This problem didn’t appear overnight, and accountability doesn’t belong in one place. Local leaders are making difficult choices inside a fiscal squeeze that extends far beyond City Hall. That’s real. But it doesn’t make an 85 percent cut responsible and it doesn’t absolve any of us, in the public or private sector, from the work ahead.
So here is that work, as specifically as I can name it.
The proposed drop from roughly $13.8 million to $2 million has been widely reported as an 85 percent reduction solely to the arts budget. That number is accurate, and its implications are severe.
There is a meaningful difference between asking every sector to share in fiscal pain and effectively collapsing one. Arts and culture funding isn’t abstract: it creates jobs, drives foot traffic to neighborhoods, generates tax revenue, and supports organizations that took decades to build. An overnight cut of this magnitude with a July 1, 2026, effective date gives those organizations little to no time to adapt. Some won’t survive the attempt.
A more responsible approach would phase the reduction over time, preserve core grantmaking where possible, and give organizations enough runway to respond. That’s not special treatment. That’s how you manage a transition without causing irreversible damage.
Other cities have also developed smarter ways to finance the arts structurally. Denver’s Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, funded by a voter-approved regional sales tax of one penny on every $10, distributed nearly $85 million to almost 300 organizations in 2024. A 2025 study found those organizations generated $3.1 billion in economic activity and supported nearly 14,500 jobs. Houston ties cultural support directly to tourism by dedicating portions of hotel tax revenue to arts and culture. It’s an important thing to keep alive: In 2022, nonprofit arts organizations generated about $1.3 billion in economic activity in Houston alone.
The lesson isn’t that San Diego should replicate any one model. It’s that the healthiest arts ecosystems are built on stable, predictable funding—not annual uncertainty. San Diego has the same ingredients. What it lacks, right now, is the political will to use them.
Photo Credit: Matthew Murphy
We Need to Act Like Stakeholders
If we want a vibrant arts and culture scene, we need to acknowledge that the government alone should not be responsible for footing the bill. People who care about this ecosystem need to participate in it in specific, tangible ways.
That means making concrete choices with how we spend our time and money. It means buying museum memberships, theater subscriptions, class packages, and event tickets at institutions like the San Diego Museum of Art, Fleet Science Center, the Vanguard at Westminster Theater, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, and the Japanese Friendship Garden, and at organizations like Cygnet Theatre, The Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego Opera, North Coast Rep, and Broadway San Diego. It means showing up to a class at the San Diego Craft Collective, a Voices of Our City Choir performance, or Mission Fed ArtWalk. These aren’t symbolic gestures. They’re direct financial decisions that keep institutions alive when public funding retreats.
I want to address something that came up repeatedly in the responses to last week’s article. Several invoked “Penny for the Arts” as though voters had already weighed in either for or against arts funding. That’s not quite right. Penny for the Arts was a San Diego City Council policy adopted in 2012, not a ballot measure. It committed to restoring arts funding to 9.52 percent of annual hotel tax revenue by 2017. The city never fully met that goal. In FY24, the actual arts allocation was about $18.3 million—well below the roughly $31 million that full funding would have implied.
In November 2024, voters did reject Measure E, a proposed 1 cent sales tax increase. Its failure worsened the city’s overall budget pressure, but it’s important to note that Measure E had no dedicated carveout for arts and culture. Voting no on Measure E was not a vote against the arts. It was a vote against a general fund increase.
I raise this because the conversation matters, and it should be based on facts. If San Diego is going to ask arts organizations to survive on less public support, we need to understand the situation clearly.
Businesses Must Invest in the Arts, Too
Local brands and businesses have to do more than applaud the arts community; they have to invest in it. That doesn’t always mean making a nonprofit donation, though that matters too.
It means hiring local creatives (writers, photographers, designers, musicians) for real, well-paying commercial work. It means choosing a local creative agency for a campaign instead of outsourcing to another city. It means commissioning original work, sponsoring cultural programming and events, and treating creative labor as the economic driver it actually is.
My husband Troy and I sit on the board of San Diego FC’s Playmakers initiative—the club’s artists and creatives program, which has built artist collaborations tied to merchandise and community activations. It won’t fund a museum or a library. But it is a clear example of what it looks like when a major brand invests in the creative community as part of its identity and growth strategy.
Another way to approach this systemically: What if the top 10 corporations in San Diego each pledged to dedicate one percent of their marketing budget to hiring local artists, sponsoring local events, or commissioning local studios? In isolation, one percent doesn’t sound like much. In aggregate, across 10 major companies, it would represent a genuine catalyst for the creative economy—and it would send a signal that San Diego’s business community understands what’s at stake.
