Looking at the stretch of Normal Street between University and Lincoln Avenue in Hillcrest on Wednesday still requires a bit of imagination for what it will look like when the Pride Promenade is completed.
It began as part of the Uptown Community Plan back in 1988. Now, 38 years later, the Pride Promenade is just months away from being finished.
Construction began in February of 2025 after Hillcrest Business Association Executive Director Ben Nicholls said some tough questions were answered.
“How do you build a public space with no land, no money, right? You’ve got a lot of will,” said Nicholls before leading a media preview tour of the site.
Nicholls said the will to get the Promenade done led to a unique private and public partnership, which brought the city, SANDAG and the Hillcrest business community together to fund the nearly $30 million project.
“The community and the city have sort of cobbled together this patchwork that brings a whole host of interests together that solve a lot of problems,” Nicholls said.
Many of those problems were discovered after construction began, like aging infrastructure underground.
Brittany Bailey works in Mayor Todd Gloria’s office, managing projects like the Promenade. She said crews are correcting old underground piping that didn’t connect storm drains under University Avenue to those under Normal Street. Bailey said that should solve chronic flooding problems at the site.
The underground improvements along the Promenade are now complete. The work on the adjacent portion of the storm drain system under University Avenue is still underway.
"People will say 'Yeah, the construction’s a headache,'" said Nicholls, who urged patience. "We’ve got this beautiful thing coming, so people see the light at the end of the tunnel. They see what’s coming and they’re excited about it.”
Visible features of the Promenade include a bike lane painted in Pride rainbow colors that will link existing bike lanes on University to lanes on Howard Street. More trees have gone in, bringing the total number to about 100.
There are shade structures, new lighting, sound systems throughout the promenade and a children’s playground; all in all, what Nicholls called a welcoming space for the neighborhood, and for anyone who wants the Hillcrest vibe.
“It’s kind of like if you were to take the essence of Hillcrest, what is Hillcrest — and distill it into a public plaza, this is my space. I feel safe here, I feel comfortable here. I feel energized to be here. That’s what we’re trying to create, that energy and that tone when you come here,” Nicholls said.
Officials admit the project is behind its original schedule. But they said people will see “that energy and that tone” when the Pride Promenade is complete by the end of this year.
The nearby pipe replacement is not scheduled to be complete until the end of 2027.
