May 2019

by Judi Curry

A coincidence? Or a mistake?

I don’t profess to know everyone in San Diego. In fact, I don’t profess to know one half of one percent of the residents of San Diego, but I do know that an inordinate amount of the people I know, male and/or female, have expressed to me the same problem in the past 3 weeks.

It didn’t matter if it was Don in Imperial Beach; Irene in Santee; Hitomi in the Convoy area; Michele on Shelter Island; Lucy in La Jolla; Jackie in Encinitas; Mary on Sunset Cliffs, Larry in El Cajon, Stephanie in Sierra Mesa, or myself in Pt. Loma – we are all suffering from almost debilitating headaches. Some of the people I spoke to said that they have headaches frequently but never like this.

Others, like me, seldom ever get headaches, but these are severe.

Because mine have been so bad in the past month, I have been to my Primary Care Physician; Urgent Care; the Emergency Room; the Ophthalmologist and just last week saw the Ear Nose and Throat specialist.

What did he say?

It seems the saga of the old Nati’s building just keeps going.

Now we have learned the Pop Pie Co. has pulled out of putting in an eatery at the site. About two weeks ago, apparently, Pop Pie Co. owners Gan Suebsarakham and Steven Torres withdrew from the enterprise after having much of the former building demolished and making other improvements.

It was in January 2018 when news broke that the popular University Heights pie shop that specialized in “handcrafted savory and sweet pies” was moving into the former long-time Ocean Beach Mexican restaurant. But it’s not to be.

In a sign of the changing of the guard along Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach, one of OB’s oldest “greasy-spoons” is up for lease.

The Lopez family which has owned and run the Village Kitchen for 30 to 40 years is ready to retire. Mr. Lopez and his daughter Liz have been managing it – with Mr. Lopez in the kitchen – for much of that time.

The small eatery on OB’s main commercial street – around 1,700 square feet – definitely has its fans and many in OB call it their “favorite”. It’s still open with its regular hours.

There comes a time, indeed, when we – the citizens – need to stand up for our country. We need to stand for the Rule of Law. And we need to call for Trump’s impeachment.

That time is now – this Saturday, June 1 – when OBceans and people from all over San Diego will converge on Dog Beach to spell out “Impeach” with our bodies.

Simultaneously, people at Ocean Beach in San Francisco will be doing the same thing. This will be history in the making.

It is from the grassroots that the pressure for impeachment must come – for we cannot allow Trump’s misconduct and impeachable offenses to go unanswered.

A number of scooter companies apparently have drawn up a list and map of where they want the City to install “scooter corrals” throughout Ocean Beach. They call them “Micro-Mobility Parking Corrals”.

The OB Planning Board was sent the list of locations and maps by the Mayors office. And the Mayor’s office wants feedback by June 10th.

Similar to what was implemented Downtown, and to avoid impacting on-street parking spaces , the locations selected were based on utilizing red curb spaces that :

By Kathy Blavatt

All Photos by Kathy Blavatt

There is an art to vertical gardening. The vertical growing process starts out as an ascetic design project combined with a floral display, a living canvas that adds beauty to garden plots, trees, fences and walls.

Creative design of floral arrangements and vertical garden displays use the same important principles in terms of shapes, colors, texture, design, and function.

A colorful array of flowers and plants of various shapes and textures form a heart from Kathy’s garden.

The main presentation at the Ocean Beach Town Council meeting Wednesday, May 22, was by a team from Non Toxic San Diego about the City’s use of herbicides and toxic chemicals in our parks and playgrounds – Roundup.

Anne Jackson Hefti started out by describing how she came about getting involved; she and a friend were walking their dogs at Sunset Cliffs Natural Park and came across a work crew spraying Roundup. The men had no masks or other protective gear and the women were allowed to walk through the sprayed area just minutes after their work. Later, Anne’s dog became sick – and she started researching Roundup and its component glyphosate.

She was so shocked by what she found that she helped to found the group Non Toxic San Diego. (Much of the material the group handed out was from www.beyondpesticides.org )

There has been a change in the date for the official re-opening of the Ocean Beach Pier.

It’s been changed to 8:00 a.m., Friday, May 24, 2019. It had been set for Thursday the 23rd.