In a moment when public support is contracting, private sector participation is a critical part of the solution.
Courtesy of Mission Fed ArtWalk
Media Is Part of The Infrastructure
I own a for-profit arts and culture media company, so I want to be transparent: I have a direct stake in this ecosystem. I also think that stake gives me a clear view of something that doesn’t get discussed enough.
Cultural media coverage and cultural institutions have a symbiotic relationship.
At the very minimum, people need to know what’s happening in order to engage. That’s where listings and calendars come in: the KPBS Arts Calendar, the San Diego Theatre Alliance calendar, Arts+Culture:SD, the City of San Diego’s own listings, and San Diego Magazine’s Things to Do column and Best of San Diego newsletter all play that role.
But deeper, well-produced stories do something different. They have the power to create a real movement and galvanize people to care on an emotional level. A reported feature on an artist that conveys a compelling human behind it that people want to know more about. An essay that explains why a body of work matters or gives historical context on a movement—that kind of journalism leaves a lasting impression, a deeper impulse to get near it, participate in it. It builds a bridge between artist and audience, between institution and attendee. It turns curiosity into connection, and connection into a ticket purchase, then a return visit or membership.
Even at San Diego Magazine, we can’t keep pace with the volume of work happening in this city. Every week, we receive hundreds of pitches about new galleries, performances, installations, and cultural projects. The scene is bigger and more active than we are staffed to cover, not because the work isn’t there but because the resources aren’t.
That’s why local media should be understood as cultural infrastructure, not a separate category. When editorial capacity shrinks, visibility for the city’s arts and culture shrinks. When visibility shrinks, attendance follows. And when attendance falls, the sponsorships, donations, and earned revenue that institutions depend on get harder to sustain. Supporting local media by subscribing, advertising, or partnering is one concrete way to keep that cycle moving in the right direction.
The public response to Mayor Todd Gloria’s proposed budget cuts revealed something worth holding onto: The arts and culture are not a side issue for San Diegans. They are woven into this city’s economic life, its civic identity, and the texture of daily experience in ways that are easy to take for granted until they’re gone.
I’ve spent the past 18 years working in media, and five of those years building a business around this city’s creative community. I’ve watched what happens when arts and culture budgets get cut—including tough decisions we’ve needed to make over the years at the magazine. Coverage disappears, venues close, artists leave because the conditions that made staying possible no longer exist. The losses compound quietly, and they are very hard to reverse.
The answer here isn’t to pretend government should fund everything forever. It also isn’t to pretend the private market can absorb an 85 percent cut overnight without real and lasting damage. The answer is a stronger, more intentional mix: public investment and private support, civic engagement and earned revenue, media infrastructure and community participation—and all of it understood as part of the same ecosystem.
San Diego cares about its culture. The public response to the budget proposal proved that. The question now is: What, specifically, are we each willing to do to support it, and how soon will we act?
Siblings make better music. That’s the hot take, and there’s some logic and science behind it. The Bee Gees, Jackson 5, Billie Eilish and Finneas, AC/DC, Van Halen, The Allman Brothers—heck, even the Hanson brothers, why not? Beyond just a shared sense of taste and nonverbal communication developed over decades of living and evolving together, there’s a thing called “blood harmony.” The genetically similar throat cavities, vocal cords, speech patterns, and resonant bone structures all blend each unique voice into a more homophonic sound than what comes out of two non-related singers.
Those throat cavities are working wonders for emerging San Diego band We the Commas—three brothers (from oldest to youngest) Lenny, Jordon, and Cam Comma.
Raised in Vista and Carlsbad, the family opted out of cable TV (video games got a pass). Without binge-watching to fill bored hours, the trio turned to music. Guitar Hero led to GarageBand and finally to live instruments—guitars for Lenny and Cam, drum set for Jordon. In their sound, the influence of Stevie Wonder, Erykah Badu, The Who, and Dave Matthews Band is obvious, and so is surf culture, specifically that laid-back chill of North County surf culture.
“We’re like the Black Beach Boys,” Cam says. (Note: Three of the five founding members of the Beach Boys were siblings—the theory gets stronger.)
Their debut EP pretty clearly lays out how they see their sound—titled SARB, an acronym for Surf Alternative R&B. That resonates in the song “Sherry,” with its easy-listening, windows-down-on-the-101 vibe. It also works in the louder, surf-punkier “Pissed Off.” Despite some advances in reducing core stereotyping tendencies, people still tend to autofill Black musicians into rap and R&B. The Comma brothers immediately circumvent that by declaring themselves out the gates.
