OB Rag

The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members and the general San Diego public informed about important Council and Planning Commission hearings and other city public meetings.

Monday, June 8: City Council, 10:00 a.m.

Agenda:

Items 600, 601, 602, 639, 643, 644: Proclamations

Why it matters: We must ask again for an explanation of how and why honorees are chosen. The last three were added to a very packed agenda in the last few days. The last two (including a Scripps Health administrator who is a Rotary Club officer) have no supporting documents. Everyone agrees that Council meetings run too long. These performative agenda items add extra time but little civic substance.

Item 613: 2026 Update to the San Diego Municipal Code (Land Development Code)

Why it matters: Staff report notes that one of the amendments “would increase … the City Council appeal fee [on project and environmental appeals] from $1,000 to $2,380,

Help Make Sure Gloria’s “Homes for All of Us” Includes “All of Us”

By Paul Krueger

The Mayor’s Planning Department is hosting a June 9 “community input” meeting on his “Homes for All of Us” initiative on Tuesday, June 9, at 5:30 p.m. at the Malcolm X Library at 5148 Market Street in Valencia Park.

If you care about the impact of new housing development on your community, please plan on attending. And be prepared to cut through the bureaucratic spin by asking pointed questions.

Gloria says Homes for All of Us “…will create clear pathways to build townhomes, duplexes, and small-scale multiple homes … and provide more homeownership opportunities.”

Such a program would be a positive step towards providing much-needed for-sale housing, as opposed to the high-rise, cookie-cutter, $2,750/month studio and one-bedroom apartments (with no parking) that are blighting our neighborhoods.

But there’s a very real danger that this potentially valuable initiative will morph into yet another program that serves developer and investor interests by ignoring community input,

SanDiegoVille / May 29, 2026

The “temporary” Mission Beach lifeguard tower is a multimillion-dollar monument to decades of civic neglect and a preview of what happens when a city government confuses managing a crisis with causing one.

Stand on the Mission Beach boardwalk this summer and take a look at what may be one of the most expensive temporary structures in San Diego history. Rising above one of California’s busiest beaches is an industrial steel framework wrapped in chain-link fencing, crisscrossed with exposed bracing and exterior staircases, topped by what appears to be a lifeguard observation cab bolted to the roof. The Giant Dipper roller coaster towers behind it. Visitors from around the world stop, stare, take photos, and wonder if construction is still underway.

It isn’t. This is the finished product. This is the City of San Diego’s replacement for the busiest lifeguard station in its municipal system.

William Stephens, 66, of Point Loma was sentenced June 8 to 12 years in state prison after he had  pleaded guilty to attempted murder for striking a San Diego police officer with his vehicle in 2025.

Stephens had admitted to driving his Jeep toward Officer Matthew Salisbury on Jan. 23, 2025, when several officers responded to his home  after receiving a report of domestic violence.

From our report in May this year:

Prosecutors allege that as Officer Matthew Salisbury approached the home’s driveway, Stephens sped toward the officer, who attempted to evade the vehicle by moving behind a bush located near the driveway’s entrance. Stephens then turned his Jeep toward the bush, striking Salisbury, then crashed into a mailbox and another vehicle parked on the street, as 10News reported.

Eric Law, the chair of the Peninsula Community Planning Board, has just announced that Navy representatives will provide a briefing to the community on Navy plans for the redevelopment of the NAVWAR Old Town Campus.

The update will be at the Peninsula Community Planning Board monthly meeting on Thursday, June 18th, 2026 — 6PM at the Point Loma Hervey Library Community Room, 3701 Voltaire St, San Diego, CA 92107.

Law stated,  “The NAVWAR Old Town Campus (OTC) Revitalization program manager and the Navy Region Southwest Public Affairs Officer have confirmed that they will provide a briefing to the community on the OTC program ….”

SDBeerNews / June 8, 2026

There are hundreds of talented brewing professionals giving their all to help maintain the San Diego beer industry’s storied reputation. While these industrious practitioners share numerous similarities, each is their own unique person with individual likes, dislikes, methodologies, techniques, inspirations, interests and philosophies. The goal of San Diego Beer News’ Portrait of a Brewer series is to not only introduce readers to local brewers, but dig in to help them gain a deeper appreciation for the people making their beer and how they have contributed to the county’s standout craft-brewing culture.

Today’s featured brewer is…Jim Millea of OB Brewery

What is your current title?
Head Brewer

Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Beverly, Massachusetts, a small-ish but not tiny coastal town about 25 miles north of Boston.

What brought you to San Diego?
I first visited San Diego in the summer of 1998 on my way back to Massachusetts from a semester abroad in Australia. My cousin Lisa was living in Ocean Beach on Cape May Avenue just a couple blocks from the beach. After parking in front of her apartment, I’ll never forget stepping out of her car wide-eyed and beholding the view of the sand and the ocean beyond. I thought, “Oh yeah, I could do this.” A couple years later, after working in and around Boston, a great buddy and I decided to make the move. We quit our jobs, packed up my truck with camping gear, kayaks, bikes and all the other belongings we could fit, and hit the road. We spent six weeks exploring the country with San Diego being the end goal.

In Dual Decisions, California Courts Strike Down Unpopular San Diego County Sprawl Project

From Center for Biological Diversity / June 8, 2026

Two California courts have rejected a dangerous housing project proposed in the wildfire-prone hillsides of Santee. The latest rejection is the fifth time a court has ruled against Fanita Ranch since the risky development was first proposed in 1999.

