El Cajon Stories
A former Wienerschnitzel A-frame building in Chula Vista caught on fire again, marking the tenth reported blaze at a California-based Wienerschnitzel building in the last couple of years. Right before ...
On February 12, a wind advisory was made on I-8 from Willows Road in Alpine next to Viejas Casino & Resort to the Imperial County line a little past Jacumba, ...
When I turned 39, I took an inventory of my life. What I found there struck me thoroughly unremarkable. At best, it seemed my world and the life I had ...
The Cajon Valley Union School District board of trustees voted January 31 to give former board president Tamara Otero a $50,400 consulting contract. After 12 years on the board, she ...
El Cajon Stories
“But have you been to The Yogurt Mill?” My wife noticed that I’ve recently spent more time writing about food in her hometown, El Cajon. However, as I’ve mainly focused on skewered and rotisserie meats, ...
It’s no secret that our region’s best Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food is most often found in El Cajon. Though, for a while, some of it was found in the Gaslamp. For a few years, ...
“Fuck Fentanyl” — a slogan you may have seen on a T-shirt or hoodie around San Diego of late. Or perhaps you’ve spotted it on social media: local designer Luis Romero posts shots of his ...
Nefarious Creatures — a band of four San Diego-bred horror-lovin’ fiends — had the will, the music, and the over-arching deep concept for their debut EP Fables For the Wicked. What they didn’t quite have ...
Over the top burgers probably make up the biggest draw to Funky Fries & Burgers. A bacon cheeseburger topped with mac n cheese ($13.50) first lured me in, when I was specifically searching for out ...
Simpson surveys surroundings It takes Mike Simpson 25 steps to reach his parked car from the emergency exit at work. Once in the car, he can maneuver his way out of the parking lot, around ...
So far this past year, the El Cajon's Police Department responded to 7,379 calls for service related to homelessness which is a "massive jump compared to approximately 2,500 calls in 2014," posted the city of ...
When was the last time I ordered a salad this far east? Usually, I’m in El Cajon for Middle Eastern food, or a cheeseburger. But here I am, out on Jamacha Road, which is technically ...
On October 5, someone called the Chula Vista Police Department regarding a burglar alarm on 3rd Avenue and F Street, says 911 Video News on their YouTube video. The police found a fire at the ...
Kurt Castle, founder and creator of Castle’s Labs, creates products that help with all sorts of flora and fauna management. His Plant Magic is “an organic probiotic spray that promotes bigger, healthier, chemical and pesticide ...
As I loiter in the smoking section across the street from D.Z. Akin's, I am sometimes privy to the one-sided conversations, held by people (usually on their phones) who are talking to someone I can’t ...
Buckle Up Slide into the passenger seat and buckle up: we’re about to take a driving tour down a decidedly rocky road. Yes, California’s second-largest city will always take a backseat to Los Angeles, which ...
One day in late March, I got a call from Louise Wyatt. I had just interviewed her for a story on how genetic genealogy had enabled detectives to solve the murder of her daughter Michelle, ...
Anyone who has been in downtown El Cajon has probably noticed the large El Cajon Typewriter Co. sign at 130 E. Main that, alas, no longer announces a real live typewriter shop. Though the internet ...
On July 22, the Blind Lady Ale House, referred to as BLAH in the Normal Heights neighborhood, recovered its stolen fermenter tank. It's worth $5,000 and is a large piece of steel equipment used to ...
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 ...
Where is everybody? This was last Tuesday, in Oceanside. I was looking for food. Don’t look for food on Tuesday afternoons. So many places are closed. Specially last Tuesday, the day the whole nation fell ...
About 4 am on July 4 — the sheriff's department, police department, and the police department's K-9 unit — were called out to a Lemon Grove home where a gun was shot, lodging into the ...
If you don’t know, you’re not invited I’m easily distracted on the best of days. Just now, with my Rangers in the playoffs, the timing of this “secret show” could not have been worse. The ...
In the Middle East of San Diego County, there lies a kind of marijuana Mecca, a place to which pot pilgrims may peregrinate on a high hajj in their quest to elevate themselves — not ...
Two things you notice about Chris Dent: He’s albino, and he plays a Taylor guitar, straight from the Taylor factory in El Cajon, California. Chris happens to be onstage right now, here in Christchurch, New ...
Lincoln Club’s Little Nikita money man Some of the big money players during this year’s political season have yet to play their hands, as evidenced by a committee calling itself The Community Leadership Coalition, sponsored ...
