They say “nature is the best medicine,” and luckily, that’s more than just an old adage. Studies have shown that spending time outdoors has tons of benefits, including mental health and physical advantages. s a San Diego resident, we’ve been blessed with plenty of opportunities to get the sun on our

Determined not to flip the kayak, I paddle hard, straight into the swell, following my guide Lillie Mulligan’s lead. The offshore wind drives a brisk fog atop the San Diego-Scripps Coastal State Marine Conservation Area, challenging our forward momentum. “Paddle harder,” Mulligan yells as our kayak

American Freight – a discount home-goods chain with ties to Sears Outlet stores – is shutting down, closing all 15 California locations.Liquidator Hilco Consumer-Retail announced the shuttering of 328 locations nationwide and the start of store-closing sales for outlets that sell furniture, applianc

A local real estate developer plans to turn the 58-year-old office tower it just bought in downtown San Diego’s financial district into a mixed-use building with more than 100 residential units.Encinitas-based Ambient Communities purchased the office building at 530 B St. for $27.5 million — or $110

This past weekend, my relationship with Caleb* passed the six-month mark. We’re growing closer—and, as we do, it’s getting a bit more challenging to share our experiences in this column. Let me explain.I promised myself and readers that I’d be open and honest when it comes to writing about my dating

San Diego homes sales have slowed to a snail’s pace.In September, 1,987 homes sold in San Diego County, CoreLogic reported Friday, its lowest for a September in records going back to 1988. It also marked the 10th-slowest sales month of all time.Sales were down 22% from August, and down 6.4 percent f

“I am the queen of hats,” Claude Rosinsky says. It’s a fitting title, considering how many she’s worn in her 82 years. The daughter of a royal physician in Morocco, she grew up in the capital city, Rabat. She went on to work for the United Nations and, later, with fashion icons like Christian Dior.

What does a change in White House control mean for home prices and mortgage rates?History suggests homeowners wanting appreciation – or house hunters looking for a bargain – won’t see huge differences. When the party in the Oval Office is switched, home prices typically rise between elections only s

San Diego has the fourth-highest percentage of renters in the nation as homeownership rates fall.About 48% of households in San Diego metro are renters, said a new Redfin study, only behind San Jose metro (52%), the Los Angeles and Orange County metro area (51%) and New York (49%).San Diego isn’t al

“I didn’t think I was an inventor for years,” says robotics engineer Danielle Boyer. But the 23-year-old Ojibwe creator embodied the title long before she embraced it—she designed her first robot at 17. That initial prototype became EKGAR (which stands for “Every Kid Gets a Robot”), a $20 remote-con

Monica Montgomery Steppe has always had two interests: music and public service. When she has time, she still occasionally sings at church, but it’s her devotion to public service that eventually led her to work for several San Diego city officials, including former San Diego City Council President

Now that Halloweekend has passed, we are on the cusp of Christmastime, but we can still revel in the pumpkin spice coziness of fall for a bit longer. So why stay cooped up inside when there’s so much to do around the city? Food lovers will have much to feast on, including Ambrogio by Acquerello’s fi

A handful of teenage girls share this bedroom. Posters of their favorite singers and notes from their friends paper the walls, and piles of stuffed animals populate the beds. One girl sits quietly at the vanity, brushing her hair and touching up her makeup. Juana Ortiz, her legal guardian, mentions

Meg Ferrigno had already been living and working among nomadic Tibetans for years when she went on the service trip that would change everything. “I was translating for a midwife,” Ferrigno recalls. “We saw over 100 patients and every single one of them was reporting severe infections and horrible s

Six days before 9/11, Dilkhwaz Ahmed arrived in the US from the Kurdistan region of Iraq to attend a conference. Ahmed, who had opened one of the first women’s domestic violence shelters in Iraq, applied for asylum after the attack, knowing she couldn’t go back. She already received threats at home

”Survey says” looks at various rankings and scorecards judging geographic locations while noting these grades are best seen as a mix of artful interpretation and data.Buzz: Stockton had the past year’s highest percentage increase in employment in the nation.Source: My trusty spreadsheet looked at th

La Jolla is getting delicious. Over the past few years, the tony enclave has bumped up its food and beverage prowess, with openings like Wayfarer Bread, Marisi, Paradisaea, and Le Coq lining up one after the other in a culinary competition that frankly, we’re all winning. That’s not even mentioning

Few Americans are moving to California, when you see the inflow in national terms.Last year, California drew 422,075 people from other states. My trust spreadsheet’s review of new state-to-state migration data from the Census Bureau tells me those arrivals equal 5.6% of the nation’s 7.55 million int

The city of San Diego will spend $2.8 million on improvements to the newly leased and already renovated Mission Valley office building where it plans to next year move a majority of its development services department.Tuesday, the San Diego City Council unanimously approved a sole-source constructio

California home prices and sales are up slightly in the past year, but there are some spooky extremes across the state.The California Association of Realtors’ September sales report tells us the statewide median selling price was up 3% to $868,150 in the year. Buying activity also quickened 5% over