IMPERIAL BEACH, Calif. (KGTV) – Progress is underway on the Imperial Beach Pier and surrounding areas as efforts continue to draw visitors despite ongoing sewage issues that have closed nearby beaches.

“IB Pier is one of the Port of San Diego’s piers we own it we maintain it and we basically want to make it the nicest pier in San Diego. We’ve been doing a lot of work on it the last couple of years,” Dan Malcolm, the Port Commissioner of San Diego, said. “We spent $2.5 million refreshing it, doing an artistic shade structure, painting it. We put placards out, railing, refreshing the pier. For residents and visitors, this is a central area where they come.”

The Port Commissioner said looking up the coast past San Diego and down to Mexico is what makes this pier special. The pier was built in 1963, and at the time, it was 1,200 feet. Fishing has been a common attraction here throughout the years.

“As a piece of ocean infrastructure, there are always things to be done. We’ll continue to monitor, we’ll redo planking and look at other projects to make the pier attractive to people,” Malcolm said.

Changes coming soon to area around Imperial Beach Pier

By 2026, the port hopes to bring a splash pad to the area at the base of the pier. That project is estimated to cost another $1.5 million.

Parking rules in the City of San Diego could be getting a major overhaul. The proposal looks at parking prices, parking times, and even parking on Sundays.

In North Park, parking can be challenging.

“Sometimes I get here, I get lucky, other times, I’m like searching around for like five, ten minutes and I have to like do a nice five minute walk back to my house,” said Michael Curtis. He’s lived, and parked, in North Park for the past year.

He’s one of many residents and business owners who’ve struggled with parking.

“We’re blessed to have 12 parking spots in our store, and I have people offer me money to park here, even overnight because they cannot find parking overnight,” said Nash Sabaga, the owner of Adams Avenue Wine and Spirits. “So the parking situation is really critical on Adams Avenue. There’s probably even parking, plus there’s all these constructions everywhere.”

While the current parking situation is a concern, they’re even more worried about potential changes that could be on the way.

On Thursday, the city’s transportation and infrastructure committee approved a proposal that takes aim at parking rates, meters, special events, and free Sunday parking.

It also looks at how meter funds are spent by each district.

While some are on-board with the plan and believe the city’s growing demand for parking needs a big change, others aren’t so sure.

The lone vote – Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert, brought up Balboa Park, and the need to offer people an easy place to park and enjoy one of the city’s main attractions.

“Balboa Park is not necessarily designed to be metered parking because we are asking people to invest a lot of money in day-long experiences,” said von Wilpert during the committee meeting.

No changes are being made for now. We’re told it could be months before the proposal is taken up by the full council.

You never need an excuse to escape to sunny San Diego but major premieres at two of the coveted destination’s award-winning theaters are reason enough to drop everything and book a trip now.

3 Summers of Lincoln at La Jolla Playhouse and What the Constitution Means to Me at North Coast Rep are both exceptional shows that are impactful, important and thought-provoking, especially at this time in history. Although they share themes focused on the US government, they are totally different – one’s a musical, the other a play; one is an exploration of the effort to end the Civil War, the other an exploration of the effort to create the Constitution – and each brings something exciting and relevant to the table.

3 Summers of Lincoln at La Jolla Playhouse

It’s impossible to talk about 3 Summers of Lincoln without mentioning Hamilton but they really have little in common other than the fact that they’re both contemporary musicals about a game-changing period in US history. While Hamilton mostly features hip hop and rap, 3 Summers of Lincoln is more traditionally Broadway, filled with anthems, ballads and enough catchy songs to eventually earn it a Tony nomination. If I could find the soundtrack on Spotify, I would have downloaded it as I left the theater.

The La Jolla Playhouse run is the musical’s world premiere, and you’ll be sucked in from the first notes of its opening number, “Ninety Day War.” Featuring a riveting performance by a soldier played by Evan Ruggiero, a self-described “one-legged tap dancer,” who offers a physical representation of the telegraph that experts believe helped Lincoln win the war, its percussive beat goes right through you and you can’t help sit up straighter, instantly at attention.

The show covers the summers of 1862, 1863 and 1864 as President Lincoln tries to end the war that has been going on for days, months, years – which are regularly displayed on the impressive set, conveying the heaviness of this endless battle and its massive body count. He worries about the soldiers, doubts his decisions and gets more and more frustrated with General McClellan. He also develops a treasured and often volatile relationship with abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Their meetings are electrifying.

It’s so moving to watch Lincoln struggle over whether to issue the Emancipation Proclamation against the warnings of his cabinet. When he finally decides to do the right thing and end slavery, despite the fact that it may cost him a second term, it feels like a miracle.

Every performance in 3 Summers of Lincoln is outstanding, with Ivan Hernandez totally embodying the President (if you saw him on the street, you’d swear Lincoln had come back to life) and Quentin Earl Darrington stealing the spotlight every time he appears on stage as Douglass. Carmen Cusack is a three-dimensional Mary Todd Lincoln, Saycon Sengbloh becomes more than Mary’s trusted friend and dressmaker and John-Andrew Morrison is a stand out as Lincoln’s butler.

With gorgeous sets, costumes and songs, 3 Summers of Lincoln deserves to follow many of La Jolla Playhouse’s former hits (including Jersey Boys, Come From Away, Redwood) to Broadway.

What the Constitution Means to Me at North Coast Rep

A few miles north, in Solana Beach, North Coast Rep has just extended the San Diego premiere of What the Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Schreck. I had seen the Tony-nominated show on Amazon Prime and loved it but seeing it in person, especially in the intimate North Coast Rep theater, was truly meaningful.

Jacque Wilke stars as the playwright herself, who recreates her real-life experiences as a 15 year old student who paid for college with money she earned by winning Constitutional debate competitions at American Legion halls across the country.

The show is deeply personal, making it a much more natural way to teach people an important thing or two than lecturing them. It’s well-structured, hilarious, heartbreaking, educational and relatable. Wilke is likeable and personable as Heidi and it’s easy to get invested in her stories and history, all of which are tied into the Constitution and its amendments. We suddenly grasp the meaning of this document as she reveals both its brilliance and flaws, using actual recordings of Supreme Court justices involved in their own debates about real cases.

It quickly becomes clear that women have been underserved by the Constitution, which Heidi argues is a “living document” that can and should evolve over time. One of the highlights of the show is the debate between Heidi and a local student (Em Danque), who each take a side on whether to keep or abolish the Constitution. Every audience member is given a pocket copy of the Constitution to keep and encouraged to cheer for points they agree with and boo when they disagree.

At every performance, one audience member is chosen to pick the winner of the debate. At mine (and 85% of the performances, according to the stage manager) , she opted to keep the Constitution with the caveat that it needed more amendments to protect rights for all. Or, to quote President Lincoln himself, “The people – the people – are the rightful masters of both congresses, and courts – not to overthrow the constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it.”

The audiences of both What the Constitution Means to Me and 3 Summers of Lincoln were totally engaged and vocal, applauding wildly when specific lines hit home, reinforcing the plays’ messages that we, the people, have to participate if we want to influence the outcome of elections, wars, bills, the future of democracy. We can’t just be spectators.