Convoy District Gets New Sign

Plus: News Briefs, Nico's Tacos, LV Poetry, Fall Book Recommendations, Fundraising Event, and Celebrating the Moon Commentary

Sep 19, 2024

The long awaited “Convoy” sign in Kearny Mesa’s Convoy District was installed this week along the 4600 block of Convoy Street. The sign recognizes the many restaurants, grocery, and retail businesses along Convoy Street and adjoining blocks, and the growing popularity of the Convoy District. As noted on the Convoy District’s website, “the area proudly stands among the largest Pan-Asian business districts in the United States and is part of the thriving economic hub of Kearny Mesa.”

The sign stands 30 feet tall. Unlike many of the other neighborhood archway street signs celebrating San Diego communities, this sign stands vertically on the street median. The colorful letters are designed to honor the Asians Americans, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities that make up many of the businesses in the area.

As seen in the above photo, the sign is located close to the San Diego Padres mural celebrating pitcher Yu Darvish.

As noted in a June 17, 2023 San Diego Union Tribune article, “the triangular corridor unofficially known as the Convoy District is generally considered to be bounded by Interstate 805, California State Route 52, Interstate 163, and where Convoy Street becomes Linda Vista Road.” According to the same article, the sign construction cost $600,000.

In addition to the street sign, the Convoy District was also recognized in 2022 with six signs installed along Interstate 805 that designate the Convoy Pan Asian Cultural and Business Innovation District. The Convoy District raised $30,000 to purchase and install the signs as a way of encouraging people to visit the area’s businesses.

LV News Briefs:

—Kearny High Football: The Kearny High Varsity Football team hosts O’Farrell Charter this Friday September 20. Kick off is scheduled for 7:00 pm. The Komets currently sport a 2-2 record and feature an exciting passing game.

—Volunteers Needed for Clean-up: The local non-profit Clean Linda Vista will hold a clean-up event at Linda Vista Community Park this Sunday September 22 from 10:00 am to 11:00 am. Volunteers will meet at the baseball field across from the Skate Park. Pizza will be served after the clean-up. Contact cleanlindavista@gmail.com for details.

—LV Planning Group: The Linda Vista Community Planning Group will hold its monthly meeting this Monday September 23 at 6:00 pm. The meeting will be held at the American Legion Post 731 (7245 Linda Vista Road). The Planning Group advises City officials on development projects, general or community plan amendments, rezoning and public facilities.

—Coffee with Assemblymember Chris Ward: Our state’s 78th district representative Chris Ward will hold a Community Coffee for local residents at the Linda Vista Library on Saturday September 28 (1:00 pm -2:00 pm). Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about the 2024 legislative session, discuss important issues in the community, provide valuable feedback on how the Assemblymember can better represent you, and enjoy a fresh cup of coffee! Seating will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Residents can RSVP for the event HERE.

Nico’s Tacos Along Morena Boulevard

A few days ago I was reading an article in the SD Union Tribune by Lisa Deaderick. The article was about a local photographer, Marshall Williams, and his project documenting Southern California Taco Stands. He started the project in 2019 when he was struck by the fact that there seemed to be a taco shop on every corner in San Diego. He likened it to the fact that New Yorkers like to grab a bagel and coffee from the corner coffee carts all over the city. That same experience of wanting to visit a taco shop whenever he was back in San Diego was what he thought made taco shops uniquely San Diego. This led to Williams photographing these taco shops in black and white during dusk. He was encouraged by friends to pitch this project during the open call for World Design Capital San Diego Tijuana 2024 (presenting World Deign Experience with San Diego Design Week). This resulted in “Taco Stand Vernacular – Artist Talk and Field Trip” from 5:30 to 8:00 PM September 21 at his studio on 5343 Banks Street. Guests will see his photos, hear from Williams and then take a trip across the street to Nico’s Taco Shop. Admission is free and registration is requested at sddesignweek.org. See the entire article here.

Reading this article I realized we had never reviewed Nico’s Taco Shop which is located at 5151 Morena Boulevard and so we decided to eat there on Taco Tuesday. Moreno Street is still under construction in places, but we made our way there and were happy to discover an adjoining parking lot, which is a big deal these days. Nico’s is a small place, but while we were there, a steady stream of customers came for take out. We decided to eat in. Since we had never been there, it took a few minutes for us to check out the menu on the wall. Trisha, at the counter was very friendly and helpful. They have most usual dishes at a Mexican restaurant including tacos, burritos, enchiladas, breakfast burritos, and more. They are well known for their breakfast burrito. Steve ordered the Shrimp Chipotle Burrito and I ordered Cheese Enchiladas. We also got a chille relleno to take home.

