November 2022

City Tries to Hide Its Embarrassment as Applicants for Short-Term Rental Licenses Fall Way Lower than Expectations

November 30, 2022 by Frank Gormlie

The city of San Diego is trying to hide its embarrassment as applications for short-term rental licenses have fallen way short of its expectations. The city was going to conduct a “lottery” on December 16 to see which STVR hosts get licenses, thinking the city would be swamped with applications from the estimated 16,000 whole homes that were being used as short-term rentals for more than 20 days per year.

But, as of the day before today’s deadline to apply, there were “less than 5,400 applications,”

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High Tech High’s Union Reaches Impasse With Board of Trustees

November 30, 2022 by Source

At a High Tech High Board of Trustees meeting in mid-November in Point Loma, the union that represents the school’s union and school management reached agreement on most points, including pay and health benefits, but deadlocked on the final points, according to Voice of San Diego.

It was the first board meeting since 89 percent of the union’s members approved a resolution of no confidence in the board as negotiations stalled. The union “no longer has confidence in the High Tech High Board of Trustees’ ability to lead our schools

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University of California Strike Enters 3rd Week — Some Tentative Agreements Reached

November 30, 2022 by Source

By Amy Graff / SFGATE / Nov. 29, 2022

After a grueling 15-day labor walkout by 48,000 academic workers at the University of California, two of the four groups striking announced Tuesday that they reached a tentative agreement that includes wage increases, officials said.

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Prefabricated Housing Construction Could Lower Home Prices in San Diego

November 30, 2022 by Source

By Jacob Aere / KPBS / Nov. 29, 2022

A prefabricated house may look like most other modern homes, but the process to get there is rather different.

“Prefabricated simply means that it’s built in a factory off-site. People sometimes confuse the terminology — modular is a term we use in the industry, it’s built in sections in a factory (and) delivered to the site for assembly,” Todd Kesseler said. Kesseler is the president of USModular Inc., a company that specializes in manufactured and modular housing.

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‘My Winning Predictions From Previous Years’

November 30, 2022 by Source

Part 1

By Colleen O’Connor

Admittedly, there is little better than a 50% chance of being correct, but here are a few self-evident winners from previous years.

Best Prediction: “There will be a woman on the Democratic 2020 presidential ticket. Why? Because Nancy Pelosi will insist and California will deliver. That candidate will be Kamala Harris.”

Enduring Prediction: “Majority Senate Leader, Schumer, will be a surprisingly strong legislative leader.  He will check Biden’s “come together” moments, while delivering legislative victories for Democrats via the reconciliation process.” Proof: 2022 midterm Senate wins.

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OB’s Christmas Tree Arrives

November 30, 2022 by Staff

The Christmas tree for Ocean Beach arrived early Tuesday morning and the 65-foot tree was erected at the foot of Newport Avenue. It had just been chopped down that morning from a home  in the Midway District.

It’s the 42nd year of the annual tradition for the village. Unlike other years, however, it not only had a police escort as it was hauled to OB, but had a large police officer presence at its erection. In fact, officers from SDPD made up a large portion of the small crowd that witnessed the event.

Corey Bruins, president of the OB Town Council, was interviewed by Fox5 News:

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Autumn’s Dance

November 29, 2022 by Source

Poem and Photos by Kathy Blavatt

Days’ glow shortens as Autumns sunsets grow more spectacular as fiery skies reflect on the mirrored waters.

Silhouetted palms reach over the horizon as the breeze sways the lanky trunk bodies in dance to the fronds’ clap.

The sky subsides into pastels, then darkness, as tides change the glassy waters into a rumbling of waves.

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Without a Quorum or Proper Procedures for Minutes and Review, It’s Business as Usual With Midway Planners

November 29, 2022 by Source

By Geoff Page

A person attending a Midway-Pacific Highway Community Planning Group’s regular monthly meeting for the first time might have found a number of things about the November 16 meeting to be puzzling. The meeting was really illustrative of this “community planning group.”

Taking Roll

The puzzling would have begun with taking roll. Chair Dike Anyiwo took roll counting six group members present. Anyiwo determined that was a quorum.

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Parents and Staff Given Week’s Notice Before Child Care Center in OB Closed

November 29, 2022 by Staff

A week before Thanksgiving, parents were told that Honey Bear Daycare and Child Care Center would be closing for good the day before T-day. The day care center at 4426 Mentone Street has been in existence for 55 years, so it was quite a shock to parents — and staff.

Teachers were given a week’s notice to find a new job — which was very abrupt but even worse because it was during the holidays.

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New Local Coffee House to Break the US Bank

November 29, 2022 by Frank Gormlie

A locally-owned coffee house is moving into the former US Bank at 4827 Newport Avenue in OB. Spill the Beans is apparently on a binge; it currently has two locations in Gaslamp and Seaport Village, and is set to open their Ocean Beach and Mission Valley locations next year.

