Month: July 2020

Open Letter Invites Campbell, Union and Travel Platform to Next Meeting, July 22 Via Zoom and Facebook

The Board of Directors of the Ocean Beach Town Council has sent Councilwoman Jen Campbell an open letter criticizing the City’s failure to protect beach neighborhoods from short-term vacation rentals, and asks her to stop “excluding beach area constituents” from the conversations on them.

The Board also invited Campbell and other members of the deal concocted between her and the union, Unite HERE and Expedia, one of the largest international short-term vacation rental platforms to attend the next OBTC public meeting to “tell us more about how you intend to enact this proposal.” The meeting takes place July 22 at 7pm. All meetings are held via Zoom with a live broadcast on Facebook.

Here’s the full letter from the Town Council, dated July 15, 2020:

They’re coming in fast and furious. New proposals for the future of San Diego’s Sports Arena and their proponents are flooding the airwaves, blogs, newspapers and websites with their ideas, dreams of profits, and plans for the Midway District.

Here’s a few.

Matt Potter’s piece is a little dated, but just the same, San Diego Reader:

Will Henry Samueli or Phil Anschutz end up with Sports Arena?

More Moores wheels and deals

Who will be the lucky bidder to turn the run-down, city-owned San Diego Sports Arena and dilapidated environs into a glitzy and lucrative forest of new high-rises?

By Norma Damashek / NumbersRunner / July 14, 2020

I have a secret to confess. When I was a little kid and couldn’t figure out how to deal with a really big problem (like, for example, how to get my mom and dad to play nice with one another), a murderous thought sometimes crossed my mind: One of them would have to disappear… permanently. There seemed no other way.

Not very mature of me, I guess. Not too practical, either. Then again, what do you expect from a seven-year old?

But, when adult politicians and wannabe decisionmakers propose options to resolve San Diego problems, would my childish approach be considered a rational, responsible, appropriate course of action?

And yet, two weighty proposals are currently percolating in the bowels of San Diego that–in some screwy way–are as irrational, irresponsible, and counterproductive as anything a reckless seven-year old could dream up.

Anti-voter proposal #1 would put an end to the longstanding ability of San Diego voters to elect their City Attorney–the legal head of city government.

As a former educator – Teacher, Principal, Inservice Director, Assistant Professor, Deputy Director, etc., I cannot understand all the controversy about opening or not opening the schools during this pandemic.

I also cannot understand why the schools have to be opened in August – one of the hottest months of the year. I remember when school didn’t start until after Labor Day, and why it was changed is a mystery to me. If I had my druthers, I would suggest that school end June 30th, and not begin again until October 1st. The reason for that is also some of the reason that I think opening up the schools in a few weeks is ludicrous.

Number one is that when it is hot students do not learn as well.

Granted that some schools are air conditioned; but an equal number are not.

The City of San Diego is holding a webinar on Mayor Faulconer’s “Complete Communities” plan and everyone is invited. It will be from 6 to 8 pm on Thursday, July 16. Prior registration is required. (Links below.)

It’s important for the citizenry to be informed on Faulconer’s initiative and what it’s all about. Please get involved, check it out and check out the criticism.

For background, see these posts about Complete Communities:

• by Vice-chair of OB Planning Board Kevin Hastings;
• by Norma Dameshek, veteran San Diego politics observer;
• by Andrew Keatts, reporter at Voice of San Diego; and
• its rejection by the Community Planning Committee.

Here’s the City’s invite (see links to separate sections of the plan) and its simply sparkling language describing the plan:

At his Monday press briefing, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that California will be rolling back stay-at-home orders, citing continually increasing COVID-19 cases. San Diego County has had 18 community outbreaks over the past week, more than double the state’s acceptable threshold.

All indoor activities around the state now have to cease at

• restaurants,
• breweries,
• wineries.

San Diego County Closures
San Diego is one of 30 counties that also must close additional sectors by midnight Tuesday, July 14 – tonight, including:

• fitness centers,

Here is the agenda for the next meeting of the Peninsula Community Planning Board for Thursday, July 16.

It is being held via Zoom, so you need to register if you wish to participate (see agenda). The meeting begins at 6 pm.

The leaders of San Diego’s community planning committees have rejected Mayor Faulconer’s “Complete Communities” plan, saying it doesn’t reflect the unique nature of San Diego’s neighborhoods, it doesn’t provide sufficient affordable housing and it actually would lead to parkland shortages.

These planning leaders are grouped together into something called the Community Planners Committee, CPC, which is made up of the chairs of all the city’s community planning committees. The CPC held video-conferencing meetings June 30 and July 7, in which aspects of Faulconer’s plan – presented by the city’s Planning Department, were discussed.

Among other dissatisfying parts of the plan to the committee, was the common question: “why the rush?”

by Ernie McCray

The orange faced man in the White House is talking about reopening schools and, in my way of thinking, that just would not be cool.

Jiving aka bullshitting children is something we should never do and opening their schools would be saying to them that everything is cool.

It seems like my work in this area is not yet done as I spent 37 years in San Diego City Schools opposing shining young folks on.

It wasn’t my intention to take on such a task when I began teaching. It was something that came to me out of the blue one day back in the early 60’s when my sixth graders and I were sitting at a school assembly.

A South African exchange student from a high school nearby had us literally “oohing and aahing” as she showed us slides of breathtaking mountains and glistening coastlines and splendid waterfalls and forests and deserts and grassy savannas.

By Richard Riehl

The day after the World Health Organization declared the spread of the virus a pandemic, President Trump addressed the nation from the Oval Office.

“We’re all in this together,” he promised. “We must put politics aside. We must stop the partisanship and unify together as one nation and one family. Acting with compassion and love, we will heal the sick, care for those in need, and emerge from this challenge stronger and more unified than ever before.”

A week later, in his COVID 19 press briefing Trump declared, “I’m a wartime president. That’s what we’re fighting. It’s the invisible enemy. That’s the toughest enemy, the invisible enemy. And we’re going to defeat the invisible enemy.”

By July 3, when the number of cases in the U.S. had skyrocketed to 2,752,704. Trump barely mentioned the invisible enemy in his speech at Mount Rushmore.

The return of Terriers in TV or film may finally be in the works according to one of the stars of the short-lived FX series, Donal Logue.

by Holden Walter-Warner / Screen Rant / July 12, 2020

The return of Terriers may finally be in the works, according to one of the stars of the short-lived series. The show was a comedy-drama that doubled as a crime program, airing for 13 episodes on FX a decade ago. Terriers couldn’t count an audience above a million viewers after the pilot and was subsequently canceled as a result. It was a critical darling, however, and interest in reviving it in some fashion has been rising for years.

Donal Logue, one of Terriers’ stars, is now confirming that a return to Ocean Beach, San Diego may be on the horizon.

By Jim Miller

Silence lives inside the heat. That’s the feeling you get when you drive to the desert and park your car by the side of the road to hike in the morning. You need to keep track of the time so you don’t hike so far that it hits 100 degrees before you return. Even if you don’t get lost, that kind of heat for too long is what makes the desert dangerous in the summer. So, you’re careful but you still go, out toward the hills on a warm morning.

The nice thing is that the further you get from the road, the more distant the sound of the occasional passing car or truck, although this time of year there aren’t many. Then there is nothing but the hum of insects and your feet on the rock and sand.

Step, step, step. One foot after the other in your own particular rhythm.

As you walk you go deep inside yourself even as you lose yourself in the vastness of blue sky and the bright sun flaring off the mountainside in the distance.