While we waited for our food, Trisha was very willing to share information with us about Nico’s. It opened in 1987 and is family owned and operated. There are two more in San Diego, both family owned and operated by members of the founding family. One family member started a Nico’s in Arizona and they have been very popular in Arizona and spread throughout the state. There is even one international Nico’s in the Netherlands. In perusing the internet, I learned that Nicholas Carreon the 1st (the founder) chose the rooster for their logo; in Mexican culture there is a saying “He who is a good rooster, sings in every chicken coop” meaning if you are good at what you do in life, you will do well wherever you go. This seems to me to be words to live by.

Back to the food. Steve said he burrito was excellent. It included shrimp, rice, chipotle sauce rolled in a flour tortilla and was very large. He said it was a little spicy, but nothing he couldn’t handle. My two cheese enchiladas were full of melty cheese and red enchilada sauce. A side of lettuce was included as well as cheese on top. The chile relleno eaten the next day was also very good with lots of cheese, red sauce and of course the delicious stuffed pepper.

The prices are very reasonable and the service friendly. It was fun and we can’t believe it has been in our backyard since 1987 and we just found out about it. Give it a try.

LV Poetry Corner

We wish to take this occasion to celebrate the progress being made at the new Linda Vista Community Garden (located at the southwest corner of the Linda Vista Community Park) which opened in May after much planning, fundraising, and maneuvering through the City bureaucracy. The effort was spearheaded by Bayside Community Center. We recently visited the garden and noticed all the growth that has taken place since its opening.

We decided to mark the growth with the poem below, which celebrates not just the garden, but the also the diversity of our Linda Vista community.

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

The Linda Vista Community Garden

As election time nears,
the seeds recently planted
will soon bear fall fruit.
A San Diego working class neighborhood  
finds new citizens casting ballots 
for the first time.
Roots now entrenched
in this soil, nurtured by 
California water and sun, 
education and observation, 
signal an investment in
the community’s well-being.
Expected to produce dividends sprouting
in the form of civic engagement.  

And so it is within
the planter beds of this new garden. 
Seeds sowed on a spring day
have now grown stalks and stems. 
Ripening peppers, squash, corn— 
reaching far above the surface. 
Subjects of pride and admiration. 
A diverse mixture of generational 
knowledge and experience
transplanted from the Sonoran desert,
the Guatemalan highlands,
Vietnamese deltas,
and just down the block,
is combined with a coastal clime
to produce a yield for the dinner table, 
as well as encourage a firmer grip on this land.

There are some upcoming events happening at the Linda Vista Community Garden. They are all open to the public. There will be a Cool Weather Crops class on Monday September 23 from 5:30 to 7:30. A Reck on Party with Stardust in the Garden will be held Wednesday September 25 from 9:30 am to 11:30 am. And there will be a Seed Sowing Party—Cool Weather Crops on Saturday September 28 from 9:30 am-11:30 am, and on Monday September 30 from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm. Please RSVP to khanson@baysidecc.org if you wish to attend. If you are a Linda Vista resident and want to get involved or stay updated on community garden activities, sign-up for the garden newsletter at: www.tinyurl.com/Garden-Info

Fall Book Recommendations

As summer comes to an end and cooler weather prevails, we know LV Update readers will spend less time reading at the beach or aside the pool, and take their reading indoors. However, we want to make sure that in the transition to more indoor reading there is no letdown in the number of pages read. Accordingly, we asked our two resident intellectuals, Martha B and Marla M to share a couple book recommendations for Fall reading. Here is what they offered:

Martha B wrote: A Calamity of Souls is a recent legal thriller and murder mystery by David Baldacci. The book is set in 1968 Virginia, when the country was grappling with the Vietnam war and when, in Virginia, the civil rights era was barely acknowledged. This book was a 10-year passion project for the author who, like the book’s central character Jack Lee, grew up in a working class family in Virginia and became a lawyer. Baldacci describes the people, the racial divide, and southern 1960’s America as he weaves an atmospheric tale about the worst and the best in people.

Jack Lee is a white criminal lawyer who ends up defending Jerome Washington, a Black man and Vietnam veteran who has been accused of murdering a wealthy older white couple. Jerome is innocent of the crime, but immediately presumed guilty in the town’s racist justice system. The untangling of what actually happened is a compelling story and Baldacci is at the height of his skills telling it. If you are a fan of John Grisham, Michael Connolly, Scott Turow or S.A. Cosby I highly recommend you give this book a try. Even if this isn’t your usual genre, I still recommend it.

Marla M. wrote: Allegra is the main character in Danielle Steel’s novel titled Joy. She never felt loved or wanted. At the age of six she faced the first of many abandonments. Her mother leaves her without even a goodbye.

Her absentee military father is unwilling to care for her. He leaves her with her grandparents who reluctantly agreed to allow her to live with them. They rarely spoke to her. Her only escape from her lonely existence is through books and her vivid imagination which ultimately led to her career as an editor.

