In May, the owners of Tony Roma’s in Pacific Beach decided to rebrand, changing the name to Beachtown BBQ.
The change sparked a lawsuit – one of two between the owners and their landlord. But it might not have been about the name change. It might have been a struggle for the restaurant’s liquor license. Those have become gold in Pacific Beach.
In the second of a two-part series, VOSD contributor Jonah Valdez dug into the row at a well-situated strip mall in PB.
One of the complaints accuses the landlord of having “intentionally and, in bad faith, engaged in a series of harassing tactics in an effort to find any pretext to terminate the tenancy and gain control of the liquor license.”
Beachtown BBQ lost in court. And despite hopes for an appeal, the restaurant closed this week. The owners, however, are getting calls from other businesses, asking about potential partnerships or relocation options.
Because, for now, they still have their liquor license.
It’s Official: Issa and Gaspar Win
Two of the county’s tightest races, for District 3 County Supervisor and the 49th U.S. Congressional District, have finally come to an end, with Republicans Kristin Gaspar and Darrell Issa emerging victorious.
Democrat incumbent on the county’s Board of Supervisors, Dave Roberts, conceded to Gaspar Monday.
Roberts finished election night with a more than 2,000-vote lead, but the election remained too close to call for more than two weeks while mail-in votes were counted. Gaspar gained ground and had pulled into a more than 1,200-vote lead.
This means that for at least the next two years, the County Board of Supervisors is back to being all Republican.
Incumbent Issa held onto his congressional seat after his re-election was fiercely contested by Democrat Doug Applegate. After more than two weeks of counting, Issa has roughly 2,300 more votes than Applegate, with a small number of ballots left to count.
• In another tight race, Mark Wyland is now 852 votes behind Rick Shea for a seat on the County Board of Education. That’s out of more than 222,000 votes counted so far in the contest.
San Diego Explained: Field Turf Failure
If you missed VOSD’s Ashly McGlone’s big investigation into FieldTurf, the latest San Diego Explained with McGlone and NBC 7 San Diego’s Monica Dean starred in a short video version.
San Diego County public schools funneled tens of millions of dollars into the artificial turf company. But when many fields went bad, the company saw an opportunity to sell more products. And local districts were buying.
Quick News Hits
• The way San Diego Unified continues to handle the mess of former Board Trustee, Marne Foster – whose abuse of her position for personal gain was exposed by Voice of San Diego – confounds the U-T Editorial Board. (Union-Tribune)
• Chula Vista voters approved a sales tax measure for infrastructure earlier this month. Next week, a plan to use those funds will come before the city council. (City News Service)
• Measure S, a ballot measure that passed earlier this month in El Cajon to create city council districts, and the shooting of Alfred Olango may mean political change is imminent in El Cajon – change that addresses the city’s longstanding racial divisions. (KPBS)
• A shortage of housing has led to steadily rising costs in San Diego County, but a new report says Southern California may be in for an increase in housing construction in 2017. (Union-Tribune)