Author: Sharon J. Corrigan Neighborhood: Carlsbad Age: 60 Occupation: Communications Generalist Heading down the stairs to the mezzanine at the back of the car, I attempt a bank shot into the corner trash bin with …

Swaying in a hammock strung beneath palm trees on a cliff side high above Rainbow Valley, a tiny village just east of the unincorporated town of Fallbrook, I look out fifteen some odd miles over …

Author: Courtney Hartmann Neighborhood: North Park Age: 29 Occupation: Freelance writer It’s Hump Day to most. Weed Wednesday to me. When I get home after a long day, I know there will be people huddled …

I am surrounded by papers and books at 10:30 at night. I am trying to concentrate on writing a rhetorical masterpiece on the financial recession of 2008 that will hopefully get me an A in …

Author: quillpena Neighborhood: Beyond San Diego When I watch Twilight Zone or old horror movies from the ’40s and ’50s, I miss the fact that almost everything terrifying that happened in them was left to …

My cell phone makes a faint sound, and I fumble for it. Perplexed, I summon up a text message, momentarily tuning out the buzz of Spanish conversation around me. “Welcome to Mexico,” Verizon tells me. …

Author: Lisa E. Overton Neighborhood: Spring Valley Age: 51 Occupation: Writer and full-time mom I live in a mobile-home park in Spring Valley, so it’s a neighborhood inside a neighborhood. We are bounded by Jamacha …

Author: Kevin Six Neighborhood: Kearny Mesa/Mission Valley Age: 46 Occupation: Actor/playwright Okay, people, say what you want about other people’s children. Sometimes they’re noisy, often they’re misbehaved, and sometimes it’s even the parent’s fault. But …

From many neighborhoods in San Diego, you can look out and see other neighborhoods. That’s how it is in a city of hills. When I lived on Boundary Street, in North Park, I could look …

Could've called it my Thursday travels ...but thought travelogue sounded more important and whats more important than my day . Like everything ! But to satisfy my urge to satisfy my expressive side ( yes …

About two years ago, my wife and I responded to an ad for a one bedroom apartment for rent in the bizarre Bermuda Triangle where the 8 and Sports Arena Boulevard collide. Not quite ready …

I think delivery drivers cut their teeth in Valley Center. What better way to test a newbie driver’s mettle than to drop him, unceremoniously, in the outback of the county, in an area with a …

Author: bowlajello Neighborhood: North Park Starting your own business is hard work. There’s the mission statement, the business plan, tax and insurance issues… You need to consider whether you want to be a sole proprietor …

The childhood magic of the rain is worn threadbare, and as I watch the drops pool into a river at the bottom of the hill, I ache to turn it back to color, like editing …

It is just before noon on a Saturday morning and many of the collegic inhabitants of Pacific Beach are just now wiping the sleep from their eyes, emitting tequila-scented yawns, and regretting that last shot …

Why was State Assembly Majority WHIP Toni Atkins working for LeSar Development Consulting firm as the Senior Principal of Housing Policy and Planning even after she was elected to State Assembly? Toni was consulting with …

Author: David Alton Dodd Neighborhood: Baja Age: 49 Occupation: Engineer Over a decade ago, I found myself stumbling around downtown Tijuana with a cup of coffee. It was in the early morning, before nine o’clock, …

When I went into the Reader's website to blog about my neighborhood, I was marketed ingeniously by the computer. Once I typed in my neighborhood, Linda Vista, the Reader showed me an ad that asked …

Do I look rich or like an easy mark? I guess so because oftentimes when I am in the University Heights library applying for jobs on my laptop, someone targets me looking for a handout. …

I'll start with the thing I can't get out of my head. A co-worker had apparently, partly witnessed that poor kid commit suicide on the 78 this week in Vista. We had all started work …

Author: Charles Arsenault Neighborhood: Spring Valley Age: 30 Occupation: Electronics technician (seasonally at McMurdo Station, Antarctica) The judge had sentenced me to many hours of hard labor. He hadn’t mentioned the complete lack of intelligence …

We Tierrasantans love our dogs. We’ve given over our parks, our streets, and even some of our restaurants to them. One local man and his fluffy friend hit the streets daily, riding on a Segway, …

According to some official-looking maps on some official- looking websites, I live in Hillcrest. This is a problem for me. I drove 3000 miles to live in North Park. And when I found a small …

I’m done celebrating my birthday with others. Next year, the finger to everybody. I’m taking my aged self to the day spa to get a mani-pedi, a massage, and plenty of Jacuzzi time. Ahh, pure …

