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North Park’s Never Ending Renewal

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by Council President Todd Gloria

I am a lifelong San Diegan and have witnessed changes of all kinds to several local communities. My mom still refers to CityHeights as East San Diego, and I can easily remember when Downtown was a place avoided by most locals and all tourists. The neighborhood of North Park has been home to tremendous revitalization in the past 15 years, and its welcome renewal seems never-ending.

As is the case throughout District Three, North Park’s homeowners, renters, and business people are truly invested in the neighborhood.

They have made change happen, but not at the expense of history. From redevelopment in the commercial corridors to the historic residential districts surrounding them, community character is obvious and unique.   [Read more…]

Restaurant Review: Rancho’s Cocina, North Park

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Rancho’s Cocina, North Park
3910 30th St, San Diego, CA 92104
(619) 574-1288

I used to say that I could eat Mexican food every day and enjoy the 7th day as much as I enjoyed the first day. That is not totally true anymore, but I do like Mexican food and eat it often.

Therefore, when you read this review, you might think it sounds familiar. That is because a few days ago I ate at Rancho’s Cocina in Ocean Beach and wrote a review for the OBRag. But today I ate at one of the other restaurants in the Rancho chain – the one in North Park.

As it happened, the San Diego Free Press had a meeting of many of its contributors this afternoon. Following the meeting, 10 of us decided to have a bite to eat and the closest place was Rancho’s. They were able to accommodate us in the back part of the restaurant without any problem.   [Read more…]

Bicycling Moves Forward in San Diego – CicloSDias Event Announced for August

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Streets to Be Closed to Cars in Grant Hill/Stockton, South Park, North Park and City Heights

On the beautiful sunny morning of February 25, bicycle enthusiasts, city residents, and local politicians gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at San Diego’s newest bike corral in Hillcrest.  If you’re unfamiliar, a bike corral is an onstreet parking facility for bicycles, typically taking up the space of one or two automobile parking spots and providing parking for ten to twenty bicycles.

This new installation is San Diego’s fourth bike corral, all of which are located in District 3.  For those of you scoring at home that leaves us only 87 bike corrals short of the 91 boasted by the bicycle mecca of Portland.

The new bike corral is located on the south-west corner of the intersection of Richmond Street and University Avenue in Hillcrest, next to Filter Coffee House at 1295 University Avenue. The Uptown Community Parking District paid for the corral and the Hillcrest Business Association will provide for upkeep and maintenance in the future.   [Read more…]

North Park’s Ray @ Night: What is Art?

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By Mic Porte

The folks on Ray Street, one block just off University Ave. in North Park, on second Saturday evening of the month host San Diego’s longest running ART event: Ray at Night.

Last week’s event (February 9) held on a a crisp San Diego evening, saw the usual friendly crowd of artists and art lovers from all over, locals and tourists alike. Several art and craft galleries, shops and offices turned into galleries for the evening; the Art Center opened their doors, and art spilled out onto the street. Vendors of food, clothing and accessories, and objets d’art sprouted along the sidewalks tempting the passers-by.

Until 8pm, when the band starts up, poets (many of them students from San Diego State) take turns at the open microphone set up in the street, sharing their latest. I would call it a “poetry slam”, but “slam” wouldn’t do justice to the sensitivity, wordcraft , and humor, of the poets. Very cool.   [Read more…]

North Park – Mid-City Regional Bike Project – Community Input Wanted!

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The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) is in the planning process of a project to improve the bicycle infrastructure in the North Park – Mid-City area. The first Advisory Group meeting for this project was held on January 30th in City Heights and will be followed by additional meetings open to the public to solicit ideas and insights into what this plan should include.

The project is schedule to be in the planning and feedback stage until Fall 2013 at which time a final report will be issued and the results of community input will be taken into consideration by engineering and then construction. The dollars allocated to this project have not yet been determined. (Read: The more people that show up, speak up, and act up the more likely this project will receive attention and funds to make it a reality and not just another plan that finds itself in a waste bin rather than implemented on our streets.)   [Read more…]

Gems on The Boulevard Series: Coffee and Tea Collective

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By Omar Passons / eat.drink.give.go

I’ve been frequenting places along El Cajon Boulevard for a few years now and been on my own personal crusade to help clean it up.  So I was thrilled a few months back when a new coffee spot opened up near 30th and ECB.  Let’s talk about the good folks at Coffee and Tea Collective.

So, the North Park Community Association–a group most known for organizing and raising money for the Bird Park Summer Concerts–has over the last several years made improving all of our community an important goal.  What I’ve found interesting and cool is that the most important improvements to the stretch of El Cajon Boulevard in North Park over the past five years have been the opening of honest, energetic small businesses.  One of the most recent additions is a group who take creating a great cup of coffee as seriously as, well, I dunno, serious other things.  Point is, it’s a cool spot.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Call Out the ‘Lynch’ Mob: The Mayor’s a Liar and the School Board Stinks

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I expect it won’t be too long before a campaign to recall Mayor Bob Filner is launched, given the way the UT-San Diego is poised to pounce on every action regardless of significance taken by hizzoner. And the interview posted by Voice of San Diego with SDUSD’s CFO ‘Data” Dobbs is now grist for an editorial in the Daily Fishwrap blasting a “scandal’ with the school board.

