Round-the-bay roundup
Long celebrated as one of the world’s greatest ports, the San Diego Bay is fast evolving to become one of the most beautiful. Here’s how to enjoy the ever-changing waterfront!
N
ot gonna lie: you didn’t used to wanna swim in the San Diego Bay. Back in the day, our vast urban centerpiece’s militaryindustrial shores and murky waters were not something a travel agent would have mentioned among our area’s attractions. But between cleanup efforts started in the 1960s and a trove of more recent public improvement projects, year by year the bay’s waterfront has been transforming into a destination in its own right.
Mostly under the umbrella of the San Diego Unified Port District (or more familiarly, the Port), a vast patchwork of visions, plans, projects, and publicprivate partnerships have spawned a slow-moving but inevitable wave of improvements including parks, greenways, bike routes, resorts, and other attractions.
While many future projects continue to evolve during planning stages, let’s take a quick trip around the bay for highlights of what you can expect to find now and in the near future.
The Embarcadero Where downtown San Diego dips its toes in the bay, The Embarcadero runs about two miles along the water from Little Italy to Petco Park, and is home to many of the most visible improvement projects. In 2014, Waterfront Park transformed the area around the iconic County Administration Building from a hot paved wasteland into a cool waterside oasis, and it’s on the brink of another transformation. The county’s Parks and Recreation department is moving forward with concepts to add recreational facilities for basketball,