OB Rag

By Donna Frye

It’s no wonder the public doesn’t have a lot of trust when it comes to big development projects in the City of San Diego. Too often, what we are told is not accurate.

On Monday November 9, the San Diego City Council is scheduled to hear the Midway Rising development project.

Items 600, 601 and 602. see link inside

From the beginning, the project has been promoted as a massive affordable housing project.

The proposed project is on 48.5 acres of public land and includes an entertainment center, 2,000 affordable housing units, 2,250 market rate housing units, between 123,500 and 130,000 square feet of retail space, 8.2 acres of parks, and 6.42 acres of public spaces.

One of the many documents the council will be voting on is the Disposition and Development Agreement (DDA).

The DDA is over 600 pages long and is a complex and complicated document to read, let alone understand.  It includes such things as the leases for the property and determines the order in which the development will occur.

The DDA was first made public one week before the City Council Land Use and Housing Committee meeting on October 16. The public has had very limited time to review all the documents and provide comments.

The Rag’s own Kate Callen had a letter to the editor published in today’s San Diego Union-Tribune. We publish it below.

Wealthy zoo deciding to charge for parking is wrong

Re “Zoo makes parking fees permanent for nonresidents” (Oct 31):

The San Diego Zoo insists it needs $3 million from parking revenue for park upgrades. Let’s look at its financials. According to ProPublica, the zoo’s 2024 total assets were $1.05 billion, its revenue was $438 million, and its expenses were $391 million. President/CEO Paul Baribault was paid $1.99 million; COO Shawn Dixon earned $820,184; CFO David Franco made $757,377.

by Ernie McCray

I look at the election
that took place yesterday
and I can’t help but say
that “We the People”
kicked some serious ass,
making it so
that some folks
who have come close
to ending our democracy
will, in the near future,
be spoken of in the past.

By Michael Hernandez

The midterm elections have come and gone, leaving in their wake a renewed sense of change and hope for the future. While it may be a while before we feel the complete effect of Tuesday’s victories, in the meantime we can examine some changes that could take place real soon at the local level, with the next round of properties going up for sale in Ocean Beach and Point Loma:

4222-4224 Voltaire Street

The first property we will be looking at is the 4222-24 Voltaire Street Through-Lot. According to an offering memorandum for the property, this 5,135 square foot commercial through-lot runs from Voltaire Street to Whittier Street, and is also known as 4217 Whittier Street. The lot features a storefront with residential improvements in the back. The storefront along Voltaire is currently home to Bubba’s Barber Shop, a popular neighborhood barbershop established in 2018.

By: Michael Chen / 10News / Nov 03, 2026

The co-owner of an Ocean Beach e-bike shop says a burglar smashed through the business’s front window and stole a $2,800 e-bike in an early-morning break-in.

The burglary happened last Monday, Nov. 2 at E-Bike Super Shop along Bacon Street.

Co-owner Devin Raymond said an employee discovered the damage that morning.

“Like a gut punch in the morning,” Raymond said.

Surveillance video from the business shows two men outside the entrance shortly before 4 a.m. Raymond believes one of them used a tool to break the glass in the front window.

“Looks like they broke the glass in advance to see if it would set off the alarm,” Raymond said.

Raymond said the alarm never went off.

About 30 minutes later, surveillance video shows an SUV pull up near the entrance and a masked man get out. The man eventually makes his way through the broken window and enters the shop.

Local Artists Associated with San Diego Museum of Art Sponsoring Exhibition

A group of local artists associated with the San Diego Museum of Art are sponsoring an exhibit in downtown Ocean Beach starting Tuesday, November 3rd. The exhibition entitled Takeover: Small-Scale Works will consist of fifty-five paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints, and mixed-media works by forty artists, none of which are larger than 16 inches in any direction.

This is all happening at SHIFT Gallery at 4847 Newport Avenue (across the street from Target) by the San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild. Barbara Sexton, nationally known artist and retired Mesa College art professor, selected the art from 221 entries in a juried competition.

Takeover will run November 3 through November 17 at SHIFT Gallery. SHIFT is open seven days a week from noon to six p.m. and by appointment. The public is invited to meet participating artists at a gallery reception on Thursday, November 5, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Cyclists will roll through scenic San Diego, starting and ending in Liberty Station on Saturday, Nov. 7, to support pancreatic cancer research in the 13th Annual Jim Krause Memorial Charity Cycling Ride the Point.

The memorial ride, sponsored by Point Loma Rotary Club, commemorates the life and legacy of Jim Krause, an avid cyclist and a past president of Point Loma Rotary Club. Krause died in 2012 after a valiant battle with pancreatic cancer. In his memory, the club hosts the annual charitable fundraiser in his name to support pancreatic cancer research at Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health in La Jolla.

The ride includes exclusive routes through historic neighborhoods going past some of San Diego’s most scenic areas. The event has hundreds of volunteers along the route, SAG support, and five fully stocked rest stops.

Ride the Point has three distances:

• The 5-mile Family Fun Ride along San Diego Bay and is perfect for cruisers, beginning riders, challenged athletes, and families.
• The 25 Mile and Metric Century are street rides, limited to 600 riders, with exclusive routes and challenging climbs.
• Healthy Lifestyle Expo: The public is invited to this free event at Liberty Station Conference Center, 2600 Laning Rd., from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. on event day featuring local vendors, music, and refreshments.

By Steve Price / CBS8 /  November 4, 2026

More than 2,400 players have descended on Point Loma for the 17th annual USA Pickleball National Championships from Oct. 31 to Nov. 8, showcasing a sport that continues to explode in popularity across the country.

Nearly half of the competitors are at least 60 years old, highlighting pickleball’s broad appeal among older athletes, while also drawing younger players looking for competition and community.