“SARB makes it so [listeners are] open to all of the things that we want to do,” Lenny says. “From there, you can put a label on whatever you think it sounds like.”
Courtesy of We the Commas
People—and musicians further up the stream—are taking note. In 2023, they co-wrote the song “I Keep Fallin’” with Eric Cannata, guitarist for multi-platinum SoCal band Young the Giant. In early 2024, they were tapped to open the national tour of Brooklyn’s jazz-pop heroes, Sammy Rae & The Friends. Comedian Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias invited them to warm up his show at Pechanga a couple months later.
“We really believe genuinely, with our whole hearts, minds and souls, that this is going to work the way that we think it’s going to,” Cam says, grinning ear to ear.
Currently, the Commas live together in Vista, and the dream, wholeheartedly, is more alive than ever. They’ve put out two dozen singles and a trio of EPs: SARB (2020), Old School Love (2021), and Aeroplane (2024); this year alone brought the release of three new singles, including “Let Me,” a silky-smooth entry in their growing collection of love songs.
“We fully realized the magic is in all of us together,” Lenny says. “We know that this doesn’t happen without each person, and we have respect for each other because we need each other.”
As they grow as brothers and as a band, the Commas try to always remember what unified them in the first place.
Ryan Hardison is a freelance arts and entertainment writer and recent graduate of San Diego State. When he's not staring at his laptop, he's likely eating an adobada burrito or getting sunburnt at the beach.
How Scrojo Became One of Rock’s Most Prolific Poster Artists
The San Diego designer has created more than 3,000 concert posters over nearly 40 years for artists including the Rolling Stones and the Red Hot Chili Peppers
When he was in high school, he and his friends were trying to come up with the perfect name for their punk band that would encapsulate all their personas. Nicaragua. The Freds.
One of his friends said he was going to go by Jimmy Stacks and called it “the perfect rock and roll name.” Their names changed so much that Haskett erupted: “Fine, I’m f—ing Scrotum Joe, the true defender of the Open West.”
Their response: Wow, that’s a great name.
As a teenager, he drew chalkboards for Del Mar’s Pannikin coffee shop and would design T-shirts for surf/skate brand Life’s a Beach. He signed the shirts with his moniker, but even in punk rebellion, who wants a shirt with the words Scrotum Joe on it? “They just cut out the ‘t-u-m,’ and the next thing you know, a client referred to me as that, and it stuck,” he says.
Courtesy of Scrojo
Scrojo could have been part of a band as iconic as The Misfits—had he been able to learn the famously cumbersome bassline to The Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie.” Becoming one of the most renowned concert poster designers—someone who quite literally designed the cover of Art of Modern Rock: The Poster Explosion—is a pretty good Plan B.
“To my knowledge, he’s done more rock posters than anybody else alive,” says Dennis King, whose D. King Gallery in Berkeley, California, serves as one of the largest private rock poster collections in the world. “He’s the hardest-working guy in the poster business.”
King not only co-authored the sequel to music historian Paul Grushkin’s The Art of Rock, but he also handles distribution and sales for all of Scrojo’s work. That’s more than 3,000 different posters over nearly 40 years. (That’s over one poster each week. For four decades straight.)
For anything from boxing matches to rodeos, posters have long been used as promotional items. Toulouse-Lautrec’s famous lithographs advertised Moulin Rouge in the late 1800s. Around the same time, Hatch Show Print in Nashville was making handbills for the Grand Ole Opry.
“I propose this: Cave paintings are the first poster art,” Scrojo says.
Courtesy of Scrojo
Rock and roll posters took off in the 1960s, when the hippie counterculture era replaced conformity and suburbia. Artists like Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead used their vibrant, psychedelic prints as a form of rebellion from the mainstream. Posters were promotional, commemorative, collectible, and especially expressive.
If the name Scrojo is any indication, he doesn’t shy away from imagery that toes the line of being too provocative. He focused more on what inspired him instead of trying to be offensive for the sake of getting attention.
“Didn’t want to show it to my grandmother, but my parents were fine with it,” Scrojo says with a laugh.
“We’ve had to ask him to put a Band-Aid over a nipple every now and then,” says Chris Goldsmith, president of Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, where Scrojo started out and hundreds of his posters currently line the walls.
Scrojo spent six weeks at Otis College of Art and Design for a summer semester before drugs, alcohol, and a self-described lack of discipline prevented him from enrolling full time. Still, he taught himself concepts like text hierarchy and later found his niche at the Belly Up and in the surfing and skating world, working with brands like Quiksilver, Rip Curl, Scorpion Bay, and DGK.
