Oceanside Stories
Mel Vernon leans against a black steel fence behind Quarry Creek Shopping Center, on the border of Carlsbad and Oceanside. Above him towers a massive signpost facing the traffic on State Route 78. Below him …
At a December 17 Oceanside City Council meeting, councilmembers Jerry Kern, Rocky Chavez, and Jack Feller voted in favor of awarding La Mesa's Helix Environmental Planning, Inc. an extra $247,000 for an environmental impact report …
At the November 19th Oceanside City Council meeting, Caltrans along with shopping mall giant, Westfield Group, appealed the Planning Commission’s decision to support Jefferson Enterprises proposal to build a 92-acre shopping plaza in Oceanside, near …
November 2 was the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed at St. Mary, Star of the Sea — All Souls’ Day, the Day of the Dead. Sheets of parchment hung along the walls of the …
On October 8, the Oceanside City Council meeting got off to a fiery start. The first speaker, Ray Melendrez, president of the Oceanside Firefighters Association, accused Councilman (and mayoral candidate) Rocky Chavez and Councilman Jerry …
Surf, sand, and picturesque bluffs. Salty breezes and the ever-present licorice scent of wild fennel. The rhythmic bumping of your bike tires over the pavement of an old four-lane highway, abandoned save for the occasional …
The Fourth of July is about celebration. It's about honoring our country, our freedoms, while tossing a few back with family and friends — not on the beach of course — and watching the spectacular …
On June 11, the local division of the state water board ordered the North County Transit District, which recently completed the Sprinter rail project, to pay a $685,000 fine for discharges of construction sediment into …
What’s the difference between National City and Rancho Santa Fe? Well — er, uh — money comes to mind. Last year, median household income in National City was $44,130, according to figures provided by the …
“In the mid to late 1990s, we saw a lot of contamination — from places like the shipyards in particular — flowing freely off those sites, like Southwest Marine and NASSCO [National Steel and Shipyard …
The interior of St. Margaret’s church has an oddly spare quality — the huge central dome gives the impression of an old-fashioned Catholic church, the sort that might be swarming with statues and stained glass. …
Having lived in San Diego since 1980, one would think that I would have long ago gravitated to residence in the northern portion of the county. It seems, by consensus, to be more generally livable …
The Back Gate The area around the Oceanside pier and boardwalk glistens, picture perfect: palm trees, silver sand, blue water, and crowds of people. It’s easy to see how this town got its name. But …
In August 2003, the North County Transit District, preparing to build a train line linking Oceanside, Vista, San Marcos, and Escondido, applied to state authorities for a storm water discharge permit. The train, called the …
What's nice about outrigger canoeing is that you're facing forward, so you get to see where you're going," says John Wascher, vice president of the Oceanside Outrigger Canoe Club. "And [the canoes] are built to …
MiraCosta College dean Eileen Kraskouskas was in San Francisco for a three-day conference last March when she got e-mails and calls from the office of the MiraCosta president telling her that 2006 would be her …
I found out about a retirement home having a party on the beach in Oceanside. The idea of old guys on the beach didn't sound appealing, but the party was for the employees, not the …
The movie Wedding Crashers became number one at the box office after playing in theaters for several weeks. The word-of-mouth on this movie has made it a hit. Vince Vaughn is hysterical. (Swingers, a 1996 …
Aside from North County's beaches, not many public spaces for anything resembling true "hiking" can be found in Oceanside or in neighboring Vista and Carlsbad. One significant exception is Gaujome Regional Park, an oasis of …
"Nobody wants to talk about failure," said Pastor Ryan Sharp. "As a new church, you try hard to build it and then you slap God's name onto it, so there is a certain sense of …
WE REALLY HAVE, from a pedestrian's point of view, two kinds of places in San Diego," said Stephan Vance of the San Diego Association of Governments. "There's the older urban core that was built around …
Reuben H. Fleet Science Center www.sdaa.org 619-238-1233, x6 Oceanside Photo and Telescope I-5 and Mission, Oceanside www.optcorp.com 800-483-6287 On the first Wednesday of each month, the San Diego Astronomy Association sponsors free evening star parties …
Margarita Rocks 212 North Tremont Street, Oceanside www.margaritarocks.net 760-967-7699 This is a 14,000-square-foot extravaganza, with a basement "dive" bar and dance floor, and a large, third-floor, ocean-view deck. Airbrushed murals of waves and sharks riff …
Ruby's Diner 1 Pierview Way, Oceanside www.rubys.com 760-433-RUBY(7829) Okay, we're walking, we're walking...to the end of the longest wooden pier on the West Coast. Oceanside's. That's where Ruby's is. Third of a mile out to …
I see Asian gang cars some nights, in a long caravan down the Mira Mesa Boulevard. They meet at In-N-Out Burger before heading off for illegal street races on Kearny Villa Road or in Sorrento Valley.
