‘My 15 Minutes of Fame’ : The Old Broad’s On TV Today, Mon. March 18

by on March 18, 2019 · 0 comments

in Ocean Beach

As a teacher, I have always hoped that things I have said or written would have a positive influence on my students. As a journalist I know that some of the things I say will anger some; align myself with others; and not make any difference to still others.

Last week I wrote a story for the OB Rag re: the potential scam that I was involved in, namely a “Secret Shopping” experience that seemed that it could be legitimate, but deep down I knew wasn’t.

Our local NBC channel read the story and asked if they could do an interview with me re: the article. They came out today, Monday, March 18th, and the interview will be broadcast today at 4:30 pm and again at 6:00 pm.

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Local Businesses Pay a Price One Year After Point Loma Recycling Center Forced to Close

by on March 18, 2019 · 1 comment

in Ocean Beach

We now have learned that there was a price to pay for the forced closure of the Prince Recycling Center next to Stump’s Market in Point Loma. It turns out a number of businesses are now paying a fee due to the closing of the Prince Recycling Center because of the state law requiring markets to provide recycling to their customers.

Per CalRecycle, those businesses are:

  • Thrifty Oil – 1902 Sunset Cliffs Blvd
  • Sunshine Liquor & Delicatessen – 3911 Voltaire St – SINCE CLOSED
  • Ralphs – 1666 Rosecrans St
  • OB Quik Stop Market – 4984 Voltaire St
  • Super Max – 4991 Newport Ave

The other impacted businesses are recycling within their stores so no fees are assessed.

Our readers may recall the controversy that raged around the recycling center just one year ago.

On February 10, 2018, there was a small rally against the recycling center,

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Hey, American Labor! Listen to the Next Generation on the Green New Deal

by on March 18, 2019 · 2 comments

in Labor, Under the Perfect Sun

 

Labor Needs to Listen to the Next Generation and Help Craft a Green New Deal with Strong Labor Provisions

By Jim Miller

Young people across the world are making sure their voices are heard. I was proud of my son, his friends, and their classmates last week when they walked out of San Diego High School to participate in the Global Climate Strike during which over a million students worldwide in two thousand locations across one hundred and twenty-five countries stood up to call for urgent climate action .

Moments like these serve as lights in the greater darkness.

And that darkness has been brought to us not just by the current occupant of the White House, but by years of inaction by previous generations of adults in power who have failed to have the vision

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‘Standing With Our Muslim Brothers and Sisters’

by on March 18, 2019 · 0 comments

in From the Soul, San Diego, World News

By Ernie McCray – Posted on March 15, 2019 on Facebook

I had no idea
when I opened my eyes
on this beautiful day
that I would,
a bit later,
at midday,
be standing with a number
of loving peace seeking folks,
shaking our heads,
pledging, in our sadness,
to stay the course
against the madness
that brought us together
on this ill fated day:
our Muslim brothers and sisters
in New Zealand

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10 Years Ago in Ocean Beach – Stories From March 2009

by on March 15, 2019 · 0 comments

in Ocean Beach

What was happening in Ocean Beach and around it 10 years ago? Back in March 2009?

For one …

Abrupt Closure of Rock Paper Scissors Had Vendors Crying “Foul”

The abrupt closure of OB’s popular arts and crafts store on Newport Avenue, Rock Paper Scissors, upset many of the vendors. They claimed the manager, Dr. Jefe (Jeff Fagan), knew business was bad, but the message he gave out to the vendors was that ‘everything was fine.’

Fagan decided to immediately close the business – a business that had grown to be one of the most popular storefronts on Newport Avenue – on February 2nd, 2009, after reading his financial statements. The vendors didn’t believe that. The storefront was in the former Bank of America building, what is now Apple Tree Market.

COME INSIDE FOR THIS AND MORE STORIES FROM MARCH 2009

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Ketch on Shelter Island in Point Loma – Restaurant Review – Again

March 15, 2019 by Judi Curry

Ketch
2614 Shelter Island Drive
San Diego, CA 92106
619-814-8080

By Judi Curry

This is my 5th time having a meal at the “Ketch”. I’ve written two other reviews on it – one for the OB Rag in October 2018 which is available if you are interested in reading it.

