Month: July 2022

In great news for Obceans, a new California state budget includes $4.5 million to expand the Ocean Beach Library.

A total of $68.5 million is coming to San Diego for projects — $29 million will fund park and recreation projects, $28 million will fund library projects, $7.3 million will fund cultural projects and $4 million will fund projects that promote green jobs and enhance public safety.

Besides the money for the OB Library, other funded projects in San Diego include:

by Ernie McCray

I have to roll my eyes
every time
I hear a reference
to the “Big Lie,”
that compilation
of fabrications
about how an election
was stolen,
how signatures had been forged
along with votes being rigged,
and ballots dropped from the rolls

Here is a recap of the OBTC Wednesday night meeting, July 27. From the OBTC

Public Comment

Dogs – The issue of more dogs being on the non dogs parts of the OB beach has been raised. The San Diego SPCA is supposed to enforce this. Linus from Jenn Campbell’s office has said they are working on getting SPCA to report their actual enforcement of this more accurately and they will be sorting alternative enforcement if it doesn’t improve.

Fireworks Alternative Mike James is organizing an effort to bring a variation of the fourth fireworks back to OB

Gloria Did Make an Ash of Us All

By Mat Wahlstrom

In a city where corruption is standard operating procedure, the agreement approved Tuesday by the City Council on 101 Ash Street stood out as the most blatant screwing of taxpayers in living memory.

While in comparison the Chargers ticket guarantee and the pension fiasco were done in relative secret with the consequences only apparent later, our electeds proceeded in broad daylight under howls of protest to put their own interests above those of their constituents with immediate results.

Our friends at the Point Loma Association newsletter have finally released a story about the so-called “castle tower” that can be viewed from Cañon Street in Point Loma.
One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor. One man’s castle is another’s eyesore!

We never posted the story. We researched it. We teased it. But when the property owner told us he was negotiating to complete the project and requested no publicity, we agreed.

We asked for updates us on his progress. We got none.

A couple weeks back we left him a voice message asking about the castle tower. So far, no response.

There appears to be little (if any) progress on the project in the past three years. Not that there seemed to be much progress in multiple years before.

By Geoff Page

The Peninsula Community Planning Board’s regular monthly meeting, Thursday, July 21, was not an exciting affair, but, as always, there were a couple of interesting moments. The Cañon Street pocket park item was the best and it calls for a review of this park’s weird history.

Before moving on to the park, it is necessary to note, again, that PCPB chair Fred Kosmo, again, opened the Zoom meeting by “warning” people that they were being recorded and “warning” them to be careful what they say. Admonishing people attending a planning board meeting in such a manner has a chilling effect on some people, which is the opposite of what these groups are for. Simply “informing” people that the meeting was being recorded would be sufficient.

By Judi Curry

There is one thing about the San Diego City Council that some people do not realize. The seats on the Council are bi-partisan. Whether the “owner” of that seat is a Democrat or Republican should not make any difference. They are elected to do the best for the community.

Suffice it to say that it is well known that the incumbent is a registered Democrat – and, in my opinion – a “do nothing” Democrat. Yes, I supported her and yes, I even voted for her. When she came out ahead in the most recent primary election I knew I would have to do some investigation into her opponent, because I knew that I would not cast my vote for her again.

The lone Torrey Pine at 4633 Long Branch, saved by local residents along with the OB Rag 11 years ago, now is dead and needs to come down.

After multiple “trimmings” and the cutting off of major limbs over the years by the city, the Torrey — which dominates the block — is now brown and is dangerous to residents and houses along the street.

By Geoff Page

Language School Rowdies

The Midway area sure has its share of problems, the homeless situation being foremost. At the Midway-Pacific Highway Community Planning Group’s regular monthly meeting, Wednesday, July 20, another less publicized problem was discussed: rowdiness at the EF International Language School on Kenyon Street.

The discussion started during the Non-Agenda public comment portion of the meeting when a Midway resident, Denise Vedder, who lives near the school, described a litany of woes involving the students. Mostly, it was the regular stuff like loud noise, late noise, and vomiting in the bushes.

Vedder described various efforts she has made to have something done, with little success. She said the campus only has one security officer who exercises no control at all.

Close observers of the issue knew it would happen. In its latest move on Monday, the San Diego City Council — in an unanimous vote — placed the measure to eliminate the 30-foot height limit in the Midway on the November ballot.

If approved by voters, the measure would wipe out the height limit in a 1,324-acre area of the Midway District that includes the sports arena and nearby city-owned land, and not to the entire Midway.

This is the latest chapter in a saga which Councilmembers Jen Campbell and Chris Cate began

Will the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant Ever Shut Down?

By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press

We thought it was a done deal. The Diablo Canyon nuke plant, the last operating one in the state, located on the central coast near San Luis Obispo, was due to permanently close, one nuclear reactor in 2024, the second the following year.

In 2016, even owner Pacific Gas & Electric agreed to the deal.

But, as the Doors predicted Back in the Daze, “The future’s uncertain and the. end is always near.”

After the resignation of the chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party in early May, a former OBcean and former director of the OB Town Council was selected to become the new acting chair — and that was Rebecca Taylor.

Rebecca had been and still is the party’s Metro West Area Vice Chair.

Will Rodriguez-Kennedy, then-chair of the County Dems, took a leave of absence as the San Diego County District Attorney and Democratic party officials reviewed potential criminal allegations against him. Here is how Taylor is described on the County Democratic Party’s