Month: April 2013

“The San Diego Nine” picked the perfect week for a hunger strike. They may not have known it, but the ghosts of Memphis were haunting the Mission Valley Hilton. What’s the connection?

Last week was the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was murdered in Memphis where he had gone to support striking sanitation workers. As I noted in my column for Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday in January, the real MLK is frequently neglected in favor of a distorted picture of a vanilla saint who just wanted us all to get along. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Indeed, King was a provocateur who wanted to disturb us about America’s hypocritical racial inequality AND its shameful class divide. King died fighting for the rights of poor workers of color because he thought nothing was a better example of what he wanted the Poor People’s Campaign to be than the sanitation workers’ strike. Their fight was a call not just for legal civil rights for black people, but a cry for economic justice for all.

Continuing my series of ‘random’ stories of Ocean Beach, I wanted to go somewhere besides my usual haunt of Newbreak Cafe, across from the Lifeguard station. So, I tried going over to the great new coffeehouse on Voltaire that just opened, TeMana Cafe, … but it closed at 3pm. I turned and headed up the block to Hungry Lu’s where they must have good coffee, related to the Grab and Go stores – but no, they don’t sell coffee. Kids, I tried, I really did, but it was back to Newbreak for me.

It was a windy, cool day in OB, so I was looking forward to a mug of strong French Roast, and once I settled in at a small, round table inside Newbreak I was not disappointed. As I try to keep my interviews gender balanced, I was looking this day for an OBcean woman.

I found Sophie Stephens studying at her laptop; she had purple hair, so I thought this person must have a story to tell, and again I was not disappointed. She jumped at the chance to be interviewed – and as she met my criteria (resident of OB or Point Loma, willing to be interviewed, and have photos taken), I asked her to join me at my table which was a little quieter than hers.

A local TV station has a report out today about how some OB residents feel that a section of Sunset Cliffs Boulevard is a “death row”.

10News quotes OBcean Daniela Rottigni terming the intersection of the boulevard and Cape May Avenue as “death row”, after dealing with the problem for a decade, she said.

Here is part of the report:

Rottigni says Sunset Cliffs Boulevard just is not safe, and speed is a huge part of the problem. … Runaway cars have caused major damage to private property, including Rottigni’s car, which was hit four different times.

“And to know that my car can get damaged, thousands and thousands of dollars for people not respecting or the city not even coming around and do something about it… it’s a disgrace to me,” she said.

For the first time, a major US poll has found that a majority of Americans support legalization of marijuana.

By Linda Feldmann /Christian Science Monitor / April 4, 2013

The Pew Research Center announced Thursday that 52 percent of Americans say that marijuana use should be made legal, versus 45 percent who say it should not. The trend line has been moving gradually in the direction of majority support for more than 20 years. In 1991, only 17 percent supported legalization, while 78 percent opposed.

As with gay marriage, which has also seen a sharp rise in support in the past few years, the Pew poll found major generational differences in views on marijuana. Among Millennials – those now aged 18 to 32 – support is at 65 percent, up from just 36 percent in 2008. Among Generation X, those born between 1965 and 1980, support has risen dramatically, from 28 percent in 1994 to 54 percent today.

Half of Baby Boomers support legalized marijuana today, and among the over-65 Silent Generation support has doubled since 2002 – from 17 percent to 32 percent.

Petition Builds Calling On Navy and City to Fulfill Promises and Repair Pipeline

10 News is reporting that “more than 350 residents are petitioning the Navy and city leaders to repair, replace or remove a fuel pipeline that is nearly sixty years old.” They are fearful that the pipeline – if not repaired – will crack and burst, spilling fuel in their neighborhoods. And they are angry for the lack of action despite government promises to fix it – promises made for years.

Yet the Navy claims the pipeline is safe.

The fuel pipeline runs from the Point Loma Naval Base all the way out to Miramar Marine Air Station – a distance of 17 miles. The pipeline is nearly 60 years old.

Tom Gawronski Elected as New Chair

By Brittany Bailey / Special to OB Rag

Last’s night’s meeting – of Wed., April 3rd – of the Ocean Beach Planning Board held on the agenda the certification of the March 12 election results, election of board officers, and guest speaker Councilmember Kevin Faulconer. First, the exciting news:

Election Results

District Reps

This year the OBPB tried to remove obstacles to participation by adding options for mail-in and email ballots, which bolstered turnout to 47 voters, two of which were provisional. There were four declared candidates on the ballot at the time of election, and one successful write-in, for a total of five candidates on the ballot.

