1925 map

The Lost Roads of San Diego

In 1944, the land between Midway Drive and Sports Arena Boulevard (then Frontier Street) became combed with the short streets of a wartime housing project. After the war, transients lived in the area. One was Barbara Wood Graham, a party girl who died in the electric chair in 1955 (Susan Hayward won an Oscar for playing her in I Want to Live!). Another was the German scientist Arthur Rudolph, whose Saturn rockets took us to the moon.

By Margot Sheehan, Nov. 5, 1992 | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Life magazine story, March 1972

Papering over

The scandal that ultimately cost San Diego the GOP convention broke on February 29, 1972, with syndicated columnist Jack Anderson reporting that he had obtained a confidential internal memo from ITT lobbyist Dita Beard that stated the $400,000 convention contribution would favorably influence the federal antitrust action. The story made headlines in papers across the country the following day, while the Union buried it in the fifth paragraph of an article on local convention fundraising.

By Thomas K. Arnold, Jan. 26, 1995 | Read full article

Photo by Rick Geary

What happened to Roscoe Hazard’s scary photos?

When Pappy acquired part of the estate of actor Leo Carrillo, it inflated his hoard beyond the museum's capacity, so he made a deal with Old Town State Park in 1972. He'd contribute a chunk of money to help build what is now Seeley Stables if the state would take over the management of the Hazard collection. If you go upstairs into the loft, you'll find a couple of those photos of an Old West hanging.

By Matthew Alice, Nov. 7, 2002 | Read full article

Photo by Joe Klein

Sanitized History

Starr lets former councilmember Valerie Stallings off easy for accepting gifts from Padres majority owner John Moores. Starr says Stallings invested in an initial public offering of a stock "recommended to her" by Moores. Actually, Moores put her on the exclusive friends-and-family list of a new issue. That means she got in at the offering price of $15 while others paid much more. It soared, and she made 267 percent in less than a month.

By Don Bauder, Sept. 23, 2004 | Read full article

Mission

Silver Screens: A Short History of San Diego Cinemas

The years preceding America’s entry into World War II introduced more neighborhood theaters like the Roxy (1939) in Pacific Beach, the Strand in Ocean Beach, and three in the Logan Heights area: the Coronet (1939) at 1792 Logan, the Metro (later renamed the Corral) at 2175 Logan, and the Victory (1941) at 25th and Imperial. The Victory and Coronet have vanished, the latter razed to make an entrance/exit for I-5, but the Metro’s building is still up.

By Rick Geary, June 2, 1977 | Read full article

There are 29 Cedar streets, 28 Elm variations, 12 Eucalyptus, 18 Acacias, 15 Oaks, and 27 Palms.

Tom Voss

Say, am I anywhere near Good Karma Lane?

We’ve got twenty-nine Cedar streets, avenues, roads, lanes, and ways; fourteen Evergreens; twenty-eight Elm variations, twelve Eucalyptus variations, eighteen Acacias, fifteen Oaks, and twenty-seven Palms. Because olives were the principal orchard trees in San Diego’s salad days, there are now thirty-six Olive variations. And sixteen Avocado streets seasoned with several varieties of Haas and Fuertes…. We’ve got approximately a hundred varieties of Vista and approximately fifty varieties of Hill, including Hillsides, Hillcrests, Hill-views, and Hilltops.

By Sue Garson, Oct. 20, 1983 | Read full article

It's not easy staying green

Randy Hoffman

The Tree That Saw Tomorrow

Tree specialist Bill Nelson has been retained to oversee the tree’s new fitness program. Although other arborists claim the tree can live another 100 years, Nelson believes it has only another 20 to 30 years left. He says the best way to maintain the tree is to establish a system of “absorbing roots” beneath the canopy, rather than allow them to remain out under the asphalt. He’s doing this through a regimen of watering, feeding, and mulching.

By Neal Matthews, June 20, 1991 | Read full article

By the time you hear the noise, it's too late to sue

Byron Pepper

Lawsuit Ends, Noise Continues

When the first lawsuits were filed against the port in 1986, 1200 families in 12 legal actions were claiming damages for airport noise. By the following year, a judge dismissed 500 of the complaints and the rest were consolidated into a single suit. Mates and others who live under the flight path claimed that airport noise was damaging to their health and to the value of their homes in Point Loma, Golden Hill, and Mission Beach.

By Colin Flaherty, April 16, 1992 | Read full article