OB Rag

San Diego City Councilmember Raul Campillo says he has found a pot of money the city can use to re-open more than a dozen Mission Bay restrooms closed in early July as part of budget cutting. He wants the city to use “the $1.8 million in budgeted election costs that were freed up last month when a possible November ballot measure got postponed,” as the U-T reported yesterday.

The freed-up money became available last month when the council’s Rules Committee delayed indefinitely — but at least until 2028 — a ballot measure proposed by Councilmember Kent Lee to shrink the mayor’s power, reports the U-T.

By closing 13 of the 28 restrooms that serve tourists and locals alike at Mission Bay Park, the city is saving a whopping $546,000 in maintenance and cleaning costs.

Campillo says the closures are creating a public health hazard because park visitors have begun relieving themselves in grassy areas and other locations. In a July 15th memo to the mayor, Campillo wrote,

“Redirecting those funds would address an immediate community need and help restore a basic public service that is essential to the safe and enjoyable use of Mission Bay Park. Our constituents have asked for it.”

Yet Mayor Gloria rejects Campillo’s proposal. He claimed he shares the councilmember’s concerns, but says it would be financially risky to reopen the restrooms using the newly available money.

The Port of San Diego has officially named a beach at Spanish Landing “Kumeyaay Beach,” acknowledging and responding to years of efforts by local Kumeyaay tribespeople to do such.

At a July 14th meeting of San Diego Port’s Board of Commissioners, the beach’s renaming was approved.

Before the vote on the renaming, Jessie Pinto, an elder of the Kumeyaay Nation, spoke:

“The name, ‘Kumeyaay Beach,’ is more than a sign. This is an opportunity to acknowledge the first people of the land, to tell a more complete story of San Diego. The visitors who see this may ask, ‘Who are the Kumeyaays?’ The simple question opens the door to education, understanding and respect.”

Members of the Kumeyaay Nation have long advocated for giving this beach a name, due to its cultural significance.

By Mark Powell / Times of San Diego / July27, 2026

For years, many of us have been saying the same thing: San Diego is not a bike-friendly city. In five or ten years, I believe many of today’s decision-makers will look back and realize the concerns raised by residents and business owners were not resistance to change; they were grounded in reality.

Unlike many European cities, San Diego was designed around the automobile. European cities evolved over hundreds of years, often between 500 and 1,000 years ago, with compact neighborhoods, narrow streets, and destinations within walking or biking distance. San Diego developed very differently.

Our communities are spread out, our roads are wider, our destinations are farther apart, and our terrain includes countless steep hills. For many people, riding a bicycle is simply not a practical way to get to work, school or run errands.

Supporters of expanded bike lanes often point to ambitious goals for increasing bicycle commuting. There’s nothing wrong with encouraging cycling, but public policy should reflect how people actually choose to travel. Most San Diegans rely on their cars because they need to.

Families juggle work, school, sports, shopping and appointments that often require driving across several neighborhoods in a single day. That reality is unlikely to change simply because more bike lanes are painted on our streets.

Meeting Organized by Several Local Planning Groups

A number of local community planning groups have organized what they’re calling a “Town Hall” to discuss and debate several key development projects facing this area of San Diego: The Peninsula Community Planning Board, the Uptown Community Planning Group, Old Town Community Planning group and Protect Pt Loma Community Association are co-sponsoring this event. (Interesting that the OB Planning Board is not included.) The issues:

• NAVWAR redevelopment project
• Midway Rising for the sports arena area
• Senate Bill 958 aiming to pave the way for Midway Rising

It’s all happening:

Tuesday, July 28th, 2026
6pm – 7:30pm
Pt Loma Library
3701 Voltaire Street
San Diego, CA 92107

Organizers say they will have a brief presentation on the background and serious consequences if the Midway Rising and NAVWAR projects are approved.  Then they will open up the forum to public comment and discussion.  This meeting will be recorded, and they say they will send this to each of the Assembly members who sit on the Appropriations Committee the first week of August.

By Marc Elias / Democracy Docket / July 27, 2026

Election Day is less than 100 days away.

Donald Trump is deeply unpopular. The Republican Party has little to show for its time in power. Prices are up, and the economy is stagnant. We are at war in the Middle East.

The GOP is not acting like a party trying to persuade voters to support its candidates — because it isn’t. Instead, the Republican Party’s entire strategy boils down to this:

1. Change the rules and misuse government resources to make it harder for Democratic voters to cast ballots.
2. Control and manipulate voter registration databases to disqualify enough Democrats from voting.
3. If all else fails, make false claims of fraud as an excuse to subvert the results.

Four AP Reporters / July 26, 2026

What’s for dinner? Lately, at Apral Jack’s house, it’s whatever is on sale.

Jack, 50, scouts an app for deals at her local supermarket before she buys groceries. When she reaches the store, she looks in the weekly circular for coupons she might have missed. If shelf prices look too high, she tries to find lower prices someplace else.

