Category: Popular

San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board / June 14, 2025

This week, San Diego’s elected leaders completed a three-year con job targeting the bank accounts of a huge chunk of their constituents. On a 6-3 vote, the City Council approved Mayor Todd Gloria’s plan to begin assessing a $43.60 monthly trash collection fee on more than 200,000 single-family homes — a standard fee that is far higher than the $23 to $29 estimate given to voters when they narrowly approved Measure B in 2022. In July 2027, after the initial rate has gone up by an additional 26%, the fee will be $55.

By Patty Jones

I want to share a family secret with you – one long held in the Jones family holiday tradition – on the accepted method of “flipping the bird” at Thanksgiving.

Many years ago my mother stumbled through her early morning Thanksgiving ritual of prepping a huge turkey for the afternoon feast. Before her first cup of coffee she dropped the bird in the roasting pan and shoved it into the oven. A couple of hours later she opened the oven door and she realized she had put it in the pan upside (or breast-side) down. At this point the huge bird was too hot to handle so she basted it, tented it and shoved it back into the oven. The resulting bird has lingered in mouthwatering memory…

On Tuesday, November 15th, Native Americans, environmentalists, and nurses will stage a protest at the San Diego Army Corps of Engineers office as part of a national day of action calling on the Army Corps and President Obama to revoke permits for the Dakota Access Pipeline.

There will be speakers – including local Native American leaders who’ve traveled to Standing Rock – and music. Organizers will sign and deliver individual postcards to the Army Corps.

Originally published on August 15, 2008

What do you think of when someone says “California”? Beaches? Sunshine? Hollywood?

How about the largest act of genocide in American history?

“The idea, strange as it may appear, never occurred to them (the Indians) that they were suffering for the great cause of civilization, which, in the natural course of things, must exterminate Indians.”
– Special Agent J. Ross Browne, Indian Affairs

California was one of the last areas of the New World to be colonized.

By Kim McGinley

Friday, February 6th at 11:30 p.m. San Diego Activists, including representatives from The Ocean Beach Green Center, began gathering at the Old Town trolley station to hop on board a charter bus heading to California Governor Brown’s neighborhood in Oakland.

The goal was to encourage the Governor to be a “climate leader” …

In May 1976 the OB Community Planning Group Won a Majority on the First OB Planning Board

In early May of 1976, OB’s very first election was held for the very first planning board. The forerunner of today’s Board, the OB Community Planning Group, ran a slate of candidates, hammered out an election platform and published and distributed its 8 page campaign brochure. The group won 8 of the 14 seats in the election.

We decided to republish their campaign literature, beginning here with the text of the election brochure. The platform and candidate statements of this election that occurred 39 years ago will follow.

And by the way, the current Ocean Beach Planning Board is holding their annual election on March 10th. Half of the seats are up for election. The Peninsula Community Planning Board is also having their election on March 20th.

Did you know that over on the bay side of Point Loma, at the Naval station at Ballast Point – where they keep the nuclear subs – the Navy has been quietly training dolphins and sea lions for underwater duty. This includes finding mines and detecting invading swimmers. The Navy has been using dolphins like this since at least the mid-Seventies when the sea-going mammals were housed out near the Point Loma Lighthouse.
But now, the dolphins will be replaced by underwater “drones” – small, unmanned sub-like computers.

The room was packed, standing room only the other night as the OB Historical Society led all of us in a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the 30 foot height limit. The downstairs community room of the Methodist Church on Sunset Cliffs Blvd. opens its doors every month to the OBHS presentations, and the night of November 15th was no exception as Society president Pat James welcomed the crowd.

Nearly 50 OBceans and friends had come to hear speakers and presentations on this historic fight four decades ago to preserve San Diego’s coast, and I saw many people in the audience who had waged their own battles to save OB over the years.

By John Lawrence / San Diego Free Press

All the late night talk shows laughed it up over the supposed demise of Twinkies, Ho Hos, Ding Dongs, Wonder Bread etc as the news came out that Hostess Brands was going bankrupt. But delve beneath the surface and you will find something more akin to a Shakespearean tragedy than talk show banter.

It’s a tale involving two unions, one private equity fund, two hedge funds and a whole cast of former CEOs. There is sacrifice, greed and betrayal. 18,000 workers will be losing their jobs while some vulture capitalists will be walking away with millions.

There’s a blogger at San Diego Free Press, John Patrick Anderson, who’s made it a habit to find and write about places to go to for free in beautiful but expensive San Diego. In fact, his column over at our sister site is called “San Diego for Free”, and he’s written about our local museums, parks, biking paths and architecture of interest.

John leads off every column with this:

A weekly column dedicated to sharing the best sights and activities in San Diego at the best price – free! We have a great city and you don’t need to break the bank to experience it.

Also at the front-end of each column is the day or time the place is open for free to the public, their website and physical address.

By OB Joe

Hey kids – here’s a bunch of news stuff you might have missed cuz you were so busy stuffin yourselves.

The OB Chronicle hits the waves

Yessir, ol’ Trevor Watson is up to his old tricks, again, and the OBcean has published another version of his occasional “newspaper” for OB – the Ocean Beach Chronicle – dah tah!. It’s so colorful and fancy, and as a celebration of the year 1967, the 32 page spread found on storefront counters and …
The Portugalia building is sold

On the market for a while, the building that had the Portugalia restaurant upstairs, finally sold. Located at 4839 Newport Ave., it sold for $1,192,500 cash.

By Sub-Committee

The beach is my church.

Standing barefoot and humble in the sand, looking out past the crashing breakers to the big blue beyond, my mind and heart vibrating with the sound of eternity in the song of the ocean, I am filled with peace and gratitude (and respect) for the strength and the forever-ness of the great ocean, our birth waters.