Downtown San Diego Stories
Austin-based guitarist Gary Clark Jr. is a man of few words. Rather than waste time with between-song banter, he lets his music do the talking for him, and on this night at House of Blues, …
The crumbling and leaky California Theatre building, at 1122 Fourth Avenue (at C St.), built in 1927 at a cost of $340,000, has sat vacant since 1990. SOHO (Save Our Heritage Organisation) is fighting to …
Taxpayers eager for information on the behind-the-scenes machinations regarding a downtown Chargers stadium and expanding San Diego State University to Mission Valley will have to fork over at least $35 for the privilege. That's the …
The plans for a new downtown Chargers stadium should come out Monday (March 28) or sometime during the week. Many of the purported details have been leaked to friendly media, so all San Diegans should …
So it’s like two. In the morning. Everything is closing down, or they’re not happy to see you walk in. But you’ve gotta have a snack before you head home. Gaslamp may have a few …
A group of spiritual leaders assembled by the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice used the celebration of Holy Thursday to join with organized-labor supporters in a push to publicize ongoing negotiations between commercial building owners …
“Usually, you’ll hear the roar down here, guys yelling when a race is entering the last stretch.”
A small contingent of protesters assembled downtown on Thursday afternoon (March 10) in anticipation of preliminary hearings for the criminal trial of Robert Branch, a security-guard accused of assaulting a sheriff's deputy after an apparent …
For the diehard 311 fans who crammed into the House of Blues for a rare small-venue performance, the band’s extensive merch offerings were a treasure trove of brand-new items ranging from $100 posters to T-shirts …
Themes of racist, classist, and sexist oppression have been central to hip-hop since its conception, but MC Kalyn Heffernan of Denver-based outfit Wheelchair Sports Camp rolls it out even further. “I grew up in kind …
San Diego's newest brewery has set up shop just a few blocks from its oldest. Resident Brewing Co. started brewing last month, 27 years after Karl Strauss brewpub opened its first location on Columbia Street …
A flagging Chicago-owned newspaper desperate for sports business, a wealthy NFL owner with an option to relocate the family football team to Los Angeles, a consultant steeped in the dark arts of the campaign hatchet …
Chargers spokesman Mark Fabiani sent out an email this afternoon (February 23), stating that the Chargers are shooting for a combined stadium/convention center downtown. No surprise. As the team was trying to get to Los …
“Shin-nyen kwhy-ler,” says Dong Ha. “Happy New Year! Mandarin. What they’d say in Beijing.”
San Diego Opera has started their season of transition with Tosca by Puccini. It should be noted that all three productions this year were established by the previous regime. This season is not an indication …
Based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow, the musical tells a fictional story of imagined characters and people from history whose lives intersect in 1902, and who make the musical, which opened in 1998, relevant …
It was the second time at bat in San Diego for the UNC-Charlotte baseball player who traded his glove for a guitar. Country artist Chris Lane opened for Dustin Lynch at San Diego House of …
Before my friends got paranoid about gluten, we used to make a lot of bánh mì runs. With rare exception, these were always in the direction of City Heights. There are some great options to …
How an art cinema situated in the land of drunken college kids and raucous conventioneers — who only stopped in to use the theater’s restrooms — lasted eight years is in and of itself a …
I was passing 15th and J the other evening. The pinnacle apartment tower was all lit up, advertising rental apartments from $2K to $10K per month. But where do all those gentrified renters go to …
Individuals with developmental disabilities, their family members, and staff from the Arc of San Diego packed senator Marty Block’s office on January 22. “Finally, a legislator opened the door to us,” said Raquel Vasquez, an …
It might be getting carried away to start calling San Diego a ramen town, but the recent proliferation of noodle bars suggests our collective taste for this stuff isn’t a trend that will soon pass. …
It’s 6:30 at night. Dark already. The rain’s dropping in sudden downpours and then disappearing. Tents line the chain-link fence of the vacant block on J Street. And then, in the gloom, you realize those …
A police watchdog group gathered in front of the San Diego Police Department's downtown headquarters on Monday (January 4) to demand a thorough accounting of what they say are hundreds of deaths at the hands …
While some local radio stations celebrate the holidays with non-stop Christmas music, hosts on the morning show of Channel 8’s sister station KFMB (AM 760) had their own take on providing yuletide cheer. KFMB’s Armstrong …