This time members of my widow group got together to welcome one of our members back to San Diego, and it was up to me to decide where to go. I knew it was a cold and rainy day and we would eat inside, but decided to give the restaurant another try. I am happy to say that it was a nice experience.

We arrived on a Saturday at 11:45am. This presented a problem because we could only order off of the breakfast menu for the next 15 minutes. If any of us wanted lunch, we would have to wait until 12:00pm to place the order because the kitchen was not prepared to make both breakfast and lunch items. By the time we decided what we wanted to do it was lunch time and the decision was made for us.

Once again the menu has changed since I was there last. Things I would have liked to try were gone and new items were in their place.

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News and Notices from Ocean Beach and Point Loma: Mid- March 2019

March 14, 2019 by Frank Gormlie

OB Rag‘s Judi Curry to Be Interviewed by Local NBC for Her “Scam” Post

On Monday, March 18, OB Rag‘s own columnist, Judi Curry, will be interviewed by the local NBC television affiliate, Channel 7, for her recent post on scams on so-called market researchers. The interview is around 10:30 a.m. so we imagine it will play at noon and 6pm.

Woman to Go to Trial for Manslaughter in Wrong Way Crash that Killed OB Man

Trader Joe’s to Cut Back on Plastic Packaging Waste – After Greenpeace Petition Circulates

Young Woman Left for Dead at Sunset Cliffs Testifies

Celebrity chef Guy Fieri at Hodad’s

OB Elementary One of Top 10 Schools for Disadvantaged Kids

PL Nazarene Surfers Win 5th State Championship

Navy Man Will Go on Trail for Murder of Point Loma Wife – Elizabeth Sullivan

Fractured Leg From Scooter Being Broadsided in Midway

The Jennings Family… More than Meets the Eye! By Cathy Gallagher,

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Rules on Streetlight Spy Cams Released by San Diego Police

March 14, 2019 by Source

Video cannot “harass, intimidate, or discriminate against any individual or group”

By Matt Potter / San Diego Reader / March 13, 2019

More than a year after San Diego launched a video and audio surveillance network incorporated into 3200 streetlights, the police department has finally released new rules spelling out how the system is used by law enforcement.

Since its inception in early 2017, officials have not been eager to acknowledge the eavesdropping potential of the multi-million-dollar surveillance set-up, dubbed the Intelligent Streetlight project.

Mayoral spokeswoman Jen LeBron went so far as to insist in a February 23, 2017, Reuters account that information gathered by the system’s cameras would consist of “anonymous data with no personal identifiers.” Video amassed by the system “is not as detailed as security camera footage,” she went on to assert, per the report.

But the facts were different,

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Might Reparations Lead to Us Living in Harmony?

March 14, 2019 by Ernie McCray

by Ernie McCray

Tried to wax eloquently recently
about reparations,
speaking of it as
a “The checks in the mail”
kind of operation
but now I’m thinking
Reparations?

In this nation?
as I take into consideration|
that Americans
have shown neither the skills
or the will,
by any stretch of the imagination,
to have anything near a genuine
social or political
conversation
focused on bettering human relations,
especially one
regarding compensation
or a people’s history
of pain and suffering
and humiliation.

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San Diego’s Future Mayors – Part 2

March 14, 2019 by Source

Mayoral candidate Todd Gloria (TG)

Editordude: The opinions expressed in the following post are of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of the OB Rag.

The second of a 4-part series (Part 1) Part One was on Mayor Kevin Faulconer.

By Norma Damashek/ NumbersRunner / March 14, 2019

Origin stories are the rage nowadays, but do they make one person intrinsically more worthy than another? Do they reliably predict the abilities, values, ethical yardstick, or qualifications a person develops over the years?

Take Todd Gloria, for example. You may already have a mental image of him as a likable, winsome, up-and-coming kind of guy. He self-identifies as a gay person of color: ½ Alaskan tribal- native American, 1/4 Filipino, a tad Dutch, and a touch Latino (Puerto Rican), nestled in a home-grown man from an economically disadvantaged background.

In other words, our man for all seasons.

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San Diego’s Mayor: Present, Past, and Future

March 13, 2019 by Source

Editordude: The following opinion does not reflect that of the OB Rag.

