Month: October 2019

By Brett Warnke

In a 1991 article John Celardo writes, “Luisa Moreno sensed the local uneasiness created by [World War II], particularly in San Diego. Housing was in short supply, rations became a nuisance, transportation became a problem, and racial conflicts in the Navy and around San Diego became more intense.”

Luisa Moreno was born and died in Guatemala but spent the 1940s and 1950s as one of San Diego’s tireless and brave local labor organizers. She challenged the bogus tranquility of our quiet little paradise in the sun. She understood the divisions and attempted to forge friendships across the city but, like most greats, she had all the right enemies.

Anyone can download the plans for this elegant three-bedroom home, which won Phoenix, Arizona’s competition aimed at jumpstarting energy-efficient construction.

By Evan Nicole Brown / Fast Company

A few years ago, city officials in Phoenix, Arizona, were looking for a way to address the need for more sustainable architecture in their hot, arid environment. Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the United States — and as a result, has a significant environmental footprint. But in 2016, officials debuted a road map designed to transform it into a completely carbon-neutral, zero-waste city.

By Priya Sridhar / KPBS / Sept.25, 2019

The City of San Diego is considering cracking down on street vendors because of a new state law that went into effect January 1.

The new law decriminalized street vendors and requires cities across California to create local ordinances that only regulate street vending based on public health and safety, not stifling competition.

by Jill Castellano & Brad Racino / inewsource / October 1, 2019

Congress will conduct a hearing to investigate a powerful healthcare office in the Department of Veterans Affairs following inewsource stories that exposed the office’s shoddy review of a dangerous San Diego liver study. A new inewsource analysis shows the agency under scrutiny — the VA’s Office of the Medical Inspector — has a long history of performing poor investigations into veterans’ medical care.

By Brett Warnke

Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke on October 3 on a cool night as the sunset sank beyond Waterfront Park. The setting and format were quintessentially Warren: tidy, organized, and a bit nerdy. Warren was introduced by a veteran and woman whose parents were deported after living in the country since 1986.

By Brett Warnke

John Brady, a local advocate who has experienced homelessness in his own past, is the Director of Advocacy for the Voices of Our City Choir. He’s on the YIGBY task force focused on faith-based properties to build affordable and low-income housing for people in need.

He doesn’t take my own adversarial approach to local anti-homeless vigilante groups, but he says he supports people who want to keep their communities safe. He also doesn’t know much about the anti-homeless groups quoted in a recent mediocre, poorly written profile by Channel 8’s Abbie Alford.

However, Brady does see a need for informed interdictions regarding unsheltered people.

By Brett Warnke

In a sloppy, half-baked under-sourced brief, Channel 8’s Abbie Alford became San Diego’s publicist for the worst quarter of Ocean Beach, a vigilante group of homeless-haters.

Characterizing the group in her story as “fed up with troublemaking homeless,” Ms. Alford’s first paragraph claims the so-called “community group” puts “troublemakers on notice.” She includes a bland statement from Jen Campbell’s office and a series of tactics and quotes by the group as well as a smiling picture of them.

Events at the Ocean Beach Green Center

Ocean Beach Green Center, 4862 Voltaire Street, Ocean Beach 92107 oceanbeachgreencenter@gmail.com

October 10th Thursday 7 pm. Film Night “The Human Element”
Every Saturday at 10:00 a.m. Climate Mobilization Coalition Meeting. October 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th
October 24th Thursday 7 pm Jim Bell’s Legacy meetings.

Other Events in Ocean Beach and Point Loma

By Geoff Page

We live in a highly regulated world that often borders on the absurd. There was a great example of this Wednesday at the regular monthly Ocean Beach Planning Board meeting held at the OB Rec Center.

The city of San Diego was there seeking the board’s approval because the city needs a Coastal Development Permit. By itself, that is not unusual but why they needed it was. Some time ago, at least a year ago or maybe two, the city performed an emergency repair on a section of sidewalk. The sidewalk is on the north side of the big, dilapidated apartment building just south of the OB Pier.

Bill Mayo Jr.

William “Bill” Mayo Jr. died at age 93 on September 21 in his home surrounded by his loving family.

Bill was the middle son of three, born in Norfolk, VA, and grew up in the Navy towns of Norfolk, San Diego and Honolulu. Independent by nature, his childhood was full of freedom and adventure.

In 1955, Bill moved back to San Diego with his young, growing family, and was a well respected local fixture in OB and Point Loma for 64 years.

Last week, our good friend Brett Warnke gave a “full-throated defense” for those scooters scattered around about town. He adores them and thinks “they’re the best idea to come to San Diego in a hell of a long time,” and wants to “subsidize thousands more of the damn things in low-income neighborhoods, in addition to more bicycles.”

His rant is all about the technology and eco-friendly advance that will save us from ourselves (rising sea levels, polluted air, etc), but fears we’re about to regulate them and ourselves “backward into a political logjam,” due to our “reactionary debates disguised as ‘progressive’ or ‘safety-concerns’.

Brett does usher in some good ideas – but he misses the main point about scooters