Tam Hoang and the Reader
What English means to me, I teach war, UCSD literature students, Linda Vista, American Christmas, outlier students
Tam Hoang 8:30 a.m., Aug. 25
San Carlos Stories
San Diego rat tales
In spite of DeMaio report, it doesn't seem to be our homeless
A few weeks ago, I was startled to find an unwelcome visitor climbing up a wall inside our North Park garage—a rat. My wife and I had dealt with mice at our last house (also ...
Solar vision of a refugee
Mohamed Hauter's transition from Yemen teen to green-energy guy
Hauter grew up with his family in Yemen while his father, a U.S. citizen, spent six months of the year working in the States, first as a farmer in California's Central Valley and later as ...
Drones over San Carlos
No solution to stop peeping-Tom aviators
Stefanie Sekich has dealt with drones near her home in San Carlos on three occasions. The first time, she was outside enjoying a glass of wine and didn’t think much of it. She thought it ...
Eyesore for the birds at Lake Murray
Plywood sound barrier walls didn't keep out thieves
Beginning in late 2016 and continuing through mid 2017, the City of San Diego's water department started the Pipeline 4 Project, which entails relining pipes at Lake Murray. Along with construction crews, cement trucks, and ...
Green Elementary assault trial starts today
Girls allegedly preyed on special-needs student
A civil trial begins today (January 30) in a molestation case of a special-needs student who was allegedly assaulted by three older students inside a bathroom at Green Elementary School in San Carlos. The lawsuit ...
Kindergarten sexual harassment case continues
Green Elementary School incident puts officials in the spotlight
New details have emerged regarding an alleged sexual assault by an elementary-school student on another student at San Diego Unified School District's Green Elementary School. On August 18, 2016, San Diego Unified School District superintendent ...
New chapter on San Carlos Library expansion
Redesign includes columns and removal of cop storefront
While the architect and building size remain the same, the updated plan for the new 25,000-square-foot San Carlos branch library is now one story instead of two. The 8200-square-foot branch at 7265 Jackson Drive opened ...
Pleasant (if small) surprises in Mission Trail Regional Park
Rain reveals the most pleasant surprises
Mission Trails Regional Park (MTRP) is one of San Diego’s many treasures. It is one of the nation’s largest natural urban parks — one with a long history of use from Native Americans and Spanish ...
Phone use and beverages now allowed in library
Instead of rules, "We will address any behavior that is profane or disruptive.”
Phone use and covered beverages are now allowed in the Central Library and the 35 branches in the City of San Diego system, according to the revised version of the San Diego Public Library “Rules ...
Campus at center of "I Don't Like Mondays" shooting to move
Former Grover Cleveland school in San Carlos to be site of 50 homes
On August 18, a hearing with the city’s planning commission will decide if a proposed residential block development gets the green light. The project application proposes to build 50 homes where a charter school (Magnolia ...
Cowles Mountain trail wins the popularity contest
The Southern Approach
If popularity is any indication of quality, then the Cowles Mountain trail from the staging area at the intersection of Golfcrest Drive and Navajo Road is among the best in San Diego, if not the ...
Mission Trails witch’s tale
Indian lore behind “dodder” parasite covering plants
Hikers at Mission Trails Regional Park have noticed the yellow spidery moss that covers the tops of lots of plants in the park. Bridgette and Rachel wondered if the moss was spreading and perhaps dangerous ...
Investigation into Green Elementary School sex scandal closes
District officials admit mishandling of harassment complaint
More needs to be done by San Diego Unified School District administrators to prevent sexual assaults from occurring at public schools, says Esther Warkov, cofounder and executive director of Stop Sexual Assaults in Schools. Warkov, ...
Hand-dredged history
“Built-up sediment puts more pressure on the dam than does water."
One sign of the dredging of Old Mission Dam in Mission Trails Regional Park is an approximately 435-cubic-yard mound of sediment in a Santee parking lot. Dredging started February 17, and the City of San ...
Storm drain didn't do its job
City deals with flooding cases that will likely lead to $1 million payout
On Tuesday, December 15, the San Diego City Council is expected to finalize payment of $1 million to two property owners in San Diego's San Carlos neighborhood for flood damage resulting from a backed-up storm ...
Shocking goings-on at Green Elementary School
School investigator's case reveals cracks at San Diego Unified
Michael Gurrieri, a former investigator for San Diego Unified School District, says district officials fired him after he found evidence that the principal at Green Elementary School in San Carlos was allegedly drinking on the ...
English is the business at Conversation Café
San Carlos library makes a spot for melting pot
Between the hours of 2 and 4 p.m. on Thursdays, the San Carlos Library community room becomes the English Conversation Café, a program that gives nonnative speakers the opportunity to practice English. The program led ...
