National City Stories
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 ...
Music worth saving History, geopolitics, and social sciences are my fields, but as a young boy growing up on Long Island, I was the organist of our parish and even ...
Trinity Lutheran Church Contact: 7210 Lisbon St., San Diego 619-262-1089 www.tlcsd.org Membership: 100 Pastor: Richard Stark Age: 57 Born: National City Formation: San Diego Police Academy; Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, ...
Honestly, I walked up through Old Town without a lot of hope. These have been tough days, specially for Congress, and I don’t mean DC. I’m talking about the Cinderella ...
National City Stories
Say what? As my 929 stretch limo (read: bus) hauls me through National City, we pass a big ol’ sprawling furniture place that I remember used to take up most of the block here at ...
It was the heart-shaped pizza that brought me to Paradise Valley, a southeastern San Diego neighborhood roughly at the halfway point between National City and Spring Valley. Aside from single-family homes and apartment complexes, there ...
“Chubby, round, and very pretty.” That’s how Google translates gordita redondita y bien bonita, the Spanish words written in pink neon on the wall of Barrio Donas. The shop’s name itself translates to “neighborhood donuts,” ...
National City has set five new business fees for commercial cannabis businesses, which will take effect in February. The total, about $11,000, is somewhere in between the fees charged by Chula Vista, its neighbor to ...
The vibe is feeling real along 8th Street, National City, as we circle the block to find parking. I’ve been hearing for nearly two years now about this aspirational project coming together: a public market, ...
One of National City's last open space parcels will make room for a used car dealership, displacing a homeless camp and endangered birds that depend on the wetland habitat along the Sweetwater River. Over the ...
You know it’s corporate from the come-ons they have on the wall. “Handcrafted taste and flavor.” “Amazing experiences make for unforgettable moments.” “Every handcrafted piece of Bonchon chicken starts your experience.” I get it. Terms ...
Other than the word sushi itself, there’s usually not much to learn about a sushi restaurant by looking at its name. Sometimes, if there’s a Japanese word, you can run it through an online translator ...
I am sitting, staring like a stunned ox. “I told you it was real,” says Sully. My buddy and I are sitting here, under tents, a stone’s throw from the 805, on Plaza Boulevard in ...
Tuétano is the Spanish word for marrow, and bone marrow has a lot to do with the success of the San Ysidro taco shop, Tuetano Taqueria. Since opening in 2018, it’s been written about in ...
There’s a conspicuous cocoa flavor running through the green mint ice cream, it’s nearly as rich as the chocolate chips scattered throughout. But behind the frozen dessert’s sweetness lurks the tonic burn of alcohol. Because ...
A year ago, as National City began drafting its first ordinance to allow commercial cannabis, the city council even voted to include consumption lounges. Until then, the city was hardly at the forefront of cannabis ...
Tender shredded beef birria, swimming in reddish brown broth that leaves an orange ring ‘round the edges of the Styrofoam cup containing it. That’s the Tijuana-style specialty of National City’s 664 TJ Birrieria. But it’s ...
A mid-year crime report for National City includes a new type of service call. Since March, about 225 calls to police were made under the new code for things like neighbors not wearing face masks ...
Colin Jones, local slinger of blues shot through with ’90s rock — or is it the other way around? — picks up music, and influences, on the fly. But from his peripatetic childhood, he’s used ...
Argentina? El Salvador? Empanadas? Pupusas? What’s the difference? I’m wandering, wandering, and wondering as I wander. I’ve just come down from City College. Had this crazy notion that their cafeteria might be open. What I ...
National City – a Mayor Daley-type political machine To the south of San Diego, within range of the shadows cast by the Coronado Bridge, lies National City. Frequently described as the “backlot" of San Diego, ...
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 ...
“My husband is a meat guy, and this month we went for nine days without eating meat.” Melissa and her two boys, who look about seven and nine, are waiting at the Olivewood Gardens produce ...
Call me optimistic, but I still believe food has the power to bring people of the world together, even if the times call for us to maintain a certain distance. Under normal circumstances, restaurants serving ...
In recent years, National City has made it a little harder to open a regular bar while making it a lot easier to open a craft brewery. The changes began long before. When the city ...
Lincoln Acres doesn't want to be National City. But sitting on the edge of a growing urban area means sooner or later, Starbucks is coming. To the county, it's a good time to "measurably reduce" ...
San Diego beat its 2020 goal for slashing greenhouse gases by two years. But tucked in its climate action plan is one key strategy that barely budged. Boosting the tree canopy by 15 percent. Not ...
