OB Rag

As we wind down the first week of the OB Rag annual summer fundraising campaign, we’ve now reached nearly half of our goal of $3,500. And we have to remind our friends and readers that keeping the Rag alive does take donations from our readers and supporters, for afterall, a free press is not “free.”

We do have expenses — our annual server bill is $900 alone; plus subscriptions, utilities — and we actually pay many of our writers and reporters for reporting on community meetings and on issues that no one else covers.

Here are Reasons to Support the OB Rag:

1. Our Progressive Politics: we stand for the Constitution, liberty, democracy, the rule of law, a woman’s right to choose and for racial and gender equality. We are diametrically opposed to Trump’s banana republic and against his push into authoritarianism — which include possible plans for rigging the upcoming Mid-Term elections.
2. We Oppose the Direction that City Hall Has Been Taking: the current city leadership has been taking us down the wrong road in its imposition of un-democratically-forced rules that threaten our neighborhoods, like the Bonus ADU program and Complete Communities. We can add the failed paid parking at Balboa Park and the closing of half of the public restrooms in Mission Bay Park — since reopened.
3. We have been one of the voices at the forefront of forcing reforms to the city’s ADU policies along with neighborhood groups and networks like the San Diego Community Coalition and Neighbors for a Better San Diego.
4. We stand for more affordable housing, renters’ rights and an end to the investor and corporate ownership of our housing stock. We also find it unacceptable that large campaign donors can reap the award of public land and development projects.
5. We also focus on maintaining parks and the public common — such as Mission Bay Park. We broke the story of how the Mayor wants to break off sections of Mission Bay and make them “surplus lands” in order to lease them to commercial and private interests in order to bring a cash-strapped city with a few bucks.

California bill balances law enforcement interests and protects public privacy

By Erwin Chemerinsky / Sacramento Bee / August 5, 2026 

A proposed California law would provide essential protection of privacy and prevent mass surveillance by the police in limiting how the government can keep and use information from automated license plate readers — which are ubiquitous, and give police the ability to monitor our whereabouts. Senate Bill 1013, also known as the Automated License Plate Recognition Data Accountability Act, would properly balance the interests of law enforcement with the need to protect privacy.

The bill, introduced by Sen. Sabrina Cervantes, D-Riverside, would require that state and local law enforcement agencies delete automated license plate recognition data after 30 days unless there is a need to retain it because the license plate is on an authorized “hot list” (such as a stolen-vehicle, an AMBER/missing-person or a wanted list) or if the data is in the evidence file of an active investigation.

SB 1013 would also prohibit the sharing of information for the purpose of immigration enforcement, arrests or deportation — something that is already illegal under California law.

Simply put, the bill would prevent the government from compiling a massive database on those who are not suspected of anything. A great deal of information can be learned about a person from analyzing their location over time. In several cases — including a decision on June 30 — the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized the invasion of privacy when the government can use technology to monitor our movements.

Mayor Todd Gloria and other city leaders Wednesday announced the bathrooms at Mission Bay Park that were closed in early July due to budget constraints will reopen at the end of this week.

Gloria said 13 restrooms at one of the city’s most popular destinations will be back open starting Friday. He told the media that money from a state grant award and allocations from council office budgets is helping reopen the bathrooms.

The bathrooms will stay open until the end of the year, according to the mayor.

Introduction

The beautiful Sunset Cliffs that stretch from the residential southern portions of Ocean Beach to the lower reaches of the uninhabited sections of Point Loma are certainly a world-renown, indescribably gorgeous treasure of nature that line the land’s border with the Pacific.

At the right moment when the ocean earns its name and the Cliffs earn theirs, the beauty and serenity cannot be amply replicated by the pen – or keyboard.

With the park along the cliffs celebrating its centennial in 2015, the Cliffs themselves – as they have for thousands of years – continue to erode and evolve with time, and sections fall or collapse to the water and beaches below. (See Needle’s Eye rock formation that has eroded away.)

Yet these same cliffs with their jagged rocks and crashing surf are also very unforgiving

The following “reader rave”  was originally published on Sept. 10, 2014.

Yesterday, while searching Sunset Cliffs for waves, I stopped, got out and then walked over to where the kids jump, and I jumped off the cliffs – and I’m 65 years old. Here’s why:

It was hot yesterday … and muggy. I was looking for waves as I cruised the Cliffs. I had my suit with me and I knew I had to hit the water at some point.

