Where I Go: Penasquitos Gardens

Traversing the Gulf Back to a San Diego Apartment

I haven’t brought my wife or son to see where I mostly grew up. I keep meaning to. But even though it’s less than a mile from my father’s condo in Rancho Peñasquitos in northern San Diego County, the gulf between that place and the apartment I grew up in the ’70s and the ‘80s seems to spread beyond the horizon, a distance only traversable by me, and only in my memory.

Maybe that’s why more and more I find myself, as I wash the dishes or fold my son’s …

How San Diego’s Worst Politician Ended Up in the White House | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

How San Diego’s Worst Politician Ended Up in the White House

Peter Navarro’s Sudden Influence Shows What Happens When Anger and Accusation Dominate the Nation’s Conversation

In the 20th century, we learned the Peter Principle: if you seek to rise in a hierarchy, you’ll get promoted until you reach your level of incompetence.

In the 21st century, …

Santa, Please Save San Diego! | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Santa, Please Save San Diego!

This Christmas, All America’s Finest City Wants Is a Bigger Convention Center

Dear Kris Kringle,

This Christmas, can you save San Diego by bringing the city the one gift its civic elite obsessively wants, but doesn’t get?

I’m talking deep obsession. Yes, Captain …

‘When the Baby Has Colic I Talk With the Grandmother’ | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

‘When the Baby Has Colic I Talk With the Grandmother’

As a Mexico-Trained Doctor in San Diego, Brenda Green Gets the Whole Family Involved

I practice family medicine at a clinic just a few miles away from the Tijuana medical school where I earned my medical degree. But the journey from medical school to …

Why California Should Close Failing School Districts | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Why California Should Close Failing School Districts

Southern San Diego County’s Sweetwater District Cannot Escape Mismanagement and Corruption on Its Own

School has begun again for the 40,000-plus students of Sweetwater Union High School District. But the district’s governance crisis never seems to end.

Sweetwater rarely makes the statewide news, but …