March 2018

It was confirmed to the OB Rag this morning that it was the San Diego Housing Commission that had ordered the plowing under of the Point Loma bike track system known as the Famosa Pump Track. The property – or much of it – is owned by the Housing Commission.

John Demoss of Benchmark Landscape – the company whose bobcat and workers began to destroy the track Monday morning – confirmed to this reporter that it was indeed the San Diego Housing Commission who had hired the company to do the work. Demoss told me his company is commonly hired by the Commission.

Since about 2006, Darren has see three attempts to plow or bulldoze the series of bike tracks called the “Famosa Pump Track” just across the road from Bill Cleator Park in Point Loma. The latest one was this morning.

Darren, who lives close by, has been maintaining and repairing the pumps and trails of the dirt course since then. It’s just “a bunch of dads” he told me this afternoon, about 6 to 7 who regularly show up and help – and about 30 kids – who use and maintain the track.

But this morning, around 8:15, he got a call that there was a bulldozer at the track plowing down the hills. He rushed over there – and pleaded with the work crew to stop what they were doing. ‘Orders are orders,’ they told him back.

By Geoff Page

The March 15 regular Peninsula Community Planning Board meeting was packed with people because one of the agenda items was the Prince Recycling Center next to Stumps market on Voltaire Street. This very divisive issue also attracted the news stations who filmed the proceedings and interviewed various people involved with the recent effort to oust the recycling center. The action item on the agenda was to approve a letter to Councilmember Zapf asking for help but, as has happened frequently with this board, it was an action item that received no action.

Prince Recycling Center at Stump’s

Action Item 2 on the PCPB agenda, brought forth by board member Don Sevrens, stated:

Tonight’s Peninsula Planning Board meeting is the focus of efforts by some locals to save Prince Recycling – the recycling center at the center of a recent storm of controversy. Residents and businessowners in the Peninsula and the Midway area are being urged to attend the planners’ meeting to counter the push to close it down.

The Peninsula planners meet at 6:30 pm at the Point Loma Hervey Library, 3701 Voltaire Street, SD 92017.

Here is the text from a press statement put out by some local activists and Sean Foldenauer of the Foldenauer Law Group:

There’s two new books by two different local Ocean Beach and Point Loma authors. One is already published in paperback and other will be released in mid-April.

Kathy Blavatt and Dianne Lane are the local authors; Kathy wrote “Ocean Beach: Where Land and Water Meet” and Dianne has written “From Where We Sail: A Family’s Six and a Half Year Journey Around the World on Sorcery“.

The vast majority of Point Loma High School students joined a national walk-out against gun violence, this Wednesday morning – the 14th of March.

There’s 1900 students on campus the principal told me and by far most of them had gathered near the east end of the school’s football field. A few minutes before 10:00am – the hour of the walk-out – a bell went off and students began streaming towards the southern end of the school where the athletic fields are.

By time I got to the football field, massive numbers of students were listening to and cheering on a series of speakers – most of them students – plea and demand changes to how this society handles guns and violence

by anonymous

All the following statements are direct quotes or paraphrased from either local social media pages or comments I’ve heard in Ocean Beach:

Multiple cars vandalized on the block Those damn trolls.

Arson in our alley. Hey, I saw a troll with matted hair going through our recycling cans the same day. Must have been him that set the fire.

That stabbing on Newport last year: Probably a beef between a couple homeless guys.

Graffiti sprayed on my back wall. Homeless again.

Someone once said ‘all politics is local politics.’ This is no truer right now than here in Point Loma, where politics are indeed swirling around the local planning committee’s annual election.

Apparently, false accusations have been spread against some candidates running for seats on the Peninsula Community Planning Board (PCPB). And one of those candidates is Geoff Page – a Point Loma activist, former chair of that planning group, consultant – and a writer / reporter for the OB Rag.

On the surface, the imbroglio surrounds the controversial recycling center at Stump’s Market on Voltaire, and who supports it and who doesn’t. Page and 3 other candidates have been falsely accused by a sitting Board member of supporting the recycling center and who also has sent out emails urging Peninsula voters to not vote for them.

Here is Geoff Page’s response to an email