the park is adopted, by Rita Calvano.

April 8, 1988, San Diego Union, B-1. During a lengthy joint meeting, the members of three city boards – the Historical Site Board, the Park & Recreation Board, and the Balboa Park Committee – said it is vital that a park traffic plan be approved before any changes are allowed.

April 15, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-8. EDITORIAL: Don’t tax Balboa Park culture: Balboa Park should remain an amenity for all San Diegans paid for and maintained by all San Diegans. Cultural institutions should use their funds for cultural purposes. Let’s not saddle them with the task of paying for trams and garages.

April 16, 1998, San Diego Union, A-1. San Diego tax surcharge on property tax bills proposed; fee plan to raise about $120 million park funds would bypass Proposition 13, by Michael Abrams.

April 19, 1998, San Diego Union, B-3. Balboa Park garage plan opposed by Filner, by Steve Schmidt.

April 20, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-10. EDITORIAL: Park and ride to new park plan: Councilman Bob Filner is on the right track. He’s questioning recommendations to build multistory parking garages in Balboa Park as part of the new master plan. Filner suggests a superior, cheaper alternative: creation of a shuttle transit system between the park and downtown parking garages.

April 21, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Funding help sought for improvements at city’s major parks, by Kathryn Balint: City Manager John Lockwood is proposing that the city raise $135 for improvements to Mission Bay Park, Balboa Park and other major parks by levying a special tax on San Diego property owners.

April 22, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-3. City must look within for facilities, money, Council told, by Jeff Ristine: San Diego residents should not expect the state or federal government to help eliminate a $1.6 billion shortfall in funds needed for streets, open space, libraries and other public facilities, consultants warned the City Council yesterday.

April 22, 1988, B-9, San Diego Tribune, B-9. Letter, Mary B. De La Croix: . . . we have spent thousands of dollars worth of increasingly scare public money on the mayor’s proposed “cultural exchange” with Russia . . . while our performing arts go begging, our museums are underfunded and our children run wild in the streets.

April 25, 1988, B-6, San Diego Tribune, B-6. Letter: Science Center has become a sideshow to the Space Theater, by Marshall Wiseman

April 29, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-7. Master plan discussion for Balboa Park delayed.

May, 1988, San Diego Magazine, Vol. 40, No. 7, 8, 10. Letters regarding Aero-Space Museum . . . Edwin D. McKellar, executive director San Diego Aero-Space Museum; William Wagner; C. J. Paderewski.

May, 1988, San Diego Magazine, Vol. 40, No. 7, 134-139, 216, 220, 222-224. Mystical Magical Visions of Mexico; Nelson Rockefeller’s collection of Mexican folk art at Museum of Man, by Maribeth Mellin.

May, 1988, San Diego Magazine, Vol. 40, No. 7, 168+. Eyes and the Apes: The Belle Benchley Story, by Emily Hahn (NOTE: Cut out of copy of San Diego Magazine on file at the San Diego History Center Research Archives!).

May 4, 1988, San Diego Union, B-1. Autos should take back seat to people in Balboa Park plan, by Bob Filner.

May 5, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-8. Letter: Shuttle to the park a better idea than drenching Balboa Park with parking garages, by Barbara Bamberger, Sierra Club, San Diego Chapter.

May 9, 1988, San Diego Union, B-1. Golden Hill neighbors ask city to lock out park problems, by Kathryn Balint: The 25th Street Neighborhood Park is more a place of fear than fun these days.

May 9, 1988, San Diego Union, E-4. Local groups await their share of funds, by Christopher Reynolds.” COMBO backed away from the fund-distributing responsibility in November.

May 19, 1988, San Diego Tribune, A-1. Museum of Man has received a federal grant of more than $74,400 from Institute of Museum Services in Washington, DC.

May 25, 1988, Los Angeles Times (L), I, 3:1. San Diego Zoo investigation concludes that San Diego Wild Animal Park trainers used excessive force against elephant; Humane Society of U.S. probes charges (photos).

