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Stories by Amy Chu

Teddy Kennedy, Hunter Thompson as villains, San Diegan sneaks onto Coronado Islands

Arrested development: Teddy Kennedy, Hunter Thompson, Jim and Artie Mitchell Kennedy, according to Burke’s memoir, “roared with laughter.” He grabbed a handful of the poppers from the box and tossed them to Burke, saying, “Here …

April 10, 2021
Oceanside Museum, Balboa Theater, bright eye of MOPA, scandal of MOCA

Pioneer in Oceanside “In San Diego, the most important piece of architecture is, of course, the Mission San Luis Rey. But I feel strongly that this [the Oceanside museum] is the next most important piece.” …

January 23, 2021
Best Reader stories from 1982

What on earth am I settling for “Goddamnit,” said Jane one evening about six months ago when I answered the door of our apartment in Golden Hill and found her on the stoop, Jeanne sliding …

November 24, 2019
Amy Chu and the Reader

Amy Chu served as calendar editor and wrote feature stories for the Reader in the late 1970s and early 1980s. How they restore great paintings in Balboa Park A recent Tuesday morning in Balboa Park …

September 15, 2019
A.W. Coggeshall, downtown San Diego's blue-collar landlord

Suppose, for a moment, that you had a lot of money — oh, not exactly cash, but valuable property. More money, that is, than you would ever need. Suppose, too, that for most of your …

A complete survey of San Diego shopping malls

Today there isn’t much about South Bay Plaza to distinguish it from the commercial buildings around it: just two parallel lines of stores separated by an unpretentious pedestrian mall. It was the biggest shopping center …

December 16, 1982
Green Tiger Press – a true tale of the publishing business

The traveler waits on the dock surrounded by his baggage: steamer trunks, wooden crates of books, parcels of drawings and rolled-up paintings. He is dressed in a purple jacket with a daffodil in the lapel, …

October 28, 1982
In conversation with a Rudford's girl

Tomorrow is Saturday, that’s the busiest day. They’re either having a garage sale or going to one; and some of them come in to read the Racing Form. I leave home before four, especially if …

July 29, 1982
What San Diego County reservations are doing about Indian alcohol

There was no liquor on the old reservation,but as soon as the tribe was moved to Viejas, in 1931, “there was plenty of it.” She started drinking when her First husband came back from the service.

The Climb to Gold Mountain: San Diego's Chinatown

A Chinaman was fishing for abalone off Pt. Loma and it clamped on his hand and he didn’t have sense enough to take a rock and break it and he drowned. They found him clamped to a rock there.

April 8, 1982
My 75-year-old mother lives, works in streets of New York

I ask when she will retire. She asks when I will have a baby. She used to say she would retire soon. Now she says, so she won’t retire for at least another year.

December 10, 1981
Elizabeth Cotten, adopted by the Seeger family, then discovered

“I was here about a year ago, I think they told me last night. It's kind of hard to remember. . . places I go to and how long it’s been, because I don’t think …

July 2, 1981
Fierce competition among San Diego ballet aspirants

Waiting: sitting, standing, stretching, eating an orange, talking quietly or with animation, trying not to be nervous. At least some of them had not been able to sleep the night before. It’s a familiar locker-room …

April 23, 1981
San Diego Historical Society has all the photos you could imagine

It was mostly dirt. A dirt road, a bunch of one-story houses and a few two-story ones, a scattering of low wooden fences, and a lot of dirt front yards and dirt back yards. Around …

November 13, 1980
I learn courage on the south face of Tahquitz Rock

The members of the rock climbing section of the Sierra Club in San Diego, like Harlan, are city people with full-time jobs or studies. During the week, they practice bouldering at Mission Gorge or Mt. Woodson.

January 31, 1980
1979: San Diego's year in review

Rape of the Earth Medal of Dishonor The year's most infamous award goes to the voters of San Diego, a majority of whom agreed to exchange 39 acres of prime canyonland in Balboa Park for …

December 20, 1979
How they restore great paintings in Balboa Park

A recent Tuesday morning in Balboa Park had brought a wooden angel weakened by insect tunneling, a fragmented jade sculpture, and a portrait of the owner’s grandmother that was mildewed and improperly framed.

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4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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