Point Loma Seafoods today...
- …and tomorrow?
I’ve written about my favorite place to buy fish in San Diego. But that’s strictly a retail (or closer to wholesale) experience. If you want to place to either buy fish or sit and chow down, Point Loma Seafoods is tops. But I just heard it’s about to be torn down.
The owners of the 47-year-old Shelter Island institution plan to replace it with something bigger and more modern. Yesterday port commissioners approved of the concept for the $2.7 million project, which reportedly will incorporate a new outdoor dining area with a fire pit and seating wall, new interior space, a new kitchen, a second story “viewing terrace,” a lighthouse tower (!), and public art. Construction could start by the end of the year, with completion scheduled before the end of the next. And supposedly a “temporary satellite location” nearby will continue catering to the hungry mobs during the building period.
What makes me a little nervous is that it’s supposedly going to be built in “the Monterey, California Cannery Row style,” featuring river rock and “heavy timber accents.” Somehow I find it hard to reconcile that with the bustling, breezy, casual, and authentic vibe Point Loma Seafoods has always had. Here’s hoping that’s not demolished too.
I’d been looking forward to the San Diego Natural History Museum’s new exhibition, “All That Glitters,” because I know that San Diego is a special place when it comes to jewels. I’ve read authorities who say more gems (and more valuable gems) have been dug out of the ground here than any other place in North America. Spectacular specimens from here can be found in some of the greatest natural history museums on the planet.
First, the San Diego Oceans Foundation at the end of May released another 30,000 young white sea bass into the netted pens provided by the Port near the Grape Street Pier at the corner of Hawthorn and North Harbor Drive downtown. Overfishing and habitat destruction began to take a toll on the white sea bass population more than 50 years ago; eventually it reached a critically low number. But in the late 1990s, the Foundation began raising and releasing the fish.
Amazing, isn’t it, to remember that 35 years ago perhaps the top tourist attraction in San Diego was our legal nude beach? (That would be Black’s Beach in La Jolla, which San Diego voters made clothing-optional in 1974.) This reminder comes from Randy Dotinga’s nice historical recap in 
What a tumultuous time poor Normal Heights has had getting its own farmer’s market. Folks there and in adjoining Talmadge have been talking about launching one for more than 4 years, and they identified a promising site on 40th Street just south of Adams Avenue, next to the southbound Interstate 15 on-ramp. But Caltrans owns that property, and legal limitations on what could be done on it kept the project tied up for ages. Last fall it looked as if a work-around had been found, and a launch date of March 12 was announced. But just a few days before the opening, CalTrans got cold feet about traffic from the nearby I-15 off-ramp.
they welcomed the general public to see the fruits of their labors. Though the morning was gray, there was plenty to brighten up the garden: cheery orange poppies and butter-yellow sun cups, deeply lavendar wild hyac
inth and jimson weed blushing purple. Ben explained that although the bush sunflowers were reaching the end of their bloom cycle, primrose will begin blooming soon, followed by goldenbush that will continue to dazzle visitors through October. All these are natives. That’s the only type of vegetation the Mission Valley Preserve friends plant, though throngs of non-native plants are very much in evidence. Some of them — masses of nasturtiums and wild radish — looked pretty in the mix. Or so I thought. But “We don’t like pretty unless it’s native,” Ben declared, and he sounded confident that with enough sustained attention, the natives can once again reign over this patch of San Diego.
Check out the new art pieces in Terminal 2 of the San Diego International Airport. They went up at the end of February and are intended to be permanent installations. Created by Chicano artists Einar and Jamex de la Torre, they look like gigantic puzzle pieces, some mounted alone and others interlocked.
the image of a ghost on the piece saluting the wonders of Wyoming. It wasn’t just any ghost, but Casper, the friendly one (and also the name of Wyoming’s second largest city.)