Month: June 2018

An estimated 4,000 San Diegans rallied at the County Administration Building / Waterfront Park, listened to music and speakers, then marched down Harbor Drive and back around on Pacific Highway to a second rally. All to keep families together

The demonstration was one of 750 protests scheduled around the country

There are rallies all around San Diego County Saturday, June 30, for Families Belong Together. Downtown San Diego, El Cajon, Carlsbad, Ramona – and Temecula.

Unlike the June 23 mass rally at the Civic Center, some of this weekend’s events in San Diego have been organized on the spur – but they’ll no less determined in sending a message to the Trump administration to permanently end the separation of kids from their parents. To end family internment camps. To end the “zero-humanity” policy that created this crisis.

There are more than 700 events nationwide

President Marcus Turner opened up the non-agenda comment portion of last Wednesday’s monthly meeting of the OB Town Council – always a treasure trove of local issues and announcements.

Over a dozen members of the board looked out to an audience that approached 60 residents and government officials. (The main forum for the evening was about short term vacation rentals – reported here in a separate post.)

Matt Beatty, head librarian of the OB branch, and this reporter announced the coming “OB Shelf” to be organized over the next few weeks, with materials, books about OB or books by local authors.

Ocean Beach has a long history of public murals – a history that stretches back at least to the mid-late 1970s.

Some of the more famous ones are those painted each year during the OB Street Fair and hung on exterior walls of various businesses around Newport Avenue. But we’ve had others – and most of them are still around.

Well, we’d now like to highlight an alley off Newport filled with fairly-recently painted murals – an alley many locals have known about for quite some time.

The alley – OB’s Mural Alley – is the alley between Newport Ave and Niagara Ave – and between Sunset Cliffs Blvd and Cable.

Over 700 Actions for Families Belong Together on June 30

Donald Trump and his administration have cruelly separated children from their families. We won’t allow it to continue — and we won’t let them put families into internment camps.

On June 30, we’re rallying in San Diego, Washington, D.C., and around the country to tell Donald Trump and his administration to stop separating kids from their parents!

Many informed voices were heard last night, Wednesday, June 27 at the Ocean Beach Town Council forum on short term vacation rentals, including local OB experts, other heads of neighboring town councils – all opposed to Mayor Faulconer’s proposal – except for one – that of Anthony George, the Mayor’s representative.

The good-sized audience inside the Masonic Center leaned in as presidents of Mission Beach, Pacific Beach and Clairemont town councils joined in the chorus critical of the impacts coastal communities will suffer if Faulconer’s ordinance is accepted by five of City Council-members. The City Council meets July 16 to once again attempt to address one of the most contentious issues roiling the city.

The OB Rag is working with the staff at the Ocean Beach Library to set up what’s being called “the OB Shelf” – a section of the library devoted solely to books and materials about OB.

Coming in the next few weeks, the OB Shelf will have books about Ocean Beach and books written or published by local authors. Matt Beatty, the head librarian,

Time for Democrats to go on the offense
By Anna Daniels

Remember how Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Merrick Garlanded Obama’s Supreme Court pick? Let’s do McConnell one better:

Any Trump SCOTUS pick is void while he and his campaign are under a criminal investigation for obstruction and conspiracy against the United States.

Imagine the scenario in which criminal charges are brought by Mueller and the case ends up before the Supreme Court. Now imagine the loyalty oath which Trump would extract in some form from his pick for Supreme Court justice to replace Anthony Kennedy. Any question in your mind that Trump not only has his thumb but both feet on the scale?

Some Wednesdays get a little crazy in the late afternoon on Newport Avenue – due, obviously, to the famous OB Farmers Market. To see what else was happening around the village and “off-Newport”, this reporter found the following.

Face-Lift at Pat’s Liquor

Pat’s Liquor has been a mainstay at the intersection of Voltaire and Abbott for decades. Now, locals may recognize a whole new look as the 1940s exterior has given way to the trendy “industrial” look.

A San Diego federal court judge made a significant ruling Tuesday, June 26, on reuniting kids separated from their immigrant parents. U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw issued a preliminary injunction that calls for all children affected by the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy to be reunited with their parents within 30 days.

Under Sabraw’s order, the federal government must reunite children younger than 5 years old with their parents within 14 days, and within 30 days for older children.

In addition, the feds must allow parents to call their children if they’re not already in contact with them within 10 days.

The injunction came at the request of the American Civil Liberties Union.

As reported

I was singing the blues
until I heard the news
that children
being torn from the
arms of their parents
was coming to an end,
if but for a minute,
a breather
from evil being played
out in my face,
beautiful innocent
brown skinned children,
screaming “Mami! Papi!”
as Mami and Papi
are pulled one way,

There’s an effort going on right now to save the architecture of the buildings at Nati’s in Ocean Beach. Locals and activists of SOHO (Save Our Heritage Organization) are attempting to change the opinion of San Diego’s Historical Resources Board at their upcoming June 28 meeting.

The Nati’s building is on the agenda.