Month: December 2014

Point Loma Naval Engineers Build Driverless Vehicle

Recently at a test facility at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego, a team of engineers successfully demonstrated a Reconnaissance and Detection Expendable Rover (RaDER), an autonomous – driverless – vehicle designed to keep Marines out of danger. No human needed.

Locals Donate Christmas Tree to OB

A local couple Sal and Nancy DeMaria, donated their 1931 Star Pine to OB for its annual Christmas Tree, propped up every year at the foot of Newport. See Mercy Baron’s report from SD Reader.

OB Town Gets Shout-Out From Calif Planners for Naming OB Community Plan “Grand Marshall” of Parade
AND MUCH MORE

By Jim Miller

Just when you think you are living in a dystopian science fiction novel, the world keeps upping the ante. It’s not just scenes of burning cars and storefronts in Ferguson on TV evoking the mood either. There are some even darker clouds on the horizon that many of us just don’t want to acknowledge, no less come to terms with in a thoroughgoing and serious fashion.

Last week, as the country went through yet another round of dismay, rage, and painful racial self-examination in the wake of a New York Grand Jury’s failure to bring any charges against a policeman for the death by chokehold of Eric Garner, a pair of other unsettling stories emerged on the margins of the American media.

By Ernie McCray

I recently wrote about a few wonderful things in my life for which I’m grateful, and I’m still in a thankful frame of mind, thinking, particularly, of Maria Ester Nieto Senour, that super-fine sweetheart of mine. I’m so thankful for having someone to age with me as my everyday valentine.

I don’t know where in the arc, of the amazing occurrences in the cosmos, Maria and I began heading in each other’s direction. But I’m glad it happened.

I do know, though, that there was a time, beginning in July of 2009, that I was as low as a man could be …

Have you never walked or participated in the annual OB Holiday Parade? Well, tonight is the time for you.

OB planners are calling on all OBceans to join the Grand Marshall contingent of the Parade – it’s the OB Community Plan entry at the very beginning of the Parade down Newport Ave today, Sat., Dec 6th. The parade begins sharply at 5:05 pm – OB Time.

It is such an honor to be titled the Grand Marshall of the Parade – and the Town Council this year decided to bestow the title on the OB Community Plan. This is the first time in the Parade’s history, that an entity and non-human has been named the Grand Marshall.

Bridging the liberal- conservative dichotomy

By Jack Hamlin

While saddened by the news out of Ferguson, Missouri this past week, I am not surprised. Once again an unarmed black teen was shot dead by an “other than” black man, and the legal industry was used to exonerate the killer. I say legal industry, because it is no longer a system of due process and equal protection, and no longer seeking justice. It is merely an industry which allows experts and insiders to use the law to further their own agenda.

I am certain, had Michael Brown shot and killed Darren Wilson in the same manner Wilson shot and killed Brown, the outcome would have been very different. …

Photo Gallery of OBceans

At last night’s Christmas Auction sponsored by the OB Town Council, thousands of dollars were raised for their annual food and toy drive.

The big item on the block: the original Ocean Beach entryway sign – since replaced – complete with the guerrilla red paint on the “O” and with all its original termites. It was auctioned off for $2,000! A couple very active in the night’s bidding at the Sunshine Company won the sign.

The final figure of how much was exactly raised is still only known within the higher echelons of the Town Council itself, but we expect the tally to be completed soon and informed of the figure. The money is used to purchase food and toys for local needy families.

By Tony de Garate / Special to OB Rag

Midway residents and business owners have long wondered what the future holds for two of the juiciest pieces of available property in the neighborhood: the bare two-acre lot adjacent to the West City Continuing Education Campus of the San Diego Community College; and the long-vacant former Cabrillo Hospital building.

The community college district property has been empty for five years. It was left over and declared surplus after the 2009 construction of a new campus at 3249 Fordham St.That same year, Sharp Cabrillo Skilled Nursing Center departed the four-decade-old, 10-story building at 3455 Kenyon St., a stone’s throw from the West City campus.

The community learned about two projects that could bring about big changes in population and demographics at the monthly meeting of the Midway Community Planning Group Nov. 19.

There is lots to report in this “SeaWorld Watch” column, an occasional post at OB Rag.

First, there will be protests outside San Diego SeaWorld this weekend, as activists pressure the aquatic zoo in protests advocating the retirement of the longest-held orca in captivity, Corky, captured 45 years ago.

Second, “Jackass” star, Steve-O, who pulled off a successful stunt last spring when he taped “Sucks” next to SeaWorld’s name on a freeway sign, was charged only with an infraction – no criminal charge – and faces a fine – which PETA has agreed to pay.

Historic Treadwell House, a 60 Foot SDG&E Tower Allowed and the “Monster Perpetual Rehab”

By Tony de Garate / Special to OB Rag

If you build it, tell the truth.

That seemed to be the message the Peninsula Community Planning Board was trying to send in opposing Carleton Row Homes, a four-unit condo project at 3015-21 Carleton St. in Roseville, at the board’s monthly meeting back on November 20.

In a stunning 12-0 vote, the board sought to strike a blow against a proposal members characterized as containing “two levels of subterfuge,” and riddled with “euphemisms” and “gibberish.”

“I think it’s time to put our stamp on our community and state we aren’t going to put up with this,” board member Dominic Carnevale said in making the motion against the project.

But proponents for the applicant, Acropolis Developments, defended the proposal as conventional and straight-forward, and charged the board’s action ran contrary to years of precedent.

OBceans of every stripe and kind are being urged by local neighborhood planners and organizers to join the OB Community Plan contingent in the Holiday Parade this Saturday, December 6th.

The OB Community Plan has been awarded the honorary title of the Grand Marshall of the Parade by the Town Council. The contingent will be at the very front of the parade and will be lining up next to Chase Bank on Newport Ave at 5pm on Saturday.

Residents of Point Loma are invited to a public meeting hosted by the US Navy on their plans for the Miramar fuel pipeline that runs through the Peninsula. It’s on Wednesday, Dec. 3rd. It will be from 5 to 8 pm, at the Portuguese Hall, at 2828 Avenida De Portugal in Point Loma.

Here is the official agenda for the upcoming Ocean Beach Planning Board meeting, for Wednesday, Dec. 3rd. The Board meets at the OB Rec Center, 4726 Santa Monica Avenue, at 6pm sharp. COME INSIDE FOR DETAILS …