hillcrest happenings; mission valley makeover

lots of stuff going on this week in hillcrest, starting off with city fest sunday, which stretches a whole mile down 5th ave and includes the book and literacy fair this year too. after you've eaten your third $7 bratwurst you can pick up tickets for the toast to hillcrest food sampler; the restaurant lineup is impressive - local heavyweights like hash house, ono sushi and bombay, along with new places like babbo grande, pizza fusion and yes, pinkberry. we drove by it the other night and the exterior looks about done, and boy is it a big improvement over the pink pb garden and hone store that resided there for years. UPDATE: also in hillcrest sunday, artwalk continues its monthly appearances around university and richmond.

meanwhile, after securing approval for the utc expansion, westfield is doubling down with a proposed expansion of the 48-year old mission valley mall. not much information to go on yet, but it seems like anywhere you see a parking lot now will become a parking structure, a bunch of condos are getting built, and the mall will get a second floor. hopefully the details will show something on the interest level of the utc expansion.

traffic is already a complete mess in mission valley, but that's exactly the reason why this makeover should happen - take a dated, car-oriented facility and turn it into a gathering place that's pedestrian-friendly for an already high-density area. imagine a community gathering area in mission valley? tie it in with an improved bike trail system there... well one can dream. now where are those horton plaza plans?