OCEAN BEACH, CA. This is the “New and Improved” version of OB Flashes – the OB Rag’s calendar and discussion board for the week of September 30th through October 6th, 2009. What follows are of interest to OBceans everywhere:
Anti-Hate Crimes Conference Oct 1
United for a Hate Free San Diego, a coalition of faith and community leaders, presents the 2nd annual Hate Crimes Summit on Thursday Oct. 1 from 6-8 p.m. at the Ronald Reagan Community Center, 195 E. Douglas Ave, in El Cajon. A series of violent, hate-motivated incidents in East County and elsewhere in San Diego County have prompted community leaders to take action on in hopes of raising awareness and preventing future violence.
In our region, most hate crimes are committed by minors under the age of 21, according to the coalition’s website, highlighting the need for better education and intervention programs to prevent such violence. In some cases, crimes were not reported or prosecuted as hate crimes, instead being labeled gang violence or other offenses by law enforcement although victims were taunted with racial, ethnic or gender-based slurs prior to physical attacks.
OB’s Oktoberfest Is on October 10th at the OB Pier
This year’s Ocean Beach Oktobefest 2009 is set to take off on Oct. 10th, from 10 am to 8:30pm. It will be held down at the OB Pier. There will be two stages, and a Bavarian Beer Garden. Free shuttle buses are provided, every 30 minutes from PB to OB and back, from noon to 8:30pm. This year’s event is sponsored by the OB Mainstreet Association. For more details – go to www.OBOktoberfest.com .
Peaceniks Leaflet Point Loma High School
San Diego’s local Coalition for Peace and Justice members and other volunteers handed out anti-war fliers to students as they arrived at Point Loma High on Wednesday, September 30th. Our local supporter reported that it was a successful flier event – as there were 4 people at the both the front and back of the high school, situated on Chatsworth Blvd. Over 700 fliers were distributed, providing students and their parents info on how to “opt out” of military recruiters contacting the students at home. Some parents were irate as they wanted their kids to have the opportunity be sent off to future wars and brought back in body bags. However the school vice principal and gardener were very nice. If you would like to join this effort contact the OB Rag and we’ll put you in touch with this organizing effort.
North OB Restrooms to have Temporary and Mobile Replacements
As many know, the public restrooms at the beach in north OB have been torn down. The facility will not be fully replaced for another 18 months. In the meantime, the City of San Diego plans on installing mobile and temporary restrooms on the old cement slab. There are port-a-johns there at the moment. The mobile units are waiting for final approval.
Bongo drum attacker arrested on Voltaire Street
Union-Tribune reports: A 35-year-old man was arrested in Ocean Beach early Thursday (10/01/09) after police said he hit a woman on the head with a bongo drum. Officers were called to Voltaire Street near Etiwanda Street about 3:40 a.m. by someone who heard a woman calling for help, San Diego police said.
When officers arrived, they found the woman bleeding from a gash on the back of her head, police said.She said she was walking with the man and some other friends when for unknown reasons he hit her with the 2-foot-tall drum, police said. The attacker was taken into custody and the instrument was impounded. The woman was taken to a hospital for stitches. Police said the pair had been drinking.
Diver who died off Sunset Cliffs identified
A scuba diver who apparently drowned off Sunset Cliffs Tuesday has been identified as Daniel Forchione, an officer with the University of Arizona Police Department who was vacationing with his family in San Diego, university police said Wednesday. Forchione, 46, was a 15-year veteran of the department in Tucson. He served most recently as a motor officer.
He and two diving companions were heading back to their chartered dive boat after completing a second dive Tuesday when he became separated from the other two, according to Rich Sillanpa, president of Dive Connections in Mission Bay. Forchione took off his tank, but still had his weight belt on, and it appears he may have panicked on the surface, Sillanpa said. An autopsy will be performed this week.
Forchione is survived by his wife, who works as an officer with the Tucson Police Department, and their 8-month-old daughter.
Another Sewer Spill
From the Reader : on Sept 28 by By Cindy Winslow
Dog Beach was crowded with beachgoers and their dogs playing in the hazy afternoon sun on Saturday, September 26. Just a couple days earlier, signs warning of sewage contamination in the water flanked the popular canine hangout.
The contamination originated from a 1368-gallon sewage spill in Mission Valley at 11:28 a.m. on Wednesday, September 23. The spill was caused by a grease blockage and began at the intersection of Mission Center Road and Camino de la Reina. The untreated sewage flowed into a storm drain that empties into the San Diego River, which leads to Dog Beach.
“I didn’t even know there had been a sewage spill,” said one dog owner as she stood on the sand and watched her dog frolic in the surf. “Either way, there’s nothing that’s going to keep him out of the water.”