Part 1 of 4: Mayor Kevin Faulconer

By Norma Damashek / NumbersRunner / March 13, 2019

Kevin Faulconer, San Diego’s 36th mayor, is finishing up his last term in office. Recently, I was taken to task over my choice of adjectives when describing our mayor. I was criticized for being too negative.

It’s true that I’ve called him a lightweight. An embarrassment to his constituents. An elected official lacking independence, imagination, backbone, and the political moxie to do right by our city. I even referred to him as a chip off the old Jerry Sanders block.

Lately he’s been parading around the country as a moderate politician destined for greater things

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Trump to Ground Boeing Jets While Smoke Delays Flight of One at San Diego Airport; Pilots Have Been Complaining

March 13, 2019 by Frank Gormlie

Trump has announced he will be ordering all Boeing 737 Max 8 and 9 grounded.

This news comes while some Point Loma residents have voiced their concerns about the potential for dangers as Boeing 737 jets fly over their neighborhoods, and as we now have learned the unsettling news that on Tuesday, March 12, a San Diego Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 was delayed for hours after smoke billowed out of the plane parked at the San Diego International Airport.

From 7SanDiego:

A battery-type charger overheated inside a piece of luggage in the cargo bin of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 at around 11:30 a.m., according to Dan Landson with Southwest Airlines.

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2 Wealthy San Diegans Charged in Elite College Admission Bribery Scandal

March 13, 2019 by Frank Gormlie

Two wealthy San Diegans have been charged in the elite college admission bribery scandal that is rocking the country’s academia community.

One is Elisabeth Kimmel, former owner of KFMB-TV, San Diego’s CBS affiliate, who was arrested Tuesday at her La Jolla home. The other is Toby MacFarlane, a businessman from Del Mar and a former executive of a title insurance company.

From 7SanDiego:

Kimmel is accused of participating in an illegal conspiracy to get her daughter into Georgetown University and her son into USC.

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Plastic Straws and Socialism as 2020’s Straw Man

March 12, 2019 by Doug Porter

By Doug Porter / Words & Deeds

California Congressman Devin Nunes (Ru-CA 22) took to Twitter on Saturday complaining about a waitress asking his table if they wanted straws for their beverages, ending his comment with “Welcome to Socialism in California!”

Nunes, who spent much of 2018 running interference for President Trump to minimize the scope and impact of investigations by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, was rehearsing the GOP’s main talking point in the 2020 elections, namely slinging the term “socialism” early and often.

His pitiful plea about having to request a straw stems from the Republican tenet holding dirty energy production as a benefit while ignoring the ongoing dangers of climate change. And, of course, the Congressman will get points from the Trumpanista camp for bashing California.

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San Diego’s Streetlight Surveillance Gets Its First Public Meeting

March 12, 2019 by Source

San Diego Reader Continues to Expose the Street Lights that Spy

By Matt Potter / San Diego Reader / March 11, 2019

Following months of uncertainty regarding the low-profile rollout of San Diego’s so-called smart streetlights, equipped with spy cams, shot-spotters, and related intelligence gathering gear, officials have called a community meeting in Southeastern San Diego to tell the public what they have wrought.

The session, to be held at 5:30 p.m. this Wednesday, March 13 at the Malcolm X Library

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Mayor, Unanimous City Council Against City Attorney’s Efforts to Undermine State’s Public Records Law

March 12, 2019 by Source

Ry Rivard and Andrew Keatts / Voice of San Diego / March 11, 2019

Update: On Tuesday Sen. Ben Hueso announced he was pulling SB 615 from consideration by the Legislature.

City Attorney Mara Elliott went out on a limb to change the state’s Public Records Act, an effort Mayor Kevin Faulconer believes conflicts with his efforts to create a more transparent city government.

Now other elected leaders in the city are pushing back, too – aggressively. The City Council voted unanimously Monday to oppose what they said was an attempt to undermine the state’s public records law. Last week, Faulconer himself made clear to Voice of San Diego that he did not support Elliott’s effort.

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‘Airbnb Vans Coming to a Curb Near You’

March 11, 2019 by Source

Airbnb vans invade San Diego streets

By Mike Madriaga / San Diego Reader

On the Airbnb app/website, Craig is referred to as a “Superhost” for his $70 per night unit that can sit five visitors.

