Month: March 2014

A complex with 6 apartment units in two buildings was just sold on the 4800 block of Niagara Avenue in Ocean Beach.

The units at 4866-4872 Niagara Ave. sold for $1.3 million, cash. The approximately 2,904-square-foot apartments consists of six bedrooms and six bathrooms.

Constructed in 1942, the complex is on a 7,300-square-foot lot and includes four single-car garages.

By Norma Damashek / NumbersRunner

In response to requests I received for the names of people I alluded to in last week’s commentary Too Many Years of Inbreeding Make for a Rotten City San Diego, I’m providing a list of Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s recent appointees, plus a brief description of who they are.

Many names will be familiar to those of you who have been following city affairs over the years. For others, the people on this list may not ring a bell; like the city’s water and sewer pipes they tend to operate beneath the surface. But their organizational interconnectedness and crossovers are readily identifiable by one and all.

A bicyclist was injured in a hit and run car accident Monday night in the Midway District. That was March 17th. The unidentified rider was in the 3700 block of Midway Dr about 11 pm when he was struck from behind.

Fleeing the scene, the driver left the 44 year old bicyclist with a head injury and dislocated shoulder. He was taken to a local hospital and is expected to recover.

We have received notice from the San Diego City Clerk’s office that there are 19 applicants in the running for an appointment to represent District 2 on the City Council. OB and Point Loma are in District 2 of course, as are many parts of Mission Beach and PB.

The applicants include OB’s Jane Gawronski – former long-term member of the OB Planning Board and retired educator from SDSU, as well as OB’s Gretchen K Newson, the current president of the OB Town Council. Both Gawronski and Newson have qualified to be considered.

Two other applicants have also been qualified: …

The OB Planning Board held its annual election on March 11th – and the results are in (but they are “unofficial” until certified by the Board at their next meeting on April 2nd).

Drew Wilson won in District 2, Peter Ruscitti in District 3, and John Ambert in District 6. Wilson and Ambert ran as write-in candidates and both have been serving on the Board.

By Anonymous Neighbor

Good Neighborhood, Bad Neighbors.

Living in Ocean Beach on and off for twelve years, I have a unique perspective based on my military experience throughout the world. This area is rich in stories and traditions and has developed a distinct reputation. Fairly or not, inhabitants of Ocean Beach are seen by outsiders as eclectic bunch. As a result, inhabitants of Ocean Beach also need to be accepting of the diversity of background and ideas found here.

I became fully aware of this when I became a permanent home owner in the area, married and started a family here. There are wonderful things to see here in OB like …

By Jim Miller

Today lots of people will try to skip out of work early to grab a pint of Guinness at a bar or perhaps find something green to wear whether they are Irish or not. St. Patrick’s Day, for most of us, is just a fun day to party, watch a parade, or listen to some Irish music. For better or worse, even if we aren’t getting drunk, we don’t think that much about it. Nonetheless, there are still some interesting bits of history behind the holiday.

The actual origins of the “Wearing of the Green” are political, dating back to 1798 when Irish soldiers wore green …

By Will Falk /San Diego Free Press

As St. Patrick’s Day nears, I often find myself revisiting scenes from Irish history.

I see Pádraig Pearse dressing himself in the early morning hours of Monday, April 24, 1916.

I see him struggling with the buttons on his shirt as his fingers shake with nerves. I hear him anxiously muttering the opening to the speech he would give on the grey steps of the General Post Office in Dublin just a few hours later, “Irishmen and Irishwomen! In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood…”

The big commotion in south OB on Sunday was caused by a guy who tried to go surfing in his car – a Kia.

Actually, it appears that an unidentified male drove his car down that steep concrete path at the end of Orchard Avenue near Cable Street and through a guardrail into the Pacific. This was about 3:20 pm on Sunday, March 16.

Surfers tried to get the guy out of his car as he was trapped initially.

Finally, a helicopter from the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department showed up, and performed the rescue, flying the driver to a local hospital, a fire dispatcher said.

By Brandon Bailey / San Jose Mercury News

Outraged by new revelations about the government’s Internet surveillance programs, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday that he telephoned President Barack Obama personally to complain about “the damage the government is creating for all of our future.”

Zuckerberg’s Wednesday [3/13/14] night phone call — the latest sign of the tech industry’s growing alarm over government spy efforts — came on the heels of a news report that said the National Security Agency has developed a computer program that can install spying software by masquerading as a Facebook network server when a surveillance target attempts to visit the social network.

Cannabis prohibition is a “Draconian system where politics override science”

By Paul Armentano / NORML

CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is “doubling down” in his advocacy for patients to have legal access to cannabis as a therapeutic agent.

In a commentary featured on the CNN website today, Gupta writes: “I am more convinced than ever that it is irresponsible to not provide the best care we can, care that often may involve marijuana. I am not backing down on medical marijuana; I am doubling down.”

Environmental groups are mobilizing statewide for a big rally on March 15th in Sacramento to urge Governor Brown for a moratorium on fracking in California.

Organizers expect the March 15th event to be the largest mobilization against fracking ever seen.More than one hundred fifty environmental organizations will be represented at “Californians Against Fracking.”