Here's something you might be interested in.
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Lawrence Osborne all over San Diego – Part 2
Travel agents disdain us, travails of grape growers, Roman roots of Jack Murphy Stadium, Iranians of Girard Avenue, dreams of UFO lovers, thin air of Mt. Soledad
"San Diego? Well, to be honest, it isn’t exactly top of our list."
San Diego — only city in the world with a teddy bear museum
So you want to go to San Diego for a holiday?” the immaculate youth in the Southwick madras suit says, rolling his eyes a little and looking at me firmly to make sure I am not pulling his leg. “Fine. Actually, it’s a lovely place, in some ways. Lovely beaches, as a matter of fact, and some lovely hotels. Great zoo, too). And the deserts, of course. No, really, it’s a lovely place." (Jan. 14, 1993)
Ross Rizzo: "It costs $475 an acre to water land here; it’s about $10 for the same thing around San Francisco."
Where they grow wine grapes in San Diego
Few people realize that Southern California was the original site of the state’s wine industry. At the turn of the century, as many as 35 full-time wineries operated in the San Diego area, and dozens more around Los Angeles. (February 11, 1993)
“The stadium made people in San Diego feel they had finally arrived, that this was, indeed, a major-league city."
The wild pagan roots of Mission Valley's Jack Murphy Stadium
Standing with a kind of lonely grandeur at the center of a vast, slightly angled parking lot dotted with pine trees, it has more than a passing resemblance to a Roman ruin. Its skeletal frame, with rectangles of empty space, gives it the half-ruined aspect of an ancient arena like that in Arles or the Coliseum itself, as if the architects had been unable to resist a pun or a parody with the Roman model in mind. (March 4, 1993)
"Persians have taste."
Iranians settle on Girard Avenue to show carpets
“Persian carpet shops are perhaps the quintessential Persian locale. And shopkeepers are perhaps the most culturally interesting ... because they often re-create nostalgic cultural settings in their public spaces.” (April 1, 1993)
Cays entrance art. “A waterfront house on the Green Turtle? You’d have to ask next door, I think about $700,000."
Coronado Cays villages have a distinctly nervous fee
When you turn off the road, past the uniformed fellow in his guard house and through one of the several wide gates, you have the impression of being in a suburban stretch of England’s Upper Thames or a yachting community in Bermuda. “Decked out in white jacket and pith helmet, the smiling, friendly Jamaican guard is the first indication that you’re about to enter a distinctly different world of residential living.” (Apr. 22, 1993)
An English child in southern California
And the ketchup is, staggeringly, free. He wants another one. We drive ’round a second time, and the ritual is repeated. The fries, too, are not soggy. There is ice in the Coke cup. And you do nothing but drive ’round the corner to get another one. (April 29, 1993)
“Oh yes,’’ he says, in the same merry voice, “I have photographs of those. Military bases. Absolutely no question about it. I will show you pictures of aircraft on the moon. They’ve been flying there for years. My father knew all about it, but he had to keep quiet. " (May 13, 1993)
Del Mar Plaza sreets festooned with flowers and bubbling fountains.
Del Mar Plaza overcomes finicky hostility
The developers had to assuage a certain amount of hostility, and this they did by selling off all the artifacts from the previous shopping strip on the site and donating proceeds to the Boys and Girls Club of Solana Beach, a nimble piece of PR that went some way to ingratiating them with the local community.. (August 5, 1993)
Winfield Durbin: “Do call ’round anytime you like. I’ll show you my iron window vents."
Life on Mount Soledad has always been about turning back the clock
Mount Soledad, it is true, is one of the most haughty neighborhoods in the United States. And it’s suffocatingly quaint. Small, cracked tarmac roads weave their way arduously up the crests of canyons and through slopes of chaparral. (August 12, 1993).
Real Del Mar
Baja boom towns: Las Quintas, San Antonio, Real Del Mar, La Paloma, Castillo del Mar, Costa del Sol, Villa del Mar, Costa Bella, Calafia
From this height, miles of glittering coastline are visible. An azure ocean edged with tumbledown chocolate cliffs. Coarse, treeless hillsides tip down toward the sea, unbesmirched by anything more than a thin scumline of development along the freeway. (September 23, 1993)
"I know it looks like a real weird place at first, but the people are not weird. Really, they’re not."
El Centro awaits the metropolis
“El Centro,” the two who stand almost all night outside the Kon-Tiki exclaim, “is a gold mine for johns. The sugar...the field workers. There’s nowhere like it. The border is the best place to be to make a buck.” (October 21, 1993)
Dr. Doshi: “Poway is about as un-Indian as it gets anywhere in the world. I suppose that’s why we like it."
Passage From India: San Diego's Quietly Prosperous Minority
"You see, the Indian community doesn’t have any saddhus here, which is the main difference from life in India. I suppose many come here to get away from ail that, and then later they might feel a desire to recover their roots." (January 13, 1994)
Here's something you might be interested in.
