Month: January 2015

By Jon Linney

On Saturday January 10 we cleaned up the future walk-in park site at Avenida de Portugal and Scott Street. Gone are the dead acacia trees and tumbleweeds that represented a fire hazard. Gone are the cans, bottles and other urban trash. Now absent are the years of construction debris: steel girders, cinder blocks, blocks of concrete, dumploads of gravel and once-molten asphalt.

A dangerous blind curve along Canon Street is now much more visible thanks to our tree pruning. Water has been taking its toll on the park site. The cleanup also involved smoothing the surface to slow or stop the erosion while money is raised and planning done to develop the park.

By John Lawrence

The American Dream is the ideological underpinning of the middle class. Now that the middle class is disappearing, it no longer makes sense as historically defined.

Thom Hartmann (Rebooting the American Dream) and Hedrick Smith (Who Stole the American Dream) have defined the American Dream as a good job at good wages plus benefits. They bemoan the fact that this has pretty much gone by the wayside in today’s world.

Well, it’s time to get over it because the conditions that gave rise to middle class prosperity in America from 1945 to 1980 are not coming back.

Hats for Sale to Help Kyle Witkowski’s Family – Hats are now on sale in OB to help Kyle Witkowski’s family.
Sunset Plaza Construction – World Oil’s Sunset Plaza at Sunset Cliffs and Voltaire …

Tiny of Tiny’s Tavern Has Stroke – Tiny of Tiny’s Tavern passed away after suffering a stroke on Wednesday, Jan. 7th;

The Widder Curry Gets Her Cutting Board – Judi Curry finally got her Chicago Cutlery breadboard!

Study of Deaths From Sunset Cliffs – there’s been an average of 4 deaths per year since 2008.

Progress at the New Apple Tree Market on Newport

More Homeless Discussion In Local Media – Gretchen Newson – prez of the OB Town Council

What Do You Think About Trying to Get OB Named as National Surfing Preserve?Please let us know in

Paddle Out Jan 17 for Legendary Surfer Barry Ault

New Bike Racks on Santa Monica Ave Near Rec Center

OB Historical Society – “Tales from the Trail: SD’s Rich Outdoors History” – Jan. 15th

The Ocean Beach Planning Board will hold elections for the 2015-2017 term on Tuesday, March 10, 2015. Polls will be open 4-7 p.m. at the Ocean Beach Recreation Center at 4726 Santa Monica Avenue.

Mail-in ballots are available upon request (see Voter Information below).

Seven of the Board’s 14 seats will be up for election, one from each of the seven districts in the OB Community Plan Area (map). Board members are elected to 2-year terms, and seats open are staggered every other election.

In addition, there is second seat open in District 4 – but because that seat’s term doesn’t expire until March 2016, it is not being filled this election. In the past, however, the Board would simply add a vacant seat to the ballot but with an explicit expiration date for one year.

The much anticipated final review of the Ocean Beach Community Plan by the California Coastal Commission has been on the minds of OB planners and OBceans for months now.

Now it is known that the Commission is scheduled to meet in San Diego on March 11 to 13. It is speculation, but it is likely that is when the last stop for the OB Plan will be. Their agenda for that meeting has not be made public. …

“If You Like Sleep, You’ll Like Death Even Better”

A summary of the League of Women Voters meeting on “Death with Dignity”

The LWV has scheduled 9 different discussion places for the “Death with Dignity” topic.

On January 12th the discussion was held at the Point Loma Library. The turn-out was disappointing to me – three men and nine women, plus the three female moderators. The discussion, although slow at first, was interesting as the small audience began to participate. The moderators were Nancy Witt, Shirley Walkoe and Jeanne Brown.

Jeanne led the discussion by handing out a statistical page of Assisted Suicide Laws by State. We found out that three states have passed legislation permitting physician-assisted suicide: – Oregon, Vermont and Washington. …

Part 2

By Frank Gormlie

In mid-October I wrote about how four large residential and commercial development projects and a handful of smaller ones slated for Mission Valley will complete the destruction of San Diego’s once lush green valley. Here, I begin to focus on the individual projects.

“Civita” roughly translated is Latin for citizenship, and it’s the name of the largest, most massive Mission Valley development going in right now – with perhaps a third already completed or being currently built. Once you step back and realize it’s scope, Civita is at once a horrifying and amazing place for all its audaciousness.

By Jim Miller

Last week Eddie Kurtz of the Courage Campaign published a provocative column in the Sacramento Bee in the wake of Governor Brown’s triumphant release of the upcoming budget for the state.

Rather than praising Brown and the state Democrats for being a model for the nation, as many in Democratic circles have been doing, Kurtz took the opportunity to raise the bar of our expectations as he pointed out that …

By Ernie McCray

This New Year, 2015, was already moving along nicely for me, but it shifted into high gear the other night when Maria and I went to see the San Diego RepertoryTheatre’s “Steal Heaven,” a play written by one of my favorite theater artists, Herbert Siguenza. This multitalented actor, playwright, director and producer is a founding member of Culture Clash, a performance group known for its rich satirical look at the world and its politics – from a Chicano perspective. I’ve loved everything they’ve ever done.

Siguenza’s “Steal Heaven,” was right in line with all his good work and it was just what I needed as I look forward to, hopefully, a long future of trying to change this world into a more civil home for human beings. I know, good luck with that, Charlie, but it’s what I wake up every morning to do.

What does the 114th Congress say about our representative democracy?

By Anna Daniels /San Diego Free Press

Did you know that our brand new 114th Congress is the most diverse Congress in our history? Women! African Americans! An African American woman! The 114th Congress is being hawked like a new and improved box of breakfast cereal. This newly minted diversity is relative of course.

A Washington Post article notes that “Congress actually gets slightly more Christian, with nine more Christians, five fewer Jewish members, one fewer Buddhist and one fewer unaffiliated member.” John Boehner, who was re-elected Speaker of the House, opened the 114th Congress with “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad.”

Recent Negative Publicity About Entryway Project Includes “Turko Files”

by Lois Lane

Finding the Ocean Beach Community Development Corporation isn’t easy. According to the OB CDC Web site, their last meeting was November 14, 2013. The OB Mainstreet web site is much more informative, and states that the OB CDC meets the second Thursday of each month, and with this reassurance, I showed up at the Rec center to see what happened.

The information was correct, the board was there, and the meeting was called to order by the President, Tom Perrotti. Dispensing with the agenda, the primary item discussed was the recent media coverage of the OB Entryway project. Apparently, in addition to the OB Rag coverage (not warmly received), it also got attention from Michael Turko, known for his investigative exposure of San Diego problems …

Worldwide attention is on Paris and political cartoonists right now. Our online media partner, the San Diego Free Press, has sort of an in-house cartoonist, Junco Canché – who blasts out his relevant, poignant political cartoons every now and then under “Junco’s Jabs”. Junco takes aim at anybody, Mayor Faulconer, Mexico, the KKK, the Supreme Court.

Here is his bio at the Free Press:

Junco Canché, the Chicano Punk Rock Artesano, was born in the US and raised in Mexico. His influences include cartoons, punk rock, manga, and Mayan codexes . Before SDFP, Junco drew cartoons for El Coyote Online, La Prensa News, and the Southwestern College Sun. He’s received awards …