June 2, 1988, Los Angeles Times (L), I, 26:1. Humane Society calls for action in beating of elephant at San Diego Wild Animal Park.

June 3, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-3. Bill Nelson, chairman of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce and of its King Memorial Committee, has a dream — to raise funds for King Memorial, by Linda Keene.

The Chamber of Commerce Committee has selected a site behind the Natural History Museum. The group has also committed itself to creating a King scholarship for low-income students. Total cost: $750,000.

June 3, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-2. San Diego Zoo officials are facing a July 1 deadline to provide shade for the six elephants in its exhibit, a U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian said yesterday.

June 4, 1988, San Diego Union, B-3. The San Diego Zoo has agreed to pay $530, half of the fine levied by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for two serious violations involving contact between animals and workers.

June 6, 1988, Balboa Park Committee meeting – Workshop – Balboa Master Plan.

June 6, 1988, Memorandum from Councilman Bob Filner to Members, Public Facilities & Recreation Committee, Subject – Balboa Park Master Plan.

June 9, 1988, Park & Recreation Board meeting – Workshop – Balboa Master Plan.

June 10, 1988, San Diego Union, B-6. Photograph of work in progress on San Diego Automotive Museum facade.

June 10, 1988, San Diego Tribune, C-1. Pipes calling — Monday is “Spreckels Organ Day,” by Valerie Scher: Bea Evenson handed over $150,000 worth of profits from gold stocks for the $2.2 million renovation of the Organ Pavilion.

June 13, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-3. Public Facilities & Recreation Committee to study pan to aid Balboa Park institutions if attendance drops because of changes in parking and traffic.

June 13, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-6. EDITORIAL: It seems only fair that visitors make a small contribution to make sure that San Diego – up close – won’t disappoint them. One way they do this is through taxes on their hotel and motel rooms. That’s why the City Council was on sound footing when it increased the transient occupancy tax last week. The increase was from 7 cents to 8 cents on the dollar.

June 13, 1988, San Diego Union, C-6. Who gets most funds? Depends on who’s in lobby, by Christopher Reynolds: The big winner was the Old Globe Theater.

June 16, 1988, Park & Recreation Board Meeting – Director’s Report.

June 21, 1988. City Council increased the Hotel-Room-Tax from 7 to 8 cents for every dollar of hotel receipts.

June 23, 1988, Balboa Park Committee special meeting for final vote on plan.

June 23, 1988, San Diego Daily Transcript, 1A. Balboa Park plan eyes open bridge, no-parking Prado; also sees experimentation, parking structures, bonds; Filner still wants green, by Andrew Kleske. Balboa Park Committee’s recommendations call for removal of parking on El Prado.

June 23, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-12. The San Diego Historic Sites Board recommended unanimously yesterday that officials consider a more modern design for the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center befitting an institution that prides itself on teachings about tomorrow.

The Spanish-Colonial motif characterizing other park buildings is all wrong for the science center, said the Board.

June 30, 1988, Park & Recreation Board special meeting for final vote on plan.

July, 1988, San Diego Magazine, Vol. 40, No. 9, 126-131. Bringing up Baby; New Arrivals at the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park, by Bradley Smith.

July 1, 1988, Los Angeles Times (L), I, 3:1. San Diego city attorney says he will not prosecute trainers at Wild Animal Park accused of beating Dunda, the elephant, claiming there is no hard evidence.

July 5, 1988, City Manager’s report on master plan to mayor and Council.

July 7, 1988, READER, 8, 9. The Inside Story, by Paul Krueger: Marketing Wizard Jeffrey Kirsch has used Omnimax movies, laser light shows, and a glitzy gift shop to make the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center the most popular attraction on Balboa Park ‘s El Prado. Now Kirsch’s political and lobbying skills are being tested as he tries to win speedy approval for a controversial $17.5 million expansion plan that would triple the space center’s floor space, push annual attendance to the one-million mark, and encourage similar expansions by neighboring museums.

