Grassroots and Progressive views on local, national and world news

OB Historical Society Hosts “Trolley To The Beach” Program

by Bob Edwards

On Thursday, January 17th, the Ocean Beach Historical Society presented a program on the history of electric streetcar service in the beach areas of San Diego. Eric DuVall, local history enthusiast and president of the Historical Society narrated an enlightening and humorous hour long slide and video presentation before a near-capacity crowd at Water’s Edge Faith Community church on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard.

Mr. DuVall’s lecture included photos, maps, and documents taken from the Historical Society’s archives and other sources such as the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum in Campo.

Scooters Are Getting Everywhere

Those damn scooters can be found everywhere. Check this photo of a recent Sunset Cliffs rescue. It is time for controls on them.

Bravos Changing Ownership

It looks like Bravos Mexican Food – at the corner of Newport and Bacon – is changing ownership.

Point Loma High Revamp to Begin This Summer

Mission Bay Park Committee Approves SeaWorld’s Second Roller Coaster

Dog-Friendly Option Chosen for Fiesta Island

Point Loma Curb Artist Returns

City Agrees to Fix Flooding at Ramp on Jennings

Water Main Break Causes Flow Down Narragansett’s Hill

By Geoff Page

You just have to wonder if city leaders are just plain stupid or just too accustomed to being devious. That certainly occurred to this reporter sitting in the Midway Pacific Community Planning Board’s regular monthly meeting, Wednesday, January 16.

Last week we all learned that the mayor and SANDAG have a proposal to redevelop the property where the big SPAWAR facility sits on Pacific Highway. They want to make it a transit hub with a rail connection to the airport. In fact, they are so far down the line that they visited Elon Musk’s Boring Company because the plan includes a tunnel.

Now, this reporter has been attending the Midway meetings for a long time. This Faluconer/ SANDAG idea had never come up.

Neighbors are reporting that the deck at The Inn at Sunset Cliffs collapsed a few days ago due to high surf eroding the cliffs below it.

10News reported:

Chris DuCharme, an Ocean Beach resident of 30 years, said a deck overlooking the beach collapsed at The Inn at Sunset Cliffs a few days ago, after the cliffs below crumbled.

“That entire patio behind me was all one patio about two to three weeks ago,” he said. He said it’s something he has seen plenty of times at Sunset Cliffs. “You get something like that,” he said. “Where you get a super high tide, and a big wave will come and double up on itself right at that patio and that wall.”

A lone surfer glides right on a wave off the jetty.

Meanwhile the County has posted “Danger” signs at the beach. And Joe Ewing was there Monday and caught the drama.

What drama, you ask.

This surfer – and others who ignore the signs – are surfing dangerously. There’s a County water quality advisory out and humans and dogs are asked to stay of coastal waters and bays for at least 72 hours after it rains. Especially in OB where the San Diego River empties.

Here is the County’s advisory:

Hey the Pro lacrosse Seals players rescued from heavy surf at Sunset Cliffs who just living their team’s billboard. This billboard appeared recently on Sunset Cliffs Blvd near Voltaire – and OB Rag photographer Bob Edwards snapped this shot.

Here’s the news:

Two members of the San Diego Seals professional lacrosse team were rescued from heavy surf Thursday morning at Sunset Cliffs. Both suffered only minor injuries. The Seals players — identified as Garrett Epple and Nick Ossello — asked a bystander to film them jumping off the cliffs and into the Pacific Ocean at a well-known spot called “The Arches”.

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office has blasted Netflix over its docu-series “Murder Mountain” as a”highly sensationalized” and incomplete show that portrays law enforcement in a negative light.

The 6-part series now streaming on Netflix follows the case of an Ocean Beach surfer, Garrett Rodriquez, who traveled up to Humboldt County to make money in the cannabis industry, who disappeared and was murdered, and whose body was eventually found in a shallow grave.

But the local Sheriff’s Office put out a statement saying when they were approached by the series producers, the producers claimed their documentary was going to be about the changes in the County from the legalization of marijuana. Instead, the Sheriffs say, the show became “highly sensationalized” and focused only on the death of one man, Rodriguez.

The show is about Garrett from OB and his dad, but it’s also about the history of marijuana cultivation in Humboldt – which today accounts for 60% of all cannabis grown in the U.S. – and the difficulties of once “outlaw” growers are having becoming “legal”; many are facing the prospect of having to end their farming livelihoods.