Category: History

SOHO / May-June Newsletter

Many SOHO members follow historic designation cases closely, but fewer people see what actually happens inside City Hall when an owner applies for a development permit for a building that may be historic.

San Diego’s 45-year review is the process city staff uses to determine whether a property might qualify as a historic resource before a permit moves forward.

Today, the City of San Diego is considering changes to its historic designation process that would significantly endanger the preservation of individual properties and historic districts. Among these changes, which are part of the Planning Department’s Preservation and Progress program, is a proposed move away from the 45-year review process.

SOHO maintains this potential “update” would present significant risks. Eliminating the 45-year review before completing a comprehensive citywide survey would expose countless historic structures to irreversible loss.

Event Include Juneteenth Celebration

By JW August

The revival of the Black Family statue – and a lasting legacy of San Diego artist Rossie Wade – will be unveiled this Saturday, June 13th in one of San Diego’s oldest parks. The event is set for 11 a.m. at the Neal Petties Mountain View Park at 641 S Boundary St., near 40th St. and Oceanview Blvd.

The City of San Diego’s Cultural Affairs department flyer says it will be part of a Juneteenth celebration.  Following the unveiling of the statue there will be free food, a petting zoo, and free performances.

The original statue was made of painted redwood, which had deteriorated over time.  All that remained of Wade’s original creation was its brick and mortar base.

A new stainless steel statue has been created to respect and honor Wade’s image of Black values and community pride, as was the case when the original was dedicated in 1974. Saturday’s event signals the end of a 10-year journey to create a replacement for Rossi’s original work.

Editordude: Here’s a fun take on the differences between beach culture in San Diego and that of Los Angeles – by a San Diego native. It has been edited somewhat to delete the more commercial aspects. 

San Diego vs LA Beach Culture: A Native’s Honest Take 

San Diego and Los Angeles share a coastline, but the beach cultures could not be more different. San Diego beaches run quieter, warmer, and more locals-first.

LA beaches run busier, faster-paced, and more visible in pop culture.

San Diego County has roughly 70 miles of coast averaging 266 sunny days a year.

LA County has roughly 75 miles averaging 284 sunny days.

The cultural difference is not about geography, it is about pace. This piece breaks down the real difference for anyone choosing between the two for a beach trip, a move, or a long-term home.

If you want the postcard version of California, go to LA. If you want the lived-in version, go to San Diego.

By The Log Staff / June 4, 2026

To visitors arriving by land, San Diego’s waterfront can feel like one continuous destination. But ask local boaters and they’ll tell you something different.

San Diego is not one harbor experience.

It’s many.

Move a few miles in any direction and the personality of the waterfront changes entirely. Offshore sportfishing transitions into polished marina promenades. Historic yacht clubs give way to family sailing centers. Working waterfronts blend into resort docks and protected recreational waterways.

For boaters planning a visit, understanding San Diego often means understanding its districts.

Start at Point Loma and work your way south and east and the city unfolds almost like six separate boating destinations connected by one coastline.

Point Loma is where many boaters feel San Diego truly begins.

There is a reason so many offshore adventures start here. Positioned at the entrance to San Diego Bay and closest to open ocean access, Point Loma carries a working-waterfront energy that feels rooted in fishing, cruising, and departure.

By Madison Beveridge / Point Loma-OB Monthly / June 11, 2026

Noel Pomerleau of Point Loma High School, the San Diego Unified School District’s 2026 High School Teacher of the Year, teaches yoga, physical education and human body systems and has served in a variety of other roles, including coach, adviser and department chair.

Pomerleau, an educator for 14 years, has spent her entire career at Point Loma High.

“Students at this age often need the most support, and I love helping them understand how they learn best so they can move into the next phase of their lives with confidence,” she said.

The district annually honors award-winning teachers and other staff members at the “Stars in Education” event, which this year was May 20.

Pomerleau says the High School Teacher of the Year award is special to her because it sums up all she loves about her school.

By Kate Callen

When my sister and I were small, we spent hours creating make-believe neighborhoods with our Colorform vinyl sticker sets. We arranged little shapes of houses, trees, cars, and people on the design board, and we kept rearranging them.

On June 9, I joined a dozen other adults at a Valencia Park community workshop for “Neighborhood Homes for All of Us,” the latest of Mayor Todd Gloria’s land use initiatives. We spent an hour placing vinyl stickers of houses, trees, cars, and people on boards with neighborhood grids. That’s how we were instructed to share our preferences for future housing.

San Diego has had no shortage of mayors who have disrespected the public. But Gloria is uniquely unpopular because he has gone one step lower. He has sought to infantilize us. He treats San Diegans like children who are mollified by games and gimmicks.

Like the April 2025 trash fees “open house” that featured tiny bins and posters, the “Homes for All” workshop showed how City Hall tries to placate constituents with stage-managed events that shut out substantive dialogue.

Steven Mihailovich of the Point Loma-OB Monthly, a publication of the San Diego U-T, reported on June 9th about a presentation on Mariner’s Cove, a residential complex in east Ocean Beach at the most recent OB Planning Board meeting this month.

A redevelopment project long planned for the 500-unit Mariner’s Cove apartment complex has been replaced by a capital improvements plan, according to a presentation to the Ocean Beach Planning Board by Barbara Frommell, senior director of government and public relations for property operator AIR Communities, and Ben Haddad of California Strategies, a consulting firm working on the project. The redevelopment plan was presented to the Planning Board in 2020.

“The project has changed from when we first approached you with it, when we thought we were going to be building [more than 200] additional units on the same footprint,” Haddad said at the board’s June 2 meeting. “But now we’re … doing capital improvements.”

Frommell said the improvements plan includes new siding, roofs, paint color and upgrades to site amenities over the next three years.

“It will improve the quality of life for residents and also importantly contribute to the preservation of affordable housing in San Diego,” she said.

Mariner’s Cove, built in 1984, is at 4392 W. Point Loma Blvd. on 31 acres leased through the San Diego Housing Commission. It offers 300 units considered affordable, with 100 of them for low-income households earning up to 80% of the area median income and 200 for moderate incomes up to 120% of AMI.

The remaining 200 units in the complex are market rate, with no income or rent restrictions.

The original redevelopment plan called for demolishing the complex and replacing it with new buildings with additional market-rate units at an estimated cost of $400 million.

Informational stickers appearing in front of OB short term rentals

By Joaquin Antique

This reporter recently returned from an extended vacation outside of the bubble to find anti-STVR stickers popping up on sidewalks all over north OB. The numbers of these stickers on almost every street I’ve walked on since I got back to OB is mind blowing.

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 ….”