July 14, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Panda’s visit a zoo bonanza, by Rita Calvano; The giant pandas from China, who became the San Diego Zoo’s big drawing card when they arrived for a six-month visit last July, made the Zoological Society of San Diego a healthy $4.4 million in profits, zoo spokesman Jeff Jouett said.

July 14, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-4. Activities by Sierra Club at issue; anti-politics rule may bring eviction from House of Hospitality, by Kathryn Balint: the Council’s Public Facilities and Recreation Committee is considering changing the policy to prohibit any politically-oriented group from moving into city-owned offices at low rent.

July 18, 1988, City Council consideration of master plan.

July 30, 1988, Los Angeles Times (M), I, 26:1. Public hearing is held over beating of San Diego Zoo elephant by its handlers as accusations of mistreatment and cover up are leveled by San Diego Wild Animal Park colleagues.

August 4, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-5. A report, compiled by the city manager’s office and the Planning Department, favors a more pedestrian-oriented environment, the reduction of auto traffic, and the preservation of dwindling open park land.

August 5, 1988, San Diego Tribune. B-3. In a rare display of emotion, members of the San Diego Park & Recreation Board cheered yesterday as they approved the principles of a long-awaited preliminary master plan for Balboa Park that favors a pedestrian-oriented park with less auto traffic and more open walking areas, by Joseph Thesken.

The board objected to only one issue . . . the statement that the Arizona landfill could be used for parking for special events.

August 5, 1988, San Diego Tribune, D-1. Make that the Big Five, by Gregory Nelson Joseph . . . the Old Globe Theater, the La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego Repertory Theater and Gaslamp Quarter Theater Company, and . . . the Starlight Theater; Leon Drew, Starlight general manager and executive producer.

August 5, 1988, San Diego Union, B-1. The Park & Recreation Board yesterday endorsed the proposed Balboa Park master plan.

August 9, 1988, San Diego Union, B-6. EDITORIAL: Saving a treasure: The council should approve this well-wrought, well-balanced plan that manages to preserve both the charm and accessibility of Balboa Park.

August 10, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-1. San Diegans give Soviet festival a mixed review, by Kathryn Balint.

O’Connor’s city council colleagues lavished her with praise while expressing some reservations about how much, if any, taxpayer money will be spent on the festival.

August 10, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-7. Balboa Park master plane shelved once again for study time, by Joseph Thesken: The City Council voted 5-4 yesterday to continue the item until the Council’s September 26 meeting. . . . Council member Bob Filner, whose district takes in Balboa Park, said “We’ve postponed and postponed. It was continued from November of last year, and it’s been on the agenda several times since then.”

August 11, 1988, READER, 4. Different stages – New angle for Old Globe, by Neal Matthews: If Old Globe Theater executives get their way – which they usually do – two more buildings will soon be erected in the already-crowded Simon Edison Centre for the Performing Arts.

August 15, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-6. EDITORIAL: End debate, approve park plan: In the game of political compromise, the players usually understand the need to give and take, to move toward a middle ground. But museums and other cultural institutions of Balboa Park have yet to learn that lesson.

August 16, 1988, Letter, Councilmember Bob Filner to Richard Amero: As you may know, the City Council – over my objections – recently postponed until September 26 discussion of the Balboa Park Master Plan. A few special interest groups managed to delay passage of the plan.

August 21, 1988, San Diego Union, C-3. Letter, Park Delays: Members of the City Council, let’s delay no more. Give Balboa Park the grandeur she deserves, by D. D. McElfresh, San Diego.

August 26, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-8. Letter, Updated park plan should be approved, by Bob Filner.

August 30, 1988, San Diego Union, B-1. Fire sweeps through Balboa Park canyon, by Jeannie Wong: The canyon (Florida Canyon), which serves as a wildlife refuge, is the site of a major fire every seven years, Capt. Ron Cervantes of the Fire Department, said.

August 30, 1988, San Diego Union, B-2. Violence shows little gain in Balboa Park: A problem continues with transients and the homeless who hide in the park, police spokesman Bill Robinson said. Although a city ordinance forbids camping in the park, its size – 1,400 acres – and topography make enforcement difficult, he said.