The new representatives are:

At tonight’s monthly meeting of the Ocean Beach Planning Board, full results from last month’s annual election will be announced.

The full Board meets the first Wednesday of each month, and holds their meetings at the OB Rec Center, located at 4826 Santa Monica Avenue. Not on OB Time, the meeting begins at 6pm sharp.

Unofficial results of the election held on March 12th were already announced. But tonight’s meeting promises more details with the “official” results – actual numbers and not just names of winners .

Plus, the Board will go through its annual process of electing its own officers, president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer.

San Diego Has Become “National Capital” of Military Drone Production

From San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice /April 3, 2013

“National Anti-Drone Days of Action” from April 4 through 7 in San Diego start a month of protests across the United States against the policy and practice of drone warfare and secret surveillance.

Local and national organizations are coordinating a series of events to increase the attention to why drone killings and surveillance are bad practice and policy for the United States.

San Diego’s “Anti-Drone Days” is not one, but a series of events (see listing).

San Diego is where these protests will start based on the region’s role as the “national capital” of military drone production. Killer and surveillance drones pour out of San Diego at increasing rates, matched by the rise in deaths and dismemberment from US strikes across the globe.

Most of this production is tied to two corporate contracting giants — Northrop Grumman and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, which is headquartered in San Diego.

Editor: Just today – Wednesday – a dehydrated and sickly sea lion pup climbed into a car near SeaWorld San Diego. A SeaWorld rescue crew was called to the scene. The following piece from the LA Times gives a more regional view, and it ain’t a happy one. Our own Tony Perry was involved in writing this piece. But something is happening to Southern California’s sea lions. Hopefully the federal designation is not too late and will be greatly helpful.

The federal designation comes after sickly sea lion pups have been found stranded on beaches from Santa Barbara to San Diego at rates exponentially higher than in years past.

By Rick Rojas and Tony Perry / Los Angeles Times / April 1, 2013

A weakened California sea lion pup near the Huntington Beach Pier. Sea lion strandings, which began rising in January, have intensified in recent weeks, packing marine mammal centers, perplexing researchers and prompting federal wildlife officials to act.

There will be an “interactive workshop” tonight, Wednesday, April 3rd, being held at Robb Field for local residents’ visions of downtown San Diego. The workshop is being run by the San Diego Downtown Partnership, a non-profit founded by the San Diego Foundation primarily to figure out how to make downtown more “accessible” to residents throughout the city.

The workshop will be held from 5 to 6:30 pm at the Robb Field Recreation Center, which has an address of 2525 Bacon Street.

The palm at the end of the mind,
Beyond the last thought, rises
In the bronze distance. On Mere Being, Wallace Stevens

Street trees in urban areas are important. They provide a human scale to our surroundings and soften the mind numbing linearity of vast expanses of concrete. They clean the air we breathe and provide much appreciated shade. On an often unconscious level they impact our feelings about a street or neighborhood’s economic status and safety, which is to say its desirability as a place to walk or live.

A specific iconic tree can define where we live on a particular street or in the city of San Diego itself. For many residents of Ocean Beach, that iconic image is of a Torrey Pine. I can remember a spectacular late afternoon descent over the downtown cityscape which had been turned into a massive violet bouquet of blossoming jacaranda. And of course, there are the eucalyptus in Balboa Park and lining Park Boulevard.

Every now and then, I take pen and pad and camera in hand and travel the business streets of OB, looking for news and changes, openings and closings of new commercial offerings to the village. Last Friday, the 29th of March was one of those times, so follow me along as I traipse across the community.

Voltaire Street

Let’s begin with what’s new on Voltaire Street – the lesser known of our two main business avenues.

The Voltaire Trading Company

What better place to get to know what’s new on Voltaire is to venture into the Voltaire Trading Company at 4852 Voltaire. Owned and run by Lola Lint and her man, Matt, the collectibles and nostalgic thrift store is having a Grand Opening. They first opened their place up Voltaire next to ABC Liquor in early May 2011. Lola and Matt then moved into their present location in August of 2012.