Slumlord Michael “Micky” Mills Has Over 100 Short-term Vacation Rental Licenses in Ocean Beach
In a letter fired off to Mayor Gloria and members of the City Council, the Ocean Beach Planning Board is demanding changes to the short-term rental law that has allowed one person to be granted licenses for over one hundred properties — all in OB.
The Board has determined that one owner, Michael “Micky” Mills has obtained 115 short-term vacation rental licenses through a loophole in the poorly written ordinance passed by the city council last year. That’s only one part of it. Mills is evicting tenants out of his properties in OB in order to convert them to STVRs.
The letter came as a result of Wednesday night’s packed meeting of the Planning Board.
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Editordude: NBC7 just published an amazing investigate report by Alexis Riva on the “host” loophole that has allowed Michael Micky Mills to have 114 licenses for short-term rentals in Ocean Beach alone. It’s such an excellent report that we are compelled to repost it in its entirety and urge readers to watch the NBC7 video that accompanies it.
By Alexis Rivas, Mike Dorfman, Meredith Royster and Jay Yoo / NBC7 / June 7, 2023
On May 1, San Diego’s short term rental occupancy ordinance took effect. The goal was to regulate an industry that’s accused of reducing the number of places people can live and decrease quality-of-life issues that can arise between vacationers and locals. But it appears at least one property owner in Ocean Beach has discovered a loophole that bypasses the spirit of the ordinance.
Each short-term rental license requires a “host.” That person must have the legal right to occupy the unit. A host isn’t allowed to hold more than one license at a time.
But a host isn’t the same thing as the property owner, and NBC 7 Investigates found a single property owner named Michael Mills is connected to 114 short-term rental licenses in Ocean Beach.
NBC 7 Investigates spoke with three of Mills’ tenants at 5188 West Point Loma Blvd, who recently found a letter on their doors giving them 60 days’ notice that their month-to-month leases would not be renewed.
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The Ocean Beach Pier Renewal Project Community Workshop is occurring this Saturday, June 10th, from 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. at the Liberty Station Conference Center, 2600 Laning Road. This is the 2nd in-person Community Workshop on the pier held by the city.
Whether the pier will reopen in early July does not appear on the workshop’s agenda, but there are so many recent rumors flying around Ocean Beach that it will that it’s sure to be a top question from the audience. Perhaps by its anniversary on July 2nd or by July 4th.
But, the City ready wants the “public to provide input about what features they would like to see included in an ideal Ocean Beach Pier,” so much so that it’s offering free ice cream, fishing poles for the first 20 kids, and a bunch of adult fishing poles to be raffled off. As the pier is really a regional pier, the city ” is encouraging residents from throughout the region to attend and to bring their kids.”
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San Diego police arrested a motorcycle rider Tuesday night in connection with a large brawl outside a bar in Ocean Beach that ended with one man being stabbed and a second being knocked unconscious.
The incident began when three men — ages 19, 20 and 21 — got in an argument with several bikers outside a bar on Newport Avenue near Bacon Street. The argument turned physical and more people jumped into the fight, with 30 to 40 involved, said police Officer John Buttle said.
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In most major U.S. cities you will find common street names like Broadway, Market, Oak, Elm, First, Second, etc. But in Southern California, one unique street name found in two cities transcends real history and hip-hop history: Rosecrans.
Rosecrans Avenue is a major, 27-mile thoroughfare in Los Angeles and Orange counties. It is also a bustling street in the Point Loma area of San Diego.
So where does the name come from?
William Starke Rosecrans was born in Delaware County, Ohio in 1819. He was a brigadier general for the Union during the American Civil War and, according to the National Parks Service, “was largely responsible for the Union’s early victories in northern Virginia at the Battles of Rich Mountain and Corrick’s Ford.”
Rosecrans’ military success, however, abruptly came to an end at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863 – the second bloodiest battle of the Civil War behind Gettysburg.
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The owner of Harry’s Coffee Shop has opened a new outpost of sister concepts Cass Street Bar & Grill and Harry’s Taco Club in Ocean Beach’s former Japanese restaurant, Sopporo at 5049 Newport Avenue. Sopporo was a favorite of locals and was the first Japanese eatery in OB.
Earlier this year, the space was taken over by the local hospitality group operated by John Rudolph, who owns Harry’s Taco Club and Cass Street Bar & Grill in Pacific Beach. The space briefly housed JJ’s Bar & Grill.
The new space is the modernized Cass Street Bar & Grill and Harry’s Taco Shop joint-concept, which first unveiled in Pacific Beach in 2020.
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