OB Rag

OB Rag Staff Report

Before San Diego City Councilmembers voted unanimously November 9 to approve the $4.2 billion Midway Rising project, they were presented with two conflicting scenarios for the future of the Sports Arena district.

Speakers backing lead developer Brad Termini (who was in attendance) envisioned a Shangri-La with lots of affordable housing, plenty of green space, great jobs, minimal traffic, and new revenues filling up city coffers.

Project opponents, nearly all of them community leaders, catalogued very real risks, from environmental (flooding that could unleash buried toxins) to financial (the tangled terms of the deal could produce another 101 Ash Street fiasco).

When the council members prepared to vote after 7 hours of discussion, the real question they faced was:

Do you feel lucky? Do you believe that nothing untoward can happen, in nature or in finance, to make this another San Diego land use debacle?

These excerpts from statements in opposition are sobering. On the financial picture, Marc Frederick, a commercial real estate broker and former City real estate disposition manager, delivered a grim prognosis:

By Staff

The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members and the San Diego public informed about important Council hearings and other city public meetings.

Monday, November 9: City Council, 1:00 p.m.

Agenda:

• Item 600: Intention to Form Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District for Redevelopment of the Sports Arena
• Item 601: Midway Rising
• Item 602: Approval of Disposition and Development Agreement between the City and Midway Rising

Why it matters a lot:  As Donna Frye warned us in her compelling November 6 Rag post about Midway Rising, “there are more questions than answers” about a massive real estate deal that has the potential to be a bigger disaster than 101 Ash Street. The public needs to ramp up the pressure on the Council. This is far from a done deal.

Tuesday, November 10: City Council, 10:00 a.m.

Agenda:

Item 56: Amendments to Municipal Code Related to Prohibiting Smoking and Vaping in Outdoor Dining Areas

by Katherine Doyle / Washington Post / Nov. 11, 2026

The White House, anticipating a surge of congressional oversight and legislative probes, has started staffing up its counsel’s office — with 15 additional hires so far — as it prepares to do legal battle.

Investigations are expected to ramp up aggressively in January.

“The last time around, Dems were very deliberate about pacing subpoenas,” said Brandon Rios, who was counsel to Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. “This time, I’d be shocked if we don’t see them in January.”

“The investigations start now,” said Rios, who now co-leads the congressional investigations group at the law firm DLA Piper.

The aggressive pushback has already begun: On Wednesday, the White House released a letter from White House counsel Will Scharf accusing Democrats of making “abusive and capricious threats” that aim to “interfere with the lawful functioning of government.”

The letter to Rep. Robert Garcia (D-California), who is expected to chair the House Oversight Committee in the new Congress, made clear that the administration would resist congressional subpoenas on the grounds that they lack a “legitimate legislative purpose.” It went further to suggest that the administration might try to investigate the investigators, saying that “threats to executive branch officials” would go beyond Congress’s legitimate oversight role and “may cross the line into blatant criminality.”

by Noah Perkins / Times of San Diego / Nov. 6, 2026,

Carlotta Kloppenburg-Pruitt has a lot of history on The Point.

Point Loma Nazarene’s new women’s basketball head coach is following a path that started with Grandpa Bob Kloppenburg. He coached men’s basketball at California Western, once located on the Point Loma campus, for nearly 20 years, starting in 1958, and developed the SOS pressure defense there.

Years later, Kloppenburg-Pruitt played two seasons at Point Loma during its transition to NCAA Division II under Bill Westphal, whose brother, Paul, coached alongside Bob in the NBA with the Seattle SuperSonics.

“There was definitely some familiarity with our families,” Kloppenburg-Pruitt remembered. “Point Loma was my dream school out of high school. I just wasn’t good enough yet. I went to Ventura College for two years, got to play, learned a lot and got better. When it came time to go to the next level, Point Loma was the first one I reached out to. My visit was kind of a visit, but it was also kind of a tryout, and I probably had the best day of my life.”

From Save Our Heritage Organisation

We made our voices heard here in California. Now we need to make Congress listen.

Last week, SOHO members and supporters helped defeat Proposition 45, a measure that threatened California’s landmark environmental protections. Together, voters rejected it. Thank you! That’s what happens when people speak up, stand together, and refuse to accept the erosion of protections that safeguard our communities.

Now we face another extremely consequential fight and we urgently need your help again. It will only take a minute!

On Monday, November 9, the U.S. Senate voted 75–23 to advance S. 5653, the so-called Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA).

Despite the misleading title, this legislation contains provisions that would severely undermine Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act—the very law that gives Tribal Nations, local communities, and preservation advocates a meaningful voice when federally funded or permitted projects threaten historic and cultural resources.

This is not only an attack on preservation and conservation. It is an attack on the public’s right to have a say in what happens to our shared heritage. Section 106 is built on a fundamental principle: public input is essential to federal decision-making. BAAJA would weaken that requirement, making public participation discretionary rather than mandatory.

By Richard Allyn / CBS8 / Nov. 10, 2026

… A local U.S. Army veteran is facing the possibility of being separated from his wife of more than 25 years after she was taken into ICE custody during an immigration court appearance in downtown San Diego.

Blanca Espinoza-Chairez, 65, was detained last Thursday, Nov. 5th, after appearing for an immigration court appointment. She is currently being held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Calexico, according to her family.

