Grassroots and Progressive views on local, national and world news

Midway Planners Celebrate Council Approval of Community Plan and Turn to Impact Fee Study

by Source on September 24, 2018 · 0 comments

by Geoff Page

The Midway-Pacific Community Planning Board’s September 19 meeting was something of a celebration because the city council voted on Monday, September 17, to approve the long awaited community plan. Councilmember Zapf’s office even sent over two boxes of pastries for the occasion. The process is not yet over. Because part of the Midway area is under the jurisdiction of the Coastal Commission, the plan has to go there next, although no one expects any problems.

Impact Fee Study

The board is now turning its attention to the Impact Fee Study that is being implemented for the Midway area. As stated in the document presented to the board by Angela Abeyta from Facilities Planning, the purpose of the IFS is to “provide a list of facilities that are needed to implement the goals of the community plan and to develop applicable Development Impact Fees or DIFs” that will be paid by new development. The fees includes $7,975 for each new dwelling unit built and $748 for non-residential development. The imbalance was notable.

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How Does My Garden Grow? Farewell to Summer… Welcome Autumn

by Source on September 24, 2018 · 1 comment

By Kathy Blavatt

The end of summer has left me with an unwieldy forest that needs tending as autumn sets in. But with all the work it entails, my garden that was once primarily grass in 2004, has now grown into life force that only nature can create. Much like a watercolor painting, where as an artist throws ideas and paint onto a canvas, it metamorphoses into its own creation. The unexpected can and does happen.

Fourteen years of mulching, weeding, planting, and trimming, have brought beauty and death in the harmonic way nature works. September has brought multiple dragon fruit blooms!

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Restaurant Review: Cafe Rio

by Judi Curry on September 24, 2018 · 1 comment

Restaurant Review

CAFÉ RIO
3309 Rosecrans St.
San Diego, CA 92110
(Loma Square Shopping Center)
619-488-6849
Caferio.com

Editordude: When you have two foodie restaurant reviewers, sometimes the reviews end up differently. That’s the case here. Bob Edwards did a review of this eatery back in March and called it “soulless food“. Today Judi Curry has another perspective.

I have heard many different things about this restaurant. Some were very positive; some were negative. I have tried to review it several times with different people but for some reason never got to it until today, when Candy and Irene agreed to trying it out with me. I had no idea what to expect, and told them nothing about what I had heard so that they could form their own opinion.

Physically the restaurant is cavernous. Tables all along the walls, in the middle of the room, with the ordering down at the far end of the building. It is definitely cafeteria style, and as you get in line to place your order

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20th Annual OB Pier Pancake Breakfast a Success – Photo Gallery

by Frank Gormlie on September 24, 2018 · 0 comments

It was another success for its sponsors – the 20th Annual OB Pier Pancake Breakfast – now history but not forgotten.

Over 700 tickets were sold – a bevy of politicians showed – it was a great event, a wonderful breakfast by Breakfast Republic, and a fascinating dedication by the many volunteers.

The Ocean Beach Town Council can place another feather in its multi-tiered hat.

It was the social event of the season – and conveniently placed just before an election, as the pols came out.

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Trump to Meet With Rosenstein on Thursday After Rumors Swirl He’d Be Fired

September 24, 2018 by Frank Gormlie

Are We About to Witness Trump’s “Saturday Night Massacre”?

President Trump will meet with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein this Thursday, September 27, in the White House after rumors and speculation swirled today, Monday, through Washington DC and the mainstream media that Rosenstein was about to be fired today.

Rosenstein did go to the White House today – and initially the White House reported he was coming to resign – something the Department of Justice at the same time denied. Trump is in New York attending the United Nations conference. Rosenstein also attended a previously scheduled “Principles Committee” meeting at the White House in place of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Rosenstein did meet with Chief of Staff John Kelly – but a couple hours later – in a definite photo op – Kelly was seen shaking Rosenstein’s hand having walked him out of the White House after the meeting. Reportedly Kelly never does that with someone who has come to the White House for a meeting. But today he did – and Kelly looked directly into one of the many television cameras posed to record anything historic just over the fence of the White House.

