News From Ocean Beach and Point Loma – Early July 2020

Photo by Charles Landon of StudioCapeMay

Motorcyclist Hits and Runs After Striking Pedestrian on Voltaire

San Diego police were searching for a motorcyclist who they said struck and seriously injured a pedestrian in Ocean Beach before fleeing the scene. The crash happened around 8:40 p.m. July 5 on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard near Voltaire Street, Officer John Buttle said. A man was riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle north on Sunset Cliffs in heavy traffic when several vehicles stopped in front of him at a red light at Voltaire, Buttle said. The motorcyclist moved to the left and began passing the stopped vehicles when a 26-year-old man on the east side of Sunset Cliffs Boulevard began crossing the road between stopped vehicles and was struck by the motorcycle, the officer said. The pedestrian was taken to a hospital for treatment of a dislocated hip, Buttle said. The motorcyclist fled the scene, leaving his female passenger behind, the officer said. PL Monthly

‘Day-After’ Mess Cleaned-Up by Surfrider Volunteers, Again

Volunteers on Sunday, July 5, picked up trash at San Diego beaches left by Fourth of July revelers in the Surfrider Foundation San Diego County “Morning After Mess” cleanup, organizers said. Ocean Beach, Mission Beach and Pacific Beach were targeted by more than 60 volunteers, said Roberta Reilly of the local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, an organization that promotes protection of the ocean and beaches. “This morning went pretty well from what I’ve seen so far,” Reilly said. “I’m stationed in Ocean Beach and we had a little Surfrider crew out doing a cleanup at OB Pier along the grass patches. This morning in OB I saw around 10-15 people doing their own solo cleanups, which was awesome to see.”

Reilly said Ocean Beach wasn’t too crowded Saturday night so  the trash wasn’t unusually bad, aside from lots of fireworks packaging and fragments.
“I’ve been hearing Mission Beach and Pacific Beach are a bit worse off this morning,” she said. “Luckily a lot of volunteers signed up to do those areas.”
Reilly said the Surfrider Foundation compiles data sheets during beach cleanups to track what kind of trash and how much of different items are picked up. She said that data might be available at the end of the day. “From what I have seen so far from the few data sheets sent in it looks like cigarette butts are the hot commodity across the board along with fireworks fragments,” Reilly said. “The cigarette butts are not uncommon. They are our No. 1 found item at cleanups.” Volunteers were also encouraged to clean their local parks and neighborhoods, not just the beach, Reilly said.
“Litter all over San Diego County goes down the sewage and water drains and ends up in the ocean,” Reilly said. CBS8

Kelly Lowry, new principal at PLHS

New Principal Named for Point Loma High: Kelly Lowry

The San Diego Unified School District has named Kelly Lowry as the new principal at Point Loma High School. Lowry has served as vice principal at the school since the death of previous vice principal Kevin Gormly. He replaces former principal Hans Becker who has moved to the top position at Rancho Bernardo High School. Lowry assumes the reins at the 95-year-old old school that is currently undergoing a whole site modernization. In addition, questions remain about the opening of classes and campus activities for the 2020-21 school year due to coronavirus crisis restrictions.

State Asked San Diego to Close Beach Parking Lots for the Fourth, But ‘Oh, sorry, we didn’t have enough warning’ Claims Local Official

The California Office of Emergency Services sent a letter to city officials in San Diego, Imperial Beach, Coronado, Del Mar, Solana Beach, Encinitas, Carlsbad and Oceanside imploring them to also close beach parking lots. Carlsbad, Encinitas and Oceanside have complied with the request, but Imperial Beach, Coronado, San Diego, Del Mar, Solana Beach and Encinitas said their beach parking lots remain open. The letter on Friday came after California closed parking lots at state beaches through Sunday. Those beaches include Cardiff, Leucadia, Moonlight, San Elijo, Torrey Pines State Beach, San Onofre, Carlsbad State Beach and Silver Strand.

San Diego’s Chief Operating Officer Kris Michell – a holdover from the lame Jerry Sander’s administration – said in a statement Saturday that California officials didn’t give the city enough time to put in place a beach parking lot shutdown for the Fourth. Wwaaaa! Times of San Diego

Photo of Crowds on Ocean Beach Without Masks Goes Viral

A Reuters photo of a crowded Ocean Beach from July 3 has gone viral, accompanying articles about the failure of Southern Californians to adhere to safe practices amid the pandemic, thus spreading it even more.

OB’s BBQ House Bar & Grill in the News

BBQ House Bar and Grill has been operating in Ocean Beach for 30 years. One of the owners, Melvin Atallah, said the past few months have been frustrating, as he tries to keep up with ever-changing public health orders. “It’s been a struggle going through it all,” said Atallah. “Making sure everyone’s social distancing, wearing masks.” Atallah said his business suffered the most when beaches were closed, and restaurants were only required to offer take-out. “Business had dropped 60 to 80% on some days,” Atallah recalled.

Now, he’s faced with another setback but is brainstorming ways to serve more guests, safely. “We’re talking about shutting down half of our parking lot out back, putting some more tables and chairs out there so we can still allow people to dine-in,” Atallah said. His long-time customers, like Danielle Erwin, originally from Ocean Beach, said they’re doing their part to support small businesses during this challenging time. “Heartbreaking. It’s so sad. If it doesn’t affect you, you don’t really think about it. But some of my favorite places I still try and go to, to make sure they don’t close down,” Erwin said. NBCSanDiego

Photo by Charles Landon of StudioCapeMay

OB and Point Loma Beach Report Card

Beaches in Point Loma and Ocean Beach got mostly A’s on the 30th annual Beach Report Card issued June 30 by nonprofit environmental group Heal the Bay, which assigns letter grades to beaches based on bacteria levels found in water samples throughout the year. However, Sunset Cliffs near Ladera Street received a D for conditions in wet weather.

