The San Diego Metropolitan was honored seven times at the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists 1999 awards dinner.
    Editor Tim McClain won the James Julian Memorial Award for Community Service for overseeing last October's "San Diego 92101, The Special Section." The judges wrote: "This is an ambitious work that provides a solid, comprehensive look at the status of downtown redevelopment and people behind it. From parking to schools to ballparks, it has all the bases covered."
    This is the second time in three years the Metropolitan has captured the award, considered the highest honor among non-dailies and named for the toughest journalism professor at SDSU.
    In the magazine opinion category, columnist John Witt was the only writer honored, earning a first place for his April 1998 Wit & Wisdom column, "Keep The Judiciary Independent." Said the judges, "All entries appeared solid. But we were looking for pieces with something extra in logic or research. Only John Witt's story on judges took that extra step beyond ordinarily good to award-winning. Witt logically threaded his way through a complex subject filled with gray areas and nuances. He criticized a group he would ordinarily agree with much of the time, which takes some extra nerve."
    Sandiegometro.com, the publication's Website, took second place in the category for news site run by five or fewer people.
    In the category of investigative/enterprise magazine writing, honorable mentions went to both John Lamb for his August feature, "Gateway Mooves In," and to McClain for October's "San Diego 92101: The Special Section."
    In the feature story or series magazine category, Lamb earned an honorable mention for his December article, "On Digital TV's Cutting Edge." Finally, in the sports story or series category, Tony Allison received an honorable mention for his September Sports Business column, "Life, Death and Metal Woods."