OB Rag

In an episode right out of the sixties satirical movie, “Dr. Stranglove,” with Peter Sellers, it was announced after the El Paso airport was shut down by the FAA initially for 10 days — only to have it rescinded within hours, that the U.S. military shot down what it initially assessed to be a suspicious drone near El Paso only to later determine the object was … a party balloon.

OMG! Are the people at the top of the FAA so incompetent that an international incident was caused — and then averted — because a party balloon was mistaken for a drone at the border?

The moment should be called, ‘How I Stopped Worrying About the Mexican Cartel Drones.”

[Dear reader: do you recall where the expression, “Heavens to murgatroyd” was popularized?]

Here’s an update from Newsweek:

Fox News first reported that the airborne object was intercepted after raising concerns of a potential drone operating near the southern border. Officials later concluded the object was not an unmanned aircraft but a party balloon, a U.S. official told the outlet.

It’s another one of those ‘who’s minding the store?’ moments for San Diego leaders. As U-T reporter David Garrick explained yesterday, Feb. 11:

A new audit finds San Diego is missing out on millions that could help close budget deficits by not aggressively updating leases for Fairbanks Ranch Country Club and seven other golf facilities the city owns but doesn’t operate.

Does this sound familiar? As Balboa Park patrons are forced to shell out good money for parking and as city residents are saddled with new fees, Garrick reports this new “audit criticizes city officials for allowing expired leases to remain in place at below-market rates despite golf’s sharp increase in popularity since the COVID-19 pandemic began.”

Again, we ask, ‘which middle manager(s) making 6-figures are/ were overseeing this branch of the city?’ How did these highly-paid servants of the public miss this? Who is/ was responsible for regular site inspections of the golf courses? Who allowed the leases to lapse, causing them to remain in place “at below market-rates”, costing San Diego millions?

The budget crises have forced city leaders to contemplate cutting back on hours and services of our public recreations centers and public libraries, and to attach fees to just about every service or resource the city “provides”.

Here’s the rest of Garrick’s report:

In fiscal year 2024, the city earned only $3.7 million in lease revenue despite the eight properties — seven courses and the Lake Hodges driving range — generating $34 million in revenue.

PL-OB Monthly reporter Steven Mihailovich had a great piece on the OB Planning Board and its latest meeting on February 3 in the Feb. 11th issue of  Point Loma – OB Monthly  which is published by the SDU-T.

The most interesting part of his report for us was when he summarized in detail what some OBceans commented on during the Public Non-Agenda segment of the Board’s agenda. They had attended to raise concerns and support for their efforts to preserve OB’s historic district in order to prevent large-scale, super-dense or too-high new construction in the community.

Mihailovich’s account that follows raises very important details that OBceans need to acquaint themselves with because they go to the very existential heart of OB’s character.

Here is his report:

‘Emerging’ historical district
During non-agenda public comments at the board meeting, Barbara Houlton and Lynne Miller of the nonprofit organization Coastal Caretakers addressed an expected City Council vote Tuesday, Feb. 24, on adopting legislation called “Preservation and Progress Package A.”

If passed, the package would limit the status of Ocean Beach’s “emerging” historical district to the 72 beach cottages already designated historic and potentially open the rest of Ocean Beach to the city’s “Complete Communities” development rules.

Coastal Commission Public Hearing Keeps Getting Postponed

By Quinn Welsch / Courthouse News Service / January 30, 2026

For Ghalia Mohder, “the Knoll” is more than just a tall mesa overlooking the view at Scripps Coastal Reserve along the San Diego coastline.

Mohder said that she first discovered the Knoll — and its historic view of the Pacific Ocean — during her freshman year at University of California San Diego after a resident advisor in her college dorm took her and some other students for a visit.

“To be honest, ever since then I was hooked,” she said. “You could always go to La Jolla Shores and it’s a big public place, there was partying going on. This place was different. The people who went there, went there to enjoy the scenery.”

But public access to the Knoll has remained locked behind a gate along the mansion-lined La Jolla Farms Road community since 2020.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the university has restricted public access to a small number of people each week. Despite the passage of six years and multiple scheduled public hearings at the California Coastal Commission, that access remains limited and no resolution is apparent.

The Scripps Coastal Reserve is a nearly 1,000-acre reserve owned by UCSD that encompasses sandy shores, coastal canyons, a steep cliff face, and mesa top — the latter of which is known as the Mesa or Knoll, which overlooks a sweeping view of the ocean.

The beach remains open from other publicly available locations, but the gate to the Knoll and its beach trail has remained locked, despite the state’s lifting of Covid-19 precautions in 2023.

Efforts by the California Coastal Commission to bring the UCSD’s future plans for the Scripps Coastal Reserve to a public hearing have so far not been fruitful. Starting in 2024, permit applications for a managed access plan have been submitted, extended and withdrawn, only to start all over again.

By Julie Gallant / San Diego Union-Tribune / January 22, 2026

Poway’s Kumeyaay-Ipai Interpretive Center is considered a sacred site in part because the rock formations around it resemble animals.

A large rock outcropping at the top of the 5-acre site off Poway Road includes shapes in the form of a turtle, bottlenose dolphin and a small whale, Docent Robert Holton pointed out on a Jan. 17 tour.

According to the Native American creation story, humans and animals and even plants are all equal, Holton told his group.

“They spoke to each other and had a partnership in life,” he said. “What might be natural shapes in stones reminds them of animals and makes this site sacred.”

The interpretive center at 13104 Ipai Waaypuk Trail is one of five Kumeyaay villages in the Poway area. The others are on Garden Road and at Sycamore Canyon, Twin Peaks and Sabre Springs.

