Month: August 2019

By Joni Halpern

Dear Ohio,

I have often heard over the past two years that the reason we are so polarized in this country is that we are not listening to the other side. We simply brand each other as one thing or another, and shout across the distance. Even when we get together with family or friends, we focus on harmless topics, lest we end up throwing cake at each other, the way our Commander-in-Chief did when he was a little tyke attending birthday parties that were not for him.

There is even a popular theory going about that if we were just civil long enough to hear the other side, we would alter our position in light of truth told by those who disagree with us. I am a great believer in civility, in respecting the dignity of others. But it is a natural law of the human eardrum, as immutable as any law of physics, that an unwelcome truth, regardless of how soft the whisper, is always heard as a shout. And this is the source of our acrimony today.

by Ernie McCray

Freedom.

What an alluring concept: The power to move about in your world unhindered and unrestrained under normal circumstances.

But such a definition of “liberty,” based on my life experiences, is but a fantasy, as I’ve spent a lifetime pursuing it, relentlessly, like I used to go after rebounds back in my basketball days – but it’s been as elusive as a black cat, at midnight, in an unlit alley.

Because just when you think you’re about to finally board that freedom train, a young black quarterback, in the NFL, takes a knee as thousands of football fans, his fellow Americans, stand proudly with their hands over their hearts, straining their vocal chords as they end the anthem they’re singing with “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!”

From OB Historical Society

Did you ever dream of traveling back in time, to an era when life seemed simpler, less pretentious and . . . more fun? An opportunity to do just that presents itself this Saturday, August 17 when the Ocean Beach Historical Society presents the San Diego City Guard Band in a Free Concert at the famous Greek Theater on the campus of Point Loma Nazarene University.

When Carlson and Higgins first subdivided the sand dunes that they had chosen to name Ocean Beach, they decided that they would need something more than the salt air to draw potential buyers out to the remote coastal hillside.

Neighbors and friends came on Saturday, August 10, to help friends and neighbors. A lot of people showed up to help Albert and Mindy Elliott with the remains of the fire that demolished their garage and Albert’s surf “shack”.

It reminded one of how great people are and how great OB makes people.

By Judi Curry

Although I haven’t stayed out of the fray completely, I have been reasonably quiet about things that are really bothering me lately. I realize that there are many that will disagree with me, and, quite frankly, I have tried to see it your way but have not been able to do so. The first thing are these damn bike lanes.

Today, while driving down West Point Loma Avenue towards Ocean Beach, I saw three near misses of cars almost being hit by other cars and they came out of the parking lane into the flow of traffic. If there had been a car to the left of any of those cars there would have been a head on collision, because all of those cars swerved into oncoming traffic lanes. And the ironic thing about the episodes was that there were NO bike riders in the bike lanes!

Two days ago, while attempting to get to an appointment in Old Town, I was stuck in traffic for almost 45 minutes while lanes changed from 2 lanes to 1 lane. Again, there were no bike riders in the bike lanes.

By Geoff Page

One point one million dollars to rebuild the sidewalk at Dog Beach that allows the disabled to access the sand. Because of a lawsuit. That was the agenda item that got the most attention from everyone at the Ocean Beach Community Planning Board’s regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, August 7. The topic was, to put it mildly, controversial.

Representatives from the city gave a brief presentation of the project and explained why it was happening. Apparently, the city lost an Americans with Disability Act, or ADA, lawsuit about the existing ADA-compliant sidewalk at Dog Beach. The result of the lawsuit was that the current facility has to be redone at a total cost of $1.1 million. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the city explained that the construction costs would be about $400k, the remaining amount was for “soft” costs. Soft costs are for consultants to design the facility and the city to manage the project. To build a sidewalk. It was like attending the theater of the absurd.

By Jim Miller

We need to escape the prison of measured time.

Time as we know it is a social construct, a product of historical and economic forces which, in turn, serves to reify them so that we confuse them with nature.

Our particularly American sense of time is not just the product of centuries of the western progress narrative, but also of our unique mutation of the Protestant work ethic, born of Calvinism, secularized by Benjamin Franklin, and perversely systematized by Fredric Winslow Taylor, whose project to create a more efficient workplace in the early 20th century through time and motion studies fostered a gospel of time-management and efficiency that devalued everything that makes life worth living in the service of efficient production.

