Normal Heights Stories
The Hillcrest Town Council held a community forum on September 9, with District Three candidates Stephen Whitburn and Todd Gloria fielding questions from members of the community. The two candidates attempted to distinguish themselves and …
“You are here,” reads the tagline below “Grace” on the banners and bulletin covers for Grace San Diego. Undoubtedly, more than one layer of meaning is intended here — layer two may be something like, …
Thirty Years Ago Dole is related to pineapples, though he's supposed to have the personality of a radish. Ford is a dependable, unexciting four-door. Somewhere maybe there's a vacuum cleaner or a pipe joint called …
I went to a CD release party this summer for a group called Four Eyes. I had seen them play at Humphrey's, and they reminded me of the Beatles, Squeeze, and Elvis Costello. The party …
WE REALLY HAVE, from a pedestrian's point of view, two kinds of places in San Diego," said Stephan Vance of the San Diego Association of Governments. "There's the older urban core that was built around …
Carmelite Monastery 5158 Hawley Boulevard, Normal Heights Enrique Arroyo, the gardener at the Carmelite Monastery, was allowed to create topiary animals on the convent grounds. Arroyo's walrus, snail, armadillo, owl, and tortoise can be seen …
Stir It Up Cannabis Coffee House 4683 33rd Street, Normal Heights 619-521-0337 Dying is never pleasant, but it doesn't have to be boring. Stir It Up Cannabis Coffee House provides terminally ill patients with a …
Normal Heights Community Association Planning Committee Meetings 4649 Hawley Boulevard, Normal Heights 619-584-1608 If you're community-minded and want to learn how true obsessives fight City Hall, don't miss the monthly meetings of this community-planning committee. …
Comedy Co-Dependents 4716 32nd Street, Normal Heights 619-280-5177 Want to break into comedy? Start right here. Whoopi Goldberg did, working with Arlene before she started her own "Co-dependency" troupe in 1994. Just call ahead and …
Folk Art Rare Records 3611 Adams Avenue, Normal Heights 619-282-7833 The jazz vocals, reggae, Brazilian guitar, western swing, pop, gospel, and bluegrass draw clients from all over the world. The shop's proprietor, Lou Curtiss (father …
Before the newlyweds across the street went on their honeymoon, they asked me to keep an eye on their house. Yesterday, a neighbor two doors down, an elderly Mexican woman, brought me a big bowl …
“Of all the things we did for Normal Heights, the most important was down-zoning. When the community plan was finalized in 1985, no one could build any more of those big ugly apartment buildings.”
Antique Row Café 3002 Adams Avenue, Normal Heights 619-303-7601 or 619-282-9750 The menu calls them "Three-Egg Omeletes," but it's hard to believe. The chicken that laid three eggs large enough to compose these monsters would …
The Cairo Café 3569 Adams Avenue, Normal Heights 619-255-3095 www.cairocafe.org We mean the Middle Eastern hubble-bubble water pipe, of course. The Cairo Café is a little place with outside garden seating serving a few coffees …
The Prince and the Pauper 3201 Adams Avenue, Normal Heights 619-283-4380 or 800-454-3726 www.oldkidsbooks.com People remember the books they read as kids: Little Golden Books, Dick and Jane, Mercer Mayer, Maurice Sendak, Uncle Wiggly, Huck …
Ken Petsch at Camera Exposure 2703 Adams Avenue, Normal Heights 619-640-5300 At Ken Petsch's place you can rent super-ultra telephoto lenses or hot-shot cameras by the day. So you can try out a couple of …
Charles Alterations, Tailoring & Dry Cleaning 3435 Adams Avenue, Normal Heights 619-283-1574 As children's fashions look more adult, finding a special-occasion dress for your little girl is becoming more difficult. The big chains seem bent …
Mayer Mortuary 2859 Adams Avenue, Normal Heights 619-281-7055 It's extraordinary for one reason: it's independent. This, in a time when the funeral chains are eating up small independents all over. Corporations like the Houston-based Service …
Glen Cleaners 3190 Adams Avenue, Normal Heights (619) 282-0241 Spot removal and enlightenment. All cleaning and pressing is done on the premises. They don't mash jacket lapels into a knife edge, they gently roll them. …
Antique Row Adams Avenue Normal Heights/University Heights Memories of the Row: A magnificent Craftsman gumwood built-in sidebar, torn out when a house was torn down, full of doors and drawers, beveled glass and blond-wood presence. …
Jyoti Bihanga 3351 Adams Avenue, Normal Heights (619) 282-4116 The eastern Indian influence is low-key in this plainly decorated Normal Heights eatery, where meat is murder and tofu is the ingredient of choice in many …
The Russia House Restaurant 3200 Adams Avenue, Normal Heights (619) 584-6279 The new owners say things have calmed down since they took over from Marko, the wild, intellectual Georgian who loved folks getting up on …
Phoenicia 3381 Adams Avenue, Normal Heights (619) 282-4120 Rose water was the Coca-Cola of the Ancient World. It tastes pink and cool -- and like the smell of roses. People sold it in the summer …
“In my neighborhood, people are removing aluminum siding and stucco from the 1950s and 1960s. They’re stripping the paint from their homes’ redwood shingles. And they’re pulling up wall-to-wall carpeting to expose the hardwood floors.”
School Board member Ron Ottinger doesn't want to be branded the "candidate who allowed them to bulldoze the park." In a dispute with the San Diego Unified School District that culminated in Normal Heights residents …
Another neighborhood newspaper has been launched, but this one won't live or die by the vagaries of the free market. The Adams Avenue Post, as the new publishing entry is called, has no competition in …
Q: What's the difference between Normal Heights and East San Diego? Or Normal Heights and University Heights? Or Normal Heights and a dozen other fading, middle-class San Diego neighborhoods? A: The Normal Heights sign. You …
The night before I was to visit the Discalced Carmelite Monastery in Normal Heights, I called a friend, feeling anxious and full of misgivings. This story was not my idea, I complained, but the editor’s …