Tweet Street Park: Downtown San Diego's Restlessly Sleepy Seclusion

Stuck in Downtown San Diego for the day and feeling anti-social but don't want to stay shut up in your hotel room? There is refuge for you on the thin strip of green shrubs known locally as Tweet Street Park on the southern high bank overlooking Interstate 5 and the south end of Balboa Park. A neighborly paradox of ground level seclusion and bustling air traffic.

Located along the north side of Date Street from Seventh to Tenth Avenues, curving south down to Beech Street in the Cortez Hill neighborhood, Tweet Street was designed and built by the Center City Development Corporation as a green buffer zone between the colorful upscale residential area and the 8 lanes freeway and its on/off ramps that also (hopefully) serve to encourage the local residents to learn more about wildlife sharing their unmistakably urban habitat. It doesn't matter that the wildest thing I ever saw there was a rather jumpy tom cat who was slinking from tree to tree in search of something wilder to stalk than his own hyperactive tail. There is a good will toward wild life there... if only they can manage to traverse the freeway and the many blocks of the well-occupied concrete forest to get to it.

With width ranging from 10 to 30 feet at its widest, Tweet Street features twisty concrete footpaths cutting through lush green lawn and shrubs. Its serpentine curves lined with sitting benches, eclectically designed and wildlife experts approved bird houses, a childproof playground lined with soft rubber, and even colorful fake fire hydrants serving as doggies restroom area. Being tucked deep into Cortez Hill away from Downtown traffic (and no bus or trolley passing through the area), most of its patrons live within a few blocks of the park. They drop in to take a stroll, walk the dog, take the kids to play, or to just sit quietly while reveling in the little slice of nature in the heart of the granite jungle. The place is just a few blocks up the hill from Copley Symphony Hall (on 7th and B St) and an easy 10 city blocks (except for the 2 blocks of steep hill up Cortez, of course) east from the heart of Little Italy.

There is a round information post about the park and its hypothetical resident bird species where Eight Avenue runs into Date Street. The only flying specimens that really frequent the place, however, are commercial airliners passing through from east to west just north of overhead on their way to the San Diego International Airport. Their engine roaring instead of tweeting (much to the relief of their passengers, I'm sure), the jets can first be spotted from the east end cul-de-sac of the park where a line of east-facing metal chairs strategically placed along the arched sidewalk give ideal vantage points. The planes come in waves of 3-6 starting daily from 6:30AM to 11:30PM, their engine rumble amplified by the surrounding tall buildings is a formidable thing for any natural winged creature to try to tweet over. Funny enough, though, after hanging out there for a while you get so used to the planes that their sound don't bother you anymore.... And Tweet Street becomes something of a public private space. Unlike other public spaces in downtown, only rarely do the homeless folks come here to bunk on its green grass or clean park benches (most of those guys are burden with a filled grocery cart, and it is a real chore to drag that thing up the hill to get to the place).

The park is open daily from 6AM to midnight. There are street parking along Date and neighboring streets. You can get to it by driving north on Seventh or Ninth Avenues from Broadway (these are one-way streets).

Sources:
1. www.orchidsandonions.org/
2. www.urbanarttrail.com/tweetstreet.php