Comic Con, the annual love fest in San Diego of all things cartoon, visual arts and recently, expensive blockbuster movies, is over for 2012.  The last 4.5 days in San Diego was like a huge Halloween party, in July. The local economy is fed directly with revenues from 125,000+ people eating in restaurants, staying in hotels, & purchasing mad amounts of goods. There are locals who rent out their homes and condos, and businesses that lease out space for the off site venues. Hollywood’s movie studios send top brass to network with their ilk, and the LA Times reported these folks are wined and dined off site and never walk through the convention center itself. Comic Con has grown considerably over the years, and it is San Diego's civic leaders responsibility to keep this revenue stream flowing. The Comic Con issue is a supply demand equation....the City must provide additional supply of convention center space for the ever increasing demand of Comic Con. The 2 mayoral candidates, Filner and Demaio, have pledged no further funding for convention center expansion. I feel that would be a huge mistake and not accounting for the bigger picture.
It seems the past 3 or 4 years has seen an increase in the banner wrap ads, those huge banners that form fit the facade of The Marriott and the Hilton.  I was thinking that a forward-thinking HOA of one of the many tall residential towers should discuss a contract with a movie studio to shrink wrap their building for a week. The HOA would apply the earnings against the assessment, and help defray a monthly assessment for each homeowner.

There is no other neighborhood in San Diego County that offers the diversity of venues and level of activities as downtown San Diego. The San Diego Padres are in full swing for 2012, at least they are in in spirit, ComicCon will unleash hordes in a couple months, the number of restaurant choices is unmatched, and a sense of San Diego’s past history is ever present in the Gaslamp Quarter. The new library (pictured below) designed by architect Rob Quigley, is literally re-shaping the East Village skyline, and is scheduled for completion in about a year. The inventory for buyers is thin, the competition for renters is strong, and prices in both categories, for sale and for lease, are increasing. What is it about downtown that attracts so many people? Along with Balboa Park, the area is the central unifying market for every resident, all 3 million of us. As we continue to grow, downtown will surely be ready to handle the expansion of people and buildings.