“The apples went up here, the ones I eat, so now I’m not going to get them here,” Jack said as she pushed a cart into a Stop & Shop near her home in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Couponing, comparison shopping and cutting back on favorite foods are new habits for her and millions of other Americans as they absorb the biggest jump in grocery prices in a half-century. Buying food to eat at home has gotten 33% more expensive since the beginning of 2019, according to government figures.

With a conflict in the Middle East creating more price pressures, the cost of filling refrigerators, freezers and pantries has made affordability a central issue in the fall midterm elections.

by Debbie L. Sklar / Times of San Diego / July 22, 2026

Before there was Del Mar, there was another racetrack.

There’s no sign of it today, but Pacific Beach once had a racetrack — and for a brief period in the 1880s, it became one of the region’s most notable gathering places.

Today, Pacific Beach is known for its boardwalk, beach traffic, and nightlife. In the late 19th century, however, it was part of a developing coastal landscape shaped by real estate speculation, rail expansion, and ambitious efforts to create destination communities.

One of the most ambitious of those early projects was the Pacific Beach Driving Park, also known as the American Driving Park, a horse racing facility established during San Diego’s 1880s land boom.

The track was developed in 1887 after the Southern California Breeders’ Association acquired property for a formal racing venue. Located on what was then undeveloped land near Pacific Beach, the site included a racetrack, stables, and a grandstand designed to support organized races and public events while also helping promote surrounding land sales.

On Sunday July 26, the OB Task Force on Homelessness announced the results of a survey their volunteers performed of folks suffering from homelessness earlier that day. And they counted 65 souls.

They reported:

Observational Survey update:
– new high of 65 souls counted on just 15 blocks of downtown OB on a Sunday morning as tourists and families start going to church and breakfast.

By Geoff Page

This is a Public Service Announcement – for anyone hiking in the Sunset Cliffs Park south of Ladera Street.

After 40 plus years of discounting stories of rattlesnakes in the park, I was completely shocked to find one in the middle of a well-traveled path on Friday, July 24th. There was no doubt what it was.

The photo above shows what it looked like when I turned a corner and saw what appeared to be a stick. This picture is not the actual snake. Had I been a member of the younger generation that reaches for their cell phone cameras immediately, I could have had a picture.

Editordude: Nadia Lathan at Voice of San Diego just published a great read on the latest on Midway Rising and Senate Bill 958 — although she doesn’t mention NAVWAR — and it’s worth your time to catch up on this complex set of issues that will, if enacted, drastically affect all residents and visitors to the Peninsula. She hits most of the key issues, although not everyone, but does wet our appetites. So, try to get to it over the weekend. Here it is:

Voice of San Diego dated July 24, 2026.

San Diego officials are moving full-steam ahead to get one of their chief policy priorities to the finish line before the legislative session wraps up next month.

Senate Bill 958 would make it easier to build a 165-foot-tall sports arena in the Midway District neighborhood by giving broad exemptions to building height restrictions in the California Environmental Quality Act, the state’s preeminent environmental law.

It allows the lawsuit-ridden Midway Rising project, which includes housing and the arena, to skirt the neighborhood’s 30-foot height limit for buildings near the coast.

Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, a Democrat who represents Midway District, is authoring the bill.

Business and housing groups lobbying for the bill expect smooth sailing from here: It cleared a June hearing in the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources with unanimous support. That came after the bill was changed from its initial, more ambitious version introduced in February, when city officials sought to exempt all parts of the project from CEQA.

YIMBY Democrats of San Diego helped craft the legislation with the mayor’s office, which has been doing whatever it can to get the 16,000-seat arena off the ground amid yearslong local opposition.

By Debbie L. Sklar / Special to the OB Rag

Today, Encanto is one of southeastern San Diego’s best-known communities, with a history that reflects both the opportunities and challenges experienced by many urban neighborhoods.

First promoted to homebuyers in the early 1900s, developers envisioned a place of orchards, small farms, and country living connected to downtown by rail. The name itself—Encanto, the Spanish word for “enchantment” or “charm”—dates to 1889 and reflected the area’s appeal as an attractive place to settle. From its rural beginnings to its evolution into one of southeastern San Diego’s most recognizable neighborhoods, Encanto’s history mirrors San Diego’s own growth. Here are eight facts that helped shape the community.

1. It Began as a Community of “Suburban Homes and Small Farms”

When the Encanto Heights subdivision was created in 1907, developers promoted it as a place for “suburban homes and small farms.”

Buyers could purchase five- and 10-acre parcels where they could grow orchards, tend gardens,s and even keep livestock. It was a far cry from the suburban neighborhood people know today.

By Dan Plante / Yahoo KUSI / Wed, July 22, 2026

San Diego Bay was once considered among the most polluted waterways in America. That was then; this is now.

According to environmental watchdog San Diego Coastkeeper, the Big Bay is bouncing back in a big way.

“We did water quality testing for an entire year at different locations around San Diego Bay. We were all a little surprised at how clean it is. I would actually go swimming here. San Diego Bay is cleaner than Mission Bay right now,” said Phillip Musegaas of San Diego Coastkeeper.

 It’s taken decades to reach this point. At one point in history, the bay was an open dumping ground for industrial waste.

Since then, tons of toxic sludge and solid waste have been dredged from the floor of the bay.