SAN DIEGO — People gathered Monday night to see the new Convoy District sign lit for the first time. This sign was a long time in the making and was celebrated by the community.
"Every great neighborhood in San Diego is really identified and has a neighborhood sign, and this is Convoy's," said Convoy Business Partnership Chair Chris Cate.
Cate said symbols on the side of the letters represent different cultures important to the area, including Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Pacific Islander and Hawaiian. He also said the lettering is vertical on the sign, which is representative for a lot of Asian cultures.
"Each letter has a different culture identified to it, and so the symbols around it represents all of the cultures that exist in our neighborhood," said Cate. "So we want to be make sure we're representative of who we are as a district."
Businesses CBS 8 spoke to said the sign is a positive addition to the area.
"As Convoy develops into its own little Asian cultural hub, this is big, big sign to showcase the area and let you know you’re in Convoy now," said Aaron Chen with The Fire Spot BBQ.
"I think that'll just bring up the Convoy community and really make it a better place," said Ryan Lim with Formoosa.
The new sign is yet another change to Convoy, following recent bike lanes taking over street parking and potential metered parking coming in the future. While many customers are against paid parking, some businesses might benefit.
"It makes sense because it kind of turns the people around and it gets people in and out. So restaurants overall should get more business," said Chen.
Chris Cate with the Convoy Business Partnership said Convoy is changing for the better.
"There have been these incremental steps along the way to bring Convoy up as the up-and-coming neighborhood, we have new homes being built on Convoy as well too so it's really an exciting time for our district, a lot going on," said Cate.