Scripps’ Study of 2020 Red Tide IDs Low Oxygen as Major Factor in Mass Fish Die-Offs

by on April 25, 2024 · 0 comments

in California, Environment, Ocean Beach, San Diego

By Brittany Hook / Scripps – UCSD / April 25, 2024

In the spring of 2020, a historic red tide event occurred in waters off Southern California. Driven by a bloom of the dinoflagellate Lingulodinium polyedra, this event brought nighttime displays of bioluminescence to beaches along the coast, from Baja California to Santa Barbara. While the bloom gained international attention for its stunning visual displays, it also had significant negative impacts, including mass mortality among fish and other marine organisms.

Marine scientists from UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and other organizations seized the opportunity to study the unprecedented event and its impacts on marine life, both in the wild and in aquariums. In a recent study, this multi-institutional team of 34 researchers identified deteriorating water quality — notably prolonged low oxygen conditions — as a significant factor in the mass mortality event. Their findings were published in the journal Elementa, and featured in a special issue focused on the 2020 red tide.

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OB Lifeguard Fights to Keep Leg After Serious Injury Surfing in Nicaragua

by on April 25, 2024 · 0 comments

in Ocean Beach, Sports

By Chas Smith / Beach Grit / April 24, 2024

A San Diego lifeguard is back home after nearly losing his life while surfing Nicaragua. Todd Rice, 23, was in the Central American country enjoying a fine pulse of swell when a panga ran him over deeply cutting his leg. The hit nearly caused Rice to lose consciousness but he mustered the internal fortitude to fashion a tourniquet from his leash and control the bleeding until help arrived.

“I came to terms that for one, at that point, I might die. So I said my goodbyes to the gentleman that was holding my head and told him to say certain things to my family. And then secondary, if I live, I’ve already come to terms that I might lose my leg,” Rice told Fox 5 news.

When his fellow lifeguards heard about the accident, they immediately sprang into action, coordinating with U.S. Embassy in Managua. “Seeing it bring together the service, and we’re there to facilitate and remind everyone within the service and the community that we are a family,” Hailey Westwood, president of the San Diego Lifeguard Association, declared.

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A Silence Regarding Arab and Jewish Students That Needs to be Broken

by on April 25, 2024 · 2 comments

in Civil Rights, Education, From the Soul, San Diego

by Ernie McCray

The war between Israelis and Palestinians is affecting Arab and Jewish students in our schools, requiring educators to tend to the learning and emotional needs of both groups of young people.

But many Arab students claim that they aren’t getting the amount of attention that their Jewish counterparts are receiving.

These students took part in a focus group as part of a study conducted by a doctoral student who is from the local Arab American community.

Students say they’re feeling alone, unheard, extremely uncomfortable with the way the armed conflict in Gaza is discussed on their campuses. According to them, the conversations are mainly centered on what’s happening to Israelis, and their counter arguments to what they consider to be misinformation, are mostly denounced.

Many of them feel as though they’re a default “enemy,” being constantly bullied by racist jokes about what they wear or the truths they hold to, leaving them without hope that their people will ever be represented in the curriculum in positive ways.

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California Court Rules Against Pro-Density SB9

by on April 25, 2024 · 6 comments

in California

By Braden Cartwright / Daily Post -Palo Alto / April 24, 2024

Cities that are against state housing mandates have won their lawsuit against the state of California that challenged a controversial law allowing four homes on properties where only one home had been allowed before. The ruling means that Senate Bill 9 has been invalidated in charter cities, including Palo Alto, according to the lawyer who won the lawsuit.

“This is a monumental victory for all charter cities in California,” said attorney Pam Lee, who represented five Southern California cities against the state and Attorney General Rob Bonta.

Charter cities have their own local constitution, or charter. California has 121 charter cities, including Palo Alto, San Mateo, Redwood City and Mountain View.

The rest of the cities are “general law” cities, which operate under the general laws of the state. The SB9 ruling doesn’t apply to general law cities.

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SDG&E Unions Versus Public Power Advocates

by on April 25, 2024 · 2 comments

in Energy, Labor, San Diego

by MacKenzie Elmer / Voice of San Diego / April 22, 2024

The ongoing war between public power proponents and San Diego Gas & Electric looked more like a battle between the municipalization advocates and union labor Thursday [April 18].

