Month: June 2015

Editor: Here below is the letter to the San Diego Union-Tribune from Mary Tolena – one of our own OB activists on the newspaper’s ad circulars – the subject of the last OB Town Council meeting. Mary is writing to Robert York and Mr. Ficarra, the paper’s reps at the meeting; below Mary’s letter is York’s response.
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Dear Mr. York and Mr. Ficarra:
…after listening to you at the meeting, I have a lot of optimism about the future of the U-T in San Diego. I came away believing that the U-T of today is not the entity we were fighting when we started this Stop The Litter campaign in early April.

… I was even more delighted when I looked out my window today and saw a man and his son/grandson/nephew walking our sidewalks, checking addresses on a clipboard,

A Report of the Sunset Cliffs Natural Park Advisory Committee Meeting of June 1, 2015

By Lois Lane

The City of San Diego is very good at planning; it’s that pesky implementation that always causes the problem.

In the case of the Hillside Improvement Project for Sunset Cliffs Natural Park, the expected start of construction has been delayed yet again.

You may recall, the nesting bird protection was a potential anticipated delay reported at the last meeting. This time, we are back to zero.

The contract awarded to Del Mar Construction has been held up due to bonding problems.

By Anna Daniels / San Diego Free Press

Doug Porter recently wrote about the after hours demolition of one of San Diego’s two remaining historic Saltbox houses. The Bernie Michels-Thom Carey house at the corner of Florida Street and El Cajon Blvd was bulldozed by contractors working for developer HG Fenton this past Friday, May 29.

San Diego 6News has reported that the demolition permit may have been issued in error and that the city’s Development Services Department is conducting a “forensic review.” If that is the case, it is one helluva oops. A dozen red roses and a Hallmark card won’t put humpty dumpty back together again.

There’s two projects coming to Ocean Beach in the near future of some interest.

Seawall or Bluff Repair for Ocean Front Street

One is a permit “to stabilize the coastal bluff adjacent to the residences located at 1759-1765 Ocean Front Street“, in other words, some kind of seawall or bluff repair. …

Empty Lot or What at 5040 Santa Monica?

The second project that the community was given notice about is a “Notice of Future Decision” regarding a review and permits “to remove an underground parking garage” …

Torrential Rain, Floods in Texas, Oklahoma

By John Lawrence

The Blanco River overran its banks sweeping houses and people in its course. At least 41 people have died in the severe weather over the past several days, from either tornadoes or flooding brought on by epic rainfall.

Those deaths include 29 in Texas and Oklahoma. Eleven people have been missing for a week. In Mexico at least 13 people died in a tornado that hit the border city of Ciudad Acuna, Mexico. At least 200 homes were destroyed.

I’ll bet you one thing: no one in the media will mention the words: GLOBAL WARMING.

By Ernie McCray

All I can think of since the birth of my granddaughter, Marley Mandela, is how she and her brother, Lyric, personify my hopes for a better world being born someday.

But I’m just a hopeful kind of being any old way, even considering all I’ve seen since I arrived on the scene 77 years ago, what with Jim Crow and wars and all.

Hope is essential to our well-being, in my way of thinking. It’s how we’ve overcome wars and dust bowls and savagery and plagues and genocides and witchhunts and slavery and the like, how we’ve gotten to where we are.

The Ocean Beach Planning Board meets Wednesday night, June 3rd in the OB Rec Center, at 6pm sharp. (See inside for official agenda.)

Down and Up on Del Mar

The big issue of its agenda is the application for a permit to demolish 3 units and replace them with three new units and a subterranean garage at 4939-4941 Del Mar Avenue .

Apple Tree Market

Also on the Board’s agenda is the new Apple Tree Market going in at 4976 Newport Avenue. Specifically, it’s the owner’s conditional use permit application for a license to sell alcohol and a neighborhood development permit to resume its retail and commercial use.

Halt to Records Collection Probably Temporary As Senate Expected to Pass Reform Measure

By Frank Gormlie

As of today – June 1st – the National Security Agency is no longer legally allowed to collect Americans’ phone records in bulk. The NSA massive collection of telephone records ended at 11:59 p.m. EDT Sunday, right after the Senate failed to pass a measure to extend the controversial program, part of the Patriot Act.

And Americans can thank Edward Snowden for it. Snowden was the one who heroically revealed the massive surveillance program to the American public and is now sitting in Russia for his punishment.

The halt to the phone coverage, however, is probably only temporary, as the Senate is expected to okay a House-passed reform bill targeting the NSA’s surveillance program. Even if it passed, it would still take a couple of days for it to start up.

Editor: Just about every week, we publish an roundup of sorts of recent news from OB, Point Loma, the Peninsula, the Midway District, Mission Bay and, at times, other beach areas – along with updates on issues and notices of community events. Here’s the latest from over the last week or so:

Another Stabbing in OB

There was another stabbing in Ocean Beach, in the alley of the 4900 block of Newport Ave. It occurred Tuesday night, May 25th. Community Relations Officer David Surwilo reported the incident at the recent OB Town Council meeting. This time the stabbing came down when one of the workers of a business told a homeless guy he couldn’t stay on a couch that he had occupied. The guy stabbed the employee a couple of times and fled. The worker was taken to a hospital – and probably already released, Surwilo said on the 26th.

COME INSIDE FOR MORE ……….

By Jim Miller

A couple of weeks ago, Bill McKibben penned a very sharp editorial in the New York Times in response to the Obama administration’s choice to allow drilling in the Arctic noting that,

“The Obama administration’s decision to give Shell Oil the go-ahead to drill in the Arctic shows why we may never win the fight against climate change. Even in this most extreme circumstance, no one seems able to stand up to the power of the fossil fuel industry. No one ever says no.”