Lemon Grove Review

Shooting in Lemon Grove

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:56:26 +0000

Body in street

There was a shooting in Lemon Grove this afternoon. Apparently several young men arrived in separate cars in front of a house on Debco in Lemon Grove and began breaking the windows out of cars in the driveway. The occupants came out and one began shooting at the vandals. The vandals retreated to their cars and began to flee the scene. One of the injured men was run over once or twice by the fleeing cars. (The people he came with). He was left lying in the street bleeding from injuries.

At least two weapons were involved, a hand gun and a shotgun. The crime scene has been closed off for several hours.

Vicious dogs on the loose

staff — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 21:54:46 +0000

On 8/2/2009 vicious dogs on the loose were reported in the 7600 block of North Avenue in Lemon Grove. Upon arrival at the scene, deputies were charged by two white pitbull/boxer mix dogs. Deputies closed off traffic in the area and contained the animals by blocking the dogs movements with their vehicles. The dogs lay down on the porch of a residence on North Avenue.

Deputies contacted Animal Control and also requested they contact the resident. Animal control responded to the scene and the residents remained in their house. When Animal Control arrived, they took the dogs into custody without incident.

Trailer park to become senior housing

staff — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:08:33 +0000

Windmill Community trailer park opened in 1993. Now it sits with half vacant spaces and several abandoned trailers awaiting removal and grading for a new senior housing development.

The .79-acre corner lot at 3595 Olive Street sold for $2 million to Hitzke Development Corp. of Temecula. The seller of the property (assessor’s parcel 480-043-22) was COACH of San Diego Inc. (Corporation for Affordable Communities and Homes) of Irvine.

The property, a block from the Lemon Grove Trolley Station at the corner of Olive and North Avenue, is to be redeveloped as an 80-unit, mixed-use senior project by Hitzke Development called Citronica Two. Citronica One, a mixed retail-residential complex, by the same developer was completed on Broadway in July, 2009.

Is Jane’s Country Kitchen throwing in the towel?

staff — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 02:37:53 +0000

Janes County Kitchen window

Jane’s Country Kitchen seems to have her glory days behind her. A hideaway once popular with locals and those seeking a hearty breakfast, Jane’s had lines out the door for decades. Jane’s was a popular place for it’s giant omelet’s and fluffy pancakes at bargain prices.

A For Sale sign sits inside a broken window.

First In-N-Out Burger in the county

Oldtimer — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:07:37 +0000

In 1990, In-N-Out Burger opened its first location in San Diego County, right here in Lemon Grove. To much fanfare, the line snaked out the parking lot and onto busy Massachusetts Avenue for several weeks.

Los Angeles and Orange County transplants, who were already familiar with the popular burgers, were excited In-N-Out had finally come to San Diego. Until then, some of the burger-cult would drive to Orange County or Riverside just to satisfy an In-N-Out Burger urge.

Citron Court is completed

staff — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 03:11:40 +0000

Citron Court in Lemon Grove

Located in Lemon Grove just minutes from downtown San Diego, Citron Court is a new mixed-use infill development that brings 36 units of affordable housing atop two street-level commercial spaces to the commercial corridor of Broadway. Citron Court also brings trees back to the street front, including the walkability of the community.

A collection of two- and three-story buildings made up of town homes and flats co-mingle across a skinny city block to interact with neighbors and create a series of courtyard spaces conducive to the chance conversation between residents. The mixture of townhomes and flats adjacent to the existing single-family home neighborhoods contributes to the smart growth technique of housing diversity.

Modern in style, the buildings gain in density and height as they move from the quiet residential neighborhood on Pacific Street to the bustling commercial corridor on Broadway.

Citron Court affordable housing in Lemon Grove

Families with children at the kindergarten through sixth grade levels will be able to plug into the award-winning “Lemon Link” program offered for free at the Lemon Grove public schools celebrating innovation in the connected learning environment. Likewise, the local elementary and middle school are accessible on foot.

Citron Court has access to nearby transit, with bus stops downstairs on Broadway and the San Diego trolley stop within walking distance. Major grocery and retail centers are directly across the street, eliminating the expense of keeping an automobile, a luxury many families living in work force housing don’t always have. Likewise, the closest public recreation parks are half a mile or less in either direction, adding to the walkable nature of the community.

Citron Court will be a catalyst to Lemon Grove as the first new mixed-use development using smart-growth principles and eco-friendly design provides affordable housing in the suburb of downtown. Citron Court will be complete in June and will be home to families, single young professionals and seniors.

Lemon Grove “Lips” are actually in La Mesa

staff — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 21:46:28 +0000

Lemon Grove sure does love its quirky landmarks. Plaster lemons, geological lips, just two things that bring a little zing to the town, now that the actual lemon groves are gone. The lips inspiration is actually pretty well documented. It was originally an artist’s joke that’s been maintained by anonymous freelancers ever since. If you haven’t seen them, the mouth is actually just a clever natural formation of rock faces that, if you have an artist’s imagination, come together to form a set of not-too-sexy-plumpish lips in a large boulder.

In 1977, artist, Lemon Grove resident, and cheeky 17-year-old Steven Garcia decided that the lips he saw in the rocky formation needed some paint to help his friends see what he saw in the natural formation. So that year Lemon Grove got a big red permanent kiss from above route 94. Over the years embellishments have been added, but those were mostly stolen. The lips had accompanying painted-on eyes for a while, but nobody seemed to care about maintaining them. Garcia left the area at least 20 years ago, and ever since it’s been random lighthearted Lemon Grovians who’ve kept the lips juicy and bright on a volunteer basis. Maybe the biggest secret about the lips is that they’re actually, politically and geographically, in La Mesa. But you have to be in Lemon Grove to see them.

A Big Kiss From Lemon Grove – By Matthew Alice | Published Thursday, Oct. 13, 2005 in the San Diego Reader