Month: August 2018

By Daniel Bacher

SACRAMENTO – California Governor Jerry Brown yesterday condemned the Trump Administration’s proposal to weaken the nation’s clean vehicle emissions standard at the same time that California regulators have approved an expansion of offshore and onshore drilling in California.

“For Trump to now destroy a law first enacted at the request of Ronald Reagan five decades ago is a betrayal and an assault on the health of Americans everywhere,” said Brown in a statement.

Members of the board of the Ocean Beach Town Council are gearing up to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the organization.

The first Town Council began in 1968, and the current one is looking for old photos of OB from the Sixties, Seventies – even Eighties, and especially of Newport Avenue. Like the one above of Zekes Farmhouse, formerly at the corner of Newport and Bacon.

So, if you have something – please send

There’s more orchids and onions in Point Loma. That means there’s an additional Orchid nomination by the jurors in San Diego’s annual Orchids & Onions contest in Point Loma and an additional Onion.

This is all part of a a San Diego tradition that hearkens back to 1976 and is sponsored by the San Diego Architectural Foundation.

So, the Port Brewery Building on the bay was nominated for the Orchid (see below) and the Bella Mar condo complex was nominated for an Onion.

Scripps Pier recorded the highest ocean surface water temperature in its 102 history of taking measurements on Wednesday, August 1.

The water temperature was 78.6 degrees.

Usually the August average water surface temperature at the pier is 68 degrees, says the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration.

By Mark Lane and Shane Parmely / San Diego Free Press

We went to the Tuesday, July 24, National City Council meeting to speak out against the police brutality that left Earl McNeil brain dead.

For almost six weeks, we’ve peacefully and loudly protested at the National City Council meetings. For six weeks, we’ve asked the National City Police Department (NCPD) to release the videotapes pertaining to the in-custody death of Earl McNeil. For six weeks, we’ve been ignored by the three men who control the National City Council and the NCPD. For six weeks, we’ve been treated to excessive force and violence by the NCPD.

At the Ocean Beach Planning Board August 1 meeting, the volunteer panel approved 2 granny flats, one single family unit, approved the proposed ban of styrofoam – and then, Chair Blake Herrschaft dropped a mini-bomb shell.

Granny Unit at 4629 Coronado Approved

The Board approved this companion unit / granny flat – the Vu residence -at 4629 Coronado Avenue by a vote of 5 to 0.

Vu applied for a Coastal Development Permit (CDP) to build a 1200 square foot 2-story companion unit over a 330 square foot garage,

A malignant megalomaniac facing no countervailing power will continue to expand his terrain until he is stopped

by Robert Reich / Common Dreams

“He berates judges who disagree with him, and journalists and news organizations that criticize him.”(Photo: Screenshot)
I keep hearing that if Trump fires Mueller, we’ll face a “constitutional crisis.” Or if Mueller subpoenas Trump to testify and Trump defies the subpoena, it’s a “constitutional crisis”. Or if Mueller delivers substantial evidence that Trump is guilty of colluding with Russia or of obstructing justice, and the House does nothing to impeach him, we have a “constitutional crisis.”

Well, I have news for you. We’re already in a “constitutional crisis.”

After a long, over 5 hour hearing, with at least 4 of them public testimony, the San Diego City Council voted 6 to 2 Wednesday, August 1, affirming their earlier July 16 vote to regulate short term vacation rentals. It was the second reading, a requirement of any ordinance passed by the Council before it can go into law.

Only Councilmembers Scott Sherman and David Alvarez voted against the measure – as Chris Cate was absent for the vote. (The OB Rag had reporter Bob Edwards, on the scene, who sent in notes used in this report.) There was a bit of a mini-crisis at the beginning

A couple of good friends were strolling around Ocean Beach the other evening after dinner and came upon this sign in front of a beach cottage on Brighton Avenue.

Dear reader – can you imagine no monthly reports coming to you about the Ocean Beach Planning Board meetings? Or nothing about the Peninsula Community Planning Board or the Midway planning committee meetings?

Or no reports about the status of all the construction projects around the village?

No reports on what the OB Town Council is up to? No more updates on OB’s merchant community? No more local news round-ups?

This could happen if our readers don’t offer the OB Rag more support.

UPDATE: The City Council meeting will continue today, our reporter at the scene reports.

The OB Rag has just learned that today’s City Council meeting for a second reading on the ordinance on short term vacation rentals passed by the Council on July 16 may have to be postponed.

Our reporter on the spot told us that apparently today’s Council agenda had the former language of the Mission Beach “carve-out” still included in the “new” ordinance. The carve-out was deleted at the July 16 hearing.

Our good friend (and occasional OB Rag writer) Dave Rice hit the nail on the head the other day in his article about how the Famosa and Nimitz development plans by the City point to increased density in the San Diego Reader.

In detailing how the San Diego Housing commission provoked Point Loma neighbors, and how their concerns vary across the spectrum, Rice recounts the history of David Charles Collier’s land-grant to “the children of San Diego” over one hundred years ago. Many (including the OB Rag and OB historian matriarch Ruth Varney Held) view Charlie Collier as “the true father of Ocean Beach“.