It's a parking lot and (one day) San Carlos library
Community leaders aim to create $20 million, 25,000-sq-ft building
The 22,000-square-foot lot at the intersection of Jackson and Golfcrest drives is not a park-and-ride, a parking lot for apartments on Golfcrest, or a place for Cowles Mountain hikers to park on weekends. The lot ...
End of the line for Carl's Jewelers
After three generations, the family craft won't be passed on
Health issues led the late Carl Goldberg to move his family from New York to San Carlos, where he opened Carl's Jewelers in 1978. His daughter Adele (Goldberg) Garland's health issues prompted a "Going Out ...
Theft a testament to soccer's popularity?
Crusaders' signs stolen — "This was not a prank"
Between the evening of June 23 and the morning of June 24, a Crusaders banner and 70 signs for the youth-soccer organization were stolen, primarily from locations on Navajo Road in San Carlos and Waring ...
Telecoiled around the Lord
Churches (and elsewhere) amp up cochlear implants to help hard-of-hearing
A new message greeted parishioners entering St. Dunstan Episcopal Church for the 8 a.m. service on June 28. A sign advised people to "Get in the Hearing Loop" by turning hearing aids and cochlear implants ...
The Trails Eatery helps in-laws get over Coco’s closure
Food Network star’s eatery does breakfast right
When Coco’s closed most of its San Diego–area restaurants in April, it put a kink in my family’s dining schedule. It is my in-laws favorite place to eat, and I willingly joined them in their ...
Off the beaten path in Mission Trails
The trek to Pyles Peak via Cowles Mountain
Start with familiar and popular Cowles, then take a detour for views west to the ocean and east to the Cuyamacas.
Boomtown lobbyist
Bid deadline passes for Cleveland Elementary, site of 1979 school shooting
Eight children were wounded, a principal and a custodian died, and Bob Geldof got a song out of it. Now the site of San Diego’s former Cleveland Elementary school is drawing the attention of a ...
Mystery foam on Lake Murray
Soap suds theory shot down
On April 24, a small crowd of hikers stopped to observe sudsy, white foam stacked up about a foot high near the two-mile marker on the running trail around Lake Murray. The onlookers were all ...
Where's my green-waste container?
San Carlos resident (and others) wonder when their wheeled bin will arrive
San Diego's automated curbside yard-waste-recycling pilot program expanded to San Carlos in May 2013 when about 5500 green containers were delivered to residents. Last January 7, a woman at the San Carlos Area Council meeting ...
She didn't like Mondays, they don't want plaque moved
Some say "no" to relocation of memorial honoring victims of Brenda Spencer
A representative from the company that wants to develop the former Grover Cleveland Elementary School site said on March 24 that there are no plans for the property, which is in escrow. However, the bid ...
Get it all out now, park abusers
Fence project to protect Mission Trails soon to begin
Nearly nine months after a driver crashed through a guardrail at the end of Cowles Mountain Boulevard, residents of the Cottages condominium complex have a timeline from the City of San Diego for the installation ...
Kids, crayons, and cookies welcome
San Carlos library opens Chat Room
Forty-one years after the January 9, 1974, opening of the San Carlos branch library, patrons can eat, drink, and talk in the library. Those activities are allowed, and food and beverages are provided, in the ...
Social media has wrecked Cowles Mountain
Some say additional parking will bring more people to the area
A majority of Navajo Community Planners, Inc., on November 17 voted to recommend that the City of San Diego add 17 parallel-parking spaces near Cowles Mountain by removing the red curb on a portion of ...
Not saying that secularism is evil, but...
The world misses something important when we turn away from our spiritual journeys.
Former mayor Murphy objects to Bat Quarry
Mission Trails committee decides on naming and renaming trails
The Mission Trails Regional Park citizens' advisory committee on September 2 voted to recommend naming three trails and renaming two quarries and two park entrances. Former San Diego mayor Dick Murphy served on a subcommittee ...
Thanks, mule
San Diego woman rescued in Mono County
At 2:45 p.m., on August 26, the Mono County Sheriff’s Department received a call that a 77-year-old San Diego woman became quite ill and was unable to continue with her hiking group. She reportedly had ...
When horseless, bike
Plans proceed for city-sanctioned BMX park
Navajo Community Planners, Inc., on August 18 voted unanimously in favor of developing a 12.5-acre bike-skills park in Mission Trails Regional Park, creating an adjacent 2-acre park, and upgrading the 4.3-mile portion of the San ...
Rancho Mission Canyon Open Space
An easy walk through one of San Diego’s ecologically diverse urban canyons.
“Chi-ca-go chi-ca-go” in Rancho Mission Canyon
Cowles Mountain rescue report
Twisted ankles and heart attacks
Cowles Mountain was the site of 22 rescues during 2013, San Diego Fire-Rescue battalion chief Dan Froelich said in a July 6 interview; 32 rescues were conducted in Mission Trails Regional Park last year. The ...
