Articles by Special to The Grapevine

San Diego Food Vision 2030 re-imagines

The San Diego Food System Alliance (SDFSA) invites San Diego County residents to provide input as they develop the final set of strategies for Food Vision 2030. After a robust community engagement process earlier this summer, SDFSA has developed a short survey for residents to select strategies that are most important to them and their communities. Food Vision 2030 is a bold, 10-year plan and movement to cultivate a…


North County regional conservation plan

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has unanimously approved a draft version of a North County region conservation plan. The board voted to receive the revised North County Multiple Species Conservation Plan, which according to the Parks and Recreation Department would provide the greatest environmental benefits. Along with preserving open space, the goals of the North County plan are to protect water resources, create…


RSF Golf Club course looks at renovation

Acclaimed golf course architect David McClay-Kidd, creator of the original course at Oregon’s Bandon Dunes Resort, will be called upon to develop construction documents for a proposed renovation of the Rancho Santa Fe (Calif.) Golf Club course, the Rancho Santa Fe Review reported. The Rancho Santa Fe Association board approved the $165,000 expenditure to hire McClay-Kidd. The board’s October 1 vote was not a green…


Donald Trump’s Joe McCarthy moment?

When CBS, NBC and ABC cut away from President Donald Trump’s news conference at the White House on the evening of Nov. 5, they took pains to explain why they were shutting off the nation’s commander-in-chief. It was a moment that for me, as a journalism historian, carried echoes of the 1954 takedown of another flamboyant populist demagogue, Sen. Joe McCarthy. Making false accusations The…


In age of Drumpf, Tony Clifton claims foul

Editor’s Note: Michael Patrick Welch, renowned New Oreans writer, musician, teacher and friend of The Escondido Grapevine, conducted an interview with the provocateur known to Andy Kauffman and Bob Zmuda fans as Tony Clifton. While others have shunned this outstanding piece of informational journalism, we embrace it and re-print this as a public service. “After a year of chasing Tony Clifton to get his thoughts…


An embarrassing failure for election pollsters

Election polling is facing yet another reckoning following its uneven-at-best performance in this year’s voting. Although the outcome in the 2020 presidential race remained uncertain the next day, it was evident that polls collectively faltered, overall, in providing Americans with clear indications as to how the election would turn out. And that misstep promises to resonate through the field of survey research, which was battered…



From the Escondido X-Files…

“he-it tried but i fought, with all my might. i was able to break what he-it was doing, because when i came to his shadow disappeared. ( i saw exactly what you looked like.) tall 8ft-skinny-define in nature.-muscular tone-black eyes.- the hands, three long fingers thumb index,middle. short pinky and other. big hands. beak like mouth.- giant alien head that we know about – no smell.-…


Tough row to hoe for COVID-19 farm relief

Farmers who grow San Diego County’s most valuable crops may miss out on federal cash for coronavirus-related losses because some of their agriculture products — primarily flowers, nursery plants and exotic fruits — are not included in the relief program. The growers are pushing to get their specialty crops added to the government’s eligible list, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture appears willing to hear…


Consider the underappreciated sea otter

Like Rodney Dangerfield, sea otters get no respect. Since their reintroduction to the Pacific coast in the 1970s, the sea otters’ rapid recovery and voracious appetite for tasty shellfish such as sea urchins, clams and crabs has brought them into conflict with coastal communities and fishers, who rely on the same valuable fisheries for food and income. But the long-term benefits of sea otter recovery—such…