Eight years ago at 6:30 in the morning, if you surfed the beach breaks closest to downtown Oceanside, you’d see the underworld scurrying home like cockroaches getting back to the rocks. The crystal meth/prostitute element …
Mission San Luis Rey de Francia 4070 Mission Avenue, Oceanside 760-757-3250 The rolling hills of Casa de Oro to the south are much unchanged since the Franciscans established this graveyard at the turn of the …
101 Café 631 South Coast Highway 101, Oceanside 760-722-5220 You're always hearing about ol' cliche-ridden Route 66, but how about our own, glorious Royal Highway, the former Camino Real, Highway 101? Friars to farmers to …
Prince of Peace Abbey 650 Benet Hill Road, Oceanside 760-430-1305 The monks who follow the rule of St. Benedict have carved out a serene niche on their hilltop overlooking the San Luis Rey Valley. The …
Millennial Motors 505 Mission Avenue (at Coast Highway), Oceanside (760) 722-2225 Michael's the general manager of Millennial Motors, and he claims to have more electric scooters to sell than anyone in the county. These are …
Helgren's Sportfishing Trips 315 Harbor Drive South, Oceanside (760) 722-2133 Whale-watch cruises run from December through March. Most are 3/4 day runs, 1/2 day runs, and twilight trips, though Helgren's also books multiday custom charters. …
Beaches from Imperial Beach to Oceanside To find out where grunion are running, call Fish and Game at (858) 467-4201 Legal in March and from June through August. They must be left alone April/May. Grunion …
Bicycle riding in the hills north of Oceanside is like touring the roof of North County -- at least on a clear day. Views stretch east to the Palomar Mountains, west to the ocean, and …
Oceanside is about as far as you can go in North County without enlisting. Fact is, many people in Oceanside have enlisted, if only indirectly, via their parents. Biology teacher Dawn Murray says that few …
A real estate agent had warned me, “The residents of Saint Malo are very classy people,” so I had packed a bottle of light, fruity Domaine Les Grands Groux Sancerre (1996) and a loaf of fresh bread.
Surf, sand, and picturesque bluffs. Salty breezes and the ever-present licorice scent of wild fennel. The rhythmic bumping of your bike tires over the pavement of an old four-lane highway, abandoned save for the occasional …
“What is a bum?” asks Jo, a short, animated, talkative man of thirty whose troubled life has included a stint in prison for possession of illegal drugs, a broken marriage, and a recent flirtation with …
Two years ago Oceanside Blade-Tribune publisher Tom Missett filed suit against the City of Oceanside for refusing to release police documents regarding the closed investigation of student/teacher indiscretions at Oceanside High. Superior Court Judge Larry …
There's a classic confrontation in Oceanside these days that should be interesting to watch in the months to come. It involves the city council, Camp Pendleton, the Western Surfing Association, the Army Corps of Engineers, …
Should a reviewer “pan” a struggling restaurant, if it is sincerely bad? Should the reviewer bother to talk about a place which “everyone knows" is good and will prosper whether or not the review is written.