The Perpetual Undoing of San Diego’s East Village

The falloff in investment in the blocks adjacent to Petco Park, downtown San Diego’s most recently completed catalyst project, could be attributed to the current national housing market downturn. A number of proposed residential condominium projects have been placed on hold in the East Village neighborhood where the ballpark is located. The nearly one-block long homeless shelter tent erected on one of the ballpark’s surface parking lots, however, suggests an undoing rather than an interruption in investment. The tent’s location is representative of the conflicting frontier of growth and frontier outlet roles the East Village neighborhood plays within the region. This article establishes the context for various decisions made pertaining to land use and investment in the neighborhood, and demonstrates how the inability to fully recognize and reconcile the impacts of the historic frontier outlet legacy enables the perpetual undoing of investment gains within the community.