Month: September 2013

The Ocean Beach Planning Board will review the application of the owner for a remodel and expansion of two existing houses on the 4700 block of Cape May Avenue. This review will take place at the monthly meeting this Wednesday, September 4th. The Board meets at 6pm sharp in the OB Rec Center, located at 4726 Santa Monica Avenue.

The projects on Cape May are the only actual items on the Board’s “Action Item” agenda.

OB 4744-46 Cape May aerialedit
Google maps caught this scene: wood stacked in the back yard of the subject property – circled in red.

The project called Mucha Haus is located at 4744 – 4746 Cape May. The applicant is seeking a Neighborhood Development Permit “to maintain previously conforming density and remodel & expand two existing, one – story single family residences.”

by Gail Powell / Special to the OB Rag

The last weekend in August, 2013 found a sad missive in local’s mailboxes.

It was a letter from the Ocean Beach Medical Group, located at 1947 Cable Street, announcing the imminent retirement of Dr. Jeoffry Gordon.

Dr. Gordon, a longtime medical practitioner in our community has decided to retire, effective November 1, 2013. In the one-page letter of correspondence, Dr. Gordon said “it has been my privilege to serve your needs as a family doctor and health systems advocate for many years.”

The good doctor has been practicing the art of medicine going on 30 years but Dr. Gordon acknowledged “the time has come to retire.”

By Bill Adams /UrbDeZine San Diego / August 31, 2013

By now, most of the nation is aware of San Diego’s mayoral scandal, which was reported in such national media outlets as CNN, Chris Mathews Hardball, New York Times, etc. and included international legal gadfly Gloria Allred elbowing her way onto center stage. Former 10 term congressman Bob Filner had been Mayor of San Diego only 6 months before it all came to an inglorious and undemocratic end. The conventional wisdom is that the Mayor was accused by 18 women of sexual harassment leading to his resignation.

A former Freedom Rider, he was elected in the 2012 presidential election in one of the widest turnouts for a Mayoral election in the City’s history. It was a referendum for dramatic change, embodied in the policy positions and persona of Bob Filner. He was elected on a vision of prioritizing planning, neighborhoods, transit, affordable housing, labor, and livable city concepts. He was quick to deliver action on his promises . . . perhaps too quick.

Labor Day means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

In my case, at the age of seven, the first time I knew about “Labor Day” was on September 2nd, 1946, because that was the day my mother went into labor with my sister, Andy. (Andrea Jane.)

The house was a flutter and my own governess was going to take care of my sister, leaving me for the first time in my life. I was going to be “a big girl” now, and I no longer needed to have Nanny Parsons monitor my every move. All of that was fine with me, except for one small thing – I did not know that my mother was pregnant. I do not want to say that she kept it a secret from me – but it was not talked about in my presence.

By Jim Miller

Today is Labor Day, but how many of us have any idea where the holiday came from or what it celebrates?

The first Labor Day was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5th, 1882 in New York City and was proposed by the Central Labor Union (CLU) at a time when American workers were struggling for basic rights such as the eight-hour day. The CLU moved the “workingman’s holiday” to the first Monday in September in 1883 and urged other unions to celebrate the date as well.

The movement grew throughout the 1880s, along with the American labor movement itself with 23 states passing legislation recognizing Labor Day as a holiday. By 1894 Congress followed suit and Labor Day became a national holiday.

By Bob Dorn

Debby, or Debra, Flores is 20 and has a 2-year-old daughter. She works at Wendy’s downtown, First and Broadway from 11 am to 3 p.m. only four days a week, which means she’s part-time and enjoys no company benefits. She makes $8 per hour from the Wendy’s she’s part of. So, during the week at Wendy’s she’s making $32 a day, taking home $128.00 per week, less taxes.

She pays taxes because she has ANOTHER job at a hookah lounge delivering food and tobacco starting at 7 pm and continuing through the night to 6 am.

Think of it. This slight, lean young girl human on a typical day of the week puts in 15 hours of work a day, commutes to her mother’s home and spends just about 3 hours a day with her child, starting at 3 pm. Sometimes, on a good day, she grabs maybe five hours of sleep, if she can sleep.

“It’s a big challenge,” she says, with a shrug. Her mother, with whom she lives, takes care of the baby. If it weren’t for that, Debby would be at home, fulfilling the prophesies of trickle-down Republicans who believe those damned minorities are just welfare cheats.