OB Rag

By Michael Smolens / The San Diego Union-Tribune / March 15, 2026 

The outrage over the city’s new parking fees at Balboa Park seemed ripe for harnessing into an effort to repeal them.

Now there is an initiative drive aimed at doing just that spearheaded by former Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey, a relatively new resident of Point Loma running for San Diego City Council.

Backers of the initiative quietly filed the paperwork on March 6, though Bailey said a higher-profile unveiling is likely when they start collecting signatures in a couple of weeks.

That move follows a more public launch for a petition drive to at least temporarily do away with new city trash collection fees, which also triggered an uproar from those who have to pay them — single-family homeowners. That effort is being led by the Lincoln Club Business League and its CEO Kevin Faulconer, the former San Diego mayor.

There’s a lot more here than two former Republican mayors (Bailey has since changed his voter registration to NPP, or No Party Preference) potentially giving a bigger budget headache to the current Democratic mayor, Todd Gloria, and the members of the all-Democratic City Council, who already face a budget shortfall of at least $100 million.

By Michael J. Stepner & Mary Lydon / The Daily Transcript / March 13, 2026

In a famous World War II speech about the bombing of the House of Commons, Winston Churchill reminded the British public, “We shape our buildings and thereafter they shape us.” This also applies to the neighborhoods where we live.

Today, for a variety of reasons, our municipal governments cannot always provide for all the things we need and desire. This is most often due to financial constraints, but also the inability of large bureaucracies to work at the hyper-local level. And at the same time, there is growing concern about how the COVID-19 and loneliness epidemics catalyzed a lack of community engagement with our neighbors. At first glance, these may not be connected, but we believe they are – and addressing both together offers benefits.

Neighbors working together can add small things that improve the greater community – like adding a bench to a sidewalk, play equipment to a neighborhood park, clearing brush from a canyon, or even sweeping the sidewalks. This kind of community action not only improves the physical environment, but it brings people together for a common purpose, which very often expands. This social interaction is a critical component of creating a neighborhood.

Tactical urbanism and do-it-yourself (D.I.Y.) urban design projects are a way for the community to take matters into their own hands. The focus is on simple, actionable steps that spur change and increase community connections and collaboration. The former mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, Jaime Lerner, called these small actions, which can have a big impact, “urban acupuncture.”

This Week at City Hall

The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members and the San Diego public informed about important Council and Planning Commission hearings and other city public meetings.

Monday, March 16: City Council, 2:00 p.m.

Agenda:

Item 200: City of San Diego Crime Briefing, January-December 2025

Why it matters: In keeping with national trends, crime reporting news is almost all good: hate crimes down 32%, motor vehicle thefts down 22%, non-fatal shootings down 21%, robberies down 11%. The bad news: “Violent gang activity has increased,” and arrests of documented gang members was up 20%.

Item 201: Determine/Declare Posted Speed Limits Throughout the City, Vision Zero Update, Speed Management Plan

Why it matters: As we’re reported before, our cash-starved City is spending $2.4 million on installing new street signs to reduce speed limits from 25 MPH to 20 MPH.

The Big Picture: Preservation Overreach? The Data Says Otherwise

From SOHO / March-April Newsletter

With the release of the comprehensive report by PlaceEconomics, The Urban Vitality Blueprint: A Data-Driven Analysis of Equity, Affordability, and Vitality in San Diego’s Historic Districts, San Diego now has the clearest, most comprehensive data ever produced on the real economic and social impacts of historic preservation and the evidence shows that our most important affordable housing is not what we plan to build, it is the older homes and historic neighborhoods we already have.

Read the full report online.

Protecting San Diego’s older and historic housing is the most immediate, scalable, and cost?effective affordable housing strategy we have. Keeping these homes standing is how we keep San Diego livable.

Why This Matters Now
This report arrives as San Diego’s preservation ordinance is under intense political pressure and misinformation is spreading about its impacts. The new data makes several things clear:

• Preservation protects and extends existing affordable housing.
• Historic districts are more economically mixed and diverse than many newer areas.

As police officers attempted to handcuff and arrest a man inside his sedan parked in the OB Pier parking lot around 3 a.m. early Monday, he drew a handgun and fatally shot himself.

The unidentified man while sitting in his sedan had been contacted by two officers while “conducting Over-night Vehicle Enforcement.” After the cops approached him, the man “became combative,” sheriff’s Lt. Juan Marquez said.

“As officers attempted to handcuff him, he produced a handgun and shot himself one time,” Marquez said.

Officers immediately rendered medical aid and called for paramedics, but to no avail as he died before he could be taken to a hospital. Marquez also stated:

Join them as the Ocean Beach Historical Society celebrates Daylight Saving Time at the Wisteria Patio Cottage, under the century-old Wisteria vines, on Thursday, March 19, 2026, 4:30 – 7:00 PM at 4761 Niagara Ave., in O.B.

