Month: September 2019

If you’ve ever been to one of the breakfasts that the OB Town Council puts on at their annual OB Pier Pancake Breakfast event, you know how wonderful the food is and what a social scene it is. It’s definitely one of OB’s great social events of the year. Plus – you’re having your food while sitting over the ocean.
This year’s event on September 21 – actually the “21st Annual Pancake Breakfast” – is on schedule. But you know what – the folks who are organizing this gig, your town council board members – need help. They need volunteers.

At their Wednesday night meeting, the Ocean Beach Planning Board voted by 8 to 4 to approve the proposed Sidewalk Vendor ordinance. It’s supposed to go before the full City Council in October.

Here is the proposal ordnance verbatim (it’s a long 22 page document) in its entirety:

Chapter J
Business Regulations, Business 1 axes,
Bermits and Licenses Article 6:
Division 1: Sidewalk Vendor

The Guardian
Plastic pollution is being deposited into the fossil record, research has found, with contamination increasing exponentially since 1945.

Scientists suggest the plastic layers could be used to mark the start of the Anthropocene, the proposed geological epoch in which human activities have come to dominate the planet. They say after the bronze and iron ages, the current period may become known as the plastic age.

The study, the first detailed analysis of the rise in plastic pollution in sediments, examined annual layers off the coast of California back to 1834. They discovered the plastic in the layers mirrors precisely the exponential rise in plastic production over the past 70 years

When it came time for the applicants of a Coastal Development Permit to construct a new 3-story residence with decks and a new detached 2-story guest quarters on an empty lot at 4744 Cape May Avenue to appear before the OB Planning Board at Wednesday night’s meeting – planners had a case of deja vue.

The applicants – Alan and Nancy – had appeared before the Board earlier – they were in front of the Project Review Committee (a sub-committee of the entire board, which usually makes recommendations on projects), back on December 19, 2018. Here is our report from the Project Review Committee’s review of that project:

Owners of 4744 Cape May Ave Requested to Return to the Drawing Board

Author G.M. Ford is all set to give a talk on his latest mystery novel, “Heavy on The Dead” which is set in Ocean Beach, of all places.

Ford will lead the discussion of his Leo Waterman mystery at the OB Library, this Saturday, September 7. The OB Library is at 4801 Santa Monica Ave. It’s at 2pm.

Back in July, our Bob Edwards wrote a review of the book and here is part of what he said then:

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.

‘Come Show OB Some Love’ – 8th Annual After Summer Community Cleanup

By Dan Rather /Dan Rather facebook / Aug. 28, 2019

Beware fatigue. It is easy to say, of course, much harder to achieve.

Memories jump to mind of fourth quarter huddles with my high school football team and a coach exhorting us to dig deeper. The thought enters the mind, “Sure coach, but you don’t know how licked we are.” Of course you would never utter the words, and deep down you knew he was right. I have seen so many times where those with the advantage falter from exhaustion.

We are at a moment when the sheer cumulative toll of the Trump presidency strikes with the relentlessness of a summer heat waves (which many of us have also been contending with this year, thanks likely to the climate crisis the President dismisses).

On August 28, Public Watchdogs, a nonprofit advocacy group, requested an immediate court-order to halt the transfer of deadly radioactive nuclear waste at the San Onofre Nuke plant into “thin-walled” dry storage canisters.

The group filed a temporary restraining order (TRO) with the United States District Court, and is petitioning the courts to step in and protect the environment and the lives of more than 8 million people who live within the radiation plume zone identified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

The attorney for Public Watchdogs, Chuck La Bella, stated:

“My immediate concern is for the health and safety of the millions of people who could be impacted by a toxic cloud being released from SONGS. The consequences of a nuclear accident are catastrophic and would last for generations.”

By Ernie McCray

Friday, November 22, 1963.

I woke up that morning as I did every morning, cursing my alarm clock for waking me.

Getting that off my chest I got my day underway primping and talking to that dude in the mirror about what he and I might do that day to keep about 40 sixth graders at Oliver Hazard Perry Elementary excited and challenged and eager to come back for more the next day.

So when I made my merry way to school in my raggedy 49 ford (all I could afford at the time with the paltry pay a second year teacher raked in) I was probably humming and singing the tunes of the day: “Our day will come,” adding my bass; “You’ve really got a hold on me,” thinking of love with a smile on my face; “Walking the dog” for a change of pace…

That was literally how I “rolled” on the mornings of a school day.

Thank you Ocean Beach and Point Loma! We made our fundraising goal of $2,000 – thanks to all the donations. The OB Rag is assured to be able to operate for another year.

We had 35 donations come in since last week – 25 of them from Ocean Beach and Point Loma residents.

By Jim Hare

The Peninsula Community Planning Board, of which I am a member, has considered the matter of a potential 78-unit workforce housing development on Housing Commission Site #428. The site is off Nimitz Boulevard near the end of Catalina Boulevard in Point Loma.

While the potential project is unknown except for a site feasibility study, many in the community and some members of our Board have sought abandonment of the project and dedication of the property to open space. That position prevailed by vote at the PCPB on August 28th. I cast a vote against the action based on these thoughts:

The Ocean Beach Planning Board has 4 projects before it when it meets this Wednesday, Sept. 4th. It will also take up the possible appointment of a new board member to District 3 OB Planning Area and review the Street Vendor Ordinance that goes before the City Council in October. The Board meets at 6pm sharp at the OB Rec Center, 4726 Santa Monica Avenue.