Come One, Come All to Celebrate a True 50-Year Old Ocean Beach Victory — Tuesday, May 26
Everyone is invited to come out and celebrate a 50-year old community victory for Ocean Beach. It’s the half-century celebration of the very first election to the OB Planning Board — and we’re having it this Tuesday, May 26th, at Dirty Birds OB. From 6 to 8pm.
We’ll have some finger-foods, good vibes and brief statements in solidarity of this election. There will be representatives from different OB groups including members of the current OB Planning Board.
If you’ve ever been a volunteer for anything in OB, then you’ll appreciate this event — and help honor the hundreds of OBceans who have volunteered for the planning board over the many years it has been in existence.
The Largest Presidential Corruption Scandal in U.S. History as Trump Creates $1.8 Billion Slush Fund for Friends and J6 Rioters
Top Lawyer at Treasury Resigns in Protest and Disgust at $1.8 Billion Grift
The Treasury’s most senior lawyer has dramatically quit, just hours after the Trump administration unveiled a vast $1.776 billion fund to enrich Jan. 6 rioters and other MAGA loyalists. Brian Morrissey, the department’s general counsel, stepped down a mere seven months after his Senate confirmation, three sources aware of his decision told the New York Times.
His abrupt departure came on the same day that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” Morrissey, who also served in Trump’s first administration, is a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, a George H. W. Bush appointee.
Go to Daily Beast for more
Trump’s Justice Department announces $1.8 billion fund slammed as ‘slush fund’
By Steve Benen / Maddowblog / May 19, 2026
The fact that we knew the scheme was coming didn’t make it any easier to accept. Three months after Donald Trump filed a radical (and by any fair measure, frivolous) $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, the president’s lawyers announced Monday morning that they had agreed to withdraw the case.
Hours later, the other side of the agreement came to public light: In exchange for dropping his rather silly lawsuit, Trump’s own Justice Department announced the creation of a pool of money that it’s calling “The Anti-Weaponization Fund” — which Democrats and legal experts are more accurately characterizing as a “slush fund.”
Community Coalition Bulletin: This Week at City Hall — May 18-22
The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members and the San Diego general public informed about important Council and Planning Commission hearings and other city public meetings.
Editor’s note: Last Wednesday’s Economic Development and Intergovernmental Relations Committee agenda included an item on the impact of paid parking on Balboa Park. The item was pulled before the meeting at the request of city staff.
Monday, May 18: City Council, 2:00 p.m.
Item 200: FY2026 Third Quarter Budget Monitoring Report
Why it matters: FY2026 revenues are expected to be down $10.5 million versus the budget. Fortunately, expenditures will likely be $1.7 million less than the decreased $2.1 billion revenue. But here’s the fine print: If revenues don’t exceed expenditures, “authority is requested, as a contingency, to draw from the General Fund Stability Reserve as needed to ensure the General Fund ends the fiscal year balanced.”
Monday, May 18: City Council, 6:00 p.m.
Item 202: May Revision to the FY2027 Draft Budget and Public Hearing on the 2027 Draft Budget
Come Join the Celebration Party of the 50th Anniversary of the First Election to the OB Planning Board — Tuesday, May 26th
Come celebrate the 50th anniversary of the very first election to the OB Planning Board! We’re having a party!
On May 4th, 1976, thousands of OB residents, tenants, property owners and business owners voted in the first democratic election of a neighborhood volunteer panel. And it’s still here — and so are over 40 other planning boards across the City of San Diego. But Ocean Beach was the first.
The celebration party will be Tuesday night, May 26th from 6 to 8 pm at Dirty Birds Ocean Beach, 1927 Cable Street.
The OB Rag, as well as other community groups, are hosting the celebration — the OB Historical Society, the current OB Planning Board, and we’re hoping others will jump on the bandwagon, such as the OB Mainstreet Assoc., the OB Community Development Corp., The OB Woman’s Club, the OB Community Foundation.
Dirty Birds is opening up their lower dining area for the party and because the event is community-oriented, is giving us a huge break on the price for finger-foods. (There will be a no-host bar.) Guests will be asked for a small donation.
Let’s Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Very First Election of the Ocean Beach Planning Board
Ocean Beach has entered a time period that in less than two weeks, the coastal neighborhood celebrates the 50th anniversary of the very first community-wide democratic election to its OB Planning Board — a volunteer board that still exists to this day, Earth Day 2026.
May 4th, 1976 was a day when thousands of Ocean Beach residents, property owners and business owners voted on candidates for a 14-member board to help make urban planning and infrastructure decisions and recommendations to the city.
Not only was it the first election of the OB Planning Board, it was the first democratic election of ANY community planning group in San Diego’s history. So, May 4th ought to be celebrated by the over 40 community planning groups across the city.
Nine months before the scheduled election, on July 3, 1975, the San Diego City Council heard presentations about a so-called “OB Plan.”
It was standing room only in the Council Chambers, which brimmed with residents, property-owners and merchants from OB. After all the public testimony and speeches, after more discussion among councilmembers and staff, the Council – with Republican Mayor Pete Wilson at the ceremonial helm – took a vote and passed the OB Precise Plan — which included a number of amendments made by an OB grassroots organization, called the Community Planning Group.
