Imperial Beach Stories
Sheriff's deputies and San Diego police officers raided the office of One Source Realty in Imperial Beach on the morning of December 21st. The raid added to the recent troubles of well-known local property managers …
“Name’s Ken,” says the guy on the right. “As in ‘Ken, still looking for Barbie.’"
The sign looks new: IB Street Tacos. Now Open. It’s been slung up on a banner above the street frontage. Always suspicious when a place says it has “street tacos.” Means it’s actually middle class, …
Imperial Beach residents celebrated the completion of an alley-paving project at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on December 9. About 40 residents and government officials attended the nighttime ceremony in an alley off 12th Street and Ebony …
Imperial Beach lost one of its celebrated locals last month — Kermit Brown, known as the "Wagon Man" for the advertising-covered Conestoga wagons he used to pull around the beach town with his motorized wheelchair. …
An Imperial Beach church is holding a "community conversation" on December 10 to discuss a ban on the Four Loko alcoholic beverage, which has been linked to deaths and binge-drinking problems. The action comes a …
On November 19, about two dozen people came to the port of San Diego's meeting for businesses interested in bidding on the Imperial Beach Pier restaurant space now held by Tin Fish. "Imperial Beach's motto …
Three dolphins washed up dead on the shores of Imperial Beach in the past month — a fourth on Silver Strand State Beach — and officials are investigating at least two of them to determine …
It has been almost two months since the last issue of the muckraking bimonthly newspaper, which started publishing in April of 2014, was seen on the streets of Imperial Beach. In early October, publisher Ed …
In a process that has taken 19 years, the former salt flat in the southern part of San Diego Bay near Imperial Beach is finally going to be developed in a plan that combines economic …
Imperial Beach mayor Serge Dedina and mayor pro tem Brian Bilbray must be hearing that ultra-high-pitched buzz and feeling the sting of an unusually large swarm of mosquitoes this fall. Both went on the record …
The long fight between Imperial Beach's Code Compliance Division and the owners of a residence on Hickory Court seems to be over. The house has been the subject of energetic code enforcement since 2010, and …
For over 20 years, real estate managers Richard and Cheryl Schaumburg have been a well-respected couple in Imperial Beach, with their photos on placards posted in front of properties that they managed listing them as …
Ten days after an angry public protest in front of the Save-A-Lot supermarket in south San Diego, the store has taken down its sign, leaving a big blank spot on its façade, and is changing …
Morning beachgoers in Imperial Beach on September 23rd found surprising colors in the ocean after bright pink tracer dye was released by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in an experiment to study the movement of …
Sandwiched between Tijuana’s Central de Bomberos and the auto-import syndicate parking lot just south of the concrete-lined Tijuana River, the tiny CILA pumping station in Tijuana looks pretty innocuous. But when the pump station shuts …
Upset over what they say is rotten food and an unwillingness to address their complaints, angry residents of Imperial Beach and south San Diego held a protest in front of the Save-A-Lot grocery store on …
Demolition of the abandoned buildings of the former Marian Catholic High School in South San Diego began in late August, and by September 7 there wasn’t much more than rubble. The campus, which was shut …
After dark, parking a home is a problem. That was clear in 2010, when advocates for the houseless opened the first overnight safe parking lot. And the need goes on. “The program was a direct …
The State Legislature has earmarked $5.9 million for a road to the southwest corner of the United States, where the Pacific Ocean meets the border between Mexico and the U.S., Border Field State Park and …
On Wednesday, July 15, the outdoor showers at San Diego’s four state-park beaches were scheduled to be shut off, in compliance with the governor’s mandated 25 percent reduction in water usage. The cold-water shower towers …
First developed in the 1880s and incorporated on July 18, 1956, Imperial Beach became the tenth city in San Diego County. The I.B. Pier was originally built around 1909; one purpose was to attract crowds, …
Imperial Beach city officials are trying to deal with residents’ anger and frustration after they received letters that warned them about unauthorized driveway parking of recreational vehicles. Unlike the City of San Diego, which doesn’t …
What is Imperial Beach famous for? “I don’t know, [HBO’s] John from Cincinnati...Lords of Dogtown was shot at the pier,” says Bassics lead singer Sam Martinez about his hometown. “Sand Castles, I guess. But there’s …
A car driver pulled out of a gas station and collided with a motorcyclist in the 2200 block of Palm Avenue on Friday, June 26th. The accident took place at around 5:00 p.m., a time …
There are many family ties in San Diego government, some legal, some not so much. For instance, the ghost of Wayne Darbeau, ousted as chief executive officer of the port of San Diego after a …
