Month: July 2020

Editordude: We couldn’t help but elevate the following comments by Paul Webb and Roy McMakin into full-blown “reader rants”. Their writings are worthy of more attention and touch on the Sports Arena redevelopment, the 30 foot height limit, CirculateSD, Jen Campbell and the mayor’s race.

Regarding the Sports Arena Redevelopment ….

By Paul Webb

This is not a case of a developer buying a piece of land, formulating a plan and then going through the entitlements process. This is publicly owned land, and has been for a very long time.

There is absolutely no fundamental necessity for any uses other than public uses on this property. We live in a city, and, in the case of those of us in the Point Loma/OB area, a neighborhood that fails to meet any standards for parkland per 100,000 population put forth by any rating organization. If there is a need for housing, there is also a great need for increasing park land available to the public.

Editordude: I met Erwin Chemerinsky when I took a bar-prep course from him back in 1996, and it was apparent quite quickly then that he had Constitutional Law down pat.

By Erwin Chemerinsky / LA Times / July 30, 2020

Once again, President Trump has shown his ignorance of the Constitution and federal law in raising the question on Twitter of whether the November presidential election should be delayed. To be clear, President Trump has absolutely no legal authority to do this. The date for the election is set by federal statute and can be changed only by Congress.

But that didn’t stop Trump from tweeting on Thursday morning,

“With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”

Trump’s tweet was a shocking display of his authoritarian impulses and his very serious consideration of means to de-legitimize the November election in order to maintain his grip on power, no matter what.

by Robert Weissman / Common Dreams / July 30, 2020

Earlier today [July 30], U.S. President Donald Trump floated by tweet the idea of delaying the November elections.

This is a coup in the making.

Trump’s tweet—now pinned at the top of his Twitter account—says that “Universal Mail-In Voting” means that “2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history.” Thus, he asks, “Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”

By Richard Riehl

Twenty years ago, Karen awakened me in the middle of the night to tell me she had a sharp pain in her stomach. When the pain became unbearable I drove her to the hospital. We discovered she was suffering from a twisted and blocked intestine that would need immediate, life saving, surgery.

I had never felt so helpless in the hours I spent in the waiting room, paging aimlessly through magazines, awaiting the results. Thanks to a very skilled surgeon, Karen was out of the hospital in five days. Today, after 130 days confined to our condo, I’m beginning to feel a little like I did that night, except for the mindless paging through magazines. But the feeling of helplessness is there, the spread of the virus giving no evidence of slowing down. The refusal, by the young and healthy, to wear face coverings and practice social distancing on beaches and in bars, is largely responsible.

The latest example of this occurred on Sunday, July 26, with an estimated 1,250 of the young and healthy gathered on Cardiff Beach

Apparently, a big party broke out last night, Wednesday, after the OB Farmers Market, and flowed over into the lifeguard parking lot.

People were partying, dancing, having a good ol time – perhaps after the traditional drum circle stopped – but hey, guess what? No masks, no distancing. No cares.

The beach communities of San Diego can no longer trust that the organization, Circulate San Diego, is looking out for our interests. Why or why not?

Colin Parent, the group’s Executive Director and General Counsel, penned an article published in Voice of San Diego on July 21 about how great the “public benefits” were in the new proposals for the redevelopment of the Sports Arena area. Parent apparently is a prime mover in one of the proposed developments by Midway Sports & Entertainment District and the Toll Brothers development corporation.

Parent has joined those who are pressuring the rest of us – like Jen Campbell – to get rid of the 30 foot height limit in the Midway District. Here is what he and his two co-writers at the Voice stated:

“… the only way our plan or the competing one will be achieved is if the current 30-foot height limit is removed from the Midway area.

EditorDude: What was going on in OB ten years ago? Here’s one of our first news columns on the OB Rag from July 30, 2010 and it gives us a glimpse into the village’s happenings a decade ago. From everything – Jim Grant’s stunning sunset photos to the OB Library getting a new rug, to the highly-anticipated airing of the new TV series filmed in OB, “Terriers” – to recollections of Dusty Rhodes and Bob Kenny, two men whom parks in OB were named after.

OB Library Gets a New Rug

It was announced at this weeks OB Town Council meeting that the Ocean Beach branch of the library will be getting a new rug. $4,000 from infrastructure funds is being made available for a recarpeting of one of the centers of the community. Plus, the City needs to repair the roof first. First the roof, then the new carpet. Some of us learned that the hard way.

Sunset over the OB Pier – July 14, 2010. Photo by Jim Grant. (Don’t forget to click on the photo to get a slightly larger image.)

“Terriers” airs on September 8th

Tentatively, “Terriers” the comedy private eye TV series filmed this year in OB is set to hit the air waves Wednesday, September 8, at 10pm on FX (according to the OBMA website.)

by Ernie McCray

I’ve always
thought of myself as hip,
up on things,
tuned in, with it, aware.
And then along comes a serious health scare
seemingly out of nowhere
and I’m feeling a bit square,
not so tuned in
and with it
and aware
because when I got word
that we could maybe
bring this deadly disease
to its knees
by wearing masks
and not getting too
close to each other
and washing our hands frequently,

By Colleen O’Connor

It didn’t start with Rex Harrison singing, “Why Can’t A Woman Be More Like a Man?” in My Fair Lady.

It didn’t even start with the classic PoliSci 101 debate between Hobbes and Locke. “Is man basically good or evil?” If “good,” government provides support. If “evil,” rulers deliver punishment.

Oddly, both of these examples of choice, have come together this election cycle.

How? Not just with the COVID-19 macho-mask debate, the President’s abusive tweets and appalling treatment of women, or his hyper masculine reliance on military solutions to all who dare challenge him.

By Carole Cadwalladr / The Guardian / July 26, 2020

In 2016, we didn’t know. We were innocent. We still believed social media connected us and that connections were good. That technology equaled progress. And progress equaled better.

Four years on, we know too much. And yet, it turns out, we understand nothing. We know social media is a bin fire and that the world is burning. But it’s like the pandemic. We understand in outline how bad things could get. But we remain hopelessly human. Relentlessly optimistic. Of course, we believe there’ll be a vaccine. Because there has to be, doesn’t there?

In Facebook’s case, the worst has already happened. We’ve just failed to acknowledge it. Failed to reckon with it. And there’s no vaccine coming to the rescue. In 2016 everything changed. As for 2020… well, we will see.

By Anthony Stiegler / La Jolla Light / July 28, 2020

This is an update about the “Part 150″ study on commercial jet noise associated with departures from San Diego International Airport. On July 20, La Jolla representatives submitted comments and their proposal for coastal community wide noise mitigation. These are the highlights:

Quiet Skies La Jolla retained aeronautical engineering and noise consulting firm ABCX2 to offer noise mitigation opinions and a report. The core recommendation is to implement the “ELSO” procedure (equivalent lateral spacing operations), alternating three departure paths to disperse noise and keep flights farther from our coast and over the ocean.

Four central design principles underly this proposal:

Is It Time to Change Name of Cabrillo National Monument?

Perhaps it’s time for this discussion – should the Cabrillo National Monument name be changed?

New Revelations About 2015 Police Shooting in Midway of Fridoon Nehad

When the board that reviews San Diego Police Department shootings looked into the 2015 shooting of Fridoon Nehad in an alley in the Midway district, it was not allowed to see an outside review of the case,

Former Surfrider Pizza Owner Gina Champion-Cain Pleads Guilty in Massive Ponzi Scheme Case

Local businesswoman Gina Champion-Cain – former owner of OB’s Surfrider Pizza – pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to conspiracy, securities fraud and obstruction of justice,