So, Rod Rosenstein is still the Deputy Attorney General and is still overseeing the Mueller investigation into whether the Trump campaign and administration worked with the Russians to undermine the 2016 Presidential election. Today he is still.

But will happen Thursday when Trump returns from New York? Will Trump fire him then? Or will Rosenstein resign?

After the Education Wars: Someone Needs to Save Us from Our Billionaire Saviors

September 24, 2018 by Jim Miller

After failing to prop-up Antonio Villaraigosa’s flagging gubernatorial campaign last June, Michael Bloomberg apparently spent the summer pondering whether it would be wiser for him to personally save the United States rather than waste his time trying to rescue California by proxy. Last week the New York Times reported that Bloomberg was mulling a run for the Presidency as a Democrat because that represented the most viable path to victory. As the Times story observed, while Bloomberg has engaged in some good work on guns and the environment, many of his other positions might not be very likely to win over the liberal base of the Democratic Party.

Richard Carrico in Ocean Beach and His Story of Warner Springs Ranch

September 21, 2018 by Frank Gormlie

Before a good-sized audience of at least 80 people who had assembled in the old pews of the Water’s Edge Faith Community church, Richard Carrico – the well-known archeologist, writer and lecturer – entertained with his stories of Warner Springs Thursday evening, the 20th of September. Carrico appears in Ocean Beach once a year to give lectures – mostly about the native peoples of San Diego County – and this time was no different. Accompanied by a slide show, Carrico and his knowledge and wit held the audience for over an hour and half.

The Original Cupeños and Warner Springs Ranch

Carrico explained he was hired 4 years ago by the new owners of the Warner Springs Ranch

A Layperson’s Guide to the ‘Destroy Public Education’ Movement

September 21, 2018 by Source

By Thomas Ultican / Tultican

The destroy public education (DPE) movement is the fruit of a relatively small group of billionaires. The movement is financed by several large non-profit organizations. Nearly all of the money spent is free of taxation. Without this spending, there would be no wide-spread public school privatization.

It is generally recognized that the big three foundations driving DPE activities are The Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation (Assets in 2016 = $41 billion), The Walton Family Foundation (Assets in 2016 = $3.8 billion), and The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation(Assets in 2016 = $1.8 billion).

San Diego’s City Council District 2 : Republican Zapf vs Democrat Dr. Jen – Is a Change Gonna Come?

September 21, 2018 by Doug Porter

My coverage of the 2018 general election will focus today on the City of San Diego District 2 contest between Lorie Zapf and Dr. Jen Campbell.

Let’s face it. For a city with a seemingly bright future and a terrific climate, if you had to pick a color to represent San Diego’s mood, it would be dark gray. When progressive things happen, they get tripped up by a petulant group of land speculators and ~~scam artists~~ entrepreneurs.

From an economic and political point of view, the “May Gray” is a year-round state of mind for all-too-many of us. All the promises of prosperity made over the past half-century compared to the ever increasing number of people who are economically challenged amount to a solid argument for why “trickle down” is a myth.

The Midway District Is Now Ready for Massive Redevelopment, 9,000 New Units and 23,000 New Residents

September 20, 2018 by Frank Gormlie

It really was inevitable that the San Diego City Council would approve – as they did – the Community Plan for the Midway District earlier this week on Monday, Sept. 17. Being touted as the next best thing to sliced bread, as my old man used to say, its proponents claim it will bring thousands of jobs, needed development of the old red light district, thousands of new homes to help alleviate San Diego’s housing crisis – and heaven on earth.

The plan – over the next couple of decades – will enable the population of the area to increase from between 3000 and 4600 to 27,000.

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San Diego’s City Council District 8 – Martinez vs Moreno: It’s Complicated

September 20, 2018 by Doug Porter

The district is a bi-polar political entity. Geography and long-standing loyalties both exert a significant influence on elections in the city’s southernmost political sector.

