Oceanside City Council Mulls Improvements to Beach Amphitheatre

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published August 24, 2007 at 12:46 PM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

Oceanside city council considered a visionary plan for the waterfront this week. The main focus is on revamping the historic amphitheatre by the beach. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The city’s consultants presented a plan that would add roof gardens, playgrounds and parking structures to the oceanfront. But the council’s priority is to improve the bandshell by the pier. The proposed vision is a glass back wall, so the ocean behind would be part of any show.

But Daniella Marshall of the Oceanside Arts Commission objected.

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Marshall : You cannot have theatre, where are you gonna put the props? What kind of backstage would you have? It looks very cute to have a transparent stage, but absolutely useless. It is truly our best venue, it could put Oceanside on the map if it’s done correctly.

The visionary plan has been a year in the making but still has no price tags attached. The council’s next step is to decide how much the city can afford, and whether new hotels being built along the front will contribute.

Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.