The most important of these amendments was the provision for a community election of a planning committee. The City Planning Department was ordered to implement a Planned District for Ocean Beach, from the motion itself:
“the new committee formed for the purposes of implementing the Plan, should be elected by the citizens of Ocean Beach in a democratic fashion, using a process monitored by a neutral party to be appointed by the Mayor and Council.”
Arizona Police Arrest Person-of-Interest in Deadly Assault from October in Midway District
A person of interest in the death of a man who was assaulted in the Midway District last October has been arrested in Mohave County, Arizona. 60-year-old Noel Frischknecht remains in jail for an outstanding San Diego County Superior Court arrest warrant connected to the death of a 68-year-old Brian Salatino. He was arrested by the Mohave County Sheriff’s Department.
Frischknecht is alleged to have assaulted Salatino around 5:40 p.m. on Oct. 26, 2025 in the 3300 block of Midway Drive in San Diego. Salatino was transported to a hospital, where he remained in a coma. After being hospitalized for approximately 100 days, he succumbed to his injuries and died on Feb. 3, 2026.
SDG&E’s Profit-Oriented Business Model Is Not in the Public’s Interest
by Anthony Dang / Times of San Diego / May 12, 2026
We posted a video last week recapping a recent protest against Sempra’s latest earnings report, and one comment captured exactly how many San Diegans currently feel: “big personal beef with SDG&E.”
Isn’t that the truth? How many conversations with friends and family eventually spiral into frustrations about skyrocketing energy bills? As summer approaches, many of us are preparing to do what we do every year: ration electricity, avoid turning on the A/C during heat waves, and hope we can stay afloat in one of the most expensive cities in the country.
Meanwhile, Sempra called its latest earnings a “great start” to the year. Of course it was. Last week, Sempra reported more than $1 billion in profits in just the first few months of 2026. Its CEO earned more than $22 million the year prior. For executives and shareholders, this system is working exactly as designed.
But for the rest of us — the ones paying some of the highest energy bills in California to fund these profits — it’s a horrible reality.
OB Project Review Committee Has 2 Projects: Del Mar Ave. and Ocean Front Street
Here’s the agenda for this week’s meeting of the Project Review Committee of the OB Planning Board, Tuesday, May 19.
Projects come before the review committee for a first pass – and usually the committee gives a recommendation to the full board.
The first is a permit to demolish 2 existing one-story houses and construct a 3-story unit and a a 2-story home at 4866–4870 Del Mar Avenue.
And the second is a permit to remodel two existing homes to include a second-story to each, at 1759 to 1761 Ocean Front Street.
Man Suffered Life-Threatening Injuries in Hit-and-Run in Midway District
On Friday, May 15, around 12:40 a.m., a 37-year-old man was struck by a hit-and-run driver at an intersection in San Diego’s Midway District neighborhood and suffered life-threatening injuries. This occurred near the intersection of Camino Del Rio West and Kurtz Street, according to the San Diego Police Department.
Police said the pedestrian was walking westbound near the south crosswalk when an unknown vehicle traveling southbound on Camino Del Rio West drove through the intersection and hit him. The driver fled the scene immediately after the crash.
Point Loma Teen Goes to Saipan to Deliver Typhoon Relief Supplies
By Michael Chen / 10News / May 14, 2026
A 16-year-old San Diego teen is on the island of Saipan distributing supplies — many of them donated by ABC 10News viewers — a month after a super typhoon devastated islands near Guam.
Devi Balachandra, a junior at High Tech High International, spoke via Zoom from central Saipan, part of the U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Super Typhoon Sinlaku made landfall a month ago, destroying and damaging thousands of homes across the islands. Balachandra, who was born in Saipan, was first interviewed in late April as she helped launch an online fundraiser and donation drive.
100,000 Pounds of Food Collected by Letter Carriers
From 7SanDiego
More than 100,000 pounds of food were collected across San Diego County during the 34th annual Letter Carrier’s Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive last weekend, organizers announced Tuesday, May 12.
The National Association of Letter Carriers and the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank collaborated on Saturday’s – May 9 regional food drive. Residents across San Diego County donated bags of non-perishable food by their mailboxes and mail carriers collected the donations along their routes before delivering them to the food bank for distribution through its network of more than 450 nonprofit partners.
OB Historical Society Presents: ‘Gotta Sing – Gotta Dance! with Larry Zeiger — Thursday, May 21
Thursday, May 21, 2026, at 7:00 pm, at 1984 Sunset Cliffs Blvd., OB Joyfull, the Ocean Beach Historical Society presents: Gotta Sing – Gotta Dance! with Larry Zeiger.
Coming up is the 50th Anniversary of the first Gotta Sing Gotta Dance production at Point Loma High. Over 3,000 PLHS alums participated in this program, and many have gone on to become actors in theater, film, on Broadway – and even won Academy Awards and Tony Awards. And many have become famous musicians as well as doctors, lawyers, teachers, politicians, and lots more – but they all still sing and dance!
Recent Comments