Neighborhood News from Stringers

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Escondido DMV closure impacts nearby offices

Poway, Temecula, but mostly Oceanside

The busy Escondido Department of Motor Vehicles field office permanently closed its doors at 725 North Escondido Boulevard on May 10. DMV spokeswoman Jan Mendoza said Escondido residents can expect to be without a DMV ...

Stop-sign war in Point Loma’s Wooded Area

Rogue replaces yields with stops

The Peninsula Community Planning Board (PCPB) last month voted to remove three stop signs in the Wooded Area of Point Loma, but after allegations that the board violated the the state's open-meetings law (the Brown ...

Guy in the Sky: Spots SR-52 grass fire

Gillespie Field runway obscured

I had just taken off from Montgomery Field with my friend in his Cessna 172 at 4:30pm on Sunday, June 16, and we turned to fly eastbound. Smoke was clearly visible just beginning to rise ...

Sweetwater trustee reports stolen property to police

John McCann wanted his campaign sign back

The Sweetwater Union High School District’s June 18 meeting had unexpected guests: Kamaal Martin from state-assembly member Shirley Weber’s office, Vivian Moreno from San Diego city councilmember David Alvarez’s office, and Albert Velasquez, a campaign ...

Incursions on the rise, says Border Patrol

Two vehicles with 35 people make attempt to cross

Faced with huge budget cuts at the midpoint of their fiscal year, Border Patrol agents from the Imperial Beach station (and other stations along the border) are doubling up in many of the patrol vehicles ...

Baja prostitution on the increase this summer

Warm weather, more tourist clientele

The warm weather and improved tourist climate have reportedly attracted prostitutes to Rosarito, Ensenada, and Tijuana, according to a recent report in Tijuana’s daily Frontera. The three cities, coastal and vacation-oriented, represent the axis of ...

Vermont Street bridge gets a paint job

Work to be completed by end of July

A makeover is under way for the Vermont Street bridge, which crosses Washington Street from University Heights to reach the Uptown shopping center in Hillcrest. The City of San Diego is overseeing the work, being ...

Two Charros groups stand up in Escondido

Decisions to be made on 1.5-acre site

For the past 40 years, an equestrian group named the Asociación de Charros de Escondido has occupied a 1.5-acre area in northeastern Escondido just below Dixon Lake. Ensconced in a secluded, mostly wooded area also ...

Petitioner seeks to ban plastic bags from Oceanside

State bill fails; now citywide ban sought

An online petition to ban the use of plastic shopping bags in Oceanside had acquired 586 signatures by June 15. Several weeks ago, Belinda Martinez-Canez, who wrote the petition in late April, was surprised to ...

Car drives onto trolley tracks in Linda Vista

Tow-truck #2 pulls it off the rails

Eastbound San Diego Trolley traffic came to a standstill at the Linda Vista/Morena station from 7:15 to 7:45 p.m. on June 14, as did all traffic at the Friars Road/Morena Boulevard intersection. A car had ...

Border Patrol reports bands of Gypsies crossing from Mexico

Canada said to be their destination

Since 2010, more than 2200 Romanians have come into California from Mexico illegally and surrendered to the first U.S. Border Patrol agent they saw, according to Border Patrol statistics and accounts. Many of them surrendered ...

Tijuana Bike Fest welcomed by Baja tourism secretary

Three days of rumbling at the bullring

As many as 8000 motorcyclists are expected to converge this weekend at the Plaza Monumental bullring in Playas de Tijuana for the third Tijuana Bike Fest. The three-day event is scheduled to get under way ...

Chula Vista police chief Bejarano to home in on crime spot

Shots fired, bottles broken, condoms left behind

On June 8, Justice/Overcoming Boundaries, a community-organizing group, hosted a neighborhood forum at St. Mark’s Church in Chula Vista. About 100 residents turned out to discuss neighborhood empowerment and participate in three breakout groups: transportation, ...

CSI Ocean Beach slaps on the paint, covers graffiti

New group an outgrowth of OB Crime Watch

Volunteers showed up to a table set up near the seawall at the foot of Newport Avenue in O.B. on June 12 to sign up and help out a new group trying to make a ...