Month: April 2020

Over last weekend, San Diego Police and County Sheriff’s began to enforce orders to stay home and avoid areas, including parks and beaches. San Diego Police issued 16 citations, where Sheriff’s deputies issued 34. And Ocean Beach saw most of those citations written up by San Diego officers. Two were issued by Carlsbad police.

Ten citations were issued in Ocean Beach, including two at Dog Beach and three at Robb Field Skate Park. One citation was issued in the Sunset Cliffs area.

Law enforcement across the County issued 52 citations for violations of the state’s stay-home order, which is intended to keep the public indoors to slow the spread of COVID-19.

By William Parlee / Empire Sports Media / April 6, 2020

Of New York Yankees players, none may have been as irreverent, wild, and loved than David Wells. Wells was cut from a different cloth than most Yankee players. He didn’t care who he threatened, who he offended, or what the Yankee brass thought of him.

He only wanted to be the best pitcher he could be, and he did that, even pitching one of only three perfect games in the Yankee’s 117-year history in 1998.

David Lee Wells was born on May 20, 1963, in Torrance, California.

By Joni Halpern

Today there is a thin crust of magnanimity covering the stone-cold heart of the American taxpayer. In this moment of chilling necessity and shared danger, we are willing to allow our government to deliver monetary help to individuals and business owners who have been shut out of their livelihoods.

Maybe some of us will even send money to food pantries, sew masks for hospital workers, or share essentials among neighbors and extended families. Maybe we will shout our thanks from our balconies to first responders and medical personnel. We surely will pray for the nation’s rescue from the deathly grip of this pandemic, and also that enough ventilators are on hand if we are stricken.

By Jim Miller

When everything is disrupted and normal routine falls apart, sometimes we are able to see things more clearly. In the midst of this pandemic, what I am reminded of is the fundamentally transitory nature of everything that is. Of course, at base, what a plague rudely brings to the forefront of one’s consciousness is that death is our final appointment. No matter what we do, however much money we make or recognition we receive, in the end, we are just dust.

Ancient wisdom traditions have known this for a long time. As one Buddhist formulation puts it:

I am subject to aging. There is no way to avoid aging.

I am subject to ill health. There is no way to avoid illness.

By Joaquin Antique

Things continue to get weirder in Ocean Beach as the Covid 19 virus ramps up and the response becomes more serious.

It sounds like the new normal is going to be required masks for people who are outside of their homes. Police officers and traffic control officers continue to block access to beach parking lots, parks, trails, and the shoreline.

Most businesses are shuttered but a few restaurants continue to offer food and brew to go. Count Poma’s, Bar 1502, OB Kabob, Hungry Lu’s, Culture, Hess, and the Third Corner among them.

This reporter went on walkabout on 4/2/20 and took the accompanying pictures. Strict social distancing was maintained at all times. Other people walking around were almost all keeping a distance from each other and most had a smile and kind word for their fellow community members.

On Wednesday night, April 1, the OB Planning Board tried to hold their public meeting via Zoom. But after about 5 minutes into the virtual meeting, it was – what’s called “Zoom Bombed”. The number of “attendees” suddenly spiked, Chair Andrea Schalgeter lost host controls, swastikas appeared, a porn website screen appeared and Board members were “verbally harassed by name”, according to Schalgeter.

As you can imagine, the meeting came to a grinding halt. The incident was reported to the San Diego police and Schalgeter has been in contact with the City Attorney’s Office.

This is not the first time a virtual meeting via Zoom has been disrupted with swastikas and porn.

Here below is Andrea’s report about the incident to the community, written April 2:

This is the second map of San Diego County COVID-19 cases by zip code per capita.

by Ernie McCray

Out of fear
and despair
there are folks
on their knees
in prayer,
pleading for a return
to normalcy
when this nightmarish
coronavirus
health scare
allows us to breathe
more easily –

By Colleen O’Connor

With every crisis comes an opportunity. This opportunity arrives once in a century.

Forget massive funding needs, scarce special equipment requirements, or rare skill sets. This coronavirus opportunity is easier to fix. It only requires common sense and some hustle, and it can create “workforce-demand” jobs instantly.

There are very few people or cars clogging the streets and sidewalks. Take advantage of those near ghost town conditions in our city of more than 1.3 million people. Use this break wisely. Use it to clean the City.

Not everyone has been a stay-at-home recluse these days. A large Ocean Beach apartment complex has just been sold for $5.4 million.

The complex at 4802 Orchard Avenue has 16 two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartments. The rather bland looking building dominates the intersection at Orchard and Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. A more recent promo photo, we believe, shows the large palm tree with a serious hair cut.

Here is a map of San Diego County’s COVID-19 cases based on the 2010 census population for each zip code as of March 31. OB’s own Kevin Hastings created it and plans to update it as long as no one else puts one together.

Also, inewsource has put together a series of maps of populations at highest risk of COVID-19 complications in San Diego County. Here’s what they say:

Here are lyrics to “Fight The Virus”; they just need a tune. Please set to music and sing out your window and on the internet.

Song to Victory

By Jim of Venice, California

Our invisible enemy
strides the Earth
killing us without a thought
and seeking new victims
in every land.

But we shall win this war
and rejoice across the world.
We don’t need bombs and nukes,
we fight with love and care
for family, friends and strangers.