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
Close to Home — What it’s like on the street where you live
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
Terra Lawson-Remer out-raises Kristin Gaspar
The spending record of well-heeled political action committees should guide San Diego voters in November. Thanks for this update. It seems candidate Todd Gloria is up to his eyes in developer money -- Kilroy, Fenton, the condo guy from Beverly Hills. We know what to expect of mayoral candidates who are so beholden once they move into higher office. Much better mayoral candidate Barbara Bry is the friend of taxpayers incredulous at the profligate monthly spending on an unused Ash Street tower and residential neighbors reeling from COVID-defying loud parties in Vacation Rentals By Owner. Bry is also much smarter than her slick opponent.— August 12, 2020 7:04 p.m.
Covid-19 casts a pall over San Diego political money
Department of When Birnam Wood shall come to Dunsinane: NPR reported today that hoteliers around Mission Bay (presumably including the stalwart GOP Evans Family, owners of the Bahia and other properties,) are reportedly seeking rent relief from their City landlords during this pandemic period.— August 3, 2020 11:40 p.m.
Fletcher’s central committee campaign funnels major money to Democratic Party
Controlling the Central Committee of the County Democratic Party is not a bad idea. When Fletcher first ran for Supervisor, his wife Lorena Gonzalez had engineered early preferential voting of the Central Committee that went Fletcher's way, strengthened his candidacy and contributed to his subsequent election.— July 27, 2020 10:45 p.m.
San Diego's ethics commission picks nits but defends secrecy
Violations of font-size are ethical lapses? They're not even nits! Maybe they're being funny. Maybe the Ethics Commission -- exactly how many people are on that body? -- has to show it's earning its keep in a slow season.— July 22, 2020 7:23 p.m.
Nathan Fletcher's viral propaganda push
Translating the newspeak in Nathan Fletcher's Help Wanteds is not easy, but the intent is pretty clear: somebody wants to package the ambitious, handsome, gravelly-voiced changeling for some higher political office than County Supervisor. To make it happen will take expertise in outreach to Gays, Blacks and Impressionable Youth. Fletcher has already gotten a lot of exposure as spokesman for the County's coronavirus task force outreach, copying Governor Gavin's daily noon radio updates on the pandemic. Fletcher's transformation from GOP slug to Dem butterfly has been helped by his powerhouse legislator wife Dem Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez but, at some future time, Fletcher's fame may outstrip hers.— July 4, 2020 11:45 a.m.
Fabian Nunez fails to work magic for Mercury lobbying firm
Always good to check in on the lobbying life-paths of former California politician and feckless father Fabian Nunez and his notorious ex-con son Esteban Nunez. It's clear Esteban is still a punk, capitalizing now at age 31 on both his family name and ex-convict status as he lobbies for an outfit called Cut50 which is pushing voting rights for parolees. Esteban went to jail for involvement in a drunken deadly stabbing of another Latino youth and got his sentence reduced by his dad's pal Governor Schwarzenegger. According to the linked CalMatters story, Esteban has never made amends to the dead boy's family. Cut50 should look to its reputation.— July 1, 2020 7:21 p.m.
Cost of overtime haunts UCSD campus cops
UCSD likely will need more cops as its imminent expansion plan calls for a mammoth cluster of high-rise buildings -- from nine to 21 stories -- to be constructed at the farthest western edge of its campus bordering residential neighborhoods of La Jolla. The University in recent years has proven to be a bad neighbor -- constructing buildings along the grade of La Jolla Shores Drive that obscure public vistas of the Pacific Ocean at several points and now this humungous project. (It could be sited in the interior of the large campus.) The University is exempt from all Coastal Act rules and the prevailing 30-foot height limit for the area. Thus far UCSD has refused to meet with or respond to community planning group strong objections. Lawsuits are rumored. If ever there is a community meeting on this hot-button issue, UCSD probably will need more cops to maintain law and order.— June 16, 2020 9:48 p.m.
Gonzalez leads legislative pack in cop union cash
Alex, what's happened to unionized police and teachers has been devastating to the larger society that depends on services from these two groups of important public workers. Unions do provide good wages and (strictly limited) working conditions and accountability for these public employees, no argument. "I'm all right, Jack," rules. But unions do not foster professional pride or organizational aspiration to do good, to be better, to serve community, among their members. Well-paid union leaders always foster adversarial thinking -- Us versus Them -- among membership and they encourage ostracizing opponents and even members who don't share the group-think. Both teachers and cops have become utterly unaccountable for their acts or their deficiencies, thanks to broadly-interpreted protective arbitration rules and the power to strike. Unions make money from member dues and spend it on politicians' election campaigns and lobbying. One hand washes the other. The public is shut out, even though it pays and pays.— June 13, 2020 5:47 p.m.
Gonzalez leads legislative pack in cop union cash
Watch what happens to the cops charged in Minneapolis. One of them is already out on bail and it is rumored the perpetrator is cutting a deal with prosecutors. No doubt the police union is helping define the terms. Unions deliver for their members and have big bankrolls for contributing to expensive political election and re-election campaigns. Then they look for "consideration" when laws are being crafted by politicians. Sometimes it gets too embarrassing, so politicians caught in the glare sometimes return contributions or donate them to some charity. Actually, it's not any different from the powerful teachers union. San Diego Unified School District did not lift an academic finger for six weeks this spring after schools closed down because of the pandemic. Only after unionist School Board trustee Richard Barrera quietly worked out new terms for teachers' wages and working conditions did the Superintendent of Schools announce "distance-learning" would commence, entailing minimal work hours for teachers -- and replacing classrooms, curriculum, attendance-taking and grades. Ditto for Fall 2020. Initially there was a threat that school would not open at all, but now it's all official silence until the State budget is set and, according to Barrera, acceptable levels of funding are found that will include a 2% cost of living increase for teachers. Unionized cops, unionized teachers -- but the public interest is not served. Maybe cops and teachers should be serving the greater good rather than themselves. It might free our legislators to work in the public interest too.— June 12, 2020 10:08 p.m.
Will a $46,000 federally funded COVID-19 drone fly in El Cajon?
For Reader readers who may imagine otherwise, "SJW" stands for "social justice warrior." (I had to look it up.)You're right, Socks, thank you. I am opposed to a black guy getting his airway crushed by an arresting cop kneeling on his neck.— May 27, 2020 12:08 p.m.