Baja is back Hip and delicious. There’s no reason not to get in your car and go. By Elizabeth Salaam, July 24, 2013 | Read full article I was hit with the realization that half …
October 25, 2020
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Stories by Elizabeth Salaam
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Beating back fear of Tijuana, why I keep thinking about Mexico, a cross-border kidnapping
San Diego Reader's Best Of issue
Look for the online list of Best Of voting winners soon. We have printed and re-stocked extra copies of this week's print version where the Best Of voting winners are listed. Best place in San …
October 21, 2020
The Chargers crowd, the Padres crowd, where old Chargers are
Cheerleading Is More Dangerous than Fighting Cage-fightin’ rock stars. It’s Wednesday at 1:00 p.m., and I am waiting for amateur mixed martial arts fighter Jaime Reyes at the Lakeside Cafe. When he walks past me, …
October 11, 2020
De Anza Cove terrorized, La Jolla Cove cesspool, doomed life in Eastlake, South vs North Park, displaced persons in City Heights
The Ugly Trailer Park Across the Water Beauty and the blight on Mission Bay. Cityzella terrorizes humble trailer folk at De Anza Cove. By Ollie, Sept. 14, 2011 | Read full article What am I …
September 28, 2020
Afro hair, piercings, obsession with abdomens, T-shirts talk, the beauty of henna, worry about fat
Afro Puffs ’Dos that don’t. I’m overjoyed that my daughter loves her hair. I’m also afraid there will come a day when she tells me she wishes it were long, straight, and yellow. By Elizabeth …
September 21, 2020
Mexico after the millenium
Smugglersville “The cops mess with us. The thieves mess with us. Everybody messes with us.” I was hobbling back from the store with a liter of milk, when I saw three young men sitting on …
July 12, 2020
My daughter's Afro, tongue piercing, obsession with stomach looks
Afro Puffs I’m overjoyed that my daughter loves her hair. I’m also afraid there will come a day when she tells me she wishes it were long, straight, and yellow. By Elizabeth Salaam, July 11, …
May 31, 2020
Stories hiding in the corners of San Diego
The Ugly Trailer Park Across the Water Cityzella terrorizes humble trailer folk at De Anza Cove. By Ollie, Sept. 14, 2011 What am I doing in Eastlake? I'm telling you it's a trap. And we're …
May 10, 2020
Best Reader stories from 2017
Spruce Street suspension bridge brings out demented thoughts It’s early, the marine layer still a veneer over the city, when we park the car just shy of the suspension bridge. The day promises to be …
March 28, 2020
Best Reader stories from 2012
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney roots deep and wide in San Diego It is Matt Romney who takes public credit for calling his part of the Romney clan to San Diego County. “My wife and I …
March 8, 2020
Best Reader stories from 2011
Dad was a bum Mike Elliott’s father disappeared when he was 13 years old. Not disappeared as in vanished mysteriously. Disappeared as in left and never came back. Some 27 years later, on a rainy …
March 7, 2020
Best Reader stories from 2010
Reader writers on why Christmas is magic By Dorian Hargrove, Elizabeth Salaam, Ernie Grimm, Jay Allen Sanford, Melissa Wiley, Ollie , Walter Mencken, Dec. 22, 2010 San Diego women who have converted to Islam Over …
March 1, 2020
Sex traffic survivors to business women
Cynthia Luvlee-Austin is doing what she was told could not be done. Her non-profit organization, Shyne San Diego, seeks to equip survivors of human trafficking with tools and skills to improve their economic security. “Business …
February 26, 2020
Frozen pipes – winter on Mount Laguna
The temperature drops steadily as I make my way east on Interstate 8 — 57 degrees, 54, 49. I have brought four hoodies and the down jacket I wear only when I visit my mom …
January 15, 2020
The fire station that Rob Wellington Quigley built
Pacific Highway doesn’t look like it sounds. The name calls to mind surfboard-topped VW buses, sunsets, and bike-riders in bathing suits, something like what you’d see on Highway 101 around Cardiff. But instead, it’s mostly …
January 8, 2020
A week in San Diego without a phone
I never take my phone out on the water in Mission Bay, where I go to stand-up paddle board a couple of times a week. Sometimes I wish I had it to capture a picture …
November 6, 2019
Spring Valley – land of contrasts
Dictionary Hill in Spring Valley got its name from encyclopedia salesman One of the oddest things about the Dictionary Hill area, also known as La Presa, is the way the streets were laid out on …
July 1, 2019
Eastlake – growing pains
Peace east of Eastlake It was inevitable that there would be development. The Olympic Training Center sits on land donated by Eastlake, the sprawling development to its immediate west. Every time I pass through Eastlake, …
June 3, 2019
San Diego cool coworking spots – do they work?
