San Diego's he-man Jerry Schad – the rougher it gets, the better he likes it

Thanks Reader for re-running this article from the 80's. If you find any more like this in your archives I would love to see them in print again. Jerry's books provided an introduction to the world of the back country of San Diego to me. Living at the beach I never really knew there was much of anything "to do" past Alpine. Was I ever happy to learn about the hikes and remote areas that are so relatively close by. And to visit strange places like the Salton Sea, after first seeing it from the Laguna Mountains. I hope the Reader can find someone to keep the outdoor spirit alive in its pages. You can never truly replace Jerry Schad.
— October 3, 2011 1:54 p.m.

Pacific Beach Foot Traffic, Retail, Up in Smoke

PB has gotten denser with infilling; the traffic gets worse each year. Roads are narrowed to "calm" the traffic, more stop signs are put in, lanes eliminated, etc. It is not a desirable area to drive in for shopping and for most coming to go to the beach is a pain in the butt, too. Lack of parking, meter maids ticketing, etc. It's always been busy, hard to park at certain times but lovely in December and January when people leave town and the you can walk down the middle of Garnet at 9 pm around Christmas time and not be hit by a car, because there are virtually none on the road. The binge drinkers ruined the beach and shut it down and ditto for Kate Sessions Park. So where else can locals get together and socialize: either at their homes they share with roommates- who might not like the idea- or at a bar. With 50% of the population 31 years of age or under do you expect there to be notions stores, yarn shops, tuxedo shops on Garnet? The landlords jack up the rent to get as much as they can. Tattoo establishments, for example, have adequate earnings psf with a low initial capital investment, so the owner can afford the rent. Bars require a big investment but also have a big earnings potential, so their owners can afford the rent, too. With high rents and a young population there is little likelihood that the business mix will change-- it is the invisible hand of supply and demand, pure unfettered capitalism in action, just what all you Faulconer- loving Republicans purportedly support.
— April 11, 2011 5:33 p.m.

Dueling Ideologies in Pacific Beach

Welcome! When your lease is up consider moving north of Garnet and East of Ingraham where it's mellower, or to Crown Point. it sounds like you are living in the craziest, touristy area of town. Garnet developed the way it is now to cater mainly to tourists, not locals and trust me it wasn't always like this, and when the tattoo fad ends won't be. We have problems like any city within a city, but the climate is great, there are lots of good restaurants, you will meet some fine people and Trader Joes and Henry's are two Garnet staples that are not tattoo parlors.
— January 30, 2011 2:49 a.m.

National Dog Day

My dog was born on August 26th. I guess it's like being born on Doggy 4th of July!
— August 29, 2010 5:07 p.m.

Escondido traffic checkpoints take families' cars

It is astonishing that people just blindly support this kind of gross mistreatment by the EPD. Whatever happened to issuing tickets for violations? Impounding cars on the spot seems a bit draconian. Why are people so willing to give up their rights? Imagine if you forgot your "papers" (say your new insurance card just came in and you left it in your gym bag in your gym locker).... Would you expect to be treated like this? Give me a break.
— August 4, 2010 6:31 p.m.

Noboozapalooza

What is the purpose of Floatopia other than to get drunk? just rafting out and sitting there drinking seems kind of desperate. Well I guess you can catch a tan. This activity is too dangerous for the participants and for the public safety workers to justify its continuance. A good example of why alcohol should not have been banned at the beach. Since the beach neighbors bear the brunt of all this the beach neighbors should have been the ones to vote on the ban. It most likely would have failed. Now we have house parties all over town every weekend, a great solution.
— June 30, 2010 6:30 a.m.

San Diego Gay and Lesbian News, against Gay and Lesbian Times

The GLT sounds like its technically insolvent given the private bank info that has been revealed. With so many writers being owed back fees and unpaid bills and overdrawn checking accounts, it sounds as if they might be thrown into bankruptcy. That is too bad because they used to provide information that was not available in some of the other alternative newsweeklies. Another "old media" publication could bite the dust. Had not heard about any of these alleged financial shenanigans, but then nothing surprises me in Scam Diego. Even a politically- motivated investigation which may collapse this apparent house of cards.
— June 18, 2010 10:39 p.m.

Bring Your Own Concerns

#16- Ridiculous- you are showing your ridiculous tendencies--- You are an expert at mischaracterizing my posts. Please re-read where I said that DUI's are inexcusable. Repeat inexcusable. I am not supporting DUI's, no matter who gets them, locals, tourists, natives, transplants, or anybody else. I agree that alcohol use needs to be monitored and controlled. My point was the DUI's per capita is not a valid statistical measurement in a zip code where the population grows by 50,000 people or more on one day- many, many days per year.
— June 13, 2010 3:48 p.m.

Bring Your Own Concerns

Lot's of straw men to knock down in a report like this. Statistics can be manipulated to suit the purposes of the author(s). DUI per capita makes no sense when you have hundreds of hotel rooms, restaurants, the beach, the bay, boating, day tourists, camping, RV'ers, vacation rentals, etc. DUI's are inexcusable but how many of them are being incurred by visitors? who pay TOT and sales taxes to the city? this is a low density area with the 30 ft height limit. If we had big high rises everywhere this statistic would change. Play with numbers however you want but PB is a beach and tourist area, it is not Rancho Penasquitos.
— June 11, 2010 4:02 p.m.

The Right to Party Left Intact

#3-- The City of San Diego Makes its own signs. http://www.sandiego.gov/street-div/traffic.shtml read the last paragraph about how this dept makes signs for parks and rec. So therefore the question must be who in the dept of parks and rec ordered the new signs? why? and under whose authorization were the old 8-8 signs changed? You are right, something smells very bad here.
— June 10, 2010 4:46 p.m.