City Council District 8 is bisected by National City & Chula Vista. The north and south ends have a majority Latino population in common, but the external realities differ.

The forces of gentrification weight heavily on neighborhoods connected to the core city like Barrio Logan. The border with Mexico, along with the militarization that goes with it, looms over the southern end.

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Surfrider to Hold 27th Annual Paddle for Clean Water at Ocean Beach Pier – Sunday, Sept. 23

September 20, 2018 by Source

With concerns over water quality and warming ocean water increasing, Surfrider Foundation San Diego is working to raise awareness on the challenges we’re facing together. So, this Sunday, Sept. 23, the chapter will host its 27th Annual Paddle for Clean Water in which hundreds of San Diegans will paddle out to the water in Ocean Beach.

This is one of the organization’s largest fundraisers, it is free for all, and seeks to raise awareness on the importance of water quality.

Come inside for detailed agenda of event

Woman Dies at Foot of Point Loma Avenue at Sunset Cliffs

September 20, 2018 by Frank Gormlie

Beautiful Sunset Cliffs claimed another victim, Wednesday, September 19. A woman was found dead out on a stretch of rocks off Point Loma Avenue in south Ocean Beach.

About 2:30 pm, a call came in to lifeguards, reporting a woman appeared to be stuck on the rocks. But by time first responders got to her, she had already passed. She was then covered, placed on a stretcher and hoisted up the bluffs using a lifeguard cliff rescue vehicle. A purse was found next to her body.

At this point, she remains unidentified and the cause of her death is yet unknown.

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City Council District 6: How Can Hough Hew His Way Around An Incumbent’s Advantage?

September 19, 2018 by Doug Porter

By Doug Porter / San Diego Free Press

I’ll let you in on a little secret: San Diego is a lot bluer city than most people realize, meaning–as one politico told me recently–if you run the right Democrat, they can win just about everywhere.

Democrat Tommy Hough is challenging incumbent Republican Chris Cate in District 6 for the November elections. Nobody thinks it’s going to be easy to turn his seat blue.

Reflections on Keeping Loved Ones From Taking Their Lives

September 19, 2018 by Ernie McCray

I remember back, maybe
when I was in junior high,
neighbors talking in hush-hush tones
about a man
who had drowned himself
in the night.
“Hey, why y’all whispering?”
I wanted to know,
all wide-eyed
and mystified
and horrified.
“Shhh, boy, he died of suicide.”

The San Francisco Climate Action Summit: Is It ‘Better Late than Never’?

September 19, 2018 by Source

After the Climate Action Summit, Commitments Emerge Amidst Growing Disaster

Corporate execs, career politicians, and environmental activists converged on San Francisco for the Climate Action Summit.

by David Helvarg / The Progressive / September 17, 2018

The Global Climate Action Summit held in San Francisco September 12 through 14 felt both urgent (as Hurricane Florence began to soak the Carolinas and Typhoon Mangkhut battered the Philippines), and hopeful. More than 500 commitments were made to speed up the transition to carbon neutrality and to remediate the growing impacts of climate change.

Public Service Announcement: Riding Electric Scooters on the Sidewalk Is Against the Law

September 19, 2018 by Frank Gormlie

Public Service Announcement: Riding Electric Scooters on the Sidewalk Is Against the Law

Next time you see someone riding an electric scooter on a sidewalk, please politely remind them that it is illegal and ask them to get into the street. They can use the bike lanes.

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FBI and DOJ Warn Trump Is Crossing ‘Red Line’ By Ordering Declassified Documents from Russian Investigation

September 18, 2018 by Frank Gormlie

Is Trump barreling towards a high-stakes confrontation with the FBI and Department of Justice?

A confrontation that could unfold within the next several days is about to overtake the news cycle and signal yet another abuse of power move by Trump. But this one could be the trigger – as FBI Director Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein – decide how to respond to the president’s latest attempt to subvert the investigation into whether the Russian sabotage of the 2016 election included Trump and his people.

