OB Rag

OB Rag Staff Report

When the San Diego City Council returned from a month’s hiatus on August 24, Council President Joe La Cava quickly laid down the law about what he would and would not allow public commenters to discuss.

But those commenters quickly taught him a lesson about why elected officials who run meetings need to do their homework.

The afternoon’s second agenda item was a formality, a vote to remove Measure C from the municipal code. The initiative would have let the Midway Rising project exceed the city’s 30-foot coastal height limit. But it was struck down in court on environmental impact issues, so the Council vote was procedural.

Midway Rising has sparked a furious battle between elected officials who are hell-bent on pushing it through, and community activists who are hell-bent on stopping it. Mayor Todd Gloria, who has staked everything on this project, flew to Sacramento to lobby for special legislation that will green light it.

So, it was no surprise when public commenters addressed the environmental risks of Midway Rising, including flooding from rising sea levels and soil liquefaction.

But the Council President wasn’t having it. He interrupted several speakers and chastised them because they didn’t strictly limit their remarks to the defunct Measure C.

“I’m going to ask you to speak on Measure C,” La Cava told Angela Vedder, “to talk about whether or not we should repeal Measure C.”

Lori Saldana noted the irony of repealing Measure C while pushing state bills to negate existing height limits.

By Debbie Sklar / Times of San Diego / August 25, 2026

Today, Mission Bay is known for beaches, boats, hotels and recreation.

In 1949, however, the area was still being developed into the recreational destination San Diegans know today.

To celebrate the official opening of Mission Bay Park, the city staged a three-day festival — and one of its most unusual attractions was a floating barge that served as a stage for musicians and entertainers.

Fiesta Bahia, or Festival of the Bay, was held Sept. 3-5, 1949. The city of San Diego’s Digital Archives preserves a photograph of the floating stage taken Sept. 4.

The Sept. 3-5, 1949, celebration officially opened Mission Bay Park. The 3-day event included the use of floating stages, a Central Labor Council water parade, showing the movie ‘Man’s Conquest of the Air’ each night, vaudeville shows, and aquatic exhibitions by the San Diego Swimming Association including water ballet, high- and comedy-divers, and water ski, boat and paddleboard races.

The festival was built around the water.

By Mat Wahlstrom

It’s astonishing, the extent to which political norms and the rule of law have been perverted by an elected official who imagines himself a king and has a cabal of cronies and an entire political party enabling his madness.

There’s no level of government or public policy where he won’t intrude for personal gain, no grievance too petty to express, no punishment too harsh for those who oppose him. Any engagement with him that is less than fawning is met with insult (if not also litigious and/or paramilitary measures).

No one is allowed to tell him “No.”

But while a majority of Americans disapprove of the current federal regime for these reasons, what is interesting is how long it has taken people in San Diego to recognize a variant of this
same derangement in our “strong-arm mayor” form of government and his neoliberal party machine.

While I am certain that there are those at this point thinking this comparison is hyperbole, I contend that any difference in lawlessness is one of degree not of kind.

The rumblings were abundant in 2024. Todd Gloria’s ‘irrational exuberance’ in going on a hiring spree to fund a redundant layer of YIMBY-identifying city staffers as his personal enforcers finally ran into the iceberg of budget reality. Middle-manager positions swelled from 70 in 2011 to 393 today; and the personal cost of city services to individual San Diegans increased by 29% -or $346 more per year.

By Marcella Bothwell and Karen Ventimiglia / Special to the OB Rag

The Pacific Beach Town Council and Pacific Beach Planning Group hosted a community Town Hall with Rep. Scott Peters focused on the proposed Turquoise Tower and the broader housing policies reshaping San Diego’s coastal communities.

The discussion made clear that Peters remains strongly supportive of building more housing, but he also acknowledged that California’s current approach can be too blunt. Peters described the political momentum behind state housing mandates as a ‘sledgehammer approach.’ He said Turquoise Tower shows what can happen when those laws are applied without enough nuance.

On Turquoise Tower itself, Peters reiterated that he does not believe the 23-story project should move forward as proposed. He pointed to his previously issued letter opposing the project and said he was willing to help facilitate discussions with the California Coastal Commission about how housing laws should be applied in coastal communities. When asked what height he would consider acceptable, Peters said that under the density-bonus framework he believes should apply, the project would be closer to roughly 60 feet, or about six stories, and said he did not believe it should be higher than that.

By Doug Poole

What is going on with 820 Fort Stockton? I’ll break it into sections for ease of reading.

Status of the Permit
There has been no activity on the permit since February/ March 2026. The same 17 deficiencies remain, the most critical being the number of affordable units and the building height. There has been no communication from the Development Services Department (DSD) to our attorney, DeLano & DeLano, nor any response to repeated requests from Ralph Teyssier — a very experienced structural engineer who, together with me, tried to arrange a meeting with the DSD engineers and the project manager.

Fees and Why Developers Love Micro-Units
City records show the developer paid several permit fees on 6/6/2025, totaling $52,000. These fees so far are based on what was on the site — the six units in the three buildings Stockdale demolished.

The Development Impact Fee (DIF) portion of that appears to be about $33,000. For a Complete Communities project in Uptown (which includes Mission Hills), DIFs run about $16,000 per unit, as long as each unit is under 500 square feet — versus roughly $28,000 per unit for regular units over 1,301 square feet. Complete Communities projects also get a 25% DIF discount, largely because they’re “near transit.” DIFs are meant to fund parks, mobility (bike infrastructure), libraries, and fire service

By Michael Angelo Hernandez

What the Flock is Going On?

