Month: February 2017

The following calendar of events in OB and San Diego is from our good friends at the OB Green Center. All that we did is add a few meetings in Ocean Beach*. The Ocean Beach Green Center is located at 4843 B Voltaire Street, Ocean Beach 92107 (contact them : oceanbeachgreencenter@gmail. com 619.225.1083)

February Events in OB

February 9th Thursday 7:00 p.m. Film Night “Merchants of Doubt”
“Merchants of Doubt” takes audiences on a satirically comedic, yet illuminating ride into the heart of conjuring American spin. Filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the curtain on a secretive group of highly charismatic, silver- tongued pundits-for-hire who present themselves in the media as scientific authorities – yet have the contrary aim of spreading maximum confusion about well-studied public threats ranging from toxic chemicals to pharmaceuticals to climate change. Free of Charge :-)

COME INSIDE FOR MUCH MORE

From East County Today

California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego) announced on Feb. 3rd a push for more affordable overnight accommodations along the California coast to help ensure that the state’s iconic beaches and shores are affordable and accessible for low- and middle-income residents to visit.

Under Assembly Bill 250, which the Assemblywoman introduced last week, the state agency in charge of preserving the Golden State’s 840 miles of coastline would be required to develop a Low Cost Overnight Accommodations Program in an effort to reverse a troubling trend in which visiting on the coast has become prohibitively expensive for many Californians.

By Annie Lane / San Diego Free Press

While Mike Pence decided to recognize Black History Month by honoring a white man, Donald Trump was busy vaguely listing the few black people he’s heard of throughout his 70-plus years of ignorant life in a zero-hearted attempt to care about anyone other than himself.

One such man was Frederick Douglass, the ex-slave turned abolitionist, author, suffragist, editor and diplomat. Here’s what Trump said:

“Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice.”

The one thing Trump didn’t notice? Douglass died in 1895.

Sections of the bluff along Sunset Cliffs in Ocean Beach collapsed January 28th, right after heavy rains. First reported by Delinda Lombardo in the San Diego Reader, the collapse affected two properties, 5107 Narragansett Avenue – the Pelican Point apartment complex, and the property just to its south, 1783–1787 Ocean Front Street.

None of the units on the properties were directly affected, but the cliff gave way under patios on the first floor at the Pelican Point. Lombardo reported, “Though there was no reported damage to the structure itself, the seawall located below the property is crushed.”

Even though some tenants still live there, it has not been determined just how safe they are or how risky the cliff is in its current state. NBC reported that “the apartment manager is still living on the property along with dozens of other tenants.”

“Indivisible” Leaders Plan Comprehensive Campaign to Sway Congress

February 7 “Resist Trump Tuesday” Targets Feinstein, Harris, Issa, Hunter

POINT LOMA, CA – More than 60 San Diegans united in Point Loma on Saturday, Jan. 4th to defeat President Trump’s agenda through direct advocacy to members of Congress, and other elected officials.

Representing many of the five dozen “Indivisible” groups that have formed in the San Diego region since the election, the leaders met to network and strategize to maximize their impact through collective action.

The overflow crowd had to move to a larger room at a Point Loma community center to accommodate the attendees, who hailed from Alpine, Ramona, La Mesa, Carlsbad, Capitol Heights, La Jolla, Point Loma, Fallbrook, Tierrasanta and many other communities.

There is a nation-wide group that is organizing a boycott of companies that carry Trump products, or are owned by Trump or have other relationships with him. It’s call #GrabYourWallet and they believe economic push-back by American citizens and others is a very valid form of protest.

Their campaign has already been going on for nearly 4 months now and it has achieved some successes. Here is how they describe themselves and their history:

The #GrabYourWallet movement tracks & boycotts retailers that sell Trump family products as well as corporate leaders who enabled the political rise of the Trump family through fundraising and/or endorsements.

Tenants Are Encouraged to Run as Candidates for Board

Every year community planning boards and committees around the city hold their annual elections – most of them – in March.

And the Ocean Beach Planning Board is no different. The annual election to the panel of OB volunteers who make recommendations about projects that come before it to the city is being held Wednesday, March 15th. The balloting takes place inside the OB Recreation Center.

Any tenant, resident, property owner or business owner in Ocean Beach can take part in the election.

Importantly, everyone from these categories can also be a candidate for one of the seats on the 14-member Board.

So, if interested, check the district map for the district of your residence or business or property. At least one seat in each of the 7 districts is up for election each year.

CANDIDATE ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS INSIDE

On Saturday, February 4, Hodad’s Burgers and AWOL Productions held the annual Ocean Beach Pier Surf Classic. There were a lot of heats with a lot of surfers of every age and gender. The usual Ocean Beach crowd was in attendance, as well as visitors from around Southern California.

Head of Democratic Party Bashes Unions … While American Federation of Teachers Joins Calls for Kasparian to Take Leave of Absence

By Jim Miller

Last week I dedicated my column to outlining how, despite the emergence of inspiring protests in the streets and amongst the progressive base, many key Democratic figures in Congress and in the national leadership of the building trades unions still didn’t seem to understand what time it was. Sadly, it only took a few more days to see a couple of stunning examples of how not to be the resistance right here in San Diego.

On January 26th, Jessica Hayes, the newly elected chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party, took advantage of her presence at a forum hosted by the Democrats for Equality entitled “#The Resistance: Women Lead the Way” to attack not the dangerous plutocrats running the country, but a key element of the Democratic base: unions.

This Is Not an Issue of “Free Speech” for a White Nationalist with Connections to the White House

Risking becoming the lone voice in today’s wilderness, we say today that somebody has to say “thank you” to the UC Berkeley students and community members who demonstrated against the white nationalist Breitbart News senior editor back on Wednesday, February 1st, and helped cause the campus to cancel the talk by Milo Yiannopoulo.

So, thank you.

The whole incident has now blown up, with claims the protesters violated free speech, with Trump threatening to cut off funds to UC Berkeley – which he cannot do unilaterally – and the subsequent push-back against him from school and California officials.

Reader Rant by Rick Dower

On Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 1st, I almost became the victim of an attempted scam which I will call the ‘old Armani leather jacket con’.

I was walking my dog across Pt. Loma Ave at Guizot St. just an hour before I wrote this up as a warning for OB Rag readers, and a guy in a nice white Jeep Grand Cherokee stops in the middle of the street, hails me in a heavy Italian accent. Needs directions to the airport.

He pulled onto Guizot, I gave “Antonio” directions, he profusely thanks me. In heavily accented English, he then tells me he is a designer for Giorgio Armani in Milan, was in San Diego for a big fashion show and is leaving in 2 hours for London for another show.

What-a size are you?” He is so grateful for my help he offers to give –give!– me 3 nice-looking “Armani” leather jackets he designed and brought to town for the show.

Latest data shows more than 1 million people living in families with incomes too low for expenses

Center on Policy Initiatives

A new report from the Center on Policy Initiatives finds that a third (33%) of all household in San Diego County have incomes below the level needed to cover basic living expenses.

Women and children are most impacted, largely because employed women throughout the county earn 74 cents for every $1 paid to men. Among households headed by single mothers, 69% have incomes below the bare-bones level known as the Self-Sufficiency Standard.