Downtown San Diego Stories
On Wednesday evening, June 24, The San Diego Padres found themselves deadlocked in a 3-3 tie with the Seattle Mariners through the top of the eighth inning. Although it was a close game, there were …
For the past two months, the future site of Thomas Jefferson Law School in the East Village has been the location of an orderly protest regarding labor matters. At the southeast corner of 11th and …
Is Balboa Park part of downtown? Does the city need another leash-free dog park? Can it afford it? Those questions occurred to Mel Shapiro when he read an account in the Union-Tribune about a recently …
The May 30 “Baja by the Sea” food and cultural exhibition held at Embarcadero Marina Park in downtown San Diego ultimately sought to encourage Baja tourism, but considering what I experienced, the mission was somewhat …
At the Wednesday-morning meeting of the San Diego City Council’s rules committee, councilmembers Tony Young, Kevin Faulconer, Donna Frye, and Todd Gloria (council president Ben Hueso was at a Coastal Commission meeting) requested that the …
Though the Padres stretched their Sunday, June 7, game against the Arizona Diamondbacks 18 innings in the longest major league game so far this season, one Padres fan didn’t quite make it to the 8th. …
The sugar daddies that could be expected to bankroll the convention center expansion are on the sidelines. But watch out: the backers of the proposed expansion are likely to twist statistics and distort reality to …
When the Arizona Diamondbacks were in town on May 6, 2009, the Padres and D’backs drew an announced crowd of 13,646 — a record low for Petco Park (capacity is 42,445). The average for this …
It was shortly after 2:00 a.m. when Gerald Jackson finished his closing shift at the Barbary Coast, a downtown gay bar at the corner of Fourth and C, next to the landmark California Theatre. The …
Old-time San Diegans remember when the Gaslamp Quarter was getting over its “Hey, sailor” sleaze-phase and Horton Plaza was new. Italian restaurants serving affordable food suddenly peppered the neighborhood — but once the rising entertainment …
Officials from the Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC) continue on their cross-city public relations tour to promote the construction of a new downtown civic center. Last week, the group showed their stuff to a near-empty …
Soon, the city council will decide on whether to enter into an agreement with Gerding Edlen Development for exclusive negotiations on a new downtown civic center. Jeff Graham, vice president of redevelopment for CCDC, likens …
The stunning 50 percent plunge in Phoenix’s home prices has attracted national attention. By contrast, San Diego’s condominium market, which has seen values fall by 55 percent, has suffered in relative silence. That may be …
A lone transient brought fear and terror to downtown San Diego on Sunday, May 3. The unnamed man, wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt, climbed to the top of a crane on the construction …
A 911 call on Monday, May 4, brought emergency teams and a fleet of San Diego Fire-Rescue Department vehicles (including battalion chief 1's red Chevy Suburban) to the Lyceum Theatre entrance of Horton Plaza. According …
In a scene reminiscent of a late 1960s Vietnam War protest, Horton Plaza Park (on Broadway between Third and Fourth avenues) was packed with noisy demonstrators on Saturday, April 25, between 3:00 and 4:30 p.m. …
During District 2 councilmember Kevin Faulconer’s state of the district speech on April 27, he listed his accomplishments during the past three years. One of his proudest accomplishments so far has been banning alcohol from …
“Be nice or go away,” says the sign above the bar. Hmm...none too welcoming. But, hey, I’ll be nice, ’cause what a bar, and what a backboard! Huge, with baroque carving, big mirrors. Victorian, I …
They say your home is your castle. So it is with Jim’s place, which is shaped like a castle. He’s known as the P.B. Millionaire. The St. Patrick’s Day party he hosted was downtown at …
The 1898 ferry boat Berkeley, moored permanently on San Diego Bay at the Embarcadero, has been in need of maintenance, which it received last weekend. On the morning of Sunday, March 29, workers for the …
On Saturday, March 29, a young man fell from a 12th-floor apartment on Ninth Avenue at 1:15 a.m. The victim, who had been visiting a friend at the Avalon building in Cortez Hill, died on …
The proposal to build a new San Diego city hall at a cost to taxpayers of at least $587 million is slowly making its way through the City-owned Centre City Development Corporation, en route to …
As San Diego’s unemployment rate has climbed steeply (to 8.8 percent), so too has the homeless population. Food lines are extending around blocks, and shelters fill up before the sun sets. Many are turned away …
All across the United States, and around the world, convention centers are vastly overbuilt. Supply exceeds demand. So municipalities that own the centers resort to price-slashing. They often lose money on their centers and have …
Who are the new would-be owners of the Padres, and are they fit to own the team? Recent documents unearthed from city hall under the California Public Records Act suggest that City officials may not …
On a Saturday night a few weeks ago, I went to a Saturday Night Live theme party at the Tivoli Bar in the East Village. I went as one of the gold-chain-and-polyester-wearing Czech brothers played …
