Month: February 2014

UPDATE: Area Manager Calls to Apologize

FRIDAY: The San Diego Library Area Manager just called Frank Gormlie and apologized for what happened on Wednesday. Bob Cronk personally thanked Gormlie for his and the OB Rag’s support of the library over the years and said on behalf of the staff, he was sorry. He had seen the article in the Rag – thanks to Matt Beatty – and had taken serious note of the situation.

Bob did note that the library staff had just had a week or so ago a very ugly incident where an inebriated guy caused a scene and some damage. … (More update inside …)
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A funny thing happened to the OB Rag Editordude yesterday as he sat on the green grassy lawn of the Ocean Beach Library reading a magazine, sipping from a coffee cup and waiting for a ride home.
He was kicked off.

Once again, the Keen Family Trust is in the news, having more of its Ocean Beach property sold off, via successor trusts.

This time, it’s 7 one-story detached cottages and five garages on the 5000 block of Voltaire Street. They include four 2,500-square-foot lots. Each cottage has its own front yard. They sold for $1.25 million in cash. Buying the units at 5073-5085 Voltaire was Voltaire Investments LLC, 1203 Activity Drive, Vista 92081.

Interim Council Member to be Appointed by City Council 30 Days After Faulconer Leaves

Now that Kevin Faulconer has been elected mayor, the big question for OB, Point Loma, and the rest of District 2 is:

Who will now replace Faulconer on the Council?

The tentative date for Faulconer’s inauguration is March 3rd. The full Council – minus Faulconer but with David Alvarez – then has 30 business days in which to appoint an interim replacement for the District 2 seat to complete Faulconer’s term, which ends in December 2014. The Council will then be 5 to 3 Democrats to Republicans when the appointment is made.

And don’t forget, there’s an election to actually democratically fill the District 2 seat this year; the Primary is in June and the General Election is in November. So, the City Council will appoint someone. Who will it be?

By Lois Lane

People love Ocean Beach. OB has the personality and the beauty that generate passion. We seldom move to Rancho Bernardo or Peñasquitos, although we may move to South Park.

One of the best things that makes OB beautiful is the ocean – the beach, the pier, and Sunset Cliffs. The walkable area along Sunset Cliffs is truly unique. We walk, jog, kiss, walk the dog, watch for the green flash, and consider it ours.

But in reality it is the property of the City of San Diego. It is a San Diego City Park.

A volunteer project to enhance the cliffs by planting native plants is at a temporary standstill.

At the meeting of the Sunset Cliffs Natural Park Advisory committee on Monday, February 3, it was announced that the right-of-entry permit has been delayed.

Sure, Point Loma can claim Seamus O’Connor – he lives there. But the 16 year competed for Ireland on his snowboard at the Winter Olympics.

Here’s what the local can now claim:

• He just competed at an Olympics,
• He was the youngest entrant in slopestyle, the second youngest in halfpipe.
• He wore lime green ski pants. His parents held up a hand-written “Go Seamus” sign and waved Irish flags.
• He reached the semifinals in both events.
• He was born in Poway.
• His father grew up in England.
• His mother is from Siberia.

O’Connor was amazing; he almost landed a frontside 1260 on the last jump pass in the semifinal run but then he spun out at the bottom of the halfpipe. He had been fourth after the first semifinal run but hit ninth at the end, losing out in doing anything like advancing. Only 6 could advance.

As San Diegans vote in the third mayoral election in two years, the outcome looks as foggy as the air in Ocean Beach this morning.

Heading around the neighborhood, most polling places are reporting slower than normal turnout.

“It’s been pretty slow,” said Destiny Paz, a Point Loma High School senior who is an election volunteer at the Beardsley Mitchell Funeral

Home polling place on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. “I don’t know how else to describe it. Very quiet.”

Things have been a bit livelier at the Ocean Beach Rec Center, where Rose Novales volunteers with her daughter, Eleanor.

“We’ve been busy. People have been flowing in, which is nice. I don’t want to fall asleep,” she said.

By Ernie McCray

There are moments when I want to sing out loud, “I’m Black and I’m Proud” and just get up and dance in my joy, doing the do like James Brown used to get us to.

I felt like that the other day as I listened to Harold K. Brown, a hero of mine, reminisce about when he and other San Diego activists marched and chanted and sat-in and demanded an end to the practices that various organizations and companies utilized, in town, to keep folks like me down.

Every now and then my name crops up on one or more of the dating sites that I used to belong to and I receive correspondence asking if we can chat, go out for coffee, or… Here is a quick tale from last night:

Brian and I had been corresponding for several weeks; talked a few times on the phone and he asked me to join him for dinner at the “Olive Garden”. Since my student was going out for dinner, I agreed to meet him and asked him what he would be wearing. He told me he would have on a western shirt and Levi’s. We agreed to meet at 6:00pm.

There’s a new Starbucks that just opened in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles – ho hum? But wait, it’s actually a mock Starbucks – calling itself “Dumb Starbucks” complete with barristers, mock menus, mock CD’s and free coffee. Lines have formed since its opening.

It works because … drum roll … it’s a parody of the real thing. And people are digging it.

And it’s all reminiscent of OB’s battle and boycott of its own Starbucks.

Here are a few reports: …

A young man of high school age was beaten up and robbed of his car on Saturday night, Feb. 8th. The unidentified 17 year old was sitting in his car near Sunset Cliffs on Ladera Street, when around 8 pm a group of people – all in their 20’s – walked up to the car and began assaulting him.

The group, reportedly made up of about 5 or 6 men and 2 women, came up to the teen’s location and without explanation, 2 of the guys got into the 1998 BMW and started rummaging through his private stuff. The teen began to drive off as he tried to push the men out, but instead they beat on him until he stopped the car.

By Jim Miller

San Diego is on the national stage again.

As the final week of the dead heat mayoral showdown unfolded, Politico reported on “the battle for San Diego,” the Sacramento Bee’s Dan Walters pondered whether the race would be a harbinger of things to come in California politics, and the New York Times covered “a battle of ideology in a city unaccustomed to that sort of election,” astutely noting, as I did here at the San Diego Free Press during the primary, that this contest is “a test of whether yet another big-city Democrat can be elected by riding a wave of populism, much as Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York did last fall.”

And that test is happening because last November David Alvarez defied the pundits and political insiders and beat the prohibitive favorite, Nathan Fletcher, in the race to face Kevin Faulconer in the run-off to be San Diego’s next mayor. This was a seminal moment for San Diego—perhaps the biggest political upset in the history of the city.

Eager volunteers work long hours recreating Cabrillo’s galleon at Spanish Landing

Editor: We covered the building of the San Salvador by San Diego volunteers back in May of 2012 and posted a photo essay of the wonderful reconstruction of the Spanish galleon. Here, Judi Curry continues our coverage with a special focus on the women volunteers, the Women of the San Salvador.

By Judi Curry

The Maritime Museum of San Diego is building a $5 million replica of San Salvador, the galleon Cabrillo guided here in 1542 when he became the first European to explore what is today known as San Diego Bay. The museum has dedicated a construction site for the ship which was donated by the San Diego Port District on public land at Spanish Landing, 2 miles from where its main collection of historic vessels are docked on North Harbor Drive.

Thirty-five months have passed since the keel was first laid in March of 2011. This three-masted galleon, totaling 88 feet of beautiful wood will weigh 200,000 tons when completed. Plans call for the ship to open as a paid attraction in 2014, when it joins the museum’s other ships at the nearby embarcadero.