August 30, 1988, San Diego Union, B-6. EDITORIAL: Saving the animals on $3 million gift of Paul Harter and his wife, Ione, to save endangered species at the Zoological Society of San Diego.

September, 1988. Citizens Coordinate for Century 3 Newsletter. President’s Column – Balboa Park Master Plan Update: C3 members and friends are again urged to contact Council Members in support of the proposal presented in the Manager’s Report.

September 1, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-1. The San Diego City Manager and a special advisory committee suggested tourists should provide the $45 million needed to restore deteriorating old buildings in Balboa Park.

September 1, 1988, San Diego Union, B-1. City Manager John Lockwood yesterday proposed a $45 million financing plan to renovate Balboa Park’s crumbling buildings by increasing the city’s hotel-motel room tax by a penny.

Under the plan, the tax, also known at the transient occupancy tax, would be raised to 9 cents for every $1 of hotel receipts, up from the current 8 cents. One cent of the revenue now represents about $4.1 million.

If the plan — to be discussed next Wednesday at the council’s Rules Committee — is eventually approved by the full council, it would resolve one of the toughest problems Lockwood has faced in his three years at the helm of city government: How to make up for a decade of deferred maintenance at Balboa Park buildings, in part because of revenue shortages since Proposition 13 cut property taxes in 1978.

September 2, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-15. Park should serve all, not just the few, by Bob Filner.

September 4, 1988, San Diego Union, C-2. EDITORIAL: Museum renaissance: Under the inspired, innovative leadership of Director Hal Mahan, the Natural History Museum is becoming a composite of learning centers.

September 4, 1988, San Diego Union, F-14. Japanese friendship flowers, Ken Nakajima, famed landscaper, plans Balboa Park masterwork, by Sue LeMontre: entire five phase project will cost $11.4 million.

September 5, 1988. City Council’s Rules Committee endorsed increasing the city’s transient occupancy tax from seven cents to nine cents on the dollar over a two-year period., but refused to allocate $3 million of these funds for the proposed Soviet Arts Festival.

September 5, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-1. “Free day” record-breaking crowds straining park staff, by Joseph Thesken: The Museum of Photographic Arts and the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater will limit the number of people admitted at any one time.

September 7, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Centre City plan would link bay, Balboa Park, by Mark T. Sullivan.

September 7, 1988, San Diego Union, B-2. The City Charter Review Commission heard pleas yesterday for a limit on commercial activities that take place on city parklands, with critics aiming attacks at non-profit museums as well as the commercial developers of Belmont Park.

September 8, 1988, San Diego Union, B-6. Letter, Support park plan, by Linda Michael, Point Loma.

September 9, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-10. EDITORIAL: Lockwood’s penny-wise tax plan: When the City Council considers the transient occupancy tax September 26, its members should agree to a penny increase and should accept Lockwood’s recommendations on how to spend it.

September 9, 1988, San Diego Union, B-1. The City Planning Commission yesterday gave tentative approval for Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center to more than double its size by the end of the century.

September 12, 1988, San Diego Tribune, C-2. Stuffed shirts don’t wash with kids, so museums soften up, by Jane Clifford: Cultural centers here and elsewhere are hosting some not-so-stuffy events — slumber parties, birthday parties, movie showings — and otherwise entertaining young people for a price. The money helps keep the institutions alive.

September 13, 1998, San Diego Tribune, B-3. Fears dot Balboa Park visitor survey, by Joseph Thesken.

September 14, 1988San Diego Union, B-6. EDITORIAL: A deserving cause: The Soviet arts festival deserves the City Council’s support for al the same reasons that Balboa Park does.

September 15, 1988. The Abuses of Power, unpublished essay by Richard Amero.

Another “blue-ribbon” advisory committee has decided the City should dip into the hotel motel tax to the tune of $45 million to refurbish buildings in Balboa Park and to promote activities within these buildings. Proponents of this gift claim there will be no opposition to using the hotel motel tax because the money is not coming from residents and because the money is going to be used to promote tourism. The Hotel Motel Association has agreed to accept the additional tax. Why would anyone question it?

