With an ‘urbanist’ now at the helm, Downtown San Diego Partnership plans the future of 272 blocks

Morgan M. Hurley | Downtown Editor

Leading a team that consists of a much greater percentage of women than men, President and CEO Kris Michell took over the helm at Downtown San Diego Partnership just under two years ago and her presence has already been felt.

Michell has pushed the legacy of the long-lasting 501(c)6 membership organization, forged in 1950 but reworked in 1970, to the forefront of everyone’s minds. They work closely with the Tourism Authority and Michell holds a seat on their board.

The former Chief of Staff to Mayor Jerry Sanders, Michell also held the position for a time when Susan Golding was mayor in the 1990s. In 2010, Voice of San Diego called her “the most powerful person you know nothing about,” just months before she left the side of Mayor Sanders, and she hadn’t even saddled into her current position, yet.

“[Kris Michell] has remained in the background her entire career, rarely in the newspaper, quoted even less,” wrote Liam Dillon, reporter for Voice of San Diego. “Yet Michell’s been the link, the linchpin, the consistent ingredient in San Diego’s civic extravaganzas over the last 15 years. The Republican National Convention, the Super Bowl and Petco Park all bear her fingerprints.”

Michell loved her job working as the mayor’s top aide, but she said she is thrilled with her current role, that will unequivocally lead Downtown San Diego into the future.

According to Michell, the Downtown San Diego Partnership (DSDP) is a “property-based improvement district” originally formed by an organization called San Diegan’s Inc., “the movers and the shakers.”

Fast forward to the 1970s and a Downtown merchant’s grouped joined, thus merging the interests of each organization and creating the “partnership,” representing five Downtown neighborhoods; Gaslamp Quarter, East Village, Core/Columbia, Marina, and Cortez.

“[The Partnership has] been around a long time, but you know how organizations ebb and flow in their visibility,” Michell said. “Our goal collectively is to take it to the next level and really make it a high-performing Downtown …  our goals and objectives are to make our Downtown world class and everything that entails.”

Within those five neighborhoods the DSDP represents 272 blocks and 1,000 parcels. It is considered an advocacy nonprofit, and Michell said it “advocates

“We have a very geographically large Downtown when you compare us to other downtowns across the country,” Michell said. “We are geographically large, we just haven’t grown up yet.”

Little Italy falls just outside of DSDP’s purview, and therefore have their own assessment district, although Michell said they work with the Little Italy Association (their business improvement district) on a regular basis, almost as closely as the ones that exist within the 272 blocks that make up the area DSDP represents.

Over the next forty years, San Diego is expected to see a 40 percent increase in growth, Michell said, according to recent studies by SANDAG and the San Diego Foundation.

With that growth, the greater San Diego region will see some growing pains, and Michell, a native San Diegan, already has a vision for how to eliminate many of those problems now. She said of the 400,000 housing units and 500,000 jobs that will come of that growth, she would like to see a huge percentage of them happen within the 272 blocks she is responsible for.

“We want the density, we want the development we want the job centers and we want the residential population in our Downtown,” she said.

Though she said most people think that growth will come from transplants from the Midwest, Michell said it will actually develop locally, from “birth over death” rates.

To assist with that vision, DSDP is conducting 40 “townhalls” in the next four to five months throughout the county. See the sidebar for more information about a townhall near you.

She said they are also looking to incorporate more rooftop gardens and are very supportive of the new San Diego Public Market, even though it resides in an adjacent neighborhood, Barrio Logan.

“Anything that enhances the vibrancy of our Downtown,” she said. “Great cities are defined by their downtown and when you have a great downtown you have a great city.”

Over the last two years, Michell and her staff have traveled to various other big cities in the country, like Seattle, Portland, Denver, Houston and Philadelphia, to analyze whether what they are doing will fit for San Diego and they have come back with some big ideas.

“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” she said. “We took all the best parts of all this and said, ‘alright, this works for San Diego.’”

Along with their visions for the future, the DSDP has several popular programs in place today that keep the City’s streets safe and clean, and also work to support the homeless in a more altruistic fashion with their red meter program.

“Clean and Safe” employs 50 24/7 street maintenance crews and dozens of safety workers patrolling the grid on both foot and bicycles.

That program was ramped up in 2000, when local residents offered to pay more assessment money in order to make Downtown neighborhoods cleaner and safer. As a result, the Clean and Safe Program now participates in tree trimming, street washing, post-event clean-ups, even animal waste.

“Anything we can do to make it clean,” she said.

Michell said the safety crew patrols the 27 blocks through grid beats, work with San Diego Police Department and attend safety meetings every other week to stay on top of local concerns. A similar program, Stonewall Citizens Patrol, is in operation in Hillcrest, and North Park is about to mirror that program, as well.

“I want you to feel safe at 1 a.m. in the morning,” she said. “Because this is a neighborhood.”

Addressing the homelessness problem is a major focus of DSDP. While Michell admits there is no “silver bullet,” to cure homelessness, DSDP is leading the way.

One project they have already implemented is their red meter “donation stations” [see Editorial: Ending homelessness in San Diego: not a one-size-fits-all solution, Vol. 14, Issue 1]. Monies donated into these meters directly assist in getting homeless people off the street by purchasing “move-in kits” that offer the newly housed people bare necessities, like sheets, towels and kitchenware.

“We are making a concerted effort and we say as a private sector organization we’re gonna solve homelessness in Downtown,” she said.

That is a pretty big statement to make, but in December of 2010, she said her team also took to the streets and conducted interviews of 738 homeless people in the Downtown area for their Work Your Way Home program, and of those, have since sent 250 of them “home” to reunite with family members.

There is lots more to come.

Seeing synergy with their neighborhood communities to the north, when district realignment came about, Michell said she and her staff knew exactly where they needed to be.

“We fought to have District Three the way it is,” she said. “We wanted to merge Uptown and Downtown into one district – because … we have similar interests; residential and commercial, homelessness, parking, [they] want a shuttle circulator … so let’s work together to solve these problems rather than be isolated.”

Three workshops in Downtown neighborhoods have already been conducted, to help facilitate their strategic planning process. East Village, Cortez Hill and Marina all took place in February. Three more are planned in March, to be held in Little Italy, the Gaslamp District, and Core/Columbia. See the side bar for more information.

To learn more about Downtown San Diego Partnership’s vision for the future, keep an eye on future issues of Downtown News. DSDP is in the process of revamping their website and just released a new logo that is more aligned with their vision. An official launch party for the new website and branding will take place at the end of March.

Neighborhood workshops for “Our Downtown” strategic planning process

Tuesday, March 12 @ 6:00pm: Little Italy

Location: Our Lady of the Rosary Parish Hall – 1654 State Street

Wednesday, March 13 @ 3:00pm: Gaslamp

Location: Marriott Gaslamp Quarter, Presidio B – 660 K Street

Wednesday, March 13 @ 6:00pm: Columbia/Core

Location: Treo Condominiums, Community Room – 1240 India Street