Stories | Cover Story
Why Local Radio Is No Longer Local
By Thomas Larson, Published Dec. 30, 2008
If San Diego has a voice, it may be the plummy bass of Chris Cantore. Until December 2007, the Brooklyn native was an audible fixture on 91X’s Cantore in the Morning, his 5:00–10:00 a.m. show, an ...
Gangbangers to College Students
By Barbara Davenport, Published Dec. 23, 2008
On a winter night in 2002, Christopher Yanov, the founder and sole staff member of Reality Changers, sat with a handful of eighth graders and their college-student tutors in a meeting room in the Iglesia ...
Would You Pay $750 for a Bike with No Brakes?
By Rosa Jurjevics, Published Dec. 17, 2008
The bike is brown. It’s light in my hands; I can lift it over my head, which I do, just to try it, and it’s easy. Walking it out of the back door of its ...
Go Directly to Jail...and Die Published Dec. 10, 2008
Francisco Castaneda came to the United States from El Salvador during its civil war of the 1980s. Fleeing the violence, his mother crossed the U.S.-Mexico ... More Comments (9)
It's Getting Ugly Downtown Published Dec. 3, 2008
One Who’s Out and Wants In A man walks into the lobby of a downtown sales office on Sixth Avenue and G Street on a ... More Comments (16)
The Incredible Craig Venter Published Nov. 25, 2008
Atop one of the last open bluffs in La Jolla, on the campus of UCSD, a tattered homemade swing hangs from a giant old eucalyptus ... More Comment (1)
Shopping at Weedmart Published Nov. 19, 2008
Colleen Daley lives on a sunburnt patch of overzoned Chula Vista real estate. She is besieged by the odiferous crosscurrents of wafting grease and the ... More Comments (5)
Hi, Connie. We’re ready for you. Published Nov. 12, 2008
Human Lab Rats I am stranded inside an MRI machine. My arms are pinned to my sides; my head is immobilized; my nose lies seven ... More Post a comment
$120 Is Music to Our Ears Published Nov. 5, 2008
It’s Friday morning, and a woman in casual clothes, with a viola case on her back, bicycles down Harbor Drive. She’s headed toward Embarcadero Park, ... More Post a comment
San Diego Treasure Hunters. We're Not As Nerdy As You Think. Published Oct. 29, 2008
It’s Monday, 5:00 a.m. at Mission Beach. Russ Gish and his son Lance have already been here an hour, sweeping the sand with a contraption ... More Post a comment
There Is No San Diego River Published Oct. 22, 2008
San Diego River? “There is no San Diego River,” says Pete Cuthbert. “What you’re dangling your toes in is the Colorado River, the Sacramento River, ... More Comments (6)
Keep That Sign Moving Published Oct. 15, 2008
You’re standing on a street corner in San Diego. It is summer in, say, North Park: the corner of 30th and University. Actually, you’re a ... More Post a comment
Illegal Ways to Avoid the Border Wait Published Oct. 8, 2008
They’re still building roads out on Otay Mesa, about three miles north of the international border. The hot tar takes longer to set in the ... More Comments (5)
Artists Are the Worst People Published Oct. 1, 2008
“He’s restored that villa to a fare-thee-well. That’s the trouble with Americans; all that money and no taste.” — Jonathan Trevanny, Ripley’s Game I: Acquisition ... More Comments (5)
I Never Inhale Published Sept. 24, 2008
Double-bladed, surgical steel guillotine cutter in hand, a fellow in a Hawaiian shirt slices off a little less than a quarter of an inch, and ... More Comment (1)
Foreign Tourists Invade Published Sept. 17, 2008
Here in San Diego, the weather is excellent, the beaches some of the finest, and at least for the moment, the dollar is comparatively weak ... More Comments (3)
Plague of the Urban Tumbleweeds Published Sept. 10, 2008
• Captain Charles Moore, UCSD alum, steps overboard. He disappears into the inky Pacific. It’s 2007, nighttime, 500 miles west of San Diego. He swims, ... More Comments (9)
They Think They’re in Love Published Sept. 3, 2008
