Month: February 2018

by Geoff Page

Midway Planners Unhappy With Peninsula Planners Re Recycling Center Protest

Before diving into a discussion of the ponderous Midway EIR (Environmental Impact Report) at the Midway/Pacific Highway Community Planning Group meeting February 15, the board had something to say to Point Loma. The board had learned of the recycling center protest and effort to oust Prince Recycling from the Stumps parking lot on Voltaire Street. The people trying to get the center moved were proposing it be moved behind the Big Lots store in the Midway area.

The Midway planning board was not pleased because no one involved with the effort to move the recycling center contacted them to discuss this idea.

This coming Saturday, Feb. 24th thousands of workers, along with their families, friends, and allies in the community, will gather in San Diego to stand up for the rights of working Americans in the face of the impending Janus vs AFSCME decision by the Supreme Court that aims further rig the system against us. Against this assault, we will continue to insist on our right to form strong unions, raise our collective voice, and fight for equitable pay, affordable health care, civil rights, strong communities, and quality public education for all.

As public sector unions confront the threat of Janus, it is important to remember that fifty years ago Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. went to Memphis to support striking city sanitation workers. By the time of his assassination, King had come to see that it was impossible to fight for civil rights without including economic rights. The battle for racial equality was inextricably linked to the fight for economic opportunity.

There’s been questions of late on OB social media about what was happening next to the AutoZone on Santa Monica.

Finding myself on Santa Monica Ave on Thursday across the intersection from a small fleet of trucks, drilling equipment and workers clad in white suits next to the AutoZone, I jaunted over and made some inquiries.

Some workers were mixing and pouring what at first looked like mud but turned out to be carbon particles down a hole in the street (I couldn’t actually see the hole) – and this curious scene needed an explanation, I thought. At first I asked a couple of the workers, guys driving trucks or operating equipment, what was going on; they declined to tell me – and pointed me in the direction of somebody that could.

New details have emerged in the murder case of Elizabeth Sullivan, a Point Loma Navy spouse and mother, who went missing in 2014 and whose body was found two years later floating in San Diego Bay right off Point Loma.

Details came out during the arraignment for murder of Matthew Sullivan on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14th, in Superior Court in San Diego. Matthew Sullivan is the victim’s husband and chief suspect in the crime.

New elements of the crime now known include the fact that a knife used to slay Elizabeth and that her body had been hidden for a while – in some unknown location – for when her body was discovered in the water, it was badly decomposed but hadn’t been in water all that long. Her body was found in October 2016 – she had been missing since 2014.

The inevitable has happened … again.

Another fall off the bluffs at Sunset Cliffs – this Friday morning, around 3 a.m. Down near Ladera Street – where the stairs were recently closed – due to unstable cliffs.

Luckily the 30-year old guy – unidentified – survived after he fell roughly 50 feet down the bluff – just northwest of Sunset Cliffs Natural Park.

It appears, that for better or worse, the 4800 block of Voltaire Street in Ocean Beach is destined for some big changes. At least that is one likely development.

Two adjacent properties in the middle of the north half of the block are up for sale – and together they represent at least one-sixth or larger of that side of the block.

The property at Dover Plumbing at 4870 Voltaire is up for sale – and the next door property owned by well-known OBcean Jim Bell will also be up for sale.

The results of the two elections the Ocean Beach Town Council just held are now in.

13 individuals were seeking election to the seven open seats for Board of Directors positions, and that election is now over. Afterwards, at their Feb. 13th Board meeting, the Board voted in its new leadership, the Executive Board.

The big news is that Marcus Turner, formerly the vice president, was elected as the new president – and all three incumbents running for the Board were re-elected.

Here are the results for the open seats on the Board, for the 2018-2020 term for the Ocean Beach Town Council:

A look at the holiday co-opted from paganism … you know … kinda like Easter. Or Christmas.

By Melissa McEwan / Shakesville

Like most of our holidays, Valentine’s Day has a history that reportedly starts with those horny pagans and another one of their many fertility festivals, makes its way to the Catholic Church, which, in a typical cooption, laid on top its own celebration and gave it a fancy new saint-name, winds its way through the work of a popular British author (no, not that guy for a change, but this guy) who gifted its association with romantic love, and ended up mercilessly corrupted by soulless corporations who want to Sell You Shit Without Which You Can’t Possibly Celebrate This Holiday.

Ya know. Kinda like Easter. Or Christmas.

The city of San Diego has closed the cliff top stairs that lead to the rocks and beaches below at the foot of Ladera Street in Point Loma’s Sunset Cliffs. And the city said the stairs will remain closed while staff studies what has happened and why.

At first a major crack appeared along side of the bluff – and then a portion of the cliff gave way by Tuesday, Feb. 13th. Lifeguards closed the stairs off – and city staff met to discuss and study the situation and figure out what to do.

Seismologist and San Diego State professor Dr. Pat Abbot, Ph.D. told CBS8News:

“This is a life threatening sort of situation.

Could a massive, redevelopment project be coming to the Midway District soon?

The City of San Diego owns almost 100 acres in the district – all of it leased out to various businesses – but many of those businesses have leases with the city that expire in two years – in 2020. The businesses include the Valley View Casino Center, formerly the Sports Arena, and its 43 acres.

And you can believe developers are chomping at the bit for a crack at all that space.

Cybele Thompson, director of city of San Diego Real Estate Assets, was quoted in a recent Voice of San Diego article by Lynn Walsh as stating:

“developers are extremely interested in the sites that end in 2020, which present a very attractive contiguous site.”

There’s a number of factors, of course, that stand in the way of any smooth sailing for developers in this expansive area on the edge of Point Loma and Ocean Beach.