January 2018

Deadline Is March 1st

By Don Sevrens

Want to make a difference in the Peninsula community?

The candidate filing period has opened for five of the 15 seats on the Peninsula Community Planning Board. The deadline for filing is Thursday March 1. The election itself will be Thursday March 15 from 4 to 8 p.m. in the Point Loma Branch Library.

The planning board is an elected advisory body that has first say on important projects as well as influencing the City on important planning concepts.

Three Council members and Environmental Groups to Demand Trump Administration to Stand Down on San Diego Offshore Oil Drilling While Candidate for District 2 to Protest Republican’s Involvement

Councilmembers David Alvarez, Barbara Bry and Lorie Zapf join together with environmental leaders will rally in a protest today, Monday, January 29th and make the case for San Diego to be removed from the Administration’s list of potential oil drilling sites released by the Department of the Interior on January 4.

The protest and news conference will be at Spanish Landing Park – East, at 3900 N. Harbor Drive, across from the airport at Noon.

The Ocean Beach Town Council is having its annual election to its Board of Directors, and this year there are 7 open seats. And there are a staggering number of 13 candidates for those seats. Four of the candidates are incumbents. The top 7 vote-getters become Board members – there is no run-off.

The election takes place online from Monday, January 29th to Friday, February 9th, only by the several hundred members of the OB Town Council. (Voting members are paid up for the $20 annual fee.)

The Ocean Beach Town Council is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization dedicated to the care and improvement of our beautiful coastal community. Membership costs $20 per year, and all money raised goes right back to helping our community. If you’re interested in being a member, go here.

At the monthly meeting of the OBTC Wednesday, Jan. 24th, the 13 candidates appeared and all of them gave very brief speeches.

INSIDE is a list of the candidates with a very, very brief description, in the order of their presentations the other night:

It was like a love fest during the Summer of Love at the Ocean Beach Town Council meeting Wednesday night, January 24th. It was all good vibes as the Board bid a cherry and teary farewell to Gretchen Newsom, president for the last 4 years, and to other members who are stepping down from the Council. It was merry times as well during all the various governmental reports.

It was very celebratory as the Board presented the awards to the OB Holiday Parade winners – including members of the Mermaid float who came dressed in costume. And it was all very friendly as more than a dozen candidates for the open chairs on the Town Council gave their brief spiels (see separate article).

In direct contrast to last week’s ominous OB Town Hall meeting on the dreary subjects of arson and vandalism, this gathering of OB folk and kids was more akin to a circus, where ringmaster Marcus Turner, OBTC vice-president, directed the various performances and shows in a delightful couple hours of entertainment.

10 News reports an Ocean Beach couple had their vehicles vandalized when someone threw paint-thinner over them sometime Tuesday or Wednesday of this past week. The damage to the cars’ exteriors is in the thousands of dollars. The station reports:

Terisa Harju says someone threw paint thinner or a solvent of some kind all over her and her fiancé’s vehicles. Both were parked in their driveway along West Point Loma Boulevard.

The popular bar, THC, is undergoing a huge change – like, a total rehab, dude.

The old building has been scraped off the face of the earth. And in it’s place will be owner Steve Yeng’s dream restaurant bar combo. But looking at what’s left and realizing how narrow the interior of the structure was, it’s amazing to think anything and all those people had fit into that space.

In previous posts, such as this June 2016 report, we stated:

A project to dredge sections of Mission Bay began last week by the City of San Diego. A large crane mounted on a barge has begun to excavate about a total of 64 acres of the bay as part of the plan.

Why is the Bay being dredged?

It’s all about the boats. Apparently over the last 50 years storms and currents – as well as boats themselves – have moved the floor of the Bay around and now it’s uneven and unsafe for boating. The dredging will make it easier and safer for boats to navigate around the Bay, the largest aquatic park on the West Coast.

Ocean Beach, Point Loma and Much of the City Are in District 4

First in a series: An Overview

By Doug Porter / San Diego Free Press

The motto for San Diego County is “The noblest motive is the public good.” Questions to be answered in 2018 will decide if this is possible in the future.

I hold that the government of the County of San Diego is the single biggest factor standing in the way of solving many of the social problems facing the region. Voters have an opportunity to do something about it, starting in June.

San Diegans have the means at their disposal to make meaningful inroads into challenges surrounding child development (prevention), health (addiction, mental health), housing (affordability/homelessness), and economic inequality. All we need is the political will.

OB Women Noted in Media Coverage of San Diego Women’s March

In the San Diego U-T’s coverage of Saturday’s Women’s March in downtown, several women from OB were mentioned or highlighted. …

Two Pedestrians Injured at Voltaire and Cable

Adam Ewing reported on facebook, that two women pedestrians were hit by a van with Nevada plates on Sunday, Jan. 21, at the intersection of Voltaire and Cable.

Establishment Woman from Point Loma to Be Mayor’s New “City Manager”

This is not a surprise. Mayor Kevin Faulconer has chosen longtime establishment woman from Point Loma, Kris Michell, to be the City’s chief operating officer – which in effect is like being the city manager under the “strong mayor” model. …

The annual elections for the Ocean Beach Town Council Board of Directors is coming right up. Voting will take place from Monday, January 29th to Friday, February 9th.

Anyone member considering running as a candidate for one of the 7 seats open must submit their Candidate Statement by Tuesday, January 23rd.

Here is the statement from the OBTC website:

Sometimes the column Daniel Powell writes at San Diego Reader is hilarious, and more often serious and thought-provoking when he repeats verbatim local Lifeguard reports.

Powell, son of OBcean Gail Powell, writes a weekly column that we find fascinating. Here are some quotes from only OB or Point Loma lifeguard reports:

Lifeguard reports for December 25 to January 1

14:25 Medical: Lifeguard requests medics for a 25 year-old patient with an altered level of consciousness. Emergency and medical units respond and transport patient to UCSD.