Burch better but not quite good enough yet
David Dodd 1:48 a.m., May 18
Escondido Stories
Escondido Police Nab Assault Suspects
Escondido police officers brought three suspects to headquarters for alleged violations of probation and gang injunctions after midnight in the early morning hours of November 1, 2010, Halloween night. One officer, Raymond Solorio, then noticed ...
Former Border Patrol Agent Gamalier Rivera Found Guilty
On Wednesday, February 2, for his hatchet attack on two sleeping persons more than a year ago, former Border Patrol agent Gamalier Rivera was found guilty of assault, causing great bodily injury, and aggravated mayhem. ...
Escondido Citizen Speaks Out Against Asociación de Charros
An animal-welfare advocate spoke at the Escondido City Council meeting on January 26 to lobby for the ban of Mexican rodeos, or charreadas. Melinda Santa Cruz, a longtime Escondido resident, told councilmembers she was encouraged ...
Escondido Police Cleared of Culpability in Jennifer Favreau’s Shooting Death?
A confidential source says San Diego County district attorney Bonnie Dumanis has determined that the Escondido police officer involved in the shooting death of an alleged informant will not face criminal charges. The City of ...
Stanley Peak in Daley Ranch
The recent purchase of a parcel of land on the east border of the Daley Ranch preserve in Escondido ensures that hikers can now visit boulder-dotted Stanley Peak, a summit that formerly lay just out ...
Asociación de Charros de Escondido Evicted for Ballpark?
On Wednesday, January 12, over a dozen San Diego residents spoke in protest of the recent news that the mainly Hispanic equestrian group Asociación de Charros de Escondido is being evicted from a one-and-a-half-acre location ...
Escondido City Council Told Homeless Center Inadequate
At the Escondido City Council meeting of January 12, Thomas Armstrong complained that conditions at the Salvation Army's new homeless shelter on Metcalf Street were "deplorable." "The Salvation Army is not totally to blame," he ...
Slashed Girl Delivered to Palomar Hospital
Patients at Palomar Hospital were stunned on January 7 at 1:00 a.m.: a dark-haired girl about 16 years old — pale and on the verge of collapse — staggered into the emergency room with a ...
Escondido’s Water Rates to Rise
A forum to explain water-rate hikes in the City of Escondido was held on January 6. Raftelis Financial Consultants conducted a rate study of the five-year plan: a typical family bill should decrease slightly in ...
El Tejate: How People Ate Before the Conquistadors
This little guy was singing a few days ago. Now, crunch. One ex-grasshopper. We’re talking chapulines. Fried and dropped on a big white plate. A delicacy from Oaxaca, southern Mexico. The taste? Salty, with a ...
SDG&E’s Escondido Transformer Fire Nontoxic?
A massive cloud of black smoke that loomed above the Escondido Auto Park on December 22 was due to a transformer fire at SDG&E’s substation on Enterprise Street. The fire started at approximately 12:15 p.m. ...
Escondido Bomb Scare
A half hour before the Escondido City Council meeting of December 15 was set to begin, two police officer stormed the council chambers looking for a bomb. According to a witness, the officers pulled right ...
Will Escondido City Council Swing for the Fences
On Wednesday, December 15, Escondido city councilmembers will debate spending $50 million for a new minor-league baseball stadium just north of downtown Escondido. Before the council engages on the discussion of whether to build the ...
City of Escondido to Close Senior Center Craft Shop?
Escondido resident Ann McDonald appeared before the city council on November 17 in order to urge reconsideration of the decision to close down the gift/craft shop at the Joslyn Senior Center, which has been open ...
Escondido City Council Votes to Lease Former Police Headquarters
On November 17, the Escondido City Council unanimously agreed to lease its old police department building on Grand Avenue to the San Diego North Economic Development Council. The rent? One dollar per year for up ...
Escondido City Council Makes Way for New Ballpark
At the Escondido City Council meeting on November 17, the council voted unanimously to purchase property located at 2120 Harmony Grove Road for use as a public-works yard. The cost will be $6,050,000 plus escrow ...
