The Escondido City Council, in its infinite suburban wisdom, gave the green light to bulldoze two old restaurant shells—one with whispers of history clinging to its bones—so four shiny new drive-thrus can spring up along the city’s arterial veins. Progress, they called it, at their Nov. 20 meeting. Unanimous nods all around. One of the doomed is the former DiCicco’s Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria, sitting…
The scientists at UC San Diego were jubilant, as jubilant as scientists could be when awarded 10 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) grants by the Department of Defense. Nine of these lucky researchers hailed from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, a place where the ocean was studied with the same reverence one might give to a long and difficult novel. It was the second year…
The San Diego Padres kicked off their annual Holiday Giving Tour today, Nov. 25, a do-gooder tradition where they lend a hand to local groups working to support underserved folks around town. This year’s tour gets rolling with a Turkey Distribution event aimed at feeding 1,000 families. Picture this: team players, a broadcaster, and even the CEO, handing out turkeys and Thanksgiving fixings alongside the…
The holiday season arrives, as inescapable as the tick of the clock, bearing with it an intricate dance of joy, obligation, and the quiet dread of commerce. The streets teem with hurried figures, each one clinging to a wallet or purse, not as an instrument of exchange, but as a fragile barrier against the unseen forces waiting to exploit their haste. For the holiday shopper,…
Ah, Rancho Bernardo Community Foundation—RBCF for the insiders, of course—rolling out the red carpet to pat itself on the back for a solid 36 years of do-goodery. A whopping $90,000 to 24 nonprofits, parceled out like breadcrumbs to keep Rancho Bernardo’s charming little bubble polished and gleaming. Cue the clinking glasses and golf-course applause. Picture it: over 250 attendees at the Annual Thanksgiving Luncheon, because…
Dear citizens and patrons of North County, consider this: what is the mark of a flourishing community but the free and unfettered exchange of truth, the illumination of events, and the celebration of voices too often left unheard? Since the year 2015, The Escondido Grapevine has embraced the noble calling to serve as this beacon of truth. We have labored to provide you with journalism…
The air in Escondido carries a strange weight today, an odd mix of nostalgia and finality. Chief Ed Varso—yes, the Ed Varso, the man who climbed the law enforcement ladder like a dog on a scent trail—has announced his retirement. December 5 marks the end of an era, or maybe just the curtain call for a long-running, bureaucratic drama that somehow stayed gripping. Varso’s journey…
The spiraling dreamscape of Wallace E. Cunningham—an acolyte of the great Frank Lloyd Wright—stands not merely as a home, but as a monument to the unchecked decadence of capital’s aesthetic whims. Perched precariously in the gilded hills of Rancho Santa Fe, this $10.5 million helix of steel, glass, and concrete screams both genius and excess, a Kandinsky nightmare born of privilege and artistic abandon. They…
You wouldn’t believe the hullabaloo some people make about a slab of concrete, but here goes. Cushman & Wakefield, those bigwig real estate folks, couldn’t wait to puff out their chests and tell the world they helped broker the forward sale of an industrial building in Escondido, California. Fancy name, right? Forward sale. It’s just code for “selling something that’s not even finished yet,” which…
Ah, Thanksgiving – the holiday that toasts America’s richness and bounty as no other. When we think of the loving labor that goes into preparing dinner for relatives and friends, it can anything but a holiday. The Thanksgiving table allows us to keep the day special, beautiful, and relaxing without being stuck in the kitchen. Whether you’re having a San Diego style get-together, celebrating somewhere…