h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As I former resident of San Diego now residing in London I was disturbed to note several factual inaccuracies concerning Balboa Park in your guide to the world's great parks. Balboa Park is not in the San Fernando valley, but rather several hundred km to the south, in San Diego, near the Mexican border. It also does not sit on the 405 freeway but rather at the junction of 5 and 163. It is not, as your entry suggests, 4x4 blocks, but rather 20x21 blocks, covering an area of 1,200 acres (450 ha).

One of America's three great urban parks, a quarter million people live in its immediate shadow in the centre city Districts of Cortez Hill, Golden Hill, Bankers Hill, Hillcrest, University Heights and North Park. The park effectively links San Diego's commercial districts (to the south-west, on the bay), with the artistic and culinary amenities (and alternative lifestyles, in several neighbourhoods) of the Uptown inner city communities.

The park itself was founded in 1868, as the heart and showcase of the new "American" urban districts of San Diego (previously, the city was centred around the 18th century presidio fortress constructed on the bluffs to the north-east of the park by the city's original Bourbon Spanish rulers). The great boulevard that bisects the park, El Prado, was constructed in 1915. Most of the parks Spanish Colonial architecture, although impressively, actually dates from the early twentieth century, and should be considered revivalist in nature. Today, the park and its various civic institutions serves as the cultural heart of the San Diego-Tijuana metropolitan area, a region with nearly five million inhabitants straddling both sides of the La Frontera, the US-Mexican border. Each year, over 12 million people visit and use the park.

Many thanks for the correction. I've moved your posting to the Conversation Forum for the entry you refer to, and I'll alert a member of the editorial team to fix the entry.

Much appreciated - it's all part of building a better guide.

Mark

Thank you for the feedback! I've incorporated your comments and extra information in the entry and you have now been credited as a Researcher too.

Many thanks.

Ashley