For starters, the City is doing what it has done since it created Balboa Park in 1868 in order to raise the value of adjacent properties. The diversion of money is one more attempt to force institutional development on the park for the benefit of well-to-do people who would not ordinary utilize the park’s resources.

In its early days, San Diego’s elite looked on the park as their playground. George W. Marston was the most prominent spokesman for using the park as a pleasure ground for the horse-and-buggy set. In 1910 and 1913, citizens approved spending $1,850,000 for park improvements. Because of pressures emanating from San Diego’s “establishment” this money was funneled into exposition promotion and building. This misuse of public funds led in 1911 to the resignation of the Park Board and to the 1917 election of Louis J. Wilde, a working man’s candidate, to the office of mayor and the defeat of George W. Marston, park lover and promoter of cultural institutions.

San Diego’s “establishment” in the 1900’s consisted of bankers, hotel men and merchants. These people usually had their way, though the election of aggressive, iconoclastic mayors, such as D. C. Reed, Edwin M Capps, John L. Sehon, James F. Wadham, and Louis J. Wilde give then difficult times.

While the “establishment” has talked about promoting culture and making San Diego beautiful, it has put their private profits first. Boosters advocated selling huge sections of Balboa Park, using the park as a county fair grounds or for raising tobacco, putting hospitals, charitable institutions, state colleges, high schools, civic buildings, convention centers, commercial theaters, professional baseball parks, radio stations, sales marts and trade centers in the park. This profit-oriented group has supported restoring tawdry Exposition buildings in the park for other than general people use. Because of their bulldog tenacity, members of these groups were responsible for the fires of 125 and 1978 that destroyed unsafe and combustible buildings, whose demolition had been long postponed.

After defeats, the “establishment” has always found a way to remount to pursue its aims on other fronts. In 1971, 1972 and 1973, San Diego voters turned down attempts to restore the Ford and Electric Buildings and to build a new wing on the Museum of Fine Arts. These projects were accomplished anyway because the “establishment” obtained money from other government sources that did not require a vote of approval from rank and file citizens. “Superior” people reasoned that the hoi polloi did not know what was good for them.

The statement that because 60 percent of the people approved the 1987 defeated park bond issue, a majority favors the upkeep of buildings in Balboa Park is erroneous. These voters approved a bond issue for Balboa Park and Mission Bay that included a multitude of projects and programs. It is impossible to know which of these projects the voters favored and which the didn’t.

Framers of the City Charter required a two-thirds approval for park bond issues because they wanted to be sure public money was going to be put to its best use and because they wanted to protect public resources from high-pressure sales campaigns.

The City Council could not get a two-thirds approval of the Naval Hospital swap exchange in 1979 and could not get two-thirds approval for funding special-interest projects for profit-seeking, commercially oriented agencies in the park in 1987.

Kate Sessions, San Diego’s great horticulturist, was for years the only person in the City who protested what the San Diego “establishment” was doing to public parks. She was eloquent in her fury. We know what Kate Sessions wanted — the result is everywhere in San Diego County wherever plants and trees grace the earth.

George W. Marston ran away from public fights. He relinquished his nature-loving objections, went along with the wishes of his political supporters, and became a leader and spokesperson for Balboa Park cultural institutions, despite his occasional misgivings.

Cultural institutions in Balboa Park were free to the public until the mid 1960’s. It was the promise to be free that got them in the park in the first place. These institutions now charge steep admission fees that de facto exclude low-income working people from seeing what is inside. “Free” lectures, that formerly were a Sunday-afternoon offering at these institutions, are now reserved for members.

The City Council will approve the diversion of hotel-motel tax money to Balboa Park cultural institutions that call themselves “non profit,” only because the term itself is ambiguous. Trustees of these institutions and not the voters generally get Council people elected through campaign contributions. They expect to be reimbursed for their support in the form of favors once their chosen and groomed candidates are in office.

