Mayoral Candidate Barbara Bry’s Horrible Homeless Crusade

by on October 21, 2019 · 4 comments

in Election, San Diego

From Words&Deeds / Oct. 19, 2019

Note: I promised myself I’d stay out of Democrat vs Democrat races where the election of one or the other wouldn’t have a great impact. Barbara Bry has crossed that line. We don’t need four more years of Kevin Falconer.

Councilmember and Mayoral Candidate Barbara Bry isn’t the first person who comes to mind when I hear Senator Bernie Sanders railing against the 1%. Sometimes though, it’s not how much money you’ve got, it’s how the trappings of the uber rich filter down the economic food chain.

The 1% need a little help beyond what money can buy to protect their interests. This means advocacy and ideology supporting their interests. Otherwise well-meaning people parrot policy ideas favoring the status quo that are all about protecting people’s “stuff.”

La Jolla’s Councilmember has been beating the drums lately with an op ed in the Times of San Diego, direct mail, and Facebook ads stirring up issues around homelessness in a manner aimed at juicing up the disgust many San Diegan feel when confronted with the results of decades of heightening inequality.

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‘I’m an American doctor. Here’s the truth about Juul, vaping and legalizing marijuana’

by on October 21, 2019 · 0 comments

in Health

Fear-mongering does none of us any good. We need to talk about the actual evidence

By Eugene Gu / Independent / October 18, 2019 San Francisco

As a physician, I believe the medical community has a solemn responsibility to adhere to facts and evidence over hype and sensationalism. This is especially true when it comes to public health, for it is an integral part of our Hippocratic oath to “first, do no harm.”

Yet it is with great dismay that I’ve seen the medical community in both the mainstream press and on social media resort to fear-mongering and mob-like scapegoating when it comes to the nuanced complexities of the vaping epidemic in the United States. A UCSF Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Tobacco Control even tweeted that those who vape “would be better off just smoking.”

When doctors ignore actual evidence, we exploit our credibility as healers to promote our own agendas — which can ultimately cause great harm to patients.

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The Season of the Angry Moderate

by on October 21, 2019 · 0 comments

in Election, Under the Perfect Sun

National Democrats: Angry Moderates Attack Solidarity in Defense of Status Quo

By Jim Miller

It appears to the be the season of the angry moderate.

At least that’s what it looked like at last week’s Democratic presidential debate, as usually smug neoliberals like Joe Biden, Mayor Pete, and Amy Klobuchar took aim at Elizabeth Warren’s and Bernie Sanders’ support of Medicare for All, with Klobuchar calling it a “pipe dream” while both Buttigieg and Biden waved the red flag of higher taxes that some Americans might be asked to pay in order to assure that everyone of us has free healthcare.

Of course, part of this is political, with Biden seemingly on the wane and Buttigieg and Klobuchar seeing an opening in the unapologetically moderate (read neoliberal) lane of the primary race. But the larger issue shouldn’t get lost under the political noise.

What the neoliberals’ attack on Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, the wealth tax and other proposals for bold structural changes reveals is the true nature of the National Democratic Party leadership.

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Dr. Jen at Ocean Beach Town Council – Doors Open Early for Meet and Greet – Wed., Oct. 23

by on October 21, 2019 · 0 comments

in Ocean Beach

Councilwoman Arriving at 6:30pm

Join your Ocean Beach Town Council for a special public meeting this Wednesday, October 23rd. Doors open early at 6:15pm for coffee and refreshments, with Councilmember Jennifer Campbell arriving at 6:30pm for an informal meet and greet.

The public meeting starts at 7:00pm, during which the Councilmember will be giving an official update and taking a brief Q and A.

Also on deck are updates from our other elected officials’ representatives, news from our local Lifeguards and the SDPD, and info on all the fun activities planned for the upcoming OB Holiday season!

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Ocean Beach Is Second Only to Barrio Logan for Being the ‘Mural Capital’ of San Diego

by on October 18, 2019 · 1 comment

in Ocean Beach

It’s not surprising that Ocean Beach has many murals adorning the walls of businesses around the community. But what is surprising is that Ocean Beach now – with recent additions on People’s facade – has more murals than any other community in San Diego except for Barrio Logan and all its murals at Chicano Park.

