Month: April 2013

Another Stabbing in OB on Newport Ave; Victim Seriously W0unded

A man called police, reports 10News, and told them that he was attacked and stabbed by two men on Newport Avenue. Police were called at 4:45 am and the attack was reported to have occurred on the 4900 block of Newport. The victim, in his 60’s, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.

The U-T reported that the victim was wounded in the stomach. A friend of the victim told the press that the attacked was in an alley near Cable Street.

The 2 suspects ran away and were last seen going east on Newport and south on Cable . Police described them as:

Don’t Miss this Event!

XL Pipeline Protest

April 17, 2013 11:30 – 12:30

Silver Strand Blvd & Coronado Bay Rd, Coronado

Join organizes for a press conference and protest outside the Loew’s Coronado Bay Resort where the American Petroleum Industry (API), the primary trade association of the oil and gas industry, will be holding its annual Pipeline Conference.

They will be there to say that climate change demands an end to the fossil fuel industry’s “business as usual” and to call on President Obama to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline. They”ll also draw attention to the recent tar sands spill in Arkansas, and the surprising revelation that tar sands are already being brought by train to Los Angeles for refining.

By Judi Curry

For the past few months members of my support group have talked about taking a ride on the ‘Coaster’ to North County. Only one of the members had been on the Coaster; the others of us had it on our ‘bucket’ list.

The first time we were to go it rained; the second time we were to go someone was sick; the third time it was raining again. This time we decided we would go regardless if it rained, or regardless if someone became ill. It was a “go” no matter what. And, wouldn’t you know, the weather forecast WAS for rain, but we decided unless a hurricane was in the offing we would still go. And then one of the people that was going to go with us became ill, but she encouraged us to go anyway, and we did. We are so glad that we did.

We met at the Old Town Trolley Station at 9:30am on Friday. Parking was horrendous.

That’s right! The OB Rag is having a joint Open House with the Green Store. We’ll have our new T-shirts, the winners, special offers …

Hey, the OB Rag is still looking for rugs and posters for our new office. Got something to spare?

C’mon out to our Open House – meet some of the staff – check out the Green Store, a valuable resource for OB.

By Jim Miller

While there was much bluster about the rich tying their hot tubs to the roofs of their Mercedes and heading off to Texas after Prop 30 passed, the truth is that the poor still pay a heftier share of their income in taxes than the wealthy. Last week, the California Budget Project (CBP) released their annual report “Who Pays Taxes on California?”, and it appears that the post Proposition 30 landscape is far from apocalyptic for the top 1%.

By the broadest measure of revenue collection, “Taxafornia,” despite its largely progressive tax system, ranks 15^th in the country in total “own source” revenue, and the poorest among us pay the highest share of their family income in taxes.

Yes, folks, there is a winner in the Great OB Rag T-Shirt Design Contest! And here is the design.

Kat Svetik is the designer of the First Place winning entry and we will now have T-shirts made with her design. The contest, announced in February, had a short extension due to staff illness. Twelve judges – all either current or former residents of Ocean Beach – had 12 designs to pick from. And after two rounds of voting, the top designs were chosen.

Kat is an OB-native, and an elementary school librarian who currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband. She was raised in Ocean Beach in the same OB house where her father (his sister and brother) and his father (her grandfather) were raised. The family house was originally purchased in 1913 and has since been home to 5 generations of the O’Mara family – her family. She has deep roots in Ocean Beach, and told us that she is “proud to be part of a community that supports and encourages independent thinking.”

City Councilman Faulconer says things are looking good here in District 2 and San Diego

By Mic Porte

Wednesday April 10, 2013, Paradise Point Resort –

Sounds like the name of the sequel of a sci-fi film, but it was actually a fantasy island dream moment with our San Diego District 2 elected official, Councilmember Kevin Faulconer, and his team, at beautiful Paradise Point Resort in the middle of beautiful Mission Bay in beautiful San Diego, on a beautiful evening and with all the beautiful people around, you wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

And according to Councilmember Faulconer, things are looking pretty beautiful around here, and with a little more bi-partisan effort on the part of the city council and everybody else in San Diego and the great state of California, and regional funding, we might even be able to finally get the crumbling oldest part of the seawall in front of Belmont Park repaired in time for the rising ocean levels, and balance the city budget too, and get back to pursuing happiness, something we do great here in San Diego.

Boys and girls, are we lucky? Yes, thank you.

Thoughts on defensible spaces and private places

By Anna Daniels / San Diego Free Press

…Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out, …
Robert Frost, Mending Wall

A few days ago I realized that every single piece of residential property on my City Heights block, save one, has a fence and or a gate between the residence and the street. The business at the end of the block is also completely fenced.

I only became conscious of this fact after spending a number of hours last month walking along the side streets north of University Avenue a few blocks east and west of 30th Street in North Park. This area looks in many ways like the City Heights side streets off of University Avenue, farther to the east, where I now live.

WallStreet Journal / April 11, 2013

San Diego County Annual 5K NAMI Walk to be held this Saturday at Point Loma Liberty Station

Calling all walkers! The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI San Diego and NAMI North Coastal) is holding their annual walk on Saturday, April 13 at NTC Park in Liberty Station and wants you there!

The walk starts at 9 am Saturday with check-in beginning at 7:30 am at NTC Park in Liberty Station at 2455 Cushing Road, San Diego, CA 92106.

Media personality Geni Cavitt will be the emcee for the event. “A lot of people there know how I feel about NAMI so I’m happy to do it,” said Cavitt, who has more than 20 years of experience in communications and broadcast journalism and is a champion of mental health in the community.

Wednesday’s – 10th of April – episode of the wayward sea lion pup in OB’s Pier Parking lot is but the latest in a string of local human and sea lion pup collisions, incidents whose numbers are way out of proportion to the norm along the coast in Ocean Beach and other beach towns in Southern California.

The wayward pup was sighted around 5 a.m. on the corner of Abbott Street and Newport Avenue. A witness notified a passing police officer, who called SeaWorld. Even some media in the area found it.

But after about an hour, the pup waddled back into the ocean before the rescue squad arrived. The resident who originally saw the pup, Pamela Martinez, told the media “she was thrilled the pup went back on its own.”

An Ocean Beach pit bull crashed through a metal fence yesterday – April 10th – in the morning as a woman walked her dogs down the alley of 4400 block of Santa Cruz Avenue. The dog attacked one of the woman’s dogs, clamping onto it that it took the pit bull’s owner who tried to break it up, to have to hit it with a metal pole before the pit released its clench.

Animal Control was called to the scene, the pit captured and taken. As the dog has been regulated by Animal Control since 2010 when it was deemed a public nuisance after it bit someone ‘off-property’, it will be put down.

It all began between 8:15 and 8:30 am on Wednesday as Danielle Johnston was walking her three dogs down the Santa Cruz alley. One of her dogs was a German Shepard.