The $45 million gift to Balboa Park institutions is a slush fund for undemocratic and aggrandizing institutions that have a stranglehold on Balboa Park and on city officials. The cynicism and connivance exercised by the trustees of these institutions cries for public correction.

(Submitted to the San Diego Tribune for publication and rejected.)

September 20, 1988, San Diego Union. B-6. EDITORIAL: Balboa blueprint: Some objections raised by the Central Balboa Park Association ought to be considered by the council.

September 24, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-2. Park Nativity scene backed by research, city attorney John Witt says, by Jeff Ristine: Americans United for the Separation of Church and State probably will make no attempt to have this year’s display removed, chapter president Charles Ballanger said, but may raise questions next year.

September 29, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-10. EDITORIAL: Masterful compromise for park: Balboa Park is a civic treasure. It richly deserves the attention it received this week.

September 29, 1988, San Diego Union, B-6. EDITORIAL: New sparkle: The carefully crafted master plan to be phased in during the next two decades will ensure that Balboa Park retains its unique character and its accessibility for the multitudes who fine delight in its many forms there.

October 5, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-8. EDITORIAL: A park on the right side of the tracks: . . . in a stroke of foresight, San Diego’s renewal experts plan to convert one stretch of tracks downtown into an aesthetic masterpiece.

September 26, 1988, San Diego Union, B-6.

The new city arts commission flexed its muscles last Thursday in the first test of its clout, and the world stood back and took notice. Or at least five out of six members of the Park & Recreation Board took notice.

The issue was “Night Vision,” the colorful 12-sign Zoo front artwork that artist Roberto Salas produced for temporary display during the Super Bowl in February. The now-defunct Public Arts Advisory Board worked hard to have the city buy the signs and make them permanent, and the arts commission unanimously backed that idea August 31 at its first meeting. But on September 14, the Park & Recreation Board’s facilities committee voted 4-3 against “Night Visions” because members thought Park Boulevard was pretty enough without it.

Last Thursday, the issue went before the Parks & Recreation Board itself, and the arts commission took a stand Four arts commissioners — Karen Sugg Cohn, Mario Torero, Ann McCullough and Catherine Wu – came and spoke. So did Salas and a representative from the Combined Organization for Visual Artists.

And after what arts administrator Joyce Selber termed “a wonderful, exciting, healthy dialogue,” the parks board voted 5-1 to overrule its facilities committee, buy the Salas signs and make them permanent.

Further, because the expense is less than $25,000 — the price of “Night Vision” is $11,000 — the city can now buy the signs without a City Council vote.

September 27, 1988, San Diego Tribune, A-1. Balboa Park will put on a new $80 million face, by Pascale Le Draoulec: plan calls for a series of gradual improvements and construction projects that will be completed in four separate five-year phases that will extend into the next century.

September 27, 1988, San Diego Union, A-1. City OKs $80 million park plan, by Steve Schmidt: Starting next year, several buildings will be upgraded as part of the plan, including the House of Hospitality, Museum of Man and the Museum of Natural History.

October 5, 1988, San Diego Tribune, D-1. Policies of Steven Brezzo, Museum of Art’s chief, have folks asking – herald or heretic?, by Gordon Smith; the museum’s board is not concerned that Brezzo’s comments will come back to haunt the institution.

October 7, 1988, San Diego Union, B-1. Three people beaten, robbed in Balboa Park attacks, by Steve LaRue: While the attacks usually come at night, visitors to Marston Point also have complained of being threatened during the day by youths who also demand money or cigarettes, police detective Terrence Degelder said.

October 8, 1988, San Diego Tribune, A-1. Police special team taking back Balboa park; robbery, assault focus of crackdown, by J. Harry Jones: Undocumented aliens who have been robbing and assaulting visitors to the Marston Point area of Balboa Park are the focus of a police crackdown that went into effect last night.

October 10, 1988, Letter, Councilmember Bob Filner to Richard Amero: I am very pleased to report that the City Council recently took the first and most important step towards preserving and beautifying Balboa Park.

