Pacific Beach Stories

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Star Power

I was able to hit two parties recently because one involved a student film festival, and the kiddies don’t usually party into the late hours. The event, a fundraiser at Isabel’s Cantina in P.B., was ...

Beach Garbage Cleanup

Take a stroll through Pacific Beach, and you’re likely to encounter just a few too many empty food containers, cans, bags, party flyers, bottles, and cigarette butts. “On a good day we probably remove between ...

Save the Lifeguards

The most pressing issue addressed at the November 18 Pacific Beach Town Council meeting was the looming likelihood of a reduction in lifeguards. It was pointed out that the city’s reported goal of reducing the ...

Eligible Violators

I was driving through Pacific Beach on Saturday, September 14, when I noticed a small group of people on Garnet Avenue clad in orange vests and armed with trash tongs. I stopped to chat. Turned ...

Tipsy and Talkative

I get invited to a number of pub-crawls. I’m not a beer drinker and usually pass. But a guy named Steve, who logged on to the Reader website once to comment on a party, informed ...

Plug In, Plump Up

The roofs over eight parking spaces at the McDonald’s restaurant on Garnet Avenue are covering soon-to-be-operational ChargePoint stations from Coulomb Technologies, Inc. (coulombtech.com). The charging stations will be open to all drivers of plug-in vehicles. ...

P.B.'s Plague

At last week’s Pacific Beach Town Council meeting, Lou Cumming, member of the PB Town Council and sub-committee chair of their Safe & Beautiful Committee, addressed the crowd and spoke about his efforts in keeping ...

Dog Gone Wild

On Friday afternoon, September 18, police responded to reports of a vicious dog running loose and biting someone in Pacific Beach. When police arrived at the parking lot on the corner of Ingraham and Garnet ...

Fire Lane

Do this on a Friday or Saturday night — almost any night, really. Impress your date, your friends, kids, mom or dad, freak out your dog; it will only cost what you want it to, ...

The Case of the Blue Violin

Jennifer “Spags” Spingola and her blue violin have been around the world. The flying V, six-string electric violin was made for her nine years ago by Wood Violins of New York. “It’s one of a ...

Not Fair

Police officers are finding themselves with more time to closely examine vehicle registrations and ticket vehicles that do not have updated registration, despite the fact that the vehicle is not actually on the road. This ...

After Midnight

San Diego police arrested one person for driving under the influence and issued a misdemeanor citation to another person for making threats in connection with a disturbance that began at a Pacific Beach bar. On ...

Salsa Susie, Tango Tony

On the same weekend last month, I went to two dance parties. One was for a salsa dancer who turned 40. The locale, in P.B., was decorated with pictures of him. A DJ played salsa ...

Pitifully Doomed

San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders recently announced that the City has launched a new website at which people can make donations to support the fire-pit program. Despite a $259,500 donation, fire-pit funding has only been ...

Cold Case Gets Hot

It was shortly after 2:00 a.m. when Gerald Jackson finished his closing shift at the Barbary Coast, a downtown gay bar at the corner of Fourth and C, next to the landmark California Theatre. The ...

Let’s Toast to Banning Booze

During District 2 councilmember Kevin Faulconer’s state of the district speech on April 27, he listed his accomplishments during the past three years. One of his proudest accomplishments so far has been banning alcohol from ...

Australian Rules

In late March, I went to a park in Hillcrest for a going-away party. People there dubbed the theme “crokaoke” because they were playing croquet and singing karaoke. The guest of honor was a local ...

Shamrocks and Cotton Patches

They say your home is your castle. So it is with Jim’s place, which is shaped like a castle. He’s known as the P.B. Millionaire. The St. Patrick’s Day party he hosted was downtown at ...

Share Waves Without Judgment

Name: Michael Janzen Surfing: Tourmaline Lives: Mission Valley Miss work for surfing? “No. Get up earlier and do both.” A few months ago, surfers congregated at Tourmaline Surf Park in Pacific Beach. The mayor and ...

Smashed in P.B.

In the nighttime hours of March 26 and/or March 27, multiple cars were broken into throughout Pacific Beach and Mission Beach. Two cars (a Honda and a Chevy) parked on Chalcedony Street had their driver's ...

Escorts & Engagements

I remember getting a call years ago from a girl named Caryn. She was having a birthday party, and I hadn’t been doing this column very long. The details sounded interesting. She was dating a ...

I'd Like to Mail This Here Pistol

At approximately 2:15 p.m. on Friday, January 30, I was the second customer in line at the Pacific Beach post office on Cass Street. In front of me was a slender man in his 50s ...

Accident on the Boardwalk

On Thursday, February 5, at approximately 2:30 p.m., outside Joe's Crab Shack in Pacific Beach, a car wound up on the boardwalk, nearly running over at least one passerby. An Oregon couple visiting the area ...

Crystal Pier Set to Re-Open

The Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach, which has been closed to the public for maintenance since early December, is set to re-open in early February. According to Jim Bostian, who has managed the pier for ...

P.B.: Party Capital or Family Community?

The Beach Area Community Court held its Volunteer Training on January 27, 2009, inside the Discover Pacific Beach headquarters located at 1503 Garnet Avenue. The court is a voluntary prosecutorial diversion program for adult offenders ...

What You Missed at the Latest Pacific Beach Town Council Meeting

Proactive business owners and residents met Wednesday, January 21st at 6:30 p.m. at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center with the collective intent of deciding upon and implementing a variety of strategies aimed at improving both ...

Rockin' Around the Block

When I was four, I formed two distinct memories of events that happened at Christmastime. The first was when my mom, newly single, took my older brother and me to see Santa Claus. We didn’t ...