Each team’s respective poster-bearing players – with signs that read either “fire SG&E” or “municipalization is union busting” — took turns encumbering the live feed webcast of the City Council Rules Committee’s public comment period. But almost no one from a labor union spoke in favor of the proposed government takeover of the energy grid. Proponents had hoped the City Council would consider putting up a ballot measure and spare them the burden of collecting signatures.

Nate Fairman, who represents electrical workers of IBEW Local Union 465, which holds a contract with SDG&E, told the City Council to reject the ballot measure, calling it a “direct threat” on union jobs.

Dorrie Bruggemann, campaign manager for Power San Diego, argued their proposal is pro-union and that state law requires new public utilities honor the union contracts of their previous private employer. But it wasn’t enough.

It was clear the lack of union support was the death knell for public power this round.

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A View of San Diego’s Homeless ‘Solutions’ From Los Angeles — Mega Shelters and Camping Bans

by on April 25, 2024 · 4 comments

in Homelessness, San Diego

By Ryan Fonseca / Los Angeles Times / April 24, 2024

[Please see original for links]

‘Managing mode, not solutions mode’

San Diego’s mayor created a department in 2021 to find solutions to the homelessness crisis, signaling a new direction. It hasn’t made things better.

The city’s homelessness count increased 35% from 2022 to 2023. Nearly half of the unsheltered people counted were considered chronically homeless.

Homeless deaths increased about 135% over five years, up to at least 624 last year, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s office.

For every 10 people who find housing in San Diego, 13 people become homeless for the first time, says a 2022 report by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness.

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Point Loma Garden Walk to Benefit Rady Children’s Hospital — Saturday, April 27

April 24, 2024 by Source

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Point Loma’s Remarkable Rosecroft Gardens

April 24, 2024 by Source

By Eric Duvall / Pt Loma-OB Monthly / April 16, 2024

“See that big old tree,” Scotty Hunter would say as he regaled his cronies. “Teddy Roosevelt planted that tree.”

Quite a claim, you’ll agree. The fact that the great Afrocarpus gracilior, or African fern pine, stood in a shady section of Point Loma’s Wooded Area made that pronouncement even more remarkable.

Tall tale? The big tree certainly was tall. True story? Not really, no.

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Earth Day 2024: ‘The War Against the Greens’ Is Expanding!

April 24, 2024 by Source

By David Helvarg / Daily Kos / April 22, 2024

The rightwing Heritage Foundation has written “Project 2025,” a plan for what it hopes will be a second Trump administration.  The plan calls for rapidly expanding fossil fuel emissions and includes a chapter on opening up the Department of Interior’s lands to mineral mining and oil drilling written by Wise Use veteran, William Perry Pendley.

30 years ago, I wrote a widely-read book, ‘The War Against the Greens,’ describing how a “populist” backlash against environmental laws and violence against grassroots activists was ginned up by western public lands corporations seeking to defend their federal subsidies in mining, logging and cattle grazing.

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Students at PLNU Are Angry With Administration For Disrespecting Gay Community and Chilling Free Speech

April 24, 2024 by Source

By Gary Robbins / San Diego Union-Tribune / April 20, 2024

A decision by Point Loma Nazarene University to limit the screening of a documentary about the Bible and homosexuality has angered students who say the move was disrespectful to the gay community and is having a chilling effect on free speech and academic inquiry.

The outcry is the latest in a series of controversies that have strained relations between the small, private Christian school above Sunset Cliffs and members and supporters of the LGBTQ+ community.

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Planning Groups Forced to Pay New $1,000 Fee to Appeal Projects Stifles Community Democracy

April 24, 2024 by Source

by Crystal Niebla /inewsource / April 24, 2024

Nearly two years after the city of San Diego changed longstanding policy to begin requiring community planning groups to pay for appeals, the groups’ leaders say the $1,000 fee has proven to be a barrier to fight against projects they oppose.

The appeals process allows anyone to challenge approved projects if they believe there are factual errors, new information, unsupported findings or conflicts with a city plan or rule.

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Adam Avenues Unplugged — Saturday, April 27

April 23, 2024 by Source

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PLNU Administration Pulls Film on Homosexuality at Last Minute

April 23, 2024 by Source

Student Host Group Forced to Show Film at Much Smaller Venue

By Charis Johnston / LomaBeat.com / April 1, 2024

Voices of Love (VOL), a Point Loma Nazarene University student group that provides community for LGBTQIA+ students, had been told by their faculty and staff advisors that they followed the guidelines to host an all-campus showing of the film “1946: The Mistranslation that Shifted Culture,” which discusses an alleged mistranslation responsible for the Christian condemnation of homosexuality.

