Cover Stories
“This used to be a beautiful place,” says Jonnie. “A family part of town. Nice people lived here. That all changed with the Vietnam War, 1975. People from war places started coming in, big-time.”
I saw a black man sprawled in the gutter on Imperial Avenue, clutching an empty bottle of cheap Thunderbird. I felt bad for him. “He’s not in your family, is he?" my mother asked.
They exchange names of famous skateboarders from San Diego: Doug Saladino, Steve Cathey, Henry Hester, Bob Skolberg, Greg Weaver. No one mentions Mark “Gator” Anthony, the famous San Diego skateboarder who murdered a girl in P.B. in 1990.
With time running out before the big game, I was still without a ticket. I spotted a fellow trying to unload an extra ticket in the hotel lobby, and he kindly offered it to me …
Patricia Purcell walked unsteadily into Courtroom 6 in San Diego's federal courthouse. Her face sagged from too little sleep, no makeup, and tension. Supporters in the courtroom for her sentencing hearing did a double-take. The …
It isn’t as though the good reverend, Ed Everrett, both Baptist missionary and neon sign maker, never tried planting a kitchen garden in all the years Rancho Sordo Mudo had been growing and expanding in …
The Nickelodeon Cinema, I Street, Chula Vista. Ten o’clock Friday night. "Hello,” I say to three Chicana girls as we come away from the ticket “Are you going to see Mi Vida Loca? They nod. …
From outside it sounded like a Santeria initiation. I heard the call of the bata drums, then the lead voice, followed by the chorus to Eleggua, the trickster orisha and the spirit of the crossroads: …
Hotel residents: Are they really nonpeople, invisible thousands of men and women fleeing the responsibilities of family and property? That’s the role assigned them by public architects and urban planners who perceived them as a …
CHRIST! “8:45,” says the radio. Still shaving. It’ll be halfway up the Silver Strand already. Don’t rush, don’t rush. You’ll cut yourself. “Can you find my wallet!” I yell. I’m running round hauling trousers on. …
“If you use eminent domain, you’re setting up people who spent life savings to live on the beach. Now, they’re going to be forced out to build a giant hotel for tourists from out of town.”
Don Norman wanted a large latte made with decaffeinated coffee and low-fat milk. He told this to the college student behind the counter at the Grove Caffe, the coffeehouse set among one of the stands …
STINK BOMB AT TACO BELL By Alex Rynant/ Rancho Bernardo Bob and I were in a hurry to pick up his wife at the airport but we needed to eat before we got there. We …
Even when he had more with him than just the pair of blue-and-white shorts he wore when the border patrolman and five classified-duty Marines found him, he wouldn’t have had an ID. Crossing, you’re anonymous. …
Among Schuyler’s papers at UCSD, I happened upon a file marked “Eileen Myles.” The folder consisted mostly of postcards and hand-written notes attached to manuscripts she’d given Schuyler to read. Finally I spied a two-page letter.
Ken Cumming, dean of ICR’s graduate school, said he didn’t like me hanging around the offices trying to “pump” faculty and staff members for information since I was the “enemy.”