While attending boarding school, Allegra falls in love and marries her childhood sweetheart, Shep Williams. It Is the first time she ever felt a genuine connection. However, her happiness is short lived as Shep struggles through the horrors of military combat and PTSD. He leaves her out of fear that his violent episodes might harm her.

Desperate for a fresh start Allegra leaves the job she loves as an editor in New York and moves to California. She takes a position as assistant to a film composer, Henry Platt who introduces her to a whole new world.

Joy is a story about finding courage in the face of enormous, misfortune, and discovering that genuine happiness comes from inside.

Upcoming Fundraising Event

Local Linda Vista realtor and community supporter Bree Partington is once again partnering up with the Porsche Club to conduct another Porsche, Pours and Pups Fundraising Event this Saturday, September 21. Last year’s event was highly successful and so they are conducting an encore event. All of the proceeds will go to the Del Mar Dog Rescue. This is such a worthy cause! Check out the below flyer for details on how to sign up and attend.

Commentary

Celebrating the Moon in Linda Vista

Like many of my fellow Baby Boomers, I sometimes find myself saying things like… “Things were a lot simpler when I was growing up.” I will often resort to thinking that life was good and so uncomplicated back then—when there were only 6 TV channels to pick from; when National Football League games were only played and broadcast on Sundays; when there was no such thing as a college transfer portal (if a college athlete wasn't good enough to start, then he sat on the bench until he got better); and when there was no extensive MLB baseball playoff game system—the winners of the National League and American League went straight to the World Series and the entire season was over by mid-October.

Those are just a few examples of how life has become much more complex, filled with so many choices that it can boggle your mind and blur the notion of what is important and worthy of attention. This past week, I noticed one more thing that has assumed complex proportions—the moon!

Back when I was a kid, all you needed to know about the moon was that it was full once a month, and that our country had succeeded in putting astronauts on it. There was not much else mentioned about the moon. But nowadays, it seems like the media is always reporting something special occurring about the moon. We just don’t have full moons anymore, rather it seems that when I watch the news on TV some weatherperson is reporting how we are about to experience a blood moon, or a supermoon, or a blue moon, or a waxing gibbous moon, or a waning crescent moon, or a Sturgeon moon, or a waning gibbous moon, or a micromoon, or a super flower blood moon, or a ring of fire solar eclipse moon. I’m far from being a conspiracy nut, but I’m beginning to think that there might be a Big Moon-industrial complex at work in our society that toils behind the scenes to ensure a high level of moon branding is happening, perhaps for commercial purposes. Or maybe it’s based partly out of tradition. Or maybe because it’s just fun.

Just this week, for example, people celebrated Harvest Moon, which occurred this year on September 17/18. I know from my Marine Corps time spent on Okinawa, Japan, that the Japanese celebrate the Harvest Moon with elaborate moon watching parties. It’s a real big deal. And the Chinese celebrate Harvest Moon by eating Moon Cakes—round or square stuffed pastries served with tea. In fact, just a couple days ago, I was in Costco, when I heard a customer desperately say to a store clerk, “Are you all out of Moon Cakes?” The store clerk nodded affirmatively and said, “The Moon Cakes are selling like hotcakes.” Up until that moment I had no desire to eat a Moon Cake, but now I was suddenly disappointed that I could not purchase anything so rare. Fortunately, as I was going through the checkout stand, I saw a fancy red box of Moon Cakes sitting next to the cash register. As I stared, the store register clerk said “That’s the last box of Moon Cakes we have. If you want it, you better grab it fast.” I didn’t hesitate. In the spirt of American capitalism, I was unable to resist the idea of having something that everyone else wanted. I bought the box and took it home. Later that night I stood on the balcony of my house and looked across to the other side of Mission Valley as the full moon began to rise above the horizon, just east of Mount Miguel. The big bright moon looked amazing. At the same time, I bit into a Moon Cake. It too was amazing. What a combination, I thought. I found myself thoroughly enjoying the Harvest Moon experience!

This Harvest Moon experience got me thinking….the truth is I’m actually glad that today we have more than 6 TV stations to choose from. I like having numerous cable and streaming choices. And I enjoy watching NFL football games on Monday and Thursday nights, not just on Sundays. And I am grateful for Major League Baseball having that extensive playoff system (to include the wild card), because it looks like the Padres will be one of those playoff teams, and who knows, as a result, they might end up going all the way to the World Series, which will probably finish up during Thanksgiving weekend. The point is…so what if life is complex? It’s also much richer.

I still think the college transfer portal is a disaster; however, I have now changed my mind about all the different moons. I now plan to celebrate each unique moon. I want to have Betty come up with new baking goods to celebrate the next Blue Moon or Waxing Moon. Maybe we will have a big party the next time there is a Sturgeon moon. I like the idea of munching on Super Flower Blood Moon muffins. Betty will make them, and maybe Costco will eventually carry them under the Kirkland brand. What are the chances of that prosperous business luck occurring? You might say such things happen once in a Blue Moon.

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