Wake and Bake – it’s Monday all day!

By OB Joe

Hey kids – here’s a bunch of news stuff you might have missed cuz you were so busy stuffin yourselves.

The OB Chronicle hits the waves

Yessir, ol’ Trevor Watson is up to his old tricks, again, and the OBcean has published another version of his occasional “newspaper” for OB – the Ocean Beach Chronicle – dah tah!. It’s so colorful and fancy, and as a celebration of the year 1967, the 32 page spread found on storefront counters and everywhere else around the Peninsula is full of fake ads, fake interviews, real ads, real stories – there’s even a reprint from this here OB Rag on Bernie’s Bike Shop.  Trevor would like to publish it every couple of months or so.  Let me know how ya like it, will ya?

The Portugalia building is sold

On the market for a while, the building that had the Portugalia restaurant upstairs, finally sold.  Located at 4839 Newport Ave., it sold for  $1,192,500 cash.  The buyer of the10,152-square-foot building was Davles LLC, a California limited liability company, c/o David Cohn, with a business address of 2790 Truxtun Road, Suite 120, San Diego 92106.  The seller of the property (assessor’s parcel 448-292-20) is Home Bank of California.  The two-story building occupies a 7,000-square-foot lot and includes 17 parking spaces.  The street level contains 575 square feet of retail space fronting Newport Avenue and 4,000 square feet of enclosed parking/storage area, and the second level consists of 5,000 square feet of office/other use space, including a 400-square-foot terrace.  Looks like the place was sold at a slight loss, as it was sold in September 2003 for $1.2 million.

Ye Ol’ Lifeguard Station Gets a Paint Job

The OB lifeguard station on Abbott Street got a facelift back in early November, when a city crew from the Building Maintenance/Facilities Division, and headed up by professional painter Wayne Hurlbert gave the building dating to the Sixties a new paint job. They first had to water blast the surface, prime it and then apply the paint. According to the article at the Beacon, salt air had caused a chalky buildup on the surface, which was the reason for the water blast. Mike Patton, aide to District 2 City Councilman Kevin Faulconer, had earlier reported that the paint job would require a $10,000 expenditure which has been reallocated from Faulconer’s office budget. No work was performed on the interior of the building and nothing was done to the public restrooms attached to the lifeguard station – restrooms that are likely to be the absolute worst public restrooms at the beach in San Diego.

 SeaWorld wants female walrus -but it ain’t Paul and walruses need lots of space to swim

Dave Rice over at the Reader reported on how Sea World wishes to bring in a female walrus that was raised and bred in captivity in Japan to San Diego, naturally for display purposes. But Rice notes how scientists at the Humane Society International are very concerned as walruses in general are “migratory creatures that in the wild can travel hundred or even thousands of miles through the ocean”, and placing them in small, chlorinated freshwater pools at display facilities is not healthy for them.  Naomi Rose, a senior scientist, told the Reader:

“The biggest problem with SeaWorld’s program is that the enclosures for walruses in the Wild Arctic exhibit are of course not so wild – they are indoors and therefore the walruses never see natural light and are living in temperatures that are, generally speaking, summer-like – it is too expensive to bring the temperature down to appropriate winter conditions for any of the Arctic mammals, which include polar bears and belugas.”

 Your boat is waiting at the foot of Santa Cruz and Bacon

Whoever left it, your boat is waiting for you, down at the beach and rocks at the foot of Santa Cruz and Bacon. A beached Bayliner-brand Trophy boat appeared to be abandoned near or at the location Sunday night.  Border Patrol agents are suspicious. But hey, no drugs were found, although several life vests were located.  Now, ya can’t blame this on those guys from PB.

Lifeguards to get the Bronze

A memorial called The Lifeguard Bronze sculpture will be placed about 30 feet south of the current OB lifeguard station, and will honor the San Diego Lifeguards and memorialize the 13 victims of the 1918 drowning in Ocean Beach who were WWI soldiers from Camp Kearny. The project was envisioned by the late Hon. Robert Baxley served as a lifeguard in the 1950’s, attorney and Superior Court Judge. Bob was an acclaimed diver and author.  The sculpture will be located 29 feet south of the Ocean Beach Lifeguard Station at the foot of Santa Monica adjacent to the public sidewalk.  This item will be on the OB Planning Board agenda for the General Meeting on December 4th, Wednesday, at the OB Rec Center, 6pm.

Need juice for your electric car? Robb Field and Liberty Station to open recharging stations

If you own an electric car and need juice, you’ve got new options. Recharging stations have been approved at city-owned sites at Robb Field and Liberty Station, according to Mike Patton of Councilmember Kevin Faulconer’s office. The number of approved stations, which are installed at no cost to the city by a concessionaire, is well over 100.

Do you like the name of this column?

Is the name of this column too much for you? Or is it what got  you reading it? Let me know, as we’re in flux on it ourselves. Is it too extreme? Too … what?