Month: February 2012

There’s a character
from old Minstrel Shows
who went by the name of Jim Crow,
white man in
black face
depicting what he considered to be,
a Negro,
all singy and dancey and grinny,
don’t you know,
but over time
in my mind
I configured the soul
of the rogue playing Jim Crow
as the mastermind
of all the crimes
against my gentes
I’ve seen in a lifetime,
a symbol of all our woes,
morphing into
“The Man”
I’ve come to know:
….

The Ocean Beach Planning Board is embroiled in a fight with the City of San Diego. And it’s a fight that goes to the very essence of what it means to be an OBcean, a resident of OB – a community about to celebrate its 125th anniversary. The City right now has been granting variances that improperly allow developers to build beyond what is allowed under local rules.

By doing this, the City is over-riding the Ocean Beach Precise Plan – the governing document that directs development in OB – a Plan that was won by OBceans nearly forty years ago. And by over-riding the Precise Plan with the granting of improper variances that allow for beachfront McMansions – new development on the front lines of the efforts to gentrify northwest Ocean Beach – the City is over-riding Ocean Beach – once again.

But now the OB Planners are taking the fight and the issues they have with the City to the committee of planning board chairs who have their next meeting this Tuesday, Feb. 28th. The OB Board members are hoping that the city-wide group will agree to sponsor an investigation into the variances that the City has been granting to property owners who wish to throw up three-story houses on West Point Loma Boulevard.

The Committee of Planning Committees is holding their meeting Tuesday night, February 28th, 7:00-9:00 p.m., at their Kearny Mesa location, the Metropolitan Operations Center II Auditorium, located at 9192 Topaz Way, Kearny Mesa.

OB Planning Board members are car-pooling to the meeting and are urging OBceans to join them in support and solidarity by attending the meeting – at least that part that involves OB, which is scheduled on the agenda for 8:25 p.m. People who are interested can join up at the OB Rec Center and likewise carpool.

By OB Joe

Hey y’all! Hi ya’all doin’? You made it through the week – cowabunga dude!

Doug Porter couldn’t write up his First Cuppa Coffee this morning cause he’s been ill. So, once again Editordude calls me at the last moment to fill in. I told him that Doug usually has a theme to his column and I can’t do that. He says not to worry. So, here ya go – a bunch of newsclips that were lining my bathroom wall:

Chris’ Deli almost robbed early this (Friday) morning. One of the workers at the Deli, located at the corner of West Point Loma Blvd and Sunset Cliffs Blvd, walked in early only to find two guys trying to break into the store’s safe. He told investigators that one of the guys pointed a handgun at him, so he took off. But he watched what happened from a safe distance. He saw the guys then place a sledgehammer and a gray trash can into the bed of an older dark pickup with a California license plate. They both had on white bandanas and hooded zip-up sweatshirts, one orange and the other yellow. Oh, btw, the first U-T version of the attempted theft called Chris’ Deli, “the Princess Deli and Liquor”.

What a rip! Thanks a lot Carquest Auto Parts! SDGLN.com reports that Golden State Supply, doing business as CARQUEST Auto Parts stores in the San Diego area, has agreed to pay a $242,715 judgment after being accused of charging customers more than the advertised or posted price on items when they were scanned at check-out counters. In addition, inspectors observed in eight stores that the cash registers failed to display the price of items where the consumer could see the display, which is a violation of state law.

With gas prices over $4 a gallon and Middle East tensions not soon to be abated and with the price of a barrel of oil skyrocketing, the smuggling of gas into the United States is taking on a new priority, law enforcement agents admitted on Thursday on the beach at Ocean Beach.

Twelve gas smugglers were taken into custody in Ocean Beach on Thursday morning at the foot of the OB Pier. Local Pat James caught some of the scene with these photos.

The smugglers had come ashore on a small boat, called a “panga” which had a number of plastic jugs of gas. It was first assumed that this was just an ordinary “illegal alien” bust, but when authorities discovered all the gas jugs, agents had to rewrite their reports.