San Diego’s Community Planning Groups (CPGs) hold annual elections every March. Here are dates, times, and locations for in-person voting at some of this week’s elections. Be sure to bring your driver’s license or another form of ID showing your home address.

Tuesday, March 17

Greater Golden Hill will accept ballots in advance of its regular monthly meeting at 5:30 p.m. in the Conference Room in front of the Golden Hill Gym, 2600 Golf Course Drive.

Here is a quick overview on this 17th day of Trump’s war with Iran.

• Cost of war — it was estimated that in the first 6 days of the war, it cost the U.S. nearly $2 Billion a day. The Pentagon reported that the first week cost us $11.3 Billions, not counting the expenses of the build-up. Tomahawk cruise missiles, like the one the U.S. military used in that deadly strike on an Iranian girls’ primary school, cost $2.2 million each. It may be worth keeping these figures in mind as the Trump administration argues it doesn’t have enough money to make health care more affordable.
• Cost of gas — since the war started on Feb. 28, the average cost of gas has risen 25%; the cost of oil 40%.
• The war is unpopular with Americans; only 1 in 4 support it. A good portion of the MAGA base is seething over the war, since their guy ran against “endless wars.”

By Kate Callen and Paul Krueger / OpEd San Diego Union-Tribune / March 15, 2026

In 1926, the city of San Diego embraced a farsighted plan by landscape architect John Nolen to preserve Balboa Park as what he called “one of the most strikingly beautiful parks in the world.”

Exactly 100 years later, the mayor and six City Council Members looked at Balboa Park and saw a source of ready cash to help fill a budget deficit.

The decision to monetize San Diego’s “crown jewel” by charging visitors to park there was arguably the City’s biggest political blunder in recent history. The mayor and the council didn’t anticipate how fiercely San Diegans would fight to protect their jewel.

That miscalculation could secure Balboa Park’s future if it galvanizes citizens to demand a new public-private governance structure. And a commissioned 2020 report that was never publicly circulated offers encouragement for doing just that.

The dire effects of paid parking – fewer visitors, declining revenues, staff layoffs – have worsened a problem with deep roots.

For decades, City Hall has put the Park on a starvation diet. San Diegans kept hearing about master plan updates that would make the Park more vibrant. But then we kept seeing the Park decline as those plans were relegated to file cabinets. The result has been filthy restrooms, rundown buildings, and wilting greenery.

Here’s the Long List of Groups That Opposed Package A

By South OB Girl

This was truly a remarkable accomplishment for so many people to come together in our efforts to defeat “Package A” of the so-called Preservation Reforms. The warped San Diego political scene pulled the decision making in favor of Package A, despite dozens of inconsistencies in the handling of the policy (no Package B for certain, then a Package B under way), legal violations specified by multiple organizations, and constituent opposition.

As a comment in The OB Rag recently suggested, are some of our City Council members paid a salary beyond their capabilities?  Are City Council representatives exercising the same precision, thoroughness, moral excellence, and skills of logic and deduction when analyzing and evaluating policies and municipal code that judges exercise when presiding over their court rooms?

Additionally, perhaps some of our City Council representatives are pulled in too many directions.  City Council members have an extensive gamut of responsibilities — from fiscal decisions pertaining to every aspect of the city to policy decisions pertaining to every aspect of the city.  It is clear that some facts and details are getting lost along the way with such extensive agendas for City Council week after week.

Judge Admonishes SDSU Lawyer for “Uncivil Comments” about Publisher

From La Prensa News Desk / March 11, 2026

La Prensa San Diego Publisher Arturo Castañares won a lawsuit last week against San Diego State University over its failure to release documents related to an offer for a free sports arena in Mission Valley, with the judge admonishing the University’s lawyer for making “uncivil” comments about Castañares in an official court filing.

The lawsuit was filed after SDSU failed to provide records Castañares requested about a trip to Texas taken by SDSU officials and local civic leaders to tour the University of Texas sports arena in Austin in May 2021.

That trip was scheduled by Oak View Group, which developed the Austin arena, and had indicated interest in entering into a similar deal with SDSU to build and operate a sports arena alongside Snapdragon Stadium at no cost to the University.

The disclosure of the trip and subsequent offer of interest from Oak View Group helped put important events regarding a potential sports arena in San Diego into perspective.

After the trip to Texas in May 2021, California State University trustee Jack McGrory, who went on the trip, met with San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria to relay the news about a potential deal for a new sports arena.

McGrory later testified in a sworn deposition that Gloria asked him not to pursue the offer because he was about to move forward with an alternative plan at the existing site of the Sporta Arena in the Midway area of the City.

Ocean Beach to Host 14th Annual “Skate for the Kids” Fundraiser this Sunday

On Sunday, March 15, 2026, the Ocean Beach community will roll into Robb Field Skate Park for the 14th Annual Skate for the Kids. This high-energy afternoon of skateboarding, community spirit, and local food serves as a major fundraiser for Ocean Beach Elementary, with 100% of proceeds directly benefiting the school’s PTA
programs and student resources.