North Park Stories
A multi-deejay event called Klub Therapy debuts Friday night at the 8Teen Arts and Cultural Center in North Park. It is one of the first all-ages music events at the venue, which opened last December …
Can’t believe it. Here I am in North Park, yapping away with Albert Einstein’s cousin! Evelyn, who runs this eatery with her husband Jeff, casually drops it that her grandpa and Albert were first cousins. …
I fit a couple of parties into one night. Both were at bars. Well, the first wasn’t really at a bar, per se. It was in the cantina of Fidel’s in Solana Beach. I was …
“No matter what happens,” Chris Heaney declares with a grin, “no matter if the economy’s good or bad, you’ve got to drink.” He stands behind the bar at Club Kadan, the Adams Avenue bar he …
I remember the first time I came in to a little money as a teenager and went to buy Christmas gifts for friends and family. I went to the Fashion Valley mall and remember walking …
A few times a year, local party legend Bear Paw gives me the heads up on a party. His directions on my voice mail are always amusing. This one said, “I don’t know the name …
She buries her face into his shirt. He stares, bug-eyed, out the window. You know he’s pondering a bi-ig problem. They’re sitting on the side seats at the back of the Number 7. He gets …
A congregation of community preservationists gathered in the creaky upstairs room of the Grace Lutheran Church on Park Boulevard on September 30th for a candidate forum with council candidates Sherri Lightner, Stephen Whitburn, Todd Gloria, …
The Hillcrest Town Council held a community forum on September 9, with District Three candidates Stephen Whitburn and Todd Gloria fielding questions from members of the community. The two candidates attempted to distinguish themselves and …
“Hurting people loved here,” read the tall, black letters on the sign outside North Park Baptist Church. “I think that’s started getting us in contact with people we don’t normally get contact with,” said senior …
“God, You inhabit the praise of Your people,” said associate pastor Tony Inyang during the prayers before the service began, and the praise team started in making a suitable habitation. “Welcome into this place,” sang …
Stately, plump Bruce Aidells came from the smoker bearing a bowl in which a sausage and a French roll lay crossed. That was some 30 years ago, and Aidells's original creations were the start of …
I couldn't help it. As I walked by what used to be my favorite bar I had to peer through the window and see the abomination. I could not even recognize it anymore, my old …
In April, Councilwoman Toni Atkins's office surveyed the communities in her district. She asked 132 residents of District 3 — an area including Hillcrest, South Park, North Park, Golden Hill, Kensington, and City Heights — …
Among the posters and banners lining the long wall behind the pulpit in the storefront church was one that collected the names ascribed to Jesus in Scripture: “The resurrection and the life/ Judge/ Lord of …
It's common knowledge that the housing market is in the dumps. In last month's Standard and Poor's/Case-Schiller home price index, prices for the first quarter of 2008 plummeted 20.5 percent compared to first quarter numbers …
It’s been seven years since a few North Park galleries first had the idea to close down Ray Street to traffic and open it up to art-loving pedestrians. Since then, the monthly gallery art-walk on …
At the Uptown Planners Committee meeting on May 6th, Mark Freed of Landmark Development, pitched a proposal for a five story, 66 foot tall, mixed use building on the corner of Park Boulevard and Polk …
Alexander’s is the new North Park spin-off of very old Old Venice in Point Loma, where the latter is popular, if perhaps taken for granted. In the gentrifying North Park area, however, no decent restaurant …
“In case I haven’t mentioned it lately,” says Debbie the bus driver through her microphone, “I love my passengers. Yee-haw!” Hey, it’s okay. This is the 35, the O.B. bus. People are allowed to be …
Among the many new restaurants opening along the formerly starved 30th Street corridor, the one that’s generated the most buzz is Urban Solace, a giant hit with all the local food blogs. When it had …
This is how far we’ve come: An affordable new neighborhood eatery, warm and pretty but unpretentious, serving humanely raised natural Niman meats, precious Jidori chicken, local organic veggies in thoroughly tasty simple dishes — am …
"According to government legislation, people aren't responsible enough to survive doing anything," says Frank H. Steensnaes. "What if footwear was determined to be a crucially important element of human survival and the government decided to …
"Snow Patrol wrote the greatest worship song," proclaimed Pastor Rich McCullen. "'Open Your Eyes.' As a church, we've decided to open our eyes to the world and what's going on around us. And sometimes, that's …
'The Salvation Army insisted on seeing a purely cultural event with political eyes and then complained that the event was political," says Manal Swairjo, co-organizer of the concert featuring Lebanese oud (Arabic lute) composer Marcel …