Her detention has left her husband, Elton Stovell, an Army veteran and Encanto resident approaching 80, worried about how he will manage without her. Stovell is disabled and has relied on his wife for assistance with daily tasks, including taking medication and coordinating medical appointments.

“It’s his first Veterans Day without my mom in over 25 years,” said the couple’s daughter, Rosalie Stovell. She said her mother handled nearly everything to care for her father. Elton Stovell expressed frustration over the possibility of losing his wife’s support, questioning why she would be detained given his age, disability and military service.

“They’re talking about taking away my caretaker,” Stovell, who served in the Vietnam War, said. “That doesn’t make a damn bit of sense. I did my time. I’m a senior citizen now. At least let my wife stay with me until I croak, you know?”

By Louis Tillman

To see the art show on Newport Avenue this month, you have to walk through a clothing store. SHIFT Gallery sits behind Connect San Diego at 4847 Newport, at the end of a passage you could easily miss. Inside, through Nov. 17, hangs “Takeover: Small-Scale Works” about 55 paintings, sculptures, photographs and prints by 40 artists. Nothing on the walls is larger than 16 inches in any direction.

Barbara Sexton, the retired Mesa College art professor who juried the show, picked those 55 pieces from 221 entries, so about three of every four were turned away. The artists who got in had to fit what they wanted to say into something about the size of a pizza box, and a lot of them pulled it off. The San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild, which sponsors the show, has been putting local artists in front of the public since 1915. I don’t live in Ocean Beach. I live in Santa Monica, which is also a beach town, and over the years I’ve watched plenty of places I liked there get replaced by things built for people passing
through. Most of those changes came one approval at a time, and each one sounded reasonable when it came up.

By Paul Krueger

Those of us who opposed the City Council’s rush to approve the Midway Rising development agreement were disappointed that Council Member Raul Campillo didn’t do more to stop that runaway train.

Campillo has been a reliable and extremely well-spoken advocate for good governance and financial responsibility. His opposition to the inflated trash collection fee and paid parking in Balboa Park were more than just “no” votes.

He explained in common-sense terms that both proposals were bad public policy built on flawed economic data, and he predicted the taxpayer backlash that forced the Mayor and council majority to reverse course.

Campillo harbored very serious reservations about the Midway Rising deal, but it was obvious long before Monday’s meeting that he had no support from his colleagues to rework the proposal, or even just delay its approval to allow a more complete — and perhaps independent — review of the credible concerns voiced by opponents.

In the end, Campillo cited the new supply of  affordable housing, the thousands of jobs, stronger protections for taxpayers, and the revitalization of the Midway District as reasons for approving the deal.

But Campillo’s “yes” vote was tempered by his pointed, on-the-record critique of the development deal, and a promise to hold the developers to the contract terms.

Edited from Voice of San Diego / Nov. 11, 2026

San Diego lawmakers are demanding answers after a Fay Elementary School student was taken into ICE custody last week.

The 8-year-old Haitian boy was taken into federal custody following a routine immigration check-in, according to NBC News. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to end temporary protected status for Haitians.

On Tuesday, San Diego lawmakers sent a letter to top Trump administration officials raising concerns about increased ICE activity around schools. They also requested details about the child’s whereabouts and how he’ll be reunited with his family.

On Wednesday, November 11th, 2026, Veterans/ Armistice Day,  the San Diego Veterans For Peace will be setting up its respected “Hometown Arlington West Memorial” on the front lawn of the USS Midway Museum, 910 N. Harbor Drive, near the corner of Broadway, in downtown San Diego.

Group Accuses City of Caving to Public Pressure as Local Politicians Line Up in Opposition

by Dorian Hargrove / Beach & Bay Press (Times of San Diego) / Nov. 2, 2026, 5:05 p.m.

A pro-housing advocacy group says San Diego officials are violating state housing laws by requiring special approval of a proposed 23-story mixed-use tower on Turquoise Street in Pacific Beach.

Developer Kalonymus first pitched “Project Vela” at 970 Turquoise St. in 2024. The developer proposed a 23-story tower offering 65 market-rate housing units, 10 low-income housing units, and 139 hotel units. The novel proposal would allow the developer to maximize the housing they could build by including the 139 hotel units, which would be filled through traditional long-term leases, not nightly or weekly hotel stays.

Pacific Beach residents quickly organized in opposition to the project, mostly because it exceeded the city’s 30-foot height limit on new coastal buildings.

The city has also laid out its concerns with the project.

In a December 2025 letter, San Diego planners alleged Kalonymus was trying to pawn off housing units as hotel rooms to avoid abiding by the height restrictions.

But in an Aug. 10 letter to Mayor Todd Gloria, the YIMBY Democrats of San Diego say the city is ignoring state housing laws aimed at expediting affordable housing construction.

by Dorian Hargrove / Times of San Diego / Nov. 9, 2026

A little over a month after the City of San Diego fired its top lifeguard for mishandling a sexual harassment complaint, the second-highest-ranking lifeguard is now suing the city and department for barring her from applying for the top lifeguard post, allegedly hiring a less qualified man instead.

In a newly filed lawsuit, Maureen Hodges, the city’s first and only female captain, says the city refused to let her apply for the open chief position after former Chief James Gartland was terminated in early October.

Hodges has served as a San Diego lifeguard for 20 years and currently serves as the department’s Marine Safety Captain of Strategic Operations.

Following Gartland’s termination, Hodges’ lawsuit alleges she went to acting chief Dan Eddy to inquire about applying for the open chief position.