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Frank Gormlie

Police Crack Down On Rampaging OB Youth

February 6, 2010
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Due to some complaints by OB residents, channeled by 10NEWS, San Diego Police have begun to crack down on wayward youth, rampaging across our community.

Here, four officers, two on bikes, are seen handing out citations to a half-dozen young people on the seawall.

Is this the response the community wants?

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Dog Beach contaminated by Linda Vista sewage spill : The signs are up

January 27, 2010
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Contamination signs have been posted at Dog Beach due to a sewage spill up in Linda Vista. The warning signs were posted today – Wednesday – at Dog Beach – where the San Diego River enters the ocean. It’s estimated that around 4,150 gallons of sewage spilled, contaminating Dog Beach – all from grease blocking a main sewer line.

The city’s Public Utilities Department said it occurred about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at 7011 Linda Vista Road, near Ulric Street.

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Point Loma Woman Shows How to Catch Rainwater

January 27, 2010
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We here at the OB Rag have been complaining for awhile now that even though we live in a coastal desert, there is no wide-spread effort to collect the rainwater that falls on our parched paradise. There is no government encouragement for it, our culture doesn’t support it – and we waste the opportunity every time it rains – and floods like it did last week.

Well, there’s a woman in Point Loma who is showing us how to do it. Cielo Foth has installed huge storage tanks and 44-gallon trash cans in her backyard to collect rainwater – which she uses for her garden.

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OB FLASHES – News, Calendar and Discussion: January 26 – February 1, 2010

January 26, 2010
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SEE INSIDE FOR ARTICLES

* Pier Re-opens and Is Mobbed
* OB Historical Society Featured Steve Rowell’s Birds
* Old Rexalt Drug Sign Bites the Dust
* Ciao Bella to Open by Valentine’s Day
* Surf Shop Opens at Old Rock Paper Scissors Building
* Meanwhile, New Smoke Shop and Others to Open at the Old Surf Shop
* Rich’s VW Closes
* Skate Shop Closed
* OB Planning Board to Hold Election March 9th
* Point Loma Planning Committee Seeks Candidates for March 18th Election
* Channel 10 News Finds Sprinkler Going Outside OB Library During the Rains
* Noon Designs Is Celebrating Its First Birthday February 4th
* South Beach Bar & Grille Fish Tacos “Discovered” by Chicago Tribune

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The OB Planning Board Needs Candidates as the Next Election Is Coming Up March 9th

January 25, 2010
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The annual election of candidates for the Ocean Beach Planning Board is coming up. The election will be held March 9th at the OB Rec Center. There are vacancies in each of the 7 Districts.

The OB Planning Board – the grandparent of all planning boards and committees – is the official advisory body to the City of San Diego and the San Diego Planning Commission. It has jurisdiction over construction projects and planning issues within Ocean Beach, and is mandated to require such projects to conform to the OB Precise Plan – the planning outline for the community.

The establishment of OB’s Board was the result of years of trials and tribulations of community residents back in the early and mid-1970s.

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Something terrible happened to American democracy at the Supreme Court yesterday ….

January 22, 2010
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Yesterday, January 21, 2010, the US Supreme Court dealt potentially a lethal blow to what’s left of American democracy. The slim majority of right-wing radical activists on the highest court in the land decided that corporations are people and that there should be no limitations on the amount of money they can spend on elections and candidates.

This means that corporations can now spend unlimited monies on any candidate and on any election they want. The 5 to 4 decision overturned decades of corporate restrictions and overturned a century’s-old limit on the role of corporate money in federal elections, on the books since Teddy Roosevelt was president.

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OB FLASHES – News, Calendar, and Discussion: January 19 – 25, 2010

January 19, 2010
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* OB Pier Closed Due to High Surf and Damage

* Circle of Life Comes to the OB Rag

* Local Coastal Commission Manager Insists on Public Hearing Before Removal of Fire Pits by City

* Contest to Find Missing 9th OB Fire Pit

* OB Cottage Becomes Home Design Classroom

* Don’t Crap On Us

* Volunteers Needed for Dog Beach Dune Habitat Restoration Project – January 23rd

* OB Poet Hosts Poetry Reading at Jungle Java

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OB Flashes – News, Calendar and Discussion – Jan 11 – 16, 2010

January 11, 2010
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Saratoga Park Condos Delayed – Apartment Up for Sale

Where Is the Missing OB Fire Pit?

