Month: February 2015

By Bob Dorn / San Diego Free Press

Why not a Youth Party?

Why not?

Call it what you want – Broke, Busted, and Disgusted might be good, or The Undead, or The Disillusioned Party– but a party dedicated to the economic and social interests of the young might brighten life and raise the hopes of the 40% to 45% of us who lately haven’t had a reason to vote.

We need that young party because the other two don’t work anymore. One of them is widely known as “the party of no” and the other one could as easily be called, “I’ll get back to you on that.”

Back in 2012 Pew Research Center found that the number of 18- to 29-year-olds who said they had registered to vote fell to the lowest level in the 16 years since the question was first asked of them.

By a 6 to 3 vote, the San Diego City Council rejected a proposed development for the Jessop Estate in Point Loma. In doing so, the Council reversed the Planning Commission which had voted 5-1 in June 2014 to approve it. The vote had to do with a resident’s appeal of the Planning Commission’s approval.

Dozens of Point Lomans, many part of a new group called Preserve Point Loma, attended the hearing in support of the Council’s rejection of the project.

By Christian Christensen /Common Dreams

The news that NBC’s Brian Williams was not, in fact, on a helicopter in 2003 that came under fire from an Iraqi Rocket-Propelled Grenade (RPG) should come as a surprise to no one.

Williams had repeated the lie on several occasions over the course of a decade until a veteran, who was on the actual helicopter that was attacked, had enough of Williams’ war porn and called the TV host out on Facebook. In a quite pathetic effort to cover his tracks, the anchor — who makes in excess of $10 million per year — claimed that his fairy tale was, in fact, “a bungled attempt by me to thank one special veteran and by extension our brave military men and women” who had served in Iraq.

Hodad’s Re-Opens

On Sunday, Feb. 8, Hodad’s reopened after a grieve-stricken 2-day hiatus from business as staff and family dealt with the untimely death of Mike Hardin. Quite a spontaneous memorial was set up in the doorway of Hodad’s on Friday, a day after everyone found out about Mike’s death. The U-T reported:

Hardin was found dead in a room at a Madera County Holiday Inn Thursday afternoon. There was nothing suspicious found in the hotel room, a sheriff’s official there said, but an autopsy was ordered because the death was unexpected.

On occasion, the OB Rag publishes a survey and update on local construction projects in OB. So, here is our latest – a survey of projects – in various states of development – within Ocean Beach and close-by neighborhoods in Point Loma and the Midway District.

The West Point Loma Wall

Number four has reached its framed height and stands with the others in a wall of gentrification on the 5100 block of West Pt Loma. It was this type of development that helped spur interest in having the new OB Community Plan passed by the City Council, a new plan that restricts over-development. These buildings all received waivers from the City ….

Saratoga Condos Appear Ready

The largest new development project to hit the waterfront of Ocean Beach – the Saratoga condos – appears completed and ready for occupation.

By Ernie McCray

Katy Perry came out singing to a funky beat.
Next thing I know I was up
dancing on my old ass size 14 feet.
Every thing was mellow and sweet,
coming out the speaker in four-four time,
and, before my behind
got reassigned
to that chair of mine
at the end of halftime,
I was jamming
with Lenny Kravitz
and Missy Elliott too,
who looked like she had been cut in two,
since the last time I had seen her
doing the do.

By Jim Miller

Last July, after the Harris v. Quinn decision took the first step toward gutting the power of public sector unions in America I noted that case “pretty much guarantees that we’ll see more cases brought to the high court aiming to send American labor into a death spiral.”

As legal observers commented at the time, this Supreme Court usually moves in a two-step process, starting with a narrow decision that then sets the precedent for a broader and more extreme move to the right in a subsequent decision.

Well, the case that will provide the pretext for that radical step has made its way up the food chain and will likely be heard by America’s highest court.

One of the most successful businessmen and restauranteurs in OB’s history, has passed away. Mike Hardin, owner of the most famous restaurant in the seaside village, Hodad’s Burgers, on Newport Avenue died in Fresno.

His body was found in a Madera County Holiday Inn on Thursday, Feb. 5th, after Mike had traveled to Northern California to see his daughter. Cause of death is unknown at this time.

Hardin’s Hodad’s will be closed today, Friday, to allow his workers and friends some time to take this tragic death in. Ironically, Hodad’s will also be closed on Saturday for a memorial and funeral for one of Mike’s employees, Kyle Witkowski, who died recently in a car accident.

In a bold move that would put a smile on any preservationist, the Ocean Beach Planning Board last night voted against approving a proposed development for 4677 Niagara that included the demolition of the current house, originally built in 1915.

At their monthly meeting, after the developer’s presentation and a lengthy question and comment session, the Board voted 8-2-1 against the developer’s application for a permit to build two condos on the lot, once the lot had been cleared of the old hundred-year-old structure.

By Matthew Wood

When the Coulon sisters looked to open a restaurant, there was no doubt where it would be.

“I would tell people I want to open a restaurant in OB,” said Jacqueline Coulon, general manager of Little Lion Cafe. “They would say, ‘Oh, you want to open a restaurant.’ And I would say, ‘No, I want to open a restaurant in OB.'”

The emphasis is all hers. And the result is a charming little restaurant the three sisters opened in the old Point Loma Beach Cafe location on Sunset Cliffs late last year.

It’s a lifelong dream for the three sisters. They follow in the footsteps of their grandparents, who owned The Belgian Lion Cafe in OB for years.

Charges are a blatant violation of the 1st amendment, says ACLU

ACLU San Diego & Imperial Counties

San Diego prosecutors admit that Brandon Duncan was not at the scene of any one of several shootings in the city, and they have no evidence linking him to those shootings that occurred between May 2013 and February 2014. Still, the District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis charged him for those crimes because…he rapped about them.

Only recently released on bail, Duncan, who performs under the name Tiny Doo, spent eight months in jail on so-called “gang conspiracy charges” arising from those shootings. The San Diego ACLU is filing an amicus brief in court asking the court to dismiss the charges immediately. In a blog post about the case, David Loy, legal director of the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties said that the case was “not only absurd; it is a blatant violation of the First Amendment.”