Month: September 2014

Editor: OB Rag supporter and sometimes commentator, Geoff Page wrote something up about his friend, Ron Pilcher, who ran the Clip Joint for nearly 4 decades – a men’s barber shop on Santa Monica Avenue. Our reporter, Matthew Wood, also did a write up of the barber shop’s change in ownership back in July. Here, Page, does some reminiscing of days gone past.

By Geoff Page

This isn’t a sad story because there are two happy endings. But it starts with a bit of nostalgia for an OB that is no more. The pet store on Cable and Newport. The great little breakfast place next door run by the sweet Korean couple. Paras Bookstore. The Coronet. The old men’s store on Bacon and Newport. All gone. And now, the Clip Joint. Ocean Beach is losing another long time business institution, this time to retirement. I am talking, of course, about Ron Pilcher, the man behind the chair at the Clip Joint for 39 years.

Ron and his wife are building a home in a gated community near Tucson, Arizona where Ron plans to play golf and be on his feet only when he feels like it. That is a happy ending to a long, talkative career; he probably won’t be resting his gums though.

To end felony sentencing for drug possession and petty theft crimes

By Ernie McCray

If “Yes on 47” passes, California will be the first state to end felony sentencing for drug possession and petty theft crimes. This would permanently reduce incarcerations and shift one billion dollars, over the next five years, from state corrections to K-12 school programs and mental health and drug treatment. I love the sound of that. And it’s about time we get our minds off punishing people and focus on helping them become better human beings.

Details of the Act:

Wanted: A Living Wage – Video by Pete Segeer

By Anna Daniels / San Diego Free Press

It is useful exercise to remind ourselves that the battle for an increased minimum wage/sick leave benefit in San Diego is not a new one. Peel back the right wing maker versus taker meme and you get Howard Zinn, placing today’s minimum wage struggle firmly in our collective history of bitter class conflict between the rich and the poor and working class.

By Jim Miller

Over the last year, the subject of economic inequality has been in the news quite a bit with the release of Robert Reich’s spectacular documentary Inequality for All and economist Thomas Piketty’s seminal work, Capital in the Twentieth Century. The picture they paint is a grim one and new bad numbers just keep rolling in.

For instance, a few weeks ago a Russell Sage Foundation study revealed that the wealth of the typical American household has dropped nearly 20 percent since 1984 and yet another study notes that private sector wages measured in real terms have dipped 16.2 percent since their 1972 high point. In the wake of that news, another US Census Bureau report came out showing that middle class household wealth fell by 35 percent between 2005 and 2011.

By Justin King / The Anti-Media

George Orwell ranks among the most profound social critics of the modern era. Some of his quotations, more than a half a century old, show the depth of understanding an enlightened mind can have about the future.

“In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.”

Though many in the modern age have the will to bury their head in the sand when it comes to political matters, nobody can only concern themselves with the proverbial pebble in their shoe. If one is successful in avoiding politics, at some point the effects of the political decisions they abstained from participating in will reach their front door. More often than not, by that time the person has already lost whatever whisper of a voice the government has allowed them.

Here is the official agenda – INSIDE – of the Ocean Beach Planning Board for their monthly meeting, this Wednesday, September 3rd. The Board meets in the community room of the OB Recreation Center, 4726 Santa Monica Ave., 6pm sharp. The Board will be looking at permits to convert residential units on Long Branch to condos and to allow the building of three one-bedroom units on Abbott.

Quigley Complex for Condos?

The Board has a couple of important action items on their agenda. First up is a permit and map waiver for the Quigley Complex at 5151 Long Branch. The current owner/developer Bateman wants to convert the 4 residential units in the unique building designed and built by well-known architect Rob Quigley back in the Seventies into 4 condos. (Quigley designed the new Central Library in downtown San Diego.) Bateman needs Board approval of his condo conversion plan.

Report of OBTC Public Meeting of Wed., August 27

By Lois Lane

If you shot a parrot with a BB gun, the Ocean Beach Town Council would not be the place to defend your action. Up at 5:30 am with the parrots? This is an endangered species we are talking about, believe it or not.

Amanda Plante of SoCal Parrot Society filled us in on the facts. Contrary to popular belief, these Red Crown Amazons are not the descendants of a pair which escaped from an OB apartment. They are an endangered species of Mexican parrot, previously imported by pet owners, and now on the endangered list as a result of the destruction of their native habitat.

Southern California currently has more and larger flocks than those that still exist in their original homes in Mexico.