Imperial Beach Stories
Fugitive Ramiro Espinoza, sought on a one-million-dollar warrant for attempted murder, was arrested by sheriff’s SWAT officers early on Friday, July 26, after a seven-hour standoff in Imperial Beach. Twenty-two homes on Elkwood Avenue were …
Surfers in Imperial Beach created a seaborne bonfire on July 4 in protest of the city’s decision to not participate in the Big Bay Boom fireworks show. Calling their event “Light the Sea in IB,” …
A woman wearing a dog costume at the annual Surf Dog Competition in Imperial Beach found out she was caninus non grata when sheriff’s deputies asked her to leave at the request of the event’s …
At the Imperial Beach City Council session on June 26, the council worked out a plan to hold a series of meetings to enable the public to take part in the decision of whether or …
Dulce Serrano went to Friendship Park in Border Field State Park on Sunday, June 23, to see her mother for the first time in five years and to introduce her to her boyfriend. Friendship Park …
At approximately 7:30 a.m. on Friday, June 21, residents in an apartment complex in the 1400 block of 14th Street in Imperial Beach heard their neighbors yelling and screaming and called 911. The responding sheriff’s …
Faced with huge budget cuts at the midpoint of their fiscal year, Border Patrol agents from the Imperial Beach station (and other stations along the border) are doubling up in many of the patrol vehicles …
Since 2010, more than 2200 Romanians have come into California from Mexico illegally and surrendered to the first U.S. Border Patrol agent they saw, according to Border Patrol statistics and accounts. Many of them surrendered …
Outcry over the planned privatization of the only public sports park in Imperial Beach has caused the city council to postpone its decision on the matter. During a packed city-council meeting on June 5, everyone …
The California State Parks opened the iron gates to Border Field State Park to the public Saturday and Sunday — the first time the park has been open for anything other than special events since …
The South Bay Drive-In Theatres on Coronado Avenue in South San Diego recently updated its projection booths to digital. The digital conversion is being forced on all movie theaters by the major movie studios, which …
Strollers at the Imperial Beach Pier were recently greeted by a sign at the entrance proclaiming that improvements — mainly refurbishing and replacing worn, warped, wooden planks — are being carried out “at no cost …
The border sewage plant that treats Mexican sewage, which the International Boundary and Water Commission oversees, has had two violations of treatment standards since February — far fewer than preceding years. One of the violations …
On Thursday, May 23, Heal the Bay representatives met at the mouth of the Tijuana River to announce their annual “beach report card.” While the organization gave the majority of San Diego County high grades …
Mayor Bob Filner, his fiancé Bronwyn Ingram, and Border Angels founder Enrique Morones made history Sunday, April 28, by going into Mexico via a newly built gate in the fence, opened for the first time …
I’m not going to lie. The water is cold. It’s 12:51 p.m. on a Saturday and it’s low tide. I’m in ankle- to hip-deep water, digging for clams. The native Pismo clam, specifically. The first …
The silent protest of the closing of Friendship Park scheduled for Saturday April 6 has been canceled because Friendship Park, at the monument in Border Field State Park, will be able to remain open on …
Ten homeowners in Imperial Beach will have a chance at energy-efficiency improvements, and six Habitat for Humanity homes will be completed with money from the now-folded redevelopment agencies that the state Department of Finance has …
Friends of Friendship Park, a group with an interest in the unique spot at the southwestern corner of the U.S. where it meets Mexico, is planning to protest the closure of the park, scheduled for …
On Monday, March 18, with currents and wind pushing north, the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health closed all beaches in Imperial Beach due to a suspected sewage spill from the Tijuana River mouth. …
San Diego National Wildlife Refuge biologists are monitoring the movement of the 450,000 cubic yards sand dumped on Imperial Beach shores last fall, worried that southbound sand will block the river mouth as it did …
The San Diego Unified Port District is set to put up $40,000 in seed money toward reviving Imperial Beach's U.S. Open Sandcastle Competition, which was washed out last year, ending a 31-year tradition that drew …
An effort to install a traffic light that would help cyclists on the Bayside Bike Trail — one supported and funded by the San Diego Association of Governments — failed to get off the ground …
An elderly man who police said has Alzheimer’s disease drove his car through the Tijuana River Valley Regional Park, up to the top of Spooner's Mesa, and became stranded in his white Honda just feet …
Dredging of the flood-prone Smuggler's Gulch channel and the Tijuana River that had been allowed to proceed was again halted on Thursday, February 22, as attorneys fighting the City of San Diego over its permit …
