Month: November 2017

At a rally against short term vacation rentals in Ocean Beach, the OB Rag led protesters on a “Walk of Shame” down Abbott Street where vacation rentals were pointed out along the 4-block tour. It was called the “heart of the Airbnb Empire.”

Here is the text of that tour and photos of the short term rentals highlighted along the way.

Voltaire & Abbott – The Poster child for STVR redevelopment. 3 homes lifted in as modular units have been turned into vacation rentals here.

The 38th OB Holiday Parade is coming up this Saturday, December 2nd, and the good folks who put it on – the Ocean Beach Town Council – need you to volunteer to help make it a success.

It’s the only ALL VOLUNTEER RUN parade in the state

38th Annual Parade Includes OB Hero as Grand Marshall, First African-American Santa, and “No Target in OB” Float

The holidays are here, the OB Christmas Tree is up – and this Saturday, December 2nd is the Ocean Beach 38th Holiday Parade. This year the parade has the classic theme of “California Dreamin’ in the Season of Love” – commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love.

The Summer of Love in 1967 heralded the beginning of the Golden Age of Rock, the Counter-Culture, the hippie movement and the anti-Vietnam War movement.

By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press

Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the nuclear industry in the US and beyond, and highlights the efforts of those who are working for a nuclear free world. Here is our November 2017 report:

Lawsuit Challenges Storage of Radioactive Waste at San Onofre Nuke

…

Last Running California Nuke Plant Inches Towards Shutdown

It seems to me that I wrote a similar article about the high water rates a year or so ago. I know how upset I was with the raise in the water rates after it was announced that the drought was over. I know that many of us either appeared at the City Council meeting or sent letters protesting the rate increase, and, as per usual, we were “overruled” and the rates went into effect.

At that time I was “upset” about the increase. Now I am pissed. And it isn’t just me. I have the names of 286 residents in the Pt. Loma area that are also upset with the water bills we all received this week. And before I tell you the breakdown of a poll initiated by one of our neighbors – Mi Do – of the Fleetridge area, let me tell you why I am so pissed.

I am on a fixed income.

By Lori Saldaña / Nov 27, 2017

This is in response to the OB Rag article, “Come out to the protest rally against short term vacation rentals in Ocean Beach.”

As an educator, I want to remind people that removing affordable, permanent residential units from a neighborhood will- over time- lead to the closures of local public schools. Before that happens, declining enrollment will impact the quality of education for those few remaining students. It will also lead to the ending of subsidized pre-school programs for families who are at eligible income levels.

Mission Bay has already faced these closures. Can we really support similar impacts in other neighborhoods.

Every Sunday, the Los Angeles Times prints the lists of the bestselling books for that week. There’s the hardbacks and there’s the paperbacks – and they’re both divided into Fiction and Non-Fiction.

Well, Sunday, November 26th, like all Sundays, the Times printed the bestsellers. But way down in the paperbacks section was a subtle change – which tells us the LA Times knows something we don’t. Just what is it?

Coming up Thursday night is the annual OB Holiday Auction held at Sunshine Company Saloon.

This wonderful event to raise funds for the OB Town Council holiday toy and food drive is November 30, from 5:30pm to 9:00pm.

Editor’s Note: The following is an interview with an Airbnb host.

by Chuck Thassing

I’m sitting down with an Airbnb host to discuss the dollars and sense of short term vacation rentals (STVRs). These have been a hotly debated issue in San Diego, and our 9 city councilmembers are gearing up for a vote on December 12th on how to regulate it. The stories run the gamut from displaced residents and frat parties in residential neighborhoods, to desperately needed supplemental income and other benefits of the “sharing economy”.

Q: So tell us about your rental unit.

A: Last year I converted a little 1 bedroom beach cottage in Ocean Beach into a short term rental and listed it on Airbnb.

By Jim Miller

One would think that in the midst of the Trump era, with so many threats not just to essential government policies and programs but to democracy itself, Democrats would have a pretty clear idea of who their enemy is.

A reasonable observer might also conclude that the Democratic Party in California which has, in many ways, been the vanguard of resistance nationwide would be laser-focused on not only maintaining the blue wall but on working to oust California Republicans from the House of Representatives.

UPDATED WITH PHOTOS OF REMOVAL AND RE-PLANTING

OB’s brand new Christmas Tree – planted at the foot of Newport Ave. this morning – is a true OBcean – it leans to the left.

Thanks to Bob Edwards who met the truck at 7am this morning – we have this first photo of our Christmas Tree on the beach.

Well, it is a true OBcean – planted and raised right here in OB. See this.

Here’s Bob Edward’s pictorial essay of the removal and re-planting of OB’s Christmas Tree for 2017.

By Nick Karma

Dozens of residents of the beach communities rallied in Ocean Beach on Saturday, November 25th in the first of its kind for San Diego – a protest demonstration against short term vacation rentals. Sponsored by the OB Rag and Save San Diego Neighborhoods, the rally kicked off with a few speeches at the corner of Voltaire and Abbott, in front of “the poster boy of short term vacation rentals” – a lot filled with three 2-story modular units. The crowd proceeded on a “Walk of Shame”…