Asian historic district set to get a makeover

Go-ahead given for designs; improvements should start next year

By Amanda Strouse

Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 2 a.m.

DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO —

San Diego's Asian historic district is moving closer to a makeover.

The district was formally created in 1987 when the city designated 22 structures as historic sites. The buildings, in the Gaslamp Quarter and Marina districts, were constructed between 1883 and 1930 and are “directly related to the Asian community and its role in the commercial, historical, architectural and cultural development of the city,” according to a recent Centre City Development Corp. report.

But not much has happened since the district was formed, and San Diego remains the largest metropolitan area in the western United States without a thriving historic Asian District, according to the report. Efforts laid out in a 1995 master plan that calls for public improvements have been languishing.

Until now.

A CCDC committee recently gave the go-ahead to draw up designs.

Improvements could include an Asian district gateway, guarding lions at the Third Avenue and J Street intersection, Chinese flame trees, Asian-style street lights, Asian brick paving, festival poles and Asian-style asphalt street paving. The Redevelopment Agency has budgeted more than $2.5 million for the project.

“The master plan is intended to create a district identity for that area that celebrates and recognizes the Asian heritage that's so prominent in the area,” said Derek Danzinger, the CCDC's director of communications.

According to city guidelines, designs should be completed by next spring, with construction beginning in June 2010.

The district encompasses a swath south of Market Street and north of J Street, between Second and Sixth avenues, an area that crosses into the Gaslamp Quarter and the Marina District. And that has raised some concerns in those areas.

“We support history and preservation and the formation of the Asian Thematic Historic District,” said Jimmy Parker, the executive director for the Gaslamp Quarter Association, the area's business group. “But we don't support taking the Gaslamp brand away. It should be alongside of the Gaslamp and not take part of the Gaslamp out.”

The Asian district's boundaries also overlap a proposed African-American district.

“The Black Historical Society wants to make sure the lights and signage will not be put into areas that will absorb the African-American District and change its look and feel,” said Karen Huff-Willis, chairwoman of the board of the Black Historical Society of San Diego.

The Chinese were the first people of Asian descent to immigrate to San Diego, and the Chinese Historical Museum downtown remains the primary repository of Chinese culture in the area. It originally was a Chinese Mission, built in 1927 and used until the 1960s. It was moved to its current home on Third Avenue and J Street in 1996.

“Our museum has historic beauty, but in this district now, the museum is the only cultural organization in the area,” said Alexander Chuang, the executive director of the museum.

The Chinese immigrated to San Diego in the mid-19th century to make money for their families back in China. A Chinatown in the downtown area was born in the 1860s, with about 15 Chinese men to one Chinese woman.

“It was a very important part of early San Diego,” said Murray Lee, a second-generation Chinese-American and curator of Chinese-American history at the museum. “Chinatown was one of the first in the area. This was the only place they could live; they couldn't move because of segregation. They embraced the area.”

The community was tight-knit. There was a Chinese language school, affordable housing for new Chinese immigrants, where they could learn English, and a Chinese social service organization. They went to the Chinese Community Church together and their children went to school together.

But after World War II, Chinatown began to fade away.

“The Chinese coming back from the service, they could get better jobs because they were citizens and they had military training,” Lee said. “Then they could own land outside of the area. And as new immigrants came in from Vietnam and Southeast Asia, there wasn't much room left in that area, so they settled elsewhere.”

Lee said the original proposed district was intended to be only Chinese, but the city decided the district would get broader support if it included Japanese, Filipinos and other Pacific Islander ethnicities.

“This is our heritage and we want to preserve it,” Lee said.

Amanda Strouse is a Union-Tribune intern.