Run DMZ

I miss mornings when the only goal was for him to be on Zoom with a full belly and clean(ish) shirt by first period. I miss the soft openings, the overheard banter between the teachers, aides and students before getting down to business. I didn’t get much of my own work done during online school hours, but I did learn a lot.   We opted to send our child back to school last week, as did about half of San Diego Unified parents and guardians. This meant our middle school could offer on-site classes four mornings a week, versus the planned two. But it also meant half of all students have something still holding them back. Those that are on campus must sit farther apart and follow one-way foot-traffic flows and, of course, wear masks at all time. No water fountains work, but there are bottle-fill and hand sanitizer stations. Every single child is sent home at 12:30 with food for lunch, dinner and tomorrow’s breakfast. The online kids’ families line up in their cars for their food bags. ...

With pandemic restrictions rapidly lifting, and tourists pouring in, I’m sharing some of my favorite weekend walks. Last Saturday, some friends and I took in iconic Sunset Cliffs between Ocean Beach and Point Loma proper. Let’s start here.   A Brief History of The Cliff’s Rise and Decline There are several spots in San Diego that generate the lion’s share of  FOMO-worthy photos on Instagram and other social media. Sunset Cliffs is one of them .    Historical websites often open with how a sporting goods magnate spent a couple million dollars in the 1910s to make the cliffs publicly accessible with Japanese-inspired landscaped walkways and stairways, shelters and benches, caves and even a saltwater swimming pool replenished with each high tide. Albert Goodwill Spaulding bequeathed his 64-acre seaside park to the city of San Diego, which did nothing with it. A decade later, developer John P. Mills assumed ownership and restored some of the park’s features. He too gave...