For eighteen months, the block of Normal Street between University and Lincoln has been a hole in the ground with a Pride flag standing over it. That is about to change. The construction fences are still up on August 3, but the trees are planted, the lithomosaic is being finished, and the neighborhood is entering a strange few weeks where the version of Hillcrest you use in August is not the version you will use by New Year's.
This post is for people who already live here. If you have been routing around Normal Street since spring 2025, waiting for CityFest, and wondering whether the new Vietnamese place on 5th is open yet, here is what is actually happening on the ground this month.
The Promenade is closer than the fences suggest
The Pride Promenade project has been talked about since the 1988 Uptown Community Plan and has been under active construction since February 2025. As of late July, the Pride Promenade is just months away from being finished, with completion now expected by the end of 2026 according to KPBS's July 22 site tour.
If you have been reading the neighborhood chatter and assumed this thing would slip into 2027, that was a reasonable read a month ago. Times of San Diego reported on June 29 that completion was pushing into 2027, then KPBS's July 22 update walked that back to a late-2026 finish after a media tour of the site. The gap between those two reports is the story. Something moved.
What moved was mostly underground. Hillcrest's 100-year-old storm drains were not connected to the rest of the system and the intersection near Normal Street and University Avenue flooded when it rained. Builders expanded the diameter of those storm drain inlets to improve water flow. That is the "Lake Hillcrest" fix, and it is the reason surface work looked slow for so long. Now that the plumbing is done, surface-level building will take less time than the changes underground, according to the contractor, Griffith Company. Griffith Company has planted 98 trees, installed structures for light and shade, and added concrete seating.
A few features worth knowing if you plan to use the space:
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Parking | Over 50 new parking spots added along the corridor |
| Trees | About 100 total planted along Normal Street |
| Streetcar | A restored trolley car will anchor the north end as a concession stand and information booth |
| Traffic | Most of the project is on what was two lanes on Normal Street. When Normal opens for cars, it will be only in two lanes total. |
| Cost | Nearly $30 million project, jointly funded by the city and SANDAG |
The permit piece matters for anyone who has ever tried to book a wedding or fundraiser on the Pride flag intersection. Events there will be cheaper because organizers will not have to pull traffic permits and have San Diego police block the road like before. That's due to a new traffic configuration. If you have been priced out of hosting anything at the flag, that math changes when the fences come down.
Where the farmers market actually is right now
The Hillcrest Farmers Market has not been on Normal Street since construction started. It is on University Avenue between Herbert Street and Park Boulevard, still Sundays 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. It will move back permanently once the Promenade is done. If you have been driving to Little Italy on Saturdays because you assumed Hillcrest's market was on hiatus, it is not. It is one block off its old spot.
The relocation is one of the quiet good news stories of the construction period. Attendance has grown, sales are up and even more vendors joined the farmers market since it moved from Normal Street to a more prominent location on University Avenue. Whether that carries over when it moves back is the open question.
CityFest is Sunday, and this year it is a preview
CityFest lands on Sunday, August 9, from 12 p.m. to 11 p.m. on 5th Avenue. The festival attracts over 80,000 visitors and stretches nearly half a mile over nine city blocks. Two music stages will run over 20 hours of live entertainment across genres from indie/alt rock to rap during the day, with DJs at 5th and University after sunset and a Kids Zone at Brookes and Fifth.
The residents' complaint about CityFest is always the same: parking. Remote and free parking is available at the San Diego School District Offices at Washington and Campus Streets and at the DMV at Cleveland and Lincoln Streets, and the US Post Office on Sundays. The DMV lot is the one locals actually use. If you are walking in from Bankers Hill or University Heights, come in from the east side. The west side of the festival footprint backs up against the Promenade construction, and the sidewalks around Cellar Hand's block still narrow unpredictably.
What makes this year's CityFest different is context. It is the last one held while the Promenade is a construction site. By the time the 2027 event rolls around, the Pride flag will be sitting in an actual plaza, not a taped-off patch of asphalt.
Three restaurants opening around the plaza's edges
Restaurateurs read maps. The August wave of openings is not random.
Saigon Alley Kitchen & Bar at 3687 5th Avenue. A new Vietnamese restaurant and bar concept from the family behind Pho Ca Dao, taking over the former home of Two Seven Eight, which previously housed The Tractor Room. Owner Duke Huynh told What Now San Diego the restaurant is expected to open toward the end of July, with a menu of classic Vietnamese dishes plus Asian fusion offerings and a full bar program. The full bar is the tell. Pho Ca Dao's other locations do not have one. This one does because it is walking distance from the Promenade.
Rocko's Modern Taphouse at 3940 Fourth Avenue, Suite 200. A family-friendly arcade and beer bar on the second floor. Scripps Mercy Hospital is across the street, plus plenty of other offices and businesses, and Philips thinks they'll probably add lunch hours by summertime. "People are going to need a place to take their break," he says. A 90s-themed arcade positioned to catch hospital shift changes is a specific bet, and it is a bet on the same daytime foot traffic the Promenade is designed to attract.
Origen at 3831 Park Boulevard. A contemporary Mexican restaurant by Franco Mestre and Sebastian Berho in the former XOXO space. Chef Tomás Fernández has created a minimalist menu of shared plates that'll change daily, including fresh seafood, Mexican-seasoned short rib, a Peruvian-inspired ceviche with leche de tigre, and tuna tartare served on custom plates made by a ceramicist in Guadalajara.
Park Boulevard is worth pausing on. Trust at 3752 Park and Rusticucina at 3797 Park have anchored that stretch for years. Origen at 3831 fills in a gap that made the block feel like two clusters. It is now one continuous three-block walk of destination dining on Park, and the north end of that walk points at the Promenade.
Business damage during construction has been real
If you have wondered whether your favorite Normal Street spots would still be there when the fences came down, the honest answer is that not all of them are the same business they were in April 2025. Hillcrest Brewing Company saw business drop 20% last year, and Cellar Hand estimates construction caused a 25 to 30% percent reduction in revenue.
Hillcrest Brewing's Joey Arruda got city approval to extend his patio 15 feet further, a way to bring in more customers. That extension is the kind of accommodation that tends to become permanent. If you have been avoiding that corner because of dust, the patio math is going to look different by fall.
A resident's late-August Sunday, in order
If you want to actually use the neighborhood this month, here is a sequence that works:
- Farmers market on University between Herbert and Park, 9 to 10:30
- Coffee and pastry at Gooseberries Kafe on the ground floor of The Аврóра Hillcrest
- Walk Park Boulevard south, past Trust and Rusticucina, to see the Origen storefront
- Lunch at Saigon Alley on 5th if the opening timeline held, or Common Stock at 3805 5th if it did not
- Loop back on 4th past Rocko's on the second floor at 3940
- End at the Pride flag on Normal to look through the construction fence at the finished lithomosaic
That is roughly a two-hour walk. It also happens to be a preview of the neighborhood you will actually live in six months from now.
What this actually tells you about Hillcrest right now
The neighborhood is in an unusual window. The last eighteen months have been defined by disruption without much visible payoff, and some of the small businesses closest to the work have taken real damage. The next three to five months are the opposite: visible payoff, new restaurants opening onto a new public space, and the first proper public park Hillcrest has ever had.
If you have been treating the construction as a reason to stay away from your own neighborhood, August is the month to come back and start paying attention. The map is redrawing itself.
If you or someone you know is thinking about buying or selling in Hillcrest and wants a calm, straightforward read on what these changes mean for a specific block, Patricia Casanova is here to help. Let's find your next home — consulta en español disponible.