Kumeyaay translates as “those who face the water from a cliff.” Ipai indicates their territory. The Kumeyaay indigenous people who live north of the San Diego River in Mission Valley are known as Ipai and those who live south of the river in Southern California and Baja California, Mexico are referred to as Tipai.

by Dave Schwab / Times of San Diego / Jan. 21, 2026

Liberty Station’s historic North Chapel, closed since the previous tenant proposed modernizing the building to convert it into a restaurant and event venue, has been reopened and repurposed.

The World War II-era North Chapel accommodates 320 guests for weddings, services, meetings, or other special occasions. Since 1942, the building has hosted Navy services, weddings, memorials, and numerous other community events.

The chapel was officially reopened last December by Michael Esposito, founder of Snake Oil Venue Co. He is also co-founder and chief executive officer of Snake Oil Cocktail Co.

Esposito took over for the previous tenant, 828 Events, which had proposed altering the historical building to adapt it for possible new uses. That notion drew serious blowback from some preservationists and neighbors, who dismissed the character-altering chapel proposal as being insensitive and inappropriate to the building and its original design and mission.

By Kate Callen

The tangled saga of Mayor Todd Gloria’s decision to monetize parking in Balboa Park has taken a new and interesting twist.

San Diego County Crimestoppers is offering up to $1,000 reward for tips leading to the arrest of suspects “responsible for multiple cases of felony vandalism to [52] parking pay stations located throughout the Balboa Park area.”

According to the February 10 announcement, “The suspect(s) vandalized the parking pay stations by spray-painting them, shattering the digital glass screens, and placing a sticky substance on the keypads deeming them inoperable. The total cost of the damages is estimated to be approximately $77,500.”

The notice included pictures of kiosks that were smashed and covered with paint. It didn’t include pictures of a more common sight around the park: kiosks plastered with Todd Gloria name tags and petitions for Gloria’s recall.

The OB Rag does not condone vandalism. Destroying public property as a form of protest is counterproductive.

A locally-based real estate company has just purchased a huge, 180-unit project in the Point Loma / Midway area — the site of the former Barnard Elementary School.

MG Properties, a San Diego-based multifamily real estate investment firm, announced the purchase of Dylan Point Loma Apartments, a massive piece of property that opened in 2016 consisting of one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans. The colorful announcement states that the project is “complemented by a resort-style saltwater pool, a fitness center, community club house, a conference room, game lounge, demonstration kitchen, dog park and a volleyball court.”

It’s “colorful” because although the announcement claims the project is in “Point Loma,” it’s actually situated in the more problematic neighborhood of the Midway District, which is beset with a large homeless population, fast-food joints, malls and shopping centers, often described in negative terms by urban planners, police and developers. In contrast, the announcement asserts “Dylan Point Loma is situated in one of San Diego’s most desirable coastal submarkets, offering residents convenient access to major employment centers, beaches, dining, and entertainment.”

The purchase price was undisclosed. MG Properties bought the site which has a formal address as 2930 Barnard St, San Diego, CA 92110, from JLL Income Property Trust.

A man who was responsible for punching another guy in Ocean Beach so hard that he fell and hit his head on the pavement, lapsing into a coma and dying 3 months later, has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

Andrew Phillip Restrepo, 34, had been charged with the murder of Sean Glenn for administering what was called a “Superman punch”, agreed to the new charge and having the murder charge dropped, just before he was to stand trial.

The incident occurred on May 10, 2023 in the 5000 block of Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach. Restrepo also pleaded guilty to felony assault for punching another man on an MTS bus in the Midway area in a month before the fatal encounter.  Restrepo was arrested in August 2024.

By Donna Frye

Back in the mid ‘90s, I remember going to city council meetings to speak on issues that were important to me such as clean water and the public’s right to know what its government is doing and why.

I showed up because I hoped it would make a difference and also to help educate the public about their right to participate in government decisions, before, and not after, the decision was made. The open meeting laws that require public decisions to be made in public are known as the Brown Act. It also includes laws about public participation and remedies if the laws are not followed.

More often than not, however, I would wait hours to speak for my two or three minutes only to be made to feel like what I had to say didn’t matter; it felt like the decisions had been made in advance of the public meeting.

I referred to this exercise as “going through the drill.” The Brown Act refers to it as a collective concurrence and it’s not allowed. But it was usually really hard to prove.

Marimar Martinez is the Chicago woman who was shot 5 times by an ICE agent back in October 2025 and who lived to testify about it before a Congressional committee last week.

Because her testimony was edited by every news network and effectively back paged for lack of a better term, we here quote verbatim Marimar Martinez’ testimony before Congress in it’s entirety, just weeks after getting shot 5 times and leaving 7 bullet holes by ICE. This is the testimony that should have been heard by every American and heard around the world. Marimar Martinez testimony should have dominated the news cycle last week:

To the Rag reader who sent us the following, “Marimar is strength and love personified. This is what courage looks like, and she is an example for us all.”

[00:00:00:30 – 00:00:01:57]

Thank you for having me here.

[00:00:02:57 – 00:00:13:55]

Before I begin, I would like to take a moment to express my gratitude. Thank you, Chairman, for giving me the opportunity to be here today, for taking the time to hear my testimony.

City News Service – Times of SD /  Feb. 6, 2026

A San Diego federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to return three families that he ruled were deported unlawfully.

U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw wrote in a Thursday, Feb.5, ruling that the deportations “clearly violated the spirit” of a 2023 settlement agreement that he approved, which sought to reunite and provide services for families separated at the southern border.

“Each of the removals was unlawful, and absent the removals, these families would still be in the United States and have access to the benefits and resources they are entitled to under the Settlement Agreement,” the judge wrote.

Sabraw, who has in previous rulings found that the Trump administration has violated the terms of the settlement, wrote that the family members were removed despite legally being in the U.S. on parole.