Southbound lanes at Otay Mesa border crossing to partially close during overnight hours
K. Mennem 7:17 p.m., June 17
La Mesa Stories
La Mesa City Council members hold Saturday meeting
Voted against by Mayor Madrid and Councilwoman Sterling
The June 8 "Community Dialogue on La Mesa's Fiscal Future,” hosted by La Mesa City Council members Ernest Ewin and Kristine Alessio, attracted eight people and consisted of conversation that extended 30 minutes beyond the ...
Helix Water District’s new tank project completed
Nearly triple the capacity of the old one
Helix Water District recently replaced its 64-year-old “Homelands” tank to increase the facility’s water-storage capacity to 800,000 gallons, enhance system reliability, and satisfy current seismic requirements. Located in an unincorporated area of San Diego County, ...
La Mesans gather to discuss village plan
Divided on public restroom issue
During the interactive portion of the May 30 community workshop on La Mesa's Downtown Village Specific Plan Update, about 100 people spent an hour visiting five stations devoted to issues related to the update. The ...
La Mesa City Council meeting minutes: awards and crime report
Violence down, thefts up
At the May 28 La Mesa City Council meeting, police chief Ed Aceves joined vice mayor Mark Arapostathis in distributing school safety-patrol awards to fifth- and sixth-graders in the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District. The ...
Large apartment complex approved by La Mesa City Council
More traffic, but more property tax revenue also
After a nearly two-and-a-half-hour hearing, the La Mesa City Council on May 28 voted 4-1 on actions to allow the construction of a 198-unit apartment complex on an 8.64-acre site located at 7834 Parkway Drive. ...
They Do It the Hard Way: San Diegans who refuse to modernize
Deep-blue collar
The Printer “My buddy in San Francisco got his finger smashed in an old printing press. It actually turned the bone to powder. He had no phone in his warehouse to call for help, so ...
Booming bivalves at the Brig
Depending on who you believe, the origins of the Baja-style fish taco will take you two places. Fans of entrepreneurial success stories will favor the narrative popularized by San Diego restaurant mogul Ralph Rubio, who ...
Apartments unwelcome
La Mesa’s plot for vacant lots
"People in apartments aren’t stable; they don’t become part of the community,” grouses G.W., who lives in La Mesa near Mt. Helix. She fears that her tony neighborhood will take a turn for the worse ...
How hard is it to get rid of a rabbit?
Author Dave Good writes about the rabbit he found (and now owns) and the San Diego bunny scene.
And so it goes.
This book is not a homophobic diatribe!
A writer for Out blog is amazed that readers misinterpreted the literary device she used in her book
Hoffer's Cigar Bar
Hoffer’s Cigar Bar in La Mesa is easy to miss, but that’s what locals like about it.
Horn-free high school
B Side Players trombonist/Helix High associate music director Michael Benge tries to land Poncho Sanchez to do show with his students, but parents don’t want to enter into contract.
La Mesa organizers plan early for Oktoberfest
Merchants, teens, and stink bombs discussed
La Mesa's 2013 Oktoberfest will remain a one-weekend event, but organizers want to eliminate carnival rides and stink bombs, according to statements made at last week’s La Mesa City Council meeting. The Oktoberfest, sponsored by ...
La Mesa police chief Ed Aceves delivers crime report
Increase in property crimes; 249 burglaries in 2012
Two homicides were among the 226 violent crimes committed in La Mesa during 2012, according to the quarterly crime report that police chief Ed Aceves gave at the February 12 La Mesa City Council meeting. ...
Skyline Church
God is the God of nations as well
Interview with pastor Jim Garlow of Skyline Church in La Mesa.
Preservationists speak up at La Mesa town hall meeting
Spring House and old façades discussed
At a La Mesa town hall meeting last week (January 17), two residents urged the council to preserve the Spring House in Collier Park. The park on Palm Avenue was named for David Charles Collier, ...
