David Diaz

Bud and I tried the Kensington Club, but on the night we were there, there was a small crowd that didn’t seem to welcome outsiders.

Soul of a City

I left Kensington and found an apartment in the College Heights section. I thought that living near the university might be like living in the small New England college town where I had gone to study. It was not. San Diego State seemed to have risen up out of the suburban skin like a blemish, although in truth, it was the surrounding area that had been guilty of the encroachment.

By Glenn Wallace, Oct. 31, 1985 | Read full article

you may think i’m generalizing, clipping across racial and economic hedges, but if there is an essence of san diego, it is the fear in the eyes of all the people who live here

San Diego Overview

So is the label “san diegan’ a metaphor? can you meet a ‘san diegan’ living in laramie, wyoming? i don’t think so. you see new yorkers all over the country, that’s something else, they have aggression, food, arrogance in common — comes from fighting the same enemy and not caring all the time if they win but if you are a san diegan you always come back to where resistance is least: home: the ocean: san diego.

By Jeff Weinstein, Dec. 9, 1976 | Read full article

The obvious local wonders would include the San Diego Zoo, the Mt. Palomar telescope, the Hotel Del Coronado, but they belong more to the world at large than the local populace.

David Covey

The Seven Wonders of San Diego

It's a miracle only two people died that day in 1965. Anderson murdered one, Louis Richards, and the other one, Robert Crandall, editor of the San Diego Independent, died of a heart attack while covering the event. But the shooting broke out in one of downtown's busiest districts, at a time when people were still arriving for work. Crowds of rubberneckers were within a block of the battle, and they often cheered when Anderson returned fire.

By Neal Matthews, Oct. 24, 1985 | Read full article

Where once lay an ocean of scrub and wildflowers, there was now a sea of rooftops in escrow. The sign said La Jolla Colony.

Peter Hannan

Two Views of San Diego

I used to consider San Diego roads relatively sane, compared to L.A. Now the freeway is full of lunatics. Everyone’s trying to go faster than the next guy. People used to glance at the scenery now and again, take in the pleasure of 163 through Balboa Park, or enjoy the spring wildflower bloom along Highway 5 through La Jolla. Now they stare intently straight ahead, glaring at the road, which is their enemy. They seem greedier.

By Jim Mastro and Leonard Rogoff, May 21, 1987 | Read full article

There are twenty-six freeways in L.A. Cars on half of this 740 miles of asphalt crawl at less than fifteen miles an hour every working morning. Compare this with San Diego’s 220 miles of freeway.

Peter Hannan

I’ll Take San Diego

Sure, there are problems. There’s no good way to get from La Jolla to Lakeside. Eastbound Interstate 8 and Highway 94 are real drags. A quarter of a million people commute to downtown, and SANDAG expects that number to double by the turn of the century. Broadway is one of the most congested streets in San Diego and will probably always be so, since no one plans to make a one-way street out of it.

By Steven Saint, Oct. 13, 1988 | Read full article

Royal Food Mart. Old black-and-white photos from Agua Caliente and cigarette ads from advertising's Social Register period ("Mrs. Alison Boyer — another Camel enthusiast") round out the decor.

Paul Stachelek

San Diego, My Lovely

None of this, to be sure, is accidental. Current owner Joe Leshen has done his best to give you a grocery shop that you’ll never mistake for the 7-Eleven or Ralphs. Joe has lovingly preserved most of the archaic fittings that came with the store when be took possession in 1982. When he’s brought new pieces in — for example, the old deli case, dragged up from Old Town — be has tried to avoid anachronism.

By Mary Lang, Judith Moore, Adam Parfrey, Margot Sheehan, and Duncan Shepherd, June 27, 1991 | Read full article