Craig accommodates his guests in his green 1998 Ford E350 van; he’s based out of Clairemont. “[It’s] great for camping and the back seat folds down into a bed for two,” he states on his ad. …

Last week, an Ocean Beach resident posted …

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How Dave Rice Came to Write for the Reader

March 11, 2019 by Source

How Rice came to work at the Reader:

From SD Reader / March 3, 2019

Growing up around San Diego I’d always been aware of the Reader, and picked up copies semi-regularly beginning in high school in the mid-nineties, delighting in features like Jay Allen Sanford’s “Famous Former Neighbors” cartoon. By the late 2000s I was contributing to a local news blog called the OB Rag when my editor Frank Gormlie called me up, saying there was some guy that had questions about a piece I’d recently written about city plans to install surveillance cameras on the pier in Ocean Beach.

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Record Number of Candidates Could Indicate Another Swing of the Pendulum for Peninsula Community Planning Board

March 11, 2019 by Source

By Geoff Page

Peninsula Community Planning Board events don’t usually spark a great deal of interest in the general community, that is just a fact.

But, from time to time, things do get interesting. During a dozen years of experience with the Peninsula Board (PCPB), “control” of the board has swung back and forth like a pendulum. By control, it could be said that it is based on political bias or it could be class-based or something else, but there always seems to be two sides. Judging by the record number of candidates running for the open seats on March 21, there could be another swing. Usually, it takes a big amount of discontent about something to pull off a major change in the planning board.

.

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From Super Bloom to Super Bust: The Water Crisis that Could Kill Borrego Springs

March 11, 2019 by Jim Miller

By Jim Miller

The formal beginning of spring is just around the corner, but an unusually wet winter already has visitors flooding into Borrego Springs in search of desert sunflowers, verbena, lupine, poppies, and primrose.

Thanks to a chain of storms, the desert is green and bursting with the promise of a rare “super bloom” that will likely carpet its floor with wildflowers in and around Anza-Borrego State Park. For local Borrego Springs businesses and hotels, this event is an economic boom that floods the town with a wave of commerce and full hotel rooms.

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The OB ‘Re-Pier’ Begins – City Pledges to Have Pier Open by Memorial Day

March 8, 2019 by Frank Gormlie

Come Inside for Photos of OB Pier Being Crushed

The “re-pier” of the OB Pier begins. The City expects to have crews to completely repair the OB Pier and have it open by Memorial Day. As of right now, the city expects to spend $430,000 in emergency repairs.

The Pier has been closed since mid-January when it suffered mucho damage during that winter storm; it was so strong that it literally tore off pieces of wood and they washed ashore and locals and tourists grabbed the remnants as souvenirs. 2,200 feet of railings were damaged by the storm which crashed the pier’s electrical, sewer and water lines.

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The Green Activist’s Calendar for March 2019

March 8, 2019 by Source

March Events From the Ocean Beach Green Center

Ocean Beach Green Center, 4862 Voltaire Street, Ocean Beach 92107 oceanbeachgreencenter@gmail.com

Dear friends of the Ocean Beach Green Center,

We are almost ready to reopen at our new location at 4862 Voltaire Street, which is right across the street from our old location. FOR MORE COME INSIDE

Every Saturday at 10:00 a.m. Climate Mobilization Coalition Meeting March 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th. Ocean Beach People’s Cooperative Community Room, 4765 Voltaire Street.

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‘A Scam or Not a Scam? That Is the Question’

March 8, 2019 by Judi Curry

By Judi Curry

On March 1st, 2019, I received an EMAIL from “Kroger Shop” welcoming me to the Kroger family of secret shoppers. I was given the title of “Market Researcher” and am going to be paid $300 for each assignment I complete. (At one time in my life I worked for a secret shopper company out of El Cajon, and made many purchases looking for dishonest employees as well as extraordinary ones. )

Attention

Further to your interest to participate in our research project at Kroger, we are pleased to welcome you on board, setting out the details of your job. You are being appointed to the position of a market researcher.

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Celebrating International Woman’s Day Since the 1970s

March 8, 2019 by Staff

Rag cover Int Womens Day

March 8th is International Women’s Day.