Not based on any scientific study – this is art, you understand – this claim to mural fame second to Chicano Park – is based on just driving around the village and counting all the murals. Try it – it’s a trip. OB has a feel, a vibe for art – (and music, beer and drugs) …. – but OB has had a history of murals since the 1970s. Another OB tradition that’s still alive.

Now, there’s different kinds of murals, for sure.

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‘This is our watch.’ – Elijah Cummings

October 17, 2019 by Source

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Opinion: Is Nancy Pelosi Running Out of Time — or Prayers for Our Country?

October 17, 2019 by Source

By Colleen O’Connor / Times of San Diego / October 16, 2019

Pelosi, a practicing Catholic, repeats sincerely, that she prays for “the President and the country”—every day.

Secretly, I believe, Pelosi has been praying for a lot more. She is praying for time. And for help.

Time to make the case that Trump is “unfit for the office” and must be impeached on the overwhelming evidence that already exists and will soon become public.

And to complete the task before Thanksgiving.

Time to protect the constitution and U.S. democracy, which she says are “hanging by a thread.”

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Dear Ohio: The Fight to Say We Are Good

October 17, 2019 by Staff

By Joni Halpern

Dear Ohio,

There were moments of hope on October 15, as I watched the youthful audience respond to the Democratic Presidential Candidate debate. One word spoken often by almost all the candidates was “fight.” “I will fight for you.” “I will fight the billionaires.” “I will fight for the American people.” “I will fight the corporations.”

Why must we be so embattled?

I remembered the answer when I connected with a memory that had been plaguing me all that day. October 15 was the birthday of Aida Reyes, who would have been 68 if she had outlived a vicious cancer. Her body may have left us, but her spirit remains. She was a person who always knew why we must fight and why we can never stop.

It is a condition of the human species that we are a combination of opposites, even within ourselves. We can tenderly embrace a loved one, and five minutes later, we can scorch lash out at them in anger. We can repose our deepest secrets in the trust of an admired friend, and tomorrow, we can suspect that friend of the vilest treachery.

We can celebrate our achievements until we destroy them. Like a sculptor who never knows when to put down the carving tools, we are never satisfied.

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Another Cannabis Bust at the Foot of Newport in Ocean Beach

October 17, 2019 by Frank Gormlie

It has happened again. Back on October 7, there was a bust of a cannabis canopy at the foot of Newport Ave. where OB’s “outlaw” weed salesman was detained by police and his products taken.

Just yesterday, October 16, two gentlemen were detained by San Diego police for sales of cannabis products under a canopy right there on the sidewalk across from the Wall.

Their products were confiscated and the two were handcuffed and at least detained. It’s unclear if they were arrested and taken either downtown to the jail or over to Western Division HQ. (Even being detained with cuffs is a type of arrest, yes.)

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Candye Kane, Charles McPherson Among Honorees at San Diego Music Hall of Fame in Ocean Beach – Friday, Oct.18

October 17, 2019 by Source

By George Varga / PacificSanDiego / Oct. 16, 2019

The Friday event at Newbreak Church in Ocean Beach will also honor blues ace Robin Henkel, Americana vocal dynamo Eve Selis, Latin-jazz mainstay Bill Caballero and bluegrass fingerpicking wiz Walt Richards.

The nonprofit San Diego Music Hall of Fame, which held its first induction ceremony and concert last fall at the Ocean Beach Playhouse, will move to the nearby Newbreak Church for its second edition on Friday, Oct. 18.

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San Diego Progressives Lose an Icon – Floyd Morrow Passes

October 16, 2019 by Frank Gormlie

One of San Diego’s most popular progressives in the modern era has passed. Floyd Morrow died October 3; he was 86.

Called “independent” or a “lone ranger” by his colleagues on the San Diego City Council – Floyd represented the greater Clairemont community of the 5th District for 3 terms – 15 years.

Others – such as those within the then-small progressive community of San Diego – saw him as a populist, a hero to the downtrodden or under-represented, and an early environmentalist and supporter of parks and people’s movements.

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Ocean Beach Project Review Panel Looks at Long Branch and Cable Projects

October 16, 2019 by Frank Gormlie

The Project Review Committee of the OB Planning Board has two projects to review Wednesday, October 16. The committee is a sub-committee of the full Board and getting first crack at reviewing project plans, it usually makes recommendations of whether to approve or not projects that come before the Board.

Meeting at the OB Rec Center, 4726 Santa Monica Ave, the PRC meetings begin right at 6 pm.

