Three Linda Vista Stories

Including a Mystery Story

Editor’s note: There’s a lot happening in Linda Vista! Accordingly, in this post we feature three different stories — what amounts to a fascinating Linda Vista trilogy — about three different places located right next door to each other. The first story reports on the improvement project planned for John Baca Park; the second comments on state-wide recognition for one of Linda Vista’s best know restaurants; and the third is a commentary that attempts to figure out what’s behind one of Linda Vista’s greatest unsolved mysteries.

1. JOHN BACA PARK IMPROVEMENTS

Major improvements are in the works for John Baca Park.  The park, located in the heart of Linda Vista (across the street from the Linda Vista Plaza Shopping Center), was recently the focus of two community workshops held in conjunction with Linda Vista Rec Advisory Council meetings.  During these workshops, representatives from the City of San Diego and Spurlock Landscape Architects discussed the different conceptual designs proposed for the improvement project.  Improvements to the park will include such items as water fountains, benches, kids play areas, and exercise areas. 

Recommendations from the workshops will be forwarded to the city’s Parks and Recreation Board for final approval. 

The entire project is budgeted for 1.9 million dollars. 400,000 dollars is currently funded for the general development plan.  

John Baca Park looking south along Linda Vista Road

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2. SAB-E-LEE RESTARAUNT

Congratulations are in order for Linda Vista’s own Sab-E-Lee restaurant.  The restaurant, located in the Linda Vista Plaza Shopping Center, was recently highlighted in a Westways magazine article titled “18 Best Take-Out Restaurants in Southern California.”  The article noted these 18 restaurants for “terrific take-away meals for all tastes and budgets.”

 According to Westways magazine (published by AAA), “When this Thai restaurant opened in 2008 (it has since expanded to a larger space in Linda Vista), it introduced San Diego to Issan cuisine, which hails from northeastern Thailand and is known for its pungent flavors, lent by fermented fish and fresh herbs. Powerfully spicy, the dishes provide an awakening for the taste buds; on the restaurant’s heat index of one to 10, a three is a medium and a seven is sweat inducing. Its fiery specialties include vibrant green papaya salad; nam tok, or grilled beef in a fish sauce dressing with toasted rice powder; and larb, a warm dish of minced meat seasoned with chile and lime and served with a cooling wedge of crunchy cabbage. Its take-out menu includes more-soothing dishes, too, from creamy and mild panang curry with chicken to pad see ew, a dish featuring fat rice noodles sautéed in a sweet soy sauce with pork, Chinese broccoli, and eggs.

Two other restaurants in San Diego — Tribute Pizza and Soichi Sushi — were also featured in the article.

You can read the entire article here.

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3. A LINDA VISTA MYSTERY

Though it seems at times that every single parcel of available land in San Diego has been targeted for development as a site for condos or shopping malls, there is curiously still one Linda Vista space that remains untouched by developer hands. 

This site, located at the corner of Linda Vista Road and Comstock Street (adjacent to Skate World and across the street from John Baca Park), is in fact owned by the city of San Diego. It has apparently spent the past thirty years posing as a storage lot for large concrete planters. When driving past this site, I often imagine a hard working bureaucrat, sitting at a desk in the bowels of City Hall, who manages the distribution of large concrete planters throughout the city.  Linda Vista must be his go-to place when he needs to find refuge for any excess large concrete planters. Perhaps there is such a thing as a concrete planter witness protection program (after all, they say the best place to hide is in plain sight).  Or maybe there is a very long-term strategy on the part of Linda Vista civic leaders to establish Linda Vista as the “Large Concrete Planter Capital of the World”?  I’m sure Westways magazine might someday publish an article titled “18 Odd Tourist Sites in Southern California”; when that happens, our Large Concrete Planter Capital designation will certainly put us in the running for inclusion in that article.    

On the other hand, city bureaucrats may have little to do with these concrete planters. There are people who believe the giant statues on Easter Island were actually placed there by extraterrestrials—I’m willing to believe that such might be the case for all these large concrete planters. If so, let’s go all out and develop the place into a profitable tourist site while naming it something catchy like Area 52 or Close Encounters of the LV Kind, complete with a souvenir shop that sells items for outrageous prices.  

Can the absence of any development be attributed to rumors the lot is haunted?  People who walk there late at night often hear a faint trumpet sound supposedly coming from the ghost of a band member who years ago got lost at one of the LV Multi-Cultural parades and never made it back home. I can see how that could possibly scare people off. Or is there an ancient curse associated with not building in this space?  Someone once told me Drew Brees was standing on this very site when informed of the trade that sent him to the New Orleans Saints. According to the story, he shouted upon hearing the trade news, “Curse you San Diego. May the Chargers never win a Super Bowl, and may this lot never be developed.” Either way, I’m all for a rational explanation that makes clear why the lot has been left undeveloped all these years.  

In all seriousness, I’m left to wonder why the City of San Diego doesn’t do something creative and profitable with this corner lot. It’s hard to believe that in the past thirty years, someone hasn’t at least said “Let’s build a Starbucks on this lot.”  I realize the city is a bit gun-shy about making more real estate deals in light of the 101 Ash Street debacle, but selling/developing this corner lot offers many possibilities. In the spirit of civic pride (and making a profit), I offer my own suggestions below:     

1.     An outdoor ice-skating rink (which along with Skate World and the LV Skateboard Park would make Linda Vista the skating capital of the world).

2.     A very small Amazon distribution warehouse (Jeff Bezos is always looking for new sites).

3.     An In-N-Out Burger satellite branch.

4.     A micro-miniature golf course (to take the place of Mission Valley’s Riverwalk Golf Course, which will soon be developed into millions of condo structures).     

5.     A store that sells large concrete planters.  

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