Del Mar Stories
The San Diego County Fair’s 2022 “pay to play” model requires artists who wish to perform at this year’s event to pay a $25 processing fee for their applications to be considered. On the other …
Del Mar may be the next city after Solana Beach, Encinitas, and Carlsbad to ban gas hookups in new construction. On April 18, the same day the city heard a presentation on San Diego County's …
A vet of local bands such as Secret Seven, Divided by Zero, Ghoulspoon, and octogenarian Weezer tribute Geezer, Zach Goode has been announced as the new lead singer of 1990s alt-rock icons Smash Mouth, replacing …
It may seem like we spend a lot of time here at Unreal roaming the same few neighborhoods. La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe, Del Mar — lather, rinse, repeat. But that’s because we’re here to …
A deadline to save public access to Del Mar's upper bluff has passed. On the last possible day to sign an agreement with the North County Transit District that would fend off a six-foot wire …
It’s easy to imagine that some who drive the North Park section of Adams Avenue still think clothes are being washed in An’s Dry Cleaning. However, a legion of loyal fans know that, four years …
Immersive art exhibits have grown in popularity recently, with installments like the recently closed Sistine Chapel Exhibition in Mission Valley now featured all over the world. Here in town, we still have Beyond Van Gogh, …
The history of freediving is so rich in La Jolla that diving in its cove is akin to a Catholic visiting Rome: maybe it didn’t all start there, but that’s where it really hit big. …
San Diego certainly boasts more than its fair share of wealthy enclaves. Horseplayers assemble every summer where the turf meets the surf in Olde Del Mar, the city’s old money power brokers cut deals in …
As the failing bluffs at Del Mar play havoc with passenger and freight rail service, officials of taxpayer-subsidized Amtrak, otherwise known as the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, have been chronic no-shows at discussions to fix …
The Del Mar City Council voted unanimously on Monday to support an initiative that would give the city more control over issues they've been grappling with - like where to put 113 low-income housing units. …
Locals? Cody: Yes! Severin: No, I am originally From Bern, Switzerland. How often do you surf? Severin: 3-4 times a week Cody: maybe 2-3 times a week How long have you been surfing? Severin: 2 …
At about 8:30 a.m., on November 5, a walker at the Cabrillo National Monument park dialed 911 when he saw a distressed surfer down below. "A surfer had washed into the rocks near the tide …
Let’s take a trip to La Casa De Los Sueños, a 1923 Spanish Colonial Revival styled mansion occupying a hilltop plot about a half-mile from the beaches of Del Mar. Is this 6100-square-foot estate, nearly …
Frank Hope Sr. was a World War I veteran and UC Berkeley dropout when he came to San Diego to work for the esteemed architectural firm Requa & Jackson. By 1928, he had struck out …
Propping up Del Mar's failing bluffs with piles, plants and seawalls is a temporary fix until the railway can be relocated. But many see the work causing lasting changes. A skinnier beach. Industrial looking bluffs. …
“The horse was named after the doctor that did my wife’s breast implants,” said Erik, the owner of Dr. Troutman, the odds-on favored horse in the first race, on the first day of the 82nd …
The next segment of the growing Coastal Rail Trail will be built in Encinitas, adding another half-mile to a network planned to yield 44 miles of car-free links from Oceanside to San Diego. Running along …
When friends ask Zach Johnson’s daughters what their daddy does, it can be hard. How do you tell someone your daddy races pigs? But he must be doing something right. He has four teams of …
“Better than I expected. I’m very pleased,” said Terrill at the High Seas Hawaiian Shirt booth, inside Bing Crosby Hall, at the Covid-abbreviated San Diego County Fair. He thought most of the other booth operators …
As summer nears, sharks are on the move. And so are people, packed like sardines on beaches and in the water where sometimes, a large predatory fish swims right below, unnoticed. Over the last five …
I remember the first time I felt nervous about what I was eating. “Nervous,” as opposed to “apprehensive,” which describes how I felt the first time I ate ant eggs, corn smut, and rattlesnake at …
After Del Mar re-zoned its North Commercial area last fall to help meet affordable housing goals, locals moved swiftly to reverse the change. Now, it's the city council pushing back on the effort to thwart …
Del Mar doesn't have food waste pickup. But by next year, it will have to. And restaurants, hard hit by the pandemic, are sweating the new costs, from dumpsters to rodent control. State regulations aimed …
The North County Transit District held off on plans to install the Del Mar portion of its rail corridor fencing last fall due to intense opposition, but as the year begins, the waiting is over. …
Politics can get rough in the county’s smallest city where just 3450 voters decide who runs the five-person Del Mar city council. In last month’s election, two different slates were running to occupy three seats. …