October 12, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-8. Letter, Funding museums, by Richard Bundy: Local public funding accounted for more than 50 percent of our budgets just nine years ago; today, it is 15 percent. If San Diego wants its museums to lead, then it must help with substantial funding increases without the strings to which that funding is currently tied.

October 13, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-10. Letter, Ed Struiksma, Councilman District 5.

The City Council’s recent deliberations for allocation of an additional $7.2 million in transient occupancy tax was a missed opportunity for the mayor and council to begin to address some of our city’s critical, yet unfunded needs.

The mayor and council voted to allocate $2.97 million to the mayor’s Soviet Arts Festival and approved a costly financing plan to fund $45 of Balboa Park improvements.

These new dollars could have gone a long way in the resolution of our inability to produce these capital projects so badly needed by our city.

It is simply a question of priorities. The additional $7.2 million of TOT tax money should be allocated to the general fund to accomplish the quantifiable needs of the public.

October 21, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-6. Park & Recreation Board seeks $3.2 million in state funds for park improvement projects and the purchase of additional playground equipment in neighborhood parks, by Joseph Thesken.

November 8, 1988, San Diego Tribune, A-2. City Council approval of the Balboa Park master plan was the most significant event in his 7-1/2 years as head of the Balboa Park Committee, retiring chairman Bob Arnyhm told the board yesterday.

November 8, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Bill Hurrell of the San Francisco consulting firm Wilbur Smith Associates told Balboa Park Committee members that the use of vans or shuttles to the park from a proposed parking facility downtown would be an integral element of the plan, by Joseph Thesken.

November 8, 1988San Diego Tribune, B-3. The San Diego Zoo has a new title holder for No. 1 Zoo Escape Artist: Kumang, an 11-year-old orangutan who yesterday escaped her enclosure for the fourth time in 15 months.

November 8, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-6. Letter, Hospital parking, by Carolyn Adams, La Mesa: build a parking facility to handle the need for parking at the new Naval Hospital.

October 23, 1988, Los Angeles Times (L), I, 3:1. Recent crime wave and police crackdown at Balboa Park in San Diego examined (photos, map).

November 12, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Balboa Park safer place, police report, by J. Harry Jones: On October 12, after an 11-day rash of 16 major crimes, including robberies, assaults and a rape, Police Chief Bob Burgreen announced a three-pronged plan to make the park safe.

November 16, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-4. Remodeling of the old Balboa Park Administration Building will be the first park project undertaken since the city council in September approved an $80 million face lift of the park over the next two decades, by Joseph Thesken.

November 17, 1988, San Diego Union, B-6. A ground breaking ceremony yesterday marked the beginning of a $744,000 restoration of the old Balboa Park administration building, which will be restored to its former glory for the San Diego Museum of Man.

November 23, 1988, Los Angeles Times, I-3.Gene Autry Western Museum at Griffith Park gets off to a rip-roaring start, by Penelope McMillan.

November 23, 1988, San Diego Union, A-3. Not all actors have Gene Autry’s timing; cowboys interrupt his speech at museum opening in Los Angeles.

November 23, 1988, Los Angeles Times, I-3. Wells Fargo Foundation’s gifts probed; Old Globe Theater among recipients in state’s “self-dealing” inquiry, by Jan Herman: The San Francisco-based Wells Fargo Foundation is being investigated by the California attorney-general’s office to determine whether it violated tax laws with grants to some leading California cultural institutions.

November 26, 1988, San Diego Tribune, A-1, A-6. Rich gift of art displays Museum of Art’s lack of funds, by John M. Glionna: A multimillion-dollar gift of what may be the world’s most important collection of Indian art has become a “migraine-inducing dilemma” for Steven Brezzo, director of the San Diego Museum of Art.

The problem was that no funds were allocated in Edward Binney’s will for things such as cataloging, insurance or circulating the works.

November 26, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-2. A proposal to beautify three downtown streets and walkways to form “San Diego Bay-Balboa Park link” might prevent expansion of the bayfront convention center now being built, says city councilman Ron Roberts, by Kathryn Balint.