Customs and Border Patrol officials apprehended three men early Monday morning (June 15) after they attempted an ocean swim across the border. According to a release, the trio was observed shortly after midnight paddling north …
Tim Vaughn had a lot on his mind last October when he sat down in the barber's chair at Vic's Barber Shop in Imperial Beach. Vaughn, 33, is a U.S. Navy petty officer who worked …
It was standing-room-only at the Thursday, June 4 Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve advisory council meeting, held to discuss the Tijuana River Valley trails located along the U.S.-Mexico border. The advisory council — a …
With about a dozen residents participating, the Imperial Beach City Council looked over the city's proposed budget at a workshop on Wednesday night, May 20. "Our main priority as we focus in on the capital …
Mother's Day at Friendship Park — on the rare occasion when the U.S. celebration of Mother's Day landed on May 10, which is the set date for Mother's Day in Mexico — was a particularly …
There should be a sign, I say to myself every time I park at the end of Monument Road to go hike the Tijuana River Valley. Like the “welcome to our habitat” signs for rattlesnakes …
Fifteen years ago, officials in Imperial Beach proposed transforming the raunchy, funky Seacoast Inn — its redeeming feature being the location on the sand — into a resort and luring upscale tourists to the most …
Residents near the 9th Street and Donax Avenue roundabout showed up at the Imperial Beach council meeting last week, March 18, to let council members know what they thought of the demonstration project put in …
When the federal jury heard fired Tijuana cop Angel Arceo-Sevilla testify in November of last year that Sofia Martinez was his boss in a ring of smugglers who ran people north from Rosarito in pangas …
Imperial Beach mayor Serge Dedina thinks that the city should be able to get California Coastal Commission subsidies for lodgings — and not just the inexpensive ones that the commission's funds are set up to …
County Parks contractors began removing obstacles from the Tijuana River Valley Regional Park today, March 3, just weeks after they were installed. After a National Border Patrol Council (union) safety officer raised concerns that newly …
After a safety officer for the Border Patrol union raised concerns, San Diego County Parks & Recreation officials agreed to remove some recently installed bollards and fences from and alongside trails in Tijuana River Valley …
Two county law-enforcement collectives led by the sheriff's department — the Methamphetamine Strike Force and Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force – swarmed the South Bay on February 19, contacting over 4700 individuals as part of …
As a finishing touch to an $8.4 million project next to the U.S.-Mexico border in Tijuana River Valley Regional Park, the county is installing low poles called bollards down the middle of trails and putting …
Ed Kravitz, owner of the I.B. Local News, said he has filed a criminal complaint about copies of his paper being taken or covered up by the distributor of the competitor paper, the Imperial Beach …
The hoof stares me in the face. “Eat me!” it says. Oh, Lordy. But this is what I came for. It’s Sunday. Feeling a little hung over, truth to tell. “You sure this works?” I …
The Martinez brothers say their cue to start their band was an omen. “We found these two guitars sitting right outside a neighbor’s fence,” says Sam Martinez, lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist of the Bassics. “It was …
A group of Imperial Beach homeowners has filed suit against the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) and the City of Imperial Beach over a 2012 sand-replenishment project gone wrong. The Imperial Beach Shores Homeowners …
At a recent City Council Meeting, Councilman Spriggs asked that three items be pulled from the consent agenda. Normally consent agenda items are voted on Aye or Nay with no discussion. The items that were …
With the only objection to the project coming from an Arizona couple who spend their summers living at the Bernardo Shores Adult Community RV park, the Imperial Beach City Council voted 4-1 last week to …
On December 1, four South Bay mayors met in National City to appoint a new member to the board of directors of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority. The four mayors were: Ron Morrison …
The unusually pungent aromas blanketing O.B.'s Dog Beach and Mission Bay on a Tuesday morning are enough to tell even the most casual observer that something's not right. Indeed, these two popular coastal destinations are …
Last month, the Navy’s proposed Coastal Campus on the Silver Strand took another step forward, despite concerns about natural resources, sea rise, and traffic and visual impacts on Coronado and Imperial Beach. Against a staff …
The steep slope into a drainage ditch on the U.S.-Mexico border — reportedly an entrance ramp to the U.S. for hundreds of Roma people since 2010 — is being blocked by new fencing. The slope, …
Urban drool seems to be the least of our problems.
"A disaster in a glass.” So says Kanai Williams, the Salty Dog’s front man behind the bar, about this Imperial Beach joint’s premiere chockablock chug-a-lug — the Rum Runner. “And that’s probably the only reason …