Month: December 2013

By Geoff Page / Special Rant for OB Rag

There was a time, believe it or not, when it wasn’t considered desirable to live at the ocean.

The cultural attitude about being near the ocean, and how one spent time at the ocean, was very different from today’s attitude. Places evolve, sometimes unexpectedly.

Las Vegas is a perfect example, it used to be undesirable desert landscape and look at it now.

To get an idea of what folks used to think about the ocean, look at some of the older homes along Sunset Cliffs. Many of these homes have no, or very little, deck or balcony space and take no advantage of the open ocean air. Contrast that with the newer places that have as much balcony or deck space as possible. Times have changed and attitudes about living at the ocean have changed.

One of the drawbacks to living at the ocean for some people in the past was the small homes on the small lots. Many of the smaller beach homes were never intended for year round residency, they were more like vacation cottages.

Inland you could have a much bigger home on a much bigger lot. As the culture changed and living near the ocean developed into something very much desired, people began to come here bringing the bigger house attitudes.

We’re running a string of OB Christmas Lights photos – here’s the first – by Matthew Wood.

Got another ? Send yours and we’ll post it for all to see. (We routinely have 1,000 to 2,000 readers at the OB Rag a day) – send them to obragblog@gmail.com as an attachment (under 800 pixels please).

On December 21, 2013 at 9:11am, the Time & Day of the Winter Solstice

By Judi Curry

To call this beautiful remodeled house on the south side of Ocean Beach a “hippie house” truly does it an injustice. The new owner – Scott – has put a great deal of money into the house to make it liveable, and the fact that it is not the “normal” Pt. Loma residence is incidental. But….it is gaining fame, even though Scott and his significant other Layla, have just recently moved in.

First of all the views are spectacular. The scenery changes from minute to minute. What were high waves an hour ago are small little ripples now; the pelicans fly over going both north and south. The surfers are not there today – waiting the 72 hours after the rain – before dotting the scenery with their black wetsuits and multicolored surfboards. So why were we there this morning, braving the cold and wind, standing outside looking at a pole set in concrete , albeit in a beautiful design?

…Has More Than Him Smiling

By Ernie McCray

It was like walking in on a “Who’s Got the Sunniest Smile” Contest as the room in this “David Alvarez for Mayor” gathering, was full of them. I joined right in with my ages old grin.

My smile shone brightly because David is an answer to a dream of what a San Diego mayor should be like that I first conceived when I moved to town in late August of ’62. I was barely a few months over 24 years old, ready to change the world for the betterment of all humankind. For most of the years since then, my dream of a mayor like David has seemed just like that: a dream.

I mean when I showed up on the local scene I thought I had escaped the small-minded non-progressive kind of thinking I had been subjected to growing up in Tucson. That notion changed when I turned my TV on and saw two men, Frank Curran who would later become mayor and Allen Hitch who wanted so much to be the mayor.

By Jim Miller

Every holiday season one of my favorite tasks is collecting and delivering all the toys donated by my union brothers and sisters in the American Federation of Teachers to the Labor Council office for the annual toy drive. My union, along with many other San Diego locals who participate in this annual ritual, do so in order to help out the families of unemployed workers struggling during the holiday season.

Here’s the first part for “Best of OB Rag” in 2008 – a story of the disappearance of the “Peace Sign” off of Bird Rock, and more on the Iraq war, the peace movement, the 2008 elections, torture, nuclear power, video from an alien invasion of OB in the Seventies, San Diego foreclosures and health care reform :

Here is the OB Rag’s “Best of 2007” – :

After watching the television coverage of San Diego County’s fires for the first couple of days, here are a few brief observations & comments about local TV channels’ coverage:

Channel 9: Best coverage, hands down, by team of Paul Bloom, Kimberly Hunt, Michael Turko and …

Channel 10: Very bland; veteran anchor desk reporters had no … c’mon to the original for all the rest … Go here.

During these last few days of 2013, the OB Rag will be running a series called “The Best of …” and include the years we have published, from late 2007 through this year.

by Michael Steinberg /blackrainpress / Dec 12th, 2013

This story is important in and of itself, but also because it once again unearths the region’s role in the birth of the atomic age, and also highlights the radioactive legacy that continues to haunt us.

On November 13 the San Francisco Chronicle ran a lead story written by the SF-based Center For Investigative Reporting. The story was about the radioactive contamination of Treasure Island, a former US Navy base in the middle of the Bay.

The Chron article reported that 575 metal discs consisting of radioactive radium-226 had been found in the ground at Treasure Island as of 2011. The report did not mention that the radioactive life of radium-226 is millennia, over 16,000 years.

By Matthew Wood

By now, you may have seen the spectacular mural adorning the wall outside what is being called the “Hippie House” at Sunset Cliffs and Adair. Judi Curry has been writing about the newbie counter-cultural abode at Sunset Cliffs and Adair.

But do you know the artist behind the latest beacon of color welcoming people to the neighborhood?

Adelaide Marcus has been creating art from a multitude of media since moving to San Diego in 2005, and then to Ocean Beach two years later, but this is by far the largest scope of painting project she has endeavored.

Scott Stephens, the owner of the “Hippie House” on Sunset Cliffs and Adair told me today that he has had over 100 people stop and talk to him about the beautiful designs on his wall.

Everyone that has stopped has been enthralled with the designs, the layout, and the landscaping being done. After all, the house has been a rental for years and not in very good condition.

He, along with his significant other Layla, talked over the designs they wanted for their landscaping – native garden; peace poles; murals, etc., and worked with artist Adelaide Marcus in putting their ideas in motion.