According to a survey of 4600 teenagers (aged 12–17) conducted recently by Mediamark Research Inc., 89 percent of teens say they have been in dating ... More Comment (1)
Stay Awake for the Ten O'Clock Show Published Aug. 27, 2008
“Theater matters because it’s the only place where one can find hope. Films are manufactured for us, but in the theater, the actors and the ... More Comment (1)
Suicide Tourism Published Aug. 20, 2008
Tijuana has long attracted people seeking medicine and medical procedures unavailable or unaffordable in their home countries. They've been joined recently by people seeking the ... More Comments (2)
Large Loud Parties Coming Soon to Your Neighborhood Published Aug. 13, 2008
Zonna Pennell lives in the 3400 block of Keats Street in Point Loma, midway up the hill above Nimitz on a short segment of the ... More Comments (5)
Greetings from Tijuana Published Aug. 6, 2008
The End of the World A mile east of the Tijuana International Airport is an area police call El Fin del Mundo, the End of ... More Comments (42)
What's Wrong with Balboa Park? Published July 30, 2008
If the Pacific Ocean is San Diego’s swimming pool, Balboa Park is our backyard. When we want to get out of the house, Balboa Park ... More Post a comment
Way Too Many People Live Out Here Published July 23, 2008
A lawsuit was filed in March of this year by five environmental groups — including the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club — ... More Comments (9)
It’s three minutes to post before the 9th race at Del Mar, and my wallet is empty. Published July 16, 2008
I just handed my last 90 bucks to a scowling man behind the counter, and if number five doesn’t finish in the top three in ... More Comment (1)
She told me my arm was gone. We argued about that for five minutes. I mean, I could feel it. Published July 9, 2008
Most stories begin with a person or an event. This one begins with a book. Last summer I read The Brain That Changes Itself by ... More Post a comment
Intimate Murder Published July 2, 2008
In each of the last three years, there were roughly 17,000 murders in the United States. Of these, about 11 percent were committed by women. ... More Comments (3)
Dumpster Diving for Dinner Published June 25, 2008
Half of a “nutrition bar” sat before me on the wobbly café table. I couldn’t eat the rest because it was oily yet granular but ... More Comments (17)
No Shushing in This Library Published June 18, 2008
Grace Carroll is the kind of girl you’d trust for a scoop on the San Diego scene. She’s pretty, blonde, smart. She tends bar in ... More Comments (6)
You Wanna Pull? Published June 11, 2008
On a Saturday spring morning, in a small fenced-in backyard in San Marcos, 40 or so rather dangerous-looking men (and a few women and children) ... More Comment (1)
There's Been an Accident. Jadean Didn't Make It. Published June 4, 2008
March 6 started out pretty much like any other day. Work was busy. I got off a little late, went home, got in the shower, ... More Comments (75)
Will These Keep the Lights On? Published May 28, 2008
The Sunrise Powerlink gleamed for the first time in Sempra Energy’s eye on November 1, 2002. At the company’s San Diego headquarters, an energy-management expert ... More Comments (9)
Scott Is a Good Friend, but Not in the Traditional Sense of Good Published May 21, 2008
We don’t see each other much, and we’ve maintained the loosest of contacts over the 30-plus years we’ve known each other. I hadn’t heard from ... More Comments (3)
If I Did That Over There, They'd Cut My Hands Off Published May 14, 2008
What’s it like, being Muslim in San Diego? The question arose for me earlier this year when I decided to hit Ocean Beach on maybe ... More Comments (10)
Confessions of a Phony Navy Wife Published May 7, 2008
Being in the Navy seems like the perfect time to be single. Sailors are young, many just out of high school. They’re always traveling the ... More Comments (45)