4672-4674 Long Branch Ave

The first project up for review is a Coastal Development Permit by Wennes to convert part of the garage at 4672-74 Long Branch. It would have 499 square feet.

2077 Cable Street

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A Boy’s Dream Come True

October 16, 2019 by Ernie McCray

by Ernie McCray

It was a dream come true when I first stepped into a classroom of my own in 1962.

A dream born on my first day of kindergarten, as I sat at a desk going out of my mind, as there’s only so much “See Spot run” a five-year-old, who can already read, can take, for goodness sake.

Not to mention that school had barely begun when I heard a loud “Whack!” which was the sound of the school principal, Sister Mary Benedict, grand slamming my knuckles to kingdom come with a yardstick, like Willie Mays hitting a game winning homerun – because I had dozed off at my desk.

Needless to say that woke me up. Talking about “not seeing it coming.”

But how do you not cop a nod in a non-air-conditioned classroom in late August or early September in Tucson – freaking, Arizona?

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Proof That the Fox Has Returned to the Peninsula

October 16, 2019 by Frank Gormlie

An Ocean Beach woman who found a fox – yes, a real fox – in her bathroom this past week took its photo. And the photo is proof that the fox has returned to the Peninsula, to Point Loma and Ocean Beach. The fox, as a mammal group.

According to the San Diego Humane Society, the fox was playing with the woman’s dog on Monday, October 14, but then it ran into her house. In the hope that it would it would run back outside, the woman left her door open over night.

But when she came into her bathroom the next morning – there it was. So, she called the Humane Society.

The Humane Society stated:

Our Humane Officer safely captured the fox, which was healthy, and released the animal back outside.

Here’s the full Humane Society statement:

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Is the ‘Wild West’ of Scooters Over in San Diego?

October 15, 2019 by Source

‘Wild West’ environment may be easing with citations, impounds, and speed curbs

By John Wilkens / San Diego Union-Tribune / Oct. 10, 2019

For more than a year, San Diego was all carrot and no stick when it came to electric scooters. Now the stick is out, hitting both the scooter companies and their riders.

Three months after new city regulations went into effect, two companies, Jump and Skip, have left town. Another, Lime, may lose its permit because of repeated operating infractions. Almost 500 riders received traffic tickets, more than half of them for riding on sidewalks. The city impounded more than 3,700 scooters for parking violations.

The Wild West, it seems, may finally have a sheriff.

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Is Inspire Charter School the Next to Be Indicted?

October 15, 2019 by Source

By Thomas Ultican / Tultican / Oct.9, 2019

Inspire Charter School mirrors the methods of A3 Education. It employs practices strikingly similar to those that led to the 67-count indictment in May against A3’s leaders. Furthermore, the California Charter School Association (CCSA) took the unusual step of sharing concerns about Inspire and A3 with California authorities.

Both are virtual schools that concentrate on obtaining authorization from small school districts. These systems have a similar structure in which a central organization controls the schools that are contracting with it and they transfer funds among multiple organizations making it difficult to monitor their activities. Students at Inspire and A3 struggle academically.

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‘The Early Years of Surfing Sunset Cliffs’ by the ‘Original Dudes and Gidgets’ – Thurs., Oct.17

October 15, 2019 by Source

OB Historical Society Presents

The Ocean Beach Historical Society Presents:
“Surfing Sunset Cliffs, The Early Years”
By Original Sunset Cliffs Dudes & Gidgets

Thursday, October 17, 2019 at 7 PM
At Water’s Edge Faith Community, 1984 Sunset Cliffs Blvd., O.B.

Dig out your Hawaiian shirt for the Ocean Beach Historical Society’s “Surfing Sunset Cliffs, The Early Years” presentation.

Flashback to the blue waters of the cliffs with surfers/presenters Jim “Mouse” Robb, 86, Marsh Malcolm, 86, John Holly, 76, Billy Chapman, 75, Tom “Lizard” Chapman, 76, and the “Original Gidget” Linda Benson, age unknown.

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OB Planners to Form Outreach Committee – Monday, Oct. 14 at OB Woman’s Club

October 14, 2019 by Source

The Ocean Beach Planning Board is forming an Outreach Committee and it’s meeting tonight, Monday, October 14 at the OB Woman’s Club. It starts at 6p – and this is the very first meeting of this new sub-committee of the full board.