Did you miss the memo on the latest installment in the continuing American constitutional crisis? On Monday Trump ordered the FBI and the DOJ to release – without redaction

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Transcript of Letter Prof. Christine Blasey Ford Sent to Senator Feinstein Accusing Judge Kavanaugh of Attempted Rape

September 18, 2018 by Source

We now know something about Christine Blasey Ford, the Palo Alto University professor, who has accused Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh of attempted rape. Kavanaugh has vehemently denied the allegations, and has even denied being at the party – despite Ford not being specific about the party itself.

Republicans say both Ford and Kavanaugh will testify in a re-opening of the Judiciary Committee’s hearing on next Monday, Sept. 23, although Prof. Ford has not confirmed this. Democratic leaders are demanding the FBI investigate the allegations prior to any hearing.

Meanwhile, here is the transcript of the letter Prof. Ford sent to Senator Dianne Feinstein

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Hey Ocean Beach – Got Flies?

September 18, 2018 by Frank Gormlie

Hey OB – got flies?

Several weeks ago, I was having dinner with a group of friends in Point Loma – and we were eating outside. The hosts apologized numerous times for the flies that seemed to be trying to enjoy our food. Later, I thought, we’ve eaten outside many times before at their house – which is just a few blocks from OB – but never have the flies been this bad.

Then just this weekend, I was visiting with friends who live down in the flatlands of Ocean Beach. We were sitting outside in their back yard – and there was no food around – but there were flies. As my friends were lighting a whole bunch of incense sticks and placing them around the patio in an effort to ward off the flying nuisances, they told me the flies have never been this bad since they’ve lived here – over 10 years now.

So – have you been bothered more than usual this year by flies? Just why are there so many at the beach?

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San Diego City Council District 4 – Cole vs. Montgomery: How to Make Black Lives Matter?

September 18, 2018 by Doug Porter

At the heart of District 4 are San Diego’s historically black communities, created in large part by property deeds limiting where people of color could buy or rent homes.

In 1969 a coalition calling itself BOMB: Black, Oriental, Mexican Brothers called a public meeting in Southcrest Park and began advocating for a civil rights advocate to be appointed to a vacated City Council seat.

The appointment and subsequent election of Leon L. Williams began a tradition of the District 4 seat being held by African-Americans.

Miramar Air Show, Trash Pick-up, Immigrant Children and a Warning about Uber

September 18, 2018 by Judi Curry

Musing From the Old Broad

Last week I said that I was boycotting “In and Out Burger” and listed the various reasons for that action. This week I am boycotting the Miramar Air Show for a number of reasons. I realize that this will be an unpopular decision for many of you, but I have several strong reasons for the boycott, and glorifying war is one of the strongest.

I want to quote the “Veterans for Peace” comments because they can say it better than I can:

“ . . . we ask that you question why our government continues spending an increasing amount on the military while reducing spending on programs such as health, education, and infrastructure, programs that benefit out citizens. Our tax dollars can serve us better than by funding war and its implements.”

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Ocean Beach Historical Society Presents: The Story of Warner Springs – Thurs., Sept. 20

September 18, 2018 by Staff

Warner Springs: A Cultural Landscape and Land of Broken Dream

Join the Ocean Beach Historical Society presentation on the story of Warner Springs with Richard Carrico.

Warner Springs and the surrounding area is a microcosm of the history of southern California. Situated at the foot of Hot Springs Mountain, the highest peak in San Diego County, the sprawling valleys and hills have been the scene of massacres, insurrections, murder, alleged curses on the land, exploitation of native people, and land development focused on the sulphurous hot springs.

Richard Carrico, a well-known local author and lecturer

20th Annual Ocean Beach Pier Pancake Breakfast! – Sat., Sept. 22

September 17, 2018 by Staff

The Ocean Beach Pier Pancake Breakfast is a fun and popular tradition in OB that kicks off the big fundraising season for the OB Food and Toy Drive and all of OBTC’s Holiday events.

This year we will hold the 20th Annual Pier Pancake Breakfast on the Ocean Beach Pier from 7:30 am till Noon on Saturday, September 22. Tickets are $12 for adults and $6 for children for an amazing breakfast over the ocean.