I had seen them as I drove south along Sunset Cliffs Blvd – the kids jumping off that section of the cliffs into the Pacific below, and then climbing out over the rocks back up. You know where I’m talking about. It’s between Adair and Osprey. Heck, there’s even a Yelp page for it.

Kids, young people, have been doing it for years – jumping at that small outcropping –

Editordude: Here’s a rather bland report from KPBS — full of bias — about how the city of San Diego wants the public’s input on the establishment’s new blueprint for the Mid-City communities plans updates. The draft calls for 30,000 more homes and 89,000 more residents over 30 years (see CBS8 report at end). There’s no mention of how activists from these Mid-City neighborhoods have resisted and opposed these updates over the last couple of years, or how the Planning Commission rode roughshod over their attempts to get the city planners to listen to their deep seated concerns. 

City News Service – KPBS / August 11, 2026

San Diegans are being asked to provide input on an update to the Mid-City Communities Plan draft released Monday, which would create capacity for an additional 30,000 homes over the next 30 years.

The update — the first of its scale for the area in 25 years — took two years to shape, featuring engagement with more than 3,000 city residents participating in more than 100 events and resulting in more than 9,300 comments.

Mid-City includes the neighborhoods of City Heights, Eastern Area, Kensington-Talmadge and Normal Heights.

City News Service – Times of San Diego / August 11, 2026

Following an attempt to inspect the Otay Mesa Detention Center in February, the county released a public report Monday detailing conditions in the facility.

The conditions during the inspection were generally within recommended state standards for detention facilities, areas of concern in the findings included an individual who was not provided a needed medical device 18 months after admission, as well as not having any vaccines in stock, the report reads.

Another major area of concern was lack of responsiveness with County Public Health to coordinate tuberculosis-related cases. Two tuberculosis cases “were not reported from the facility’s medical staff but were instead discovered through a facility vendor that provides medical testing services.”

The facility was unresponsive for several weeks before the facility finally cooperated with the communicable disease investigation.

“Tuberculosis requires immediate reporting and a coordinated response to identify exposed individuals, initiate appropriate treatment, and prevent further transmission,” said County Public Health Officer Dr. Sayone Thihalolipavan.

Feds Want to Begin ‘Review’ of How California Manages Our Coast

By Tammy Murga / KPBS / August 11, 2026

Public hearings this week could influence the future of oil production, rocket launches and other federal industrial projects off California’s coast.

The Trump administration is evaluating the state’s Coastal Commission and other coastal agencies. Depending on the outcome, the state could lose its authority to review and regulate projects that involve the coastline.

Coastal leaders and environmentalists across California, including San Diego County, said the results of the federal government’s new review are already predetermined.

“The current federal administration is behaving in an unprecedented way, and they are very excited to advance offshore oil drilling and other types of projects off the California coast,” said Jennifer Savage, the Surfrider Foundation’s California policy manager.

A routine review that the Biden administration largely completed last year showed favorability with the agencies managing the coast, she said.

In May, however, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said California “has repeatedly and unfoundedly obstructed spaceport development in bad faith.”

Spaceport development could include construction of infrastructure for spacecraft to launch and land. The Coastal Commission had rejected a request last year from the U.S. Space Force to increase SpaceX rocket launches off California’s coast due to concerns over beach closures and environmental and noise impacts.

Frye Sent the Mayor a photo of Mission Bay Poop, Campbell Says Mayor Assured Her He Wouldn’t Close Them

By Scott Lewis / Voice of San Diego / August 11, 2026

Last week, former San Diego City Councilmember Donna Frye sent one of the staffers for Mayor Todd Gloria a picture of poop.

“This Kodak Moment is from Mission Bay Park this morning near one of the closed bathrooms. Please share with the mayor.”

Frye was adding hers to the ongoing hum of voices upset at the city’s closure of restrooms in Mission Bay Park, some of which were just recently constructed. It’s not going away. Councilmember Raul Campillo, whose effort to re-open them went somewhat viral, kept up his case. He sent a survey to subscribers to his newsletter and found that 98 percent of them think that the city should follow his plan to re-allocate a budget item set aside for a ballot measure that won’t happen to open the bathrooms.

Engaging frustrated residents about the budget seems to be part of the goal.

