Many Still Shun Downtown S.D., Study Finds

For all the recent gains in downtown San Diego, only about half of the region’s residents frequently visit the area, according to a research report released Tuesday that cites persistent worries over crime and street people, parking problems and traffic congestion.

Nevertheless, most people support downtown and believe it is steadily improving--good news for the Downtown Marketing Consortium, which sponsored the report.

The consortium includes about 50 public and private groups, and receives $200,000 a year from the city. It is in the early stages of identifying what it can do to attract more local residents to downtown, and hired the public relations and marketing firm of Stoorza, Ziegaus & Metzger Inc. to conduct an attitude and “marketability” survey of the area.

The study consisted of a random telephone survey of 530 adults living within a 20-mile radius of downtown, and in-depth interviews with 36 people in three so-called focus groups.

Convention Center Delay

Among the study’s many findings is that downtown is not yet strong enough to compensate for the long delay in building the waterfront convention center--which isn’t scheduled to open for two years.

“With the unexpected delays in the completion of the San Diego Convention Center, the Downtown Marketing Consortium is facing a task it did not anticipate when it began,” the report said. “For at least the next two years, it must work to market a downtown which is certainly improving, but not improving fast enough to be carried by its own momentum.”

Steve Williams, chairman of the consortium and a partner in Trammell Crow Co., said that downtown proponents were counting on the convention center to inject new blood into the night life of downtown. “The missing link is the convention center after hours,” Williams said at a press briefing.

Major factors inhibiting area residents from visiting downtown include unhappiness over the cost and scarcity of parking spaces; traffic congestion, and uneasiness about street people and the perception that downtown is a high-crime area.

The perceived after-dark dangers were considered the biggest detriment--higher than parking and traffic--among the focus groups, even though the San Diego Police Department says crime in downtown is lower than in most other areas of the city and has dropped even more around Horton Plaza.

Among those interviewed by telephone, 45% said they would go downtown more often if they felt more secure while visiting or shopping there.

Seen as More Expensive

Others said they believed downtown shopping is more expensive than at neighborhood stores or regional malls, even using the same department store chains.

The report found that local residents could be divided into four categories. One group is the regulars, the 23% who visit downtown at least once a week. These are generally men, younger people who work downtown, singles and renters, with a balance of both newcomers and residents who have lived in San Diego for more than 10 years.

A second group is the 25% who visit downtown frequently, defined as once or twice a month. In this group are mainly young executives, predominantly male, who earn salaries of more than $40,000 a year and are renters. Here, too, there is balance between old-time residents and those living in the city for less than 10 years.

The largest group, 44%, consists of infrequent visitors who visit downtown only a few times a year. Most people in this group are middle-income wage earners, the majority of them women, homeowners and long-time residents.

The smallest group, 8%, was the most adamant about never going downtown. Predominant in this category were older women, people with low incomes, housewives and retired people, long-time residents, property owners and those who live farthest from downtown.

Narrow Definition

Both the report and Williams said efforts at attracting more people downtown should concentrate on the combined 69% who visit a few times a year or once or twice a month. What’s interesting, according to the report, is that some of these people have a very narrow definition of what is downtown, identifying it only as Horton Plaza and not nearby attractions such as Seaport Village and the Embarcadero.

What’s apparent, the report said, is that any marketing strategy must reinforce the positive feelings most San Diegans have toward downtown while attempting to break down barriers that in some cases are considered formidable, such as an uneasiness about street people.

The survey found that, the more people visited downtown and became familiar with it, the less they felt uncomfortable and the more they liked it.

Williams said the consortium will initially attempt to impose, cajole and lobby for a series of cosmetic changes downtown to make it less confusing for first-time and infrequent visitors.

“Downtown is not user-friendly,” Williams said.

The recommended changes will include development of an in-depth parking guide; the construction of “Welcome to Downtown” signs at key entrances to the inner city, such as from the airport and freeways; promoting use of the consortium’s downtown logo on everything from shopping bags to construction sites; more support for downtown festivals that attract large numbers of people, and the labeling of well-known public buildings and facilities.

For example, Williams said, structures such as the Broadway and B Street piers have no signs telling visitors what they are. While long-time residents know what the structures are, Williams said, infrequent visitors often do not.

Some of the more long-range solutions to problems involving downtown land-use and planning will be left to the newly formed City Centre Task Force headed by developer Ernest Hahn, Williams said.