His first concert poster was for North County band Borracho y Loco, of which Goldsmith was bass guitarist. Scrojo drew an abstract version of the Belly Up’s iconic shark with colorful calypso and tiki themes.
Early on, he would craft using a pencil, pen, non-reproduction blue pencil, X-Acto knife, rubber knife, and proportion scale to create each poster, and the finished product could take a week or even longer.
Courtesy of Scrojo
“I recommend every artist coming up to do that for like six weeks,” Scrojo says. “It forces you to think about every design decision as you’re going along.”
He has since mastered vector imagery through Adobe Illustrator to the point where, depending on the level of detail needed, he could finish two projects in a day. Still, he fills sketchbook after sketchbook to blueprint.
“I liked his line in particular, and he knows how to draw, which a lot of people don’t really know how to do these days,” King says.
Scrojo would research what each musician’s merchandise looks like to get a feel for each artist’s tone and voice. Once he has his central image in mind, he focuses on what and where to place the text.
He doesn’t have one specific style, ranging his talents from art deco to psychedelic and everything in between (and outside the lines). Want a pop surrealist comic book cartoon devil with splattered paint textures, halftone dot patterns, and pure chaos? Red Hot Chili Peppers, February 1986. Want a minimalist graphic portrait with bold strokes and graffiti text? P!nk, October 2023. Want a carnival sideshow style piece with a tasteful caricature of Jeff Bridges? The Big Lebowski, August 2011.
Scrojo calls himself a jack of all trades because he can create posters for all music genres. King calls him a chameleon for his ability to adapt his voice to new eras.
Courtesy of Scrojo
“The variety of his skillset makes it possible for us to put 50 of his posters on a wall next to each other and have it look compelling, not just a bunch of the same thing over and over,” Goldsmith says.
Some of Scrojo’s favorite posters are when he feels a personal connection to the artist or the album. He has a vivid memory as a child of being trapped in a closet filled with marijuana leaves while playing hide and seek and staring at Jimmy Cliff’s “The Harder They Come” LP. “For whatever reason, as a kid, that sparked a desire to do graphic design,” Scrojo says.
Fast forward to February 2012, Cliff is performing at Belly Up. Scrojo decided to modify Cliff’s original album cover from rainbow gradient fills to classic reggae psychedelia while preserving Cliff’s striped pants and bold hat. Cliff’s manager called him and said they wanted to use it for the rest of their tour.
“We always get artists requesting that he does their posters,” Goldsmith says. “A lot of artists don’t want venues to go all rogue because they want to control how they’re being presented. With him, they’re like, ‘Let him go nuts.’”
Matt Eisenberg is an award-winning writer and photographer based in San Diego. A former ESPN editor, his work has also been published by CNN, Bleacher Report and the New York Daily News.
Summer has officially kicked off, and San Diego is celebrating the sunny season with a myriad of fun events. From San Diego Pride week and a fairytale performance at Civic Theatre to a Santigold concert and Comic-Con, there are dozens of opportunities to make memories worth adding to your scrapbook. Here are all the best things to do in San Diego this July:
Divine inspirations, operatic ballads, and symphonic pop production elevate Rosalía’s Lux to heavenly levels. Hear angelic vocals ascend—in up to 13 languages—during her performance at Pechanga Arena.
Enjoy a night of feel-good indie rock and sing-along anthems at the Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre courtesy of Young the Giant and special guest Cold War Kids.
29
Santigold collects genres like gold stars: musical accouterments that brighten her uniquely alternative sound. See her live in concert with dancehall producer Troy Baker Sound at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay.
Two male government workers pursue a secret romance amid the Lavender Scare in the San Diego Opera’s production of “Fellow Travelers” at the Balboa Theatre.
Audrey Hepburn. Marlon Brando. Salvador Dalí. What do these icons have in common? Each was the enigmatic focus of a Cecil Beaton portrait. Step inside Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World, an alluring showcase of 20th-century style at San Diego Museum of Art.
Courtesy of San Diego Pride
More Fun Things to Do in San Diego This Month
1
The Little Italy Mercato will trade morning rays for golden-hour glow through its free Summer Sera, an expansion of the neighborhood’s farmers market with live music, artisanal finds, and a fetching amount of pet activities.
11–19
San Diego Pride week starts with a Dyke March and ends with the two-day “Pride Shines On” festival. The days in between? Run a 5K, march in the parade, visit the rainbow-lit St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, and more.
19
Dress up for a Mediterranean-themed tea time at the Estancia La Jolla, a laid-back yet refined afternoon planned for the resort’s monthly Tea in the Garden series.
