Before looking ahead to next year, here’s my last San Diego Sun Editor’s Note of 2025. It was a challenging year for our downtown San Diego coverage area, as well as the independent media industry.
Here’s how we stepped up to the challenges by writing good, locally-connected stories, won nearly a dozen writing awards, partnered with other outlets and got grant funding from the Prebys Foundation, among other positive news and notes:
Hard-Hitting Editorial Content
The Sun covered hyperlocal issues no other outlet did, including:
- The hypocrisy of Mayor Todd Gloria, whose official car was parked most of the year in an illegal “daylighting” street spot – while the city collected nearly a million dollars for the exact same offense. Our story got the mayor to move his parking space.
- A deep dive on The State of The Gaslamp Quarter, and called out broken lines of communication between the mayor’s office and the Gaslamp business community while highlighting disagreements on exorbitant new parking fees.
- How budget cuts to security at Children’s Park in the Marina District is allowing unwanted late-night visitors to party and sleep over in the park.
- The 2025 SHINING LIGHTS of Downtown San Diego list, which identifies people and organizations that make the city a better place to live, work and play.
- Neglect and mismanagement of Fault Line Park in East Village, linked to a fake parking ticket incident by an SDPD Parking Enforcement Officer.
- Updates on the lawsuit filed by East Village residents against The Padres and the city over unnecessarily loud music concerts at Gallagher Square.
Editorial Awards
- In 2025, this news site accumulated 11 writing excellence awards from the local chapters of The San Diego Press Club and The Society of Journalism Professionals, including first place in the SPJ’s Digital News Site category.
New & Ongoing Editorial Components
- The San Diego Sun joined a partnership run locally by inewsource called Documenters, which trains and pays community members to attend and take notes during government meetings. These notes can be turned into stories that run in The Sun.
- I’m now a weekly contributor about downtown news to The Times of San Diego, recently merged into the NEWSWELL family of California publications.
- The Sun started a new “Nonprofit Voices” series that covers organizations that encourage kids to read, teach job skills, encourage teens to seek higher education and other nonprofits that help maintain our city’s social safety net.
- Along with Sal Giametta’s photo essays and Kaushal Patel’s video look-ins, The Sun is now running an insightful column called “Walking In The City” by Deanna Ratnikova.
- The Sun continues to feature downtown San Diego residents in our “Living In The City” series, and business owners in our “Working In The City” series.
More Good News
- The Sun was the recent recipient of a $40,000 grant by the big-thinking Prebys Foundation. “The Sun’s commitment to community-based journalism strengthens our region’s civic life,” Prebys Foundation CEO Grant Oliphant said. “We’re pleased to support their continued work to inform and engage San Diego communities.”
- Widely respected business community leader Patti Roscoe made her second significant financial support gift to The Sun. The very busy and seemingly omnipresent Lucky Duck Foundation also made a generous contribution.
- Since the Sun gained fiscal sponsorship and created the nonprofit Skylight arm in 2024, more than 90 individuals and companies have donated money to The Sun, ranging from a one-time amount of $1,000 to recurring monthly contributions between $50 and $10.
- I’ve joined the board of The San Diego Press Club and became chair of the Programming Committee. Look for informational public events next year about the state of local media.
- An active member of the national advocacy group LION (Local Independent Online News) Publishers, I’m a new member of the group’s 2026 Host Committee. LION will hold its annual Independent News Sustainability Summit in San Diego in October 2026.
There’s more work to do in 2026 and, gratefully, we acquired some much-needed funding to keep things going. Please continue clicking on Sun stories (and tell a friend about this site). And thanks to all our readers, tipsters, sources, and those who will start or continue to contribute what they can to help support local independent news. SDSun
