Month: November 2018

This Sunday, Marjorie Cohn is the Souper Supper Speaker at the Church of the Brethren. In celebration of San Diego peace and justice.

Marjorie’s profound analysis of human rights, US foreign policy and the contradictions between the 2 is deeply respected around the world.

The Mission – Mission Beach
3795 Mission Blvd.
Mission Beach, CA 92109
858-488-9060

Every now and then, when the “old timers” of Ocean Beach get together , we discuss what stores and restaurants were here when we first moved into the area. There were so many stores that we missed today – Para’s Book Store, Lownes Department Store, Elms Mens Clothes, Coronet, Smith’s Jewelers, Strand Theater, etc.

And later on, perhaps in the late 80’s, a restaurant was started upstairs from where an ice cream store used to be downstairs; when you could buy a bikini on the way to having a meal;

Volunteer at Dog Beach! Saturday, Nov. 17, 9am to noon

Come help to restore one of the last remaining Coastal Dune and Wetland Habitats in San Diego!

Over 95% of these habitat areas no longer exist in California. Home to many endangered birds, fish and mammals this area needs your help to remain as a viable habitat area.

The San Diego River Park Foundation will be hosting a volunteer event next to Dog Beach in OB from 9am to noon. An educational walking tour will be included.

Rep. Peters Calls on Mayor and Zapf to Investigate McMillion’s Management of North Chapel in Liberty Station

Rep. Scott Peters is calling on San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and Councilwoman Lorie Zapf to seek an investigation into how McMillin Co. has managed the North Chapel in Liberty Station,

Successful Book Sale at OB Library

Ladera Street Stairs Re-Open After Bluff Repair

The bluff next to the Ladera Street stairs in Sunset Cliffs has been repaired and the stairs are open once again.

City Planning Dept Accused of Deleting Sentence in Mission Bay Park Master Plan to Assist Evans’ Hotel Land Grab

The City Planning Department is being accused in a new law suit of deleting a sentence recently in the Mission Bay Park Master Plan in order to assist hotelier Bill Evans in his land grab at Bahia Point.

The OB Rag has received an initial report of what came down at yesterday’s meeting of the city’s Urban Forestry Advisory Board regarding the Torrey Pine on Long Branch Ave. in Ocean Beach. We have yet to confirm this, but believe the community needs to know the bad news ASAP. (We will post a follow-up article as soon as we can.)

Yes, it’s bad news.

A paid arborist for the City, Brian Widener, after some kind of “study” of the tree on the 4600 block, issued his report and recommended either remove the tree or do work on and then re-evaluate it.

Yet a witness at the meeting told the OB Rag it sounded like Widener wanted to cut the Torrey down, citing safety concerns.

What happened one week ago cannot be over-stated. Yeah, those mid-term results – whose vote totals are still coming in. And despite pundit declarations there wasn’t a “blue wave”, Democrats continue to be declared winners.

Yet, we must underscore and duly acknowledge the two huge things that happened last Tuesday. A majority of American voters rejected the one-party rule we’ve had these last two years, at least on the Federal level, – and in the process created the most diverse Congress in history. Or vice-versa.

The results were devastating to Trump. That’s why – the very next day – he fired Attorney Jeff Sessions

The City’s Urban Forestry Advisory Board is meeting today, Wednesday, Nov. 14, on the Long Branch Avenue Torrey Pine. The meeting starts at 11:45am and is on the 12th floor of City Hall in downtown San Diego. The conference room off to the side of Council Chambers is usually where the meetings are held.

By Ernie McCray

The other night I went to a Border Angels event, in celebration of their years of honoring their creed: “Love Has No Borders,” leaving water, among the things that they do, to keep people from dying trying to cross deserts where awaiting them is a sun that shows no mercy.

It was so nice just sitting there among people who believe deeply in the idea of rights for all human beings.

By Geoff Page

I was on a road trip in October and somewhere in Northern California I tuned into a public radio station interviewing a journalist who had written a long piece in the New Yorker about Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. The piece is titled “Can Mark Zuckerberg Fix Facebook Before It Breaks Democracy?” and it was written by Evan Osnos. They began to discuss the 2016 Presidential election and I was blown away by what I heard.

Here is the part that turned me off to Facebook.

Facebook offered to “embed” employees, for free, in Presidential campaign offices to help them use the platform effectively. Clinton’s campaign said no. Trump’s said yes, and Facebook employees helped his campaign craft messages. Although Trump’s language was openly hostile to ethnic minorities, inside Facebook his behavior felt, to some executives, like just part of the distant cesspool of Washington. Americans always seemed to be choosing between a hated Republican and a hated Democrat, and Trump’s descriptions of Mexicans as rapists was simply an extension of that.

By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press

Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the nuclear power industry in the US and beyond, and highlights the efforts of those who are working to create a nuclear free world. Here is our October 2018 report.

Twenty Years On

This month marks the 20th year since my book Millstone and Me: Sex, Lies and Radiation first appeared in the 10th month of 1998.

This work was inspired by Dr. Ernest Sternglass, whose groundbreaking early 1980s book Secret Fallout: From Hiroshima to Three Mile Island exposed the dangers of so-called “low level” radiation to human health.

“Memories that Will Never Go Away”
The 40th Anniversary of the Crash of PSA Flight 182
by Alexander D. Bevil,
Thurs., Nov. 15, 7pm
at Water’s Edge Faith Community
1984 Sunset Cliffs Blvd., O.B

Everyone’s invited to the the Ocean Beach Historical Society’s monthly program, “Memories that Will Never Go Away,” the 40th anniversary of the crash of PSA Flight 182, presented by Alexander Bevil, an award-winning local free-lance historian, writer and preservationist.

One of the Longest Running OB Grassroots Projects Is Celebrating over 40 Years

By Bonnie Elias

Many times I have driven through the intersection at Chatsworth and Nimitz and wondered about the two houses on the northeast corner – and if the childcare centers I and people I know had helped to create years ago were still operating.

To anyone else they’re just two pretty nondescript houses that are easy to ignore. But to us, the houses represent many memories and a huge success story.