Month: April 2018

Locals Appeal to Peninsula Planners for Help – But Board Had Sent Letter of Support of SDHC in June 2017

Mayor Abandons Effort to Oppose Housing Commission Development on Part of Original Collier Park
The Point Loma parents who are trying to save the bike track next to Cleator Park are being frustrated at every turn, it seems.

Thursday night, April 19th, they took their case for saving the open space and dirt tracks to the Peninsula Community Planning Board – only to find out

According to reliable sources, the City of San Diego’s Development Services Department is likely to permit the former Ocean Beach antique mall for a new Target as long as the Target Express closes at 5pm. And supposedly, Target has agreed to this restriction.

This is astounding as 5 pm is supposed to be Target’s busiest time of the day – and no other Target Express in the country closes at 5pm.

Sources close to the behind-the-scenes negotiations highly doubted that Target would live up to this time limit.

The issue is parking.

New Petition Calls on City Departments to Issue Citations to Combat Worsening Litter Problem

There’s a brand new petition out calling for the enforcement of the littering ordinances in Ocean Beach.

It states that “despite the 1000’s of volunteer hours” spent cleaning OB, litter “is threatening he health and safety of our local environment” and “the problem is getting exponentially worse”.

And it’s due to “the lack of enforcement of our littering ordinances”.

The Petition was initiated by CSI-OB (Cleaner Streets Initiative-Ocean Beach) and it’s directed to the San Diego Lifeguards, the City of San Diego, the Police Department and to Councilwoman Lorie Zapf.

By Jake Howard / Dana Point Times

To be frank, the surf community’s response to the nuclear waste situation at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) has been apathetic at best. Somehow, the toll road dilemma generates more attention and more buzz than the fact that at this moment there are four questionable canisters of nuclear waste buried yards from the waterline at San O. Why aren’t there more “No Nukes” bumper stickers on cars around town?

The amount of nuclear waste stored at the SONGS site includes 51 old canisters and potentially 73 new ones, which can be hazardous to human health—there are even signs posted by the fences that ward off people from going near the facility.

By Nicole Hussey / San Diego Free Press

Some years ago, I took a boyfriend to SeaWorld in San Diego. He had few wants in life and swimming with dolphins was on his bucket list, so I booked us an extravagant SeaWorld experience and we drove down from Los Angeles.

Keep in mind, this was before the release of Blackfish. It was back when everyone felt the way about SeaWorld that they do about zoos; you hate that the animals are trapped in these small spaces but you justify pushing aside that sick feeling because it’s a “learning and conservation center” or because you just really want to see those spectacular creatures up close regardless of their cages.

I had swam with wild dolphins a number of times and spent most of my life in the ocean so I was excited to watch my boyfriend experience the magic these animals had consistently shared with me. He was nervous.

Here’s a pictorial tour of recent “progress” on construction projects in Ocean Beach.

Froude Street – Just Outside OB

Here are shots of the 2-unit, 2-story project on Froude Street, a half-width of a street outside Ocean Beach. The project involves the construction of two new 1, 814 square-foot homes each over a 1,073 square-foot basement/two car garage on two legal lots.”There was a bit of controversy with this project at 2257 Froude Street, starting with this, from a post of October 2017:

The east side of Froude in that area is not within the jurisdiction of the Ocean Beach Planning Board and Community Plan, but within the jurisdiction of the Peninsula Community Planning Board and plan. The Peninsula plan has less stringent requirements – especially in terms of the floor-area-ratio (FAR) – than the OB Plan.

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,

Editor’s Note: Hundreds of people will congregate at Dog Beach in OB this Saturday, April 21st to spell out “VOTE!” with their bodies. Here’s the OB Rag interview – via email – with Brad, the guy who has been organizing human banners for ten years.

Question: Brad, we understand you’ve been doing what’s called “human bannering” for some 10 years now. And you’re part of a group who will be doing human bannering at Ocean Beach in San Francisco on Saturday, April 21st – the same time people in Ocean Beach, San Diego are doing it. Both towns spelling out “Vote” … and maybe more.

First, for the uninitiated, what is human bannering?

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!

Actually, it was more than “technical” – around 11:15 this morning apparently a fiber optic cable was cut near San Antonia, Texas.

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!