Far From the Dusty Lot and Dilapidated Downtown of Only 3 Years Ago . . . : Horton Plaza Becomes a Happening on Day One

As skywriting pilots encircled a blue sky with the exhortation “SHOP TILL YOU DROP,” thousands of San Diegans and visitors seemed intent on doing just that Friday at an utterly Olympian opening for Horton Plaza, the retail and entertainment complex touted as a key to making the dream of “America’s Finest City” a reality.

The problem was, while there seemed to be enough places to shop, there weren’t many places to drop. Often, the crowds were so thick that a kind of shopper gridlock occurred in the maze of walkways, stairsteps, terraces, escalators and causeways.

Horton Plaza officials estimated that 5,000 to 8,000 shoppers passed through the center hourly, and that the day’s total attendance could reach 70,000. Large crowds are expected again today and Sunday as special entertainment events commemorating the opening of the plaza continue.

“Everything’s been going great, really smooth. There’s a feeling like they’re having fun and they don’t want to leave,” said Horton Plaza spokeswoman Patty Danos.

Assistant Police Chief Bob Burgreen said, “We haven’t had any exceptional problems down there today.” He said there were no arrests in the Horton Plaza area during the day.

On Day One of Horton Plaza, at least, the promise of a lively downtown was fulfilled. A troupe of heraldic trumpeters called the opening ceremonies to order by sounding the musical theme of the Los Angeles Olympics. About 5,000 people listened to brief speeches by an array of political leaders that included California Sen. Pete Wilson, Mayor Roger Hedgecock and Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, and by the primary

creators of Horton Plaza--developer Ernest W. Hahn and architect Jon Jerde.

McCarthy may have made Horton Plaza promoters cringe when he said the facility was “more than a shopping center--it’s an entertainment center.” The word center, believed to be too evocative of hum-drum suburban malls, is taboo in the Horton Plaza promotional campaign.

As John Gilchrist, president of Ernest W. Hahn Inc., later told the crowd: “It’s not a shopping center. It’s a street, it’s a happening, it’s a festival marketplace.”

Phillipe Petit, the daredevil who once walked a high-wire strung between the towers of New York’s World Trade Center, then strolled across a high-wire above Horton Plaza to lower diamond-encrusted scissors for the ribbon-cutting (actually a garland-cutting) by Hahn and Wilson, who as mayor of San Diego initiated the renewal effort more than a decade ago.

Cannons roared, shooting confetti from the roof. Some 50,000 balloons colored in tones of turquoise, peach, coral and lavender were released to the sky. As the crowd surged into Horton Plaza, the heraldic trumpeters manned new stations, pausing time and again to sound the Olympic theme.

And though some shoppers complained of the crowds and of the difficulty of finding their way around the marketplace, Horton Plaza lived up to its advance billing in the eyes of many. “Boy, they really built this like crazy. Wow!” one woman declared.

Hahn’s firm spared no expense in providing a festival atmosphere for the opening. A preview charity gala Thursday night attended by about 7,000 featured an open bar and trays of fresh fruit, smoked salmon, oysters on the half shell and an array of cheesecakes.

In addition to the skywriters and elaborate opening ceremony, jugglers, dancers, singers, musicians and bands entertained the shoppers. At one point, two men on unicycles were juggling six items simultaneously; meanwhile, at a terrace temporarily dubbed “Ernie’s Place,” a team of tap dancers were tapping to the apt melody, “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.”

“What I like,” Ernie Hahn said, “is all the families I see. You don’t really expect people to bring their kids downtown to shop.”

Shoppers formed long lines for just about everything: a chance to buy a cookie from the actual Mrs. Fields of chocolate chip fame, a seat at the Nordstrom cafe, hotdogs-on-a-stick, the restroom, and even for the colorful, complimentary--but empty--Horton Plaza shopping bags.

“It’s exciting, but it’s overcrowded,” complained Donna Hall, a county courthouse clerk who visited the mall on her lunch hour. “And you can’t find anything. Do you know where Phelan’s is? I’ve been looking all over and I haven’t found it.”

Phelan’s was there, one of about 50 of the small shops that was open along with three of the four large department stores--Nordstrom, Robinson’s and Mervyns.

For all that was there, much is still to come. Seventy stores, seven restaurants, the seven-screen cinema and two underground stage theaters are still uncompleted. The lines for food suggested that Horton Plaza restaurants will do a brisk business once they open. Workers at a booth in front of The Broadway, scheduled to open Oct. 4, said they took more than 50 credit card applications in the first hour that the center (oops, festival marketplace) was open.

Retailers echoed the excitement voiced by Hahn and others. Although Robinson’s was the only store that officially opened Thursday, some other retailers made sales as well. John Bishop, proprietor of Bishop’s Gallery, sold two pieces Thursday night and made other substantial sales during the day Friday.

“If we can make every day like today, I’ll be very pleased,” Bishop said. “I feel great. I love it.”

Still available--but apparently going fast--was the limited-edition lithograph of Laurie Manzano’s depiction of the Horton Plaza of yesteryear. Sardonically titled “America’s Finest City,” the work depicts a gritty urban tableau: vagrants, bag ladies, Hare Krishnas, police and pedestrians milling about the park amid overflowing garbage cans, pathetic palms and a run-down commercial district with cinema marquees advertising such films as “Naked Stewardesses” and “Kung Fu Exorcist.”

The litho is priced at $250 framed or $150 unframed. An information card declared: “Very few are available as it is rapidly becoming a collector’s item.”