Month: October 2015

The City of San Diego is holding 2 meetings on the proposed draft ordinance for short-term vacation rentals, on Wednesday, October 14th.

Both meetings are open to the public, and they’re both in the same place – but there will be limited time for comments. The first meeting is the Code Monitoring Team (CMT) Meeting, which is at 10:00-11:45 a.m. and the second is the Technical Advisory Committee, which meets from 12:00-2:00 p.m.

Critics of the draft proposal being considered feel it is a poorly conceived ordinance that would legitimize mini-hotels in all residential areas in the City.

Review of “In Your Arms”

By South OB Girl

Theater and the arts are not the main attraction here in Ocean Beach. The old movie theater (R.I.P. the Strand) is now home to bikinis, t shirts, and beach gear. Perhaps it may be a surprise to some that a number of OBceans are involved in San Diego’s theater scene — a scene which has drawn award winning Broadway performers and Hollywood celebrities.

Currently at the Old Globe there is a show that is causing quite a stir in the theater world with a dance musical production which is the first of it’s kind– “In Your Arms.” And there is talk that the show might head to Broadway. This would not be the first time San Diego has been the starting place of a production that has then headed to New York. Home of many top notch productions over the years, the Old Globe has a long history of putting on excellent performances. And “In Your Arms” is no exception.

2,000 Homes and 200 Square Miles Up in Flames

By John Lawrence

On September 13 California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in Lake and Napa counties. He also had issued a state of emergency in Calaveras and Amador counties.

Four firefighters were injured in the fire called the Valley fire. Thousands fled as mandatory evacuations were ordered for the communities of Cobb, Middletown, Harbin Hot Springs and Big Canyon Road.

By Frank Thomas

Middle Eastern states are breaking down in an endless escalation of civil wars where Syria, Libya, Yemen, Iraq are collapsing. The resulting power vacuums exploited by rebel factions and demonic jihadist Islamic state are threatening the Middle East. The ancient, ongoing Sunni-Shiite mutual hatreds are afire.

Over Half of San Diego’s Near 4800 Short Term Rentals Between OB and La Jolla

A new study out is trumpeting the contributions that the short term rental market is making to the San Diego economy. Millions in hotel and sales taxes – wow! And hundreds of jobs! Yea!

But wait! Would it surprise you that the new study was commissioned by Airbnb and two vacation rental marketing firms? It was.

A Report of the OB CDC Meeting – October 8, 2015,

by Lois Lane

Ocean Beach has the smallest of the city’s northern beach parks, just one mile long. Both Mission Beach and La Jolla greatly exceed it in size. We sometimes take it for granted, but in our hearts we agree with OB Rag commenter “mjt’s” words for a recent article:

“The natural beauty and harmony of the beach…The beach represents freedom and beauty…”

But for all of us who believe the beach represents freedom and harmony, there is an opposing force that the beach represents opportunity for change.

Once again this year many schools will pause to commemorate Christopher Columbus. Given everything we know about who Columbus was and what he launched in the Americas, this needs to stop.

Columbus initiated the trans-Atlantic slave trade, in early February 1494, first sending several dozen enslaved Taínos to Spain. Columbus described those he enslaved as “well made and of very good intelligence,” and recommended to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella that taxing slave shipments could help pay for supplies needed in the Indies.

San Diego City Works Press Celebrates 10th Anniversary with Anthology:
“Sunshine/Noir II: Writing From San Diego and Tijuana”

Friday, October 16th at the Glashaus Mainspace
1815 Main Street in Barrio Logan
By Jim Miller

This fall, San Diego City Works Press marks its 10th anniversary with the release of Sunshine/Noir II: Writing from San Diego and Tijuana, an anthology of local writing about San Diego edited by Kelly Mayhew and myself.

As we note in the introduction to the anthology:

It’s been ten years since San Diego City Works Press published its first book, Sunshine/Noir: Writing from San Diego and Tijuana and, much to our surprise in many ways, we are still here.

By John Lawrence

Peter Singer has written a book The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically (Yale University Press, 2015). Singer has been called “the world’s greatest living philosopher” and is currently a Professor at Princeton so we must take his work seriously. Yet I’m bothered by the implications of his work as condensed in an essay: How You Can Do the Most Good: It’s Not as Simple as You Think.

He tells about one of his students who, though caring to extreme about the plight of poor people in the world, nevertheless, chose to go to work on Wall Street when he graduated. His reasoning was that he could help the most poverty stricken by dedicating a large amount of his considerable salary to helping them rather than going to work as a volunteer working directly with them in Africa, for instance.

By Sneha Shankar/ International Business Times

The California Coastal Commission Thursday approved the bid by SeaWorld to expand the tanks the company uses to hold killer whales in San Diego, but banned the breeding of the captive orcas that would live in them. The decision came through a vote, which followed a daylong hearing with several speakers, who spoke for and against the proposed expansion.

While the decision was lauded by animal rights activists, it would only ban the breeding of captive orcas, including through artificial insemination, in the company’s California park but not in its facilities in other states. SeaWorld also operates parks in San Antonio, Texas, and Orlando, Florida. The amendment would also ban the sale, trade or transfer of the orcas, and provided an exemption for some of the whales that were caught in the wild, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Occasionally, the OB Rag publishes an update on local development projects – just to keep our readers and ourselves informed. Here is the first of two:

190 Barnard Apartments Being Readied

The huge project that is being built on the site of the former Barnard Elementary School in the Midway District – just outside OB – has made great gains since our last visit.

Nearly 200 units are being constructed on almost 10 acres at the old school site – sold by the School District in 2012. The Monarch Group bought the site at auction for a reported $16.5 million.

In the fifth and final poll of OB Rag readers, we queried people about the plans to install 24-hour police surveillance cameras along the Ocean Beach waterfront.

San Diego Police and at least one OB organization have been touting these plans of putting up cameras from the OB Pier north along the waterfront.

But according to this poll – which ran for a week and had 141 participants – only 38% are ready for the cameras (53 votes). These readers agreed to the option that read:

“We need these cameras. OB has become unruly especially at night when criminal elements act with impunity.”

However, on the other side of the question, a full quarter of the readers who took part – 25% – believed it smacked of “big brother” and “would be an affront to our rights and privacies,” (35 votes).