On May 25 at noon, city councilmember and mayoral candidate Steve Castaneda called a press conference on the steps of city hall to announce his exoneration…again. In 2006, the district attorney’s office, acting on an …
May 26, 2010
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Stories by Susan Luzzaro (RIP)
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Castaneda Clean
Condo Excitement
On May 18, the San Diego Port Commission, the Chula Vista City Council, the Chula Vista Planning Commission, and the Chula Vista Redevelopment Agency met in back-to-back meetings to approve the Bayfront environmental impact report …
May 22, 2010
He Said, He Said
Last Tuesday, May 11, Derrick Roach spoke to the Chula Vista City Council during public comments. After introducing himself as a private investigator that investigates “business fraud and public government agencies,” Roach called for the …
May 18, 2010
Spirited Debate
During last week’s mayoral debate, a potential problem for developing Chula Vista’s bayfront was revealed. In June, Chula Vistans will vote on Proposition G. Proposition G is supported by the Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. …
April 20, 2010
Suspect Solution
A massive proposal for Chula Vista’s bayfront will leap forward on May 4, when an amendment to the Chula Vista Bayfront Master Plan and final environmental impact report go before San Diego port commissioners. The …
April 8, 2010
Walkability's Price
A controversial streetscape project for Chula Vista’s downtown will come before the city council April 13. The project involves narrowing a portion of Third Avenue to a single lane and removing trees in cement planters. …
March 25, 2010
Parkland Visions
In a complicated land deal, the financially strapped City of Chula Vista borrowed from Peter to pay Paul. The Chula Vista City Council voted on March 2 to purchase 14.4 acres of redevelopment land in …
March 16, 2010
The Mad Hatter’s Chula Vista council meeting
Communication at a Chula Vista city council meeting hit an all-time low on December 15. The council was besieged when one resident threw plastic eggs at the dais, claiming that councilmembers had “no backbone, no …
January 27, 2010
$4.50 to get on the 125 South freeway
Conflict has surrounded the South Bay Expressway, the southern extension of State Route 125, since its inception. Prior to groundbreaking in 2003, the privately held four-lane toll road was opposed by community and environmental groups. …
November 18, 2009
Greg Cox, a shoo-in, collects $280,000 for county supervisor seat
Some people divine the future in tea leaves, others in pork bellies. Campaign contributions are also a way of seeing what is on the horizon. Greg Cox has been a San Diego County supervisor since …
May 21, 2008
Why is Chula Vista’s mayor dealing with the San Diego Chargers?
The Port of San Diego calls the Chula Vista Bayfront Master Plan “one of the largest waterfront planning efforts in the nation.” For more than seven years, competing interests have negotiated and compromised on parks, …
March 19, 2008
EastLake Development Company does more for Chula Vista than pull strings
On any given day, it's difficult to tell who works for the residents of Chula Vista and who works for private industry. A proposed residential development by CV 42 Investments, LLC, represented by Bill Ostrem, …
August 23, 2007
La Costa, Del Mar, Valley Center, Talmadge, Ramona, San Ysidro, Lemon Grove, City Heights, University City, Mission Beach, Julian, Carmel Valley, Scripps Ranch, East Lake, Linda Vista, Serra Mesa
Where I live, no major high-volume road cuts apart the 'hood. People can cross the street without becoming dead. The amoeba-shaped Balboa Park Municipal Golf Course and grid-busting canyons have made a rabbit warren of the streets.
December 30, 2004
Devout heathens call Julian home
We ascended toward Julian through the Cuyamacas. It was spring, but the air was crisp and clouds hinted at possibilities. The scenery was lush and green, but soon the landscape changed. The burnt hillsides, the …
December 30, 2004
Neighborhood: small towns of San Diego
I see Asian gang cars some nights, in a long caravan down the Mira Mesa Boulevard. They meet at In-N-Out Burger before heading off for illegal street races on Kearny Villa Road or in Sorrento Valley.
December 24, 2003
Chula Vista
Have you ever focused your camera so that you captured the beautiful and cut out the ugly? Seated at a wooden table, at sunset, with your glass of crisp chardonnay beaded with condensation and your …
December 24, 2003
We Have Eaten from the Trojan Burrito
How would it be if, for example, you immigrated to the United States at the age of 18 or 20? If Spanish were an integral part of who you are? How would it be if you married someone who never learned your language?
February 20, 2003
Octopus Devours Chula Vista
Last summer's revelations about ex- port commissioner David Malcolm's conflicted relationship with Duke Energy should be instructive. It's no secret that developers have been in Chula Vista for a while; South Bay developers seem willing …
October 10, 2002
Valley Love
Forget this trashed piece of land and stop making myself sick over it. Besides, if they develop the strip, the property value of our house will go up. But where can we move to?
June 6, 2002
If You Don't Run You Don't Get Hit
Have you ever seen the men standing outside Home Depot looking for work? The Spanish-speaking men in baseball hats who are brave enough, or desperate enough, to get into any car that pulls up? Men …
February 22, 2001
We Are the Border
'Look at this," Edgardo Moctezuma said with disgust. Then he rose from the table and went to the rear of the tall book-lined wall and brought back a stack of books. "This is what, as …
September 28, 2000
A Taste of Wild Honey
All winter I have struggled to hold the bees in the hive of my head. Because I had no time to write about them, they threatened to rise up as a single blonde body and …
August 17, 2000
29 Reader writers on their fathers
To commemorate Father's Day, this issue contains a collection of reflections from Reader writers about their fathers: The Last Tag Sale — Jeanne Schinto An Air of Exoticism — Duncan Shepherd Kinder Than I Would …
June 15, 2000
A Self-Made Man
There were six pairs of Sunday school shoes lined up on the kitchen floor every Saturday night, three little patent-leather pairs with rounded toes and a single strap across the top of the foot, and …
June 15, 2000
Women's Work
She told me the indigenous people of California used four basic types of baskets: the seed beater, the burden basket, the sifter, and where bedrock mortars were not used, a mortar hopper was used to save seed.
April 6, 2000
Old Skin
When I drove for the Red Cross it was my job to pick people up at their homes and drive them to their doctors’ appointments or to restaurants or grocery stores. Convalescent groups were more …
March 2, 2000
Ode to Highway 54
When you and your husband first bought this old clapboard house on the north side of Chula Vista it was incredibly quiet at night. Crickets and frogs. But since then, Highway 805 was built, then 54.
November 24, 1999
San Diego Metro Pigeon Club taught me so much
I had no love for pigeons. I had unhappy associations from childhood, and I shared the popular perception of them as rats with wings. On the Great Chain of Being, birds are rather low; they …
October 21, 1999
Reader writer's parents stabbed to death in South Bay.
We had planned a farewell picnic at the Chula Vista Bay. We had ten pounds of carne asada marinating in the refrigerator. The party was for my son, who was moving up north to go to college.
July 8, 1999