Serious climb for a serious view
This is a challenging hike with a variety of habitats and great views.
North Fortuna Mountain, at 1291 feet, is the third-tallest mountain in Mission Trails Regional Park after Cowles Mountain and Pyles Peak but the most challenging to climb because of the steep ascent and descent. The ...
Cross the bridge and take the stairs
South Fortuna Mountain offers a challenging and varied hike in Mission Trails.
The top of 1094-foot South Fortuna Mountain has sweeping views of all of the major peaks found in the City of San Diego’s largest regional park. South Fortuna is part of a long arced mountain ...
Another wild night at the dead end
"I don't understand this disaster tourism."
The June 10 rescue of a woman driver who drove through a metal guardrail at the end of Cowles Mountain Boulevard and landed in a ravine happened three weeks after Navajo Community Planners’ May 19 ...
An end to the Dead End party in San Carlos
She saw "two vehicles with four individuals vomiting out of each one.”
Navajo Community Planners, Inc., on May 19 voted unanimously to support the installation of a barrier north of the intersection of Cowles Mountain Boulevard and Rainswept Way. The Cottages condominium complex is accessed from Rainswept, ...
Chief Zimmerman talks pot
“That's what [Prop 215] was for. Growing a few plants, getting relief."
San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman answered residents' questions about the medical marijuana law and the homeless, among other topics, at the May 7 San Carlos Area Council meeting. John Pilch, council vice president, said ...
Bikers’ and climbers’ stake in Mission Trails park
Master plan meeting touches on the Boulders, adding acreage
At the April 17 meeting on the Mission Trails Regional Park master plan update, speakers included rock climbers, mountain bikers, and property owners. Topics for the first two groups included access and the Quail Brush ...
Navajo planners consider pot shops in District 7
No recommendations preceding council approval of new ordinance
Navajo Community Planners, Inc., listened for about an hour February 24 to discussion of the proposed medical-marijuana dispensary ordinance, but the board made no recommendation about the regulation on the San Diego City Council' s ...
Shadow-walk with Mission Trails photographer
Former bureaucrat David Cooksy gets outside, stays there
Birds in Mission Trails Regional Park displayed varied reactions when David Cooksy's camera made a beeping sound while focusing. Egrets became "panicky. They looked around; they thought it was a bird," Cooksy said during a ...
Protest over Mission Trails mountain-bike trail closures
Letter from state and fed agencies brings hammer down
At least 500 mountain-bikers, hikers, and equestrians paraded through Mission Trails Regional Park on Saturday morning, January 11, to protest the closing of popular trails in the northeastern section of the well-used open-space area. "There's ...
Rodent patrol officer lives at Mission Trails’ park center
Six-toed cat has been on the job since July
The sun, in the form of Enyaa the six-toed cat, comes out at night at Mission Trails Regional Park Visitor Center. Enyaa ("en" as in "hen;" "yaa" rhymes with "caw") is the Kumeyaay word for ...
San Carlos residents bandy about traffic solutions
"The fact you have to wait two seconds is not worth the life of my child."
Navajo Community Planners, Inc., on October 21, considered three San Carlos traffic issues. The planning group unanimously approved the installation of a four-way stop at Green Gables Avenue and Wandermere Drive, and a board majority ...
Kwaay Paay Peak, Mission Trails Regional Park
Get a good workout and avoid the crowd on Cowles Mountain
Kwaay Paay Peak is a good alternative to Cowles Mountain for anyone who wants a good climbing hike without a crowd. It is the fourth highest peak in Mission Trails Regional Park, at an elevation ...
Mission Trails, Visitor Center Loop
The nation’s largest urban natural park, right off I-8
Encounter several natural habitats and an Indian acorn-grinding area on this short trail.
Mission Trails, Oak Grove Loops
Discover a Kumeyaay dwelling nestled in a shady oak grove.
The highlights of this short hike include the transition from grasslands and coastal sage scrub habitats to small shaded oak woodland with majestic coast live oaks and rare Engelmann oaks found along a stream where ...
Some San Carlos residents leery of Navajo Rd. plan
Cowles Mountain hikers prompt parking proposal
The majority of Navajo Community Planners, Inc., on September 16 voted to oppose a City of San Diego proposal to put 19 parking spaces on Navajo Road, a street where the speed limit is 50 ...
Ride-along with San Diego’s Retired Senior Volunteer Patrol
Welfare checks and stolen cars
As members of the Retired Senior Volunteer Patrol (RSVP) for San Diego Police Department's Eastern Division, Gregg and Melody Stoner's accomplishments include recovering 62 stolen vehicles since May 2012. That's when a license-plate reader was ...