Today’s front page ‘gotcha’ story on Filner concerns a story attributed to the Mayor about the impact of the managed competition (approved by voters in 2006) process on the city’s fleet services. It’s a tangled up story dating back to October 2011 when City workers won out over two private companies seeking handle maintenance for municipal vehicles. (And it’s also a story about just how complicated the process of outsourcing (or not) government services can be.)

As I predicted last week, the unfiltered version of the Voice of San Diego interview will live on way past any subsequent ‘fact checks’ the crew over there publishes.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Judge’s Ruling Against Balboa Park Remake Raises Lots of Questions

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Superior Court Judge Timothy Taylor made good yesterday on his earlier suggestions that the City of San Diego’s case for renovating the Plaza de Panama in Balboa Park wouldn’t pass a legal challenge.

San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith appeared in court for oral arguments last Friday, arguing that the City was free to reject protections offered by the area’s historic status because of the additional benefits construction of a by-pass and parking lot would provide.

Taylor’s 15 page ruling rejected that argument saying, “Respectfully, this strikes the court as re-writing the Municipal Code. The City Council did not enact language permitting alteration if it determined that the proposed alteration would result in a more reasonable beneficial use; rather, it required that there be no reasonable beneficial use absent the alteration.”

UPDATE: Via KPBS MidDay Report- “I’ve told the committee that the project is over,” (Irwin) Jacobs says. They’re not taking part in additional plans, activities.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – San Diego Schools’ CFO Takes a Long Walk on Voice of San Diego’s Short Pier

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Since the voters spoke back in November and handed the proponents of darkness and austerity a resounding defeat, the forces of reaction throughout the State of California have been seeking to throw a monkey wrench into the process.

At San Diego’s UT, this process is blatant, with factually challenged front page articles suggesting that businesses are fleeing California followed by editorials citing the suppositions minted earlier as gospel truth.

With San Diego’s ‘independent’ news source, aka The Voice of San Diego, the propagation of the reactionary agenda is accomplished via mindless contrarianism. The need to push controversy overwhelms any need for fact checking; it’s okay to let public officials yell ‘fire’ in the schoolhouses of our city.

So it was with this sense of ‘newsworthiness’ that the VOSD published an interview on Friday with Stan “Data” Dobbs, the newly hired Chief Financial Officer for the San Diego School Unified School District.

After telling interviewer Will Carless that “I get bored quickly if I don’t have enough problems to solve”, Dobbs proceeds to create a whole lot of problems for the School District and, most likely, his future employment prospects.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Immigration Reform Rises to the Top of the Congressional (And Local) Do List

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Spurred on by President Obama’s inaugural promises and by GOP fears that the changing make up of the electorate will doom the party’s future, immigration reform legislation is likely to take a high profile in the coming weeks. The President is pushing for a comprehensive plan; Republicans want piecemeal reform.

Here in San Diego, the immigration issue has moved to center stage this week. A group calling itself the San Diego Table on Immigration Policy staged a press conference this week featuring local activist groups along with high profile local leaders, including Mayor Filner, City Councilman David Alvarez and labor leader Lorena Gonzalez. They’re promoting pathways to citizenship, a safer border and opportunities to allow legal migration into the U.S. and calling for legislative action to fix the current immigration system.

Meanwhile, the rightist gang that’s thus far blocked action on this issue is rallying its troops.

More Inside: GOP Voting Plans, Obamacare Scares, Bikers’ Plans and I Say Something Nice About a Republican…   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Mayor Bob ‘Teflon’ Filner’s Awesome Adventures

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One month into his term, San Diego’s newly elected Mayor was seemingly up sh*t’s creek without a paddle.

The local press was hounding him. He’d failed to cough up a list of administration appointees on demand, technically violating California’s Public Records Act.  A dust up between Filner and City Council President Todd Gloria lead to a UT-San Diego editorial calling the Mayor a bully. And an appearance before a group supporting access for medical marijuana patients had the twitterati convinced that he’d committed a grave political sin.

Here it is a week later and it’s all coming up roses for Mayor Bob. Talk about your political Teflon.   [Read more…]

North Park Beer Scene Is Blowing Up

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North Park is an urban neighborhood located on the northeast side of Balboa Park. The neighborhood boundaries are roughly Mission Valley to the north, Interstate 805 to the east, Switzer Canyon to the south, and Florida Canyon to the west. In the past year North Park has received some national attention including being named the 13th best hipster neighborhood by Forbes. This ranking was based on the following criteria:

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