Month: September 2016

Local Newspaper Sends Out Mixed Message About Homeless

About 3 weeks ago, August 17th was the “San Diego Homeless Awareness Day” – a day set up by various media sources around San Diego to bring a new awareness of those less fortunate and who live on the streets and in the shelters.

And about 20 of San Diego’s media sources carried or ran or printed or published 40 or so articles and posts about the homeless and homelessness today.

The OB Rag – along with our sister publication, the San Diego Free Press – joined this effort to highlight the plight of our area’s citizens who have no home, other than the streets, and we both posted a series of articles from the writers of the SDFP and OB Rag. (For other articles from the publications on the homeless, visit the SD Homeless Aware website.)

Many of the articles and posts painted and reflected compassionate understandings of the homeless and their plight, with efforts to examine the underlying reasons for so many homeless in one of the richest nations on earth. This day of awareness followed – by a little over a month – a serial murderer who preyed on sleeping homeless men in San Diego.

Why Didn’t I Know About This?

For the past three weeks, beginning at about 9:00pm, I have received the following calls:

“Hello. My name is Lisa. You have been awarded a full paid, all-expense trip to the Bahamas by just answering a few questions. Are you ready to begin?”

That is call number one.

Call number two comes in an hour later – or so – and it is a foreign voice telling me that he is calling from Windows 7.

“There seems to be a problem with your computer; go turn it on.”

I say that “I don’t have a windows computer” and the voice answers back, “go turn on the windows computer that you don’t have. . . .”

Then my cell phone begins to ring. The first call is from Lisa; the second call is from the Windows 7 Computer guy.

September Events in Ocean Beach

September 15th Thursday 7 pm OB Historical Society Presents: On the Tracks of an Angry God: John P. Harrington in San Diego County, By Richard Carrico. At P.L. United Methodist Church, 1984 Sunset Cliffs Blvd., O.B. Richard Carrico will present an anthropological, historical, and geographic travelogue as we follow Harrington the “Angry God” through San Diego County. From the coast to the Anza Borrego desert and, from northern Baja California to Warner Springs, Carrico will interpret Harrington’s sometimes cryptic handwritten notes, provide photographic images of the region circa 1925, and offer a unique glimpse into Kumeyaay culture as captured in the mid-1920s. The Chemehuevi called Harrington “An Angry God.”

September 17th Saturday 9:00 a.m.to 12:00 p.m. Surfrider Coastal Cleanup Day Ocean Beach Pier, 5078 Niagara Ave, 92107. Join us for Coastal Cleanup Day! More info: sandiego.surfrider.org/ events

September 24th Saturday 7:30 am – 12:00 pm – Annual Ocean Beach Pier Pancake Breakfast , hosted by the OB Town Council; Ocean Beach Pier, 5091 Niagara Avenue; Mark your calendar for the Annual OB Pier Pancake Breakfast, a fun and popular tradition in OB that kicks off the big fundraising season for the OB Food and Toy Drive and our holiday events. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children. Proceeds benefit the OB Food and Toy Drive and upcoming holiday events. Tickets are on sale at stores.

COME INSIDE FOR MUCH MORE ….

Editor: The following letter by local residents to the OB Planning Board regarding the project at Ebers and Greene was sent to John Ambert, chair of the OBPB. Ambert responded and said that the September agenda was already full, and he invited the residents to speak during the public comment period of the Board’s agenda. We publish the letter in its entirety.

Attn: Blake Herrschaft, Vice Chair of O. B. Planning Board and Representative of District 3.

This letter is to gather a request to be added to the agenda for the Sept. 7th, 2016 O.B.P.B. meeting.

The matter to be brought before the board is as follows:

The structure @ 2269 Ebers St. now under construction is in violation of the following codes:

(1) .7 F. A. R. (floor area ratio limit.) This building takes up more then 70% of the lot it sits upon. (3 stories)

(2) Insufficient parking. The original duplex has been offered for sale as a 3-4 bedroom house without off street parking. The new structure has been approved with an additional bedroom, storage and a three (3) car garage area. The driveway for this garage would eliminate two (2) of the already too few parking spots available on Ebers St at this time. It also does not provide an off street parking spot for each bedroom as is needed to pass inspection.

At Wednesday night’s Ocean Beach Planning Board meeting, the Board will take up a development permit regarding 5109-5111 Brighton Avenue that requests a “deviation” to OB’s FAR, and will hear from community members who were involved in trying to prevent the removal of the Torrey Pine on Saratoga recently.

The planners convene at 6pm in the Community Meeting room at the OB Rec Center, 4726 Santa Monica Avenue – that’s this Wed., September 7th.

Security guards confront Indigenous protesters with dogs and pepper spray. (Screenshot/Democracy Now!)

Video and photos of a private security team pushing dogs to bite Native American protesters from Democracy Now!