Banned Book Week Looks at Censorship
During the last week of September every year, hundreds of libraries and bookstores around the country draw attention to the problem of censorship by mounting displays of challenged books and hosting a variety of events. The 2009 celebration of Banned Books Week will be held from September 26 through October 3.
Banned Books Week is the only national celebration of the freedom to read. It was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than a thousand books have been challenged since 1982. The challenges have occurred in every state and in hundreds of communities. Click here to see a map of book bans and challenges in the US from 2007 to 2009. People challenge books that they say are too sexual or too violent. They object to profanity and slang, and protest against offensive portrayals of racial or religious groups–or positive portrayals of homosexuals. Their targets range from books that explore the latest problems to classic and beloved works of American literature.
For the ten most challenged titles, go to the American Library Association, and see how them out of 513 challenges reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom in 2008.
OB Town Council and Dog Beach Dog Wash Annual Clean-up on Halloween
The OB Town Council in conjunction with Dog Beach Dog Wash and the City’s ESD are doing the annual cleanup on 10-31-09. There is a need for volunteers. Last year over 18,000 pounds of couches, TV’s and other things dumped in the alleys of OB were collected, many unweighed recyclables. Here’s a link to the OBTC website.
{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
Has anyone noticed the old RPS building is now a Halloween mega outlet store? WTF? So we’ve got a temporary business selling cheap halloween crap for the next month? Does anyone know if they’ve hired locals? And how does having this store help to better our community? I personally refuse to shop there. Besides I’m going as a patriotic tea bagger this year. Which reminds me, Shawn Conrad, I’ll need to borrow a few unloaded weapons and R Hoobler, I’ll need to borrow your Sarah Palin 2012 t-shirt and as much Earl Grey as you can spare. Thanks,
Jon, I think it’s simple economics – the owner of the building (the guy who owns Apple Tree) found someone to rent that space for a month. He went for it. You do raise interesting questions and points. Maybe they’re selling Sara Palin masks — or worse yet, Glenn Beck masks – oh, that’s right, you don’t think Beck’s image should be embellished…. LOL
I understand that much Frank, the owner of the building needs to rent that space and make his $$, but how does his ability to personally make a buck positively affect our community? (I’m not saying it does not, I’m asking a serious question that I don’t know the answer to.) Perhaps I should also be careful about saying I won’t shop there. There is an off chance that I will go inside to look for some stupid fake moustache or something. But I still think it sucks. those mega-halloween stores are the things you see pop up in strip malls in Rancho Bernardo or Kearney Mesa, not OB. I don’t wanna see that crap. What comes next? A freakin’ Marshalls?
Jon – damn, you didn’t bite.
Glenn Beck – “Satan’s mentally challenged younger sibling.” -Stephen King.
These stores generally exist in an online-only environmnent most of the year and in the lead-up to Halloween take up short-term tenancy at any abandoned open space that will have them. I buy my kid a cheap costume at one of them every year. I’m about as inclined to visit the RPS one as I am the Mervyn’s in Midway, since that was previously the closest one I was aware of.
there used to be a permanent store on newport that also sold hallowe’en costumes; it was part antique, part candy, and party costume. does anyone remember the name of it? it too was lost in the take-over of parts of newport by the antique malls.
Jon – Hey, is there one of Dracula smiling? Maybe this new store has some racy costumes like these….http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33121230
I can only imagine what was keeping that silly grin on Draculas face. lol.
you’re on, jon. and i can even loan you an advance copy of gov. palin’s new book. the five pages or so on how she dumped the gov. job for some quick bucks is really fascinating reading. long live private enterprise!
Breaking news as of this afternoon – my daughter comes home with a letter from OB Elementary saying district budget cuts have forced them to lay off a teacher, all students are subject to class shuffles after spending a month getting adjusted to their current teachers/classrooms – more to follow once I get a chance to meet with her teacher/principal in a week or so and find out if she’s one of the students being pulled from her classroom…
PSD – any more details? Which teacher? When? Name?
once upon a time, being a tenure track teacher provided job security and allowed students the opportunity to be taught by experienced and qualified folks. When you start laying off teachers, you also thin out the level of mastery in the classroom…..its really sad, especially since right now there is a need for young teachers due to a mass exodus of retirements.
i hope public schools dont completely lose credibility in the wake of budget cuts….i cant even begin to explain how thankful I am for my public school education.
New news – a last minute appeal was granted a few hours after the letters informing parents of the change went out, the classroom elimination was cancelled and the status quo will remain, aside from the first parent-teacher meetings being postponed from tonight to two weeks hence.
from City Beat….
