Month: April 2019

Are we helping those most in need?

By David Patterson

Kudos to the Alpha Project and Chelsea Investments for their success getting homeless Veterans into apartments as outlined by Gary Warth, UT San Diego, March 31 2019, “Homeless Vets have New home”.

Great work done by all, but now it’s time to prioritize to get an even more vulnerable population off the streets, women and children.

It may sound unbelievable that we have women and children on the streets but it’s true and frequently we at Veterans For Peace encounter these people while handing out sleeping bags.

Over a month’s time I have encountered dozens of unaccompanied women, 2 different women each with 4 young children including toddlers and a young teen aged couple, cold filthy and according to the female, pregnant. This goes on week after week, month after month with little change in my view. It’s time that we changed our priorities.

Ocean Beach Green Center Open Saturdays Till May’s 30th Anniversary Party

Big things in the works at the new location of the OB Green Center, 4862 Voltaire St. They will be having their grand opening, 30th year anniversary party, spring fundraiser in May at the new location. Until then someone will be there on Saturdays from noon to 6 pm if you want to stop by and check in with them.

Screwball Whiskey Making Began in OB

The creators of Skrewball Whiskey announced their peanut butter whiskey will soon be available nationwide.

Slightly Stoopid Trombonist Andy Gelb

There’s a local school of funk. From their web page: “The Ambassadors of Soul are a collection of some of the finest high school musicians in San Diego, directed by Slightly Stoopid trombonist Andy Andy Geib.

OB Band Gowing By Leaps and Bounds

One band currently making major inroads into the national scene via touring is Ocean Beach-based indie rock quartet, Brothers Gow

April Events From the Ocean Beach Green Center

April 3rd. Wednesday 6 pm- 8 pm Clean Elections Campaign Meeting First Unitarian Universalist Church, 4190 Front St, San Diego, CA 92103,
April 5th Friday 7 am – 9:30 am Walk to Work Day Circulate San Diego invites you to participate in Walk to Work Day 2019.
April 5th Friday 6:30 pm Sierra Talks – Mystery Cat: Southern California’s Elusive Mountain Lion.
April 6th Saturday noon – 2 pm Ocean Beach People’s Annual Meeting and Lunch. Free of Charge.
April 6th Saturday 2 pm La Jolla Harbor Seals Walk and Talk Presented by Seal Society of Sierra Club
April 6th Saturday 2 pm Getting Started in the Garden Ocean Beach Library
April 6th Saturday 11 am – 4 pm South Bay Earth Day Memorial Park
April 9th Tuesday 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm Climate event for Students – with Bill McKibben.

Plus an Historical Caution about South Shores Parking Lot

A week ago on March 25 Mayor Kevin Faulconer and District 2 Councilwoman Jen Campbell held a press conference in Mission Bay to announce their proposal to bring back the city’s ban on vehicle living coupled with an expanded Safe Parking Lot program.

Flanked by a bevy of local beach leaders, including OB’s own Mark Winkie, President of the OB Town Council, Faulconer took the lead in pushing the reinstatement of the former ordinance – a longstanding vehicle habitation ban enacted in 1983 but ruled too vague to legally enforce by a Federal court. The City Council unanimously repealed it in February backed in a corner by the court ruling. Over the last several weeks, however, both the Mayor’s and Campbell’s offices have been inundated with complaints

The OB Rag received the following from Joe Flynn, a retired City Planner who worked with OB Planning Board long ago:

Going through some papers, I found a poem by LoVerne Brown that I had copied down some years ago. I know this lovely lady is long gone, but her poetry and smiling face lingers on.

Who was LoVerne Brown?

San Diego poet LoVerne Brown was a resident of Ocean Beach for 50 years (1950-2000).

Although she first won recognition for her poetry as a college student, her most productive years came after her retirement from the City of San Diego in 1974.

In 1976, she founded the Ocean Beach Poetry Circle, which for years published the anthology Zip Code 92107.

The Ocean Beach Planning Board has a full agenda for its monthly meeting, this Wednesday, April 3. Besides installing its new elected Board members, electing new executive officers, considering the appointment of 2 people to open vacant board seats, it has a project to review on the 4600 block of Coronado Avenue, it has 3 presentations and discussions on potentially controversial issues.

Those issues are the proposed Overnight Vehicle Habitation Ordinance, the “safe routes to OB Elementary School”, and a proposal to ban adults without children from play areas.

The Board meets at 6pm sharp at the OB Recreation Center, 4726 Santa Monica Ave.

Demolition and 2 New 2-Stories at 4645 Coronado

The only project on the Board’s agenda is a Coastal Development Permit for 4645 Coronado Avenue to demolish the existing structures and construct 2 new 2-story residences.

This post was written for April 1st.

By Jim Miller

Recently, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took an unwarranted shot at the heart and soul of American Democracy: the moderates. As NBC news reported, AOC opined that:

“Moderate is not a stance. It’s just an attitude towards life of, like, ‘meh,’” she said, shrugging her shoulders for emphasis. “We’ve become so cynical, that we view ‘meh,’ or ‘eh’ — we view cynicism as an intellectually superior attitude, and we view ambition as youthful naivete when … the greatest things we have ever accomplished as a society have been ambitious acts of visions.

“The ‘meh’ is worshiped now. For what?” she continued to cheers.

What can one say about this impudent snark other than, how dare she?