Burglaries at Mountain Shadows Mobile Home Park in Escondido
In the second week of November, two units at Mountain Shadows Mobile Home Park were burglarized while residents were gone during the day. According to the manager for the park, only one street was targeted. ...
Padres to Share Risk in Escondido Ballpark Investment?
On October 27, the Escondido City Council held a workshop regarding the minor-league ballpark proposal put before the City by a Padres ownership group led by Jeff Moorad. The business-model presentation was made by Padres ...
Escondido City Employees Association Addresses Pay Cut with Council
At an Escondido City Council meeting on October 27, an attorney for the Escondido City Employees Association declared an impasse and urged councilmembers to send their negotiators "back to the table." Regarding recent budget cuts, ...
Escondido Sobriety Checkpoint Draws Protesters, Nets Five DUIs
On East El Norte Parkway east of North Ash Street, the Escondido Police Department staged a sobriety checkpoint On October 23 between 6 p.m. and midnight. According to a news release, 1450 cars were checked ...
Coalition of Escondido Mobile/Manufactured Home Voters Activates
At the Escondido Downtown Street Faire on October 17, the Coalition of Escondido Mobile/Manufactured Home Voters was giving away free T-shirts to anyone who was willing to wear them for an hour or two. "Had ...
Escondido City Councilmembers Excoriated as Ballpark Idea Entertained
During the Escondido City Council’s “oral communications” portion of their October 13 meeting, resident Bruce Sims expressed his views concerning the upcoming council vote regarding the construction of a ballpark in the city. Padres majority ...
Escondido’s California Center for the Arts to Employ Roman de Salvo for “Grape Maze”
On October 13, the Escondido City Council authorized a payment from the City’s public art fund to allow an art project to be constructed in the California Center for the Arts Escondido Museum courtyard. According ...
Escondido Hears About Lake Elsinore’s Ballpark Experience
The Escondido Democratic Club held a meeting at their headquarters in downtown Escondido on October 9. Open to the public, the meeting’s purpose was to hear presentations by San Diego Padres representatives along with pro ...
Escondido City Council Takes Criticism for Neglecting Improvements
Concerned about an increase in business fees and lack of improvements in the downtown neighborhood surrounding his business, Barry Baker appeared before the Escondido City Council on Wednesday, September 22, to voice his displeasure. Baker ...
Escondido: Do Your Homework on the Portland Beavers
‘The economic impact of a minor-league team is not sufficient to justify the relatively large public expenditure required for a minor-league stadium.” That was the conclusion of Arthur T. Johnson, author of the 1995 book ...
Escondido Mobile Home Park Residents Rely on Water from Hose
"Bring your own bucket," the notice said, and residents of Mountain Shadows Mobile Home Park got angry. For five days in mid-September, no water came from faucets and no toilets could be flushed due to ...
Transient Lived in Escondido Garden Shed
For several nights in August, a perplexed resident of Mountain Shadows Mobile Home Park in Escondido heard voices coming from her next-door neighbor’s coach. Whether she was out on her back porch or lying in ...
Over 40 Palm Trees Cut Down in Escondido Mobile Home Park
At the September 2 Escondido City Council meeting, Larry Steneck, president of the Coalition of Escondido Mobile/Manufactured Home Voters, discussed the plight of residents at the Green Tree Mobile Estates, who had to deal with ...
Checkpoint Moolah
Police drunk-driving checkpoints are big business. Just ask the City of Escondido, which has been racking up profits courtesy of federal grants and an aggressive vehicle-impound regime instituted by the Escondido Police Department with the ...
Will Stab for Beer
On July 30 at about 2 a.m., the clerk working at the 1290 West Valley Parkway 7-Eleven saw a man walk out of the store with a six-pack of beer he hadn't paid for. After ...
Locked Out of Revenues
Escondido resident Bruce Simms addressed the city council on July 21 on the topic of the Portland Beavers, a Padres affiliate AAA baseball team that may be relocating to Escondido from Oregon. According to a ...
Government Works, See?
Despite concerns from a majority of speakers during public comment, on June 30 the Escondido City Council approved the allocation of a large subsidy to a developer who plans to build a luxury Marriott hotel ...
