The latest Christian worship fad – in National City In one pickup truck, a teenager has his arm stretched across the seat back. The boy's hand is fondling his girlfriend’s hair, but the girl is …
June 12, 2023
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Stories by David Helvarg
Chula Vista drive-in church strangely intimate
Japanese taken from San Diego to Santa Anita racetrack, then Arizona
Japanese railroaded out of San Diego during WWII "There’s still some. People I went to school with in Coronado before the war, I see them at work; they still don’t speak to me. It’s like …
February 19, 2023
The Zoo turns Judith Moore philosophical, aggressive dog catchers
Mananimalmananimal You tell me why, what, keeps my stub-toed Frye boot from kicking, jabbing the open-toed lavender sandals, nylon-encased toes; what stays the hand from grabbing the gray-suit lapels, from turning that wood-laminate table over; …
March 6, 2022
Jamul townies vs. Indians, Santa Ysabel honors Steve Ponchetti
Jamul Residents Wage Indian Blood Battle over Gaming Site Back in 1963, Shipek says, the Jamul band asked her to assist them in establishing their California Indian ancestry. “I took oral histories from some of …
January 8, 2022
The ugly war housing of Midway-Rosecrans, San Diego's Japanese imprisoned in Poston, Arizona
The Frontier They Want Us to Forget By the late 1960s, the only Frontier structures that still remained were two war-era public schools, Barnard Elementary and the Midway Continuation High School. The city council had …
September 27, 2021
Miramar's F-14s, MCRD officer's club as pick-up venue, Richard Meltzer goes to sea
Wing Men On June 15, 1988, they headed north to the Aleutians, where the F-14s played their usual games with Russian MiGs and bombers: VF-51 pilots shot excellent video of the Soviet planes on patrol …
March 29, 2021
USS Bennington explodes in San Diego's bay, scalds, kills sailors
The IWW in SD The San Diego Tribune advocated a permanent solution: “Why are the taxpayers of San Diego compelled to endure this imposition?” Bands of vigilantes formed on the outskirts of San Diego. They …
March 15, 2021
Would-be feminists on sand in PB, why the Yukon is dangerous, great white sharks lurk nearby
Pretty Woman Ann, 21, who filled out her bikini in a perfectly proportionate manner, said she was satisfied with her figure. She listened serenely as I spoke with her friends, but her voice boomed with …
March 14, 2021
Ocean Beach – San Diego's last true neighborhood
Pros and cons of berms – shelter for homeless, backwash for surfers The sand berms are up in Ocean Beach. For some it signals the beginning of winter when kids can be seen boarding down …
August 3, 2020
Mission Beach – true character
Tiny Island Court has 31 short-timers Bayside Walk listed 121 rentals spread out between 15 blocks, with 50 rentals on just two blocks. Mission Boulevard listed 81 rentals on 17 blocks. It then dropped to …
April 20, 2020
Best Reader stories from 1977
A separate peace What was I (a Jew — and a nonobservant one at that) doing with such a piece? I’d never spoken to a nun in my life. All I remembered of them from …
November 9, 2019
David Helvarg and the Reader
Helvarg is a journalist and environmental activist. He is the founder and president of the marine conservation lobbying organization Blue Frontier Campaign. He is the author of: The Golden Shore - California's Love Affair with …
July 14, 2019
How to catch a shark
From a February 20, 1977 Reader story by David Helvarg From the 1870s through the Second World War, San Diego had a thriving shark catching industry… [Today] albacore and yellow tail remain the big sport …
December 10, 2018
Freaks, Uppity Women, and Politicos: An Ocean Beach Reunion
We walk past 5155 Muir, which is about to be torn down. The house still has one of the 9 millimeter bullet holes from a January 6,1972, attack by the right-wing Secret Army Organization.
December 7, 2000
Convair's making of Tomahawk cruise missiles
The sea-launched cruise missile is designed to be fired from submarine torpedo tubes or from armored box launchers on surface ships such as the soon-to-be recommissioned battleship New Jersey.
January 7, 1982
War games at Twenty-nine Palms
We’re sitting at the bar rail in the officers’ club at Twentynine Palms. It’s crowded with desert-tanned Marines in camouflage utilities and combat boots. Johnny Paycheck’s “Take This Job and Shove It’’ is playing on …
May 29, 1980
1979: San Diego's year in review
Rape of the Earth Medal of Dishonor The year's most infamous award goes to the voters of San Diego, a majority of whom agreed to exchange 39 acres of prime canyonland in Balboa Park for …
December 20, 1979
Japanese railroaded out of San Diego during WWII
"There’s still some. People I went to school with in Coronado before the war, I see them at work; they still don’t speak to me. It’s like the fact that we were evacuated proved we were guilty."
October 20, 1977
The Barona, Campo, Pala Indians of San Diego County
She stops at the grave of Yellow Sky, something of a legend among the Indians of Barona. He used to walk the desert between Yuma and San Diego wearing only a breach cloth, trading firewood for a meal.
April 21, 1977
All about San Diego sharks
It just happens that the epicenter of White Shark distribution in this part of the world happens to be off San Francisco and we have a number of While Sharks off this coast, especially around …
January 20, 1977