Month: February 2014

By John Lawrence / San Diego Free Press

You kibitz with the homeless in your campaign ads. Now that you’re Mayor Kevin Faulconer, are you really going to do anything about it? Or are you going to continue to procrastinate. Other cities are ending homelessness from Phoenix to Salt Lake City to Nashville.

You have the model to follow. It’s a no-brainer. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Just follow their successful models. You don’t have to continue to study the problem in order to address it ten years from now.

By Will Falk / San Diego Free Press

What do you see when you look out across San Diego and see the San Salvador being reconstructed?

Do you see the first wave of wave upon wave of white settlers who systematically dispossessed California’s indigenous people of their lands?

Do you see the beginnings of a process that reduced the indigenous population of California from 250,000 in 1800 to less than 20,000 in the matter of a century?

Do you see the face of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo grinning maniacally back at you?

Editor: This story by a fellow OBcean was sent to us unsolicited. We decided to publish as a “reader’s rant” despite our inability to confirm its veracity.

In an Unprovoked Attack 2 People Wearing Masks Beat Me on Valentine’s Day as a 3rd Filmed it – Apparently Playing the “Knock Down Game”

By Anonymous Fourth Generation Resident of OB

I was brutally beaten by two individuals on Valentine’s Day 2014, returning home from a friend’s home near Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach.

I had walked down Cable Street to the seawall and made my way up the stairs at the foot of Pescadero Avenue. Walking up the street I was confronted by two individuals in blue jeans and white hoodies, in front of 4870 Pescadero Avenue. Then these two individuals, without saying a word, began to beat my face for no reason.

There was reportedly a hit and run on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard, Saturday evening, Feb. 15, about 5:15pm.

Neighbors saw the aftermath of an incident where apparently a vehicle hit a woman walking her dog as she was walking along the west side of the street – and then the vehicle took off, not bothering to stop to see what injuries if any they had caused.

This was as predictable as the change of the tides.

In the special mayoral election just held, Ocean Beach voted for Councilmember David Alvarez and Point Loma voted for Councilmember Kevin Faulconer – who won.

So, here’s a blow-up – inside – of the black and white maps provided by the U-T San Diego on the break-down of the vote.

Here is the replacement process to select whomever will fill Kevin Faulconer’s District 2 seat on the City Council:

From Chet Barfield / Office of Interim Mayor Todd Gloria

1. A 30-day clock starts on the day Kevin is sworn in as Mayor, which we think will be around March 3. The county Registrar of Voters has 28 days (from Feb. 11) to count the ballots and certify the results. Because the election wasn’t that close, it could take less than 28 days. Upon receiving registrar certification, the Clerk will ask the Council President to docket acceptance of those findings at the next possible meeting.

2. Council approves the election results and Kevin is sworn in as Mayor. This begins a 14-day application period (calendar days) for candidates wanting to fill the interim D2 vacancy. They must reside in the old District Two – as the boundaries existed before being redrawn last year – because that’s the pool from which Kevin was elected.

By Jim Miller

Nobody thought this was going to be easy.

Back in July, at the height of the Filner debacle, I predicted a dire outcome, noting that “in a recall or special election in an off year, the electorate is guaranteed to be more conservative and definitely not favorable” for a progressive replacing Bob Filner because, “Faulconer would have a huge fundraising advantage garnering support from all the usual suspects downtown and benefit from an energized base geared up to hand it to the liberals, unions, minorities, and other foul ‘special interest groups’ that they’ll blame for bringing us the evil that was Bob Filner. With the Democrats dispirited, humiliated and divided, it might not even be much of a fight.”

As it turned out, David Alvarez stepped up and offered progressives hope, and the labor movement surprised everyone by actually being able to raise more money than the Faulconer forces. Sadly, on Tuesday, many of us were crying in our beer instead.

Editor’s Note: We received the news that Tanja Winter passed away on February 9, 2014. She was an activist extraordinaire and lived much of her in San Diego and was in the thick of the city’s peace movement. Tanya moved to the Bay Area in 2011 to be close to her family. This article was published in 2011 and provides a glimpse into her life and stands out as a lesson for all of us. The date for a celebration of her life in San Diego has not been determined at this time.

When Tanja Winter – the matriarch of San Diego’s progressive community – was 12 years old, she watched as German Nazis troops rolled into Prague where she lived, in what was then Czechoslovakia. It was 1939 and she was coming home from school. She vividly recalls that awful scene to this day – all the adults were standing around weeping.

Over seven decades later, I’m sitting in her living room in La Jolla Shores, ….

Back last Fall, the OB Rag was at a dangerous crossroads in terms of its future. We made an appeal to the community of Ocean Beach as well as to our other supporters for help and guidance. The response was great and it inspired us to keep publishing.

People started sending us donations and offers to help. It has re-energized the Rag and since then, we brought on a part-time reporter, Matt Wood, and a part-time ad salesperson, Stephanie Denton.

Others have begun writing for us, helping us with content and coverage.

One of the things that got started by a number of supporters was a “$10 a month” set-up, where people will every month send us $10 via the PayPal button we have on our homepage. Through these monthly donations combined with larger contributions from others and increased advertising, we think the Rag can manage to sustain itself.

But basically, we need more supporters to join this “$10 a Month Club” – so please think about doing this. It means a lot to us.

And while you’re thinking about it, consider these:

The value of a gift increases with the thoughtfulness put into it

By Jill Richardson / OtherWords

Valentine’s Day, it seems, has all the trappings of a made-up Hallmark holiday. It’s a holiday created purely to encourage us to go out and give our money to a few select industries: greeting cards, candy, roses, restaurants, etc.

As it turns out, the holiday has a history.

Ding dong, the wicked sign is gone.

You know the one I’m talking about. The Portugalia sign – that garish Ed Hardy-tattoo-esque design (that yes, included a cross) painted two stories tall over the now shuttered club on Newport Avenue – has finally been removed, thanks to Tim Spann and the folks at Cohn Restaurant Group.

Spann, who is in charge of signage and some of the interior design for the new OB Warehouse, aided in taking down the old and now out-dated sign – which lorded over the upstanding exteriors of Newport Avene like an hulking gargoyle. Its reign over the village is finally over, as the new “OB Warehouse” sign went up on Wednesday.

We got a sneak peek inside the new place, …

“Antique Thai Cuisine”
3373 Rosecrans St.
San Diego, CA 92110
619-222-0689

I have frequently had lunch at the “Antique Thai Cuisine” restaurant in the Midway section of San Diego. Their lunch specials start at $5.99 and it is easy to have a satisfying lunch for under $8.00.

This evening I had to take one of my students back to the airport so that she could begin her journey back home to Sao Paulo, and my other student – Felizia – and a friend – Warren – wanted to see her off. Since it was dinner time when we began to return home and Felizia saying she really liked Thai food – and since we were on Rosecrans anyway – my car just automatically drove into the Antique Thai parking lot.

The dinner menu is pretty much the same as the lunch menu, but different prices –and a few items that are only available at dinner.