How UCSD Spent Over $500,000 on a Home Remodel That Never Happened Published April 30, 2008
Perhaps the most prized piece of real estate throughout the University of California, San Diego, is the seven-acre site of University House, home to the ... More Post a comment
No One’s Ever Told Me That I Look Like a Fish Published April 23, 2008
“First of all,” says Dave Huie, “it should really be called the exotic fish hobby, not the tropical fish hobby.” Beneath his glasses, Huie’s face ... More Post a comment
We Could End Up Looking Like Phoenix Published April 16, 2008
The two small Victorian homes on 20th Street in Sherman Heights that Louise Torio and her husband Steve Veach have restored are examples of how ... More Comments (16)
If There Are Families Here in San Diego, I'd Like to Find One Published April 9, 2008
People Buy You Booze D. is dressed as if he is off to the ComicCon or a Clockwork Orange theme party: boots laced up to ... More Comments (2)
San Diego’s Secret Missile-Testing Sites Published April 2, 2008
I never wanted to move to Scripps Ranch — not with its swarming real-estate agents and white-bread, attend-the-church-of-your-choice ethos, its compliant shrubs, its matrons in ... More Comments (17)
Chivalry Is Not Dead Published March 26, 2008
Seemingly everything has been called a “lost art.” Spelling, conversation, keeping a secret, note taking, listening, and even (why not?) hollering. One string of online ... More Post a comment
The Rocket Pop Street Artist Published March 19, 2008
I have not yet vandalized. I made wheat-paste posters. They’re not wheat-pasted anywhere, yet, but I made them. The pieces of paper sit in my ... More Comments (4)
Tie This Guy Up, Make Sure He Stays at SDSU Published March 12, 2008
Odessa: it doesn’t sound like a particularly Russian word. Maybe Spanish, or Italian. Actually, it was named after Odysseus, the hero of Homer’s (if Homer ... More Comment (1)
So Long, Pals Published March 5, 2008
Maybe it’s my age — the dark side of my sixties, an elder proto-baby boomer, those 78 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964. Maybe ... More Comments (3)
The Rise and Fall of the Copley Press Published Feb. 27, 2008
When Ira Clifton Copley of Aurora, Illinois, first saw San Diego on a trip with his ailing brother to the Hotel del Coronado in 1891, ... More Comments (8)
To Live and Die in Oceanside Published Feb. 20, 2008
The Back Gate The area around the Oceanside pier and boardwalk glistens, picture perfect: palm trees, silver sand, blue water, and crowds of people. It’s ... More Comments (22)
Wingwomen Published Feb. 13, 2008
There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with the man sitting across from me. I had yet to detect a single flaw in his appearance, ... More Comments (4)
Ollie's Big Bike Ride Published Feb. 6, 2008
There’s no outfit so fantastically ridiculous as the too-tight, brazenly colored, and obnoxiously patterned ensemble for riding a long distance on a bicycle. It’s too ... More Comments (14)
I'm as Big as a Vons Published Jan. 30, 2008
Near the lifeguard station in Ocean Beach, nine homeless people have gathered. One lies in the grass of Saratoga Park, legs crossed and hat tilted ... More Comments (4)
Tacos Are a Tiny Taste of Temptation Published Jan. 23, 2008
Fancy wimmen are okay, but there's nuttin' like the real thing: a nice warm adobada taco on a nice cold night beside a nice hot ... More Comments (7)
Rockin' Baby Boomers Published Jan. 16, 2008
By half past nine, all of the pool tables at Bar Leucadian are taken, and fortysomething couples line the bar like birds on a wire. ... More Post a comment
Soccer Moms Are the Absolute Worst Published Jan. 9, 2008
At the Mira Mesa Recreation Center, playing for my fifth-grade youth basketball team, I watched as my coach threw a chair onto the court in ... More Comment (1)
- « View Older Cover Story Articles
- View Newer Cover Story Articles »