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Clairemont Stories
What lies in Clairemont's future?
Single-family paradise resistant to change
The update of the Clairemont community plan is in full swing. How this plan shapes up will determine the future of Clairemont and Bay Park until at least 2040. Senior city planner Marlon Pangilinan gave ...
What are those easterly winds blowing to Clairemont?
What happened to Miramar Landfill to change things?
On May 25, the Air Pollution Control District hearing board ordered the city to return on July 27 with a diagnosis and a concrete plan to deal with the smells that are vexing residents downwind ...
High Tech High requests permit for 1636 students instead of 1110
Clairemont neighbors get hot
The first official public meeting for the High Tech High project was held on May 10. It was the first meeting for the new Clairemont subcommittee planning group since electing a new chair. The meeting ...
Fewer burritos, more Mediterranean
International market has tarama, sangak, and mast`o musir
A buddy of mine recently made a shift in his eating habits: fewer burritos, more Mediterranean. Even though I didn’t imagine finding the ingredients for a Mediterranean diet would prove challenging — it is what ...
Bay Parkers praise Highway 101 signs on Morena Blvd.
But one old-timer says 101 was where I-5 is now.
The last stop for Dave Potter, before ordering historic Highway 101 signage to put up along Morena Boulevard, was to get one last final thumbs-up from the Clairemont community planning group on April 18. Potter, ...
High Tech High to take over Horizon Christian Academy Clairemont site
Horizon parents worry, but San Diego Unified needs the money.
Time is running out for Horizon Christian Academy. The K-12 private school that has called 5331 Mt. Alifan Drive home since 1985 has until the end of June to relocate. High Tech High, a K-12 ...
Grace Brethren Church in Clairemont to subdivide property
Eight 5000-foot houses on Atlas Street
On March 21, Sam listened to an engineer from Leppert Engineering present a project to the Clairemont community planning group. The project proposes to build eight houses on what is currently a one acre church ...
Will Chris Cate make things right at Clairemont and Balboa?
Sharok Eslamian’s former gas station still painful for neighbors
“The city has been sitting on their hands doing nothing. They did nothing until I complained."
Butt out, Clairemont, says Linda Vista
Affordable housing and cyclist groups don’t like neighborhood planning groups
Linda Vista should have a neighborhood voice in planning how the neighborhood is developed and maintained, the neighborhood's planning group voted unanimously Monday night. "I have a lot of respect for the Clairemont planning group ...
About those bombs dropped on North Clairemont...
Residents told WWII ordnance investigation scheduled for 2085
Janet Lancaster came armed with questions for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers program manager Jeff Armentrout on March 2. The town-council meeting had a modest turnout but all eyes and ears were at full attention ...
Clairemont seniors anticipate crosswalk upgrade
"I’ve also seen yellow police tape when I wasn’t sure what happened.”
Sometime during the 2016 winter holidays, the city posted notices on Cowley Way (between Field Street and Iroquois Avenue) residents’ front doors. The notices stated that work would commence within a couple weeks to install ...
Standing Rock protest movement re-gears up
"This is not the last time we'll be here."
"We knew these attacks were coming, and now more than ever we must grow the resistance," opened Abel Macias, reading a statement from tribal leaders at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota, where ...
Balboa Avenue trolley-stop talk
"It's not enough to get a mile away from your destination."
Although it's not yet funded, project managers for the planned trolley station at Balboa Avenue (just east of I-5) have started gathering information for what people want to see there — what will compel them ...
Farmers return to Clairemont
Will the latest weekly outdoor market have lasting power?
A new farmers' market is opening up in Clairemont. The community repeatedly says they want one but once it appears, they don’t seem to support it in numbers big enough to make it viable for ...
No affordable housing on Tavara Ridge
Clairemont project on former school site to include 52 homes
Fifty-two mini-mansions are planned for a recently demolished 17.5-acre elementary-school site (4520 Pocahontas Avenue). The new neighborhood (being sold as Tavara Ridge) of two-story homes will have two- to three-car garages with up to five ...
Clairemont real estate up for grabs
San Diego Association of Governments may be doing the grabbing
On September 9, the San Diego Association of Government’s board of directors voted in favor of taking a prime corner lot above Mission Bay Park by eminent domain for a new trolley Park & Ride. ...
God can be found in a gay bar as well
Pastor Dan Koeshall on preaching
Membership: 200 Pastor: Dan Koeshall Age: 56 Born: Pipestone, MN Formation: Evangel University, Springfield, MO; Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena Years Ordained: 25 San Diego Reader: What’s your favorite subject on which to preach? Pastor Dan ...
No huge demand for Tecolote Canyon crosswalk
"I don’t know if our design is in sync with city regulations...."
Clairemont resident Stephanie Rabelo put out the call to her neighbors to show up November 19 between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. to support the idea of a proposed crosswalk on Mt. Acadia Boulevard from the ...