All proceeds go to benefit the Annual OB Toy and Food Drive,

Fentanyl-Laced Coke Kills One in Ocean Beach and Two in PB

September 17, 2018 by Frank Gormlie

Fentanyl-laced cocaine has taken the life of one OBcean and killed two people in Pacific Beach recently. Two other people survived an overdose. The identities of those affected are not known.

No details have been reported about the death in OB but the 2 PB victims who died – between 30 and 47 years old – were found in a home after relatives grew concerned of the lack of communication from one of them. However, the toxicology results show the victims ingested cocaine laced with fentanyl.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that can be deadly even in very small doses, as it is 50 times more potent than heroin and 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.

A Blue Wave is Not Enough: Progressives Need to Win the Long War for Democracy

September 17, 2018 by Jim Miller

Recently I had the pleasure of speaking to the La Mesa-Foothills Democratic Club about the Lincoln Club and the history of the American Right. In that presentation, I noted how the ultimate aim of the Right was to dishonestly promote deeply unpopular policies through stealth politics that take advantage of the general public’s naiveté about their agenda.

Locally, groups like the Lincoln Club do their best to intervene in Democratic primaries and shift the landscape in their favor so they can win elections and promote policies that further enrich the elite. As I have written in this space, that’s how San Diego’s “shadow government” has rolled for decades.

Climate Change and Lorie Zapf

September 17, 2018 by Source

By Jordan Beane

On September 13th, the Union-Tribune released their interviews with our District 2 candidates, Dr. Jennifer Campbell and current District 2 City Councilmember Lorie Zapf. In Zapf’s interview, there were a lot of specific questions about the Climate Action Plan, it’s goals and more.

However, I believe the UT should have asked her a simpler question: Do you, Councilmember Zapf, believe in climate change?

Our Republican representative wants you to believe she cares about this existential threat and its impact on San Diego. She, along with the rest of the city council, voted to approve San Diego’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) in 2015.

China Doesn’t Want Our Trash Anymore and Now We Have a California Recycling Crisis

September 14, 2018 by Frank Gormlie

It’s a sad fact of our Californian recycling world – China no longer wants our trash.

China used to be California’s — and the world’s — largest overseas market for recyclables, but in January, China began not accepting “contaminated” material it once brought to its shores. For China, now, if the recycled material is one-half of 1% contaminated, it’s too impure for recycling.

An official for Recology, a curbside hauler that does San Francisco Bay Area trash for recycling, stated:

“There’s no market for a lot of stuff in the blue bin. What we can’t recycle we take to a landfill.”

Back in 2017, Recology was getting $100 a ton for newsprint. Now they are averaging about $5 a ton.

The Sport of River Surfing by a Former OBcean

September 14, 2018 by Source

A Surfer Anniversary OB Probably Missed

by Seal Morgan

Did you know that July of this year was the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the sport of US riversurfing?

And, strangely enough, it was a San Diego kayaker/surfer working as a Jackson Hole whitewater raft guide back in 1978 who saw the potential and managed to stand up that summer on the Snake River’s Lunch Counter Class 3 Rapids standing wave. Mike Fitzpatrick and two friends admit they didn’t surf it well being as they were far more into kayaking, and they didn’t keep surfing that spot in the years afterward until recently, but Fitz and his friends are no doubt the Founders of US riversurfing.

Ten years after that watershed moment, in early Spring of 1988, this OB-born/Mission Beach-raised surf kid

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Medicare for All and the Myth of the 40% Physician Pay Cut

September 14, 2018 by Source

By Dr. Carol Paris / Common Dreams

The surge in support for improved Medicare for All—now up to 70% in recent polling—has single-payer opponents ramping up their scare tactics. The Koch-funded Mercatus Center recently claimed that Medicare for all could only work with painful sacrifices from doctors, specifically by paying us Medicare’s current reimbursement rates, which are about 40% lower than private insurance.

If single payer would cost doctors so much, why do a majority of us