La Mesa Stories
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 ...
Maple muse “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold.” — W.B. Yeats, “The Second Coming” “And you know something’s happening, but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. ...
Trombonist Mike Benge has been a director of music at Helix High school for ten years, and the 40-year-old musician was also hyper busy leading the San Diego Latin Jazz ...
A big white banner hangs on the La Mesa Police Department’s headquarters; the blue letters read, “We are one strong community.” There is something to the claim of community. It ...
La Mesa Stories
La Mesa, six in the evening. This is 48 hours after “the events.” People are still cleaning up, boarding up, cheering each other up. After the human tsunami that swept through downtown La Mesa, it’s ...
They named Mt. Helix after a snail Frank Arredondo has seen them, romping down his La Mesa street as if they owned it: coyotes. “I sit out on the front porch, and I smoke and ...
I was late to the protest in La Mesa on Saturday night. I hadn’t intended to go at all — what could I possibly add that social media and TV news would not have covered? ...
I’m witnessing something this week I never imagined I’d see: local restaurants, already hurting due to the covid-19 shutdown, are openly promoting other restaurants. It’s due to the fact that injustice against African-Americans is on ...
More than a thousand protesters marched outside the La Mesa Police Department Saturday, May 30. Stretching down University Avenue and Baltimore Drive they held signs that read “Black Lives Matter” and “I Can’t Breathe,” words ...
There have been differing opinions about how the police reacted to violence from some participants at the protest in front of La Mesa police headquarters, near where I live. The teargas went across the crowd ...
La Mesa harpist Tasha Smith Godinez came to her instrument as a child growing up in the East County. “I actually started with the violin when I was three years old. My older brother was ...
“It’s very odd, being here playing alone in your house, with no audience, even though we know they’re out there,” says Ron Wheeler. Until the coronavirus, he led one of the best-loved cover bands in ...
The first time I ate at Surf & Soul Spot, it was operating as a pop-up restaurant, serving fried fish and soul food select days per week at a church banquet hall in the southeast ...
Grabby headline, no? Not quite as gloriously specific as “Headless Body Found in Topless Bar,” but still eye-catching. And catching eyes is how you stay alive in these dread latter days of content overload. So, ...
Access to local food is among La Mesa's health, wellness, and climate goals. But for some residents, fresh eggs were just out of reach. While they live in single-family homes, and chickens are allowed in ...
It's La Mesa's turn to tackle 5G, which might as well be the I-5 coming down their street, as some residents see it. To build the network, AT&T, Verizon and Crown Castle want quick and ...
Several months back, I wrote enthusiastically about a plate of stuffed cabbage made by a local market vendor and caterer. One reader responded by recommending the same dish, made by La Mesa restaurant, The Village ...
“I hear them screeching” Frank Arredondo has seen them, romping down his La Mesa street as if they owned it: coyotes. “I sit out on the front porch, and I smoke and drink coffee. Usually ...
The City of La Mesa has launched a program called City Walks and Urban Trails as part of their Urban Trails Mobility Action Plan as a way to help connect the community. One of these ...
It took one extra vote Tuesday night, July 23, to end heated public discord surrounding the La Mesa Farmers Market. The city council voted 3-2 to keep the current location in downtown on Fridays for ...
Nearly 31 years ago, Jamie Peters walked into his mother’s home in La Mesa and dropped off his house keys. It was a brief nighttime visit. He paused long enough to look around the familiar ...
Every so often, a meal comes along that is so memorable, it plants a flag in your appetite and becomes a landmark to look back upon and fondly remember for the rest of your life. ...
Chris Baron purchased a home on Mt. Helix in 2007. The house sat on a half-acre of land, so he would have a rather large canvas to work with when it came to landscaping. He ...
“If you want, I’ll give you a hug,” a tall man with silver hair says to a seated congregant. “I give man hugs,” the silver-haired man says after the two have bro-hugged. It’s noon on ...
His local Exhibit A Press published Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre and others
The retail apocalypse has caught up with local cyclists. All of the Performance Bicycle shops in the United States are in the midst of store-closing sales. The San Diego region had six stores between Chula ...
I’m in a mixed marriage — my wife is a vegetarian and I eat meat. Usually, we are able to deal with our differences, but the one time when it does come up is when ...
Since the day it opened in 2015, Helix Brewing Co. has offered one of the county’s most appealing places to hang out and drink beer. Though right in the thick of La Mesa’s industrial zone, ...