[Please go to original for important links]

“It’s about time the city of Santee listens to its own residents. Poorly planned projects that increase wildfire risks can no longer be justified given our climate reality,” said John Buse, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The latest court opinions are a strong rebuke against cities and developers who try to skirt the state’s zoning and environmental laws. San Diego County deserves safe and sustainable development. I’m hopeful this finally puts an end to Fanita Ranch.”

Patch San Diego /June 5, 2026

A woman who drove drunk, then struck and seriously injured a 5-year-old girl riding a scooter at Liberty Station, was sentenced Thursday to eight years and four months in state prison.

Savannah Monique Taylor, 22, drove onto a pedestrian path on Sept. 6, 2025, striking the girl, along with a bench and plants near the USS Recruit, according to prosecutors.

By Debbie Sklar / Times of San Diego / June 5, 2026

Back in the day, the sounds in Ocean Beach carried a little differently.

You might have been walking near the shoreline and heard it before you saw it — music drifting from wooden pavilions set directly on the sand, where people gathered to dance within sight and sound of the Pacific.

Surviving photographs from the early 20th century show more than one pavilion-style structure associated with beachfront recreation in the Ocean Beach area, including buildings identified as dancing pavilions and bathhouse facilities positioned near the shoreline.

These were not informal gatherings on open sand. They were designated structures built for recreation and public leisure at a time that Ocean Beach was emerging as one of San Diego’s growing coastal destinations.

Historical planning references and community records suggest the “New Ocean Beach Dancing Pavilion and Bath House” stood near the foot of Newport Avenue during the late 1910s. In addition to the primary pavilion structure, the beachfront area included related bathhouse and recreation buildings that formed part of an organized system of coastal leisure facilities.

Over time, the main pavilion was repurposed as a skating rink before eventually disappearing as shoreline development and land use patterns changed.

By Margot Sheehan / San Diego Reader Archives / Republished June 6, 2026

The Frontier Homes Housing Project — 3500 “temporary” dwellings constructed in the first nine months of 1944. One of the largest developments of its kind ever built in the USA — Designed to last for two years and enduring (parts of it, at least) for 20. Was there ever such a project, so grand, so ghastly, and so successfully erased from civic memory?

Don’t look for Frontier in the Journal of San Diego History or in any of those big picture books that Neil Morgan used to crank out. The only people who really remember the project are the people who lived there. Old timers who didn’t live there, even folks who drove past Frontier every day, will give you all kinds of cockeyed answers when you ask about it. “Oh, yeah, you mean those military barracks.” “Frontier? That was Navy housing.” Someone might even offer that 1950s misconception that Lait and Mortimer provide in USA Confidential: “a low-income housing project for Mexicans and Negroes.”

 Developer HomeFed’s 3,000+ Project Halted After Its Appeal Denied

by Dorian Hargrove / Times of San Diego / June 4, 2026

An appellate court on Thursday denied an appeal from the developer looking to build a massive, 3,008-home project in Santee known as Fanita Ranch.

In the ruling, the appellate court said that the city of Santee and developer HomeFed pushed the project through despite knowing it violated state planning and environmental laws.

The ruling now puts the massive residential development, which was first proposed in 2017, on hold, once again, and likely for good, barring any petition to the California Supreme Court.

The appellate court judges found Santee and HomeFed improperly tried to push the project through without the city amending its General Plan. The plan had allowed for the construction of 1,395 homes on 2,638 acres in Northern Santee.

By Steve Rodriguez

Preface

Major college sports are dominated by the concept of Name, Image, Likeness (NIL), which allows student-athletes to control how their name, image or likeness is commercially used. Since 2021, college athletes have been allowed to monetize their personal brand without losing a scholarship or team eligibility. In many cases, star athletes can make millions of dollars.

However, one gets the impression NIL at the White House means the current President of the United States aggressively seeks like a king of old to unashamedly stamp his name, image and likeness on numerous objects, institutions and concepts as a way of signaling success and legitimizing his legacy. Proposing his own image be placed on a commemorative two hundred and fifty dollar bill – though federal law bars living people from appearing on U.S. currency – is just one example. 

Name, Image, Likeness at the White House

Plaster his face on a two-fifty note?
Name, Image, Likeness goes beyond game day.
Needy king keeps weighty ego afloat.

By Katherine Clements / the Log / June 4, 2026

Tucked along the north end of San Diego Bay near Point Loma, Shelter Island continues to serve as one of the region’s most active centers for recreational boating, marine services, and waterfront culture. While longtime boaters still recognize the area for its marinas, sportfishing fleet, and working waterfront atmosphere, the harbor district continues evolving through new upgrades, changing boating trends, and increasing demand for marine services tied to modern boating lifestyles.

For many boaters, Shelter Island functions as far more than a place to dock a vessel. It has become a full-service boating ecosystem where owners can outfit, repair, provision, upgrade, launch, and maintain their boats within just a few blocks of one another.

That concentration of marine businesses continues making Shelter Island one of the busiest boating corridors in San Diego Bay.

Recent years have brought growing interest in electronics upgrades, stabilization systems, lithium battery conversions, modern navigation equipment, and comfort-oriented improvements designed to support longer stays aboard. Local marine businesses increasingly are seeing boaters invest not only in performance and reliability, but also in onboard livability.

As more owners use their vessels for extended cruising, overnight trips, and remote work flexibility, demand has expanded for upgraded interiors, refrigeration systems, air conditioning, solar integration, and connectivity improvements.