PhotosHillcrest: gayborhood or ghetto? “I was only in West Hollywood for four years and I came from the East Coast by way of Las Vegas,” he says. “To me, Hillcrest is just normal. At least ...
April 4, 2020
Matt Potter has been a staff writer and editor at the San Diego Reader since 1989. He reports on politics and local institutions such as the Union-Tribune, UCSD, SDSU, and the City and County of San Diego.
He is the author of the weekly Under the Radar column.
Besides breaking the Cheetahs corruption story a year before the FBI raided the offices of the San Diego city council, he has written extensively on governance, medical ethics, and human experimentation issues at the University of California San Diego.
Some notable Potter stories:
June 1, 1989:The Egg Women (Mayor O'Connor, Joan Kroc, Helen Copley, and the Faberge eggs)
April, 25, 1991 Mayor Moves to Create Death Valley-like Wasteland in Point Loma (O'Connor house landscaping)
June 20, 1991: A Son by Any Other Name (Helen Copley's adoption of son David revealed)
Aug. 8, 1996: Welcome, GOP Delegates to San Diego, City of Shame
May 22, 1997: La Jolla Gentlemen and the Party Boy (secrets of Andrew Cunanan, gay serial killer)
Oct. 25, 2001: Did Bin Laden's Brother Lead a Secret Life in San Diego?
Nov. 29, 2001: Did Casey Gwinn Try to Get Don Bauder Fired? (City Attorney vs. tough reporter)
July 31, 2003: Fun with Ralph (Inzunza's eating companions at Dobson's)
Articles by Matt Potter
Best Reader stories from 2019
COVID-19 screening lapses plagued San Diego veterans' care
A snap audit by agents for the Veterans Affairs inspector general has called out San Diego region Veterans Health Administration staffers for failing to properly screen visitors for the coronavirus and asserted that local V.A. ...
April 3, 2020
Darrell Issa foundation tips hand to North County Farms
Wartime messiah Ex-House Republican Darrell Issa, seeking this fall to reclaim a congressional seat in a new district, has a potent political weapon in his arsenal called the Issa Family Foundation, which he runs with ...
April 1, 2020
San Diego airport increasingly vacant, salaries aren't
As the worldwide coronavirus crisis rages on, San Diego's tourist economy has cratered, bringing down with it a small army of maids, bartenders, drivers, and service workers cast out of their jobs for an indefinite ...
March 31, 2020
Best Reader stories from 2018
Adam Parfrey goes to the San Diego Zoo It is not generally appreciated that famous publisher Adam Parfrey once lived just off Lincoln Boulevard, a dismal stretch of gasoline-alley slightly east of Venice, California, and ...
March 29, 2020
San Diego Police buying 1200 more tasers
Fake news filter Aethlon Medical Inc., a San Diego biotech star of the 2014 Ebola virus scare, is in hot water with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission over what the firm calls the Hemopurifier. ...
March 25, 2020
Walter Mencken's guide to self-quarantine
Walter Mencken [descending stairs]: Oh, hello! Welcome to my humble abode, situated in the renovated bomb shelter on the estate of Mt. Helix’s famous Grindle House. (As ever, don’t try to find it on Google ...
March 25, 2020
Susan Davis dumps Alaska Airlines, Royal Caribbean, loads up on Chinese surveillance giant Baidu
San Diego House Democrat Susan Davis, once the queen of congressional travel freebies thanks to special interests, has been dumping personal travel-related assets of late, gaining the notice of the Washington press corps. "Previously unreported ...
March 23, 2020
Best Reader stories from 2015
Cartel tunnels to Otay Mesa are infrastructural marvels The amount of warehouse space in Otay Mesa has nearly quadrupled since the mid-’90s, and the expansion has been almost as frenetic in Garita de Otay. Forklifts, ...
March 21, 2020