The Les Girls sign has stood at the same place basically unchanged until a few months ago, iconic. I remember when I first came across these videos I was living in an area of the city that was hardly developed and mostly dirt roads it was baffling. But aftwards I moved to the center of the city and it was baffling for the opposite reason, the storefronts and buildings were basically the same. Looking comparing street view and this though, at least in downtown, there's a lot more trees.
Edit:
Looks like the author only has a reference to a subset of the originals on archive.org. There's tons more for more rural parts of SD you can find them on the city website:
Your color correction is incredible - the frames you selected look much better than the original video.
The matrix of vehicles is my favorite part. If you drive down these same streets today it's a sea of black, white and grey.
You'll be happy to know that Les Girls is still there today, advertising burlesque, go go dancers and "full nude". They finally replaced the sign earlier this year, but it still looks very much the same.
I drove down Garnet and Grand so many times as a teenager on the way to the beach. Beings back a few memories. Most of that was thirty years ago, and the videos are from way earlier. But it's kind of interesting that some of it seems familiar.
I actually don't really think cities should be like that though. They should evolve more freely. No point in trying to explain it though.
Color is magnificent and I can't believe we've lost so much joy on our relentless march to hyper-optimized profit. I recently read another article about how everything has gotten more monochrome, will try to find it again.
In scanning some slides from the 1970s, I was struck by the colors of the pants! Bright! Stripes! Fun! I sew shirts and gravitate towards bright prints, and everything tends to stand out because clothing in general doesn't seem as varied today.
EDIT - Found many articles along the same lines, some even with the same images. This isn't the original one that I was thinking about, but it is equivalent
Nice you could choose if you would like your gasoline with or without service
Still possible in some places. Especially cities with large numbers of retirees.
I used a full-service optional Shell station in Las Vegas last year. Unlike when I was young, full-service didn't mean in increase in the price of gas.
There are a few full-service stations around where I live. But you really don't need your oil checked when you get gas so unless the objective is to have someone else pump your gas in crappy weather there's not a not of point.
Les Girls is still there. I chuckle every time I pass it on the way to the rehearsal space my band uses. I always suspected that it had been a bigger deal in some bygone era; glad to see that confirmed via photographic evidence.
I keep hearing that whole area is gonna be razed as part of the Midway/Sports Arena redevelopment, but I feel like as long as MCRD stays put, Les Girls will always have a home. LOL
By my reading of the map, it means that that Midway Rising will cover the Salvation Army store and everything west of it between Sports Arena and Kurtz St (including the current parking lots).
Of course, if/when Midway Rising does happen, it'll probably spark future developments..
The commentary on hand-created signage was especially fascinating. The observations about the use of computers "enshitifying" design sort of eerily echo a lot of the commentary about AI now, including the (not unfounded) fear of the loss of human inconsistency, and the beauty it can bring.
The Les Girls sign has stood at the same place basically unchanged until a few months ago, iconic. I remember when I first came across these videos I was living in an area of the city that was hardly developed and mostly dirt roads it was baffling. But aftwards I moved to the center of the city and it was baffling for the opposite reason, the storefronts and buildings were basically the same. Looking comparing street view and this though, at least in downtown, there's a lot more trees.
Edit:
Looks like the author only has a reference to a subset of the originals on archive.org. There's tons more for more rural parts of SD you can find them on the city website:
https://www.sandiego.gov/digitalarchives/film-audio/street-v...
Your color correction is incredible - the frames you selected look much better than the original video.
The matrix of vehicles is my favorite part. If you drive down these same streets today it's a sea of black, white and grey.
You'll be happy to know that Les Girls is still there today, advertising burlesque, go go dancers and "full nude". They finally replaced the sign earlier this year, but it still looks very much the same.
Les Girls is the feature of a fascinating podcast, too: https://www.kpbs.org/podcasts/stripper-energy
Everything looks so green, but I'm not sure if it's the color correction or because there was water back then. :shrug:
I drove down Garnet and Grand so many times as a teenager on the way to the beach. Beings back a few memories. Most of that was thirty years ago, and the videos are from way earlier. But it's kind of interesting that some of it seems familiar.
I actually don't really think cities should be like that though. They should evolve more freely. No point in trying to explain it though.
Color is magnificent and I can't believe we've lost so much joy on our relentless march to hyper-optimized profit. I recently read another article about how everything has gotten more monochrome, will try to find it again.
In scanning some slides from the 1970s, I was struck by the colors of the pants! Bright! Stripes! Fun! I sew shirts and gravitate towards bright prints, and everything tends to stand out because clothing in general doesn't seem as varied today.
EDIT - Found many articles along the same lines, some even with the same images. This isn't the original one that I was thinking about, but it is equivalent
https://uxmag.com/articles/why-is-the-world-losing-color
Nice you could choose if you would like your gasoline with or without service :-) (4:00).
Why was the chain called "Der Wienerschnitzel" and not "Das Wienerschnitzel". It is (was) a proper noun, but why the wrong article? (5:02)
A small part appears twice (from 8:51--9:06).
more cyclists than I see in current streetview footage
Coca-Cola delivery vans where yellow?
Nice you could choose if you would like your gasoline with or without service
Still possible in some places. Especially cities with large numbers of retirees.
I used a full-service optional Shell station in Las Vegas last year. Unlike when I was young, full-service didn't mean in increase in the price of gas.
There are a few full-service stations around where I live. But you really don't need your oil checked when you get gas so unless the objective is to have someone else pump your gas in crappy weather there's not a not of point.
Les Girls is still there. I chuckle every time I pass it on the way to the rehearsal space my band uses. I always suspected that it had been a bigger deal in some bygone era; glad to see that confirmed via photographic evidence.
I keep hearing that whole area is gonna be razed as part of the Midway/Sports Arena redevelopment, but I feel like as long as MCRD stays put, Les Girls will always have a home. LOL
The most recent draft of the Midway Rising Specific Plan (https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/2025-09/dsd_app...) says Les Girls stays; the development doesn't go north of Kurtz St.
By my reading of the map, it means that that Midway Rising will cover the Salvation Army store and everything west of it between Sports Arena and Kurtz St (including the current parking lots).
Of course, if/when Midway Rising does happen, it'll probably spark future developments..
IMHO comparably, cars today look depressing. So soulless, so similar, so boring. White/grey/silver/black, maybe a few boring blue or burgundy.
Can't forget California smog and haze that varied between yellow, orange, and brown.
The commentary on hand-created signage was especially fascinating. The observations about the use of computers "enshitifying" design sort of eerily echo a lot of the commentary about AI now, including the (not unfounded) fear of the loss of human inconsistency, and the beauty it can bring.
So many Volkswagen Beetles! The original ones, not the 1990s version.
>"Hypno-Sex-Ism"
50 years early to the "gooning" trend, I see...
As someone born and raised in san diego since the 70s, this is really nice!