Public Gets a Glimpse of North Embarcadero Visionary Plan

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published March 9, 2007 at 1:05 AM PST

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

San Diegans packed a public meeting at the Port District Headquarters yesterday, to see a new video of the long promised North Embarcadero Visionary Plan. They learned there is more to the Waterfront

San Diegans packed a public meeting at the Port District Headquarters yesterday, to see a new video of the long promised North Embarcadero Visionary Plan. They learned there is more to the Waterfront makeover than picturesque pedestrian boulevards. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Staff from the Port District and the city of San Diego unveiled a video of their North Embarcadero Visionary Plan which covers a mile of waterfront between the Airport and Seaport village. They showed jacaranda trees and palms edging the bay, with Harbor Drive shrunk to two lanes and fountains at the foot of Broadway.

The Port’s Rita Vandergaw admits the Plan’s been a long time in the making.

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Vandergaw: We’ve been working on it about 20 years and we’re just about ready to actually begin the first phase.

The plan is about more than landscaping. It is also involves rebuilding what one official called a “spaghetti” of underground sewer and water pipes that are old and leaky, dating back to the 60s when the waterfront was originally dredged from the Bay.

The City and the Port hope to make headway on the plan before it is superseded by more recent visions proposed by Steve Peace and County Supervisor Ron Roberts. Alison St John KPBS News.
(Photo: The San Diego Port District shows a video of the North Embarcadero Visionary Plan. Alison St John/KPBS ).

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.