Downtown San Diego Stories
When my brother came back from his freshman year at Berkeley, he was eager to show me a short video clip he’d taken at a concert up north. “This song …
Kevin Grossman — formerly of Rat City Riot, now with LoudMouth — shares a memory of touring with tonight’s headline act, GBH. “There’s nothing like being in a poor punk …
According to longtime dealers and cosplayers, the 2023 Comic-Con International, San Diego was hot. The people I interviewed on location on July 22 blame the heat inside the main hall …
A writer must take care in this, the golden age of branding. Mention any particular subject more than once, and you risk becoming That Guy, the one who writes about …
Downtown San Diego Stories
They're a step closer to landing on a sidewalk downtown, but not an inch closer to universal love: dozens of eight-foot-tall digital kiosks that threaten to end the city's historic ban on new outdoor advertising. …
In January, floodwaters swept away the tents, blankets and clothing of the homeless living along the San Diego River bed from Ocean Beach to Lakeside. Now some say the city is trying to sweep the …
I pull up in front of a homeless encampment on G street downtown next to the Arco, scan the meter, and pay for an hour and fourteen minutes of parking. Parking after six o’clock is …
“Well, like anything else, showing up is half the battle,” says Smash Mouth singer Zach Goode. Goode, a longtime local musician, is talking about the voiceover work he’s done for commercials, including a Taco Bell …
A note from the editor: This week, we present the second of the two entries to last year’s writing contest that investigated the long-ago murder of a young woman in San Diego. Once again, the …
The city council on Monday unanimously approved the terms and funding of a $2,446,500 state grant that will be used to house 40-50 homeless people in the East Village. Named the E Street Encampment Project, …
December Nights Balboa Park Join your fellow citizens on December 2 and 3 for the City of San Diego’s largest free holiday festival in beautiful Balboa Park. The family friendly event brings San Diegans together …
Last month drivers for the Metropolitan Transit System witnessed three accidents on their bus and trolley routes. First, on October 19, at about 4:30 pm, a black-colored vehicle collided with the trolley. Then the car …
San Diegans are switching to mopeds and motorcycles for transport to work to deal with California's highest gas prices in the U.S. and limited street parking throughout the county. But as more locals purchase or …
Jeff Silberman develops 87 apartments in East Village for La Jolla university A stiff price is being paid for the sprawling expansion of UCSD beyond its original boundaries; taxpayers remain largely in the dark, as …
Almost 8,700 apartments have been built in downtown San Diego since 2013, while the state's housing needs assessment has found the city will have to build more than 108,000 units by 2030. A report by …
“IZOLA Bakery will not exploit this local artist any longer,” reads a recent Instagram post from local singer Fre3sty13, “as they expect us to art inside their shop for free; that’s modern-day slavery… You want …
San Diego locals probably don’t think much about “city living.” Sure, there are no fewer than 19 locales within the county’s borders that bear the “City Of” moniker, but we’re not New York, Chicago, or …
MTV originated in 1981 and became available on the west coast a year later. For me, the acts that come to mind from those days are Billy Idol, Adam Ant, The Cars, Peter Gabriel, Duran …
Some call it glam rock. Others, hair metal. My friend Joe calls it butt rock: as in, on August 28 at Petco Park, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Poison, Mötley Crüe, and Def Leppard rocked …
Sharing in the shell show “You don’t need tickets to enjoy the concert.” Downtown San Diego – After the Padres game on August 2nd, I cut through the Convention Center to catch my ferry home …
“All my tuxes are in Texas,” says this gent. He laughs a Texas-size laugh. I’m looking to rent a tux for myself. It’s not something I’ve done a lot. But there’s a lot to it. …
On January 2 of 2021, a Patriot March in San Diego was announced on social media, to begin at 2 pm on January 9 at the foot of Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach. The flier …
Over the weekend of July 21-24, Comic-Con International returned to the San Diego Convention Center for its first full-blown four-day show since 2019. But it did so without at least one long-time attendee and vendor: …
The recent book See You At San Diego: An Oral History of Comic-Con, Fandom, and the Triumph of Geek Culture sets the record straight regarding how pop culture's geekiest get-together became the BFD it is …
It’s hard not to be overwhelmed by the sheer immensity of the Westgate Hotel, which takes up the bulk of a downtown city block at the corner of Broadway and Second Avenue. Opened in 1970, …
“We don’t talk a lot, but we do yell a lot,” says Jamie Dambois. Yah, for sure, there’s a lot of shouting at the screens here. Small surprise: this is the last week of the …
