$130,000 Gaslamp Quarter Sign to Serve as a Welcoming Beacon

In an effort to attract tourists to the Gaslamp Quarter, the Gaslamp Quarter Council will spend $130,000 to erect an ornate, Victorian-style sign to quickly identify the historic downtown area to visitors.

The plan became official Tuesday when the City Council agreed to let the Gaslamp council install the overhead sign, which will cross 5th Avenue at L Street.

The sign is for “neighborhood identification,” said Howard Greenberg, chairman of the Gaslamp council. “We initially proposed two (signs), one at the north side and one at the south end, but we decided that the south end was the most important because it is the entrance from the new convention center.”

Greenberg said the wrought-iron sign, which will be in place by fall, will help tourists find the sometimes-obscure area.

“The district is so long, it’s right in the middle of downtown and it’s linear in configuration,” he said. The sign will be a focal point for drawing pedestrian traffic.

Sign Will Help Build Ridership

“There’s competition for pedestrian traffic,” said Craig Lee, executive director of the Gaslamp Quarter Council. The sign will also help build ridership for a planned trolley system, he added.

“We are trying to establish a capability . . . to generate and develop the ridership along that corridor,” Lee said.

The proposed $225,000 fixed-rail trolley would run from the waterfront up 5th Avenue to the Horton Park Plaza Hotel and back down 6th Avenue. Those plans have yet to be approved by San Diego.

In approving the sign, the City Council ignored admonitions from City Atty. John W. Witt, who said the Gaslamp sign would stand as an exemption to the city’s sign-control ordinance.