Month: August 2018

A little over a week ago, the OB Rag launched our summer fundraising campaign – with a goal of $2,000.

Now, 10 days later, we can announce with the help of readers and supporters, we surpassed our goal, and actually received a total of donations of $2,130.

New Bookstore to Open on Voltaire

Some nice folks are working on opening a new bookstore on Voltaire Street. (They have to be nice, right? if they like books in this day and age.) It will be called Run for Cover and advertises as a “Bookstore & Cafe”. It will be wedged in between Lucy’s and a salon place next to the closed bead shop next to Hungry Lu’s.

It appears a local named Marianne Reiner has been planning this endeavor for a while; she has a website and recently obtained her license to officially serve coffee, tea and pastries when her bookstore-café opens.

State Lands Commission to Hear Public Comments on San Onofre Decommissioning Plans at Meetings in Oceanside and San Clemente

Anti-nuke activists are mobilizing at two upcoming meetings of the California State Lands Commission in order to ‘speak out against the nuke dump’ at San Onofre. One is in Oceanside and the other is in San Clemente.

The California State Lands Commission is the lead organization conducting the Environmental Impact Report on the San Onofre decommissioning project.

Pam Kragen at the San Diego Union-Tribune has just come out with “San Diego’s Best Vegan Restaurants” – and she lists three from Ocean Beach.

Kragen begins with declaring “vegan food has been named among the top six global culinary trends of 2018, and San Diego is well ahead of the curve,” and then she lists several new vegan eateries that have opened around the county recently along with some ‘oldies but goodies’ – a total of 24 eateries in all.

(Turns out the list is not so much a “best of” but more like a showcase of what’s out there.)

Here’s what Kragen says about OB’s vegan places on the list:

I was just about to write down my thoughts on a meeting I attended a little while back, but I thought I’d check my email first so I could really settle in with what I wanted to say.

One particular email in my inbox got my attention right away: news the San Diego City Council hadn’t taken a step that was necessary in the process of readying an amendment regarding the creation of a Commission on Police Practices for placement on the November ballot.

They just let it drop. And although that’s shocking to me, I’m not the least bit surprised because,

The Long Branch Torrey Pine Has Protected Status

The City of San Diego’s Community Forest Advisory Board meets this week to discuss removing the large Torrey Pine on the 4600 block of Long Branch Avenue in northeast Ocean Beach. This particular Torrey Pine at 4633 Long Branch was literally saved by the community 7 years ago from the city’s buzzsaws.

The City forester has recommended removing the Torrey and to counter that view

While San Diego City Councilmembers Lorie Zapf and Chris Ward were reaping props and applause in Ocean Beach and other coastal neighborhoods due to their efforts to regulate short term vacation rentals, the toast-of-the-town duo had moved on other planes and joined the conservative members among their colleagues to wreck havoc and short circuit another popular effort. The effort to reform how police officers have civilian oversight.

Ward – maybe hoping to become the darling of San Diego liberals – what with his proposed ban on styrofoam – crashed and burned that plan. On Monday, July 30, at a Council hearing he joined other councilmembers to thwart an effort to place a measure on the November ballot which would have substantially improved civilian oversight of the San Diego Police Department.

The OB Rag is declaring an Emergency at the Ocean Beach Planning Board. And this emergency has not been sanctioned by the Board itself – but is an independent determination by a seasoned observer – this reporter.

The Board, established in 1976, has 14 seats – two from each of the 7 planning districts of OB. Well, right now, six of those seats are vacate. Board chair Blake Herrschaft announced his resignation last Wednesday, Aug.1 and that he was departing for Tahoe immediately. Vice-chair Andrea Schlageter will step and be the interim chair.

Herrschaft’s absence makes this an unprecedented situation

On the back cover of Frank O’Hara’s classic City Lights Books collection, Lunch Poems, he defines his efforts succinctly:

Often this poet, strolling through the noisy splintered glare of a Manhattan noontide,

By Susan Grigsby / Daily Kos

At 17,566, there are more public libraries in the United States than there are Starbucks coffee shops. And just like at Starbucks, patrons have access to free wi-fi. But unlike Starbucks, public libraries will usually provide the free use of a computer as well as internet access.

Perhaps it is their very ubiquitousness that makes them such a tempting target for libertarians like the Koch brothers and right-wing economists like the one who recently suggested a takeover of libraries’ functions by Amazon.

Forbes quickly pulled the controversial op-ed

August Events at the Ocean Beach Green Center

Ocean Beach Green Center, 4843 B Voltaire Street, Ocean Beach 92107
oceanbeachgreencenter@gmail.com 619.225.1083

August 9th Thursday 7 p.m. Film night ” The Homeless Chorus Speaks”

This 2018 film is a compelling documentary that creatively depicts a critical and timely social issue: people living without support and shelter.

August 25th Saturday 1:00 p.m. Native Bee Presentation .

COME INSIDE FOR THE REST OF THE CALENDAR FOR AUGUST

The winning banner in the OB Rag – Resister Sisters contest was hung today. On 163 southbound in Balboa Park.

The winning banner, “Elect a Clown, Expect a Circus”, was proposed by one of our readers during our week-long contest. The winner was picked by the Sisters and hung up this morning, Friday, August 3.