23–26
Nerd culture’s biggest gathering returns to the Convention Center. San Diego Comic-Con welcomes fans of everything from comic book cinema to ultra-rare collectibles for panels, exhibits, sneak peeks, and much more.
Ryan Hardison is a freelance arts and entertainment writer and recent graduate of San Diego State. When he's not staring at his laptop, he's likely eating an adobada burrito or getting sunburnt at the beach.
Entrepreneurs typically launch businesses because they’re passionate about a product or service, not because they want to manage its finances. While working to carve out a niche in their respective industries and drive their companies forward, many business owners find themselves bogged down by day-to-day accounting. Their existing accounting tools don’t provide the necessary visibility or insight, and they don’t have the time or resources to hire additional staff or a chief financial officer. That’s where NOW CFO comes in.
For more than 20 years, NOW CFO has been pairing businesses across the country with experienced accounting and finance professionals. Its outsourced model allows clients to customize solutions that match their individual needs, size, and financial challenges, whether that’s fractional or interim support, project-based services, or full-time placement.
NOW CFO’s clients range from startups preparing for rapid growth to established companies that need additional financial leadership without the commitment or expense of building an in-house team. However, many of these companies don’t fully understand their needs until they experience a “trigger” event: preparing for an acquisition or capital raise, navigating a first-time audit, or another period of transition. With a team of over 300 consultants nationwide, NOW CFO can start quickly and match the right expert to the right business.
“It’s important for companies to have financial visibility, and we can help them avoid a lot of the potholes that companies often run into,” says Mariah Block, a partner at NOW CFO’s San Diego branch. “Roughly half of our clients have an in-house finance person or department, and we’re resourced for more bandwidth when they need an extra set of hands at the staff or senior accountant level, or the controller or CFO level. Some clients use this a few hours a month and others use multiple people close to full-time. Our model is solution-based and customizable. We’re like a faucet you can turn on and off.”
With NOW CFO, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Solutions are based on the client’s individual goals, challenges, needs, and budget, meaning a client never pays for more than they need. Whether it’s a few hours of executive-level guidance or a full accounting team to support daily operations, NOW CFO meets businesses where they are and grows alongside them.
“We pride ourselves on providing our clients with the right resources at the right rate and being able to evolve as their needs evolve,” says Block.
And clients appreciate on-demand access to cost-effective support designed to improve performance and profitability.
Luxury car storage service Auto Concierge has partnered with NOW CFO to support growth over the past year. The arrangement began with a staff accountant who covered a leave of absence, but as the client’s needs changed, they also added a controller role. This allowed Auto Concierge to put effective processes in place and navigate operational challenges. Lori Church, Auto Concierge’s chief operating officer, says NOW CFO has been an “outstanding resource” and a “true strategic partner.”
“From the controller to the bookkeeper, every professional they’ve placed has brought a high level of expertise, responsiveness, and professionalism to our organization. Their team took the time to understand our business of high-profile clients and needs, adapted quickly to our fast-paced environment, and became a trusted extension of our team,” she says. “As Auto Concierge continues to grow, having a reliable financial partner like NOW CFO has allowed us to strengthen our financial and business operations while remaining focused on delivering exceptional service to our clients.”
That's the question at the center of a new collaborative arts initiative launching this September, celebrating the artists, performers, designers, and makers shaping the region
You may not know his name, but if you were one of the millions of people who traveled in and out of Terminal 2 at San Diego International Airport in 2024, you’ve seen his work. David Mont Virgen was born and raised in Tijuana. He earned a degree in international business and studied interior design in Madrid. In early 2020 during the global pandemic, he made one of life’s impactful pivots and decided to pursue art full time.
David works between San Diego and Tijuana, in the cross-border corridor that is, depending on who you ask, either one of the most complicated places to build a life or one of the most generative creative regions in the country. He makes minimalist work—paintings, sculpture, objects. To do minimalism well, you have to be very good, because there is nowhere to hide. That airport piece? It’s officially entered the permanent collection of the San Diego Museum of Art. David is very good.
While his work was gaining real traction in San Diego, his marriage ended. When that relationship dissolved, the legal and physical ground beneath his feet shook: The future of his citizenship was now in limbo. David looked at his options and chose yet another life pivot.
An accomplished working artist with a piece in a museum’s permanent collection enlisted in the U.S. Army, at a time when this country is at war. David describes this period of his life with grace, as “…an opportunity to choose myself and move forward with greater clarity and intention. For the love of self.”
