SD Bay Wine & Food Festival brings culinary delights to food fans. See page B-1
DOWNTOWN’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER San Diego Community Newspaper Group
www.SDNEWS.com Volume 10, Number 11
NOVEMBER 2009
Strategies for navigating Horton Plaza on
Black Friday As downtown’s biggest shopping center prepares for the busiest day of the year, a Black Friday guide to shopping there might be handy
This rendering of the new Central Library illustrates the domed shape of the nineCOURTESY PHOTO story, 497,652 square foot building.
Bidding process starts for new SD Central Library BY JOHN GREGORY | DOWNTOWN NEWS
The San Diego City Council voted last month to allocate $500,000 to start the process of seeking bids from subcontractors to build the new Central Library downtown. The library — a nine-story, 497,652 square foot project — is planned for the block surrounded by 11th Street and Park Boulevard and J and K streets in East Village.
SEE LIBRARY, Page 5
Monarch’s relationship with Museum of Man features culture-on-culture learning BY MARTIN JONES WESTLIN |
a.m. For those without a gift buy- Parking ing strategy – or even a clue – here It all starts in the parking With the holidays inching closer is a guide to traversing Horton garage. Scoring a good parking and closer, the shopping season is Plaza’s five stories on Black Friday. spot is key to getting off to a good looming, as is the day notoriously start. Handelsman recommends known as the busiest shopping day Planning heading for higher ground, particof the year – Black Friday. ularly levels four and above. That’s The best shoppers know prepaDowntown, dreary-eyed shoppers are sure to scour Horton ration is the key to a successful where the mall entrances are. “A lot of people will circle the Plaza on Black Friday, which Black Friday run. Handelsman recommends a solid game plan lower levels waiting for someone to occurs on Nov. 27 this year. “There is never a dull moment at which can involve newspaper ads leave and it creates a backup,” Handelsman said. “People think Horton Plaza on a Black Friday,” and even the Internet. “Check the newspaper and the first couple levels are the best said Westfield Horton Plaza marketing director Rebecca Handels- develop a plan of attack for your- parking, but the reality is then you self,” Handelsman said. “Look for have to go up a stairwell or an eleman. Horton Plaza opens at 8 a.m. on the good sales and identify the vator and weave your way up into Nov. 27, with Macy’s giving shop- retailers you want to hit.” SEE BLACK FRIDAY, Page 6 pers a head start by opening at 5
The search for bids on the project will tell City Council if the project can be completed at or near $185 million, which was the cost estimated in 2005. The hope is that the bids on the project will be within the 2005 estimated cost based on the possibility that companies will be hungry for business due to
DOWNTOWN NEWS
BY ANTHONY GENTILE | DOWNTOWN NEWS
The Monarch School in Little Italy occupies an unusual place in a city center full of everything but children. Its state-accredited testing is administered under a publicprivate partnership; its 151 students between ages 5 and 18 are largely homeless or at risk; and its popular Cabo Café, an eatery run mostly by the kids, had to close a couple years ago to make way for classroom space. In each case, Monarch is a bit of an enigma, a downtown fixture since 1988 whose adversities are no match for its feisty, colossal heart. “It’s a challenge. Never a boring
day,” agreed principal/CEO Sarita Fuentes on a recent morning, fresh off an effort to help reunite a family. Even amid an innocuous event like that, the school community makes strides in overcoming its socioeconomic borders. Meanwhile, a Monarch partnership with a Balboa Park staple is turning some of those youthful smiles into deliberate nods of comprehension. Since late August, the park’s Museum of Man, a nationally acclaimed archaeological and anthropological repository, has offered an after-school program SEE MONARCH, Page 7