November 29, 1988, Los Angeles Times (M), I, 2:1. Police report connection between three recent murders in Balboa Park, San Diego; pattern seems to point to murder of transients and homosexuals.

November 29, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-1. The San Diego Police Department has once again beefed up surveillance in Balboa Park following the murders of three men in the past 10 days in what police believe are serial killings, by Pascale Le Draoulee.

November 29, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-8. Letters, Parking problem at Navy Hospital.

Florence Adams, Spring Valley: Remember these military people are citizens too. To say they have no right to park in Balboa Park is unbelievable.

Clyde G. McClure, South San Diego: The Tribune editorial of November 22 urged the City Council to resist the Fleet Reserve Association efforts to obtain adequate parking. . . . The City Council should be reminded that “its main duty is to protect Balboa Park for all citizens,” which happens to include a substantial number of military voters.

Esther Bell, Allied Gardens: It seems the writer (of the Tribune editorial) has forgotten about eminent domain. The Navy could take the land and wouldn’t have to give up the old park land.

December 1, 1988, READER, 9. Two Balboa Park museums have quietly secured long, new leases for the city-owned buildings that hold their valuable collections, but outspoken park preservationists, Don Wood and Monty Griffin of Citizens Coordinate for Century 3, hope to extract several concessions form the San Diego Museum of Art before it signs a similar lease with the city council. . . . A change in leasing leases from five to ten years to 50 years is proposed.

December 1, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-3. Anti-Semitic slogans painted on House of Israel in Balboa Park.

December 2, 1988, San Diego Union, B-1. Swastikas deface House of Israel, by Dick Weber and Jeannie Wong.

December 5, 1988, Los Angeles Times (L), I, 29:1. San Diego, Calif. police warn homosexual and homeless men to avoid Balboa Park after three murders.

December 5, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-3. New automotive museum set to open, by Joseph Thesken: The Ford dealers of San Diego gave the museum $250,000 to renovate the deteriorating exterior. Interior remodeling is being financed through private donations.

December 6, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Balboa Park Committee backs memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. but offers no specific site, by Joseph Thesken.

Patricia De Marse, Committee of 100 president, said the group already has $100,000 earmarked for the restoration of the arcades from west of the Lily Pond to the Plaza de Panama.

December 6, 1988, B-3. A proposal to erect a memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr. in Balboa Park won conceptual approval yesterday from the Balboa Park Committee, by Steve Schmidt.

December 9, 1988, San Diego Tribune. B-10. EDITORIAL: Take back the park for the people: Balboa Park at night should be well-lighted, well-protected and well-used. It must not be abandoned.

December 11, 1988, San Diego Union. C-2. EDITORIAL: Whose park is it?: A hundred variations of these scenes occur each day because the 1.2 mile long strip (along the western edge of Balboa Park) has been taken over by drug users, promiscuous homosexuals, robbers, rapists, murderers, transients, and the homeless.

December 11, 1988, San Diego Union, B-3. Automotive Museum opens in Balboa Park; spectators see works of fine art, pieces of history, by John Wilkens.

December 15, 1988, San Diego Union, A-45. A large crèche that the state of Kentucky erected in front of the Capitol can remain despite objections that it amounts to state sponsorship of religion, a federal judge ruled yesterday.

December 16, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-1. The San Diego Park & Recreation Board voted unanimously yesterday to approve the concept of a memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Balboa Park.

December 16, 1988, San Diego Tribune, B-3. Balboa Park homeless get welcome gift of food at 6th Avenue and Laurel Street from the Rev. Pat Rocco of the U.S. Mission, by Sharon L. Jones.

December 23, 1988, San Diego Union, E-6. Low stress of disc golf at Morley Field might suit you to a tee, by Robbi Whitt.

December 25, 1988, San Diego Union, B-1. Committee of 100 plans rebuilding of El Prado arcades; project to cost nearly $1 million, by Steve Schmidt.

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