While Covid-triggered cancelations pushed the Del Mar Fairgrounds into a $10 million deficit as of September, two former fairground employees claim that that the fairgrounds governing board and its staff was headed for a fall …
The Mainly Mozart Festival has gotten underway and now it’s almost over. The festival concludes on Saturday, October 24 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. On opening night, Saturday, October 17, the event was sold out …
The city of Del Mar passed a key zoning amendment on October 19 that helps it comply with state housing laws, but it's too little, too late for the developer of the lots, who will …
This week, we visit a “stunning Cape Cod style home nestled in the trees of Olde Del Mar,” billed in listing materials retrieved from realtor.com as “a true masterpiece by John O’Brien of Flagg Coastal …
Singer Whitney Shay headlined a recent live show (complete with a real audience) on August 15 in the overflow parking lot of the Del Mar fairgrounds. It was one example of where live music might …
There's only one place to cross the railway legally to get to the beach in Del Mar. But instead of adding more safe crossings, transit officials want to add 1.4 miles of fencing along the …
Beach fire rings are a beloved beach tradition for families and youth groups to roast marshmallows and tell stories. Or are they an attractive nuisance drawing in transient drunks who fight and make late night …
San Marcos City Manager Jack Griffin begins his annual June letter to the mayor and city council, “It is kind of my pleasure to submit the Fiscal Year 2020-2021 Operations and Maintenance Budget.” That “kind …
Without the fair and special events held throughout the year, the Del Mar fairgrounds has announced it expects to be $65 million in the hole by the end of summer. A hat-in-hand plea to borrow …
To keep Del Mar's essential services going amid the pandemic, the city proposed a pause on tree and view complaints through June 30, 2021. It didn't go well. To many residents, defending a scenic view …
Del Mar Fairgrounds executive director Tim Fennell has blamed COVID-19 as the key reason why his 160-employee district, now $20 million in the red, could implode and leave the future of the Del Mar Fair …
A new ordinance regulating the use of drones in Del Mar will take effect on June 17. The rules will "add to guidelines set by the FAA," a city report says. While the Federal Aviation …
Not ready to move 600 homes inland As Del Mar sees it, they've worked tirelessly to amend their local coastal plan to account for sea rise. Flooding, beach loss, and coastal bluff erosion were all …
This week, we visit what’s billed as “the highest standard of California coastal living,” a 6532-square-foot oceanview mansion at 516 Stratford Court. According to listing remarks retrieved from Trulia, the home is “ideally situated on …
When ballyhooed East Coast burger chain Shake Shack made its way west a few years ago, all we loyal Southern California burger fans rushed to say how much we still prefer In-N-Out. And yet, somehow, …
Del Mar officials want the trains off the bluffs. Transit officials want the people off the tracks. Neither side is succeeding, and with the number of trains increasing from 50 to 79 this year, the …
While other cities in San Diego have stopped using red light cameras, a photo enforcement tool meant to reduce accidents, Del Mar, Solana Beach and Encinitas, which installed the cameras in 2004, are keeping theirs. …
A little over a year ago, a new San Diego-focused alcohol distributor announced its launch. Scout Distribution boasted a small portfolio of known and emerging local brands including Abnormal Beer, Bivouac Cider, and Juneshine hard …
As Del Mar sees it, they've worked tirelessly to amend their local coastal plan to account for sea rise. Flooding, beach loss, and coastal bluff erosion were all considered, and the adaptation plan put into …
San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station may be retired, but to many area residents, it's a sleeping giant. In July, it stirred. That's when its operator, Southern California Edison, was allowed to resume loading spent nuclear …
As horses have dropped dead at California tracks, some state politicos have been professing public concern regarding racing's public relations nightmare, including state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins. Atkins showed up at Del Mar …
San Diego has trained me well. When I see the words “fresh fish market” associated with a restaurant, I imagine glass counters that contain glistening fresh filets tempting customers toward one seasonal catch or another. …
‘Well, I know the headlines won’t be about big hats.” Joe Harper, longtime CEO of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, is candid. It’s race time at Del Mar, where the humid days of summer usher …
Who knew back in 1977, when the Coastal Act was passed, that the sea would rise so quickly? Now, cities and the agency formed to protect the coastline, must deal with it - and with …
Time is ticking, deadlines loom. Del Mar needed affordable housing yesterday, and they will need it tomorrow. The city has until 2021 to fulfill their low-income housing allocation for the current housing element. That's 12 …
Like the scarecrow without a brain, this year’s Oz-themed San Diego County Fair had individually cataloged hundreds of lost and found items. The most unusual lost item? “A gold grill with diamonds in it,” said …