By Amber Phillips / Washington Post / August 9, 2019

House Democrats have begun impeachment proceedings against President Trump. A key Democrat admitted as much Thursday.

“This is formal impeachment proceedings,” the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), told CNN on Thursday, after weeks of dancing around whether his committee would formally consider impeaching Trump.

“We are investigating all the evidence, gathering the evidence,” Nadler added. “And we will [at the] conclusion of this — hopefully by the end of the year — vote to vote articles of impeachment to the House floor. Or we won’t. That’s a decision that we’ll have to make. But that’s exactly the process we’re in right now.”

Editordude: It’s not safe to dive into Mission Bay; it’s very polluted. But this article had an original headline of “Dive Into …”

By Laurie Delk / Pacific San Diego / Aug. 7, 2019

As one of the recreational hubs of San Diego, Mission Bay draws a multitude of visitors annually for its boat races, water sports, Belmont Park and Sea World attractions. But did you know the popular outdoor spot is human made?

PACIFIC teamed up with professor Andy Strathman, PhD, co-editor of The Journal of San Diego History and lecturer at California State University, San Marcos to find out the low down (or is it low tide?) of Mission Bay for the this year’s 250th anniversary of San Diego.

PACIFIC: What’s the connection between Mission Bay and its former name False Bay?

ANDY STRATHMAN: Originally it was called False Bay, partly because it was very shallow and practically dry at times. In a lot of ways it was more of a marsh than a true bay. The Spanish explorers gave it that name.

PACIFIC: How did the bay come into being?

Public Workshop scheduled for August 13 at 5:30 p.m. at the downtown Central Library.

San Diego Police have increased their use of so-called streetlight cameras that the City has installed recently, stating they’ve aided in the solving of crimes. At the same time, criticism of their use has increased, mainly around issues of lack of civilian oversight, the potentials for abuse and of outside hacking.

Since 2016, San Diego has installed roughly 3,200 streetlamp cameras with a goal of 4,200 by summer of 2020. The City’s corporate partner and sponsor, General Electric, beef the system up as the “world’s largest smart city platform.”

Initially called “smart streetlamps”, the City began the program ostensibly to collect metadata from cameras tracking the number of people walking, biking or driving through busy intersections. And as a LED upgrade, the City installed the recording system to the streetlamps. Officials tout all the savings the new bulbs will bring in by 2030 – enough money (on electricity savings) to pay for the $30 million program.

All these thousands of microphones and cameras in streetlamps made San Diego’s Police Department sit up straight and look into their potential. Which they did. Now police say they’ve used the videos from the smart streetlamps to aid them in over 140 investigations –

Perhaps the writers for a popular travel guide have just been at high altitudes for too long, or maybe they’ve lounged around in airport restaurants for too long, but somehow they have just declared that the “best airport” in the country is the San Diego International Airport.

Holy guacamole! Are you freaking kidding?

San Diego the best airport in the entire good ol US of A?

But this is what has happened. A new study of the best and worst airports around the country has just been completed by The Points Guy travel website, and yeah, they say – based on a myriad of factors of course – that we have the best.

The second-best is Phoenix Sky Harbor International and the worst is Chicago’s Midway International with – according to TPG – Orlando International the second-worst.

By Joni Halpern

Ohio is deemed one of the nation’s bellwether states, so we Californians need to give them some advice about the upcoming 2020 elections.

Dear Ohio,

I’m guessing that you, like most of us in California, have not given much thought to asking our presidential candidates about blueberries. Certainly you have not contemplated asking them about the red-state species known as the rabbiteye blueberry, which grows from central Florida to eastern North Carolina and from Eastern Texas to Southern Arkansas.

The humble rabbiteye blueberry is a hearty plant apparently unattractive to major pests. Depending upon care and environment, just one rabbiteye blueberry bush can produce about 15 pounds of blueberries in a single season. And darned good blueberries at that, filled with flavor and anti-oxidants, the latter a favorite ingredient of the “live-forever” patrons of high-end supermarkets.