OB Rag

By Paul Krueger and Kate Callen

Just one week after Bethany Bezak was named San Diego’s Chief Operating Officer, a devastating report by City Auditor Andy Hanau offered evidence that she is an exceptionally bad hire.

On October 26, Hanau and his staff delivered an audit of the city’s Streetlight Repair Program that contained troubling revelations about waste, fraud, and mismanagement.

Findings included unwarranted overtime paid to city electricians (overtime costs increased from $230,000 to $1.4 million) and blatant timecard cheating by employees, including two electricians who allegedly spent 198 hours – the equivalent of 25 days – sitting idly in their parked city trucks.

The audit “identified City vehicles with a total of 333 hours of extended stops where no worksites could be verified.” The review also found that “fifty-five percent of callback-related work orders involving multiple electricians did not identify all employees who claimed overtime for responding.”

Who was the Director of the Transportation Department overseeing the Streets Division and supervising streetlight repair in the crucial years leading up this audit?

Bethany Bezak.

Monday, November 9, is a fateful day for San Diego as it’s the day that the City Council finally takes on Midway Rising, the massive redevelopment of the old Sports Arena area. It will be taken up at their 1:00 p.m. meeting.

Even though the huge project has been touted as ” the largest affordable housing project to be built on public land in state history,” it has experienced four years of controversy. This compendium of controversy includes evidence of corruption between the main developer and the mayor — a mayor who calls it his “legacy project”, two law suits, two public votes laying the groundwork that barely squeaked by, proponents that fail to admit conflicts of interest, a special bill just for Midway Rising, but most of all a public that has not been convinced that the project is worthy of the city in its current form.

Many residents of the region have been opposed to it, many construction trade unions have been for it.

Some, like the editorial board of the Union-Tribune, like Donna Frye and other opponents, fear the council has already made up its mind on the issue, and are now only praying for the best. Other opponents fear the fabled 2,000 units of affordable housing may never be built, like Neighbors for a Better San Diego, like the leadership of local planning groups.

La Prensa ran a recent poll of coastal residents and found this:

From Neighbors for a Better San Diego

Councilmembers:

Regarding the currently proposed Midway Rising project, Neighbors For A Better San Diego is concerned that the planned affordable units may not get built by the developer, and that, despite the intervention of the Legislature, further environmental review may still be needed.

Given that the Council is relying on recently-enacted state laws (SB 344 and SB 958, both authored by Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson) to proceed forward with the Midway Rising project,
Neighbors For A Better San Diego would like to raise concerns with these bills.

SB 344 creates clear expectations of the number of affordable units that will be built by the project:

21080.77. (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(1) The City of San Diego has approved, or may approve, a mixed-use development project known as the Midway Rising project, consisting of approximately 4,254 new homes, of which 2,000 are deed-restricted affordable homes at or below 80 percent of area median income, up to 130,000 square feet of commercial uses, approximately 14.5 acres of public parks and open space, and a new 16,000-seat multipurpose entertainment center. [emphasis added]

By Donna Frye

It’s no wonder the public doesn’t have a lot of trust when it comes to big development projects in the City of San Diego. Too often, what we are told is not accurate.

On Monday November 9, the San Diego City Council is scheduled to hear the Midway Rising development project.

Items 600, 601 and 602. see link inside

From the beginning, the project has been promoted as a massive affordable housing project.

The proposed project is on 48.5 acres of public land and includes an entertainment center, 2,000 affordable housing units, 2,250 market rate housing units, between 123,500 and 130,000 square feet of retail space, 8.2 acres of parks, and 6.42 acres of public spaces.

One of the many documents the council will be voting on is the Disposition and Development Agreement (DDA).

The DDA is over 600 pages long and is a complex and complicated document to read, let alone understand.  It includes such things as the leases for the property and determines the order in which the development will occur.

The DDA was first made public one week before the City Council Land Use and Housing Committee meeting on October 16. The public has had very limited time to review all the documents and provide comments.

By Steve Price / CBS8 /  November 4, 2026

More than 2,400 players have descended on Point Loma for the 17th annual USA Pickleball National Championships from Oct. 31 to Nov. 8, showcasing a sport that continues to explode in popularity across the country.

Nearly half of the competitors are at least 60 years old, highlighting pickleball’s broad appeal among older athletes, while also drawing younger players looking for competition and community.

For many participants, the excitement of the tournament is undeniable. “That was so intense!” player Monika David said after a hard-fought match at the Barnes Tennis Center.

The sport’s rapid rise has turned pickleball from a recreational pastime into a lucrative professional endeavor. According to USA Pickleball CEO Mike Nealy, top players are now earning significant income through tournament winnings and endorsement deals.

Local Artists Associated with San Diego Museum of Art Sponsoring Exhibition

A group of local artists associated with the San Diego Museum of Art are sponsoring an exhibit in downtown Ocean Beach starting Tuesday, November 3rd. The exhibition entitled Takeover: Small-Scale Works will consist of fifty-five paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints, and mixed-media works by forty artists, none of which are larger than 16 inches in any direction.

This is all happening at SHIFT Gallery at 4847 Newport Avenue (across the street from Target) by the San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild. Barbara Sexton, nationally known artist and retired Mesa College art professor, selected the art from 221 entries in a juried competition.