It is 8:14 a.m. and the sun is already shining strongly through the blinds like a peeping Tom, only more annoying. Last night I tossed and turned, dreading the decisions that would soon confront me. …
A churchgoer of a certain age might take in the '60s décor at Covenant Presbyterian Church and think, "Time for an update." The tawny gold of the deep pile carpet, the worn blue velveteen on …
Carlsbad's Rancho Carrillo community trail circles what used to be the heart of the 2538-acre Rancho de los Quiotes (Ranch of the Spanish Daggers). Stage and screen actor Leo Carrillo founded the ranch in 1937 …
Before the new noise laws, if there was a noise complaint from your party, the police showed up. People thought they only showed up if it was after 10:00 p.m. That's not the case. It …
As Super Bowl halftime approached, I headed off to another party. I had two more to catch. The first, which the host dubbed the "Nacho Bowl," was in North Park. He said there would be …
While North Park's boundary lines are debated, its hub is the intersection of University Avenue and 30th Street, which is where its story begins. Just northeast of Balboa Park, North Park is an epicenter of …
Of the 50 or so Halloween parties I was invited to, I attended five. The fourth was at a house in Clairemont, and it was packed. Most of the people there were not in costume. …
Anza-Borrego's Cougar Canyon is a place where new worlds open up at every turn. There are more gorgeous sights to see along a half-mile of this canyon than in a full day's hiking in most …
'The gypsy jazz guitar is sweet-sounding but very fiery, almost like a flamenco jazz guitar," says Anthony Leigh Adams, cowriter and director of Primal Twang: The Legacy of the Guitar. On Thursday, September 7, this …
When I go to an art party, I never know what to expect. Sometimes the art is interesting. When it's not interesting, I say it's not my cup of tea. I was invited to an …
During last year's Comic-Con, I got a call informing me about a party at a hotel downtown. The agent from New York rattled off an A-list of stars who would be there but finished saying, …
Months ago, I decided to go to an art party in North Park after a racquetball game. It wasn't the best idea. It was a weeknight and I would be all sweaty. I planned to …
"We were meant to live for so much more/ Have we lost ourselves?" Switchfoot played through the speakers as congregants found their seats for Missiongathering's first service in their new venue, there amid the Moroccan-tinged …
CORRECTION: Quite some time ago I reviewed Heaven Sent Desserts in North Park. Upon sampling many pastries and noticing no butter flavor, I thought that some of them might be made with shortening (i.e., Crisco …
Our great national spokesman, Chuck Berry, pictured our country as one "where hamburgers sizzle on an open grill night and day." He wrote those words back in the pre-Golden Arches USA, when burgers didn't come …
The Christ depicted on the wall behind the raised, carved-wood pulpit at Grace Lutheran is Christus Rex: crucified, but clad in priestly robes; glorified, but still hung upon the cross that won his glory. But …
Greg Vaughn invited me to his birthday party in North Park. He was the guitarist in a band that played at a party I wrote about last year. I remember hearing just a few songs …
This restaurant is closed. North Park has long been home to artists, writers, and bohemians of all sorts. Now the neighborhood is officially enjoying an "urban renaissance," as civic boosters call it, spotlighting the art …
I missed a couple of Cinco de Mayo parties because of a migraine headache. A few weeks before that, I missed some parties I didn't know were going on until after the fact. On April …
“We’re from Chicago. We ordered a sausage-and-mushroom pizza to see if they measured up.”
Thirty Years Ago In each of the camps at Camp Pendleton, there are the bulletin boards. Vietnamese leaving messages for other Vietnamese -- lost friends and relatives -- and notes to "The Employees of IBM," …
The Apostolic Church is probably the only truly orthodox church. We teach the apostles doctrine from the original 12 apostles. We do not follow post-apostolic teachings," said Bishop Joel David Trout. "For example, we are …
I got a call from Alisha Brophy, who told me about an art show party she was having. When she said it was for "bad art," I was really intrigued. She and her friends were …
I can never go to more than one party when the Oscars are on. It would be my luck that while driving to the second one, I'd miss a famous moment like the streaker who …
I went to a party last year when local author Jennifer Coburn released her first book, The Wife of Reilly. I was surprised when she had a party for her next book, Reinventing Mona, coming …
After 14 years of living in North Park, a marriage proposal propelled me into the arms of Encinitas. I've acclimated, but on evenings when I hear norteño music pulsating from the roadway behind my new …