Month: January 2016

By Patricia Maxwell

Today’s residents of Chula Vista have much in common with citizens of a hundred years ago. Make that a thousand years or more. Southern California has always been an arid land, with cycles of drought, interspersed with wet years every now and again.

In December of 1915, San Diego’s city fathers tackled the issue from a completely different angle. They hired a rainmaker!

The impetus for their decision was the unfilled Morena Reservoir in the mountains sixty miles east of San Diego. A rock-filled dam had been completed in 1912, but the reservoir had yet to be filled beyond a third of its capacity. Other reservoirs in the area shared the same problem. None were filled and the city was growing.

Hands across the sand in OB, June 2010.

Abbott Street Residents Upset Over Broken Street Lights – SDG&E Lacking

USA Hostels – Owner of OB’s Hostel – Has 2 Award Winners

The big news coming out of Ocean Beach Wednesday is the big fight that occurred early in the morning at the corner of Brighton and Bacon.

Two of the victims – a man and a woman – and the two suspects – both men – all were stabbed during the altercation that came down around 12:30 a.m. None of the injuries were life-threatening.

Local TV news was all over this incident – ‘another stabbing in Ocean Beach’, with a “trail of blood on the sidewalk”.

Piecing together the different news reports, it appears that 2 women and a guy were walking down the 2100 block of Brighton around 12:30 in the morning when they were approached by 2 guys.

After nearly 20 years of meetings, workshops, studies, petitions, and even mobilizations of community members – the Ocean Beach Community Plan gained its final approval on January 14th, 2016 by the California Coastal Commission.

What a process it has been! What a truly grassroots movement combined with the work of city staff it has been. Especially the final phase that culminated during the summer of 2014 when the Plan Update was unanimously approved by the San Diego City Council, after a petition drive in support of key elements of the Plan garnered 4,000 signatures.

Here is the official statement by the OB Planning Board: …

By John Lawrence

The Republican political arena has become the theater of the absurd largely thanks to the emergence of Donald Trump as the new standard bearer of the Republican Party.

He has stood all the rules on their heads and made a mockery out of political correctness. Somehow this has breathed fresh air into the stodgy world of Republican memes and mantras.

For example, let’s take the birther controversy which the Donald was a big part of a few years ago when he and others made an attempt to prove that President Obama was not a “natural born citizen” as required by the Constitution in order to be President. In fact, as Trump and others maintained, Obama was born in Kenya. Turns out not to be true.

“Why didn’t you ask the neighbors and the community what they might think?”

By Jay Powell / San Diego Free Press

This past week San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer announced as one of the key highlights of his State of the City that he is bringing forward “the first comprehensive vision for San Diego’s parks in more than 60 years” and promised that “ground would be broken on 50 new or upgraded parks during the next five years. “

Actual budgets are always a reality check on visionary pronouncements. By April we should know if and how this vision will be reflected in the upcoming Fiscal Year 2017 budget. There is a need for yet another kind of reality check.

A Conversation with Muralist Gretchen Weidner

By South OB Girl

“Muralist. Painter. Teacher” is how Gretchen Weidner describes herself on her webpage. Add to that philanthropist and sports coach.

A conversation with Gretchen makes it clear what an inspiration she is. She is actively making a difference in the world. And she does all of the things she does for children, for art, and for charity, out of a genuine love for helping people.

Opponents of the police surveillance cameras coming to Ocean Beach’s waterfront were out on Sunday, January 17th, at the foot of Newport, collecting signatures and holding anti-camera signs. And they got some local press for their efforts.

In an article entitled, “Here come the cameras, O.B.”, local writer Dave Rice who reports for the Reader, asked in his sub-head, “Will police have available budget to monitor video in real-time?”

A large crack has appeared along a bluff at Sunset Cliffs and poses a huge danger to people on the top of the Cliffs as well as those on the beach, rocks and or in the surf below.

The fracture – described by CBS8 as 5 feet wide and 250 feet long – is located at the south western boundary of Sunset Cliffs Natural Park. The crack in the bluff is right above a beach often visited by Point Loma Nazarene University students, surfers and park visitors.

By Jim Miller

Don’t celebrate this Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And please don’t clap for anyone talking about how far we’ve come.

Rather than engaging in the usual empty gestures accompanied by vanilla rhetoric that turns Dr. King into a saint, we should be railing against the fact that last week, by indicating that they are prepared to cripple public sector unions, the Supreme Court of the United States took another huge step in moving the country further and further away from the America that King fought for and eventually gave his life to make a reality.

Photo: Anna Daniels

By Susan Taylor

San Diego has had so much rain that while gardeners can continue to start cool weather crops we can also give the soil a break and think about other garden projects. The ground, beds and pots are all saturated so we can leave them alone for a bit.

This is the season to prune roses and stone fruit trees (plums, peaches and so on). AND, it is also time to plant new roses and fruit trees as well. Nurseries are flooded with bare root roses and trees. Bare root means that the plant was grown to be transplanted and is packed carefully for purchase and planting into your space!

Screen shot: KPBS Homeless Babies and Toddlers Endure Tough Long Days on San Diego Streets (video)

By Jeeni Criscenzo / San Diego Free Press

Using school data, we can prove that close to 10,000 families in San Diego County are homeless and are not included in the Point-in-Time Count (PITC) that is conducted every year throughout the country to determine how to allocate HUD funds for homelessness programs.

[C]lose to 10,000 families in San Diego County are homeless and are not included in the Point-in-Time Count [used] … to determine how to allocate HUD funds for homelessness programs.