Mass-surveillance tech company Flock Safety made the news again here in San Diego recently.  This time, due to an appearance before the San Diego City Council from the infamous villain of the widely popular Star Wars franchise, the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader. Or at least someone dressed like him, to mockingly defend the city’s use of Flock surveillance cameras.

It was during a Public Safety and Liveable Neighborhoods committee meeting on Wednesday Aug. 19, that “Vader” took the podium and proclaimed “The emperor is a fan of flock”. In his comments throughout the meeting, the Vader impersonator called for a stronger police force in San Diego and the continued use of Flock Surveillance technology “so that we can follow and surveil the rebel scum as they move from playground to playground, from playground to pool, from pool to gymnasium, because we all know that the Flock Cameras are not only following the license plate readers, they are following children, they are following children in parks, and gymnasiums, and we need this, I need this so I can stalk my ex-girlfriend.”

By Marc Snelling / Special to the OB Rag

California’s winery casualties continue to mount as the Trump Trade War escalates.  The near blockade of the Strait of Your Booze has resulted in layoffs and closures amongst California wineries, Kentucky distilleries, and other industries with Canadian export markets. The senseless damage to cross-border businesses grows along with White House rhetoric.  The trade war against Canada started with a MAGA regime lie about fentanyl streaming across the Northern border, is now a year and half old.

This week the Canadian negotiating team walked away from US talks in what media are calling an escalation to an all-out trade war.  Canadian’s views remain largely unchanged by recent events.  Any so-called “negotiations” with the White House have long been seen as extortion through sovereignty threats.  Canadians questioned not only if a deal was possible, but if a deal with the current White House would be the worth the paper it was written on.  After all the deal on paper now is not being followed and it has the current president’s sharpie on it.

The end result of US bluster and tariffs is a sharp drop in Canadian trust of US government. A drop so steep that for the first time ever, Pew Research Center polling shows the average Canadian now views China (44%) as a more reliable trading partner than the USA (33%).  The result is hard to fathom considering the centuries-long US-Canada alliance and that views of China were near historic lows during the COVID pandemic.

City News Service – CBS8 / August 26, 2026

The San Diego City Council’s Rules Committee unanimously approved an ordinance Wednesday, Aug. 26, that would maintain free parking at local beaches and Mission Bay “in perpetuity.”
The ordinance must go before the full council before it becomes law.

Committee members Council President Joe LaCava and Councilman Raul Campillo authored the ordinance, while the full committee restricted it to city residents only and removed a 10-year sunset clause.

“Councilmember Campillo’s initial proposal aligned with my held belief that beaches and Mission Bay should be accessible and free to San Diegans,” LaCava said. “By repositioning this from a ballot measure to an ordinance, I saw the opportunity to save taxpayers nearly $1 million through council action and not a public vote. Advancing this proposal ensures that these prized public parking spaces will be available at no cost to San Diegans.”

San Diego does not charge for city-owned beach and bay parking lots. Wednesday’s proposal is intended to ensure that they remain free of charge for San Diego residents.

By Roma Chang / Hoodline / August 21, 2026

A nearly 100-year-old Spanish Colonial Revival home on Kingsley Street in Loma Portal has officially been designated a historic property, a status that also opens the door for its owners to seek a significant property tax break. The San Diego Historical Resources Board voted unanimously, 7-0, to approve the designation on its consent agenda during its May 28 meeting, with the motion made by Boardmember Farley and seconded by Boardmember Woods.

The home at 3111 Kingsley St., known historically as the Union Trust Company of San Diego Spec House #3, was built in 1927 by the Pioneer Construction Company, though its architect remains unknown, according to city planning records. As reported by The San Diego Union-Tribune, the property is currently owned by Eric and Katie Singh, and the historical nomination followed research submitted by Ginger Weatherford. City records show the home falls within Council District 2 and the Peninsula Community Planning Area.

By Erwin Chemerinsky / LA Times Commentary  / August 26, 2026

The Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday allowing President Trump’s executive order on mail voting to go forward is stunningly insensitive to the context: Trump is trying to exercise control over elections when he has absolutely no authority to do so. In one sense, the justices decided nothing, simply saying it was too soon for federal courts to get involved. But in a more important way, the court could have and should have put an emphatic end to the president’s efforts to try to regulate voting operations that are legally the domain of state governments.

The context for the Supreme Court’s ruling is Trump’s repeated assertion that noncitizens are illegally voting in the United States. However, many studies done on this topic have come to the same conclusion: Instances of noncitizens voting are extremely rare.

One study from 2017, by the Brennan Center for Justice, looked at 42 jurisdictions across which more than 23.5 million votes were cast, and found only 30 instances in which there were investigations into noncitizens voting — or 0.0001% of ballots cast.

By Vanessa Romo / NPR / August 26, 2026

Immigration and Customs Enforcement recorded 49,571 arrests in July, setting the highest monthly arrest total in President Trump’s second term, according to recently released government data provided by ICE to the Deportation Data Project based at U.C. Berkeley and UCLA.

The total surge averages out to 1,599 apprehensions a day, and tops June’s record-breaking number of 43,021 arrests by 15%.

Since taking over in March, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has pivoted from the confrontational style of immigration enforcement of his predecessor, Kristi Noem. The former head of DHS often accompanied ICE officers on high profile raids, including Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis, which left two American citizens dead at the hands of federal agents. Instead Mullin pledged to fulfill the Trump administration’s deportation goals while keeping the department out of the headlines. The latest data is reflective of a strategy that is working.

Graeme Blair, co-director of the Deportation Data Project says the uptick is due to Mullin’s change in tactics.

“What we’re seeing is an expansion in all of the different ways that ICE is detaining people,” Blair told NPR. “They’re arresting people at airports, at ICE check-ins, at immigration courthouses and this is the result of that.”