Study reveals San Diegan's views of downtown living

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published April 11, 2006 at 9:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

A new study suggests one in three residents of San Diego County like the idea of living downtown and would consider moving there. However one of the main disincentives to downtown living remains trans

A new study suggests one in three residents of San Diego County like the idea of living downtown and would consider moving there. However one of the main disincentives to downtown living remains transit and parking. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The report disputes the idea the condo market downtown is slowing. Plans call for 60,000 more residents to move into downtown in the next 25 years. Bob Meadow, who conducted the survey, says only one in four San Diegans is worried the real estate bubble will burst.

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Rather, they see lack of affordable housing as their first concern.
Their next concern is inadequate parking. Meadow argues that's more of a perception problem.

Meadow: "It's the people outside who are much more concerned than people who live downtown, people who live downtown don't need their cars as much."

However the question of how to solve downtown's long term transit needs remains unresolved. Some resident groups are pushing for more parking, and meanwhile environmental groups are mounting a battle to fight for less parking and more public transit. 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.