Month: January 2014

By Jim Miller

Last week a new poll by Public Policy Polling (PPP) funded by the Democratic Party came out that showed the race to become San Diego’s next mayor a dead heat with Alvarez at 46% and Faulconer just behind with 45%.

In another poll, Latino Decisions and the Latino Victory Project appraised Latino voters on the race and got radically different results than both the earlier Survey USA/UT-SD poll, a Republican Party poll , and the more recent PPP effort showing that Alvarez leads 75%-10% among Latino voters.

Vape Store Opens Near Beach

OB has its first storefront dedicated solely to e-cigarettes after the recent opening of Ocean Beach Vape Shoppe and Lounge. The store opened in the beachfront center at Abbott Street and Santa Monica Avenue, tucked away behind Shades Oceanfront Bistro and Tower Two Café.

It’s the second store in San Diego for the owners. Pacific Beach Vape Shoppe, at 1477 Garnet Avenue, has already been open for a few months.

Store manager Rachel Lester said customers can purchase e-cigarette devices, also known as “vapes,” and a number of nicotine-infused flavors.

by Lois Lane

The OB Town Council is always a great place for finding out what is going on in OB –with some interesting items occurring before the regular agenda gets started, and all professionally kept on schedule by the President, Gretchen Newsom. The previous meeting was in November when the mayoral candidates spoke; the Wednesday, January 22 Agenda was too packed to report everything. Here are some highlights.

People came prepared for public comments. One woman identified herself as the resident where the purple cow sculpture is in the yard; this served to identify her as she asked the police to ticket people parked in Red Zones.

Becky Hostetter always had a dream to open her own store.

The lifelong San Diegan and longtime OB resident had been keeping tabs on potential storefront openings in the neighborhood for a while. When the location next to the ABC Liquor store at Voltaire and Ebers opened up over the summer, she jumped on it.

It seemed like a dream location.

”My mother almost bought that building 30 years ago,” Hostetter said. “She tried to get financing but it fell through. My grandmother owned a shop further down on Voltaire.”

Hostetter called her new store Urban Upcycle, which specialized in used furniture that she would refurbish.

OB Pier Closed Tuesday Due to High Surf

It doesn’t happen all that often, but once in a while, the OB Pier is closed by Life Guards due to the dangers of very high surf – surf that was breaking over the pier on Tuesday, Jan. 21st. People crowded around the cliffs and in front of the Pier gate to watch the Pacific’s smashing swells of ponderous surf.

Surfer Rescued by Two Women Lifeguard “Heros”

Channel 10 TV news reported that a surfer was rescued off Sunset Cliffs on Tuesday by two women lifeguards. …

SeaWorld Protest Draws One Hundred

About 100 protesters crammed the front gate to SeaWorld on Sunday, Jan. 19th. For a couple of hours, they ensured any park customers would see their messages. …

A 6-unit apartment on the 5000 block of Santa Monica Avenue was just sold for $1.465 million.

The units – built in 1951 – are located at 5074-5080 Santa Monica and were sold to Marcia Lynn Matassa, successor trustee of The Mills Trust, 1526 Virginia Road, Fullerton 92831.

Embargo Grill
3960 W. Point Loma Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92110
619-786-7522

There are so many new restaurants opening up in San Diego that it is hard to decide which one to try out first. Since I was going to meet a young man to interview in Pt. Loma, the Embargo Grill seemed like a good place to try out.

The restaurant is located in the old “Longs” shopping center on the corner of West Point Loma and Midway Ave., where the Soup Plantation, the Halibut Shop, Denny’s, CVS, etc., are located. I hope that the location is not a bad omen, because the restaurant that used to be in the same location, “BGR” was one that I rated highly – at least the first time I was there. The Embargo Grill is in the same place, and unless I am mistaken, even the furnishings are the same.

By Ernie McCray

Why is it so hard for people to love one another, especially when all it takes is a mere gesture, a smile, a gentle meeting of the eyes, a willingness to listen to our fellow human beings with an open heart?

We much too often blow easy opportunities to express our love. Like the situation in La Jolla with the organizers of the annual La Jolla Christmas Parade. They won’t even consider using an adjective other than Christmas …

By Marjorie Cohn / Common Dreams

Edward Snowden, who worked for the National Security Agency (NSA), revealed a secret order of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), that requires Verizon to produce on an “ongoing daily basis … all call detail records or ‘telephony metadata’ created by Verizon for communications (i) between the United States and abroad; or (ii) wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls.”

The government has admitted it collects metadata for all of our telephone communications, but says the data collected does not include the content of the calls.

Newport Avenue pet shop Bone Appetit is packing up and moving at the end of the month – but only a couple blocks.

The store, which also serves as a cat adoption location, is moving to 1785 Sunset Cliffs Blvd., in the building previously housed by Las Brisas Fabric Care Center, across the street from Olive Tree Market.

“We’re downsizing a bit,” said owner Kelly Patri, who added they will lose about 400 square feet in the new building. “It’ll be cozy, but nice. We can operate in a smaller space.”

7 Seats Up for Election – One from each District

The date for this year’s annual Ocean Beach Planning Board election has been set: It’s Tuesday, March 11th – so mark your calendars.

The yearly Spring election is for the 2014-2015 term, and polls will only be open for that one day, from 4pm to 7pm and will be held at the Ocean Beach Recreation Center, 4726 Santa Monica Avenue.

Mail-in ballots are available upon request for voters who register in advance.

At the last meeting of the Midway Planning Board meeting last Wednesday, several people gave power point presentations of what they thought the area might become in the future. It is amazing that there has been little, if any, flack from these presentations.

For example:

1) It appears that the “Salvation Army” and the “Pier One” leases run out in a few years. It is said that Pier One wants to do some building improvements, but with the short time remaining on the lease they do not want to invest money and the City has stopped their negotiations. The City says that they want to wait for the Sports Arena lease to run out and see what might occur there. It is interesting to note that the lease does not run out for 10 years!