Author: Donald Breese Neighborhood: Chula Vista Age: 39 Occupation: Attorney I was standing in line for the big sale. There were about 40 of us there, waiting for the event to begin. I had only …

After a year of San Diego pollution and traffic noise, I anxiously anticipated a week in the wilderness — the brilliant blue sky, the sound of the wind in the pine trees, the scent of …

The white-breasted nuthatch has his head and jet-black beak pointed up the jacaranda tree as he scurries from trunk to limb to the hanging bird feeder. I’ve seen him in our yard almost every day …

Author: Brady Pesola Neighborhood: San Carlos Age: 26 Occupation: Survival specialist/instructor About a month ago, I learned about Cowles Mountain from Derek Loranger of 100peaks.com. I had told him about my videos, and he said, …

After a month-long hiatus, I decided to hop back on my bike. I’d ridden the Bike the Bay event (39 miles, door to door), and it reminded me how much I love to bike ride …

Author: Adam Jacobs Neighborhood: Hillcrest Age: 22 Occupation: Pizza delivery driver Ever since I dropped out of my university on the East Coast to migrate to Hillcrest, my life has been put on a pedestal …

I moved to San Diego eleven days ago. More specifically, I moved to this area they call North Park. I learned quickly to identify my neighborhood when asked what part of SD I live in. …

Author: Louis Carufel Neighborhood: University City Age: 60 Occupation: Salesman Work at the Census Bureau all but came to a halt on the last Friday of July, and most of us clerks were, in official …

Summertime….ahh, lemon-aid stands, Slip-and-Slides across the lawn, family get-togethers and psychotic security guards working at Lake Miramar over the 4th of July. For years now my wife and I have enjoyed getting our pyrotechnic fix …

In attempting to define the normal childhood, whatever that might be, I think that perhaps we begin by examining our own and then try to use it in some meaningful way. I therefore insist that …

1:43 a.m. I wake up. My dog is pacing, wants out. She's standing with her head cocked, listening at the open window. I listen too. There is splashing coming from the back yard. I feel …

I started writing on the Reader blog recently, simply for fun and to put out some fun little fiction and non fiction stories and some that had more depth. I am not a trained writer …

Well, I think I may be right about the Padres and the fact that Mr. Moorad or whomever is in charge, has some sort of BIG payment due in August. First of all he sent …

Earlier this month I spent over two weeks on the road. It was a 2,400 mile circumnavigation of Northern Arizona, Western Utah, Central Nevada, and the California Sierras. It started out as a TCB (Takin' …

Vomiting near a loading dock on a rainy night in a Pacific Beach alley isn’t the best feeling in the world. In fact, just the thought of it brings back the acidic, post-puke taste in …

It was a beautiful April Sunday. Today was the big day. We, meaning my friend Kent and myself were making a small trip today out of the city hopefully not to far. We decided to …

You would think since the housing market has crashed that developers would not be building right now, right? Wrong, now is the best time ever because of something called a "redevelopment agency" and YOUR property …

I’m sitting alone in the Chula Vista library, reading a book about Jimi Hendrix, when an old man approaches me and begins to stare. He’s one of the library’s morning regulars. Most of them are …

The Star Bar starts to get a little crowded by noon. I went back in and all I knew was two things. I knew that Hank was broke and he would ask me for money, …

I don’t know where I live. I may know my street address; my city; my zip code, the color of my house and its location relative to the other houses on my block. I don’t …

When we first moved in next-door to Harvey, I thought he was a busybody. Upon unpacking our moving truck, he came over immediately. I felt like he was scoping us out, sizing us up to …

My neighbor is a sex offender. I stumbled across this information Thursday evening. I have not been the same since. When I search my mind for the number of men like him, who have hurt …

I love walking the path in Ocean Beach that runs from the end of the stairway on Orchard Street to the pier. This particular path is a microcosm of Ocean Beach life at its finest. …

Tijuana’s municipal police force recently began cracking down on the hours that bars can stay open. By law they should close at 2 a.m. and not open again until 10 a.m. 48 San Diego Reader …

Quinn scoffs when I ask him if he worries about getting hit by a car. “They [meaning his fellow panhandlers] get run over ’cause they get drunk,” says Quinn. He says he’s too smart to …

I moved to Clairemont in October, 1959. Technically. My mother was five months pregnant with a creature that was to eventually become myself, third in line below a sister and first-born brother; a relocation from …