San Diego’s iconic December Nights holiday festival in Balboa Park would be essentially eliminated by proposed cuts in Mayor Todd Gloria’s budget for the new fiscal year.
One of the many cost-cutting proposals in Gloria’s budget is to lay off the city employee who plans, coordinates and executes the two-day event that draws an estimated 300,000 people to the park each year.
Aides to Gloria said eliminating December Nights would yield additional savings of about $1.5 million, because the event requires many hours of setup by city employees and overtime for police officers during it.
City Council members criticized the proposal this week, calling the festival a key part of San Diego’s civic fabric that should be preserved if at all possible.
“This is an event families look forward to,” Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera said. “It’s part of what it means to be a San Diegan.”
Councilmember Kent Lee said he doesn’t think it makes sense to close the city’s $146 million budget deficit by wiping out cherished community events like parades and festivals.
He said the costs that come with December Nights are the kind of costs the city should be absorbing.
“There are a lot of things we do in this city that have a cost to the city,” Lee said. “It’s part of the services and the efforts we provide to make San Diego a livable place.”
Aides to Gloria said they are still trying to figure out if the city could stage a dramatically smaller version of December Nights this year but stressed that it would look almost nothing like what residents are accustomed to.
“It would dramatically look much different than it has in years past,” said Christina Chadwick, executive director of the city’s Office of Special Events and Filming. “It would virtually not be happening at all.”
Chadwick said thoughts about a replacement have barely begun.
“We would be working internally to evaluate how we might be able to celebrate the holidays in Balboa Park otherwise,” she said.
Emily Piatanesi, a Gloria policy adviser focused on parks, said planning for a replacement event wouldn’t happen until the mayor and council hammer out a final budget sometime in June.
“I think we’re still working through the details of what December Nights would look like depending on what is actually adopted in the budget,” Piatanesi said.
She stressed to council members that putting on the event costs the city money, despite its slew of corporate sponsors like San Diego Gas & Electric, Home Depot, Republic Service, Toyota, Cox and AT&T.
“We are not generating revenue off this event,” Piatanesi said. “It’s actually costing the city to put the event on.”
Chadwick said those $1.5 million in costs include staffing, overtime and payments for goods, services and outside contracts.
Elo-Rivera said Gloria’s staff should ask for more money from businesses across San Diego that benefit from things the city provides, but he didn’t name any specific businesses.
“There are such profitable businesses that this city does stuff for and does not even ask for cost recovery,” Elo-Rivera said. “The idea we would push one of the most cherished San Diego traditions aside without first asking these folks to do their fair share is insane to me.”
He said December Nights isn’t special only to longtime San Diegans.
“I know as someone who moved here, I’ve inherited it as part of what it means to be a San Diegan,” Elo-Rivera said.
December Nights began in 1978 as Christmas on the Prado. It was renamed in 2002 to become more inclusive.
The two-day event is held the first Friday and Saturday of December each year. It’s gotten so large that many visitors get there on shuttle buses from elsewhere in the city.
Highlights include food tents at the international cottages, free admission to museums and live performances in Spanish Village.