San Diego County supervisor Greg Cox and state assemblyman Ben Hueso celebrated a $1.5 million grant for added miles of horse and hiking trails in the Tijuana River Valley Regional Park on Friday, February 15. …
On Monday, February 11, city crews are expected to begin dredging sediment and garbage from the drainage channel that originates at Smuggler’s Gulch and runs north, into the heart of the Tijuana River Valley. The …
For years, a phone booth sat on the corner just outside of the Siesta RV Park in the 400 block of Palm Avenue in Imperial Beach. Made of aluminum and glass with a light in …
Residents in Imperial Beach were dealing with more flooding as unusually high “king tides” hit the California coast last week. Condominiums along Seacoast Drive were inundated with water on Friday morning, January 11. The high …
Tijuana River contamination forced the closure of the entire Imperial Beach shoreline on Wednesday, January 2. According to the county Department of Environmental Health, the contamination stretched from the Mexican border to the north end …
Some Imperial Beach residents who own beachfront condominiums are worried. They say they have been complaining to city hall for months after high-tide water started pooling in an area of beach that was rebuilt with …
The taxpayer-funded Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve was the only public entity on a list of 31 outfits that received a warning letter from the California Regional Water Quality Control Board for not filing …
Border Field State Park was the scene of cross-border Christmas prayers and songs on Saturday, December 8, as more then 200 people gathered for the 19th annual Posada, formally the celebration of Joseph and Mary's …
A 16-year-old Eagle Scout candidate from St. Charles Church Boy Scout Troop 211 is going to fix a tripping hazard outside the lifeguards' entrance to the Dempsey Holder Safety Center. The Imperial Beach City Council …
On Tuesday, December 4, the federal government agreed to pay $7 million to the county parks, state parks, and California Coastal Conservancy for land that was condemned in order to build additional layers of border …
The Jonathan Sellers & Charlie Keever Outdoor Education Center opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday, November 26, at the San Diego Bay National Wildlife Refuge, located on the north end of 13th Street along …
Hi Matthew:I read that the Sandcastles Festival here in Imperial Beach had over 400,000 visitors during the three-day weekend, more than any previous festival. Any clue how they can possibly calculate that figure and how …
Tons of contaminated soil will be excavated from two sites at the southern border of Naval Outlying Landing Field (NOLF) Imperial Beach within the next month, according to Michael Pound of Naval Facilities Engineering Command …
Just a month after the U.S. Border Patrol promised better public access to Monument Mesa in the historic Border Field State Park, the gates to the mile-and-a-half-long road from the park entrance to the mesa …
The San Diego woman identified by sheriff's deputies as a suspect in the death of 28-year-old Victor Saucedo — found shot to death at the Mariners Point apartments in Imperial Beach on October 16 — …
There are some places that you kinda take to heart. They’re more than the dish or the deal. Something clicks about the people and the place, and you want to come back and be a part of it. These are just some.
It was an organic farm in the Tijuana River Valley pitted against the United States Navy. They weren’t fighting over pesticides or aircraft noise pollution. Instead, what got Congressman Bob Filner involved was a fight …
Although the beach was closed as a precaution, the waters off Imperial Beach appear not to have been contaminated by the August 28 sewage spill from broken pipes in Playas de Tijuana. That's what San …
The road to the beach through Border Field State Park is open this weekend from 9:30 a.m to 7 p.m.. This is only the second time this year Monument Road (accessible via Hollister Street and …
In 1989 I moved to Puerto Rico. I arrived on a Tuesday – that Sunday hurricane Hugo devastated the Island. I had a permit to sell clothes on Luquillo Beach, but the beach was destroyed …
On June 16, a large crowd cheered in Imperial Beach as dogs were pushed into the whitewater of broken waves during the annual Loews Coronado Bay Resort’s Surf Dog Competition. The last time I saw …
Three sisters — former “kitchen slaves” — opened their Cafe Di Roma in Imperial Beach.
When they make wings out of pork parts and call it bar food, our cheap-eats guy is there to scarf it.
Chad Deal went looking for a drink (not a fight!) in SD’s second-oldest bar.
What’s it like to live in what passes for “the wilds" of San Diego County? Bill Manson finds out.
Imperial Beach firefighters were called to a home in the 1200 block of 7th Street shortly before 8:00 a.m. on March 8. Firefighters had to stretch their hoses 1500 feet to reach the nearest hydrant. …
A utility pole fell against an Imperial Beach apartment building on the morning of December 7, cutting off power to approximately two city blocks. At around 6:30 a.m., the wooden pole fell against the two-story …