La Mesa residents seek to stifle 7-Eleven
Booze rules and limited hours discussed
At a January 17 town-hall meeting in La Mesa, Ted Crisostomo, Neighborhood Watch captain for the Dalhart Avenue and Dallas Street area, objected to the possible opening of a 24-hour 7-Eleven near the Big Lots! ...
Tenant alerted to La Mesa house fire
Dog doesn’t make it
December 26 started out in a horrible and terrifying way. I was awake for less than ten minutes when someone started pounding on my door and screaming for me. It was a neighbor, telling me ...
Charcoal House
Charcoal House Restaurant in La Mesa offers the Wrinkle Room, full of cougars and saber-toothed tigers.
Billboard image of Bonnie Dumanis defaced
On December 3, drivers on Interstate 8 west saw an addition to the picture of district attorney Bonnie Dumanis on the 14-foot tall, 48-foot wide billboard near the El Cajon Boulevard exit. On the billboard ...
Median magician marvels motorists in La Mesa
Wearing a gray fedora and dressed in a white T-shirt, vest, shorts, and black shoes with bright white laces, Joe Spelton performed magic tricks at on Thursday, November 29, for a temporarily captive audience. The ...
Cow chip bingo?
Helix High School band directors get creative in the absence of funding, including mattress sales and cow-chip bingo.
La Mesa to Vote on Pot Shops; Council Reviews Crime Stats
A ballot item approved in a 4-1 vote at the November 13 La Mesa City Council meeting means voters will decide in November 2014 whether medical marijuana dispensaries will be allowed in the city. Mayor ...
San Diego's Best Fried Chicken
The background photo on my brother’s iPod shows a plate of fried chicken and waffles from Roscoe’s up in Los Angeles. Before dining there, he had never enjoyed the two foods together, and he was ...
Man Threatens to Jump onto I-8
On the afternoon of September 19, at about 4:15, a man who appeared to be in his 20s climbed onto a Caltrans signage platform above the I-8 on Lake Murray Boulevard. Police performed a traffic ...
The Go Lounge
Leopard-print pool table and a temporarily dismembered mannequin at the Go Lounge in La Mesa, a part of the dive-bar scene.
The Dragon Room at Wong's Golden Palace
The Wong Cup at the right price.
You’ve probably seen Wong’s neon towers glowing along the University Avenue corridor through La Mesa. You probably mistook the place for a drug front or maybe the entrance to a theme park. The truth is ...
Happy Birthday, La Mesa...What’s Wrong?
A century after 249 East County residents voted on February 7, 1912, in favor of incorporating as the City of La Mesa, more than 150 people turned out two days ago for a town-hall meeting ...
San Diego Christian Reformed Church
Membership: 65 Affiliation: Christian Reformed Church Interim Pastor: Adam Stout Age: 32 Born: Davenport, Iowa Formation: One year of Yucatán, Mexico, mission work; Calvin College and Calvin Theology Seminary, Grand Rapids, Mich. (2010). San Diego ...
The Chico Club’s Buccaneer
According to the bartenders at the Chico, no one knows who developed the Buccaneer. Perhaps it was previous owners or the original owners, who opened the bar in 1940 and named it after the oldest ...
Vista La Mesa Christian Church
Membership: 135 Pastor (interim): Marianna Kirwan Age: 70 Born: Chicago, Illinois Formation: Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley; Claremont School of Theology, Claremont Years Ordained: 32 San Diego Reader: How long do you spend writing your ...
Journey Community Church
Attendance: 2400 Pastor: Ed Noble Age: 52 Born: Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Formation: California State University, Long Beach; Biola College (University), La Mirada; Talbot School of Theology, La Mirada Years Ordained: 24 San Diego Reader: How ...
Clothing Robbery Outside La Mesa Boutique
Last Friday, the only witnesses to a snatch-and-grab robbery outside the Fashion Kiss Boutique in La Mesa was a mannequin named Bianca...and a surveillance camera. Fashion Kiss owner Michella Dresselhuys installed a surveillance camera in ...
