San Diego book clubs – what's the point?Perhaps it’s the idea of the book club book that we find unbearable. It brings to mind that women’s marketing motto, “Pink it and shrink it.” Pink it: …
November 26, 2023
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Stories by Thom Senzee (RIP)
San Diego book clubs – only for girls?
Deathly bike routes: Friars, Nimitz, Pershing
Dangerous bike spotsFriars Road, Nimitz Blvd, University Ave., Pershing Dr., Genesee, Pacific Hwy at Barnett Ave.Safer routes: SD River Trail, West Point Loma, Robinson, GovernorBy Dryw Keltz, Sept. 23, 2015The curvy road from Fallbrook to …
November 11, 2023
San Diego's mistakes covered up by insurance
Arguably, it was incidental that a San Diego courtroom proved to be the venue where federal judicial power asserted that enough was enough in terms of Donald Trump’s child-separation policy — a decision that helped …
February 9, 2022
Charging an all-electric 2022 Kia Niro
I’m the sort of person who would be glad to own an electric car. I just need it to be affordable, fun to drive, and able to make 300 miles on a single charge. So …
December 15, 2021
Prevention means attention in the case of Joseph “Joey” Earl Morton
“This is truly tragic,” said Danielle R. Pena of San Diego’s Morris Law Firm. She was talking about the case of Joseph “Joey” Earl Morton, a 33-year-old former auto dealership employee who died by suicide …
December 15, 2021
Harvey Milk ship-christening with Mayor Todd Gloria
On the morning of November 6, a foghorn could be heard blasting a sound of oceanic proportions across the General Dynamics/National Steel and Shipbuilding Company’s San Diego dry docks. Seconds earlier, the foghorn’s bellow had …
December 1, 2021
USNS Harvey Milk to be christened November 6
This Saturday, November 6, a little after 9 am at the General Dynamics/National Steel and Shipbuilding dry docks here in San Diego, a champagne bottle will break across the double-hulled bow of a new, 746-foot …
November 5, 2021
Can you eat fish caught in San Diego Bay?
Theresa Talley, a scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, looks for ways to reveal to San Diegans our connections to the Pacific Ocean and San Diego Bay. Much of her research …
May 19, 2021
Hillcrest, neighborhood of ghosts
Gayborhood or ghetto? “I still love Jesus, and I’m still a conservative,” Texana R., 17, tells me. “I just am — I don’t care what my mama or my aunt or my step sister or …
June 22, 2020
Best Reader stories from 2019
Hillcrest: gayborhood or ghetto? “I was only in West Hollywood for four years and I came from the East Coast by way of Las Vegas,” he says. “To me, Hillcrest is just normal. At least …
April 4, 2020
Best Reader stories from 2015
Cartel tunnels to Otay Mesa are infrastructural marvels The amount of warehouse space in Otay Mesa has nearly quadrupled since the mid-’90s, and the expansion has been almost as frenetic in Garita de Otay. Forklifts, …
March 21, 2020
DMV getting closer to Mission Valley move
San Diego City Councilman Chris Ward contravened the wishes of some of his most vocal constituents by seeking to exchange a portion of land at the city-owned Mission Valley stadium site for 2.5 acres of …
January 22, 2020
Democracy Counts' five apps for election reform
San Diego-based company Democracy Counts has developed technology its founders are convinced will restore Americans’ confidence in the legitimacy of U.S. election results. Describing Democracy Counts as a nonprofit tech startup “that has developed the …
August 14, 2019
Is self-regulation working at Torrey Pines Gliderport?
No one knows exactly what final thoughts went through the minds of the two pilots who plummeted from the skies over Torrey Pines State Beach one sunny afternoon in early March as the pair struggled …
July 17, 2019
City Heights renters fearful of lawyers, media
If your apartment’s plumbing won’t stop backing up, your landlord is abusive, or you’re stuck with a troublesome tenant in a modest rental unit you’ve managed to buy, you may already know Ted Janowsky or …
July 3, 2019
San Diego’s cut in parking spaces hurts homeless
Where to store the Subaru, curb the Kia, or dock the Dodge? As San Diego’s housing crisis grinds on, the question of parking has become a monster whose tentacles reach well beyond conventional issues such …
May 8, 2019
What happened in ransomware attack on Port of San Diego
New disclosures reveal higher stakes than previously known when the Port of San Diego fell victim in late 2018 to a major cyberattack now believed to have originated in Iran. “This cyberattack was called 21st-century …
April 10, 2019
Sacramento pushes granny flats, Coronado demurs
The San Jose Mercury News recently called the practice of renting to tenants living quarters built without permits in backyards and over garages “a municipal game of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’” “Of course, we’d like …
April 3, 2019
Hillcrest DMV plan makes friends of enemies
Watchers of land-use politics in San Diego were surprised when late last year two names usually on opposite sides of controversial building projects suddenly showed up in TV interviews espousing the same passionately held position …
February 20, 2019
Sew Loka – on the alley between Evans and Sampson
If you’re looking for parking along Logan Avenue in Barrio Logan’s hip arts-and-eats district south of Chicano Park, there’s a good chance you’ll give up and park a block east or west. I wound up …
September 5, 2018
Haitian immigrant discovers a Mexican dream
Rogeste Mercy, 36, and his wife Magalita Bordes, 37, lost their apparel business and their livelihood in Port au Prince, Haiti, to an earthquake that jarred the island nation in 2010. “We lost everything,” Bordes …
October 4, 2017
State senate bill may dismantle San Diego's bail bond industry
When Cali Jones (an alias she suggested) found herself in jail for a second time for methamphetamine possession, “The cops took my son away from me,” a sobbing Jones tells the bail bondsman by phone …
September 6, 2017
Missiongathering Church in San Diego’s North Park
“Ranked in order, I honestly believe the most common causes of homelessness for this age group [18–24] are family, followed by mental health issues, and, third, drug or alcohol abuse,” explains Alexandra Cochran, 28, a …
May 24, 2017
Pot shop or landlord the bigger problem for San Diego Alano Club
“You know when somebody just wants you gone.”
May 24, 2017
Empty-nose syndrome sufferers feel invisible
If you’ve ever had a bad toothache in your upper jaw, you know the general area where the human animal experiences life in its greatest intensity. You can’t get away from the pain because it’s …
July 6, 2016
Skate park in City Heights still not open
City Heights was supposed to have a skate park by now. While construction of one free-to-use municipal skate park is now nearing completion and another is slated to open in 2017, District 9 councilwoman Marti …
June 1, 2016
Credit card surcharges still banned by Song-Beverly
The credit-card-as-free-speech loophole will cost you.
February 24, 2016
Nobody Cares, Zogo
“‘Nobody cares about your shitty arts organization.’ Those were her exact words,” recalls United Artists of San Diego chief executive Tatjana Zogovic, who goes by the name Tasha Zogo. She’s referring to a phone call …
November 4, 2015
Disabled workers say Navy contractor Job Options, Inc.did wrong
“They made all of these weird withdrawals...”
November 4, 2015
Local woman aids women warriors battling ISIS
San Diego attorney Jacqueline Isaac, 29, is a woman on a mission — several missions — not least among them hauling fresh, non-weaponry supplies through war zones to Kurdish female fighting units in Iraq. “We’ve …
August 12, 2015
Bob Kuczewski – arrested at Torrey Pines glider port again
“This is really a war between the traditional hang-gliding community, which tends to be older, and paragliders.”
June 17, 2015
Navy SEAL punches cabdriver at Bayfront Hilton
He looked at the shattered driver's side window of his cab and worried about how his boss would react. He never saw the punch coming.
December 24, 2014