At the end of January, members of the OB community are hosting the San Diego Yoga Festival, an event that has been in the planning since last summer.
The idea supposedly was initiated by a San Diego Police supervisor, Sgt. Yu, who patrols OB, as a method to clear OB’s parks and waterfront out. He told the San Diego Reader that:
“… I love seeing those people doing their workouts; the more they show up, the more we fill these public spaces with this type of positive energy, the more quickly transient gangs will move on…and I call them transient gangs because they gravitate and congregate in groups of 5, 10, 15 and intimidate people; they are no different than a gang.”
The mission behind the yoga festival has deepened since then, and as Katrina Thomas wrote in the San Diego Entertainer Magazine, the festival organizers are “, inviting teachers and participants from around the country,” and aim to place San Diego on the map in the yoga world. She continues:
The festival will include both the youngest and oldest yoga teachers in the country, surf yoga, live music, and offerings of spiritual nurturing.
Their website lists out their deep, meaningful intentions, one being, “to positively transform the lives of every individual who attends or works with this event from a mental, physical, energetic, emotional, spiritual, conscious, subconscious and super conscious level.”
They are dedicated to healing and transformation of the whole person, and believe that yoga can be a part of that process.
Thomas explains:
A small group of residents have made an intention to challenge themselves to be for the betterment of the community, no matter the cost. They have made a pact to engage in their own personal development, have eyes and ears wide open to the needs of the community, and provide a place of spiritual encouragement for those looking for direction.
One’s a member of the OB Town Council, another a small business owner, there’s a pastor, a couple of doulas, a philosophy professor, an artist, a pair of social workers, and a spiritual director.
They each have their own perspective on the town and meet quarterly, at their “living room” space on Newport Ave. called the Spiritual Journey Center, with other spiritually-minded neighbors who are committed to partnering with the assets already present in OB.
Thomas credits organizer Melanie Williams, who owns TriPower Yoga and sits on the Ocean Beach Town Council, as a co-creator of what is seen as the “largest yoga festival in San Diego”, citing the village’s partial affinity for a strong sense of spirituality, as “Crystal shops, churches, yoga, and even a small nun community fill the streets of Ocean Beach …”
Katrina – the writer – an OBcean herself, delves into some of the other key players in the Spiritual Journey Center, such as Carter Moss who serves as the pastor of Newbreak Church in Ocean Beach, and Stasi and John MacAteer, and Clay and Jess Connolly, as well as Corey Bruins, also a Town Council board member and co-facilitator of SJA.
Thomas concludes:
Each member carries with them different interests, passions, abilities, and connections, but the true beauty of this collective of individuals is their desire to see the place where they reside be the best it can be–physically, spiritually, and mentally, for all who call it home. And they hope to challenge others to do the same, wherever they call home. For more information, you can read about who they are and upcoming initiations on their website.
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If I were a police supervisor and had identified hotspots of “transient gangs” I’d be sure to deal with the problem in a more finalistic way that relying on a bunch of hippys to crowd them out!!! Wow. Way to go!