The city could have just locked the bathrooms — they do this all the time — but staff added context with signs that read: “Closed until further notice due to budget reductions.” Helpfully, an angsty bathroom-needer is invited to scan a QR code to find the nearest restroom.

By Blanca Begert / LA Times / July 31, 2026

California hit a major milestone in May, generating more than half its electricity from the sun in what is believed to be a global first, according to an analysis of federal data.

“California has had a wealth of solar growth in the last five years,” said Abby Lestina, an analyst at Grid Status, a group that tracks electricity supply and demand in U.S. power markets but was not involved with the analysis. “It makes sense that they would reach this goal.”

It’s the first time a large-scale power system is known to have surpassed 50% solar for an entire month.

It’s also the second significant power record set by the state recently. For the first five months of 2026, California made more electricity from solar than from natural gas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Burning natural gas has long been the dominant source of electricity in the state. This could be the first year that solar beats gas in California’s power mix.

California has been trending in this direction for years, but the boom in new battery storage around the state allows it to save solar power when it’s overabundant and use it when the sun goes down.

“Suspicious Origin Theory” Discounted

By Debbie L. Sklar /  Special for the OB Rag

At about 10 a.m. on April 20, 1872, smoke began rising over Old Town San Diego.

Within hours, flames had swept through the heart of the community, destroying some of its most important buildings, including the old courthouse, the Franklin House, the Colorado House and other structures around the plaza.

The destruction was devastating.

But the fire also marked an important turning point in San Diego history.

Major Destruction

The blaze did not single-handedly move San Diego from Old Town to the waterfront. That transition was already underway. But the destruction of much of Old Town’s commercial center came at a crucial moment, helping cement the shift toward the growing community that became today’s downtown San Diego.

The fire began in the former courthouse building on San Diego Avenue near the plaza. Built in 1847 with the help of members of the Mormon Battalion, the small brick structure had served many purposes over the years, including as a courthouse, meeting place, church, school and polling place.

Editordude: Before the stairs at Ladera Street at the cliffs, there was nothing except slippery toe holes, a small stretch of rope and the cliffs themselves. Making your way down holding onto a 9′ 6″ log was taking your life in your hands — which I did countless times back in the mid-60s. This was the reality of getting to Garbage Beach below until the 1980s. Thanks to Doug Smith, it all changed.

By Shona Neufeld / San Diego Reader / Aug. 5, 2026

“San Diego City built a staircase at Sunset Cliffs Boulevard and Ladera Street.”

— from Kathy Blavatt’s San Diego’s Sunset Cliffs Park: A History, written for the Ocean Beach Historical Society

There are other entry points to the beach below Sunset Cliffs; but none of them are as easy to navigate as the Ladera Street stairs. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people use them every week. Families come to check out the tidepools, bringing young kids and old folks who otherwise might have trouble making it down there. And of course, there are the surfers, who use them to reach the break at Garbage Beach.

There is no mention of Doug Smith in Blavatt’s account of those stairs. And even after Adam Bloomberg and the Garbage Beach Surf Club held an event on March 29th of this year to honor Smith’s contribution to the stairs’ creation, you could be forgiven for never having heard of him. They intentionally kept publicity to a minimum, handing out only a few fliers to the regular Cliffs crew in order to reduce crowds and allow easy access for the 91-year-old Smith and his friends. “If we had advertised, it really would have been out of control,” said Adam. (I learned about it from local surfer Richard Aguirre while I was out riding my bike.)

Change Begins With ME Overpass Alliance Marks One Year of Weekly Bridge Activism For 52 weeks,

Change Begins With ME volunteers have returned to the bridge with changing messages and one enduring call: Pay attention. Stay engaged. Vote.

On Monday, August 10, 2026, Change Begins With ME (CBWM) will celebrate the one-year anniversary of its Overpass Alliance, marking 52 weeks of sustained grassroots activism above San Diego freeways.

Since August 11, 2025, volunteers have gathered every week at the I-5 overpass at Clairemont Drive, holding large-scale banners and handmade signs addressing some of the most consequential issues facing our country and communities.  Each week, those messages are seen by thousands of passing drivers—and thousands of potential voters—giving CBWM’s Overpass Alliance a unique opportunity to reach people where they are.

The messages change from week to week, responding to current events and issues ranging from democracy and immigration to civil rights, government accountability and the rule of law. One of our messages was picked up by Congressman Mike Levin on Instagram, taking it viral with Meidas Touch and Occupy Democrats!