OB Rag Presented “Community Partner” Award by OB Town Council

Typically, if you give Frank Gormlie, Editor of OB Rag, a platform, he’ll take it. Here, he’s thanking the OBTC for the Community Partner Award at their annual OBie Awards, Oct. 14, 2014. OBTC Gretchen Newson is at the podium. (Photo by Patty Jones)

At the annual “OBie Awards” dinner last night hosted by the Ocean Beach Town Council, the OB Rag was presented with the yearly “Community Partner” award given out by the Council. The event was held at Shades.

Frank Gormlie, editor, accepted the certificate on behalf of the OB Rag.  Gormlie immediately thanked Patty Jones, his partner, “for making it all happen,” praised the new generation of the OB Town Council and the OB Planning Board, and spoke of the community tradition of “doing it the OB way.”

In her prepared remarks, OB Town Council president Gretchen Newsom graciously made the following statement as she made the presentation:

Our first OBie Award is for Outstanding Community Partner.

In this day of hyper interconnectedness on social media, it’s hard not knowing what your neighbor ate for breakfast or that Joe found a lost puppy and that Sue thinks turtles are the best. But most communities find it even harder to rise above this hyper level of interconnectedness and connect at the community level.

Not in OB. In OB, we have one of the best resources and platforms to learn from one another. Our 2014 Obie Community Partner creates community partnership through community education.

The OB Rag blog and website was first initiated by Frank Gormlie and Patty Jones in late 2007 and provides OB with news and commentary from a distinctively progressive and grassroots perspective, and also provides a forum for community member views.

The OB Rag website keeps OBceans, other San Diegans, and readers from across the world informed on issues and changes around us.

This past year, Frank Gormlie and the OB Rag provided great coverage of the OB Planning Board, which now has a full board and no vacancies.  The OB Rag and its writers (shout out to Lois Lane) have also provided excellent coverage of our OB Town Council meetings, which are now packed with engaged community members.

Finally, Frank and the OB Rag provided high-quality and in depth coverage of the OB Community Plan update – and at least a portion of its unanimous passage by City Council should be attributed to Frank and the OB Rag.

The OB Rag was also presented a “Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition” by Congressman Scott Peters – who attended the awards dinner, and “Certificates of Recognition” by Toni Atkins, Speaker of the California Assembly and by California State Senator Marty Block.