Author: Dave Rice

By Dave Rice / San Diego Reader / September 8, 2021

Sefton Place is a tiny cul-de-sac tucked into the hills of Point Loma, home to perhaps a half-dozen residences and accessible only by making several turns off any road significant enough to be considered a major thoroughfare. You could live in the neighborhood for a decade or more, walking several miles a day up and down the winding streets, without ever knowing it exists. I did just that, and don’t remember ever encountering it.

Ever wonder how the wealthy of Point Loma once lived (and some still live)?

In a recent tour published by the San Diego Reader, local OB writer Dave Rice takes us through the historic Bowman-Cotton House in Point Loma, at 2900 Nichols Street. Constructed in 1929 by a protegee of Irving Gill, the 5,000 square foot mansion sits on the edge of San Diego Bay with its own private dock and direct access to the water.

It’s seen by some as “one of Point Loma’s most iconic waterfront homes,” and an epitome of San Diego Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, with a contemporary interior.

Master architect Richard Requa – who studied under Gill

A local Point Loma home – one might easily say mansion – made it into this week’s San Diego Reader cover story on the area’s “least affordable housing.”

OB writer Dave Rice took a trip around the region to see how different locales define “luxury living” and their own version of exclusivity. He found a 6-bedroom, 5-bath residence – over 7300 square foot – with enough space in its wine cellar to fit 1500 bottles – over at 4095 Lomaland Drive. It definitely fit the bill for the coastal areas of San Diego.

Here’s part of his intro:

“Luxury living” is a term that eludes simple definition. For some, it may be a beachfront home occupying a slice of Southern California’s most coveted coastline.

Here’s Rice’s part on San Diego’s coastal area:

Portion of Point Loma Nazarene once known as Lomaland on the Peninsula

By Dave Rice / San Diego Reader

Rosecroft is a historically-designated estate occupying nearly two-and-a-half acres atop Point Loma. Built in 1912 by architect Emmor Brooke Weaver, who oversaw the design of dozens of local residences between 1904 and 1945, the Italian Renaissance mansion includes nine bedrooms and 12 baths spread across 15,600 square feet of living space in the main residence and outbuildings.

The largest remaining residential parcel in Point Loma, Rosecroft’s grounds were purchased in 1903 by heiress Marion James Robinson and her husband Alfred. The Robinsons were drawn to the area by Katherine Tingley, leader of the spiritual Theosophy movement.

Golden Rule Sails In Peacefully

By Dave Rice /San Diego Reader / Oct. 15, 2017

On Saturday (October 14), Fleet Week was in full swing at San Diego Bay.

Crowds lined the waterfront from Tuna Harbor north along the Embarcadero to watch Navy and Coast Guard vessels and helicopters performing in and over the water. More waited in line to tour Broadway Pier, where sailors sporting sidearms and semiautomatic rifles guarded access to the amphibious transport ship USS Anchorage, troop transports, churro vendors, tanks, bubble tea stands, and pieces of heavy artillery on display.

Hi, Buddy!

You must be feeling awful clever right about now, having made off with my shiny, precious toy. I’m sure it took not only daring but a remarkable measure of stealth to find your way into my apartment building’s garage, defeating not only the locked access doors but also the 24/7 surveillance cams with what I imagine must have been a sizeable set of bolt cutters to cleave through my lock so efficiently. Kudos!

Also, thanks for not scratching my wife’s car while you conducted your theft – the foresight and careful touch with which you extracted my ride is much appreciated, since I’m sure damage to her bumper would’ve been much costlier than the spoils of your hard work was worth to me, in terms of dollars and cents anyway.

But that’s not entirely what my bike was worth. You see, even though it may have looked shiny and new, …

By Dave Rice

The finish line is approaching – for the last week, my family has been participating in the San Diego Hunger Coalition’s CalFresh Challenge, winding down on Friday. It’s actually finishing a few hours early for me, as I’m sure to blow my meager $58.52 weekly budget (that’s what a family of three receiving a state food allotment gets to spend for four and two-thirds days of meals) and then some taking my wife and daughter out to celebrate our 10 year anniversary as a family on Friday night.

Editor’s Note: Local OB writer, Dave Rice, decided to take the challenge of eating on less than $5 a day. On May 10th we posted his first installment on this journey. Today is his latest.

By Dave Rice

Sunday night, the eve of the impending CalFresh Challenge, where my family will join more than 100 people across San Diego County in learning what it’s like to live on the average budget for area food benefit recipients – $4.18 a day.

Earlier, I’d planned to ride my bike up to the local market, advertising boneless skinless chicken breasts for $1.97 a pound. It rained all day, so I ended up driving, a luxury not available to many CalFresh recipients, and snagged three breasts for $4.69.

In my last post I’d mentioned a lunch dilemma – I had nothing planned.

By Dave Rice

How well can one eat for less than $5 a day? My family is about to find out.

According to the latest available statistics, 285,000 people in San Diego County receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Once referred to as “food stamps,” here the government food assistance program goes under the moniker CalFresh.

When Children are Maltreated by Religious Groups

By Dave Rice

Child sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church have repeatedly rocked the nation for more than a decade now, and in 2010 spread locally to reach the San Diego Diocese. The so-called “Satanic Panic” of the 1980s and early ‘90s brought the prospect of harm to children through mysterious and violent rituals to the forefront of the nation’s attention, while periodically stories reach the news involving the tragic death of a child raised by a family of religious separatists.
These stories, however, just scratch the surface of a more widespread problem concerning the mistreatment of children in the name of religion, says Janet Heimlich, author of Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment.

Nuclear warfare: Nuclear backers, opponents present opposing ideas on San Onofre

By Dave Rice / San Diego Reader / December 5, 2012

The World Resources Simulation Center played host Tuesday evening to an open forum: “Green Scene – the Costs and Benefits of San Onofre Nuclear Power in our Backyard.” The Downtown-area Center, described as an “immersive visualization center,” outfitted with a dozen large-scale projectors and internet-equipped laptops scattered amongst the crowd, …

It was another fall off Sunset Cliffs. This happened Tuesday night, October 30th, about 7:30. An unidentified woman in her 20s was transported by paramedics and lifeguards off the beach at the foot of Santa Cruz Avenue into an ambulance. Her condition is not known.

One officer was overheard by Dave Rice, blogger for the Reader, to comment: “She just got drunk and fell off a cliff.” About a crowd of two dozen had formed to witness the rescue.