Five Years on the Street

I was up north for 26 years. I came back to San Diego by invitation from an ex-wife. Two of my grown sons were in town, and my partnership in a newspaper in the Comstock ...

Yo Ho, a Pirate's Hat for Me

I got an invite to an ‘80s party and figured that’d wrap up these decade-themed events. I assumed nobody would have a ‘90s-themed party; I’m not even sure how I’d dress for something like that. ...

That '70s Party

Having covered ‘50s and ‘60s theme parties the past two weeks, it seemed appropriate to jump to a ‘70s bash at the VFW hall in Pacific Beach. Coincidentally, I went to a going-away party at ...

Christ Lutheran Church

Traces of the old tile pattern still darken the stained concrete floor at Christ Lutheran, but they don’t distract much from the surface’s overall look — that of parched, cracked earth. It’s in sharp contrast ...

Large Loud Parties Coming Soon to Your Neighborhood

Zonna Pennell lives in the 3400 block of Keats Street in Point Loma, midway up the hill above Nimitz on a short segment of the street that has eight houses of eclectic style. She says ...

Booze Moves to the Alley

In an alleyway in Ocean Beach, near the intersection of Newport and Bacon, Keith Morgan sits in a white plastic chair padded with two pieces of cardboard. He’s slept in that chair since May, when ...

Beach Booze Banter

"January 9, 2008, is a day that will live in infamy," says Terry Brickman, a beachgoer I talk to in early April about the day the beach booze ban went into effect. I am surprised ...

Pretty in PB

I'm wearing a denim skirt that shows off my legs, the one part of my body I actually like. I'm doing my best to walk gracefully in the black wedged heels I bought last summer. ...

The Worm Turns

I saw a story in an entertainment magazine about how Tara Reid lowered the price she gets for attending parties. She used to ask for $25,000 to attend a party or grand opening. Nobody was ...

Mess with the Bull…

Moondoggies in PB has been found in contempt of court for substituting generic energy drinks for Red Bull without telling patrons who order the beverage by its brand name. “This is the second time that ...

International Heat

Hey. Here it goes. The scalp. Prickling, breaking out in sweat beads. Ladies and gentlemen, we have liftoff. Tonight I stopped outside this big red-and-yellow sign on Garnet. “World Curry.” Hmm... Why not? I like ...

Coastland Church

Toddlers sprawled quietly on the patch of thick carpet at the back of the dim auditorium, filling in their coloring books. Behind them stood a row of tables holding free Bibles, juice, sandwich bags filled ...

The Morning After Mess

The Fourth of July is about celebration. It's about honoring our country, our freedoms, while tossing a few back with family and friends — not on the beach of course — and watching the spectacular ...

Booze Ban Driving Homeless Inland?

Two opposing views regarding the ban on brew at San Diego's beaches inadvertently surfaced during the June 25th meeting of the Ocean Beach town council. When Officer David Surwilo, community liaison for the police department's ...

P.B. Isn't Getting M.A.D.

Some residents of Pacific Beach don't want to pay to get a MAD — Maintenance Assessment District — because they feel the property owners shouldn't have to pay to clean up after the bars and ...

PB Police Prepare for Beach Booze Ban

The 4th of July is quickly approaching and the San Diego Police Department is treating Pacific Beach as Ground Zero. Lt. David Nisleit spoke to the Pacific Beach Town Council, on the 18th of June, ...

Dixie-Fried

Since the last time I reviewed Chateau Orleans for Mardi Gras, 2001, it’s been through at least two changes of ownership. I wasn’t crazy about the food, and then the second-to-last owner complained that our ...

Pacific Beach Bible Church

The backlit wooden cross hanging on the wall above the stage was bare, but Christ crucified was a prominent feature of Sunday’s service at Pacific Beach Bible Church. I say prominent, not exclusive; the mentions ...

Tacos Are a Tiny Taste of Temptation

Fancy wimmen are okay, but there's nuttin' like the real thing: a nice warm adobada taco on a nice cold night beside a nice hot grill outside a friendly taco catering truck, with that marinated ...

Delicate Gut-Liner

It’s morning. Feeling lousy. No, wasn’t grog last night. Toothache. Normally, I never take pills. But Carla persuaded me. Took an antibiotic. Gripped my gut like a vice. This mawnin’, still recovering. Weaving gingerly through ...

The Rainbow Sign

We are a frazzled, worried country after seven years of every important decision being decided wrong by that "deciderator" and the awful gray eminences whispering in his ears. So do I dare to interpret the ...

Pump House, Pacific Beach

Joe Lodico Lives: La Jolla/UTC Surfing: Pump House, Pacific Beach Last week's big swell reversed almost all aspects of the San Diego surfing scene; tourists and kooks fled the water and left the waves to ...

To Ota, with a Sensei and a Nisei

**** 1/2 (Excellent to Extraordinary) 4529 Mission Bay Drive (at Bunker Hill Street), Pacific Beach, 858-270-5670. HOURS: Saturday--Monday 5:30--10:30 p.m., Tuesday--Friday 11 a.m.--2 p.m. and 5:30--10:30 p.m. PRICES: Sushi and sashimi $25--$35 for full dinner ...

Pacific Beach

Names: Matthew and Kevin Live: Clairemont Surfing: End of P.B. Drive, Pacific Beach Father and son Kevin and Matthew emerge from the surf to sit at the water's edge and talk about their session. Dad ...

All That's Left

Israel and Lebanon were at war. England and Argentina were at war. In Hollywood, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were formed. Navy beat Army 24-7, the Chargers beat the Dolphins 41-38 to make it to ...