Board member Tracy Dezenzo is the contact person for this endeavor to increase participation from the community in the Planning Board.

Here’s the official agenda:

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Winter Is Coming and Vets for Peace Still Provide Sleeping Bags to People Who Are Homeless

October 14, 2019 by Judi Curry

By Judi Curry

When my husband Bob was alive, he was a member of the local Veterans for Peace Organization (as well as a docent for the Star of India). He has been gone a little over ten years and as a memorial to him I made a donation to the VFP to purchase sleeping bags for those that are less fortunate than I am in that I have a warm bed, heat, and three meals a day.

Whatever the reason may be that there are so many homeless in San Diego, the fact is that the numbers are mind-boggling.

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Sustained Outrage…With a Smile: ‘Life and Times of Molly Ivins’ Playing in Hillcrest

October 14, 2019 by Staff

By Brett Warnke

“Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins,” is playing up in Hillcrest. If you’ve got 93 minutes to spare this week, I’d spend every one of them at this fine movie. It’s a funny biopic about a writer who walked with Civil Rights marchers, warned us about both George Bushes, and could drink the notoriously pickled Texas legislature right out of the bar.

You’ve probably heard of Molly Ivins (1944-2007). Occasionally, you’ll find her books Who Let The Dogs In or Bushwhacked or Shrub flung out on the Bargain Bin shelves. Grab them. Buy them all. Open them when the empty suits on the left say “we can’t because it’s costly” or when the idiots on the right say “we won’t because they’re brown.”

Molly was raised in a Texas house with a pool, born to a right-wing oil man who was shocked she allowed black friends to the house (and the pool). Her mother was wonderfully lazy and would watch TV, talk on the phone, and personified the suburban wife Molly never wanted to be.

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Labor, Community and Environmental Activists Need to Find Common Ground for a Green New Deal

October 14, 2019 by Jim Miller

Labor and the Environment Panel – Wednesday, October 16th

By Jim Miller

In Naomi Klein’s new book, On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal, she outlines precisely how challenging it will be to respond to the climate crisis in the urgent fashion called for in the last UN IPCC report:

Pulling off this high-speed pollution phaseout, the report establishes, is not possible with singular technocratic approaches like carbon taxes, though those tools must be a part. Rather it requires deliberately and immediately changing how our societies produce energy, how we grow our food, how we move ourselves around, and how our buildings are constructed.

What is needed, the report’s summary states in its first sentence, is “rapid, far reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society”.

In the face of this daunting task, the answer to the question “What can I do as an individual?” is, Klein tells us, “nothing.”

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News and Notices for Ocean Beach and Point Loma – Mid-October 2019

October 11, 2019 by Frank Gormlie

Liberty Station’s Golf Course Future Could Be in the Hole

Liberty Station’s Loma Club is considered a great golf course in its own unique way. …More than a century of history sits in the club’s soil. At one time, a young Phil Mickelson played tournament at what was then called Sail Ho. Which is why players and locals were shocked to learn the Loma Club put out a notice that it will close in late December.

Point Loma Home Target of Passing Cars – Hit Twice Within a Year

San Diego Music Hall of Fame in OB at Newbreak Church – Oct. 18

Two Roots Brewing Wins Gold Medal for Non-Alcohol Beer

Point Loma Office Building Is Awarded “Orchid” in Annual Judging

Santa Barbara Coastline Study Has Lessons for Us: More Hot Days, Longer Dry Spells and Higher Sea Levels

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City Council Committee Gives Go-Ahead to ‘Tiny Houses’ on Wheels for San Diego Backyards

October 11, 2019 by Frank Gormlie

A key San Diego City Council committee has given the go-ahead to allow property owners to have movable “tiny houses” on wheels which they hope will help alleviate the city’s affordable housing crisis and steep homelessness. The small units can be moved into backyards and have their wheels removed.

The council’s Land Use and Housing committee voted voted unanimously Wednesday, October 9, to have the City Attorney’s Office come up with language for an amendment to San Diego’s municipal code which would permit the movable tiny houses.

Councilwoman Dr. Jennifer Campbell, a member of the committee said: “I think it’s a good idea. Let’s do it.”

Here’s some of the proposed restrictions and requirements property owners would need to comply with:

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Ocean Beach Has a New In-Residence Mystery Writer: G.M. Ford

October 11, 2019 by Staff

By Bob Edwards

A resident of Ocean Beach since 2017, mystery writer G.M. Ford seems to have settled in to the OB lifestyle. With over twenty books published, the author’s latest novel Heavy On The Dead (reviewed in the OB Rag this past July) in set mostly in OB.