Despite the event initially being approved by Jake Gilbertson, dean of students and faculty advisor to VOL, it was canceled by Mary Paul, vice president of PLNU’s Office of Student Life and Formation (SLAF) and Gilbertson, on April 1.

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Reader Rant: ‘Why I’m Breaking Up With Cox Communications’

April 23, 2024 by Source

By Kate Callen

When I felt stuck in a fractured romance just after college, a wise friend told me: If you walk out now, tomorrow is a new day. If you stay, tomorrow is the same day.
I want tomorrow to be a new day. That’s why I’m breaking up with Cox Communications.

Doomed affairs often languish until one final transgression breaks the glass. For legions of Cox customers in San Diego, that break may have come with the wholesale dumping of Cox email accounts into unwanted Yahoo email accounts.

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Friends of OB Library Newsletter April-May 2024

April 22, 2024 by Source

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California Leaders Take Sides in ‘Most Important Supreme Court Case on Homelessness in 40 Years’

April 22, 2024 by Source

by Marisa Kendall / Cal-Matters /April 18, 2024

The U.S. Supreme Court is about to hear the biggest case about homelessness in decades, and it seems like everyone in California has an opinion. At issue: whether and under what conditions cities can fine or arrest people for camping in public spaces. The ruling will have nationwide implications for how local leaders manage homeless encampments.

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Mayor Gloria Fined $10,500 for Not Disclosing Donations

April 22, 2024 by Source

By Jeff McDonald / San Diego Union-Tribune / April 16, 2024

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria acknowledged in a public filing last week that he repeatedly violated the law by not reporting a series of contributions made to charities by outside donors at his behest.

According to the San Diego Ethics Commission, Gloria failed to properly report 10 separate contributions he solicited from private contributors —

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The Lessons of Indigenous Sustainability: a Path for San Diego

April 22, 2024 by Source

By Joely Proudfit / San Diego Union-Tribune OpEd / April 18, 2024 

Earth Day serves as a poignant reminder of our collective responsibility to the planet. In San Diego, where the beauty and biodiversity of our environment are as integral to our identity as the cityscape itself, this day provides an opportunity not just for celebration, but for deep reflection and learning — especially from the Native communities who have inhabited these lands for millennia.

The Kumeyaay, Payómkawichum, Kuupangaxwichem, Ipai peoples, along with other indigenous groups

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An Open letter to San Diego from the Baristas of Better Buzz Hillcrest Who Wish to Unionize

April 19, 2024 by Source

By Katy Jae Waldman

San Diego is a beacon of equality, progress, and acceptance that makes it unlike anywhere else in the world. It is a vibrant and lively place with a diverse and powerful
community. San Diego takes care of its people, and we are proud of it. But unfortunately, the people that keep us clothed, fed, and caffeinated are suffering at the hands of their employers.

Amidst their rapid growth, it has become clear that Better Buzz Coffee is no exception to this. It seems that their pitch decks and investor meetings left out how their wageworkers were to share the spoils of their achievement. Their profits are soaring, but their workers are hurting.

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There Are Too Few Historical Markers in San Diego Noting Kumeyaay Past

April 19, 2024 by Source

By Amita Sharma / KPBS / April 18, 2024

Scan the crowd-sourced Historical Marker Database’s 375 entries for San Diego County and you’ll see a lot about Spanish colonial, early American settler and U.S. military pasts.

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Good News Roundup for Friday, April 19, 2024

April 19, 2024 by Source

By chloris creator /Daily Kos / Friday, April 19, 2024

There’s lots of good news out there! Polling looks better for President Biden! tRump is sleeping in the courtroom! And he is IN a courtroom.

And there are bad things that did not happen! Gee, last weekend it looked as if things were getting much, much worse in the Middle East! (Note: there were some bombs last night. That’s not good — but the Biden admin is working to deescalate.) The Senate dispensed with the stupid Mayorkas impeachment.

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‘Hey You! Get Up! We’ve Outlawed Sleeping in Public!’

April 19, 2024 by Source

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Why San Diego Should Not Be Awarded Anything for Its ‘Bonus ADU’ Program — Not One ADU Unit Has Been Built as Low-Income Housing

April 18, 2024 by Source

By Paul Krueger

Mayor Todd Gloria is bragging about our city’s selection as a finalist for the “Ivory Prize for Housing Affordability.”

