Month: January 2019

By Jim Miller

After a little more than a week of striking, the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) captured the public’s imagination, helped transform the national narrative about education, won a solid new contract, and positioned themselves well for the battles to come.

For those of us in education this was an inspiring moment that showed the potential for smart organizing and activism to change the game in important ways.

As I wrote last week, UTLA was taking a lead from both the social movements of the sixties and other, more recent examples of militant protests and strikes by fellow educators elsewhere in the United States from Chicago to West Virginia.

By Jennifer Van Grove / San Diego Union-Tribune

Specialty grocer Jimbo’s Naturally is asking a San Diego Superior Court judge to block any efforts by developer Stockdale Capital Partners to turn Horton Plaza into a technology office campus.

The locally owned business earlier this month amended its existing lawsuit against the downtown center’s previous owner to incorporate Stockdale, arguing the real estate investment firm is also violating the terms of the grocer’s lease.

By Geoff Page

Technology almost put the kibosh on the Ocean Beach Town Council’s monthly meeting Wednesday, January 23. The OBTC meetings are held at the Masonic Temple on Sunset Cliffs Blvd. and everyone was there ready to go that night but never got inside. Seems whoever controls the building can unlock it remotely so they don’t have to be there to do it. The chair sends a text or calls and the doors are then unlocked. This time, no one responded. And the chair does not have a key.

Somehow, very quickly, the OBTC got an invitation to use the Water’s Edge Faith Community church (formerly the United Methodist Church) on Saratoga and Sunset Cliffs and everyone moved over there. …

Once under way, it developed that there were two main items on the agenda. The first was handing out awards for float winners from the Christmas Parade and the second was a candidate forum presenting people running for open town council seats.

Start off 2019 right by resolving to give a little back to the community that gives us so much.

Join us as we take to the streets, alleys, parks, and beaches to show OB some much needed love. We will have limited supplies, but bring a bucket and gloves if you can.

Following the cleanup will be a volunteer appreciation party

Residents of the 3-story Pelican Point Apartments in Ocean Beach are on edge as they experienced more bluff collapse during the recent King Tides.

As the San Diego Reader reported on Monday the building at 5107 Narragansett suffered a bluff collapse in January 2017, yet there have been no repairs to the bluff. The apartment complex was sold in May, 2018 to landlord king, Michael Mills for $6.75M.

The Reader:

…as King Tides hit and angry surf took out portions of the OB Pier, it came as no surprise that nature took another swing at Pelican Points un-repaired cliff, sending the lower half of the property onto the cliffs below, and that of the neighboring property.

By David Helvarg / San Francisco Chronicle / Jan. 23, 2019

Fifty years after a California oil spill launched the modern environmental movement, we may finally be moving beyond the age of oil, and none too soon.

In October, the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change, made up of the world’s leading climate scientists, warned global carbon emissions would have to be cut by 45 percent by 2030 if there’s any hope of keeping planetary warming at a dangerous but less than catastrophic level.

Luckily, job-generating renewable energy now has become competitive with or cheaper than most forms of fossil fuel. Progressive democrats are also calling for a Green New Deal that aims to transition the U.S. economy to clean energy, addressing both climate change and inequality.

This morning, local TV station Fox5 reported that the city of San Diego was going to have the Longbranch Torrey Pine chopped down. This report stirred neighbors up and a number of them came out to find yellow tape and signs blocking the street around the Torrey on that 4600 block.

Officer Surwilo showed up to monitor the situation.

The contract crews began trimming the tree but had no plans to cut the large tree down. Fox5 has since changed their reporting.

By Kathy Blavatt

Baby sprouts with outstretched limbs dance under a full moon on the rain soaked earth. The heads pop-up with bent necks, slowly reaching for blue heavens. These little ballerinas do their performance. By daybreak sun reveals the nights magic.

Growing plants creates a splendid bond that feels maternal as you nurture and raise your little green sprouts.

The Ocean Beach Town Council will host its monthly meeting Wednesday night, January 23 – and on deck (by our count, at least) will be the introduction of new candidates for the Board of Director’s open seats.

There will also be the usual agenda which includes reports from local leaders, political representatives, business, first responders and law enforcement officials.

The meeting goes from 7:00pm – 8:30pm at the Masonic Lodge, 1711 Sunset Cliffs Blvd, in Ocean Beach, 92107.

The annual election for the Ocean Beach Town Council Board of Directors will take place from Monday, January 28th to Friday, February 8th by its members.

The Ocean Beach Planning Board has recently added something special to its website: photos and short bios of most of the Board members. The full Board meets monthly on the first Wednesday, 6pm at the OB Recreation Center, 4726 Santa Monica Avenue. There are 7 Planning Districts within the OB Community Planning Area.

And here we present them – verbatim, so, check it out and meet the members.

Andrea Schlageter, Chair
District 7

Andrea Schlageter was born and raised in the Ocean Beach Point Loma area. A graduate of Point Loma High School Class of 2009, she went on to study Political Science and International Relations at Boston University (’13). …

Kevin Hastings, P.E., Vice Chair
At Large

Kevin Hastings was born and raised in California, from the beach to inland Los Angeles, and in the small mountain town of Tehachapi. He graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo with a mechanical engineering degree and has worked in the profession for 15 years …

Congregations Threatened By New Landlord – If They Stay They Must Not Oppose Renovations

There’s been some new developments – and increased tension – around the North Chapel at Liberty Station. The City of San Diego is being called upon by a member of one of the congregations that used the chapel for religious services to obtain a court order to protect the chapel from any renovations by its new landlord.

And the new landlord says the congregations can continue to use the chapel through 2019 as long as they don’t oppose the new renovations.

Jeff McDonald at the San Diego Union-Tribune reports parishioner Henry Garon wrote a letter to to city officials in early January claiming the new landlord, Pendulum Properties Partners of Orange County, along with the operator 828 Venue Management Co. want to make significant changes to the chapel’s interior.

There’s a new “interim” General Manager at OB People’s Organic Food Market. Tim Sullivan was just recently brought on to manage the store on a temporary basis, and to get it out of its slump.

Sullivan stated this in so many words in an undated letter sent out to all the co-op owners of the iconic organic food store. Meanwhile, Jim Kace, the official GM, is reportedly on medical leave.

In the letter, Sullivan said “over the past 3 years we have seen steady sales declines,” and added, “we have seen our bottom line slip into the red”.