Erin Chambers Smith

I'm Erin Chambers Smith. I grew up in San Diego, left for a little while after college to build up some journalism chops, and returned in 2006 to help launch www.citysearch.com's San Diego site.

I spent the next 3.5 years at Citysearch eating, drinking, and spa-ing my way through my hometown, and talking about all the best finds on local news and radio. Thanks, by the way, if you ever tuned in to any of those segments. When I started, Stingaree had just opened and Twitter didn't exist, so you can imagine how many cycles of "what's hot, what's not" I churned through during that time. I also got married, and move 4 times (hence the Smith portion of my name now).

Today, I'm still eating and drinking all over town, but more so as a blogger (eesh, am I really a "blogger?") and an enthusiast. I truly love San Diego, and finally made the choice to explore it on my own terms, time and dime (yes, giving up the expense account was a TOUGH decision). But it was time.

These days, I'm focusing professional efforts on Balboa Park, leading the redesign effort of www.balboapark.org and helping shape the next phase of cultural tourism in San Diego and elsewhere. Neat, huh? Watch the progress of the project on Balboa Park Beat.