Lifeguards Do Cliff Rescues – Man on Sunday and Woman on Saturday

Competition between OB’s Dog Beach and Coronado

Short Film by Nazarene U Alumnus Could Get Oscar Nod

Longboard Association to Hold First 2010 Event at Ocean Beach

San Diego Reader: Sand Shift at “Big Jetty” Still a Concern for OB Surfers

Sunset Cliffs Restoration Party – January 16th

OB Artist Designs Local Postage Stamps

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BREAKING NEWS: OB Planning Board Opposes Removal of Fire Pits

January 6, 2010

January 6, 2010. Tonight, the Ocean Beach Planning Board voted unanimously to “strenuously oppose” the removal of fire pits from Ocean Beach Park. The meeting, chaired by vice-chair Giovanni Ingolia, was held at the Recreation Center and started at 6pm.

Brought to the Board via an agenda item initiated by Board member and former chair, Landry Watson, the issue of the City’s planned removal of OB’s eight fire pits along with the remaining pits around San Diego – a total of 186 – was termed “a hot issue” by Watson.

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The Community Awakes – OB Responds to the Early Seventies Planning Crisis

January 4, 2010
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It’s been nearly half a century since the Peninsula Community Plan was officially launched by Peninsulans, Inc., its creator, in December of 1965. For the first time the organization of Point Loman business and property elites opened their vision of Point Loma and its sub-communities to the public.

The first urban plan for Ocean Beach was to grow out of this endeavor, as OB then was simply viewed as one of those sub-communities of the greater peninsula.

Peninsulans, Inc., or just “Pen Inc” – itself the child of the Peninsula Chamber of Commerce – had been officially endorsed by the San Diego City Council as “the citizen’s committee” for area planning on Point Loma. In 1968, three years after its launch, the Peninsula Community Plan was adopted by the City Council as the official plan for the Point Loma communities.

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Poll Shows Broad Support for Fire Pits and ‘Adopt’ Program

January 4, 2010
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The most recent reader poll by the OB Rag shows very broad support for San Diego’s fire pits – 82% want to keep them. Three-quarters of those who want to keep them think the “Adopt-a-Fire-Pit” program is a good idea.

Respondents to the two and half week poll, which ran from December 15th to January 3rd, were divided in how they want the fire pits to be saved. 55% like the Adopt program for OB. 6% thought someone with “deep pockets” should be found to pay for their maintenance. Another 14% were more demanding in their approach – and voted for “I pay taxes – at least give me a fire pit,” while another 8% voted to save all of San Diego’s fire pits. 1% said ‘you use it – you clean it.’

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OB Flashes – News, Calendar, and Discussion Board for January 4 – 10, 2010

January 4, 2010
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FIRE PITS ON OB PLANNING BOARD AGENDA – JAN. 6TH

New Church: “T’was the night before Christmas … and you’re fired!”

Stabbing Death of OB Homeless Man One of City’s Unsolved Murders of 2009

OB Historical Society Presents Local Photographer Steve Rowell in “Our Local Wildlife”

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Around Town – Waves close pier, Christmas Tree down, and bar crash

December 28, 2009
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OCEAN BEACH, CA. The big news around downtown OB today was the big waves, number one – which forced the OB Pier to be closed by lifeguards. And number two, the infamous “Charlie Brown” OB Christmas Tree came down – to be recycled.

With large swells arriving up and down the Southern Cal coast, and with a National Weather Service high surf advisory in effect until 10 p.m. on Monday, local lifeguards had to close the pier, while a few top-notch surfers braved the waves – which could have been as high as 8 feet.

