April 2018

It is possible this year that District 2 voters will give incumbent Republican Lorie Zapf a third term in office, despite the law that limits San Diego City Council members to two terms.

How is that possible?

Well, it just so happens that current law allows sitting council representatives to reset the clock on term limits when their districts shift due to redistricting. And that’s just what happened to Zapf a few years ago, when the boundary for District 2 moved over her house in Clairemont.

So, Zapf is taking advantage of this loophole – a loophole that allows her to run for a third term, despite term limits. It all could change, however,

Join hundreds of your neighbors as we create a human banner spelling out VOTE! on the sands of Ocean Beach San Diego and simultaneously in conjunction with folks up at Ocean Beach San Francisco.

We hope to create a 50 foot long human VOTE! banner on the sands at Dog Beach at 10am, Saturday, April 21st.

This year we will be coordinating with our friends in Ocean Beach San Francisco who will be creating a VOTE! banner simultaneously. Catch the Blue Wave and turn the tide by getting out the VOTE!

Book Release: “Last Days in Ocean Beach”- By Jim Miller, Friday, April 20th

The Ocean Beach Green Center is hosting Jim Miller, author, teacher and activist. He will read from his new novel that deals with climate change that is based in our community of Ocean Beach.

“Last Days in Ocean Beach” is the story of William, a scientist working at the Center for Extinction Studies, a think tank at the College of the Sun funded by a green billionaire. William desperately works to raise the alarm about climate change and its dire consequences to an apathetic public, learns to live with grief, and hold on to love. Along the way, we meet the residents of his wonderfully shabby apartment complex in Ocean Beach–bikers, hippies, skate punks, adventure tourists, reggae singers, aimless young professionals, Iraq war veterans, decadent retirees, a hospice nurse, and a Buddhist monk, all of whom are searching for something, looking to live more fully. Last Days in Ocean Beach is a blues song moaning and rocking the beach party at the end of the world.

Proceeds from the book sales will be donated to the Ocean Beach Green Center!

The OB Planning Board sub-committee called the Project Review Committee meets Wednesday night, April 18th at the OB Rec Center, 4726 Santa Monica Ave, at 6pm.

The Project Review Committee does just what its title suggests – it reviews development projects prior to the full Board meeting on them, and usually gives a recommendation about the project to the full board. Board vice-chair Andrea Slageter chairs the meeting. The Board and its sub-committee are instituting a new process to hear project presentations. The presentation will be limited to 10 minutes, then 5 minutes for public comment and lastly 10 minutes for board discussion and motion.

On the panel’s agenda are 2 projects – one at 4715 Cape May and the other at 4629 Coronado.

Can things get much worse for SeaWorld?

SeaWorld San Diego is experiencing crashing attendance numbers, the parent company is under a criminal SEC investigation, the top leadership was recently removed for failing to stop the slide, revenues are down, shares are falling, there’s an investors’ lawsuit, and 350 workers were recently fired – a bunch here in San Diego.

Ignore the fact San Diego SeaWorld marine park suffered an astounding 14 per cent drop in attendance in 2017 – that’s more than half a million less people than the year before.

But don’t mind all that – get ready for SeaWorld San Diego’s latest thrill ride, the “Electric Eel” coaster! Please.

By Rebecca Ferguson

I would like to share an email I sent to Councilwoman Lorie Zapf’s office about 4 weeks ago (I have not heard back on this):

Conrad Wear,

I am sure both you and Lorie have already heard an earful on this topic but I would like to share my feelings and experience on this for what it’s worth.

I see nothing wrong with a homeowner using Airbnb for what I believe its original use/intention was … sharing your home from time to time with travelers or even home swapping or opening your home to travelers when you are out of town.

My fiancé and I have a home in Ocean Beach

During the last Ocean Beach Town Council public meeting in late March, Board member Jon Carr – with tongue firmly in cheek – suggested that all the short term vacation rentals in OB be painted a lime green – that way he said we’d know how much impact they’re having on our community. Then they would be very visible, like the lime green bikes all around OB.

Much as we’d like to ignore it, the contentious issue of what to do with all the vacation rentals is still very much with us. Jon Carr knows, as the houses and an apartment building very close to his home in northwest Ocean Beach have been turning into the “short-termers”- and he complains he no longer knows his neighbors.

Short term rentals have had a very serious impact on this community, especially in the northwest quadrant of OB. This was demonstrated during

By Delaney Mowers

The clock on the wall of the archive room in the church read 9:00 o’clock AM. The volunteers trekked up the stairs into their room in the church at 10:00 AM Friday morning, their usual meeting time every other Friday. Perhaps it was fitting that the volunteers entered into a room that purported to be an hour behind the times, as the room functions as a microcosm example to Ocean Beach’s history and antiquity.

Located in an upstairs room at the newly established Water’s Edge Church at 1984 Sunset Cliffs Boulevard, San Diego, CA 92107, the archive room of Ocean Beach’s history is filled to the brim with files, photographs, and antique objects that combine to tell a spasmodic history of Ocean Beach.

The archives are collected and maintained by the Ocean Beach Historical Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to maintaining the history of Ocean Beach.

Many thought it would never happen – but the Newport Avenue Antique Center will finally close on Sunday, April 15th – in anticipation of a Target Express store moving in at some point.

Mall vendors have to be out by the 21st of April. And according to one clerk, “There’s a ton of sales.”

Vendors at the center were initially supposed to vacate at the end of January, but were given a temporary 3-month reprieve and were told they didn’t need to leave until the end of April. The 21st is not that far off.

It’s unknown when the Target store will be set up.

It was July 2017 when the OB Rag was the first to report a Target Express was moving in to the Antique Center.