Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Close to Home — What it’s like on the street where you live
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Interview with a Balboa Park transient
The hard-luck story told by Nick is typical. He had an RV, motorcycle and dog all stolen while stopping (to eat, presumably) at a Denny's. Riiight! He has a job "waiting for him" if only he can get to San Francisco. Double riiight! But that seems beyond reach, and so he's sleeping in the park. Comedy comes in the strangest places.— August 20, 2017 3:30 p.m.
Transients block access to Cabrillo Bridge interior
Typical SD city hall rubbish and excuses. There's no reason that a single service truck with a welding unit, with a crew of two, from the public works department, could not quickly re-secure that bridge. Where does the city find jokers like Llanos who just has no clue of how to deal with things like this? There are dozens of new grads of SDSU every year who majored in public administration who can do better than that, and yet they are seldom hired. Or how about getting a retired Navy master at arms to take a look at the situation. He/she would have it solved in 48 hours.— August 17, 2017 9:07 p.m.
Mass shutdown of Tijuana's Chinese restaurants
This is a TJ shakedown, nothing more. The Chinese who run those restaurants, many of them third and fourth generation in the area, are still a minority and fair game for extortion. When the owners of the 18 establishments get together and take a collection, the proceeds can be handed out to the "health inspectors", the signs will come down, and all will be back to normal. Just the usual mordida for the public employees who can extort. In fact, the notion of there being Tijuana health inspectors is an oxymoron. Right at the border crossing I've noted "restaurants" with no running water, and an absolute lack of anything resembling sanitation. Those street taco cart vendors lack anything that is sanitary in the first or second world, yet they are a permanent fixture of that city. What a joke it all is.— August 17, 2017 8:50 p.m.
Border Angels takes water out to Jacumba area for migrants
Without making any judgement about this activity, I can say that the group seems to be doing whatever it it doing in the most difficult way imaginable. It starts off by gathering at 8 am in town on a very hot summer day. After 9 am Arellano addresses the crowd and speaks for thirty minutes or more. More speech making by others follows. Then it is time to get organized into groups and begin the hour-and-a-half drive to the East County desert. Anybody keeping track of the time now? By the time they arrive it must be noon or later. And they start the trek in 100+ degree temperatures and with no shade at all. The hike takes a long time. Finally they return to their vehicles and drive back west into San Diego. To me this all sounds insane. If you want to hike in the desert, whatever your reason, and it is summer, you would do it during the coolest (that's a relative term there) part of the day when you can see to hike. The starting time for the hike would best be about a half-hour prior to sunrise, just when there is enough light to see the way. So, why the late start and speech-making? Will those volunteers just not participate if it involves getting up in the wee hours of the morning to drive out to the trailhead? Is all the rah-rah and speech making before the trek really necessary? Could they get organized the evening before the trek? Given the misery described by the author, I"d venture that she was fortunate to avoid heatstroke. While a goodly number of participants would seem to say otherwise, this whole thing looks profoundly disorganized and ill-timed.— August 17, 2017 4:12 p.m.
SDG&E shocks solar users with rate change
Any attempt to uncover the corrupt links between "our" governor and the utilities, and his influence on the CPUC, have been stonewalled. And so it will stay until he is out of office for the last time. California voters are stupid, and letting him hold that office for the second time, and for another eight years, proves it. He was a disaster the first time around, doing damage that we still suffer, and now it is compounded with this sell-out of the CPUC to the mega-utilities.— August 16, 2017 6:04 p.m.
