Stingaree, San Diego facts for kids

The Stingaree was a neighborhood of San Diego between the boom of the 1880s and the demolition and vice eradication campaign of 1916. The reason for the neighborhood's fame was its role as the home to the city's "undesirables", including gamblers. For similar reasons of societal exclusion, it was also the site of the city's first Chinatown. Additionally, the neighborhood was home to many other lower-class citizens, and was in the center of a wider blue-collar residential area encompassing much of the city south of Broadway.

Though the name "Stingaree" (a colloquial pronunciation of "stingray") refers primarily to the period before 1916, the neighborhood's character as a vice district lasted until its massive redevelopment in the 1980s.

Boundaries

The exact boundaries of the neighborhood are contested and likely changed throughout the years. The Health Department identified them as First and Fifth Avenues to the west and east, and Market and K Streets to the north and south.

Chinese population

The southwest corner of the Stingaree (between Market, K, First and Fourth) was the site of the city's Chinatown from the 1880s until the 1930s. During this period, the Chinese in California were marginalized by sometimes violent anti-Chinese movements, as well as the passage of laws that made it a crime to hire Chinese laborers while there were non-Chinese willing to take the work. This, together with a decline in Chinese fishing due to the fear of being blocked readmission into the country from the waters, led to the creation of a thoroughly impoverished and ghettoized population. Many Chinese fell prey to the neighborhood's gambling houses.

Social unrest

The Industrial Workers of the World found a ready audience with the Stingaree's marginalized working-class population. Their attempts to organize the residents were met with a 1912 ordinance banning street speaking. Furthermore, the city police were given special powers to break up demonstrations. What followed were years of demonstrations by the IWW, AFL, and other groups. These demonstrations were often violently suppressed by the police, turning the neighborhood into a scene of overt social conflict. .

City action

Starting with the 1880s, there were many election-time promises to reform the Stingaree, most of which were not acted on. In 1912 the Health Department began to eradicate vice in the district. The health department's action was in keeping with the national Progressive movement that called for closing these districts.

Between 1912 and 1916 over 120 structures were destroyed, transforming the image of the city and creating a large homeless population. A large portion of the Chinatown was razed in the process as well. Although the name of the district disappeared, significant massage parlor raids occurred in 1973. Vice and poverty dominated the area until its redevelopment in the 1980s.

Present day

The wild character of the neighborhood was finally removed by modern-day redevelopment. Many of the neighborhood's residents—and modern red-light uses—were removed with eminent domain, tax increment financing and other strong-arm techniques. The redevelopment efforts hinged on turning the neighborhood into an 1880s-themed upscale shopping area. The new Gaslamp Quarter recreates a "gaslamp era" town that has few characteristics of its actual history as the Stingaree. The last vestiges of the neighborhood's red-light history have been overcome by historical recreationism.

There was a restaurant and nightclub called Stingaree at the corner of 6th and Island. In 2011, a taxi driver veered his cab into a crowd outside of the bar and injured 23 people. In 2015, Stingaree was bought out by Hakkasan Group and remodeled.