That phrase, “For the Love of Self,” became the title of his show, which opened at the Guild Hotel in January 2026 with support from Oram Hotels and the Consulate General of Mexico in San Diego. Jennifer Findley of JFin Collective led the curation. Within weeks of the show’s debut, David shipped off to train with the army. It would be easy to read his enlistment as purely practical, and citizenship was part of his calculus, but he is precise about his reasons: He wants to continue building a future in this country and building a future for this country. Because service, he says, feels connected to art. “Both are rooted in the belief that we are responsible for contributing something larger than ourselves.”
David is one creator out of many whose story hasn’t yet been told, but whose path reflects the world we live in. The truth he represents is that the artists in this city are creating under increasingly challenging constraints even as their work actively shapes the world we move through—the places we gather, the neighborhoods we love and live in—whether we know their names or not.
It’s time their stories are told.
This fall, we’ll be publishing an ambitious arts and culture issue made possible by the support of two organizations who are underwriting an expanded freelance budget with one question at its center: Who makes San Diego, San Diego?
The Art & Design District—a Prebys-supported initiative to develop and shape a dedicated area of the city for creative work, led by Jonathan Glus—has joined as co-publisher of our September issue. SDFC Playmakers led by Sebastian Morúa, the MLS team’s program dedicated to showcasing San Diego’s creative community, has also joined as digital co-publisher for the next six months.
With their support, our freelance budget has tripled. In the spirit of radical transparency, and because our readers deserve to know how our work is funded, our typical monthly print freelance budget is about $6,000. That supports writing, photography, and design across more than 100 pages. Our monthly digital budget is $2,500.
With the support of our co-publishers, we’ve brought on Aaryn Belfer, one of San Diego’s most respected editorial voices, as the issue’s special editor. Alongside Troy Johnson, content chief; and Emma Veidt, editor; she is helping shape the editorial vision of the issue.
With an expanded team, we’ll soon bring on a digital producer and an additional art designer. We’ll produce an expansive portrait of the artists, makers, performers, and institutions defining this region’s creative life, commission original photography, and create a comprehensive fall arts and culture calendar. The issue will anchor a six-month editorial program that will extend across digital, social media, video, podcast, and newsletters through early next year.
We have been doing this for 78 years, and we have learned how to do it well with limited resources. But the conversation happening in San Diego right now—about the role arts and culture play in shaping a city and the role a city plays in shaping arts and culture—is one that demands more than what our standard monthly budget can produce. Until now.
This partnership model is new to us but the challenges that precede it are not new to media, particularly on the local level. And yet, this collaboration serves as real proof that civic organizations and local media can work together to document and preserve the story of a place and the people who make it, for the record.
David told me that San Diego gave him a sense of belonging. That he felt supported and encouraged to keep growing. Not because life got easier, but because he learned to trust himself through uncertainty.
Today, he’s somewhere in basic training. But he is still an artist and he will keep making work. The artists in this city are almost never just one thing. They are painters and soldiers, sculptors and teachers, dancers and mathematicians. David is a minimalist artist and a U.S. Army recruit. He is Tijuana and San Diego. He is, in the most literal sense, still becoming.
A great city knows its makers. I want San Diego to be that city.
As summertime inches closer to the shores of San Diego, there are plenty of reasons to be ecstatic. For one thing, there’s the impending arrival of the summer solstice (Sunday), and three days before that, Del Mar’s own Summer Solstice will return for its yearly golden hour. There are also plenty of local Juneteenth events, such as Kinfolk Fest, the Cooper Family Foundation’s Juneteenth Celebration, and The Freedom Table, a new, food-centered event from the originators of Juneteenth San Marcos. We’re also less than three weeks away from America’s 250th anniversary, and the celebrations range from the San Diego History Center’s America 250: San Diego 1776-2026 to NASCAR’s weekend of racing at Naval Base Coronado.
Cbar has planned a week’s worth of festivities to mark its first birthday, and everyone can get in on the fun. The 1-Year Anniversary Week celebrations continue with a special edition of the Sips & Shells craft series ($50) on Tuesday from 6-8:30 p.m., half-off pastries with any purchase of a barista drink (plus an anniversary summer wine flight) on Wednesday and a five-course winemaker dinner on Thursday from 6-9 p.m. ($130). Finally, the birthday bash will conclude with live music on Friday (Will Fedak) and Saturday (Cappo Kelley) from 6-9 p.m.
2917 State Street, Carlsbad
Taste of Little Italy
June 16 & 17
Little Italy’s annual food crawl has so many options that it warrants splitting into two evenings, each boasting a diverse lineup of 20 neighborhood vendors. During the Taste of Little Italy, taking place Tuesday and Wednesday from 4-8 p.m., attendees can make their way from the Piazza della Famiglia to nearby dining destinations for bites like esquites, sausage rolls, hot chicken tenders, and forkfuls of handmade pasta. Each night will also include live music and stops for drinks, desserts, and vegetarian items. Tickets are $71 per day.
