With so much public attention focused on building a new stadium right now, Balboa Park activists are wondering “Where’s the love?” for that civic asset -- as well as for the Chargers.
The city is falling farther and farther behind on repairs and upgrades needed throughout the century-old park.
There are plans to fold those into a "mega-bond issue" next year.
But there's concern that stadium project financing might complicate that scenario.
"A couple of these buildings have been rebuilt in the 70s and the 80s,” said Kevin Swanson, an organizer of the grassroots San Diego 2015 centennial movement. “And those have new structures but they were built to the old standards. The other buildings? They're falling apart inside."
They’re falling apart outside as well -- throughout the century-old enclave known as San Diego’s "Crown Jewel".
Earlier this month, a 300-pound section of molding broke off a building on The Prado – fortunately, when no visitors were walking underneath.
“But our city council and our mayor do nothing," said David Lundin, a Hillcrest attorney who chairs the Balboa Park Historical Assn. “They just assume it's going to take care of itself.”
In recent emails to news media outlets and hundreds of association members, Lundin has characterized the situation as “condemnation by aggressive neglect."
In February, a water main break in the Spanish Art Village forced cancellation of that night's performance of "Murder for Two" at the Old Globe Theater.
Many facades on scores of buildings around the 1,200-acre park are stained with mold from dry rot behind them, and countless electrical systems need rewiring or replacement.
Nonprofit park preservation groups are accelerating private funding campaigns, saying they can’t wait until the city makes progress toward reducing the $300 million infrastructure deficit estimated by city auditors.
"If Balboa Park was a large condominium project, the attorney general would have shut it down,” Lundin told NBC 7 in an interview Tuesday, “because there are no reserves for maintenance, no reserves for new roofs, no reserves for painting the exteriors, no reserves for what a large condo project is compelled to do by law.”
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A widespread request for responses from those officials’ media relations staffs went unanswered Tuesday.
Meantime, park activists also are calling for hearings on a city audit of the now-defunct civic committee that spent nearly $3 million on park centennial plans that didn't pan out.
