PhotosChristmas Jerk I managed to avoid being homeless on Christmas Eve 1979, but just barely. Unemployed since that summer, I found a cheap flophouse on 12th and Island where 70 bucks a month got me ...
December 23, 2020
Elizabeth Salaam grew up in the suburban foothills of Boise, Idaho and subsequently followed a winding path to Olympia, Washington; Brooklyn, New York; and Gotsu (a tiny coastal town in Japan), before landing in San Diego in 2007. She published her first cover story for the Reader in January 2010. As of November 2014, she has published 45 cover stories, 17 profiles featuring random locals, and a few handfuls of City Lights stories. From 2010 to summer 2014, she also published a biweekly Q&A for Reader Jobs.
Her website is elizabethsalaam.com.
Articles by Elizabeth Salaam
San Diego Reader writers alone at Christmas
Race blending at San Diego beaches, who does best Afro hair, Mitchell family
It's Not a Race Thing... It's Style Jordan, 18, is black, and I saw him sporting swim trunks and sunglasses and hanging out on the beach with his white friend Alex, also 18. "There's pressure ...
November 21, 2020
New York wave riders, surf-obsessed Crozier family, girls and their boards
Mushballs! Contrary to popular belief, there is surf to be had off New York City. Just as one can purchase a bagel (or passable facsimile) in San Diego, one can ride a wave off Queens. ...
November 15, 2020
Beating back fear of Tijuana, why I keep thinking about Mexico, a cross-border kidnapping
Baja is back Hip and delicious. There’s no reason not to get in your car and go. By Elizabeth Salaam, July 24, 2013 | Read full article I was hit with the realization that half ...
October 25, 2020
San Diego Reader's Best Of issue
Look for the online list of Best Of voting winners soon. We have printed and re-stocked extra copies of this week's print version where the Best Of voting winners are listed. Best place in San ...
October 21, 2020
The Chargers crowd, the Padres crowd, where old Chargers are
Cheerleading Is More Dangerous than Fighting Cage-fightin’ rock stars. It’s Wednesday at 1:00 p.m., and I am waiting for amateur mixed martial arts fighter Jaime Reyes at the Lakeside Cafe. When he walks past me, ...
October 11, 2020
De Anza Cove terrorized, La Jolla Cove cesspool, doomed life in Eastlake, South vs North Park, displaced persons in City Heights
The Ugly Trailer Park Across the Water Beauty and the blight on Mission Bay. Cityzella terrorizes humble trailer folk at De Anza Cove. By Ollie, Sept. 14, 2011 | Read full article What am I ...
September 28, 2020
Afro hair, piercings, obsession with abdomens, T-shirts talk, the beauty of henna, worry about fat
Afro Puffs ’Dos that don’t. I’m overjoyed that my daughter loves her hair. I’m also afraid there will come a day when she tells me she wishes it were long, straight, and yellow. By Elizabeth ...
September 21, 2020
Mexico after the millenium
Smugglersville “The cops mess with us. The thieves mess with us. Everybody messes with us.” I was hobbling back from the store with a liter of milk, when I saw three young men sitting on ...
July 12, 2020