STEPHEN ESMEDINAStephen EsmedinaA number of years ago, I was persuaded by a guileful siren with designs on the music biz to share my lowly downtown apartment for “a couple of days” with the great but …
March 5, 2026
In Sue Garson's early life in NYC she was surrounded by walls of books, art, and the fiery sounds of heated political dialogue. With those influences as muse, she won essay contests, joined the staff of her high school newspaper, and had letters published in The Village Voice.
Along with her young family, she migrated to San Diego in 1972. Within a few years she was writing features and reviews on a steady basis for various local publications. Included were the Reader, La Jolla Light, Union-Tribune, and the Los Angles Times, as well as nationally in The Humanist and Present Tense. Some of her work was reprinted.
Her adventuresome spirit led her to explore six continents where she stumbled upon stories in the former USSR during the Chernobyl explosion. She was an accidental tourist in Tunis during the first Arab League Conference, and she marched along with the Madres in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires. She interviewed such notables as author Elie Wiesel, philosopher/comic Mort Sahl, film director Paul Mazursky, and Argentina's foreign minister, Hector Timerman.
She currently harvests organic fruit and vegetables in her San Diego garden, cooks spicy curries, and is the nontraditional matriarch of a four-generation family.
Articles by Sue Garson
San Diego Reader writers tell their dream stories never written
Street naming in San Diego has been haphazard
The Reader has started this series of its best stories from the past 52 years — 2600 cover stories and some remarkable interior features — to help make up for the loss of its physical …
January 30, 2026
Dogpatch U.S.A. – typical rural San Diego County?
The Reader has started this series of its best stories from the past 52 years — 2600 cover stories and some remarkable interior features — to help make up for the loss of its physical …
January 23, 2026
Why did Mark Yavorsky kill his mom in Pacific Beach?
The Reader has started this series of its best stories from the past 52 years — 2600 cover stories and some remarkable interior features — to help make up for the loss of its physical …
December 26, 2025
Downtown San Diego's homeless dream of Thanksgiving away from sidewalks
Homeless plans for Thanksgiving On a warm autumn afternoon, a homeless man lies against a wall on First Avenue just south of Ash Street. He's sharing a bottle of cheap vodka with an older homeless …
November 18, 2023
Golden Hill nixes Kentucky Fried Chicken
No drive-through in my drivewayThe fast-food vendor that owns Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell is concocting a new recipe for San Diego's Golden Hill community. Tricon Global Restaurants Inc. proposes to rebuild …
October 8, 2023
Logan vs. Golden Hill gangs
Huero walks On July 2, 1988, at 2:30 a.m., Rudolpho “Nene” Rios was shot twice in the head while he was in the 2000 block of National Avenue, at Chicano Park. He died two days …
July 24, 2023
UCSD med school has 130 scalpels for its 3777 applicants
Don't be surprised if UCSD School of Medicine turns you down Maria Lofftus, manager of the admissions office at the UCSD School of Medicine, had just finished explaining to an irate father why his son's …
July 10, 2023
Best surfer to come from Windansea in years
A bump on the head could kill Chris O'Rourke Here at Windansea Beach in La Jolla, surfers prefer the Vespa motor scooter for solo transportation. This is a low, fat motorcycle that you'd be crazy …
June 17, 2023