Dear candidates: your signs are now trash
Congressional campaign of Denise Gitsham singled out in Clairemont
Residents of Clairemont have been playing a game of “Where’s Waldo” — except it’s not much of a challenge. In this scenario, Waldo is the campaign signage of Denise Gitsham, a former candidate for U.S. ...
More apartments across Gila Avenue
Neighbor worries about crime
According to neighbors, the house at 4591 Gila Avenue was an eyesore. Neighbors lodged complaints about hoarding — the back yard looked like a construction site, complete with a forklift, Bobcat, trucks, and trailers. Edward ...
Cheetahs strip club faces closure
Appellate court ruled in favor of city's decision to revoke club's permit
The City of San Diego's decision to revoke a popular strip club's permit stands, ruled an appellate court. On September 28, California's Fourth District Appellate Court found that the Kearny Mesa all-nude club had a ...
Sandag members checking phones, whispering to each other
Forget the public on Clairemont shopping center plans
On September 9, the Sandag board voted to take a high-profile corner lot, directly above Mission Bay Park and off the I-5, by eminent domain. The former shopping center on Clairemont Drive between Morena Boulevard ...
Pork knuckles and duck necks?
Don’t worry, there’s something for everyone
Everyone has that one friend. You know the one. The guy who likes to nibble at pickled duck feet. The girl who crunches slices of cold pig ear and offers to take yours “if you’re ...
Clairemont’s home day-care shuffle
One center cited, closes, reopens two days later
On August 10, a day-care center at 6816 Boxford Drive was closed after being open for less than four months. Two days later, it opened up again under a new name. Janet Lancaster lives next ...
One year to replace Clairemont grocery store
Keil's moving out, Sprouts moving in not fast enough
After 26 years, Keil’s grocery store is leaving the Clairemont Village shopping center in mid-October. Clairemont residents have been waiting for some sort of written-in-stone news since January when Keil’s lease ran out. A teary-eyed ...
Don't worry, old-timer, cell phones don't cause cancer
Low-income seniors misinformed about rooftop work?
A little before 7:30 a.m. on July 23, a crane as well as eight commercial and flatbed trucks were parked in the middle of the street in front of Sorrento Tower, a 14-story low-income senior ...
Clairemont Coco’s out, Chick-fil-A in
Some satisfied, some dismayed at approval of "another fast-food joint"
On July 19, representatives of the Chick-fil-A fast-food chain gave a presentation to the Clairemont Community Planning Group with the latest rendition of the drive-thru proposed to replace the Coco’s Restaurant at 5955 Balboa Avenue. ...
Biker accident victims win $375K settlement
Claim says city failed to "designate, place, situate, sign, stripe, mark, paint, delineate, illuminate, design, construct..."
On Tuesday, July 19, city councilmembers will approve a $375,000 settlement for a couple who were injured in a 2013 motorcycle accident that occurred at an intersection outside of a Walmart in Clairemont Mesa. Garrett ...
It was a perfectly healthy tree in Clairemont
Mature jacaranda chopped down in error
Henrietta Valens (not her real name) left Clairemont for Vegas with friends on June 28. On June 30 at 8:46 a.m., her 90-year-old mother called to tell her that some guys were getting ready to ...
Gripes over Clairemont's new bike-lane barriers
“The dividers have provided pedestrians with a false sense of security."
On May 24, the city installed white plastic barriers along the bike lane on one side of Balboa Avenue (east on Clairemont Drive heading toward Genesee Avenue). Within a few days, the barriers started getting ...
Future of Clairemont Keil's grocery store undecided
“We are all just kind of figuring it out as it goes.”
After 26 years, in January the lease expired on the Keil’s grocery store located on Clairemont Drive (there's another in San Carlos). An extension was granted until April by Kleege Enterprises, which purchased the Clairemont ...
Condo dwellers put the kibosh on smoked meat
Mike's BBQ shuts down rather than face costly penalties
Not long after Mike’s BBQ opened their second location at 3055 Clairemont Drive, residents in the condos next door started complaining about the smoky smell. The first complaint was lodged on July 5, 2015. According ...
Suicide in Clairemont
Man jumped from 14th floor of seniors' residence
At 1:00 p.m. on April 19, I witnessed an elderly woman with short dark hair sitting on an overturned shopping cart in the Clairemont Village parking lot. She was crying and distraught and being comforted ...
Bay Park remains a mere neighborhood
Quest for signage turned up fact that it's not considered a community
On February 18, city traffic engineer Gary Pence gave Dave Potter the long-awaited news that neighborhood signs for Bay Park had been ordered. I met with Potter on March 15 at Tecolote Road and Morena ...
The Jewish Film Festival has some winners
Remember, Natasha, Projections of America, Dealing With the Devil
Normally it takes eight to ten films to find the three or four needed to pad a film festival overview, but this year’s San Diego Jewish Film Festival hit me with four winners right out ...
