Month: September 2014

Editor: The following was written by Bill Fulton, San Diego’s former Planning Director. The Court of Appeal here in San Diego (Calif 4th District) just ruled in favor of the Commission’s requirement about how long private sea-walls can remain without being re-approved. We reported on this two months ago.

By William Fulton / Calif. Planning & Development Report / Sept 13, 2014

In a split decision, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has upheld the Coastal Commission’s conditions on two property owners’ reconstruction of a seawall in Encinitas after it was destroyed in a storm, including limiting the new seawall’s permit to a 20-year term.

The majority ruling by Presiding Justice Judith McConnell is written much like a dissent, whereas the dissent by Justice Gilbert Nares reads like a majority opinion. …

By Nathaniel Downes / Addicting Info / Sept 14, 2014

In January, the town of Seatac, Washington, put in to effect a new $15 per hour Minimum Wage. No ramp ups, no tiered implementation. One day it was the state standard, the next, the highest minimum wage in the nation. The Koch Brothers sank a fortune to fight this measure, which fell on deaf ears as the town rejected their trickle-down theories and instead voted for the measure. The result is that for one town, they became a test bed, to put the theories behind trickle-down economics to the test.

Now, nine months on, we are witnessing one of the most dramatic recoveries in the Pacific Northwest.

The 3-foot rule goes into effect today, Tuesday, September 16, 2014. A new California law – signed by Gov. Brown a year ago – called the Three Feet For Safety Act – requires vehicle drivers to stay three feet away from bicyclists while passing from behind or slow down to a “reasonable and prudent” speed. Then the driver must wait for a chance to pass safely. It also does not allow drivers to cross a double-yellow line to pass.

A $35 fine awaits the driver for a violation of the law which jumps to $220 if there is a collision and the bicyclist is injured. The California Bicycle Coalition says, however, that with court fees, fines are really somewhere between $230 and $960.

The OB Rag has heard that the Ocean Beach Community Plan will NOT be reviewed by the California Coastal Commission in October, as we reported, but instead will not go to the Commission until their January 2015 hearing. Their hearing is scheduled for somewhere in the South Coast area of the state.

According to emails from City staff, they were able to meet with Coastal Commission staff on August 29th. At that meeting, the two staffs agreed on all points except for three: …

By Jay Powell

This – below – was one of six parting observations offered by Public Utilities Commissioner Mark Ferron when he resigned from the PUC due to serious health issues in January of this year:

“… with the passage of AB 327, the thorny issue of Net Energy Metering and rate design has been given over to the CPUC. … recognize this is a poisoned chalice: the Commission will come under intense pressure to use this authority to protect the interest of the utilities over those of consumers and potential self-generators, all in the name of addressing exaggerated concerns about grid stability, cost and fairness.

By Lori Saldaña

It’s time to point out the obvious: San Diego is becoming a city governed not by democratic process, and not by elected officials who achieved office after being supported by the most voters. It is increasingly run by checkbook politics, flush with funds deposited by businesses intent on overriding the votes of the City Council.

Former Mayor Sanders may have left City Hall, but he learned how to take the power with him. For the past year he has been able to demonstrate this power by pushing aside Council policies on community planning and now minimum wage. He is actively supporting conservative interests that hire signature gatherers to do this dirty work in public, while he and others in the Chamber ranks raise and bundle money and write checks behind the scenes.

There’s mixed California fish stories right now. There’s good and bad.

Twenty-one species of commercial fish have just come off the ‘watch list’ and are no longer on the ‘avoid list’.

On the other hand, at the same time, the population of Bluefin Tuna – popular here in San Diego – has plunged to just 4% of its historic highs on a worldwide basis.

It was recently announced that 21 commercially important species of West Coast groundfish have been removed from the “Avoid” list.

Right now, the Ocean Beach Community Plan is tentatively on the agenda of the California Coastal Commission for its October meeting. Each month, the Commission changes its location, and in October it will meet at the Newport Beach Civic Center. The dates are October 8 – 10th.

Where exactly the OB Plan is on their agenda is not known at this time.

By Linda Perine /San Diego Woman’s Democratic Club

In 2009, then Mayor Jerry Sanders, the hotel industry, the Chamber of Commerce et al. decided that it was a really keen idea to expand the Convention Center.

They guessed that it would cost about $520 million to build and that there was a BIG market for expanded convention centers, and they warned us that Comic-Con would move on if we didn’t expand the Convention Center. They knew they could never convince enough people in San Diego to agree to pay for this idea so they created a special financing district comprised of just hoteliers.

By Jay Powell

I enjoy American-style football because I enjoy the variety of plays, the effort, the amazing feats that occasionally occur during a game. The incredible runs. Completed forward passes. (I think the forward pass is one of the finest inventions of mankind) Intercepted passes and run backs from kickoffs.

I only played dis- or intentionally un- organized football in various intramural and amateur leagues or just plain back lot, mud ball where we refereed ourselves. We sanctioned players who wanted to hurt people. We loved playing the game.

What can we do to incentivize that part of the game and dis-incentivize all the behavior that is really just sanctioned violence …

By: Jason Easley / Politicususa / September, 9th, 2014

As the Senate continues to debate final passage of a constitutional amendment that would overturn Citizens United, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) came to the Senate floor and called Citizens United money laundering that was made legal by the Supreme Court.

During his remarks on the Senate floor, Sen. Franken said,

This is real, M. President: spending by outside groups more than tripled from the 2008 presidential election to the 2012 presidential election, when it topped a billion dollars – that’s billion with a “b.” What happened in the interim? Well Citizens United was decided in 2010 – the floodgates were opened.

Review: “Psycho Beach Party,” Ocean Beach Playhouse, Sept. 12-14

By Beth Accomando / KPBS / Sept 10, 2014

What better way to escape the summer heat than with some local theater productions that might be flying under the radar.

First off, hit the beach with the newly formed Ocean Beach Ensemble Experiment. The Ensemble describes itself as “a collaborative theatre experiment that encourages the development of provocative, innovative, and unusual theatrical works. Like Ocean Beach itself, our Ensemble embraces a playful and off-kilter celebration of the funky, the bizarre, and the unique, utilizing performance, music, art, and dance.