Houston Texans owner Bob McNair made substantial waves in San Diego this week by blasting the mayor and city council's failure to come up with a sufficiently gold-plated stadium proposal to keep the Chargers in …
Following years of planning and nearly two hours' worth of public comment on December 15, San Diego's city council voted unanimously (8-0, with councilmember Scott Sherman not attending) to approve a final climate action plan …
Conductor John Mauceri just wrote an excellent piece in the Huffington Post which explores some of the themes we’ve touched upon here in this column/blog. A few of those themes are sports versus classical music, …
The White Buffalo and Jake Smith are one. It’s not an alter ego so much as a nickname that stuck. When he calls the Reader from his home in Los Angeles, I ask him about …
A gentle snow falls at dusk in a pristine Finnish forest. The long arctic night is descending near the winter solstice and a solitary figure wanders the wood, lost in the trees. And so the …
Spending and security at San Diego's public library, ensconced in luxurious new digs, is out of control, endangering safety and the city treasury. So indicates San Diego city auditor Eduardo Luna in a December 2 …
The first weekend in December is stacked with concerts. 'Tis the season to make a choice because many of these promising events conflict. Sunday is like a battle to the death, with no fewer than …
If I were visiting from out of town for a week and staying in the Gaslamp, I might pass by Cafe 21 a few times before I gave it a chance because it doesn’t look …
Never in my life did I expect to hear a timpani concerto, let alone two, and those two in back-to-back seasons. Opening weekend of 2014 included a timpani concerto by William Kraft, and this last …
A downtown office building built as the headquarters of fallen San Diego Republican kingpin Gordon Luce is soon to become a venue for what some media watchers anticipate will be the last stand of the …
In chapter one of his majestic In Exile from the Land of Snows, John F. Avedon must prove that a two-and-a-half-year-old boy, a thousand miles east of Lhasa, Tibet, is the reincarnation of the 13th …
Saturday night’s San Diego Symphony concert was an okay attempt at combining music and art. It was a pretty idea but the execution of the concert was pretty stale. I assume the pre-concert lecture got …
Former law students at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law continue their quest to prove that the downtown San Diego school tricked them into enrolling with false employment rates. Instead of lucrative jobs at law …
Protesters from the "Fight for 15" movement to boost minimum wages staged a series of events across San Diego on Tuesday (November 10) as part of a larger nationwide action taking place exactly a year …
I knew it the moment I hauled open the door. This. Is. A. Mistake. Could see the businessmen inside cracking their chopsticks apart, flattening down their silk ties. I mean, this is Nobu, right? The …
The Cult, fronted by Ian Astbury, invades House of Blues on November 19, stumping for their new album Hidden City, the final installment in a three-album trilogy. Astbury took questions over the phone — and …
I understand that everyone is amped up for beer week but there’s some great music lined up this week as well. Point Loma Opera Theater is giving the San Diego premiere of Nino Rota’s The …
One of the many things to like about growing fast-casual chain Tender Greens is that each location features its own executive chef. So while you’ll find a lot of similarities between menus — chicken, steak …
For Bad Coffee! That’s what it says at Simon Says, the coffee kiosk at on F and Fifth, the coolest area of the Gaslamp. It’s five o’clock on a Friday night. Everybody’s your friend. They …
Want to see Ryn Weaver’s November 4 show at the House of Blues? You could buy a ticket or you could just ask her mother, Cynthia. “My mom is the worst when it comes to …
A group of environmental activists led by a mermaid descended on Chicken of the Sea's headquarters in downtown San Diego on Wednesday afternoon (October 28) to protest what they call a "greenwashing" of the company's …
“There is no longer a single idea explaining everything, but an infinite number of essences giving a meaning to an infinite number of objects. The world comes to a stop, but also lights up.” — …
Comic-Con 2016 dates are set for July 21–24 and enthusiasts are bursting with anticipation as they await pre-registration news due out any day now, when 2015 attendees have first draw at badges for 2016. Following …
Heywood Sanders, professor at the University of Texas San Antonio, and the nation's ranking expert on convention centers, just visited San Diego. He is the author of the book Convention Center Follies, telling how convention …
Sharing walls with the Stone Company Store in the historic McClintock building by Santa Fe Depot, the Flight Path juxtaposes the 1928 warehouse’s original exposed columns and polished concrete flooring against all-white minimal modern Italian …