As spring makes its golden transition into summer, welcome the new season with open arms and a big appetite during Del Mar Village’s marquee tasting event this Thursday from 5-8 p.m. With the Summer Solstice celebrating its 20th anniversary, this year’s iteration will include dozens of food and drink offerings from Del Mar Village vendors, soulful tunes from Christian Jules Taylor, live art by Sarah O’Connor, and wave-crashing views at Powerhouse Park. General admission (21+) is $157 and comes with unlimited tastings as well as a commemorative tasting glass, while VIP tickets are sold out; proceeds support the Del Mar Village Association.
1658 Coast Boulevard, Del Mar
The Freedom Table at TERI Campus of Life
June 19
After hosting the first-ever Juneteenth San Marcos festival in 2025, Lionel and Natalie Saulsberry have upped the ante with The Freedom Table, an elevated observance of community, culture, and the culinary arts. This Friday from 4-9 p.m. at TERI Campus of Life, guests can enjoy storytelling, art installations, live music, curated cocktails, and a chef-led dining experience, all in recognition of Juneteenth’s lasting importance. Ticket options include general admission ($261), plus two charitable ticket options: supporter ($313) and impact ($417), with a portion of sales going towards the youth nonprofit Achievement in Motion.
555 Deer Springs Road, San Marcos
Talladega Nights Father’s Day Brunch at ARLO
June 21
In honor of NASCAR’s Coronado debut and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, ARLO is throwing a Father’s Day brunch for the dads who want to go fast. This Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., patrons can order from ARLO’s regular brunch menu, as well as a trio of holiday specials: the Dad’s Day Steak and Fries ($64), the Fit For a King Muffuletta Sandwich ($29), and the Big Daddy Brookie ($14). This shake and bake-approved meal will also include a DJ, cigar rollings, whiskey tastings and a Ricky Bobby costume contest. Reservations can be made online.
Ryan Hardison is a freelance arts and entertainment writer and recent graduate of San Diego State. When he's not staring at his laptop, he's likely eating an adobada burrito or getting sunburnt at the beach.
If you’re anything like us, it can be easy to get so caught up in taking care of everyone else, that your own needs get lost in the ether. But while this may be a cliché, that doesn’t make it any less true: You can’t give your best self to other people unless you’re taking care of yourself.
Sometimes, that looks like stopping in for your regular acupuncture or chiropractic appointment. Other days, it means giving your body the fresh, organic fuel it needs to truly feel and function at its best. And some other times still, it involves leaving your responsibilities behind for a weekend to pamper yourself at an incredible resort and spa.
Only you can decide what your truly need. We’re just here to help you find the best ways to get it.
Tommy Bahama Miramonte Resort & Spa
Island living meets desert luxury at the Tommy Bahama Miramonte Resort & Spa in Indian Wells. When you step onto the 11-acre property, you’ll be surrounded by sweeping view of the Santa Rosa Mountains with olive trees and fragrant citrus groves decorating the grounds. In other words, everything about this relaxed but refined resort is primed to help you let go of the stress from home and enjoy easy sun-soaked days and gorgeous starry nights.
The rooms blend calming, woven textures with Tommy Bahama’s signature tropical prints and feature private lanais, making it easy unwind the moment you walk in the door. If you book one of the four Villa Suites, you’ll be treated to exclusive Tommy Bahama furniture and unique personal touches to further that feeling of instant ease.
At the award-winning Spa Rosa, the expert team will help reset and recharge your body and mind using methods and rituals inspired by the desert. The 12,000-square-foot retreat includes outdoor soaking pools, eucalyptus steam rooms, and outdoor cabanas, as well as massages, facials, and body masks—all aimed at creating a day dedicated to you. We’re particularly partial to the Day Long Escape, an indulgent all-day affair of CDBs soaks, renewing scrubs, life changing massages, and transformative facials.
Following your treatment, continue the experience with a meal on the patio at Grapefruit Basil. We love the Hamachi Crudo, a light, citrus-forward dish featuring premium yellowtail, house-made ponzu, creamy avocado, and fresh seasonal garnishes.
Whether you’re strolling the gardens, relaxing beside its saltwater pools, or indulging in a restorative treatment, you’ll be able to escape in style and relax in luxury at the Tommy Bahama Miramonte Resort & Spa.
