January 2025

East County News Service

January 24, 2025 (San Diego's East County) -- The  San Diego County Office of Education has announced numerous school closures today due to the Border 2 Fire as well as power outages.

Power outages have resulted in closure of all Mountain Empire Unified School District and Warner Unified School district campuses today, as well as all Borrego Unified School District and Dehesa School District schools.. Currently over 19,000 customers are without power due to public power safety shutoffs, with more than 63,000 more at risk of losing power. For updates on power outages due to public safety shutoffs, visit https://www.sdge.com/psps-dashboard.

The Border 2 Fire has caused closures of the following schools:   Eastlake High, Eastlake Middle, East Hills Academy in the Sweetwater Union High School District,High Tech High in CHuula Vista, Arroya Vista Charter School, and in the Chula Vista Elementary School District Arroyo Vista, Camarena, Eastlake, Liberty, Marshall, Olympic View, Salt Creek, and Wolf Canyon elementary schools are closed; all other CVESD schools remain open but on rainy day schedule due to poor air quality.

Our El Cajon Living section covers the city of El Cajon and unincorporated El Cajon areas including Fletcher Hlils and Rancho San Diego.

Click here for fascinating facts about El Cajon.  For community and city links, click here.

By Alyssa Hiestand

May 26, 2024 (El Cajon) -- Just fifteen minutes from Downtown San Diego lies El Cajon, bustling with small businesses, delicious eateries, and more to make any day or night well-spent. Offering an insider perspective, here’s what we’d recommend doing for the ultimate day on Main Street in El Cajon:

We deeply appreciate the support of local businesses and nonprofit organizations that have donated to suppport East County Magazine's news reporting in the public interest and/or our East County Wildfire & Emergency Alerts!

Please support  these local businesses and organizations -- and let them know you that value their support of community journalism!

Our 1^st quarter 2024 business and organizational donors and sponsors are:

Platinum Level Sponsors ($5,000 or more)

Grossmont  Healthcare District

Gold Level Sponsors ($1,000 to $4,999)

Moon Valley Nurseries

San Diego Chimney Sweeps

San Diego Regional Fire Foundation

Silver Level Sponsors: ($100 to $999)

• Camp Bow-Wow
• CSA San Diego County
• Karen Floyd Portraits
• Lemon Grove Bistro
• Lemon Grove Lions Club
• Local Umbrella Media
• Maxwell’s House of Books
• Roots Real Estate

Bronze Level Sponsors ($25 to $99)

• Barn House Barbecue in Lemon Grove
• Jessyka Heredia hairdresser,  El Cajon
• Purple Owl Cafe in Julian

City awaits Council’s next motion

By Rachel Williams

July 14.2024 (El Cajon) -- With online sales taking a bite out of retail traffic, shopping malls across the U.S. are struggling and some have closed down. Seeking to avoid that scenario, the City of El Cajon commissioned a market analysis envisioning redevelopment options for Parkway Plaza,  East County’s largest regional shopping mall.

Council members unanimously favored a motion to move beyond proposed aspirational measures and begin the next step toward transforming Parkway Plaza into a mix of residential, retail, offices, entertainment and community space.

These “Eatertainment” facilities would combine compelling, traditional dining options and immersive sport-centered bars with unique, dynamic lifestyle retail shops, all oriented around a linear park.

East County News Service