By Adrian Florido
John Stewart’s house is perched at the edge of Radio Canyon. From his backyard he looks out over a lush, gaping chasm that separates his southeastern San Diego neighborhood of Emerald Hills from the Encanto neighborhood. He’s lived there since 1961, so he’s watched the canyon evolve.
“A lot of people used to walk in that canyon every day, with their wives or husbands. And some used to jog in the canyon,” he said.
In the early 1980s, a nearby landfill closed down, and Stewart recalls that as being the biggest blow to the canyon. People unable or unwilling to drive old furniture, mattresses, or tires to the next nearest landfill drove into the canyon and dumped them there instead.
Stewart and neighbors worked to stem the illegal dumping, but over the years, people stopped using the canyon. It became a haven for illicit activity.
San Diego is a city of canyons and, in wealthier areas, living near one is a point of pride. Neighborhoods form private groups to keep them clean. Until recently, that wasn’t the case in southeastern San Diego.
But on a recent Saturday, a couple hundred shovel-wielding volunteers fanned out like ants to plant shrubs on the Radio Canyon’s slopes.
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