Glenn and Karen Doshay: Our son is not a monster
Eva, it is really good to have you back in the Reader, covering cases such as this one. In this piece, you have added much to the understanding of the criminal case. Our sad excuse of a local newspaper gave the story infrequent, superficial, and scant coverage. One can only wonder who Glenn Doshay is complaining about in the media, because in print at least very little was said. Could it be your coverage that he didn't like? Personally, I have little sympathy for the Doshay family. So, they had to relocate. Is that because their big bucks neighbors and erstwhile friends now treat them as pariahs? People like them always have to blame someone, so now he blames the series of shrinks who attempted to treat Jack. Sad. That quote that had been reported of Glenn telling an acquaintance about how Jack had done something like that before is quite revealing. Although the charges pertaining to that incident were dropped in the pretrial maneuvering, due to lack of documentation and lack of positive identification, it happened, and dad knew it. "Perfidious Paul" Pfingst is the master of spin. So, when he makes over-the-top claims, he's just doing what he is paid handsomely to do. Locally, many folks think he's a cracker jack defense attorney, but the record isn't so supportive. (Just ask Julie Harper and her family about that.) I do question why the DA copped a plea like this one. The guy was brazen enough to attempt to kidnap a small child right from school, and he had plenty of premeditation in that he had duct tape and a disguise, as reported previously. But then, we must recall who the DA was at the time, and all the things she did and didn't do. Final comment: I must second JustWondering and also question the shortness of the sentence for what could have been a truly tragic outcome. Jack will always be a risk to re-offend unless he's closely monitored.— August 16, 2017 9:22 a.m.
Mexico: Keep that s*** out of the Tijuana River
So, this diplomat thinks that more talk will clean up the sewage. For as long as I've lived in the county, there has been talk about "solutions" to the sewage mess. Forgive me, but it looks as bad as it did forty years ago, thirty years ago, etc. Talk hasn't done a darned thing to clean up TJ's sewage discharges, and I doubt that more talk will change that. The real point of this is the contempt for the US that exists in Mexico and especially in its higher government circles. Changes of party there from PRI to PAN and back again haven't made much real difference at all. Mexico revels in being a bad neighbor and until it starts to cost that country, little will change. So, let's see what this renegotiation of the NAFTA brings.— August 15, 2017 7:55 p.m.
The new kindergarten next door in North Park
It is hard to evaluate these claims and counter-claims without knowing if that piece of property is zoned for a commercial school. As residential as the area is described, the answer is probably that the zoning isn't there to allow it. And if that is true, it should be shut down by the city immediately. Anyone have a better take?— August 15, 2017 2:29 p.m.
Perpetual war between Evergreen and the city
While I've found my few contacts and transactions with Evergreen to be less than satisfactory, there's a rat here. Oh yeah, he built a couple structures on what was essentially a farm without building permits years ago. But all this attention from code compliance is out of proportion to the impact on the neighbors. Hey, if you live in the slobberin' city, and you have a problem with a neighbor, just try calling in code compliance. IF you can even get city hall to answer the phone, you'll get a huge run-around before anything ever happens. You'll likely give up first. Why is that the case? Well, the code compliance inspectors and enforcers are out harassing guys like Collins. They apparently have unlimited time and resources to bring to bear on one place like that tree farm. Cassander has it pegged very well. Some high-placed persons and interests want that land for development, and they will not stop until it is sold for that purpose.— August 14, 2017 8 p.m.
Little Flower's nuns stymied by La Mesa city council
So, this religious order has shuttered two such facilities in about two years because it cannot "afford" to make the facilities meet current needs. Oh woe! But the order is on track to sell the La Mesa facility for $6 million. Can we assume the facility in Texas will sell for a nice price, too? Does anyone else out there see some inconsistency in all this? They can't afford the upkeep on properties that will sell for many millions. Religious orders have been dealing for decades with declining participation, i.e. recruitment. Some ran hospitals, and most taught in their schools. All of those activities are steadily shrinking. If the previous comment reflects the true situation, all of this involves eight nuns. Say what? Only eight women? So, we're talking about $ millions spread over a handful of members of the order. There's much more to this story than has been reported. I'd really like to know the "rest of the story" here. It is much more intricate and involved than we have been told to date.— August 14, 2017 7:49 p.m.