Lawrence Osborne all over San Diego – Part 2
Travel agents disdain us, travails of grape growers, Roman roots of Jack Murphy Stadium, Iranians of Girard Avenue, dreams of UFO lovers, thin air of Mt. Soledad
Lawrence Osborne all over San Diego – Part 2
Travel agents disdain us, travails of grape growers, Roman roots of Jack Murphy Stadium, Iranians of Girard Avenue, dreams of UFO lovers, thin air of Mt. Soledad
"San Diego? Well, to be honest, it isn’t exactly top of our list."
San Diego — only city in the world with a teddy bear museum
So you want to go to San Diego for a holiday?” the immaculate youth in the Southwick madras suit says, rolling his eyes a little and looking at me firmly to make sure I am not pulling his leg. “Fine. Actually, it’s a lovely place, in some ways. Lovely beaches, as a matter of fact, and some lovely hotels. Great zoo, too). And the deserts, of course. No, really, it’s a lovely place." (Jan. 14, 1993)
Ross Rizzo: "It costs $475 an acre to water land here; it’s about $10 for the same thing around San Francisco."
Where they grow wine grapes in San Diego
Few people realize that Southern California was the original site of the state’s wine industry. At the turn of the century, as many as 35 full-time wineries operated in the San Diego area, and dozens more around Los Angeles. (February 11, 1993)
“The stadium made people in San Diego feel they had finally arrived, that this was, indeed, a major-league city."
The wild pagan roots of Mission Valley's Jack Murphy Stadium
Standing with a kind of lonely grandeur at the center of a vast, slightly angled parking lot dotted with pine trees, it has more than a passing resemblance to a Roman ruin. Its skeletal frame, with rectangles of empty space, gives it the half-ruined aspect of an ancient arena like that in Arles or the Coliseum itself, as if the architects had been unable to resist a pun or a parody with the Roman model in mind. (March 4, 1993)
"Persians have taste."
Iranians settle on Girard Avenue to show carpets
“Persian carpet shops are perhaps the quintessential Persian locale. And shopkeepers are perhaps the most culturally interesting ... because they often re-create nostalgic cultural settings in their public spaces.” (April 1, 1993)
- Cays entrance art. “A waterfront house on the Green Turtle? You’d have to ask next door, I think about $700,000."
Coronado Cays villages have a distinctly nervous fee
When you turn off the road, past the uniformed fellow in his guard house and through one of the several wide gates, you have the impression of being in a suburban stretch of England’s Upper Thames or a yachting community in Bermuda. “Decked out in white jacket and pith helmet, the smiling, friendly Jamaican guard is the first indication that you’re about to enter a distinctly different world of residential living.” (Apr. 22, 1993)
An English child in southern California
And the ketchup is, staggeringly, free. He wants another one. We drive ’round a second time, and the ritual is repeated. The fries, too, are not soggy. There is ice in the Coke cup. And you do nothing but drive ’round the corner to get another one. (April 29, 1993)
“Oh yes,’’ he says, in the same merry voice, “I have photographs of those. Military bases. Absolutely no question about it. I will show you pictures of aircraft on the moon. They’ve been flying there for years. My father knew all about it, but he had to keep quiet. " (May 13, 1993)
Del Mar Plaza sreets festooned with flowers and bubbling fountains.
Del Mar Plaza overcomes finicky hostility
The developers had to assuage a certain amount of hostility, and this they did by selling off all the artifacts from the previous shopping strip on the site and donating proceeds to the Boys and Girls Club of Solana Beach, a nimble piece of PR that went some way to ingratiating them with the local community.. (August 5, 1993)
Winfield Durbin: “Do call ’round anytime you like. I’ll show you my iron window vents."
Life on Mount Soledad has always been about turning back the clock
Mount Soledad, it is true, is one of the most haughty neighborhoods in the United States. And it’s suffocatingly quaint. Small, cracked tarmac roads weave their way arduously up the crests of canyons and through slopes of chaparral. (August 12, 1993).
Real Del Mar
Baja boom towns: Las Quintas, San Antonio, Real Del Mar, La Paloma, Castillo del Mar, Costa del Sol, Villa del Mar, Costa Bella, Calafia
From this height, miles of glittering coastline are visible. An azure ocean edged with tumbledown chocolate cliffs. Coarse, treeless hillsides tip down toward the sea, unbesmirched by anything more than a thin scumline of development along the freeway. (September 23, 1993)
"I know it looks like a real weird place at first, but the people are not weird. Really, they’re not."
El Centro awaits the metropolis
“El Centro,” the two who stand almost all night outside the Kon-Tiki exclaim, “is a gold mine for johns. The sugar...the field workers. There’s nowhere like it. The border is the best place to be to make a buck.” (October 21, 1993)
Dr. Doshi: “Poway is about as un-Indian as it gets anywhere in the world. I suppose that’s why we like it."
Passage From India: San Diego's Quietly Prosperous Minority
"You see, the Indian community doesn’t have any saddhus here, which is the main difference from life in India. I suppose many come here to get away from ail that, and then later they might feel a desire to recover their roots." (January 13, 1994)