Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Fletcher Officeholder Fund Backed by Reynolds Tobacco
Boy, Fletcher knows how to pick them: Emissary is a youngish looking guy named Benjamin Bosanac, whose resume includes working for Rupert Murdoch at "NewsCorp at the New York Post on its Editorial and Opinion Page." The NYP has to be the worst credential anyone could boast. Ever. Add in his self-proclaimed conservative bent and admiration for Ayn Rand and the American Enterprise Institute,...ehhhh. Guess Fletcher has lots of supporters with similar backgrounds and interests. Oy. Is it really that difficult to find someone with a more advanced and neutral background to escort you into the public square, Nathan?— January 31, 2012 4:12 p.m.
Councilmember David Alvarez Says Community-Benefit Districts Will Help Galvanize Barrio Logan
Such a small, incestuous world swirling around the Barrio: Former Shea community development manager Russ Haley, now exec VP at City Mark, sits on the Little Italy Assoc board. Bet he knew about the survey. Property owners on Main, National, and Newton are the gentrification "smart growth coalition" development cabal at Mitchell Investments and R&H Properties. One, Glenna Schmidt, sits on the Downtown San Diego Partnership and East Village BID boards. Bet she new about the survey. I bet if any of these big players contacted Alvarez and asked for details about the survey, Alvarez would have answered them with information. Looking forward to Alvarez making public all the details: how many surveys, to whom, and responses. And make them available for public inspection. It's hard to forget that FBI report on the North Bay Assoc (Li Mandri, Exec Director): one of the fraudulent actions was falsification of survey responses, with intent to procure public money.— January 28, 2012 12:19 p.m.
The Many Faces of Bob Filner
I liked this report, so, thanks Matt. It is nice to know that one mayoral candidate is doing something more enlightening than attending Urban Land Institute forums sponsored by Republican developers looking for their next new tool. The helpful link describes Falun Gong as placing "a heavy emphasis on morality and the cultivation of virtue in its central tenets of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance..." and "great importance on participation in the secular world. Falun Gong adherents are required to maintain regular jobs and family lives, to observe the laws of their respective governments, and are instructed not to distance themselves from society." That sounds like an excellent focus for our next San Diego mayor. And Bronwyn is cute! Also, if you click on the first link, Bob got in a free campaign ad for his candidacy. Go Bob!— January 24, 2012 8:43 a.m.
Mean Beans
The KFC on Market is very attractive. You haven't quite got your facts straight, hardcover, about the process that drove KFC elsewhere, to build an attractive addition to the neighborhood on Market street, with plenty of free parking, and a nice, aesthetic setback. Your actions, along with the GGHCDC seemingly lifetime busybodies, who seem to think they own everything in GGH, resulted in retaining the old building that houses the great Los Reyes. Congrats. Here ya go - Aug 1, 2000, Council chambers (Continued from the meeting of June 27, 2000, Item 330, at the request of Councilmember Juan Vargas, for further review): "Tricon Incorporated filed an application for an amendment to the Golden Hill Planned District Ordinance (GHPDO) to add an exception for a drive-thru facility as an accessory use for a dinein, pedestrian oriented restaurant within the 25th Street Commercial Corridor. The Golden Hill Planned District Ordinance does not permit drive-thru facilities. Tricon, Inc. proposes to demolish an existing KFC restaurant located at the northwest corner of Broadway and 25th Street and construct a new 2,596 square-foot KFC restaurant with drive-thru service. The proposed new KFC does not meet all the development standards of the Golden Hill Planned District Ordinance, therefore Tricon is also requesting deviations to the required minimum lot coverage, street wall, transparency, parking off alley and signage. A Golden Hill Planned District Ordinance (GHPDO) permit is required for approval of the deviations. The City Manager Recommends: DENIAL of the Amendment to the Golden Hill PDO to add an exception for drive-thru facilities. APPROVAL of GHPDO permit No. 96-7583 with removal of the drive-thru feature. The Greater Golden Hill Planning Committee has recommended denial of this project. Testimony in favor [of City mgr's recommendation] by Rebecca Michael, Jeff Looker, David Luxton, Debra Whaley, Robert Underwood, Kimberly Rible, Bonnie Poppe, Paige Burtson, Robert Fauella, Laura Haynes, Michael Braddon, Erik Hanson, Bill Munster, John Stall, Gary Roberts, Kathryn Willetts, Amy Weinsheim, Harmon Nelson, Debbie Stall, Connie McDonough, Kimberly D'Souza, Tonya McCoy, Dr. Craig Dunn, Pat Bates, Cindy Ireland, Judy Forman, Tony Ornelas, Nick Pearce, Al Ruppert, Gail MacLeod, Anne Riedman, Kim Grant, Joe Grant." Long live Los Reyes,... we love you and your old, funky leased building, set back from the street, with lots of free parking! But too bad we have to go all the way to Market Street for KFC.— January 20, 2012 6:28 p.m.