Yup, it’s an end to an era all right. These photos were taken by the City of San Diego to demonstrate the end to the Brighton Avenue beach restrooms. The city calls them “comfort stations” – but whatever they’re called, they’re down.

This all occurred on Wednesday, the 22nd of February.

Next up: the building of the restrooms.

This controversial project has been a long time coming. Here are some recent posts by us: go here, here, and here.

by Emilie Astolat

Breasts. It wasn’t too long ago that I told my 10-year-old stepdaughter she had to wear a different shirt because I could see details of her breasts beneath the one she had on.

I’m not sure when she started maturing sexually, but it’s definitely happening. Technically, according to all the books, they’re only buds. But the idea of her actually having them is so foreign they might as well be balloons.

For her birthday recently, I got her a book called The Care and Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls by Valorie Lee Schaefer. As the name implies, it describes and illustrates various bodily developments and what to do about each one.

By Linda Greenhouse / The New York Times – RSN / February 23, 2012

Is there really a chance that the Supreme Court might reconsider Citizens United?

A week ago, I wouldn’t have thought so, and I still think it’s an extreme long shot. But a provocative statement last Friday by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer makes this crazy idea worth pondering – which is undoubtedly what the two justices intended.

From Ocean Beach Mainstreet Association / Feb. 21, 2012

The Ocean Beach Woman’s Club has been a “Hub of Activity” in Ocean Beach for eighty-eight years. The majority of the club’s history from 1924 to 1937 has been lost from the official records. The information that we do have comes from historians and newspaper articles of the time. On September 21, 1997 the building sustained major fire damage. Again much of the club’s records and history was lost or damaged by the fire. It is gratifying that the sons and daughters of old time members are finding and presenting the club with memorabilia of the club in years past.

The Ocean Beach Woman’s Club was founded on November 24, 1924, and is one of the oldest civic groups in San Diego. Forty five charter members are listed as having signed the charter. Many of the club’s charter members were married to the Chamber of Commerce men, so the women had long been involved in public affairs. Records indicate that the club was a member of the National Federation of Women’s Clubs prior to 1936. The club was organized with a Constitution, Bylaws, and its first Board of Directors on January 12, 1925.

By Dirty DeMaio/ February 21, 2012

One of Carl DeMaio’s favorite claims on the campaign trail is that government doesn’t create jobs. We’ve noted previously that DeMaio can actually thank government for every job he’s ever had, but is he also looking to have government create jobs for his campaign contributors?

After he didn’t back down from a statement that he “owes” his supporters, DeMaio assured the audience at a mayoral debate in January that “we have not had any contract process where I’m awarding a contract.” But as we noted last month, that’s not entirely accurate:
(see inside)

Editor: The following is the text that was handed out by the Save the Bill of Rights coalition on February 11th at their rally in front of the State Democrats’ Convention at the Convention Center in downtown San Diego.

REPEAL THE NDAA – The National Defense Authorization Act of 2012

During last December, both the US Senate and the House of Representatives passed this Act and President Obama signed it into law on December 31, 2011. It is now the law of the land.

The Act includes provisions that would allow for the indefinite detention of American citizens without any recourse to legal interventions or civil rights if accused of a “belligerent act” or any terror-related offense.

These provisions mean that anyone of us – or any group of us – could be imprisoned without arraignment, without access to a lawyer, without access to habeas corpus, without a jury trial, without due process – without the protection of the Bill of Rights, our basic, fundamental rights as citizens.

By Robert Reich / Robert Reich’s Blog – RSN / February 21, 2012

Nothing drives voter sentiment like the price of gas – now averaging $3.56 a gallon, up 30 cents from the start of the year. It’s already hit $4 in some places. The last time gas topped $4 was 2008.

And nothing energizes Republicans like rising energy prices. Last week House Speaker John Boehner told Republicans to take advantage of voters’ looming anger over prices at the pump. On Thursday House Republicans passed a bill to expand offshore drilling and force the White House to issue a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. The tumult prompted the Interior Department to announce on Friday expanded oil exploration in the Arctic.

If prices at the pump continue to rise, expect more gas wars.

In fact, oil prices are rising for three reasons – none of which has to do with offshore drilling or the XL pipeline.