The OB Rag staff has been celebrating it since the 1970s. The OB Rag cover – Early March, 1975 – published here – commemorates International Woman’s Day. The cover shows a crowd of women activists from Ocean Beach on the OB Pier.

The cover was later formatted as a poster for a display at the OB Library of OB Rags during the 1990s by Bob Edwards, a former OB Ragster of the seventies.

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Border Intelligence Operation Aimed at Journalists and Activists Part of Bigger Spying Scheme

March 8, 2019 by Doug Porter

Editordude: The outrage following this story about ICE and CBP targeting immigration activists, attorneys and journalists included steamed editorials in both the San Diego Union-Tribune and the LA Times today. Even Steve Breen was tasked to draw up something about it – and now, that’s news.

By Doug Porter / Words & Deeds / March 7, 2019

NBC 7 News dropped an explosive story on Wednesday [March 6] based on documents provided by a “Homeland Security source on the condition of anonymity.”

It’s a great story and there’s been plenty of praise (and reaction) as a local news organization’s scoop has been picked up nationwide.

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How OB Stayed ‘OB’ and Avoided Over Development Like Mission Beach

March 8, 2019 by Frank Gormlie
Thumbnail image for How OB Stayed ‘OB’ and Avoided Over Development Like Mission Beach

Originally posted June 11, 2014
There is a reason that Ocean Beach has stayed as OB and did not suffer the fate of, say, its neighbor to the north – Mission Beach.

Have you been up to Mission Beach lately? Walked or biked on the Boardwalk? Surfed the MB curls?

Did you realize there’s no community left there? It’s all time-shares, vacation rentals, and empty buildings.

But most importantly for us, it’s practically wall-to-wall 3 story expensive giants facing the ocean for – literally – miles – all along the famous Boardwalk.

And the reason OB didn’t go that way is because …

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Ocean Beach Planning Board: Add OB to Geo-Fencing, More Limits on Scooters; Board Election Results

March 7, 2019 by Frank Gormlie

Election Upset in District 1? – Record Number of Women Members on Board

At the Wednesday, March 6 evening meeting of the Ocean Beach Planning Board, the volunteer community planners took up the issue of Mayor Faulconer’s proposals for regulating electric scooters. Election results to the Board were also announced – with an upset in District 1 apparently and maybe a record number of women members now on the Board.

On scooters and the Mayor’s proposals – which were confirmed by a Council committee recently and are slowly on their way to the full City Council – the Board raised a number of substantial issues and concerns not addressed by the recommendations. In short, the panel wants to include Ocean Beach

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There Will Be Trash Talking About Repealing the People’s Ordinance in 2020

March 7, 2019 by Doug Porter

By Doug Porter / Words & Deeds / Mar. 1, 2019

What’s not to like about saving taxpayer dollars AND saving the planet?

Homelessness and housing policy are the two issues ‘everybody knows’ will be front and center in 2020 elections for the City of San Diego. There are already camps across partisan lines ready to weigh in on these matters.

There is, however, one sleeper policy challenge: our garbage. It’s a ‘third rail’ topic for local politicians, considered to be the kiss of death politically for anybody willing to speak up about changing a system that’s objectively unfair and a drain on the municipal budget.

If San Diego is to have any chance of meeting its greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals, our waste removal and processing systems must change.

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Anza-Borrego ‘Super Bloom’ Is Happening!

March 7, 2019 by Source

OBceans Find 21 Different Species of Flowers

by Bob Edwards

Several OBceans made the 2.5 hour drive to Anza-Borrego State Park yesterday, Wednesday, March 6, to hike and check out the amazing flower display that the heavy rains have brought to our deserts.

We counted 21 different species of flowers and there are zillions of green sprouts that (barring a freeze or dry winds) promise several weeks more of new wildflowers. Plus, there are many cactus that will go off with their blooms in the next month or so.

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Peninsula Planners to Hold Candidate Forum – Thursday, March 7

March 7, 2019 by Staff

Record Number of Candidates Running

There’s a record 18 candidates running for the Peninsula Community Planning Board – and they will all be introduced at a Candidate Forum being held tonight, Thursday March 7.

It will held starting at 6:00pm at the Point Loma Library, 3701 Voltaire St, San Diego, CA 92107.

There are seven open seats, with five the regular yearly openings.

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