If the Gaslamp Quarter is the popular heart of downtown, then the East Village is its soul. Over recent years, the community has attracted a lot of attention and investment with the opening of the Padres’ Petco Park in 2004, and more recent efforts to form a business improvement district (BID) — essentially an association made up of business owners who are assessed fees used to upgrade and promote the area. These efforts have helped boost the area as an emerging, vertically sprawling village of young professionals. The tragically homeless and graffiti-donned buildings around 14th Avenue and K Street might remind some of an older downtown. But several who work and live in the “EV” see an urban paradise — a walkable community propped up by big and small businesses, and mid-rise condominium homes sparkling along Market Street. These developments now shadow the remnants of warehouse buildings further east. With talks of a new Chargers stadium in the area and growth coming slowly-but-surely, several business owners and residents see the emerging future of downtown’s tucked-away diamond as having a lifestyle, and business-style, of its own. “Your car is out of the question,” said Brandon Buzarde, the 29 year old manager of FIT Athletic Club on the second floor of 350 10th Ave. “You get so used to walking that you don’t even think about your car. The EV lifestyle is a really convenient one of food, entertainment, fitness and you begin to (get) really spoiled.” Buzarde walks to his job at the fitness club which, he says, attracts a lot of “younger urban professionals” as well as older adults. The surrounding community has the feel of an East Coast neighborhood where “everybody knows everybody,” he said. Buzarde has been with FIT since it’s inception in Houston several years ago, the company has provided its version of social networking and fitness to East Village since February 2008. He added that the business community is a one-off, in that it’s a “healthier” business climate despite an economic recession. Buzarde’s sentiment is echoed by Brian DelPrino, the 28-year owner of Dirty Del’s at 499 10th Ave., in the heart of the East Village. Del’s has been in business for more than a year and has the feel of a sports lounge bar serving as a local watering spot. Del’s is surrounded by the nearby ballpark and the development sparked by the ballpark. Completed and unfinished condominiums and big business buildings that promise the throngs DelPrino wants have begun to sprout upward. During the “off-season” it’s the locals who keep Dirty Del’s afloat. DelPrino said the community has a distinct atmosphere. “People think they’re living in paradise. They’re happy, go-lucky,” he said. In keeping with an air of a paradise lost-and-found, DelPrino looks forward to an even grander vision of his community that might include a new stadium for the San Diego Chargers and a responsible business community that would use collective dollars to enhance and “brand” the East Village unto its own. Talks of a Chargers stadium to be constructed blocks away from Padre’s Petco Park have bounced around local radio and print media, giving hope to those wanting to keep the Chargers in San Diego. “The (Chargers’) stadium would definitely brand us,” DelPrino said. And with the East Village Association board members gearing up to elect new candidates in the first part of the new year, business owners and stakeholders will pay close attention to decisions affecting nearby businesses. Though DelPrino said he’d be too busy to get directly involved with the East Village BID board, he said he hopes the association would use his BID fee-money “wisely.” It’s money that, by law, must be used to enhance the area through beautification and advertising efforts to drive business and tourist traffic into the area. The outcome could attract more new businesses to the community. That’s something all could benefit from, stated a local business partner. “Each year we’re hoping that (growth) would just continue and as new businesses come more east, it would bring more people down into that area,” said Thomas Fitzpatrick, partner in The Mission restaurants. One of three Mission restaurants sits on the corner of J Street and 13th Avenue. Fitzpatrick said it’s the support of the local employees and “upscale” clientele that have helped the restaurant grow, even during tough economic times. He also shares a vision of how the East Village could grow in the future. It’s a vision that includes how the much-promised coming of a new Central Library between Park Boulevard, 11th Avenue, and J and K streets might affect business. “They keep saying if the library comes, that’s going to clean up the area even more,” he said. “If the library was to come in, that would definitely increase (business).” In hopes of coming expansion, Fitzpatrick also points to issues that need attention. East Village is home to the city’s homeless winter shelter — a barebones giant white tent fenced off from the surrounding affluence, just a few blocks from empty condos. Inside, about 200 beds help keep those less fortunate from freezing during nippy winter nights. An estimated 75 to 100 people lined the corners of 16th Avenue and Island Street this past New Year’s Eve. But for every person in the community lamenting the lack of resources available to aid the homeless, there’s another who sees the positive present and future potential for the East Village as it struggles through tough economic times. A.J. Akbar, 35 year-old co-owner of The Kebab Shop at 630 Ninth Ave., said sacrificing a little bit of profit to keep ingredients that have risen in cost, helps keep his customers coming back. Together with partner Tony Farmand, the duo have owned the shop since December 2008 and have been able to expand to a new location in Mira Mesa, Akbar said. He highlights what separates a downtown community like East Village from an area like the Gaslamp Quarter. “You’re not swamped with clubs and bars all around. It’s kind of one of those spots that’s tucked hidden away. The Kebab Shop was exactly what me and my partner wanted to do … Finding this location in the East Village, we thought ‘Wow…this is it.’”