As they've done for years, El Cajon is moving to place liens on homes that are at least two months behind on their refuse, collection and recycling charges. Although it's been routine practice in El ...
Unless you grew up in East County or you’ve been in San Diego for quite a long time, you’re probably not familiar with the community of Crest, a tiny hilltop hamlet of 2000 people accessible ...
On the evening of April 3, Brenda B. "heard gunshots" outside of her El Cajon home. "Then I called my mom, who lives on my street," she said. "I told her to don't go out ...
Thank the kitchen god, our days of mediocre phở have come to an end. One year ago, my family moved from central San Diego to East County. Though we occasionally miss the walkability of our ...
The Reader’s editorial staff was gratified and frequently delighted by the response we got to our writing contest: 347 non-fiction stories, 31 pieces of fiction, and no less than 199 poems. It’s good to know ...
Digging concurrence Unfortunately have to concur with most of the digs (“The internet writers gang up on San Diego,” Cover Stories, January 19). Born in MA, grew up in NC, have lived in LA (total ...
On February 1, animal services were called on a black-colored Vietnamese potbelly pig as he roamed by Hacienda Drive, south of the 76 in Oceanside. The San Diego Humane Society in Escondido refers to the ...
Barabbas Road Church Contact: 8253 Ronson Rd., San Diego 760-216-9081 www.barabbas.com Membership: 500 Pastor: Matt Smith Age: 43 Born: San Diego Formation: University of California-Santa Barbara; Southern California Seminary, El Cajon. Years Ordained: 15 San ...
As a rule, I drive slowly whenever I’m not on the freeway, slowly enough that it bothers even my patient wife a bit, But I need to drive slowly enough to allow for my persistent ...
It feels good to be a winner. Who doesn’t love being the best — or at least the first, or the luckiest? People congratulate you, make you feel special and singled out. And you get ...
A long-awaited environmental impact report for a sand mine along the Sweetwater River in El Cajon is up for public review. While developers say a local supply of sand will benefit the environment, opponents are ...
At the time of his disappearance six years ago, Skylar Gregory Peterson Tosic was employed by the county of San Diego as a caregiver for his mother’s fiancé, a popular Escondido musician known as Ukulele ...
As the crow flies, the unincorporated community of Crest is more than two and a half miles from the nearest freeway. In actual driving terms, it’s closer to four. And not flat miles, either, but ...
As wake boat sales increased 20 percent and fishing and pontoon boat sales increased 12 percent in 2020 throughout the U.S., according to The National Marine Manufacturers Association in January, so have trailer accidents, according ...
How to fight the virus in the year ahead? A post-holiday surge of cases is expected, and getting most people vaccinated will take more than a few months. Any tool that might help slow the ...
To some, tiny houses are impractical. But when it comes to a quick way to put roofs over heads in a pandemic, small is beautiful. As zoning codes catch up with reality, tiny houses are ...
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 ...
‘Baaa!” bleats the li’l white goat. “Humbug!” I say back to it. He’s stuck in a little corral off Dehesa (“Pasture”) Road. I’m stuck way the heck out here south of Alpine with nothing to ...
San Diego politicos are finding some novel uses for federal COVID-19 bailout funds, judging from a review of coming city council agendas from the county's eighteen incorporated municipalities. In El Cajon, the police department wants ...
Update: Minutes after this story appeared, James Canning, spokesman for Nathan Fletcher, said, "The Vaping Ordinance will now not come back before the Board until September." “They are trying to force people to stop vaping, ...
The slow end of the Kalasho regime At a city council meeting in September Elia spoke publicly to Kalasho: “Ben, you need help. It hurts me to see fellow Chaldeans spiral like this. It might ...
It was the last professional Southern California appearance of El Cajon native Jimmie Johnson in Sunday, March 1’s Auto Club 400 race at the Fontana speedway. The record holding seven-time NASCAR series champion is tied ...
It’s early on a Sunday afternoon, and the bakery is busy. I presume the time waiting will give me a chance to figure out my order before it’s my turn at the counter. But as ...
It’s a crisp, fresh morning on Olde Highway 80. I’m aboard the MTS’s 838 truck/bus heading east, looking for somewhere to break fast. “Mary Etta’s is a morning eatery,” says this lady sitting across from ...
On December 13, a Wendi and Steve posted on Facebook that Skate San Diego “is closing” and “we are liquidating everything”; the two posted photos of a large stereo system, “thousands of” roller skate and ...
What’s missing? I keep looking at this thing. But nothing’s amiss. It is a complete burger, with slab of meat, slab of red onion, slab of cheese melting over the patty like a Salvador Dali ...