Month: August 2020

By Karen Pearlman / San Diego Union-Tribune / Aug. 25, 2020

A long-awaited vote on a highly contentious East County housing project has been delayed at the request of the developer, who apparently sensed the 3,000-home development faced some headwinds on the Santee City Council.

Home Fed Fanita Rancho LLC, the applicant for the latest version of the plan for housing off Fanita Parkway above Santee Lakes, asked the city last Thursday to cancel a public hearing scheduled for Wednesday. Jeff O’Connor, HomeFed vice president of community development, said the decision to pull the item after years of planning was made to satisfy concerns about traffic and to free up Councilman Rob McNelis, who could have been barred from voting on the original submission.

Here is some good news. Free health care is returning to Ocean Beach and will be available for the uninsured at two clinics beginning Wednesday, September 2.

The group, Southern California Care Community, is reopening their free medical clinics in OB. One will be the OB1 Clinic at the First Baptist Church on Santa Monica and the other will be the ECC Clinic at the Episcopal Church Center on Sunset Cliffs Blvd.

A whole of medical services will be provided, including adult and pediatric care, chronic disease management, prescription assistance and laboratory services. Each clinic will be open one to two days each weekday to serve unsheltered persons as well as individuals who do not qualify for health insurance.

Originally posted Sept. 27, 2010, brought back by popular demand

By Warren Patch

Ocean Beach has always been a colorful place. The Hippies seem to perpetually reinvent themselves there; long hair, short hair, dread hair, dirty hair, blue hair, no hair, it’s all cool. And tie-dye is still vogue. I buy mine at Sunshine Daydreams on Newport Avenue.

One of the all-time great characters of OB was Clint Carey, alias OB SPACEMAN. He used to sell plots of land on the moon. And he was the only OB’cean who had personally met the “Outer Space People” when they came visiting, and he alone was authorized to sell tickets for spaceship rides when they returned.

By Geoff Page

The Peninsula Community Planning Board held its regular monthly meeting Thursday, August 20, on-line, which is how almost every organization is now meeting. The format works well, the only drawback is the requirement to pre-register on-line. It is necessary to visit the PCPB website at pcpb.net where the on-line registration instructions are prominent.

The PCPB is not the only group that requires pre-registration, this function is being used to prevent unwanted hacking and interruptions of the meetings. There is a significant benefit to the on-line forum in that the meetings are fully recorded and posted on You Tube . Subcommittee meetings are also recorded and posted.

Planning Department Rep – where are you?

One of the first orders of business was supposed to be an appearance by Tony Kempton from the Planning Department.

Liberty Station North Chapel

One of the most interesting meeting subjects came up in non-agenda public comment.

Join the Ocean Beach Town Council monthly meeting tonight, Wednesday, Aug. 26 and hear from current San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott and candidate for San Diego City Attorney Cory Briggs.

The public meeting will be held on Facebook Live, at 7:00 pm, and will be an interactive Q&A. Participants will have the opportunity to leave comments and suggestions. If you have a specific question for the Mara Elliott or Cory Briggs please share it with the OB Town Council before the meeting at info@obtowncouncil.org.

By Colleen O’Connor

A blockbuster, a disaster-filled melodrama, a much-anticipated showdown between the caped marvels of good and evil; or a horror show in real time or an alternate universe. Something to rival the Matrix or the “Who Shot JR?” summer in Dallas.

Could this really be the final episode of the final season of the Donald Trump Show? Doubtful.

This binge-worthy season just kicked off. So much so, that it has erased the memories of the first three years.

Remember the campaign? The escalator?

Or how about the allegations of Stormy Daniels and 17 other women? And her handsome, fearless attorney, Michael Avenatti?

by Ernie McCray

I’ve been a member of our group, “Being Black in Tucson, AZ,” for a little while now, commenting on a thing or two, but I’ve never introduced myself to you.

That being said I’m an 82-year-old dude who spent the first 24 years of his life “Being Black in Tucson, AZ.” Since then I’ve lived in San Diego which is just an hour away by plane and five hours away by car. I didn’t want to go too far. Because I dearly love my hometown.

For its physical beauty and power that make it a spiritual place for me: hiking trails in Sabino Canyon above refreshing pools and streams; powerful Sonoran winds that you can lean against; frightening monsoons that give the Santa Cruz River a chance to roar; majestic saguaros with their lovely blossoms.

For how far it has come since the Jim Crow days of my youth when people like me were limited as to when we could

The OB Resister Sisters were out hanging their latest sign Monday morning, over the 163 in beautiful Balboa Park.

Their motto is a famous quote from Edmund Burke …

It was hot and humid Saturday in Ocean Beach but still fifty people came out and demonstrated their support for the OB Post Office – and all other Post Offices – against the attacks on our democracy by Trump and postmis-master Louis DeJoy, his hand-picked sycophant.

Organized by Susan Sratton and Frank Gormlie in just a couple of days as part of a national campaign to save the post offices, everyone had masks on and practiced social-distancing.

At one point, most of the demonstrators moved over to the intersection of Sunset Cliffs Blvd and Santa Monica to take advantage of its visibility to passing motorists. Demonstrators with signs stood on every corner of the intersection. There were many thumbs up and horn honking in support.

By Joni Halpern

As a resident of San Diego County, you should be introduced to a woman more important than the President of the United States, more relevant than any celebrity, more powerful than any person of riches.

Her vast talents could not be purchased. Her dedication to excellence, even in the smallest of tasks, was relentless. Her loyalty could only be earned. But if you were the target of injustice, the person who suffered from the unwarranted, heedless acts of those who thought you had no advocates, she was the best friend you could ever have.

She came from humble beginnings, a little place near Guadalajara, working from youth in a home-operated business preparing the foods her mother sold. She had a keen intellect, but she was never allowed to proceed very far in school. Instead, she went to work, turning over her earnings to her mother, keeping only enough for transportation and a few necessities. She could see her future, dismal and uninterrupted by even the smallest surprise of opportunity young people crave. She married, and only months after the birth of her first child, necessity forced the new family to enter the United States without papers.

Restaurant Review

Soi-OB-Thai Street Food
1916 Cable Street
Ocean Beach, CA 92107
619-230-5885
www.SOIOB.COM

By Judi Curry

Hitomi and I had heard a lot about the Soi-OB-Thai since they opened. I like to give a restaurant a chance to get out the “kinks” before I eat there and review it. However, today Hitomi could wait no longer and so we went to the computer and looked up their menu. (She had heard about their North Park location so convinced me that they knew what they were doing.)

There is a very extensive menu, including starters, a variety of soups, pan fried noodles, curries, salads, rice dishes and SOI specials. They have one dessert listed – “mango and sweet stick rice.” It is seasonal, so not always available.

We decided to start with an appetizer, and selected an order of “Shrimp Wraps.” ($7)

By Jim Miller

As we gear up for the horror show that will be the Republican National Convention, a few thoughts on last week’s Democratic affair.

Those of us who, like me, think it is imperative to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election, breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday when Joe Biden delivered the speech of his lifetime and signaled that he might just see himself as a candidate on the cusp of a New Deal moment. Clearly, he is right to view the COVID-19 crisis and the subsequent economic disaster as a moment of profound threat and opportunity.

Biden is similarly spot on to point to the climate crisis and what we need to do to address it