The Palms Hotel at 12th and Island downtown (originally known as the Bay View and reportedly San Diego's oldest continuously operated lodging) and Hillcrest's similarly rundown Friendship Hotel are being purchased by the same Newport-based …
At about 2 pm on June 21, Amanda Vazquez Defran heard a peculiar noise below her Banker's Hill home balcony. "I work from home, so I get a front row seat to a lot of …
Callie truly doesn’t want you to miss your seating time. To begin with, the East Village restaurant charges a ten-dollar-a-person deposit when you make a reservation. And you’ll need a reservation, because the swanky eatery …
Nobody seems sure when a proposed three-billion-dollar overhaul of Seaport Village may eventually break ground. But a funny thing happened as the “mega redevelopment” has inched through many years of planning bureaucracy: the forty-year-old plaza …
Lyrical Groove’s Kendrick Dial, a Dallas native, came to San Diego in 2000 with the Navy. Since then, he’s called Chula Vista, Spring Valley, Downtown, and North Park home, and noted how each district boasts …
I can’t tell you how to get here, exactly, but I’m inside Neighborhood’s speakeasy, Noble Experiment. And I can’t give you the exact name of the cocktail, but you could call it a tequila sour. …
When I wrote about it in 2015, East Village bakery Brooklyn Bagel and Bialy was the closest our city came to having a legit New York bagel shop. Meaning I might have experienced lasting disappointment …
A clatter against the window of my second-story room in Golden Hill awoke me. Then, shouts. What the hell? “Eh, Miguel.” “Miguelito.” “Barba de Chivo, levántate, cabrón.” Only Rodolfo called me Barba del Chivo, followed …
An eco-friendly way to tour San Diego. An advertising machine. A ride to the airport. Pedicabs have long had their niche in the city, but many of the businesses have been swept off the streets …
It was slated to be the loudest live music venue in the Gaslamp Quarter, residents said. So loud, the rooftop bar proposed for the Sugar Factory on 5th Avenue would have violated San Diego's noise …
Street life is coming back, and with it, scooter critics. Motorized scooters are often touted as a first or last mile link in the transit chain, and the city counts them among its mobility choices …
As the state ends its latest indoor mask mandate on Feb.15, Omicron continues to circulate. "We are still in that high transmission phase," said County of San Diego deputy chief medical officer, Jennifer Tuteur. In …
Arguably, it was incidental that a San Diego courtroom proved to be the venue where federal judicial power asserted that enough was enough in terms of Donald Trump’s child-separation policy — a decision that helped …
In December, San Diego accumulated 2.58 inches of rain at the San Diego International Airport, almost an inch higher than our city’s 1.6″ December average. “Widespread heavy rainfall and mountain snow is forecast this week, …
It’s 2022, and we’re all more or less accustomed to ordering food from touchscreens. That could mean delivery order placed from our phones, fast food order made at digital kiosks, or — thank you, pandemic …
On December 19, San Diegans and tourists alike were flustered by a 215-foot "space-age" catamaran docked near the Star Of India, across the street from the San Diego County Administration Building. "Is this a kind …
It's been more than five years since transportation officials came up with a plan to get buses and portable toilets off certain city streets. The downtown bus stopover project evolved to add a new headquarters …
Hot chocolate and Oreo pancakes might not be what my wife had in mind when she sent me off with the children in search of breakfast. But it’s a chilly morning, and we’re dining outside, …
Anthony Belcufini Animae 969 Pacific Highway Downtown “Every single night, it’s probably the top seller,” says Anthony Belcufini about Animae’s A5 Old Fashioned. “And it ties into what we do in the back of the …
Eighteen months ago, we all saw the pandemic make things tough on restaurants, a few of which never made it back. However, if we liken that to a long winter of attrition, what we’ve been …
Over a week ago, a man broke into a private train car, which former President John F. Kennedy allegedly traveled in. It was parked at the Santa Fe Depot train station. "We attempted to speak …
I’ve photographed burritos, dumplings, and egg rolls, but probably the most challenging photo I’ve ever tried to take centered on a lump of fudge. I’d ordered the rocky road flavor, hoping that the large, white …
Adult Orphans A Wednesday afternoon, hot. Half the stools at the State Hotel Deli are taken. Talk is quiet, desultory. Mama Sofia perches on her stool near the cash register, her daughter — mending again …
The blue flame dances in and out of focus. The Green Fairy sparkles in front of my eyes. I can feel her hypnotizing me. I’m seeing seven veils, I’m thinking “Scheherazade,” “Salome.” My eyelids are …
On Sunday, April 25, 2021, Taylor Kahle and her date had dinner at Basic Bar & Pizza in East Village — just “Basic” to locals. They ordered Mashed Potato Bacon pizza and a couple of …
It’s just after noon on a Thursday at Escondido’s TJ Tacos. The place is surprisingly uncrowded, with only about six people in line for the taco stand’s signature adobada tacos, a spicy blend of marinated …