Month: February 2014

By Matthew Wood

So this is what a winter storm in SoCal is like. Who knew?

Spending my first winter in San Diego after numerous cold, barren, lifeless years in the Midwest, I was kinda getting the impression that winter was like every other season here: Warm, sunny, pretty much perfect in every way.

Except for, you know, that massive drought we’ve been having. We need this rain, real bad.

As I watched the weather reports this week that are calling for the biggest storm in Southern California in years, I have been rooting for the worst. Maybe we could even get a name out of this one! Rainmeggeden? The Gusting Ghost? Wind-zilla? OK, we’ll work on those.

by Lois Lane

If you want to see OB, come to an OB Town Council meeting, and you are here. Held in the Masonic Temple Building on Sunset Cliffs Blvd, this icon of OB may not be quite historical status, but is provides ample parking, easy entry, and a comfortable venue for the number of people who arrived during the evening, along with their bicycles, children, and definite opinions on the agenda topics.

The meetings follow a standard format of public comment, official business, reports from the various elected official staff members, a special program, and committee reports. This meeting had special sixth item – pie with the president, as Gretchen Newsom, OB Town Council President, celebrated her birthday with her friends in Ocean Beach. And yes, the shoo-fly pie was every bit as good as promised.

In our continuing series of looking at each of the seven planning districts in Ocean Beach, we come to District 5 in southwestern OB. (Here is a map of all these districts within the Ocean Beach Planning Area. )

The OB Rag is performing this public education service as the OB Planning Board is having its annual election on March 11th. (Here are our views of District 1, District 2 , District 3, District 4. Here’s why it’s important.)

District 5 – the Cliffs at Ocean Beach

The fifth district within OB is the smallest district geographically, but because it hugs the gorgeous Sunset Cliffs, it has some of the most stunning views of sunsets, the coast, the surf, and provides an aura of solitude at those cliffs.

4 Unit Apartment on 4800 Block Long Branch Sold

A four-unit apartment complex at 4860-4866 Long Branch Avenue just sold for $850,000. (No other info is available at this time.)

Local TV Station Picks Up OB Rag Knock-Down Game Story

Michael Chen on Channel 10News picked up our story about an OBcean being attacked in a probable Knock-Down Game incident – the first of its kind in Ocean Beach.

OB Planning Board News & Updates – Candidate Forum – March 5th
……….

Old Townhouse Restaurant
4941 Newport Avenue
Ocean Beach, CA 92107
619-222-1880

It has been years since I had a meal at the “Old Townhouse.” I am not sure why we stopped going there, but I am sure it had nothing to do with the food. I think more restaurants opened in the area and we started going to some of them.

The place, on Sunday, was packed, and there was a line waiting to get in when we left. .

By Ernie McCray

Growing up in Arizona
I used to have simple dreams:
Eating in any cafe;
sitting anywhere in a movie theatre
or skating at the rink
at any time on any day;
attending any school
I could get myself to
and swimming in any pool.

Every year around this time, there are some changes to the Ocean Beach Planning Board as the committee holds its annual elections. OB has 7 planning districts and each district has 2 reps. Usually only one is up for election any one year.

But this year, there may be more changes than normal as board members retire or are termed out and new ones elected in the balloting, which takes place on March 11th at the OB Rec Center.

Plus because of a timing flunk or other individual reasons (Jane G was in Peru, for example), on the official ballot, there is only one candidate’s name: Pete Ruscitti – the current vice chair and rep for District 6. He’s now running for District 3 – his home district.

Editor: The San Diego City Council just passed new zoning rules allowing for medical marijuana dispensaries to legally open throughout the City. The new plan only lets about 4 dispensaries for each of the city council districts.

One of the zoning rules is that the dispensaries cannot be within 1000 feet of each other – or schools, playgrounds, etc. This will mean that one of OB’s pot dispensaries on Voltaire Street will need to move as they are definitely within that limit currently.

by Dan Bacher / Daily Kos

Apparently responding to recent articles written by Adam Scow of Food and Water Watch and others about the insanity of using water for fracking during an unprecedented drought, the oil industry has fired back with its standard response claiming that the oil industry uses insignificant amounts of water for fracking and is going out of its way to conserve and recycle the water it uses.

By Judi Curry

So, is the drought over in OB? If you have driven down Sunset Cliffs Boulevard in the past three months you would sure think so. I stopped driving down this street months ago when there was construction going on and I had to take detours.

Guess what? There is still construction going on and the street is like a floating river.

Gio Ingolia is a member of the OB Planning Board as well as a council member of the OB Town Council. He also has been very active in the process to draw up, vet and organize the new OB Community Plan Update.

For his grassroots visibility and work, Ingolia was just appointed to the prestigious Mission Bay Park Committee.

After 66 years, Mother Nature finally caught up with the Ocean Beach Kite Festival.

Because of the forecast of rain this weekend, the Kite Festival has been rescheduled. It will take place on Saturday, May 10 instead of the planned March 1.

The rescheduled event will still feature free kite making for kids, including instructions and all materials. There will also be carnival rides, a craft fair, music, food, and spectacular demonstrations by professional kite flyers.