A little after 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 12, a late-model, black VW Jetta traveling northbound on Seventh Avenue collided with one of MTS’s red-and-white articulated buses that was eastbound on Broadway. Although both vehicles …
The stock market is crashing. The city budget is crumbling. The state unemployment rate has hit 10 percent. Maybe it’s not the best time to be spending $1.27 million to subsidize a marina for superyachts. …
The demolition of the old building on Broadway between Eighth and Ninth avenues was completed over a month ago. On the 23rd of February, a work crew was on the site to break up remaining …
Shortly before 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 26, metal chairs and tables rained down from the roof of the Ramada Inn on Sixth Avenue, narrowly missing several passing automobiles. Bent and twisted into nearly unrecognizable …
At 9:30 p.m. on Friday February 27, whoops and shouts could be heard near the Children’s Museum at the intersection of West Island Avenue and Front Street. On Harbor Drive, a police car cruised silently …
On Friday, February 27, San Diegans gathered on the Embarcadero (near the County Administration Building) to take part in a “tea party” to protest the federal government’s economic rescue plan. Taking the cue from the …
To find a restroom downtown, you can wander into hotel lobbies...and Horton Plaza has restrooms located on the top floor of the food court and at all the bars and restaurants. But the mall’s bathrooms …
On February 14, Horton Plaza became a flurry of pillows as 40 people gathered at the fountain to participate in the first annual Valentine's Pillow Fight. "It's intense. I couldn't tell who was hitting me," …
Oh, man. Gonna faint. Just ran a hundred steps up one side of the convention center, two at a time, I swear, and down another hundred to the bay side. Keep jogging along the Embarcadero …
Author: Sandra Keener Neighborhood: Downtown Age: 60 Occupation: Retired Well, there it was last summer for all to see and read, an article in Forbes entitled “America’s Worst Cities to Be a Sports Fan.” It …
On January 30 at around 3:30 p.m., a fire blazed through a second-floor apartment in the Sharp Senior Home on Tenth and Broadway. First on the scene was Cojack, the maintenance/manager of the building who …
Is Jerry Sanders in thrall to his biggest political contributors? Some have thought so, especially as Sanders is said to harbor thoughts of running for statewide office in the not-so-distant future. Now there is evidence …
January 24 saw another spectacular afternoon maritime show, Canon Battles on San Diego Bay, sponsored by the San Diego Maritime Museum. Four 19th-century tall ships roamed the bay firing smoke canons at each other to …
The median price of a resale condo downtown was $564,700 for the 30-day period ended January 21, up $9,600 from last month, and higher $9,100 from the same period in January 2008 ($555,600). The number …
To address the city’s bleak financial future, Mayor Jerry Sanders asked city-council members to take a hard look at their district and try to find areas where the city could save some cash. On January …
The 11th Ave. and C St. trolley station situates itself at the bottom of the new Smart Corner condominiums. San Diego High School and Garfield High School are located down the street off of Park …
Robert Golden and family, 1953. The son of local construction magnate Morley H. Golden, Robert took over as company president in 1956. Though Robert Golden’s 1991 Union obit emphasized his philanthropic endeavors and love of …
On Saturday, January 17, 2009, thousands of people gathered in downtown San Diego after the Martin Luther King Jr. Parade to celebrate diversity at the 11th annual San Diego Multicultural Festival. More than 100 booths …
On Saturday, January 10 at 11:10 p.m., at the corner of 9th Avenue and E Street, a white Mercedes Benz crashed into a grey Nissan Altima, causing the Nissan to smash into the corner of …
Amid the barrage of bad news about our economy, the San Diego Downtown Lions Club heard surprisingly good news at their first meeting of 2009. Alan Nevin of Market Pointe Realty Advisors spoke at the …
On the afternoon of January 2, 2009, at Broadway and Front Street, a demonstration was staged with approximately 500 demonstrators holding signs and chanting "No Justice No Peace." "These demos have been staged to inform …
One Who’s Out and Wants In A man walks into the lobby of a downtown sales office on Sixth Avenue and G Street on a Sunday morning, wheeling his young son in a stroller in …
Twenty-nine years ago this week (12/7/79), the city’s first punk venue, downtown’s Skeleton Club, reopened at 202 West Market Street. The original locale on Fourth Avenue, across from Horton Plaza, had been shut down the …
“If I were to build the perfect comedian, it would be Jerry Seinfeld crossed with Dave Chappelle,” says local comedian Mal Hall. “My comedy is observational. I wouldn’t do anything onstage that I think my …
As a kid, music influenced how I thought about politics — songs such as Alice Cooper’s “Elected” or Cream’s “Politician,” wherein the politico talks a woman into his “big, black car.” As a teenager, I …
At 9 a.m. on the morning of Wednesday, November 13th, the city Budget Review Committee met in a crowded and raucous city council chambers to discuss Mayor Sanders’s plan for $43 million in budget cuts …