Month: December 2018

The Ocean Beach Planning Board takes up the 2-story mixed-use building proposed for 4870 Voltaire. And it’s to consider a proposed 4-way stop sign at Saratoga and Ebers.

4-Way Stop Sign at Saratoga & Ebers?

It’s the end of the year – a time when media and press pundits turn reflective and ponder the “best” or “most important” stories published over the last 12 months. After reviewing our archives from 2018, we’ve come up what we think are the “top stories” from OB and Point Loma for the year.

We mainly based the top stories on how significantly they impacted Ocean Beach and the rest of the Peninsula. And the stories include news, photos, analysis and opinions about real issues within these communities, a number of which have continued from last year. And a number will most certainly continue into the new year.

So, here they are, the top 15 stories –

By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press

Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the US nuclear industry and beyond, and highlights the efforts of those who are working for a nuclear free world.

99 To Go

Two nuclear power plants closed permanently in 2018. Fort Calhoun in Nebraska closed for good in in October, after clanking on for 43 years. And previously, the nation’s oldest nuke plant, New Jersey’s Oyster Creek ceased running after 49 years in September.

US commercial nuclear plants were designed to operate for 40 years. These two nuke plant closures brought the remaining number of the nation’s nuclear plants still (sometimes) running to 99.

by Bob Edwards

Last week the OB Rag published my story about experiences with wildfires that I’ve had over the 60 plus years I’ve lived in California. I did not include the most recent fires because the unbelievable conflagrations of 2018 warrant their own chapter.

This past year (really the past five months!) has seen the worst cluster of fires to ever hit California.

Since July, we have had the largest wildfire in California history (the Mendocino Complex Fire) as well as three of the top ten destructive fires to ever burn in our state (the Carr, Woolsey, and Camp Fires).

Esteban Galindo, 26, is the first scooter fatality in San Diego County. He passed away after colliding with a car while riding a Bird scooter in Chula Vista on Saturday, December 22.

Now Bird is claiming Galindo was riding its scooter “without permission”.

The driver that was involved in the collision with Galindo’s scooter was traveling southbound on Third Avenue and had the green light, according to police.

Restaurant Review

Thai Time Bistro
1830 Sunset Cliffs Blvd.
Ocean Beach, CA 92107
619-223-5000

By Judi Curry

I’ve been eating at the Thai Time Bistro ever since it opened. I know that it has changed hands at least once, and it was also closed for a short time while being remodeled. More often than not I order take-out from there and have the food delivered.

On this particular weekend, however, my friend Hugh said that he would love to have a hot soup for dinner. It was a cold, foggy, wet night and I suggested that we try the Thai Time. He was game.

By Kathy Blavatt

Christmas came early this year. The Ocean Beach Christmas tree arrived early, because the first Saturday of the month was the scheduled annual Ocean Beach Parade, which fell on December 1, 2018.

In traditional O.B. style, the Christmas tree was not straight, but leaning, and quite a bit if you looked from the sides.

Nature also surprised us with an early gift of sorts. The “Agave Attenuata”, sometimes known as “Swan’s Necks”, is blooming in mass this year, adorning block after block along our local streets and in my garden.

by Ray Blavatt

King Tide in Ocean Beach, Saturday, December 22, 2018. Photo by Albert C Elliott, ACE.

by Ernie McCray

Not too long ago I had an encounter with an act of random kindness.

It went like this: I was enjoying an interesting tale in San Diego born Nafissa Thompson-Spires’ wonderful collection of short stories, “Heads of the Colored People” and a meal of scrambled eggs and ham with a buttered biscuit and jam and a Bloody Mary when I felt a tap on my shoulder and looked up and into the beautiful face of a black woman, close to my age, a woman whom I had acknowledged with a slight nod of my head as she left the café.

We black people of a certain age do that when we catch each other’s eye, say, walking down the street or exiting a restaurant, sometimes adding a word or two: “How you doing?” or a “Hey, now” – essentially saying: “I don’t know you, but I can guess what you might have been through.”

With the way the woman was looking at me, as she stood over me, I thought maybe she was about to say something like “Don’t you remember me?” and then I was sure she was going to say “Did you drop this?” because she was handing me something.

Congratulations to the winners of the 2018 Ocean Beach Holiday Parade, “It’s A Wonderful Life” – says the OB Town Council, which announced the winners of the annual Holiday Parade on Wed. Here are the winners:

Best Use Of Lights:

Saint Charles Borromeo Academy

Best OB Spirit:

Wonderland Ocean Pub tied with Disco Christmas

Got an old surfboard? Well, don’t throw it away.

Instead – donate it to art-related upcycling/ re-purposing efforts for end-of-life surfboards. And it doesn’t have to be ride-able.