San Diego’s Little Italy sign will come down for repairs after truck crash

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Don’t panic if the iconic Little Italy neighborhood sign isn’t overhead the next time you’re driving north on India Street.

In late January, the sign was damaged by a Waste Management truck. In June, the Little Italy Association discussed plans to take the sign down for roughly two weeks for repair.

Also discussed was a plan for a later date to completely refurbish the pillars and the sign due to age-related decline.

Details are fuzzy on what happened to the sign earlier this year. A Waste Management truck allegedly struck the sign in the early morning, likely while it was loading garbage.

A Waste Management spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

In what’s not a sign of the times, no one has cell phone video of the incident.

“The truck driver reported it to the city and the city told us about it,” said Chris Gomez, chief executive administrator for New City America Inc, who consults for the Little Italy Association (LIA).

The damage is to the word “SAN DIEGO” on the bottom of the north side of the sign.

An estimate puts the cost to repair the sign to its pre-damaged state at $65,000. The deal isn’t finalized but Gomez expects Waste Management’s insurance to cover the cost.

Gomez isn’t sure when the sign will come down or how long it would take to repair it. He estimates it could be taken down next month and may need two weeks to be fixed.

Coincidentally, the LIA had just begun discussing plans to refurbish the whole sign. It’s 27 years old and has been showing signs of wear and tear, Gomez said.

“We think there’s plywood inside the support beams that hold up the sign,” Gomez said. “They’ve been bowing and causing tiles to pop off.”

The LIA is likely to also switch the neon lights on the sign to LED lighting. The total cost for refurbishment, which could happen within the next three years, might range between $200,000 and $300,000.

The Little Italy sign was dedicated in October 2000 during a commemorative historical event called FESTA!. The sign pays homage to both the former local tuna fishing and canning industry and to the Sicilian immigrants who used to predominantly live in the area.

The pillar on the west side of India Street celebrates the ocean, tuna boats and the men who worked on them in the 1960s and ‘70s.

The east-side pillar pays respect to the green, white and red of Italy and shows iconography of churches, cooking and family.

Both pillars are done in mosaic tile. 

“When we get an artist to re-do the pillars they won’t be exact replicas,” Gomez said. “But the new tiles will keep the spirit of the current ones. We definitely want the new sign to last another 30 years.”