Joe Deegan and the Reader

Deegan has written for the Reader since 1998.

Deegan's favorite stories he has written for the Reader:

• San Diego State's growing contempt for undergrads

• “The joke is we would like to swap students with Arizona,” says Jim Gerber, a professor of economics at San Diego State University. “All our students will go to Arizona and pay out-of-state tuition, and all their students will come here and pay out-of-state.” (March 27, 2013)

• Sunrise Powerlink — a chess game for the big guys

• The Sunrise Powerlink gleamed for the first time in Sempra Energy’s eye on November 1, 2002. At the company’s San Diego headquarters, an energy-management expert from Shell Trading gave a PowerPoint presentation highlighting the potential transmission line. Nameless at first, the new line would run from the Imperial Valley, near the Mexican border, to Rainbow, northeast of Fallbrook. (May 28, 2008)

• Einstein, That Clown: Special Relativity Refuted at Bull's Smokin' BBQ

• If he’d take it as a compliment, I’d call him the Einstein of West Morena Boulevard. That’s where Tony Iaquinta holds forth in his restaurant, Bull’s Smokin’ BBQ. It’s mighty good food, the barbecued ribs, smoked salmon, pulled pork, and brisket of beef that he offers up between conversational visits to your table. (Nov. 10, 2010)

• Funeral shopping: Greenwood, Cypress View, Rosecrans

• Bouquets of roses and daisies stand on either side of the casket. The left half of its lid is open. Overhead, eight-inch stained boards slant toward the crest of the ceiling. The Cypress View Chapel looks to seat 200 mourners in its pews, but now, except for my edgy presence, it is empty. (Nov. 4, 2004)

• The Apocalypse keeps Tim LaHaye busy

• THE SUNDAY must have been June 11, 1967. As recalled by Jim DeSaegher, then a member of Scott Memorial Baptist Church, the minister opened his sermon with the exclamation, "Guess what happened yesterday?" "I thought of it," says DeSaegher, "as a moment of exaltation that Israel is victorious. Israel is put there for a purpose in 1948. Now they've validated their position, and God seems to be on their side. That's the feeling you got." (July 8, 2004)

• Homeless and going to San Diego State

• Before dawn on the morning of SDSU’s commencement last May, James Ziegler-Kelly climbed out of his tent under a bridge in Mission Valley. He dressed, folded the tent and his sleeping bag, and loaded the car. He showered in the Aztec Recreation Center on the west side of campus. (May 5, 2010)

• Donna Frye muses on San Diego strong mayor and district elections

• “In the old days, you had kingmakers who would put in the people they wanted over the objections of those in the community,” says Donna Frye.The former city councilwoman is speaking of the two major changes in San Diego government over the past quarter century: district-only council elections and the “strong mayor.” (Jan. 25, 2012)

• The problem with San Diego's historic neighborhoods

• Perhaps most telling, both for both his own home’s designation and for the integrity of the South Park district, was Twining’s exposure of a major error, among several, that the district used to classify his home. The board called it a Craftsman Bungalow when all the available evidence shows that it is a “Board and Batten Box.” (Nov. 14, 2018)

• Airport noise — from La Mesa to La Jolla

• A new rapprochement between recently tone deaf aviation officials and irritated residents in the flight paths may now be in the offing. After two years of Federal Aviation Administration missteps in implementing new flight patterns, the agency and the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority have hired consultants to work with local residents to determine changes to alleviate some of the latest noise problems. (Aug. 1, 2018)

• Why San Diegans like Ron Paul

• “I’d say there are similarities in Occupy to what I believe,” says Normal Heights resident Mario Perea, who attended Occupy San Diego several times over the past year. “But spending time there also allowed me to understand people’s fascination with socialism. The built-in hatred toward capitalism, I think, it comes up from our schools. And a lot of television makes it seem that capitalism is the problem.” (Apr. 4, 2012)

• Linda Vista Landmark Skateworld Faces the Wrecking Ball of Redevelopment

• Bamford said that City officials seemed to think of Linda Vista as a doormat, a backwater full of know-nothings. I still have a few recordings of our conversations. “You can tell the Redevelopment Agency is planning something they know we won’t like,” he says on one, “and that something will split the community into bitter camps. Ultimately, the City will do whatever it pleases." (Sept. 1, 2010)

• City Heights' freeway-friendly bus stop

• Ramon Garcia used to board the bus right before El Cajon Boulevard as it came up the off-ramp from the 15 freeway. After picking up its passengers, Rapid 235 waited for a green light to cross the Boulevard and descend the on-ramp to get back on the freeway heading north as far as Escondido. (May 2, 2018)

• The shame that San Diego smokers feel

• Without complaining — audibly, at least — they leave the building to light up, even when it’s cold and raining. In some offices, that means taking a 15-floor elevator ride to the street. (March 16, 2011)

• Want to out your gun-toting neighbors? There's an app for that.

• On the Fourth of July this summer, a free app appeared in Google Play Store to help Americans make neighborhoods safer from the misuse of guns. Brett Stalbaum, who is 46 and has been a lecturer in the visual arts department at the University of California San Diego for 11 years, created the app in the university’s Walkingtools.net Laboratory for exclusive use on Android phones. (Nov. 13, 2013)
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