The report ranks beach water conditions in winter dry weather, summer dry weather and wet weather. Bacteria levels typically spike during and after storms, when rainfall washes contaminants down creeks and storm drains into the surf zone. Here’s how Ocean Beach and Point Loma beaches fared on the report card, with grades listed in order of summer dry weather, winter dry weather and wet weather:

• Point Loma Lighthouse: no grade, A, A
• Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant: no grade, A+, A
• Sunset Cliffs, near Ladera Street: no grade, A, D
• Ocean Beach, near Bermuda Avenue: no grade, A, B
• Ocean Beach Pier, near Narragansett Avenue: no grade, A, A
• Ocean Beach Pier, near Newport Avenue: no grade, A, A
• Ocean Beach, Stub Jetty: no grade, A, A
• Ocean Beach, near San Diego River: A, A, A

San Diego County beaches scored slightly lower for dry conditions, with 90 percent getting A or B grades in summer and 88 percent in winter. However, the county fared better than the statewide average in wet weather, with 82 percent of beaches earning A’s or B’s. Several North County beaches claimed top marks, while southern beaches showed more problems with pollution. The report card “honor roll,” which highlights sites that scored A+ for all seasons and weather conditions, this year has 10 North County beaches on the list. Point Loma Monthly

Lynn Reaser, Conservative Economist at Point Loma Nazarene Doesn’t Want the $600 Unemployment Relief to Continue

The San Diego U-T and other media love to trot out Point Loma Nazarene’s reactionary economist every time there’s a question to answer. And Reaser never fails to deliver. She’s consistently reactionary in her viewpoints about the US and San Diego economy. The latest query posed to her (and others) was whether “Should the $600 in extra unemployment benefits be extended past July?” Here’s Reaser’s response:

NO: While extra unemployment benefits should be extended, the program should be improved to prevent individuals from being penalized for taking a job. A proposed change recommended by leading economists from both parties would link benefits to individual state programs with caps to prevent a favoring of joblessness over work. The program would also be better targeted by tying benefit levels to state jobless rates. Work incentives would be further boosted by raising the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Cesarina Temporarily Closes Due to Employee With Positive COVID Test,

Cesarina, a popular Italian restaurant in Point Loma, has closed after learning that a “front of house” employee contracted COVID-19. The eatery shared the news on social media Wednesday, stating that the employee’s last shift was on Sunday, June 28, and that he had passed temperature and symptom checks before starting work. Later, he realized he had come into contact with someone who had the virus, and received a positive test of his own. Fox5

Midway Planners Find Something That Stinks – RV Waste

In June, Midway-Pacific Highway Community Planning Group vetted a recurring and worsening problem: RV dwellers living out of their vehicles disposing of waste in the area. “People are not only living here, but they’re also dumping their emergency holding tanks and oil and cleaning agents into the street, even into Channel Way, a new street just redone, which is completely illegal,” said board member Tod Howarth. “Some people are dumping white paint down the center of the street and it went into the drainage. It’s almost like a biohazard, as well as a blight.” Howarth noted that the City has relaxed enforcement of its vehicle habitation and oversized vehicle ordinances the past three months during the pandemic. “How long is this going to go on?” asked Howarth. “Where did all those (enforcement) resources go?”

A 1983 City ordinance prohibits residents from living in a vehicle on streets within city limits. That ordinance was briefly overturned recently, only to be reinstated due to residents’ concerns about strangers living in their neighborhoods. Disabled rights attorney Ann Menasche has since filed a class-action lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of forbidding vehicle occupation within City limits. The Beacon

Former OB Yoga Teacher Ends Up in Jamestown

The Island Heron, the yoga studio has been acquired by Liz Oliver, a California transplant who relocated to Newport in 2019. She purchased the business June 1 from co-founder Heidi Doyle. “I love the personal journey that yoga is, physically, mentally and emotionally,” she said. Oliver, who began taking classes at Island Heron in December, started to practice yoga as a teenager and became a certified teacher in 2016. Before her cross-country move, she taught the Western system of physical postures, breathing techniques and meditation in the Ocean Beach neighborhood of San Diego. According to Oliver, yoga “never gets tiresome because you always show up to your mat in a different way, every day.”

OBceans Warn About Dangers and Harmful Noise of Illegal Fireworks

Loud booms, homes shaking, frightened dogs. San Diego joins a nationwide trend where calls for illegal fireworks are exploding.
Anyone caught lighting off fireworks faces up to a $10,000 fine, but that hasn’t stopped the many igniting explosives across San Diego County.
“You’re not prepared for them, and you can’t drown the noise out, and it’s quite scary for all the animals,” said Ocean Beach dog mom, Jill Pagliuso.
She shared video of her dog Tank frightened after several nights of loud fireworks and possible M-80’s. “He is 115 pounds and one of those M-80’s go off and he will try to put himself by the couch and a coffee table and he drools and pants and shakes and vibrates. It’s a terrible sight to see,” said Pagliuso. …

San Diego police said they have not made any arrest, citations or seizures. They say on many calls neighbors report only hearing what sounds like a firework and do not know location. “It’s horrible experience, one I haven’t experienced before,” said Pagliuso. Whether the lesson of not playing with fireworks comes from watching a traumatized dog, the fear of causing a destructive fire or missing a thumb, Casper Sharp in Ocean Beach recommends you don’t play with explosives, “Check this out, from an M-80 when I was 21 blew it off.” CBS8