Healcove Chiropractic
There’s no shortage of ways to stay active in San Diego—but if you really want to enjoy everything the city has to offer, you’ve got to make sure you’re giving your body its tune-ups. Enter: Healcove Chiropractic. The board-certified chiropractors and wellness professionals at Healcove are experts at addressing that stage where you’re not injured, exactly, but you’re not at 100%, either. Maybe you’re feeling a bit tense or stressed out. Or it could be that you’re not quite moving the way you want to. Sometimes, it’s just that the accumulation of days, weeks, or even years of daily strain is starting to take a toll. No matter what stage you find yourself at, the Healcove Chiropractic team can provide integrated, preventative care centered on long-term, science-backed approaches that ensure you can always stay active and live the life you want to live pain-free.
This starts by providing truly individualized care. Every patient can expect a thorough 60-minute consultation session that includes a posture and movement screening. This allows the team to develop a completely personalized plan. That plan might include chiropractic care, acupuncture, or massage therapy, as well as functional fitness training, vibration and sound therapy, and Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization, a clinical rehabilitation method that retrains the body’s stabilization systems. Whatever the team recommends, you can be sure that it’s tailored to meeting your body’s needs today and the future.
There’s a reason that San Diego Magazine named Healcove the “Best Chiropractor in San Diego”—don’t wait until you’re struggling with an injury to find out why. Book an appointment today for holistic, integrated care that helps ground and heal your body before it reaches a crisis point.
Juice Holler
West Coast wellness culture meets the community feel of Southern Appalachia at Juice Holler. Juice Holler’s menu consists of made-to-order smoothies and smoothie bowls, as well as grab-and-go cold-pressed juices, wellness shots, salads, and more. It operates from the blissfully simple premise that fueling up with food and drink that’s guilt-free and good your body should be simple, accessible, and, above all else, delicious. And if you haven’t yet made it out to the Encinitas café, which opened just this year, let us be the first to tell you: Juice Holler delivers on each and every of these fronts.
We love the Supercharger smoothie, a mood-lifting and body-fueling option made with banana, almond butter, blue spirulina, maca, grass-fed whey protein, raw cacao nibs, medjool dates, and coconut milk. We’re also partial to the Thrive Alive smoothie bowl, where avocado, mango, sea moss, spirulina, mint, coconut milk, and agave are mixed and topped with coconut, chia seeds, strawberry, mango, and chocolate drizzle. The wellness shots include the Detoxifier, a cleansing blend of kale, cucumber, lemon and spirulina, plus a shot specially designed to fight inflammation (named, fittingly, Anti-Inflammation). Probiotic overnight oats, lemon turmeric bars, and strawberry shortcake chia pudding are other standouts on the grab-and-go menu.
Much of the vibe feels beachy North County chic—think green tile with orange and pink accents, grounded with greenery and natural wood—but Juice Holler founder Kelly Sergott, a longtime Encinitas local, has also enfused the space with her Kentucky roots. In Appalachia, a holler is small valley between hills and mountains, where nature reigns, community is king, and nourishment comes right from the land. At Juice Holler, Sergott has created a holler for the busy modern times, using local ingredients to create a spot for people to come together and enjoy fresh, fast, feel-good fuel for their day.
Everwell Acupuncture
We’ve all had that experience with a medical professional where we’ve felt rushed, ignored, or misunderstood—and ultimately, like we didn’t get the answers that we needed. But at Everwell, the holistic acupuncture practice located in Solana Beach, the care team wants to transform your understanding of what healthcare can look like.
Patients at Everwell experience care rooted in intentional listening and radical empathy—and trust us, those aren’t just corporate buzzwords. This place actually puts those ideas into practice. You will always be given the time you need to tell your story— initial in-take appointments are two hours long—and you can rest assured that your story will be believed. Every single question and concern will be addressed by a dedicated practitioner who wants to find the specific solutions that work best for you, and you’ll receive care that’s aimed at healing the body, mind, and spirit.
Everwell’s highly trained, doctorate-level practitioners blend evidence-based acupuncture with the practice of classical Chinese medicine. (If you’ve never tried acupuncture before or aren’t sure if the team will be a fit, we’d highly recommended Everwell’s complimentary 20-minute consultations.) Research shows that by stimulating specific points on the body, acupuncture activates a natural healing response in the body, helping to restore balance, regulate the nervous system, and improve overall wellbeing. This allows the practice to address an incredibly wide range of conditions from chronic pain and autoimmune disorders to digestive issues, from stress and burnout to headaches migraines, fertility and postpartum struggles, hormonal imbalances, sleep concerns and more.
At Everwell, you can expect to feel heard, trusted, respected, and cared for. This is a space that doesn’t want to be just another healthcare provider you visit; it wants to provide patients with dedicated partner who will be there for their entire health journey.