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OB Flashes – News, Calendar, and Discussion Board:December 26, 2009 – January 3, 2010

December 26, 2009
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* OB’s Tsunami Signs Merit a Union-Tribune Quote from the OB Rag
* Pagan Trees to Robb Field
* OB Christmas Tree Comes Down for Recycling on Dec 29th
* OB Parade Committee Email Hi-Jacked!
* Up to 30 Suspected Illegal Immigrants Run from Boat in OB

* Councilmember Faulconer Proposes ‘Sponsors’ for Lifeguard Training and Equipment
* New York Times to Pick Up OB’s “Adopt-A-Fire-Pit” Story
* Local Wonderland San Diego Producer Noah Tafolla Gets Props
* OBMA’s Winners of the Holiday Storefront Decorating Contest
* Sparks Fly – Duplex Burns on Niagara in OB
* Donations Gathered for the Pets of the Homeless
* Don’t forget OB Historical Society’s Meet with Local Photographer Steve Rowell

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Jim Grant’s Lens

December 22, 2009
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OCEAN BEACH. It is difficult not to be amazed by Jim Grant’s lens and the scenes he captures. Here are some recent December views of our ocean and our little piece of land.

Whether it’s Peace Rock or the cliffs at Sunset Cliffs Park or the OB Pier, Jim Grant’s lens seem to hold the magic of nature that surrounds us, particularly when our star glides into the ends of the earth.

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Fire pits out, tsunami signs in

December 17, 2009
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Is it me or does this thing about the City putting up tsunami signs ring a wrong tune in these budget cutting times?

On one hand, OB and the rest of San Diego beaches are threatened with losing our fire pits, yet at the same time, the City goes around and puts up these warning signs.

Whew! I am sooo relieved. I never would have known which way to run, ride or skate if OB was faced with a tsunami.

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The Saga of OB’s Fire Pits: Almost All of Our Fire Pits Have Been Tentatively Adopted

December 17, 2009
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It was one week ago that the idea was presented to have OBceans adopt the community’s fire pits in order to save them from the City’s plans to remove them. One of our commenters, bodysurferbob, told us that we would really regret it if we allowed the City to take the fire pits and offered:

“I propose we in Ocean Beach find a sponsor for each fire pit on our beaches. Whether a business, a church, a civic organization, a sports team, a circle of friends, or just simply an individual, I believe that we can organize sponsors who will maintain their pit for the rest of the community. We can do this. Let’s start now, before it’s too late.”
(Go inside for more ….)

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OB Flashes – News, Discussion, and Calendar Board – December 16-22, 2009

December 15, 2009
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OB Surf and Skate to Move into old Rock Paper Scissors Building
Giant Tree Falls at Ft Rosecrans – did anyone hear it?
Olive Tree to Open Tasting Room
OB Town Council Throws a Craft Fair for Saturday Dec. 19th

OB Holiday Parade Winners
Blue Whale to Close
Pipeline – not trucks – will pass excess gas from wastewater facility
OB Historical Society Presents Local Photographer Steve Rowell in “Our Local Wildlife”
OB Planning Board Meetings

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More on the fire pits: the City has been trying to close them for years and it’s not about money.

December 15, 2009
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The City of San Diego has been trying to close or remove the fire pits at the beaches for years. This is the only conclusion I can reach after reviewing a 3 page memo that has crossed my desk that was given to the Peninsula Planning Board way back in May of 2003 – over 6 years ago.

The memo is from the San Diego Police Department Western Division and describes a power point presentation to be given to that planning organization that calls for the “Seasonal Removal of the Ocean Beach Fire Rings.” The proposal called for the removal of OB’s fire pits from October 1 to April 30th each year.

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ABC-10 News picks up on interest of Fire Pit Adoption

December 14, 2009
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SEE UPDATES IN COMMENTS

San Diego’s ABC news affiliate Channel 10 came out to interview me this morning about our ideas of adopting fire pits in OB. Mike Chen, the reporter and camera guy all rolled into one, appeared at our doorstep wanting an interview and we couldn’t resist the PR. I quickly threw on my OB Rag T-shirt and got in front of the camera.

As you may know, the OB Rag is promoting the idea that instead of the City of San Diego removing OB’s eight fire pits, that people, individuals, businesses, churches, civic organizations adopt them and pledge to maintain them. This is similar to the idea that CalTrans has – having groups adopt sections of the freeways in order to maintain them.

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