El Cajon

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.

Council asks  staff to revise resolution, which will be on the agenda January 28

By Miriam Raftery

East County News Service

January 16, 2025 (El Cajon)-- In honor of Valentine's Day, the Saps at Sea Laurel & Hardy club presents: Laurel & Hardy – Romantic Leads??  Films include "Should Married Men Go Home?", "Our Wife", and "Yes, Yes Nannette." 

The event takes place on Saturday, February 1, from 4:30 to 8 p.m. at First Lutheran Church of El Cajon, 867 S Lincoln Ave, El Cajon, CA 92020. 

Suicidal suspect had doused self in gasoline before intentionally ramming officer,  ECPD reports

By Miriam Raftery

Photo, left: Two officers train guns on driver after Sergeant Maxwell was struck.

January 11, 2025 (El Cajon) – El Cajon Police Department has released surveillance and body cam video from the officer-involved shooting outside ECPD headquarters on December 11 during preparations for a retirement ceremony. (Warning: graphic content.)

The video shows a Toyota Tundra SUV driven by Benjamin Grube, 24, a nonbinary person earlier identified as Andrea Grube, park and later drive onto a sidewalk and ram Sergeant Kevin Maxwell as he tried to run from the oncoming vehicle. He was thrown into the air before the vehicle struck a bush. The injured sergeant managed to grab his service revolver while still on his knees, ordering Grube to exit the vehicle.

By Jessica Brodkin Webb

January 7, 2025 (El Cajon) --In 13 days, President-elect Donald Trump could potentially begin to make good on his campaign promise to pursue mass deportations of immigrants and refugees living in the United States.

“As President I will immediately end the migrant invasion of America," Trump said in a Sept, 2024 speech and although he has not released specific details of how he might direct such a plan at a federal level, community leaders stand divided on how best to respond at the local level.

Under current California law, state and municipal governments are barred from working in conjunction with federal law enforcement agencies to actively pursue deportation for anyone who has not committed a serious crime. That approach stands in direct opposition to Trump’s proposed plan to conduct mass immigrant deportations.

El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells, in a letter to the Calif. Attorney General, says he plans to propose that his city fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities. San Diego’s Board of Supervisors majority, by contrast, has urged county authorities not to turn over any immigrants to federal authorities, while the County Sheriff has said she will take the middle ground and follow state law, cooperating only when immigrants have committed serious crimes.

Besides posing a challenge for local elected officials who must decide how they will answer to conflicting state and federal guidelines, an element of murkiness also exists for prominent community members and social service agency heads who spend many hours each week working directly with refugees.