San Diego's East Village is joining the Gaslamp Quarter and Little Italy by creating its own sign downtown, but it won't look anything like the other neighborhood arches.

San Diego's East Village is joining the Gaslamp Quarter and Little Italy by creating its own sign downtown, but it won't look anything like the other neighborhood arches.

This sign will be a giant ring held up by four posts that will span Market Street between 10th and 11th avenues. The ring will be emblazoned with the name, "East Village."

David Hazan, president of the East Village Association, said the group raised all of the money for the sign and is finishing the permitting process with the city. He expects the sign will be up by November.

"We're working with real experts in this that really know what they're doing," Hazan said. "Everyone is pretty savvy on what the city will be looking for and already anticipated any objections they might have so there won’t be any objections."

The sign was designed by Selbert Perkins Design, which worked on Union Station in Los Angeles and the Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

The East Village Association asked for proposals for designs from anyone who wanted to submit.

"Frankly, a lot of them were rather pedestrian," Hazan said. "We didn't want just another arch or something everyone else has done. East Village is a very unique community, and we wanted something to reflect its uniqueness."

He said the public had a chance to weigh in on the sign during East Village Association meetings, and that they didn't hear objections to it.

While they originally wanted to install the sign over an intersection, Hazan said that's not allowed because it would block traffic lights. So it will be put up mid-block.

"East Village is edgy, a little gritty, and we wanted a sign to show that we're still edgy," he said. "It's not your father’s sign, and that’s why we’re very excited about it."

The association has raised $500,000 for the sign and has enough to pay for it, but Hazan said the group is still fundraising to offset costs.

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Claire Trageser

Investigative Reporter

As a member of the KPBS investigative team, my job is to hold the powerful in San Diego County accountable. I've done in-depth investigations on political campaigns, police officer misconduct and neighborhood quality of life issues.

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