Month: April 2015

San Diego Free Press editor Doug Porter – from the OB Rag’s online media partner – will be spending the day at the locations listed below.

Doug will be tweeting throughout the day, so check our twitter feed at the San Diego Free Press.

Here’s the list of times and locations for protests on Wednesday:

7 am – Fast Food Worker Strike: 2345 El Cajon Blvd, San Diego, CA
8:30 am – Fast Food Worker Strike: 2829 El Cajon Blvd, San Diego, CA
11 am – Security Officer Event:750 B Street San Diego, CA
Noon – State Workers Event: 1350 Front St, San Diego, CA

By John Lawrence

In 2009 then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law AB 1388 which eliminated prudent controls over how much debt school districts could enter into. Wall Street bankers then swarmed all over the state promoting Capital Appreciation Bonds (CABs), the equivalent of payday loans for school districts.

One fantastic advantage of these loans was the “buy now, pay later” aspect. School districts could get their money now and not have to raise taxes on current residents. Easy money. There would not have to be any payments made for 20 years. Current residents would be off the hook. But their children and grandchildren would enter an era of crushing debt when the bill became due.

And Wall Street is patient, very patient.

4 People Stabbed in 3 Weeks

By our count, there has been at least three stabbing incidents of late in Ocean Beach – and that’s three too many! 3 incidents in which at least 4 people were stabbed.

No. 1: There was the stabbing as a result of a fight between some homeless people late Saturday, March 22nd. The fight had taken place it appears in Saratoga Park. The suspect was arrested, according to Community Relations Officer David Surwilo, and the victim was fined.

No. 2: A second stabbing took place also recently

By Judi Curry

Portuguese Market and Cafe

2818 Avenida de Portugal
San Diego, CA 92106

I received a call telling me about a place that was so good that I needed to try it. Well, Barbara, I agree. The meal was delightful. The restaurant is on the backside of the Portuguese Hall. I have been to many “fiestas” held there and had no idea that there was also a restaurant. I found out that it has only been opened since July, 2014,

By Ernie McCray

I sat at a Catfish Club luncheon the other day listening to Leon Williams and Reverend George Walker Smith converse about days of yore and their thoughts about today’s world.

Leon was the first black to hold a seat with the San Diego City Council and the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

Editor: Well-known local poet and former OBcean, Steve Kowit passed recently.
_____

By Jim Moreno

Grief is an inconvenient companion,
In the grocery store line, in the middle of a sentence,
Hanging clothes on the line, it doesn’t care,

Here, thanks to Celeste McClure is the Watch Commander’s Log for Sunday April 12th, 2015, with regards to the stabbing on the end of Newport late Saturday night.

:: 01:53 a.m. PDT

Advisory Watch Commander Log

Incident# 20066
Begin Date/Time: 04/11/2015 11:16 PM
End Date/Time:
Beat: 614

Location: 5000 Newport Ave

Neighborhood: Ocean Beach

Inc Type: Stabbing

Editor: The launch of the San Salvador, the replica of Cabrillo’s ship being built alongside Point Loma, – originally scheduled for mid-April – as been postponed. Here, our Judi Curry continues her focus on the many volunteers who helped to build the ship. Cabrillo himself and what he and the Missionaries wrought here in San Diego is still controversial and the subject of a debate on our website.

By Judi Curry

Last year I did a story of the women volunteers working on the San Salvador. If you are not familiar with the San Salvador, it was the flagship of explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542 when he sailed into San Diego Bay. Cabrillo, who sailed from Portugal, was the first European to explore San Diego Bay and the coast of California.

By Norma Damashek

We need it like a loch im kopf. A hole in the head. It’s what people in the old days would say about a bad situation. It’s what I say about Civic San Diego –the reincarnation of our former downtown redevelopment agency.

We need Civic San Diego like a hole in the head. It’s time to get rid of it.

A quick backtrack: It’s been three years since redevelopment agencies throughout California were terminated and instructed to wind down their uncompleted redevelopment projects and make good on their financial obligations. Other cities complied by doing the job in-house, under public supervision.

The Project Review Committee of the OB Planning Board meets this Wednesday, April 15th. The Review committee is a sub-committee of the full Board and does an initial review of all projects before they go before the Board. The committee meets at 6pm at the OB Rec Center, 4726 Santa Monica Avenue.

It’s one main agenda item is to review an application for Coastal Development Permit for a demolition and construction project on the 4900 block of Del Mar Avenue. The project at 4939 – 4941 Del Mar Avenue would demolish 3 existing structures and replace them with a 3-unit residential condominium with subterranean garage.

By Jim Miller

I have noted in this column that, “most colleges in America run on the backs of adjunct instructors who don’t receive the same pay for the same work as do the shrinking pool of full-time faculty” and that the “Exploitation of contingent labor is not just a problem for employees at Starbucks, Walmart, and fast food chains where workers are fighting for $15 an hour; it is an epidemic in the academy as well.”

Fight for 15 organizers will be at 4 PM at Scripps Cottage on San Diego State University’s campus, we will stand with them as teachers and students from across the city will come together with workers, community activists, people of faith, and others to call for basic fairness and economic justice for all working people.

Suits Contend Project’s Environmental Impact Report Flawed

Two lawsuits were filed on April 8th in efforts to halt the controversial One Paseo Project. In the first, three community groups sued the City of San Diego over the flawed environmental impact report (EIR).

The second suit was filed by the owner of Del Mar Highlands Town Center against the City and Kilroy Realty Corporation, the project’s developer. It also challenges the validity of the EIR prepared for the development. Both suits contend that the vote of approval of the project was based on an EIR that was not adequate.