Study sees two countries, one neighborhood at U.s.-mexico border

In an era of fortified fencing, one new proposal aims to blur the international border between San Diego and Tijuana.

Architects, developers, and urban planners from the United States and Mexico are studying the tightly packed, heavily crossed areas that straddle the busy San Ysidro Port of Entry in a first-of-its-kind study by the Urban Land Institute of San Diego and Tijuana that looks at both sides as a single entity.

The all-volunteer team of nine professionals spent three days walking these neighborhoods where the two countries converge, talking to business and property owners to get a feel for the area’s challenges and opportunities.

“On either side of the border, it’s a big mystery what’s on the other side,” San Diego architect Frank Wolden, said on Wednesday afternoon as the group stepped past the decaying strip of fast food outlets, money exchange houses and mobile phone shops that line San Ysidro Boulevard. “The whole idea is in years and years of talking about this as a combined region, very little has been invested in doing much about that.”

At a Friday presentation of the preliminary findings by the group, known as a technical assistance panel, participants spoke of turning the area into a “world destination with local flavor” that would include breweries, wineries and other small businesses that invite passersby to linger.

“Right now, it’s a place where you want to cross and drive away from,” said study participant Beryl Foreman, executive director of the El Cajon Boulevard Business Improvement Association.

Suggestions for the San Ysidro side included the creation of a hostel hotel for U.S. volunteers traveling to Mexico; the creation of a Friendship Park plaza; and redevelopment of the aging cityowned San Ysidro Service Center into a regional welcome center.

For Tijuana, participants recommended the redevelopment of the Viva Tijuana plaza, a vast mall near Mexico’s El Chaparral Port of Entry with many shuttered businesses. They envisioned a “mobility corridor” to connect foot traffic from the border to nearby medical facilities at a planned center at New City and the Pueblo Amigo mall, that has seen growing numbers of medical offices.

The $35,000 study was commissioned by the San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce and the Border Fusion Group, supported by property and business owners in Tijuana and San Diego.

Similar studies have been conducted by the Urban Land Institute, or ULI, in a number of San Diego neighborhoods, as well as south of the border. In previous studies, volunteer experts have looked at ways to revitalize downtown Tijuana and spur development on land adjacent to the Baja California Center, a convention facility that straddles Rosarito Beach and Tijuana.