Month: November 2020

Gas Leak on Cape May Causes Evacuations Sunday

A gas leak forced an evacuation Sunday of an Ocean Beach neighborhood, police said. The leak was reported at about 4:45 p.m. at 4700 Cape May Avenue and the north side of the street was evacuated,

Young Man Fatally Shot in Point Loma Heights

Padre Outfielder Sues Midway’s Strip Club

San Diego Padres outfielder Tommy Pham has sued a Midway District strip club where he was stabbed last month.

Professors Ben Cater, James Wicks examine the history and culture of surfing at Nazarene U.

OB and Pt Loma Restaurants – Bars Join Long List of 2020 Establishments in San Diego Closed for Good

Here’s a list of OB and other local restaurants and bars that have joined a long list of eateries and bars that have closed for good (for various reasons – not all related to COVID-19):

San Diego Highway Man Helped by Hundreds of Locals

Influential Democratic Club Comes Out for Steppe for San Diego City Council President

By Kip Eischen – Secretary, Point Loma/OB Democratic Club

Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe showed us the very best of what a City Council President could be. She has exported the values of her district to the city at large. Thanks to Montgomery Steppe the privacy of San Diegans in all council districts is more respected and the city rests assured that the San Diego Police Department will operate with oversight from their communities.

Montgomery Steppe is ambitious and inclusive in pursuit of solutions to constituents’ needs. When the smart streetlight program infringed on all San Diegans’ privacy rights in yet another lopsided contract that drained taxpayers, Montgomery Steppe effectively worked to defund it. As the community awoke to a reckoning over police practices, Montgomery Steppe turned action into administration; she helped to pass Measure B that coupled effective policing together with an independent community review board.

There are several projects up for review of interest at Wednesday’s Ocean Beach Planning Board. The Board meets at 6 pm and is held virtually via Cisco WebEx – and you can register for the meeting (see below).

Here are items of interest:

• Nimitz I-8 Safety Improvements – on consent agenda;
• Bermuda Beach Access Stairs
• Mariner’s Cove Redevelopment
• All Way Stop at Froude and Cape May

For the first time in OB history – “you are the parade!” says the Ocean Beach Town Council. The village will have a totally unusual pandemic “parade”. The holiday theme this year is, appropriately, “Home for the Holidays.”

Here’s what the OBTC says:

Your favorite “floats” from the classic OB Holiday Parade will be setup in the Dog Beach Parking Lot for you and your family to drive through and view from the comfort (and safety) of your vehicle. Plus – you are welcome to decorate your vehicle to get in on the action!

DETAILS INSIDE

by Ernie McCray

Lately I’ve been thinking of Black kids, Black students, specifically. Thinking of all the teachable moments out in the universe that I would call on to help them shine if I were in the classroom during these times.

And the first thought that came to mind is I would turn them on to what it means to be Black at this very time.

We’d talk about what we’d all just seen this past NBA season, superstars flying through the air slamming monstrous dunks and shooting rainbow 3’s with “Black Lives Matter” sewn into their jerseys.

We’d talk about the significance embedded in a Black woman taking on the role of Vice-president of the United States, the first of her gender to serve in such a capacity.

We’d talk about how Black voters showed up in large numbers, essentially rescuing a drowning democracy.

More than a rumor has it that the famed Ocean Beach Christmas Tree arrives on site at the foot of Newport Avenue Tuesday morning, December 1.

Workers were seen this morning digging up the “manhole” the tree trunk sits in.

By Kathy Blavatt

Autumn is the season when deciduous trees burst into rich hues from red to yellows. We don’t have the full fall colors that the East Coast is known for, but Ocean Beach and Point Loma have many lovely trees such as Sweetgum Tree, Liquid Amber Tree, Decorative Crabapple Tree, and others throughout the committees.

As Winter approaches, these colorful trees drop their colorful frock of leaves and stand bare and dormant through the Winter.

Happy Thanksgiving ! From Ocean Beach.

Judith Starker saw these latest chalk works by Sidewalk Chalk Dad and preserved them for the rest of us.

As large corporations like Walmart, Amazon, and Kroger and other major retailers reap record-breaking profits during the pandemic, the money does not trickle down to their front-line workers. And those workers are demanding hazard pay and upgrade safety procedures during the busy holiday shopping season.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), which represents 900,000 ry employees at chains such as Kroger, Safeway and Giant, urged retailers to do more to protect workers from the virus that has sickened more than 12.3 million Americans earlier this week. At least 131 grocery workers have died of covid-19,

By Colleen O’Connor

Want a graceful prayer for this Thanksgiving? One that will help alleviate all the chaos, the fear, the divisions and the frustration gripping the country? Or just change the topic?

Try quoting the great, Bette Davis’ best lines, in “Now Voyager.”

“Oh, don’t let’s ask for the moon. We’ve already got the stars.”

And do we have them.

Not just the zillions that twinkle the night skies; or the millions of frontline responders lighting up countless hearts in the midst of a pandemic; or the thousands of our neighbors behaving like grown ups, or the hundreds of of our family and friends that keep us optimistic, but also other standout candidates in a chaotic year.

By Patty Jones

I want to share a family secret with you – one long held in the Jones family holiday tradition – on the accepted method of “flipping the bird” at Thanksgiving.

Many years ago my mother stumbled through her early morning Thanksgiving ritual of prepping a huge turkey for the afternoon feast. Before her first cup of coffee she dropped the bird in the roasting pan and shoved it into the oven. A couple of hours later she opened the oven door and she realized she had put it in the pan upside (or breast-side) down. At this point the huge bird was too hot to handle so she basted it, tented it and shoved it back into the oven. The resulting bird has lingered in mouthwatering memory…

By Geoff Page

The two main items of interest at the November 19 regular Thursday monthly meeting of the Peninsula Community Planning Board were two presentations. One presentation was by SANDAG titled the “Central Mobility Hub Project Update.” The other presentation was by the company redeveloping the Mariner’s Cove apartment complex on West Point Loma next to the Barnes Tennis Center.

“Central Mobility Hub Project Update.”

SANDAG was up first and Gia Ballash gave a very polished PowerPoint presentation. One thing that seems very clear is that the idea of large central mobility building on part of the old SPAWAR facility on Pacific Highway has moved far beyond the idea stage. Notice it was “Project” update. Ballash’s presentation was about something that is steamrolling along, with SANDAG leading the charge.

That the process is moving along was evidenced by the $50 million SANDAG has already authorized to pay for preliminary engineering and environmental work. And, this before an actual decision where the hub will go. The clear favorite is at the SPAWAR site but a second, less favorable possible location is just south of Washington Street.