Eight young people talk with Pittsburgh City Paper over a couple cases of beer. "We turned on a tape recorder but kept our pie holes shut, asking one participant, Oscar Lehman, to act as moderator. (Well, we didn’t just sit there -- we kept their frosty mugs filled with pale ale and quaffed a few ourselves!)" Thing is, the interviewees were role-playing CP staffers, but the joke may not have been on readers. "The efforts of Pittsburgh’s self-appointed youth-retention and regional-marketing experts are so utterly inane, self-indulgent and classist, that it’s hard to make a joke about them," Editor Andy Newman writes.

Running a gas station is a tough business, but during price spikes like the one that recently sent fuel prices to record highs, it becomes all but impossible for independents to make money selling gas. SN&R's Jeff Kearns reports on how the oil giants are tightening their grip on the gas market, squeezing small retailers out of business, and charging everyone more at the pump.

Jessica Lyons delves into the heart and soul of Monterey County's Census Track 7, one of the most densely populated districts in the United States, a gang-ridden neighborhood filled with vibrant life and deep despair. She rides with a councilman in search of a park in the impoverished neighborhood. They never find it, but they find a place where they can look out over a lush golf course in the affluent part of town. "It's got to be so goddamn depressing," the councilman tells her. "You live in the ghetto, but you can see out.