Heavy Stuff

Inside

YOU’RE HOLDING A HEAVY ISSUE of San Diego Magazine. Yes, it’s 328 pages——and in that sense it’s heavy like a doorstop. But it’s also weighty in scope of coverage. As we do every October, we provide a list of the top doctors in town, as voted on by other doctors. And talented writer Dean Nelson——the same Dean Nelson who founded the journalism department at Point Loma Nazarene University——takes on City Hall, and the sandbox it has become for the mayor, city council and city attorney.

But if you’re ready for some in-your-face reading, turn to s.d. liddick’s latest on page 134. You might recall Liddick’s investigative features on living homeless (he did it for two weeks and spent two nights in jail in the process) and renegade tow truck drivers (yep, he trained on the rigs for a couple of weeks ). This month, he turns his attention to high school classrooms.

San Diego Magazine has published award-winning series on race and education in years past——but never this raw. Liddick pulls no punches writing about his stint as a substitute teacher. You’ll find language not ordinarily printed in this magazine. Invective from students is coarse, and epithets are hurled. But liddick wrote it, and the editors left it in, to accurately reflect the problems faced by students and teachers in modern-day classrooms. Not all school experiences are this negative, and we didn’t set out to pick on Crawford High. But it’s a sobering moment when a teenager who came to Crawford from the war-torn streets of Mogadishu says he fears for his safety in a San Diego city school.

OF COURSE, WE HOPE YOU’LL FEEL SAFE being referred to the region’s top doctors. It’s worth mentioning again that we don’t pick the docs. Other physicians, as polled by the San Diego County Medical Society, do peer-to-peer voting. Along with the list, our health package is topped with a feature by Julia Beeson and Julia Spalding on the medical concerns of women. One size does not fit all women and men equally when it comes to healthcare, report the Julias.

Our medical issue also includes a look at local eldercare, and recommends a few options for assisted living during the golden years. And photojournalist Max Dolberg takes us inside the heroic, helicoptered lives of the brave folks who fly on Mercy Air emergency missions.

Yes, there’s always more. Tom Blair dialogues with veteran TV anchor Marty Levin on the state of local news coverage. My Journal column examines the notion that our city is worldly enough to command 24-hour BBC news reports. And check out our feature on “How We Rate.” It’s a compendium of comparisons of San Diego with the rest of the United States. We haven’t gone to the dogs yet, but we do rate number 1 as best city for canines.

Throw yourself a bone and enjoy the issue.

RON DONOHO
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
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