By Mario A. Cortez
The 2016 San Diego Padres season has finally begun and fans from all over San Diego County, as well as Tijuana and Los Angeles, have come out to watch the friars take on the Dodgers in the first home series of the season.
Barrio Logan, one of San Diego’s historically marginalized communities, lies about a mile from the Padres’ $410 million structure, which will be hosting Major League Baseball’s 2016 edition of the All Star Game, as well as 81 home games.
Despite the proximity to the stadium, there is hardly any sign of business increase for the neighborhood’s businesses and restaurants.
Two hours shy of 2016’s first “play ball” shout, Robert Blake, a Point Loma resident, stopped by Las Cuatro Milpas, one of Barrio Logan’s most traditional eateries for lunch.
“The food at this place is great and is as authentic as Mexican food gets,” Blake said. “I honestly thought there would so many more people here before the game since the Yelp reviews are so high and the stadium is one trolley stop away.”
Meanwhile in the East Village, fans lined up around the stadium to clear a security checkpoint to enter Petco Park. Out in the surrounding blocks, bars and restaurants were packed with patrons looking to eat and drink before the game, or just simply watching the day’s nine innings of action on TV.
“Lolita’s and The Tilted Kilt are across the street from the stadium. They have really cheap beer before the game and honestly this is where the party is before and after the game,” said Antonio Valle, a National City resident at an East Village bar.
“I actually can’t think of a place like this in Logan because they just don’t have sport bars as a business attraction there like they do here next the stadium,” Valle added. “It’s pointless to go there.”
“Our shop and a lot of the older businesses in the Barrio Logan area exist in a completely different universe than the Padres do,” stated Tom Ryan, one of the proprietors of Ryan Brothers Coffee on the corner of Cesar E. Chavez Parkway and Main Street. “In our case, coffee is a morning drink but games are at night.”
Ryan also went on to add that most special events in the Convention Center and East Village areas of Downtown such as Comic-Con have not yielded much business to them.
“Last year I doubled my staff for Comic-Con and ended up doing less business, so that had a negative impact. You would think that a coffee shop would attract [Comic-Con’s] audience, but we actually saw a dip in business that weekend.”
“It feels that the special events, for the most part, are special events on that side.”
Over the last 18 months, Barrio Logan has seen the opening of businesses which seem to line up a bit more with social and sports related gatherings. New breweries and more socially oriented eateries may reap some benefits from having Petco Park adjacent to Barrio Logan.
Vista-based Iron Fist Brewing Co. set up shop in the Mercado Del Barrio development on National Avenue slightly less than a year ago.
Victoria Valenzuela, Tasting Room Manager at Iron Fist, briefly spoke with La Prensa San Diego about their expectations.
“We missed out on baseball season last year. We were supposed to be open sooner and did not get the chance to fully dabble in the neighborhood with the Padres playing nearby, but now we are here and hope everyone can come down for games.”
Valenzuela has a positive outlook for the tasting room during the baseball season as well as the future.
“We’re going to have flyers and make sure people come down to watch the games on our TVs. We’re going to start doing happy hour deals with a dollar or two off pints and invite people to come down.”
“I’m sure we’ll do great. We are like three minutes from downtown and a trolley stop away from the stadium,” she added.
While Petco Park has been around for over 10 years now, it is the proposed Downtown stadium that the Chargers are seeking that can really impact the future of Barrio Logan, for better or worse.
“I think that the Downtown stadium project will have a much bigger impact because commercial lots in this area would quickly become very valuable for developers. The invisible fence between Downtown, the East Village and Barrio Logan would definitely come down with a $2 billion development,” Ryan commented.
In the meantime, the opening of San Diego City College’s Cesar E. Chavez Campus has had a great impact on Ryan Brothers’ business.
“The opening of the college has brought in our demographic to our coffee shop. The students bring their classes and study groups in here and the college has security which makes us feel safer,” Ryan told La Prensa San Diego.
“Having a college in Barrio Logan has been fantastic for business.”