By Nadi Prupis / Common Dreams

The ongoing Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) protests were hit with violence on Saturday, as private security forces reportedly hired by the pipeline builders descended on the Native American activists with pepper spray and dogs that bit and threatened the protesters.

Democracy Now!, which was on the ground at the time, posted several photographs and video of the attack:

By Jim Miller

Last year my Labor Day column, “Happy Labor Day?: The Jury is Out,” began by starkly pondering the potentially devastating effects a bad Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association ruling at the Supreme Court might have had not just on public sector unions but on the labor movement as a whole.

Later, in the same column, I looked more hopefully at the potential for organizing contingent workers, like those involved in the Fight for $15 movement.

The twelve months that followed that column brought good news for labor on multiple fronts. First, with the long, strange journey of the Friedrichs case that came to the Supreme Court with a good chance of passing before everything was turned upside down by Justice Scalia’s death, a 4-4 split decision that was a victory for unions, and finally the Court’s refusal to rehear the case.

Debi Baker at San Diego U-T wrote:

Dozens of Native American Indians staged a protest Wednesday [Aug.31] morning over the building of Naval Base Coronado’s new SEAL training center on what they say is a native burial ground.

The 12 tribes that make up the Kumeyaay Nation want the $1 billion project south of Silver Strand State Beach to be moved a short distance so as not to desecrate what members call a sacred site, said Cynthia Parada, a councilwoman with the La Posta Band of Mission Indians.

The 60-acre campus will add 1.5 million square feet of buildings to the base that includes spaces for SEAL Teams, logistical support buildings, training facilities, classrooms and more.

IIn 2002, human remains of a young boy said to be 7,000 years old were found in the area south of Silver Strand State Beach, Parada said.

Point Loma Leaders Meet with Mayor’s Staff

By Don Sevrens

The City has come up with a proposed solution to strengthen and protect the 30-foot height limit on the Point Loma side of the peninsula, community representatives said Thursday, September 1st, after the second Mayor’s meeting on the issue.

Waves of community protest were ignited by the construction of four-story buildings at Emerson and Evergreen, capped by a town hall meeting attended by 250 persons. Following the town hall, several community advocates attended the first Mayor’s meeting on the issue at City Hall at the invitation of Mayor Faulconer. The mayor pledged that the issue would be resolved either by administrative changes or the legislative process if necessary. A stop-work order was issued on the controversial project.

San Francisco 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick continued his protests in support of Black Lives Matter by taking a knee during the singing of the “Star Spangled Banner” Thursday night, September 1st, at Qualcomm Stadium. And alongside him was teammate, Eric Reid.

Kaepernick told the press ( Reports the Daily News: ) that he and Reid had discussed the protest, and the quarterback:

“He approached me and said I support what you’re doing, I support what your message is. Let’s think about how we can do this together

And dropping to one knee was intentional and symbolic. Going to one knee was his way of showing respect to the military while still expressing a protest. Kaepernick said:

“We wanted to make sure the message that we’re trying to send isn’t lost with the action. At this point, I think it will be taking a knee.”

By Anne Haule / Musings of a Boomer Feminist

“Let me help you tighten your helmet. Is the seat okay? Do you know how to shift the gears? Let’s stay on the sidewalk until you get the hang of your new bike. . . . .”

Sound familiar? These could have been my words 25 years ago but they are not my words . . . they are my daughter’s as we get ready to take our first bike ride together on my new bike.

Helmets secured, we take off . . . my daughter in the lead so she can pick a safe route with little traffic. When we start up a hill, she turns around to keep an eye on me. When I topple over, having unsuccessfully tried to turn while going too slowly up the hill, she is right there to help.

As I lie in the street with my bike on top of me (and my ego bruised more than my knees), people seemed to materialize out of nowhere asking if I was okay. My daughter lifted my bike off me and soothingly said, “poor momma, let me help you up.” Had a crowd not gathered, she would likely have offered to kiss my boo-boo.

Editor: The following is an Open Letter to Mayor Faulconer and the San Diego City Council from the Peninsula Community Planning Board on the subject of determining building heights in the Coastal Overlay Zone. It was signed by chair Jon Linney on behalf of the entire Board, from an action the planners took on July 21 of this year.

August 26, 2016

The Honorable Kevin Faulconer, Mayor of San Diego
Members of the San Diego City Council
San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith

Subject: Determination of Building Height in the Coastal Height Limitation Overlay Zone in the City of San Diego

Dear Mayor Faulconer:

As Chairman of the Peninsula Community Planning Board (PCPB), this letter is to transmit to you an action request approved at the July 21, 2016 meeting of the PCPB.

The PCPB commends Mayor Faulconer for the recent issuing of a stop work order on the permitted construction at 3144 Emerson Street in Point Loma. The PCPB request to you (attachment 1 – PCPB Approved Motion) addresses the inappropriate construction permit for 3144 Emerson Street and addresses any and all future proposed construction in the Coastal Height Limitation Overlay Zone anywhere else in the City of San Diego.