Drug Policy Alliance Network targeting Bonnie Dumanis
September 30, 2009 – 4:33 pm — Kelly Davis
In response to raids of 14 medical marijuana dispensaries earlier this month, the Drug Policy Alliance Network has launched a national campaign against San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. An e-mail I got earlier today, with the subject line “He was in a wheelchair!” (referring to news footage showing a guy in a wheelchair being handcuffed) asks subscribers to DPAN’s mailing list to sign a petition asking that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown “rein in the district attorney who orchestrated these raids.” The e-mail alleges that Dumanis “has long defied California’s medical marijuana law” and suggests that the raids were a way to bolster her chances of re-election in 2010 (though, as yet, no one’s running against her).
Here’s the link: http://lastblogonearth.com/2009/09/30/drug-police-alliance-network-targeting-bonnie-dumanis/
Thanks for sharing the link to the petition. It never ceases to amaze me that propaganda works… and works, and works, since the early 1900’s unfortunately. Last time I looked at my calendar it was 2009, but I guess I was high.
Jason – we at the OB Rag are trying to get ahold of you. I sent you a personal email. Any chance you can leave your website and a phone #?
will you stop moving everything around the page today? it’s giving me vertigo.
Mr fresh – for someone who has a red hot chili pepper for a mouth, I’m amazed that you can even smell “vertigo”.
In regards to the bongo drum attacker: It all started when it was suggested that Phish was more jam-tastic than the Grateful Dead. We must put an end to the hippie on hippie violence that is disrupting Ocean Beach. Next thing you know someone gets their dreadlocks set on fire with sage or a tamborine to the nose. Something must be done to stop the madness!
Police later report that it wasn’t a 2 foot bongo but a 2 foot bong – see what just a”o” can do for you jon-o? Geez, can you imagine a 2 foot bong… Okay, here ya go jono, how many hippies does it take to smoke outta a 2 foot bong?
Just measured…mine’s 22″. So anyone with a 2 footer has someting on me, but nothing on my buddy’s dad’s 6 foot Graffix plastic piece from when we were kids.
My djembe, however, is only a foot and a half. I’m sure two-foot variants of such exist (my girlfriend’s sister’s boyfriend’s is about that size), but a two foot tall bongo I have yet to encounter.
you guys need some good old fashioned republican humor here:
“There’s a joke out now that says the main value of the Cash for Clunkers program may be that we’ll get a lot of cars with Obama stickers off the road.”
Republican humor is an oxymoron. As you just proved hoobler. Thank you for the first-hand example.
I hope you’ll still let me borrow your Palin schwag for halloween….
Palin schwag? Don’t you dare go around and denigrate good ol’ Mexie weed.
Sorry Molly, is the correct term swag? I always get the two cornfused. Dude…wait. what?
Schwag (n):
1. Goods acquired through backdoor channels at reduced or no cost, originally in reference to radio disc jockeys’ acquisition of albums and concert tickets.
2. Low-potency marijuana, from the 1950’s through the early 2000’s frequently acquired via importation from Mexico. Characterized by an abunance of seeds, sticks, and stems. Also referred to as ‘mexi’ by those born in the ’60s and ’70s and simply ‘mecc’ (meh-k) by children of the ’80s and ’90s.
Either use of the word works. And yes, I just pulled those definitions out of my arse. I need both a Palin mask and a non-schwag bowl. But I’m broke and it’s not ’til next week that we’re done with the we grow it phase, then we pick it, then we dry it and a couple weeks later we clip it, only after that do we roll it and we light it, then we smoke it and we like it (ripoff alert – thefunkyjahpunkys.com).
Freakin outrageous dude! Had me gurgling in my coffee cup.
Hey Hoob – why does your avatar look like Barack Obama? I’ve been wanting to ask you that for awhile. I know, you’re a secret admirer of the prez.
Geez, thank god for these edit thingies – I must have weed on the brain, so I think I’ll go smoke some. (pause) There, that’s better.
looks like we’re going to have to save the library once again…..new UT article has now reported the budget deficit at over $170 million…
“A deficit this size is so significant that we can no longer shield the public from its impacts” – Mayor Sanders
Let me guess – the first things to go will be libraries and rec centers, then more teachers, then firefighters, then cops, then other city employees…..then food, water, and electricity….then people….
