Month: January 2019

Ever wonder who actually shows up for those clean-ups of Ocean Beach? You know, the OBceans who take bucket and pickerupper in hand and scrounge the allies, sidewalks, beaches and streets.

OB-CSI sponsored such a clean-up on Saturday, Jan. 26,

and …

here they are -the OBceans who actually showed up and after the clean-up, got their rewards. Photos thanks to ‘Steve O SanDiego’.

Local photographer Joe Ewing has graced us with a series of photos he took back during the Ocean Beach anti-Starbucks campaign. 18 years ago!

The photos are from protests outside the then-coming Seattle-based coffee giant, in 2011. Many in OB were opposed – and the news of the campaign (before the common internet) went international.

Despite the protests, the boycott, the meetings with the corporate officials, the pleadings and despite the then-abundance of local OB coffee houses – Starbucks finally opened. And it opened literally on 9 – 11, the day of the infamous terror attacks.

Nuclear Shutdown News January 2019

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 for a nuclear free world.

The January 16 San Francisco Chronicle headlined, “PG&E bankruptcy coming this month.” A followup story on January 18 described Pacific Gas & Electric as “the state’s largest investor-owned utility.”

The Jan 16 lead article reported that the company was facing “$30 billion in potential wildfire liability,” had “$4.4 billion market value” as of 1-14, had lost $25 billion since last year’s Camp fire destroyed almost 19,000 structures and took 80-some lives in the Northern California town of Paradise, and had $1.5 billion in cash as of Jan. 11.”

By Howard Blackson III / San Diego UrbDeZine / January 26, 2019

At last week’s State of the City address, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer enthusiastically stated,

“I want to radically overhaul the system itself. The bureaucracy has been set up to empower anti-housing forces that delay or deny projects at every turn… We need to build more housing near employment centers and transit.”

This is a rejection of our long-standing, auto-oriented, one-size-fits-all approach to city making. Fortunately, in 2008, our City of Villages plan began to shift the standards of new construction of private development from single-family, single-use land use outcomes towards more mixed-use buildings and blocks filled with offices, shops, affordable housing, and market-rate homes. This proclamation officially transitions San Diego from focusing on suburban outcomes, as we have for the past 60+ years, to building within our urban neighborhoods.

Now it’s time to do the same for our transit services.

Do you remember how hot the ocean got this past August at the beach? During the first week of that month, Scripps Pier recorded 3 days of warm water that set records. On Wednesday, August 1, Scripps Pier recorded the highest ocean surface water temperature in its 102 history of taking measurements.

The water temperature was 78.6 degrees. According to the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, the “normal” August average water surface temperature at the pier is 68 degrees.

Then, that Friday – and for the second time in the week – the ocean temperature reached an all-time high at Scripps Pier in La Jolla, hitting 78.8 degrees. On Sunday, the sea surface temperature hit 79.4 degrees.

Scientists at Scripps have been taking daily measurements at the pier since 1916.

And now we find out 2018 was the hottest year for the planet’s oceans. It was no surprise to those keeping track of such things. See this report from EcoWatch:

The year 2018 was the hottest year for the planet’s oceans ever since record-keeping began in 1958, according to a worrisome new study from international scientists.

It appears that San Diego police swept through some homeless areas just before the annual homeless count last week, and now homeless advocates say the police efforts may have skewed the results of the count. Voice of San Diego reports:

Police enforcement spiked in the downtown area most densely populated with homeless San Diegans in the days before the annual homeless census last Friday, spurring questions from advocates and even the group that oversees the count about how the increased enforcement may have affected the effort.

Police Announce Arrests of 2 Stabbing Assailants – Ask Public for Help in OB Sexual Assault

At the OB Town Council meeting on Jan. 23, Officer David Surwilo announced that police have arrested the two people who had stabbed someone in separate incidents in OB. They are still working on the alleged sexual assault. Walking teams are patrolling Newport in an added effort to get things under control.

Police are asking the public for help. Here is a description of the sexual assault suspect in OB:

Hidden Spa Changes OwnersThe OB Rag received the following email from Jill Coppola, the original owner to The Hidden Spa on Santa Monica Avenue:

by Ernie McCray

Maria and I just got back from Hawaii, spending time with friends on the Big Island and Oahu.

In my mind I can still see the rich colors of the rain forests and feel the warm breeze that comforted me on a walk on the beach one day and I’ll always remember sitting high above a view that literally took my breath away…

I still shiver from the experience of riding in a car, looking to see what the Kilauea volcano had left in its wake, cruising by a couple of really nice homes, and suddenly a dead end appears and before me there stands a massive mound of lava a couple of stories high that had swallowed the rest of the neighborhood we were driving through…

And minutes later we’re walking on a new black sand beach the volcano had created, as if by design, complete with a nice little wading pool just right for little children.

Out of Mother Nature’s devastating acts, there’s such beauty.

The Old Broad Asks for Help

By Judi Curry

What does “Chase”, “Discovery”, “Bank of America”, “Amazon”, “Cox”, “Bank of PNC”, “Apple”, “Navy Federal Credit Union”, “Wells Fargo”, and “US Bank” have in common?

Probably nothing, EXCEPT that I received “phishing” letters from each of these institutions at least 4 times in 5 days.

Each one said virtually the same thing – and each of them were a scam. They look so authentic; the interesting thing is that I do not even have accounts at 6 of these institutions.

Where did they get my name?

By Tom Jackman / Washington Post / January 25, 2019

Joined by relatives of Robert F. Kennedy, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, a group of more than 60 authors and investigators have called for a new congressional investigation into the assassinations of the three men and President John F. Kennedy, saying that the four slayings were not resolved and “had a disastrous impact on the course of American history.”

In a public statement, they demanded a public tribunal modeled on South Africa’s “Truth and Reconciliation” process to persuade either Congress or the Justice Department to revisit all four assassinations.

UPDATE: The new owners are local OB family guys: Michael De Endiro and Michael Grimes – Congrats to all !

In what will be some of the best news this year so far for OBceans is the news that the OB Hardware has been successfully sold and will remain open. The 100-year old business was just sold with all lease issues worked out.

Carl and his spouse Carolyn Weidetz had been set to close the iconic storefront down after 50 years and retire.

But with the publicity the OB Rag and other media outlets gave the store over the last few months, apparently some folks were geared to buy it and prevent it from closing.

And that is what has happened, according to Carolyn Weidetz in a phone interview with the OB Rag this morning.

By Gretchen Newsom and Brigette Browing / San Diego Union-Tribune / Jan. 25, 2019

Hasan Ikhrata knew what he was getting himself into when he accepted the job as the San Diego Association of Governments’ (SANDAG) new executive director. As San Diego County’s regional planning agency, SANDAG is charged with mapping out and funding transportation projects throughout the county.

But the agency became so dysfunctional that in 2017 the state Legislature intervened to increase transparency in SANDAG’s operations and ensure that decisions were made to best serve the needs of the majority of area residents.

The new and improved SANDAG — under Ikharata’s leadership