Takeover will run November 3 through November 17 at SHIFT Gallery. SHIFT is open seven days a week from noon to six p.m. and by appointment. The public is invited to meet participating artists at a gallery reception on Thursday, November 5, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The Rag’s own Kate Callen had a letter to the editor published in today’s San Diego Union-Tribune. We publish it below.

Wealthy zoo deciding to charge for parking is wrong

Re “Zoo makes parking fees permanent for nonresidents” (Oct 31):

The San Diego Zoo insists it needs $3 million from parking revenue for park upgrades. Let’s look at its financials. According to ProPublica, the zoo’s 2024 total assets were $1.05 billion, its revenue was $438 million, and its expenses were $391 million. President/CEO Paul Baribault was paid $1.99 million; COO Shawn Dixon earned $820,184; CFO David Franco made $757,377.

by Ernie McCray

I look at the election
that took place yesterday
and I can’t help but say
that “We the People”
kicked some serious ass,
making it so
that some folks
who have come close
to ending our democracy
will, in the near future,
be spoken of in the past.

By Michael Hernandez

The midterm elections have come and gone, leaving in their wake a renewed sense of change and hope for the future. While it may be a while before we feel the complete effect of Tuesday’s victories, in the meantime we can examine some changes that could take place real soon at the local level, with the next round of properties going up for sale in Ocean Beach and Point Loma:

4222-4224 Voltaire Street

The first property we will be looking at is the 4222-24 Voltaire Street Through-Lot. According to an offering memorandum for the property, this 5,135 square foot commercial through-lot runs from Voltaire Street to Whittier Street, and is also known as 4217 Whittier Street. The lot features a storefront with residential improvements in the back. The storefront along Voltaire is currently home to Bubba’s Barber Shop, a popular neighborhood barbershop established in 2018.

By: Michael Chen / 10News / Nov 03, 2026

The co-owner of an Ocean Beach e-bike shop says a burglar smashed through the business’s front window and stole a $2,800 e-bike in an early-morning break-in.

The burglary happened last Monday, Nov. 2 at E-Bike Super Shop along Bacon Street.

Co-owner Devin Raymond said an employee discovered the damage that morning.

“Like a gut punch in the morning,” Raymond said.

Surveillance video from the business shows two men outside the entrance shortly before 4 a.m. Raymond believes one of them used a tool to break the glass in the front window.

“Looks like they broke the glass in advance to see if it would set off the alarm,” Raymond said.

Raymond said the alarm never went off.

About 30 minutes later, surveillance video shows an SUV pull up near the entrance and a masked man get out. The man eventually makes his way through the broken window and enters the shop.

City News Service – NBC7 / November 5, 2026

An 80-year-old man and a 45-year-old man suspected of distributing psilocybin gummies to at least 15 trick-or-treating children in Sunset Cliffs were taken into custody Wednesday following a search operation.

Multiple bags of psilocybin-infused gummies were left on a residence’s porch Saturday night and were later taken by children between 1 and 6 years old, according to the San Diego Police Department.

Police said the children’s parents noticed the suspicious candy packages and, upon inspecting them, suspected they contained controlled substances.

The parents then confronted the homeowners and later filed a police report with the department, saving the packages of the gummies for law enforcement evaluation, which later tested positive for psilocybin.

By Kate Callen

There are two schools of thought about how Michigan’s Haley Stevens should spend her final weeks as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Enraged Democrats reacted to her 11th-hour endorsement of Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers by wanting her stripped of office. She was booted from the Michigan Democratic Party. Long-time friends and mentors disavowed her.

Democrats with cooler heads preferred another outcome.

Forcing Stevens out of her job, if that were even possible, would make her an ideological martyr. Letting her stay would make her a pariah. If she shows up in the halls of Congress after this, she will be shunned like a skunk – publicly ostracized every minute of every painful remaining day.

Revenge is a dish best served cold. For maximum effect, it should be brought to the table slowly. Which is why a new campaign to recall Mayor Todd Gloria is a bad idea.

On October 29, a group of activists led by attorney Genevieve Jones-Wright filed a notice of intent to gather signatures for a recall petition. If all goes smoothly, the petition can begin circulating before Thanksgiving. If signatures from 15 percent of registered voters are collected within 120 days, the City Council must call a special election.

That election would cost money the city doesn’t have. It would bring Gloria’s YIMBY and labor minions out of the burrows where they’ve been hiding. It would overshadow the 2028 race for mayor and hinder the candidates already gearing up to succeed him.

And to what end? Gloria can’t inflict much more damage on San Diego. His “strong mayor” power has run out. He squandered it by racking up enough failures and transgressions to power a website.

Nicole Crosby is “cautiously optimistic,” she told the Rag this morning, the day after her apparent victory over former Republican Richard Bailey for the District 2 city council seat. Currently, she leads Bailey by 9 percentage points and by a little over 3,000 votes. Ballot counting continues.

Crosby leads Bailey 54.5% to 45.6%, with 18,188 votes to 15,218.

Crosby spoke to me this morning when I called to congratulate her. She sounded happy but exhausted.Yet she felt the numbers would hold. She also told me that Bailey had yet to call  her to concede or congratulate her.

Crosby:

“This race has always been about fighting for my neighbors in District 2. From the parents and teachers at my daughter’s school, to the librarians, emergency service workers and skilled trades workers in our community, we did this together. Working families are the backbone of San Diego and we deserve results from City Hall.