Month: September 2015

By Susan Millward/ Animal Welfare Institute /September 24, 2015

SeaWorld Entertainment announced the “Blue World” Project last year.

The project proposes to invest $100 million per park (for a total of $300 million) for the construction of a larger tank next to each park’s Shamu Stadium, to display the company’s orcas when they are not performing.

Superficially, this appears to be an effort to improve the welfare of these large ocean predators by giving them more space, …

There’s been a simmering shift in the calm among San Diego Democrats. Two elected Democrats from our area in the California legislature – with very similar liberal voting records – are going up against each other for the 39th District State Senate seat in Sacramento.

Assemblywoman and Speaker of the Assembly Toni Atkins is challenging State Senator Marty Block for the seat he has held over the last 3 years. The election is in 2016. Ocean Beach and the Peninsula are included in the 39th District.

Community Planning Committee Votes Overwhelmingly Against Draft on Short Term Vacation Rentals

By John Ambert

Given our recent discussions on the STVR issue, I wanted to give you a quick summary of the CPC (Community Planning Committee) meeting held Tuesday, Sept. 22mf about Short Term Vacation Rentals. The venue was packed, I’d estimate about 200 people.

Councilwoman Poses Question at Meeting of Peninsula Planners

By Tony de Garate / Special to the OB Rag

Are Peninsula voters willing to tax themselves to improve fire and rescue services? That’s the question Marti Emerald, who represents District 9 on the San Diego City Council, had September 17 at the monthly meeting of the Peninsula Community Planning Board.

Emerald, who chairs the City Council’s Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee, is in the midst of an information offensive in support of a firehouse bond for the November 2016 ballot that would raise nearly $230 million for 19 new stations — including one in the Peninsula.

The measure, which would require a two-thirds vote for passage, would raise property taxes by $30 per year for 30 years for a $500,000 homeowner.

Protests This Week in San Diego Mourn the Disappearance of 43 Mexican Students

By Elena Marques

Usually writing comes naturally to me, I love sharing the art and culture of our community of Barrio Logan and the words flow easily. However as I sit to write today, there is so much to say that I am at a loss for words.

It’s incredibly difficult to describe the emotions facing the one year anniversary of the mass kidnapping of the 43 students of Ayotzinapa. So much that I found myself putting off writing this because there just doesn’t seem to be sufficient words.

After a year of lucha, marches, protests, art shows, cultural events world wide, a nationwide tour of parents and students from Ayotzinapa creating a solid and intricate network of organizers across the nation, meeting and working with monumental people here in San Diego, across the nation, and across the border, including the spokespeople from the Escuela Normal, it weighs so heavy that we face a year with no answers, no justice.

By Will Falk / San Diego Free Press

I am an attempted suicide survivor. I tried to kill myself twice – once in April, 2013 and again in August, 2013. It has been over two years and I am still struggling to make sense of what I did. I just learned that September is National Suicide Prevention Month and for the last several days I have lost myself reading heart-breaking story after heart-breaking story of those affected by suicide – both attempted and successful.

The first time I tried to kill myself I was in Milwaukee, WI. I was a public defender in Kenosha, WI and was overcome with anxiety, guilt, and a spiritual kind of exhaustion when I came back to my empty apartment on a snowy,

Community Planners Slap Down Zapf and Cate Proposals to Allow STVRs to Operate in San Diego Residential Zones.

On Tuesday, September 22, the Community Planners Committee (CPC) at their monthly meeting rejected City Council-member Lori Zapf’s proposal to allow STVR to operate in San Diego residential zones with restrictions and Council member Chris Cates’ proposal to allow STVR in residential zones outright.

Instead the CPC voted to uphold and enforce the existing San Diego Municipal Code regarding Short Term Vacation Rentals in residential zoned areas. In an almost unanimous vote, (24-3) the CPC agreed that that the Municipal Code already addresses and prohibits such commercial entities in residential zones.

CPC Chair Joe Le Cava and members of the committee reiterated that STVRs are Visitor Accommodations as defined in the San Diego Municipal Code and are commercial businesses that do not belong in neighborhoods zoned for residential use. The committee rejected the proposal that would allow STVRs in residential zones.

At the peak of the event, more than 60 people crowded into the OB Woman’s Club on Bacon during a discussion on short term vacation rentals Wednesday night, September 21st.

A joint community forum called by the OB Planning Board and the OB Town Council, it gave community planners an idea of where OBceans were on the issue of STVRs as they were to attend a meeting of reps from all the city’s planning groups on the same issue the following night.

Gary Gilmore is moving his family jewelry business. It is true. Gary confirmed this for me this morning. He and his spouse Beth and their 2 daughters – all who have been running the business for years – will be shutting down the storefront and moving their business to Liberty Station.

Gary said that they will stay on Newport Avenue for the remainder of this year and then move in January. Gary’s jewelry store has been on Newport for 37 years. “We opened on October 18th, 1978,” he said with crystal clarity.

Fisherman are having a great time these days as it’s a banner season with boatloads of bluefin tuna, dorado and yellowtail returning to the docks of Point Loma. Anglers are catching 100- to almost 200-pound bluefin tuna off our coast, further out west and up north, locals say -normally not seen up here.

Usually the tropical fish are reeled in off Mexico and far off-shore, but now they’re being hooked as close as 10-20 miles off of San Diego, where water temperatures are exceptionally warm.

Pancake Breakfast Served 850 Mouths – a Great Success

Friends of OB Library Book Sale Sept 26

OB Residents Upset at Stench From Feral Cats in Apartments at Bacon and Santa Cruz

Kevin McKay Passes – Former Peninsula Beacon Editor

Boarded-Up Medical Building in Midway District Sold

Crash at End of I-8 Prompted Sig-Alert – Motorcyclist Loses Foot

Reporter Confronts Man With Stolen Bike from Animal-Rights Activist

Paddle Around OB Pier for Clean Water Expected to Draw Hundreds of Surfers – Sun., Sept. 27th

Fund Raising for Injured San Diego Lifeguard

A proposal to extend the hours of operation for OB’s two surf camps will be made at Wednesday’s OB Town Council meeting.

And for some reason, OB’s lifeguards are making the proposal or request.

Why? Why are our public servants and first responders – our lifeguards whom we support and cherish – why are they pushing for these extensions? We find this very curious … and wholly inappropriate.

Here’s how the OBTC describes the issue in their newsletter and website:

The OB Lifeguards are requesting consideration for a time change to the operational hours for the two surf camps in Ocean Beach. The proposed time change would add one additional hour to the current operational period. …