“This award honors feasible and scalable solutions to housing affordability,” the Mayor boasted on Twitter/X.

The non-profit that sponsors the awards was equally effusive. “The City has taken ADUs to the next level by allowing homeowners to build additional ADUs on their property, an unprecedented move that allows the City to rapidly increase (its) supply and density of affordable housing,” said Hannah Gable, Director of Strategy and Operations for Ivory Innovations.

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2 New Projects Proposed for West Point Loma Boulevard in Ocean Beach

April 18, 2024 by Staff

The City of San Diego has just sent out public notices for two new projects proposed for West Point Loma Boulevard, one at 5184 and the other at 4954.

5184 West Pt Loma

This is an application for a Coastal Development Permit and related permit to demolish the existing single-story duplex and build a 3-story building with 4 rental units. When and if it is built it will be a 3,865 square-foot multi-dwelling unit residential building with associated site improvements at 5184 & 5184 1 /2 West Point Loma. It will be a Process 4 permit application for the 0.1 -acre site.

This project should go before the OB Planning Board.

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8 ADUs in 3-Story Complex Proposed for 4500 Block of Pescadero in Point Loma

April 18, 2024 by Staff

A 3-story multi-family building consisting of 8 ADUs is being proposed for the 4500 block of Pescadero Avenue in Point Loma.

The city of San Diego just sent the public notice out on April 15 about the application for a Coastal Development Permit for 4591 Pescadero.

Applicant Chandra Slaven wants to build a 3,836 square-feet three-story detached multifamily building consisting of (8) accessory dwelling units —
>

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Lot’s Going on Across the Street From the Loma Golf Course — It’s the 74 Hawley Lofts

April 17, 2024 by Source

As usual, Peninsula News has the answers:

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 The Beat of the Drums Goes On

April 17, 2024 by Ernie McCray

(Written for a Black Student Union Coalition Conference)

by Ernie McCray

Sometimes I hear
the beat of the drums.
African drums.
In moments of quiet solitude
when my mind
is in tune
with my people’s
never-ending struggle
for liberty and justice
in America,
a country we built,
from daybreak
to sunset,
with our backs
bent over under the weight of cotton sacks.

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Reader Rant on the New Warehouse Plan for San Diego’s Unhoused Citizens

April 17, 2024 by Frank Gormlie

By Lisa Mortensen / April 7, 2024

Dear Councilmembers:

In a few weeks’ time, you will be thrown a political football and it’s called Vine and Kettner.  Now, I know the local news media and the current city hall lobbyists will refer to us as NIMBYs but I hope you will see through the smoke and mirrors and make an educated decision on this fast-moving project before giving it a dutiful approval to satisfy Todd Gloria’s political intentions.

I will provide below a summary of bullet points that should be your guide to this very complicated project. 

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Open Letter to Councilwoman Campbell on ‘Complete Communities’ from Point Loma Homeowner

April 17, 2024 by Source

Dear Councilwoman Jennifer Campbell,

By Vance Murphy

PLEASE, this must stop!

The proposed CCHS (Complete Communities Housing Solutions) is apparently proceeding without sufficient evidence of mitigating its potential detrimental impacts and ‘peer reviewed’ examples of successful implementations that serve as models for deployment.  I must therefore presume that this is an ‘experiment’ without appropriate oversight.

I feel that the Mayor, City Council and all involved parties must expose and explain this plan to the entire affected population with sufficient time to perform a validation of intent, impact and avoidance of ‘unintended consequences’.  

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More Ideas on Fixing San Diego’s Short-Term Rental Ordinance

April 17, 2024 by Source

Year-old law isn’t strong enough on Tier 2 rentals, hosts, enforcement, density and impact on long-term housing.

By Trudy Grundland / La Jolla Light Op-Ed/ April  ,2024

The first anniversary of the city of San Diego’s short-term vacation rental ordinance is May 1. The ordinance is good but has several gray areas that need fixing sooner rather than later:

• Tier 2: the cheater’s tier [home-share rentals where the owner lives onsite]. It’s impossible to regulate and enforce. In my opinion, this is what hosts will use. San Diego has 650,000 housing units. Hypothetically, they could all become Tier 2’s. There is nothing to prevent this from happening. Tier 2’s are not counted in the quotas. They can be rented full time as STVRs for nine months of the year. There’s no way to enforce.

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