Month: July 2009

by Frank Gormlie

It wasn’t all fun and fireworks in Ocean Beach on July 4th. Christopher Bowd was somehow and somewhere knocked unconscious possibly on Newport Ave after the marshmallow fight and taken to a hospital – where he remains today still unconscious. Bowd’s family and friends are seeking answers and are turning to the rest of OB for help.

Police are currently conducting an investigation and believe Chris was injured at Newport and Bacon around 11pm July 4th.

The Reader reported on Monday, July 5th, that over two dozen RV owners were forced out of the OB Pier parking lot by San Diego Police.

And alot of grumbling was going on. Apparently, many of the RVs had pulled into the parking lot at the end of Newport Avenue in the early hours of the 4th in order to get close, set up their grills and their families. The police arrived at 8 am and forced them all to leave, upon threat of arrest and towing of their vehicles.

Things in Iran are still very tense. A stalemate has developed between the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the reformist opposition movement, led by Mir Hossein Mousavi. A top editor of a government-aligned newspaper called Mousavi a foreign agent, ratcheting up the rhetoric in the stand-off that has enveloped this country ever since the disputed presidential election on June 12.

However, one of the more positive developments favoring Mousavi is …

Editor: The situation in the Honduran crisis took a dramatic and deadly turn today, July 5th. Two supporters of deposed President Manuel Zelaya were killed in clashes with police at the capital’s airport.

Thousands of his supporters had marched on the airport in anticipation of his return there today. But Zelaya’s jet was blocked from landing, and the plane flew to El Salvador. Here is the most recent MSM report, from CNN, posted at 7:30 pm PDT:

Fireworks at the end of the OB Pier are always good for a huge crowd. The beach, the pier, the surrounding blocks, the overlooking hilltops, and the cliffs are packed. It seems like the whole world comes to OB for the fireworks every 4th. And why not? They’re great!

by Anna Daniels

Who are the watchdogs who have published the recent San Diego Union-Tribune series on the topic of City worker pay? The series and the links to individual employee names and compensation are published under the rubric of “Watchdog report.”

by Larry Kosta, Jr.

When I got to know Dave Gilbert a little better, I asked him what he did. He told me he was a dog walker.

I thought to myself, is that really a job? This isn’t New York City. Do people in San Diego actually pay to have their dogs walked?

Most locals know about the famous OB Marshmallow Fight that happens after the fireworks each July 4th right at the beach. Two great throngs gather and begin pelting each other with the mushy white gobs. This goes on, with each side advancing or retreating until enough people tire and the event melts away like the last fireworks.

Who did start the first OB marshmallow fight?

by Frank Gormlie

Reposted from July 6, 2008

OCEAN BEACH, CA. There are secret caves along the cliffs in Ocean Beach. It just so happens that the stretch of cliffs next to the boulevard of the same name, from Point Loma Boulevard south to Ladera Street, contain an array of beautiful, hidden and fairly inaccessible caves.

Only during real low tides are some of them reachable. But these hidden geological grottoes and cuts in the sandstone cliffs and the beaches and pools inside them are nature’s displays of the wondrous interplay of land and sea that has occurred over time – right here on our front porch.

THE JETTY IS STOPPED

There was definitely turmoil in OB the summer of 1970. For a number of weeks during those hot days, OB residents used a combination of direct action and legal moves to battle efforts by the Army Corps of Engineers and the City to construct a jetty parallel to the southern edge of the San Diego River channel — next to what is now Dog Beach.

Many locals viewed the jetty as a prelude to an attempt by the City and developer interests to create a marina and resort district at Ocean Beach’s waterfront.

Originally posted on January 12, 2008

by Frank Gormlie

Always intrigued about the origin of words and idioms, I found interesting the history of Ocean Beach street names.

It is axiomatic in our world that whoever plans out and develops a community gets to name the streets! And the rest of us then get to live with those street titles. Now, of course, who does plan out and develop a community from scratch? Who was responsible for putting together the sub-divisions that make up what is the present community of Ocean Beach?

Originally posted June 19, 2008

2 ENTREPRENEURS DEVELOPED TOWN IN THE LATE 1800s

By Joe Tash / UNION-TRIBUNE /June 14, 2008
Long before Dog Beach, the People’s Organic Food Market and The Black became Ocean Beach fixtures, Billy Carlson and D.C. Collier put their stamps on this seaside community. The two entrepreneurs are considered co-founders of Ocean Beach for their pioneering roles during the late 1800s and early 1900s, said Pat James, a businessman and president of the Ocean Beach Historical Society.