Month: July 2019

Protesters blocking the construction of a giant telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii’s tallest mountain, are about to enter their second week of the civil disobedient demonstration. They were joined on Wednesday, July 24 by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson who came to show support.

Johnson – the actor and former wrestler – joined the protesters during their 10th day of the blockade of the construction road leading up to the planned site of the observatory. Native Hawaiian groups say the mountain, which already hosts 13 telescopes, is sacred, and another observatory will further desecrate the mountain on the Big Island.

The City Council is set to vote Tuesday July 30 on Council President Georgette Gómez’s proposal to force developers to pay for or build more low-income housing as part of their projects. Gómez says the time for negotiating is over.

By Andrew Keatts and Lisa Halverstadt / Voice of San Diego / July 25, 2019

Council President Georgette Gómez has listened to the development industry’s vociferous opposition to her signature policy initiative and has settled on a simple response.

She’s not changing anything.

The City Council is set to vote Tuesday [July 30] on the proposal, which would force developers to pay for or build more low-income housing as part of their projects.

Emails are lighting up across Point Loma as residents realize some of the plans the Port of San Diego has for the bay and for Shelter Island. And the residents most concerned are trying to get the word out that the Port needs to hear from them by time of the deadline for public comment – July 31.

As Geoff Page explained in his report of the Port District’s presentation at the most recent Peninsula Community Planning Board meeting:

The Port is updating its Master Plan and they have what they call a Discussion Document out for public comment.

The problem for many is that the end of the 90-day public comment period is July 31 and it seems a lot of people are just now hearing about this. The news in the past couple of weeks seems to have alerted people to what is happening. …

Editordude: The following opinion piece by Councilwoman Barbara Bry – who is a candidate for San Diego mayor – originally published on July 22, 2019 at Times of San Diego – has been circulating among locals who her stance resonates with.

By Barbara Bry

San Diego is being inundated by a new wave of short-term vacation rentals as building owners are renting out apartments as short-term vacation units.

This is in addition to the up-to-16,000 single-family homes in San Diego that our City Auditor estimates are currently being used as short-term vacation rentals. So here we are, significantly reducing our housing stock and artificially inflating rents for San Diegans, in the midst of a historic housing crisis.

Our City Attorney has declared short-term vacation rentals in residential zones illegal according to a memo dated March 15, 2017.

It is time to enforce those laws.

This is more than a beach community issue.

Opposition to the new Target on Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach has rekindled and activists have shifted gears in their approach to the behemoth retail magnet opening its doors in one of the most anti-corporate neighborhoods in San Diego.

After a slumber of over a year, the anti-Target campaign has jumped back onto the streets of OB with the main focus now of building support for local independent businesses and to prevent “further corporate takeover”.

About a dozen people showed up at Target’s opening last Sunday with the message of “protect our community” and “shop local.”

The campaign has also come up with a list of alternative local merchants to many products Target carries

At last night’s Ocean Beach Town Council meeting, the group handed out their annual Community Grants amounting to several thousand dollars to local organizations that work to improve the neighborhood or aid its citizens.

Here’s a list of the recipients that we are aware of:

• OB Green Center
• OB Library / Friends of OB Library
• Loaves & Fishes Food Store
• Sunset Cliffs Surfing Association
• Groundswell Community Project
• San Diego River Park Foundation – Native Plant Garden Beautification
• Peninsula YMCA
• OB Firestation
• New Alternatives: Camp Reach for the Sky
• OB Woman’s Club
• Peninsula Shepherd Center – Out and about Senior transportation program

By Geoff Page

The big event room at the Point Loma Library was so packed that some people had to stand for the whole July meeting of the Peninsula Community Planning Board. This is a good sized room, too. Planning board meetings don’t usually draw large crowds, to understate it a bit, so when the room is as packed as it was, there is something of interest on the agenda. It was the Port District.

Some information about the Port District’s Master Plan has been in the news recently and some of what seemed to be in store for Shelter Island was what brought out the crowd.

The Port is updating its Master Plan and the 90-day public comment period ends July 31

By Bob Edwards

An award winning mystery and thriller novelist, G.M. Ford has just published a new book, Heavy On The Dead (Thomas and Mercer, Seattle, 2019) that is set largely in Ocean Beach.

From the first pages of the book when a body is discovered next to the Santa Cruz Avenue stairs during a beach cleanup to an episode searching for a homeless man along the San Diego River, to the protagonists battling traffic on Sea World Drive at rush hour, Heavy On The Dead has numerous local references that most OBceans will recognize.

It’s tempting to go on and on about the fun OB details that permeate the novel but articles with spoilers suck, right? Just get a copy and read it, already!

The novel is the twelfth in a series of books that feature former Seattle private detective Leo Waterman. The previous books were set in the Northwest but as this novel opens, the detective and his associate Gabe have relocated to Ocean Beach

Join the Ocean Beach Town Council at their Public Meeting on Wednesday, July 24th. They will be presenting their annual Community Grants to 15 local non-profits -all worthy organizations who are contributing to the betterment of our community.

What was going on in Ocean Beach a decade ago? In July of 2009? We took a gander at our archives from that month – and discovered a treasure trove of old articles covering issues that still resonant with us today. From gentrification to fireworks, from Sunset Cliffs to the “Marshmallow Wars”, the OB Rag covered these local issues – and more. Take a look.

Fireworks are costly

As part of a group report by OB Rag writers on the 2009 Street Fair, Gary Gilmore showed us the money. He wrote:

The rockets’ red glare is gone. The echoes of the bombs bursting in air have faded. The volleys of marshmallows have been put to rest for another year. It’s time for an accounting. Where did all the money go?

by Lauren J. Mapp / inewsource / July 15, 2019

The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System plans to spend $34 million for a new “tap-and-go” fare collection system that will replace one that some riders find inconvenient and that the agency says is outdated.

The MTS fare program has had problems for a long time.

• Until two years ago, riders couldn’t store money on their Compass Cards, a reusable ticket for daily, weekly and monthly passes, even though the technology has existed for years.
• The Compass Card launched in 2009 and had data security issues from the start that left users vulnerable to credit card fraud. MTS has made security improvements to the card, but it still doesn’t fully meet industry standards.

By Joni Halpern

Since 1896, Ohio voters have picked the winning candidate in all but two presidential elections – 1944 and 1960 – giving rise to the state’s renown as a “bellwether” to which candidates cannot afford to turn a deaf ear. If Ohioans are going to be so influential, maybe we could help inform their future choices by sharing some concerns from the Golden State.

Dear Ohio,

I was wondering if Ohioans could give a little thought to what makes a war “good.”

Your answer might be important as we listen to the increasing thunder of American leadership shaking their fist at passersby on the world stage. After all, wars conceived are not wars remembered.

Our lasting impression of any war is its true outcome. If people could agree about what makes one war good and others bad or even forgotten, it might help us evaluate the use of our military might. That could help us choose our next president.