I sip my Kyoto Summer. I look down. A steamed burger? It comes out blanched, like a ghostly version of America’s favorite sandwich, but stuffed with a golden-crumbed chicken slab, Swiss cheese, and kimchi, and ...
National City voters will decide in March if a new ordinance banning the retail sale of dogs, cats and rabbits should be overturned. Like a state law that took effect this year, the city's ban ...
So this young couple slipped into the dimpled red booth. “They sat apart. They were shy,” says Tula. But this is Cafe La Maze. Big portraits of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard and a bunch ...
National City passed an ordinance on September 3 to tighten a state law that requires pet stores to obtain all dogs, cats, and rabbits they sell from shelters or rescues. The ordinance will be the ...
On August 25 at 11 a.m., Cher M. went to Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen on Mira Mesa Blvd. — only to find out that it was closed. “A sign said they were basically sold out of ...
A sign posted inside Niederfrank's Ice Cream declares, “We make our ice cream by some of the most antique, inefficient, outdated, and expensive process in the world.” Home-made ice cream shops have been cropping up ...
This past September, National City’s first homebrewing supply shop officially became National City’s first craft brewery. In a number of ways, Embarcadero Brewing and Supply feels like a time capsule out of San Diego craft ...
Lunchtime on a Saturday, and a Reserved sign was placed before every seat at the sushi bar at Goody's Sushi & Grill. Sitting nearby, I watched as, all at once, customers trickled in to claim ...
I’ve been missing out on Filipino baked goods. And considering Valerio’s City Bakery has been making them in National City since 1979, I’ve been missing out for a good forty years. During that time, the ...
“I don’t know if you saw it before, it was not a very nice area,” said Nadia Nunez about Paradise Creek where it runs through Kimball Park in National City. Nunez is community manager for ...
If you watched a lot of Taco Bell commercials in the late 90s, you might have been left with the impression that gorditas are large tacos made with pitas instead of tortillas. However, like a ...
Two weeks after being cleared on charges of using his clout to avoid five years' worth of fees and fines for carrying out a dozen projects on his property without the required building permits, National ...
“Around 15 cats live behind the Island Pacific Seafood Market on 2720 E. Plaza Blvd,” posted a Paradise Valley resident on her Nextdoor account. “The store is closed and they need food and some water.” ...
In a political bait and switch, National City council member Jerry Cano pulled papers for mayor on Tuesday, August 7 – exactly three days before the deadline to file to run as a candidate in ...
We’ve all heard the joke that someday a natural disaster will plunge California into the sea and turn Arizona into beachfront property. But if recent trends continue what would be more likely — the landslide ...
When the server placed it on my table, she warned me the platter would be sizzling hot. I appreciated that. And also the fact it was shaped like a cow. It’s place called Not Your ...
National City council member Jerry Cano has been cleared of wrongdoing by an outside investigator who looked into whether he used his political clout to escape scrutiny and five years' worth of fines as he ...
Shortly after midnight on Wednesday (April 18), National City council member Jerry Cano became the subject of an investigation into whether he violated state law by using his official position to influence a government decision ...
Name: Beth Colton Age: 34 From: National City Location: Ocean Beach Pier Occupation: Staff at the San Diego Humane Society Beth Colton just got done surfing with her nine-foot Sunova board inlaid with balsa wood ...
Lydia Horne received a free haircut and a toiletry bag – at the Age-Less Beauty (Blessing our Seniors) gathering on March 31. The event happened at about noon in the courtyard of the Southern Highland ...
“With your fingers, dude?” says Wes. “Hey, what else did people eat with, before you French brought in the fork, right? You invented cutlery! The Curse of the Eating Classes!” Actually, Wes has always been ...
The lot is irregular, and so is the proposed housing model; developers see it as lemons to lemonade. Neighbors and some National City planning commissioners, however, see the four-unit communal living style project as a ...
Two National City initiatives will face off in the June elections. Both received the necessary signatures to be placed on the ballot. Both are so similar, they may confuse voters. The National City Citizens for ...
“Your educators are falling apart,” Christina Benson, president of the National City Education Teachers Association, told district boardmembers this week. The union continues to protest an impasse in negotiations between the district and teachers. On ...
The National City Education Teachers Association has not yet declared a strike, but negotiations with their district have hit an impasse. The union cites lack of materials and heavy workloads as the prime issues. Christina ...