May 2016

Escondido Street Fair(e) keeps rolling along

Like the Energizer Rabbit of yore and lore, the Grand Avenue Festival, aka Escondido Street Faire, just kept running and running and running. Such was the case Sunday, May 15 along downtown’s main street. Which way did it go? “It went wonderfully,” said Rick Bauer, Escondido site manager for Kennedy & Associates, the Carlsbad company that manages the region’ top festival’s, including the Carlsbad Village…


Friday DUI checkpoint nets no DUI drivers

Escondido police held yet another DUI checkpoint outside Police Headquarters Friday detaining zero DUI drivers among 1,579 vehicles passing through barricades. This followed similar checkpoints in March that caught two DUI drivers out of 1,120 vehicles and February that caught one DUI driver out of 1,393 vehicles. A November 2015 checkpoint also caught zero DUI drivers out of 2,514 vehicles inspected. Ten previous 2015 checkpoints…


Escondido Country Club ghosts rattle Poway, San Ramon developments

Golf ghosts. From Poway to San Ramon, the legacy of Escondido Country Club played through this week. Not coincidentally, the controversial Michael Schlesinger was at the center of the storm(s). Schlesinger bought Poway’s bankrupt StoneRidge Country Club in December. He wants to poll residents about allowing him to develop some of the property. Schlesinger proposes giving the golf course and perhaps other features to the…


Kennedy & Associates back at it again with 2016 Grand Avenue Festival this Sunday

Escondido’s Grand Avenue Festival, aka Escondido Street Faire, that returns Sunday, May 15 might be only the second-largest single-day festival in California, but as they used to say in the old Avis rent-a-car commercials, they try harder. An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 people will flock to Grand Avenue and block after block of 500 vendors, food and music from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.. Escondido’s…


To golf or to footgolf: Is that a question?

Consider a tale of two Escondido golf courses this week. Newly redesigned and rebuilt Boulder Oaks Golf Club was set to welcome back golfers with an official opening tournament  scheduled for 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 14. The format is a 2-person scramble. The $40 entry per person includes a lunch buffet. Meanwhile, Reidy Creek golf course cut the ribbon on something borrowed and something…


He (Abed) said. She (Diaz) said.

Yet again, Mayor Sam Abed has demonstrated his total lack of tolerance for dissenting opinions. Abed is quite content to let Councilman Ed Gallo take what seems like hours in his reminiscences, but no tolerance for Councilwoman Olga Diaz’s vital questions about what the city is doing to coordinate and plan for all the developments it approves. — Margaret McCowan Liles (For more, visit “A Blue…


Follow the money: Abed, Gaspar, Roberts

The three candidates for the District 3 seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors have raised, and loaned themselves, a total of nearly $300,000 in the first four months of this year, according to financial disclosure forms filed with the county of San Diego. The contributions, received between Jan. 1 and April 23, were fairly evenly split between the three candidates – incumbent…


District 3 county Supervisor race en fuego

“Escondido Mayor Sam Abed, critics say, is old school, a stereotypically brash small-town mayor. His GOP creds have been challenged by his attempts to block a 99-cent store from coming to Escondido and his acceptance of union support during his 2014 re-election campaign.” — Thomas K. Arnold The race for the District 3 seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors is heating up,…


May odds be in write-in candidate’s favor?

(Editor’s Note: Tired of the same old, same old officially registered candidates running for California’s 50th Congressional District? Say hello to El Cajon editor/writer Katie Memmel, a San Diego State graduate who works for SteelOrbis, a steel industry publication and marketplace with offices at Del Mar and Istanbul, Turkey. She is running as a write-in candidate. In this case of congressional district musical chairs, top…