January 2020

One of the largest Ocean Beach apartment complexes in the community has just been sold for $18.3 million.

The 60-unit complex at 4464 Castelar Street in northeast OB was sold to Interstate Enquiries Corp. of Los Altos by the Groebli Revocable Trust of La Jolla. Supposedly the property had never been placed on the open market before.

The Groebli family developed the 45,302 square-foot complex in the early 1970’s and have owned and operated it ever since.

A custodian at Silver Gate Elementary in Point Loma, Sharon Wood, was seriously injured in a hit-and-run incident as she and two others were crossing Sports Arena Boulevard after a Gulls game at Pechanga Arena on January 3. A short time later, a suspect was arrested.

Wood was attending the game with friends and once it was over, they were crossing the 3500 block, reportedly outside the crosswalk. The driver of a silver 2000 Ford Mustang had exited the Home Depot parking lot on the south side of the street, turned right and struck the pedestrians in the No. 2 lane. Ms. Wood suffered a fractured pelvis and left ankle. The others were also injured.

The driver did not stop but continued eastbound on Sports Arena Boulevard.

Editordude: I dragged some ten-year old “news of OB” columns from our archives for your reading pleasure. The news column used to called “OB Flashes” – which is what the news column in the original, newspaper version of the OB Rag was titled back in the first half of the 1970s. So, below are “OB Flashes” from Jan. 4, 2010 and from Jan. 11, 2010.
Fire Pits On the Agenda of OB Planning Board – Jan 6th
The issue of the City’s plans to remove fire pits from San Diego’s beaches will be on the agenda of the next OB Planning Board meeting, scheduled for Wednesday January 6th. The planning board meeting begins at 6 pm and is held at the OB Rec Center located at 4726 Santa Monica Avenue. The issue is listed as Item #2 on the Board’s agenda, which can be viewed at their website.

Recent media attention and local support for saving OB’s fire pits have prompted the Board to raise the City’s plans for their removal as an issue to be discussed. Part of the purview of the Board is OB’s public recreational facilities – and the fire pits certainly would fall under that aspect of their jurisdiction.

From Springboard West:

The Springboard West Music Festival is returning to Ocean Beach this week – January 9 through January 11 – and it’s all about providing aspiring musicians the opportunity to pitch their music to industry professionals plus it brings music lovers an event in what feels like a grassroots “American Idol” or South by Southwest.

The conference begins on January 9 with a two-day Band Bootcamp — an opportunity for emerging artists from all over the U.S. to take the stage and showcase their talents in front of veterans and professionals in the music industry — followed by intimate, VIP unplugged performances.

It looks like Ocean Beach is becoming famous for being the hometown of “heroes” and protagonists in mystery novels these days. Forget “Almost Famous”, forget “Terriers”, for we have author G.M. Ford‘s mystery Heavy on the Dead. It’s hero, Leo Waterman, lives in OB – as does Ford.

And now we have another mystery thriller, The Fourth Rising by Martin Hill where “The hero of The Fourth Rising, Peter Brandt is a war-scarred freelance journalist living in San Diego’s Ocean Beach.”

Hill, a former journalist and military analyst, is the author of seven novels and one book on military history.

Candidate Statements Due January 20

If you’ve mulled over the idea already – or even if you haven’t – now is the time to get somewhat serious about running for a seat on the Ocean Beach Town Council. You know, the folks who put up OB’s Holiday Tree and who run the annual Holiday Parade and who raise thousands of dollars for seniors and needy families.

Well, every year, half their Board is up for grabs – that’s 7 seats. And, there’s an Election Mixer coming up this Thursday night, Jan. 9 at Wonderland. It’s a chance to meet the current Board members.

Friends of Genie Zucchini Phillips have set up a GoFundMe page to raise money to pay for her Celebration of Life. She passed away on December 31 of 2019. (Genie also went by Sapienza.)

Genie’s Celebration of Life has been set for Saturday, January 25, 2020 at the Masonic Center in Ocean Beach.

People’s Cafe Property for Sale

Indeed, the former OB Garden Cafe property is for sale by OB People’s Organic Market. It’s a sad ending to People’s saga for a new vegetarian restaurant. A neighbor told this reporter that he believed the sale price was for $2 million. This has not been confirmed.

It was in 2014 that People’s purchased the property with Tiny’s Tavern and some other structures on the lot. But in January 2015, Tiny’s owner passed away.