Bums Out, Shoppers In : Downtown’s Horton Plaza Park Gets a Shiny New Face

Respectable people used to cross the street rather than walk past Horton Plaza Park, the tiny downtown park that was home for panhandlers, drunks and drug dealers.

Its underground restrooms were a notorious breeding ground for illegal activity, police say, and the bus stop in front of the park--on Broadway between 3rd and 4th avenues--provided not only an audience for the many would-be preachers who wailed about sin and hellfire, but also targets for the pickpockets and panhandlers.

But times have changed drastically. After $775,000 worth of refurbishment, the small park has emerged with a changed complexion. Instead of drunks lying on the grass, business people and shoppers now sit on the 30 or so benches and eat their lunch in a reasonably quiet, peaceful atmosphere.

“It almost has a European flavor,” said Kathy Kalland, spokeswoman for the Centre City Development Corp. (CCDC), which oversaw the refurbishment of the park. “It’s a great spot to sit and people-watch.”

The park, with its Irving Gill-designed fountain, is of historical significance to San Diego, but for years it was a sore spot among planners, who were working feverishly on plans for Horton Plaza. They were worried because the park, built in 1871, would be the front door for the shopping and entertainment complex.

CCDC spent more than a quarter of a million dollars to plant new grass, fill in the troublesome underground restrooms and give the old fountain a face lift. It bought benches with arm rests so people couldn’t lie down on them. And the agency had the bus stop moved one block west.

Now, a few weeks after Horton Plaza has opened, the park is devoid of the undesirables.

San Diego police officers patroling the area on foot and undercover officers are enforcing laws against nuisance crimes--such as public drunkenness and loitering --just as diligently as they always did, said Capt. Winston Yetta, whose division includes Horton Plaza.

“We think we have played a role,” said Yetta. “I also think it’s the ‘middle class Americans’ who have infiltrated the area that have changed the atmosphere.”

Indeed, the shopping complex has attracted a new crowd--people who otherwise would have never dreamed of setting foot in the park. Inebriated street people don’t blend in with office workers eating lunch, and bag ladies apparently don’t feel comfortable milling about the park now, authorities said.

Ron Burns, assistant general manager of Horton Plaza, said moving the bus stop made the park less congested. He said that since the park has been “refurbished, people seem to respect it now.”

But where have the bums and bag ladies who formerly populated the park gone?

“Quite frankly, the transients have simply become less visible,” said Yetta. “I think there has been a dispersion of the transient population. Maybe they went to other areas of the city.”

Yetta and Kalland both say the transients and street people are moving into eastern areas of downtown, where relief agencies and soup kitchens are relocating. The Relief Mission, on the 500 block of 5th Avenue, will be moving to new quarters in eastern downtown, as has the Salvation Army shelter, now on 7th Avenue and F Street, said Kalland.

“They are in the center city area,” said Kalland. “I don’t think they have gone to other parts of the city.”