North Park Residents Plan Rally In Protest of High Number of Alcohol Licenses
Why any tourist would want to go there, I cannot imagine. Glad you like it. Promoting residential neighborhoods as tourist destinations is exactly the problem that our money-hungry/business-is-supreme City (council and departments) is causing.— January 20, 2012 10:07 a.m.
North Park Residents Plan Rally In Protest of High Number of Alcohol Licenses
Easy to see how many/where the DUIs and other alcohol-related problems occur: enter any zip code in the search bar here: http://web.utsandiego.com/crime/?q=san+diego— January 20, 2012 9:59 a.m.
North Park Residents Plan Rally In Protest of High Number of Alcohol Licenses
Not quite sure what you think the author wrote that was only "almost right"...in order to avoid, as you put it, being "boring, huh?" Almost the entire report consists of direct quotes. Not boring to me... Whatever. To your point about restaurants: most restaurants in NP/SP/PB can't make a big profit w/o selling alcohol; a large part of their profit/revenue comes from the bar. A lot, if not most, of the emphasis in the promotion and advertising of these neighborhood restaurants is on alcohol. "Pairings" is mainly about the booze. It's not just the ABC's fault: Gloria and Faulconer are indeed part of the problem, being totally in the thrall of the business associations. These restaurants, even in residential areas, push hard to stay open till 2 a.m. ABC doesn't decide that, does it? Councilmembers, City staffers, and Planning Commission members support giving restaurants bar-closing hours, despite what local residents want and long after dinner hour is over. Without strong pro-resident policy by the City and the Councilmembers, the restaurant-bars usually get whatever they want.— January 20, 2012 9:51 a.m.
Economist Laffer Sued Again
I've been thinking about PBS and how I've lost confidence (and interest) in their reporting over the past decade...certainly what was said on the News Hour report with Laffer, compared to what you know/haven't heard about Laffer, deserves some fact finding effort. Anyway, today I ran across this survey, which is interesting: http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/01/3… I trust what I read more than what I watch.— January 19, 2012 2:48 p.m.
The Push for Community-Benefit Districts in Barrio Logan
Fred, it'll be hard for Alvarez to stand up to the people who look to profit in the next decade from real estate and development. They've got money, lobbyists, and connections to the ruling downtown developer class, inside and outside City Hall. Some of the long-time family-business-land owners in Barrio Logan have genuine concerns about keeping their businesses in place, and may oppose rezoning to stricter residential specs. But to a more powerful, newer group, the historical identity and roots of Barrio Logan mean nothing more than a concept to exploit (and gentrify) and market. They'll resist restrictions on commercial zoning in the CPU, until they sell their commercial properties at jacked-up prices to high-end condo developers. One recently formed 501c, Barrio Logan Smart Growth Coalition, is where to start studying the takeover group: dynamodata.fdncenter.org/990_pdf_archive/263/2637… Note the money listed as contributions, gifts, grants... (by whom?) and how it was spent. Unnamed entities tied to those named on the 990 form include Mitchell Investments and R&H properties. R&H owns and has a current listing for 1841 National (0.3 acres, 5500 sq ft warehouse)for $1.4 mill. You can get a better deal in Point Loma. At that price, a developer-buyer would want to build higher end condos, ya think?— January 19, 2012 10:27 a.m.
North Park Residents Plan Rally In Protest of High Number of Alcohol Licenses
In a Jan 6 2012 article, the New York Times listed 45 places to go in 2012. San Diego showed up on the list. The reason (an embarrassment): SD is the go-to place to drink beer. This isn't an accident: the city's Economic Development department and its business group sycophants spend a lot of time and taxpayer money marketing drinking as a lifestyle. It's all about business revenue. The article actually mentioned seedy Hamilton's Tavern, a nuisance bar right in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Many local residents have suffered the presence of this bar and its customers. The photo showed three grubby guys inside Hamilton's, hovering over an iPhone...texting? tweeting? Foursquare? ..."we're here, we're drunk!" Too bad there wasn't a photo showing the lines of obnoxious customers out on the sidewalk, waiting to get into the hole in the wall. I'm glad the plan by a local business guy, for a North Park/South Park beer shuttle to haul drinkers from bar to bar for hours on end, failed. Enough is enough.— January 19, 2012 9:50 a.m.