For many participants, the excitement of the tournament is undeniable. “That was so intense!” player Monika David said after a hard-fought match at the Barnes Tennis Center.

The sport’s rapid rise has turned pickleball from a recreational pastime into a lucrative professional endeavor. According to USA Pickleball CEO Mike Nealy, top players are now earning significant income through tournament winnings and endorsement deals.

City News Service – NBC7 / November 5, 2026

An 80-year-old man and a 45-year-old man suspected of distributing psilocybin gummies to at least 15 trick-or-treating children in Sunset Cliffs were taken into custody Wednesday following a search operation.

Multiple bags of psilocybin-infused gummies were left on a residence’s porch Saturday night and were later taken by children between 1 and 6 years old, according to the San Diego Police Department.

Police said the children’s parents noticed the suspicious candy packages and, upon inspecting them, suspected they contained controlled substances.

The parents then confronted the homeowners and later filed a police report with the department, saving the packages of the gummies for law enforcement evaluation, which later tested positive for psilocybin.

By Kate Callen

There are two schools of thought about how Michigan’s Haley Stevens should spend her final weeks as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Enraged Democrats reacted to her 11th-hour endorsement of Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers by wanting her stripped of office. She was booted from the Michigan Democratic Party. Long-time friends and mentors disavowed her.

Democrats with cooler heads preferred another outcome.

Forcing Stevens out of her job, if that were even possible, would make her an ideological martyr. Letting her stay would make her a pariah. If she shows up in the halls of Congress after this, she will be shunned like a skunk – publicly ostracized every minute of every painful remaining day.

Revenge is a dish best served cold. For maximum effect, it should be brought to the table slowly. Which is why a new campaign to recall Mayor Todd Gloria is a bad idea.

On October 29, a group of activists led by attorney Genevieve Jones-Wright filed a notice of intent to gather signatures for a recall petition. If all goes smoothly, the petition can begin circulating before Thanksgiving. If signatures from 15 percent of registered voters are collected within 120 days, the City Council must call a special election.

That election would cost money the city doesn’t have. It would bring Gloria’s YIMBY and labor minions out of the burrows where they’ve been hiding. It would overshadow the 2028 race for mayor and hinder the candidates already gearing up to succeed him.

And to what end? Gloria can’t inflict much more damage on San Diego. His “strong mayor” power has run out. He squandered it by racking up enough failures and transgressions to power a website.

Nicole Crosby is “cautiously optimistic,” she told the Rag this morning, the day after her apparent victory over former Republican Richard Bailey for the District 2 city council seat. Currently, she leads Bailey by 9 percentage points and by a little over 3,000 votes. Ballot counting continues.

Crosby leads Bailey 54.5% to 45.6%, with 18,188 votes to 15,218.

Crosby spoke to me this morning when I called to congratulate her. She sounded happy but exhausted.Yet she felt the numbers would hold. She also told me that Bailey had yet to call  her to concede or congratulate her.

Crosby:

“This race has always been about fighting for my neighbors in District 2. From the parents and teachers at my daughter’s school, to the librarians, emergency service workers and skilled trades workers in our community, we did this together. Working families are the backbone of San Diego and we deserve results from City Hall.

From ACLU

This election reaffirmed the power of people coming together to defend our democracy and the values we share. When the federal government sought to undermine voting rights and intimidate voters, Californians stood firm. And when asked to pass Prop 39 and add unnecessary hurdles to exercising the right to vote, California voters sent a resounding message to those who tried to roll back voting rights: hands off our elections.

ACLU-SDIC Executive Director Norma Chávez-Peterson said:

“Yesterday, California voters showed up at the polls to protect their voting rights and reject an anti-democratic agenda — and they succeeded. Prop 39 has been defeated, but the fight to protect our constitutional rights is far from over.

>Nov. 3rd:– the Day Americans Take Back Our Country

8:40 pm Democrats take the Senate

Democrats Clinch Senate as Voters Deliver Blistering Rebuke to Trump; Democratic candidates won races in Republican strongholds, flipping Senate seats in

• Kansas,
• Ohio,
• North Carolina,
• South Carolina and even
• Texas. On a night shaping up as a Democratic rout, President Trump told The New York Times that he would accept the election results.

8:14 pm Crosby and Abraham take early leads in San Diego City Council races 2 and 4 with 689,666 ballots counted overall county-wide

Nicole Crosby at this stage has a 9 point lead over Richard Bailey in District 2, 54.5% to 45.5%.

Martha Abraham is in a much tighter race with incumbent Henry Foster III with a 3.3 point lead, 51.7% to 48.3%.

8:05 pm Xavier Becerra is first Mexican-American elected as governor of California

Xavier Becerra, a Democrat and former Biden administration official, began the race for California governor with poll numbers so low that his own party chairman urged him to drop out. Now, Mr. Becerra will become the next governor of the nation’s most populous state, The Associated Press said on Tuesday, a rise that was considered improbable a year ago. Mr. Becerra, 68, is the first Latino elected as governor of California, a milestone that punctuates a decades-long demographic shift in the state.

SDPD Investigating

By Dana Williams / 7SanDiego / Nov. 2, 2026

Two fathers had a frightening experience after their children picked up what appeared to be candy from a porch in Ocean Beach while trick-or-treating, only to discover the packaging identified the treats as psilocybin mushroom gummies.

The San Diego Police Department is investigating the Halloween incident, but questions remain about who left the gummies outside the home and whether they actually contained illegal drugs.

Frank Cary and Cameron Hunter were trick-or-treating with their children and several neighborhood families Saturday night when they made the discovery.

The parents said they were walking just a few yards behind their children when the kids approached a porch with a bowl of what appeared to be candy.

Cary said his 2-year-old grabbed one of the packages before he noticed something unusual about it.