Tecolote Canyon is crappy
Bicycle lane the refuge of car drivers avoiding “horrible” road
"I’ve lived in San Diego since 1973 and I've never seen our roads this horrible," said Clairemont resident Linda Loveland on January 27. "I use Mount Acadia Boulevard every day to go to and from ...
He used the Force, the Force won
Star Wars fan robs bank, makes successful getaway (for now)
On January 9 at 2:00 p.m., the Wells Fargo Bank located within the Vons at 4725 Clairemont Drive at the Clairemont Square shopping center was robbed. The bank teller told police that prior to the ...
Tecolote Canyon’s history writ in stone and sediment
A pleasant walk along the southern section
Tecolote Canyon, featured on area maps for almost 200 years, is designated a natural park 6 miles in length, .25 to .5-mile wide, with a 2-mile tributary totaling just over 900 acres. Elevations range from ...
Bible in one hand, newspaper in the other
Pastor Jonathan Doolittle of Concordia Church takes some questions
Clairemont Lutheran Church Membership: 800 Pastor: Jonathan Doolittle Age: 50 Born: Columbus, OH Formation: Wittenberg University, Springfield, OH; Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, IL Years Ordained: 21 San Diego Reader: How long do you ...
Clairemont corner eyesore
Graffiti magnet at major Balboa Avenue intersection
The corner lot on Clairemont Drive and Balboa Avenue was covered in graffiti again on December 4. It wasn't the first time Stephanie Pfaff of Bay Park had seen the vacant buildings behind the chain-link ...
Let's call this one the floppy-hatted filcher
"We were a good mark: we had two kids with us who were jumping around."
On Wednesday afternoon (December 8), Jill Marr of Clairemont was getting groceries at the Smart & Final on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard with her houseguest from Atlanta, Stacy Allen. Marr said on December 9, "We were ...
Mixed reviews on new Clairemont bicycle lanes
"It's practically a suicide mission reversing out of the driveway."
On November 24, the Clairemont Community Planning Group voted to change Clairemont Drive between Balboa Avenue and Clairemont Mesa Boulevard from two lanes into one to accommodate a bicycle lane. The deputy city engineer, Brian ...
Church of God's mission: Win. Build. Send.
“The harvest is plenty but the workers are few.”
Something pure and holy about downtown’s streets.
'Tis the season for porch shoppers
After absconding, thieves leave behind packaging (and undesired present)
Walking her dogs at 6:00 a.m. in Bay Ho on November 19, Stephanie Rosenbaum spotted a package ripped open in the bushes halfway down the 4000 block of Kamloop Avenue. "It was a light green ...
Riley Elementary special-needs student victimized
District bus driver accused of performing "lewd and lascivious acts"
The San Diego Unified School District has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by a parent who claims her child, a special-needs student at Riley Elementary in Clairemont Mesa, was sexually assaulted by a district ...
Trader Joe's gets it, Clairemont
Residents bug company execs with pleas for a store in their town
Earlier this year, Clairemont Town Council boardmember Steve Innis was told by Trader Joe's real estate manager Doug Yokomizo that calls can help get certain parts of town on their radar. Subsequently, in May, Clairemont ...
Clairemont and Eastlake softball teams burgled
Equipment theft occurred during short hiatus, suggestive of inside job
On Friday, August 14, a softball-team manager discovered that the storage shed for the Clairemont Girl's Fastpitch Softball League had been broken into. League president Marie Wiggins said on August 17 that the theft happened ...
Rattlesnakes percolating from dry Clairemont canyons
Leave 'em alone
A few hours ago, Shannon M. of West Clairemont alerted neighbors via NextDoor.com that one of his Mt. Acadia neighbors had found two different rattlesnakes in his back yard within the past 24 hours. A ...
Clairemont speeding irks residents
Elderly and handicapped at risk on Cowley Way
Shortly after hearing about a 77-year old woman who suffered a hit-and-run in La Jolla while crossing the street last Saturday, I saw two Western tow trucks pull up in my neighborhood. I watched one ...
Zapf's Clairemont swampland
Median eyesore on Balboa Avenue
Clairemont Mesa residents have had enough. Joel P. shared on NextDoor.com, "Ever since they redid the entire median on Balboa from Morena to 805 with landscaping years ago, we have been blessed with the only ...
Burglars rifle cars for remotes
Cash, iPods, and other valuables left behind
A few weeks ago, eight houses on Black Mountain Road in Mira Mesa were all hit on the same day. A garage door opener previously stolen from one Black Mountain resident's car was used to ...
Hawaiian plate lunch at Homestyle Hawaiian
The siren call of macaroni salad in Clairemont
Macaroni salad is a guilty pleasure of mine. Here I write about all kinds of food, and I demand some semblance of quality. But apparently I’m easily won over by a little cold pasta and ...