When 33-year San Diego Sheriff Department veteran Commander Dave Myers announced he would be running to unseat Sheriff Bill Gore, he says his boss tried to humiliate him in front of the force. “He took ...
On September 29, about 200 collectors met at The Toy Addicts Trade Show in La Mesa; many were 1990s era toy collectors. “I do find it kind of weird that people are calling 1990s vintage,” ...
Some things are worth the wait. That’s how I felt when Fourpenny House opened on La Mesa Boulevard back in April. This Scottish-themed pub has been in the works for at least two years before ...
Two East County cities are showing it’s possible to cross party lines to work on common goals. At the El Cajon City Council meeting August 14 Democratic activist Mark Lane apologized to the city of ...
There’s no doubting Chef Hanis Cavin’s affinity for pigs. On his forearm is a tattoo of a butcher’s diagram of pork cuts, and in his home is his beloved pet, Carnitas—the not-to-be-eaten little piggy for ...
It’s not a dish that typically makes or breaks a restaurant. You won’t find it in competition at the county fair. It’s not the subject of magazine top ten lists, the way pizza is, nor ...
Long summer days mean opportunities for drinking outdoors. Here are the top five brewery destinations to catch fresh air and sunshine with your craft beers this summer Eppig Brewing Waterfront Biergarten 2817 Dickens Street, Shelter ...
On the afternoon of April 7, patrons lined up for the grand opening of Fourpenny House, a Scottish pub and restaurant. Over at Park Estate Company, antique shoppers browsed at the going-out-of-business sale. Restaurateur Peter ...
On April 3 the San Diego Unified School Board granted the charter school petition of National University Academy 1001 STEAM, the first approval of a charter school new to the district in over four years. ...
The Rodeway Inn at the intersection of Spring and Gateside in south La Mesa burned in 2015. But its freestanding roadside sign still advertises the “new management, complimentary breakfast, and free WiFi” at the “home ...
On March 21 a man pounded on the door outside the military recruiting office next to the Santee trolley station. He yelled through the door as he pounded: “Open the f’n door! I want to ...
John Correia wants his dog back. He hasn’t seen the dog, a Labrador-pitbull mix named Moose, since the day the La Mesa police officer shot at the dog and missed. “I raised him from a ...
When my friend Jon visits from from the murk and damp of Michigan, he always looks up for what he thinks of as a real San Diego sky: not merely cloudless, not merely blue, but ...
"Penske fails to see the value in the roundhouse of values," said Gregory May, who started a petition and a Facebook page to bring attention to the planned demolition of the 1960s Drew Ford roundhouse. ...
It was the last undeveloped ocean view lot on La Mesa’s Panorama Drive, and the view was what made artist/designer Mel Taylor bite. The 7000+ square-foot home he nestled against the steep slope features decks ...
I moved from Normal Heights to La Mesa in 1999, mostly because I wanted a yard for my kids. But also because an old woman was attacked across the street from my house on East ...
Although the La Mesa City Council on September 26 rejected the appellation “Ferret-Friendly City” for their town, councilmembers agreed to write letters to support changing state law to allow ownership of domestic ferrets as pets. ...
The San Diego Association of Governments has noticed a big increase throughout the county in the use of golf carts and low-speed vehicles — golf carts being two-seaters and LSVs, as they’re called, being four-seaters. ...
The wife and I like cream in our coffee. So do our kids. Trader Joe’s in La Mesa charges $3.29 for a half-pint. Walmart charges $4.14 for a full pint. I resolved to make the ...
The thought of a food court evokes strong sensory memories burned into my consciousness by the presence of trashy mall franchises: the baked cinnamon aromas of Cinnabon, the pulpy viscosity of Orange Julius, the slab ...
A La Mesa City Council 2-2 vote on August 8 stalled Silvergate Development’s plan to convert the now-closed Little Flower Haven Catholic retirement home at 8585 La Mesa Boulevard into the 130-unit Little Flower apartment ...
Walmart Neighborhood Market carries El Jimador reposado tequila for $15.97 a bottle, which is $4 cheaper than my local liquor store, which is why I went there on the night of July 7th. As I ...
When you think of genius business moves in 2017, opening a used-record shop doesn’t immediately spring to mind. Since the advent of Napster in 1999, the general trend for record stores has been death as ...
La Mesa on a Sunday night? Looks deader than a dodo on downers. Okay, a couple of bars send out lights like lonely lighthouses. Chances for eats? Ha! But then, someone’s just put this sandwich ...