A mile east of all the beer Stacy Keck tells me she can’t function at 6 am. So we decide to meet instead at 8:30, and she gives me an access code so I can …
May 29, 2019
San Diego's tallest buildings – higher and higher
When I buy my ticket to True Romance at Rooftop Cinema Club, I have visions of vertigo from the thrill of the rise to the top of the Manchester Grand Hyatt. I am not yet …
December 19, 2018
Can't get the homeless out of Fox Canyon
A year and a half ago, one of Teri Siciliani’s neighbors called to alert her to a homeless encampment on the back side of Siciliani’s property in the Fox Canyon neighborhood of City Heights. From …
December 5, 2018
A week of free art in San Diego
Monday At 7 pm on a Monday evening, the 20-foot ceilings in World Beat Cultural Center provide a feeling of spaciousness even though nearly all of the 100 or so chairs arranged in rows in …
August 15, 2018
Forget farm-to-table. Embrace farm-to-fork
Watlington’s farm Trish Watlington reaches into a bed of bright red-orange nasturtiums and picks off a couple of whitish green seedpods about the size of wasabi peas. “Here, try it.” She hands one to me …
July 19, 2018
San Diego benches of note
At 11:30 on a coolish Saturday morning in April, I have the bench to myself. Sometimes when I pass by, a woman with a shopping cart stuffed and piled with her belongings occupies the far …
May 30, 2018
Mission Beach in the off season
The Bro Tai and the Golden Swan My fancy friend Tina likes to get dressed up in lots of jewelry and perfume to drink martinis on leather bar chairs in the presence of men wearing …
March 21, 2018
San Diego's City Heights on the way up
The large picture windows at Lotus Garden Seafood and Noodles restaurant in City Heights overlook the corner of Euclid and University. Over a heaping plate of chicken chow fun, one can observe the comings and …
February 14, 2018
San Diego Reader writers dig deep into Christmases past
Every Power Rangers toy known to man The exact moment the sleigh bells stopped jingling — by Chad Deal Sister Santa’s once-a-year smile I adored American Christmas — by Tam Hoang We were ruthless Christmas-letter …
December 20, 2017
Miracle Mai Tais
My Christmas miracle came in a highball glass filled with ice and equal parts rum and mai tai mix. At the time, it was clear that the drink had done what it was supposed to …
December 20, 2017
Make it a point to spread the love
Holiday lights make the early darkness of winter a beautiful thing. One of my favorite displays in San Diego is the simple strings of colorful lights that wind around the railings on the streets above …
December 6, 2017
The top ten trees of Balboa Park
Canary Island pines, Australian tea, Moreton Bay fig, Kauri pine, Calif. juniper, Ilelo palm, dragon tree, elderberry, bunya nunya.
November 22, 2017
All Hail the Queen of Customer Service
What you need to know about Margaret Parker (besides the fact that this is not her real name) is that when it comes to customer service, she doesn’t play. According to her own estimation, she …
July 6, 2016
Ashley Nell Tipton, Empire Builder
Tipton’s rise to stardom began on season 14 of Project Runway.
May 18, 2016
HOA tricks, lies, and deceives ... and residents still don't care
“Why are all these foreclosed homes submitting ballots?”
October 28, 2015
Point Loma is a drippy mess
Chrissy Seigler noticed a leaky water main valve on the sidewalk in front of her Point Loma home. The water was seeping out from the lid and dribbling down the street. In early June, Seigler …
September 9, 2015
From couch potato to Potato Chip Rock
Julian Duval is about to rock my world. The 68-year-old president of the San Diego Botanic Garden drives me around the garden in a golf cart talking my ear off and making me laugh with …
August 26, 2015
Doula dilemma at Mary Birch
“I tried to figure out if I should suck it up and push through, because I really wanted to try and help these women.”
August 5, 2015
Water-leak warfare
On February 14, 2015, the City of San Diego installed a new digital water meter at a University Avenue property belonging to Edwin Widjojo. The installation took place in the middle of a bill period, …
July 19, 2015
Torrey pine down
On Tuesday, June 30, the last of a 100-foot-tall Torrey pine was cut down at the San Diego Botanic Garden in Encinitas. It took six workers 35 hours to remove the tree, one of four …
July 2, 2015
San Diego Reader 2015 Fun issue
Urban Adventures Beach Town Suburban Ocean & Bay Backcountry Mexico
June 10, 2015
Natural History Museum hosts exhibit on Spanglish
“The Desert at Night” is the Natural History Museum’s attempt to engage Spanish and English speakers at the same time.
June 3, 2015
Not that horrible woman from the Reader!
Half of them have holes in their mouths where their teeth used to be, and the other half have sets of some-large-some-small teeth.
May 13, 2015