Cougar Pass–Jesmond Dene Bike Ride
Rural roads suitable for bicycling still exist around Escondido, particularly north of town, where the landscape slopes upward toward boulder-studded hillsides. The route featured here covers ten miles, with a significant elevation gain of 1100 ...
Cameras Lie
“It’s unconstitutional,” said longtime Escondido resident Scott Davis on June 23, speaking in front of the Escondido City Council to address the red-light cameras within city limits. The city, according to the police department, has ...
Hear Ye, Hear Ye
After numerous cancellations, the date for a public hearing on the downtown Escondido Marriott has been posted. On June 30, at 4 p.m., the public will have a chance to give their support or express ...
Van Doorn to Defeat Horn?
On June 3, John Van Doorn, a candidate hoping to unseat District 5 county supervisor Bill Horn, held an American flag and waved at cars from an Interstate 15 overpass in Escondido. While red-faced and ...
It's Late, It's Loud
"I hear the noise and the music coming through the walls of my house.... The police department [is] not enforcing the city's noise ordinance. Sometimes officers will knock on my door at two in the ...
I Think I Smell a Rate Increase
The Escondido City Council held a public hearing on May 19 to discuss a proposed fee increase for landscape-maintenance costs in the area located west of the El Norte Parkway and Rees Road intersection. Ballots ...
Not So Grand
The Business Improvement District fees charged by the Downtown Business Association of Escondido were contested by a pair of business owners at the May 5 city council meeting. Greta Kurtz, a business owner for 25 ...
Escondido's Moral Minority
Escondido resident and president of the Chamber of Citizens, Lisa Prazeau, is calling on Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler and city councilmembers Dick Daniels, Sam Abed, and Marie Waldron to stick up for fellow councilmember Olga ...
Real Plugger
On March 19 at about 6 p.m., an auto-theft suspect led Escondido police officers on a chase in which gunfire struck four police cars and the car of a passerby. According to a press release, ...
Attractive and Suffering
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...” In her 12th and final state of the city address, Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler quoted Charles Dickens's Tale of Two Cities to describe ...
Tears for Buddha
Phap Vuong Monastery, a Buddhist temple nestled among pine trees in northern Escondido, is hosting the world's largest hand-carved gem-quality jade Buddha for the next two weeks. To mark the beginning of its visit, a ...
Cable, Lions, Air Are Options
At the February 3 Escondido City Council meeting, the council directed the budget subcommittee to consider the possibility of using $17 million worth of reserves in order to avoid closing the performing arts center, the ...
Restless Residents
In a meeting at Escondido City Hall on January 26, planning commissioners voted 3-2 to deny a request allowing an auto-services development to be built on a corner near the intersection of Brotherton Road and ...
Books or Bullets?
"It's really a life raft to keep the city afloat," said Escondido councilmember Marie Waldron during Wednesday evening's city council meeting. The life raft that Waldron was referring to was a list of proposed cuts ...
Reservation Drugs
On January 21 at about 9 p.m., sheriff's deputies arrested a resident of the San Pasqual Reservation after a traffic stop led to the discovery of numerous types of illegal narcotics and drug paraphernalia that ...
World’s Largest Auto Museum of Convertibles and Americana
When a full plate of entertainment at the Wild Animal Park, San Diego Zoo or Sea World isn’t feasible, but you want to get out and do something, the “World’s Largest Auto Museum of Convertibles ...
Prop the Arts
At a December 16 meeting, the Escondido City Council voted to write off a $530,731 loan given to the California Center for the Arts Foundation in 2001. "[I]f we haven't been paid back by now," ...
Hot for Pot
"Join the revolution!" says “Big Kahuna” from his post in front of Target on Auto Park Way. "Legalize marijuana!" Kahuna (who says he was born in Hawaii) has gathered signatures at Target, Walmart, and grocery ...
No Hope for Hookahs
On December 2, the Escondido City Council declined to initiate a downtown zoning amendment that would allow hookah lounges to operate in the city. Within the past two months, the City has received four to ...