Who Cares If La Mesa Post Office Closes?
During the first week of May, the U.S. Postal Service delivered notices informing La Mesa residents that the retail portion of the La Mesa Carrier Annex at 6055 Lake Murray Boulevard was “being considered for ...
Riviera Supper Club
A friend who frequents the Riviera Supper Club in La Mesa once remarked that drinking in the attached Turquoise Room rejuvenates his sense of machismo. While the sentiment had never occurred to me, the retro ...
Neighborhood Watch Among Topics at La Mesa Town Hall Meeting
Unfunded pension liability was the first issue raised at the January 20 La Mesa Town Hall Meeting held at Maryland Avenue Elementary School. Other concerns voiced by residents ranged from crime and traffic to the ...
Puppy Love From La Mesa City Council
On December 14, Sydney Cicourel and members of animal activist group San Diego Stop Puppy Mills urged La Mesa city councilmembers to pass an ordinance prohibiting pet stores from buying dogs and cats from non-shelter ...
Mannequin Stolen from Fashion Kiss
Michella Dresselhuys, owner of Fashion Kiss, a ladies clothing and accessories boutique on date Avenue in La Mesa, reported to police on Friday, December 4 that between 5:30 pm and 6:30 pm a thief stole ...
San Diego Stop Puppy Mills Takes a Stand in La Mesa
Protesters from San Diego Stop Puppy Mills stood outside the Pet Works store at Grossmont Center on December 4. The group, which has been protesting regularly outside of the store for nearly two years, claims ...
Unification Church of San Diego
Membership: 100 Pastor: Walter Frank Born: San Diego Formation: Pastoral training in Korea Ordained: 14 years San Diego Reader: Can you think of a sermon that flopped? PF: It was July about two years ago…. ...
The Byronic Man of La Mesa
Robert Byron of La Mesa, who claims to be the only living direct male descendant of the poet Lord George Gordon Byron, gave us a call the other day. He sounded pleased. Although he’s known ...
Foreclosure Fee Feast
La Mesa's Heather McGuire bought a condo in 2006, got married the next year, and before long got into a fight — not with her new husband. She moved in with him. Her battle — ...
Key Evidence
At approximately 1:40 a.m. on March 13, La Mesa police responded to an audible alarm at an Enterprise Car Rental on the 8400 block of Center Street. Police arrived at the scene to discover that ...
Primed for Disaster
After a closure and retrofitting that lasted over a year, La Mesa’s Fire Station 13 will once again be fully operational; the station reopened on March 8, according to a press release. Built in the ...
Cop Toys
When construction of the two-story police station in La Mesa is completed this spring, it will be outfitted with a new radio communications system and feature upgraded radio-related technology and electronics. On Tuesday, February 9, ...
No Sale
Last Friday, January 15, two men attempting to sell a cell phone through Craigslist met up with a prospective buyer at a shopping-center parking lot near 5500 Grossmont Center Drive. Upon inspecting the cell phone, ...
St. Luke's Lutheran Church
Got an unusual press release last week. It began: “On Sunday, December 13, 2009, St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in La Mesa, Calif., held a legally called and conducted meeting to take its second and final ...
Sweet Smell
Barbecue. It’s the only cooking smell that actually wafts through the air like a well-flung fishing line, grabs you, and hauls you in by the nostrils. I mean, there I was at sunset, hoofing it ...
On Alert
Residents of the southwest and southeast sections of La Mesa have been put on alert regarding burglaries that have occurred in at least 11 residential blocks since November 17. Authorities released the description of two ...
Saved from Fire
A mobile-home fire in Lakeside injured a woman and destroyed her residence early Wednesday morning, December 2. The fire at Willowbrook Estate East mobile park was reported at 6:35 a.m. According to sources at the ...