Ford participates in a local writers group that regularly meets at Te Mana on Voltaire. He reads the OB Rag and social media webpages such as the Social OB Facebook page. Perhaps most importantly, he has thrown himself into one of the most pressing controversies our community faces in the 21st Century: Where does one go to get the best fish taco in Ocean Beach?

I joined Gerry Ford at one of his favorite watering holes and taco purveyors, South Beach Bar and Grill on Newport Avenue, where we talked about various topics including his move to OB, his writing process, and the American publishing industry in the digital age.

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Last 2 ‘Classic’ OB Rag T-Shirts Up for Auction

October 10, 2019 by Frank Gormlie

UPDATE: We have 2 winning bids – the auction is over.

It’s true! The very last two Classic OB Rag T’s are up for auction.

For years, we offered OB Rag T-shirts as part of our fund-raising efforts – all printed at James Gang in OB, all 100% cotton and all with our logos. But over time, the swag gig was time-consuming and didn’t generate all that much at any one time. We did sell dozens and dozens of our shirts, including various styles and logos.

Now here we are today. We have the very last two OB Rag T’s in the classic variety. And they are up for auction.

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San Clemente Greens Urge San Diegans to Attend Coastal Commission Meeting on San Onofre at Chula Vista, October 17

October 10, 2019 by Source

Locals Encouraged to Oppose Edison’s Application

The folks in the anti-nuke watchdog group just to our north, the San Clemente Greens, are urging San Diegans to attend the upcoming California Coastal Commission hearing being held in Chula Vista later this month about what’s going down at San Onofre nuke plant.

The utility and majority-owner of San Onofre, Southern California Edison has applied for a permit to destroy its spent fuel pool as part of the onshore portion of decommissioning of Units 2 and 3.

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A Town In Need of a Public Library

October 10, 2019 by Staff

By Joni Halpern

Dear Ohio,

There is a little town about 772 miles from the southern border of Ohio. The people there have been poisoned, and I am writing to warn that the poison has spread. You must take precautions. It can be fatal.

In Clinton, Arkansas, a rural community of about 2,500, in which almost one-fourth of the residents live below the poverty line, the majority of voters have become blind to the economic, social, civic, or spiritual sense of spending taxpayer money on endeavors that help their fellow human beings.

The people of Clinton don’t want a public library. It’s a waste of money. They don’t want government services even for the very poor.

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Public Asked for Help in Identifying Ocean Beach and Point Loma Arson Suspect

October 10, 2019 by Source

The public is being asked for help in identifying the arson suspect who is alleged to have started up to six fires in the Ocean Beach and Point Loma neighborhoods back in late September.

San Diego Crime Stoppers have now released new photos and video of the suspect, who appears to be a white, young and thin male.

Investigators with the Metro Arson Strike Team report that during the early hours of Sept. 28, between 12:30 a.m. and 5:03 a.m., six separate fires were started in the backyards of homes, at the following locations:

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New Recycling Center Opens Next to Pat’s Liquor in Ocean Beach

October 9, 2019 by Frank Gormlie

Here’s some good news. Ocean Beach has a brand new recycling center.

Prince’s Recycling Center just opened earlier this week next to well-known Pat’s Liquor at 5096 Voltaire at the intersection with Abbott Street. James Prince and Allison and Laura are making the bold venture.

Their center will be open Mondays through Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and closed on Sundays.

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Point Loma Architectural Reporter Gives Tour of What’s on Deck for San Diego Development

October 9, 2019 by Source

Editordude: Local Roger Showley, Point Loma High School Class of 1966, gives an illuminating tour of what’s on deck in terms of San Diego’s mega development projects. Love development or hate it, it’s important to know what’s coming.

By Roger Showley / The Architect’s Newspaper

As it celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding this year, San Diego is rethinking past projects, planning billions of dollars’ worth of new projects, and coping with a housing shortage that is making it one of the nation’s least affordable markets.

The most significant project on the boards is the redevelopment planned for Horton Plaza shopping center, a 1985 postmodernist downtown mall designed by Jon Jerde. But there are many other megaprojects under construction or in the offing throughout this county of 3.3 million residents.

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