Betya after all that’s gone, the convention center and the Gaslamp will still be there!
here’s the link: http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/oct/02/budget-hole-179-million-deep/?metro&zIndex=175913
Happy Saturday=== The name of the Halloween Store was Homers (4800 block of Newport) I can remember it was a store that had something for everyone..I can remember in the late 70’s I would take my 3 son’s their & they had great costumes & very reasonable priced…The original couple who ran it were the Parsons & they lived down the street from my family when we lived on Amiford Drive… Then they sold it. I don’t remember the next ladies name but when ever we needed balloons she always donated them…..A Blast from the Past…….cj
In regards to OBE laying off a teacher, from what I understand, the district noticed, albeit 3 weeks into the school, that the school was short 6 children to warrant 15 teachers. Jeremy Robles (Kinder) was due to be laid off, he is a long-term substitute, and has been with OBE for over 3 years. (My daughter had the pleasure of Mr Robles teacher her class after Mrs. Banks 1st Grade was ill and unable to finish the year)
If you weren’t aware, OBE has 4 kinder classrooms this year!
There was indeed a last minute reprieve, after many letters & emails from concerned parents, and a district meeting. Principal Margaret Johnson played a strong role in standing up for her school and her students. We are very lucky to have a leader who thinks of the kids first.
Can you imagine, 3 weeks into school, having to reconfigure the classrooms? This would have left many mixed grade classes, from what I understand. Not just the kinders effected, but 1st – 4th as well.
This news also made us have to reschedule are Back to School night, where we had
SEVERAL Community Partners planned to be with us at OBE, and I am sure that many families had to rearrange their plans.
Personally, I am dumbfounded how this could have been suggested in the first place.
Moreover, I am surprised the out little school came out on top over the SDUSD and its nonsensical policies.
Back to School night has been rescheduled for October 15th from 5:30 – 8 for OBE
families & community partners.
Also note,
we are celebrating our Centennial this year!!
We are in the process of making a BIG list of alumni. If you went to Ocean Beach Elementary, we want to hear your story and invite you to the party!
Please contact : Alumni@OBElementary.com
Cheers to OB!
Amber Conley
PTA President 2009-2010
Credit is definitely due to Margaret Johnson, who has always gone above and beyond for her students and their families. The day after the news broke and we expressed concern, she gave us a personal phone call to explain the situation and the reprieve – I can only imagine how many other calls she had to make just like ours, and I know she made each and every one of them.
Re-scheduling Back to School Night is no big deal at all compared to the transition we were all facing if we’d have lost Mr. Robles. My daughter was pulled from her kinder class a few weeks into last year when all the classes were shifted around – everything worked out great and she had an excellent teacher and year, but there were definitely a few weeks lost first adjusting and then re-adjusting. And while initially excited to learn she’d be part of a ‘mixed-grade’ class this year, a lot of friends with a lot more experience than me raising school-age kids expressed concern…I imagine moving toward in this direction on a larger scale would’ve probably resulted in quite a hullaballoo. Overall we’re happy with the way the situation’s turned out.
Don’t know exactly where to post this, but I will post here since it seems like a “general post” spot. I need to rant for a moment….We had our first experience of what I would like to call, “Dog Rage” this weekend. I have seen “Dog Rage” at Balboa Dog Park, but this was my first time experiencing it firsthand…. Last weekend we were out enjoying the late afternoon sun with the dogs at Dog Beach. An unneutered male dog approached our blanket and attempted to mount my spayed female dog. My boyfriend “shoo’d” the dog away from the blanket. At no time did either of us touch the dog. The owner approached my boyfriend verbally threatening violence. He was looking to fight. He stood less then two inches off my boyfriends face, spit flying as he hurled insults and obsenities over us “touching” his dog. My boyfriend told him, “I didn’t touch your dog bro.” This guy had not been watching his dog (had been talking to his friend with his back to the dog as it made its way several yards back down the beach towards our blanket). This guy only saw us waving our arms at his dog and ASSUMED we had touched his dog. He came seconds away from hitting my boyfriend and at one point, invited him to a fist fight in the parking lot. I am a very small, normally peaceful person, but I had to intervene by shouting over the wind to get him to go away. This kid was pumped up, looking to prove something. The whole thing left me shaken. For two years we have brought our dogs to Dog Beach on the weekends. Never in a million years would I have thought there would come a day when we would be physically threatened by a fellow dog owner in such a beautiful and serene location. Dog Beach is for ALL of us to enjoy. To the guy who threatened us, I ask that you remember what we all love about OB–it’s sense of community, sharing and peaceful coexistence. If the dogs can do it, can’t we?
Where is the information on the OB Town Council and Dog Beach Dog Wash “Annual Clean-up on Halloween” event? I checked out all the links suggested and no one has detailed information listed on the event.
Should I just assume that it’s on Halloween and clean up around my own cottage or is this a more organized event and I’m the last one to know any details about it such as where when and jazz like that?
Sunshine – see the next OB Flashes Oct 9 -15. There’s a link to a pdf file that is the OBTC’s flyer. You can reach it via the home page.