Their website doesn’t give out too many details, but offers this:

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What Thanksgiving Has Meant to Me for a Very Long Time (Thoughts After the Holiday)

November 29, 2022 by Ernie McCray

By Ernie McCray

I’ve always taken
Thanksgiving Day
literally
as a time to be thankful,
to be grateful
for just being,
having nothing to do
with colonizing Pilgrims
breaking bread with Indians
or any such thing
and as I look back at my memories
of Thanksgiving
with my family

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OB’s Ranting ‘Whistler’ At It Again – This Time in Maricopa County, Arizona

November 28, 2022 by Frank Gormlie

OB’s ranting “Whistler” has been at it again. This time, he traveled to Maricopa County in Arizona and yelled “election fraud” at the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors last week, despite evidence that both Maricopa County and statewide elections were fair and free from fraud.

Matt Baker, if you recalled, received national notoriety back in August 2021 when he addressed the San Diego County Board of Supervisors by whistling and yelling at them about COVID mandates.

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‘Jingle All the Waves to the OB Holiday Parade’ – Sat., Dec. 3

November 28, 2022 by Source

From OBTC:

The OB Holiday Parade will be on Newport Ave between Sunset Cliffs and Abbott Saturday, December 3 • 5:05 PM.

Each year on the first Saturday in December we gather as a neighborhood to celebrate community, honor history, and mark the beginning of the holiday season in Ocean Beach. The Ocean Beach Town Council is proud to continue this long standing tradition with this year’s 43rd OB Holiday Parade with the theme Jingle All The Waves.

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Assailants of OB Man Still Not Caught After 10 Days

November 28, 2022 by Frank Gormlie

The small group of assailants of an OB man ten days ago all caught on surveillance video have still not been caught by police.

On Friday, Nov. 18, around 9:30 pm, Woody Boethel was jumped by about five people — all assumed to be houseless — out in front of Hodad’s. The assault was captured by a Hodads videocam and many viewers have since watched the brutal beating.

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Mike Davis: A Southern Californian Visionary

November 23, 2022 by Frank Gormlie

Many were saddened when they heard that Mike Davis had passed back in late October. Davis was an activist and historian with a San Diego connection and, as Thomas Reifer in a thoughtful tribute in the Union-Tribune wrote, “embodied a rare combination of brilliance, storytelling and committed scholar activism.”

He is probably most famous for publishing the “City of Quartz: Excavating the Future of Los Angeles,”in 1990, which since has become a “bible” at architectural schools. Then came his “Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster.” And many more.

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Restaurant Review : Himalayan Palace Restaurant in the Midway

November 23, 2022 by Judi Curry

Restaurant Review

Himalayan Palace Restaurant
3760 Sports Arena Blvd. #5
The Midway District off San Diego, CA 92110
619-510-4966

By Judi Curry

A funny thing happened on our way to eat at an Indian restaurant. My daughter Stephanie and I decided to go to our favorite Indian restaurant on Midway and easily found a parking space right in front. We walked into the restaurant and saw a group of people standing in line but no movement.  Like sheep, we also got in line. But they weren’t seating anyone.

Since we were both craving Indian food, I remembered that there was an Indian restaurant just behind the Red Lobster on Sports Arena and we decided to go there instead — the Himalayan Palace. 

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Chula Vista’s Discovery Park to Be Renamed Kumeyaay Park

November 22, 2022 by Frank Gormlie

Three weeks ago, the Chula Vista City Council did something very cool and very historic. On November 2, they unanimously approved the renaming of Discovery Park in the Rancho del Rey Community to Kumeyaay Park of Chula Vista. They said the designation recognizes the Kumeyaay people, who are native to the region with 13 reservations.

A Christopher Columbus statue stood in the park for 30 years but was removed and placed in storage two years ago after repeatedly being targeted by somebody who obviously wasn’t down with the forefather of the genocide of America’s indigenous peoples being displayed in the park.

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Thoughts on Bicycle Lanes in the Peninsula

November 22, 2022 by Source

Editordude: The following by Paul Grimes is taken from a couple of comments he made to Geoff Page’s post that spoke of bicycling in the Peninsula.

By Paul Grimes

I could see k-rails going onto a street like Nimitz due to speed and few cross streets to contend with. The city needs to qualify such installations by traffic volume, speed, available width, curb cuts, intersections, and bike usage

The last one doesn’t seem to be on the radar – the other day I walked from Voltaire to Rosecrans via Wabaska and Nimitz. In that roughly 30-minute hike I saw 1 bike in the expensively provided protected bike lane on what bikers call a major bike thoroughfare to move across San Diego.

There appears to be no real plan to build a network and no real standard for which type of bike facility the city installs.

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The Future Is Luminosity — Newsletter Nov. 2022

November 22, 2022 by Source


Here is the Luminosity Newsletter for November 2022.

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Reader’s Rant: ‘As a Consumer, I’m Against the Proposed Merger of Ralphs and Vons.’

November 22, 2022 by Source

By Deborah Porter

I haven’t seen much chatter about the proposed merger of Ralphs and Vons, but I think it will not benefit any of us and in fact could cause higher prices, fewer stores, less variety and fewer choices for the consumers of San Diego. I have posted some comments on Nextdoor and predictably have gotten informative responses as well as people blaming kids from the high schools of stealing food causing higher prices.

I’m not trying to food fight inflation (useless to try), or denigrate the large grocery options here, it is just that I think that for the average consumer — who may not have a Walmart nearby (we don’t), or cannot go to Costco for their groceries, or prefer to not pay the higher prices at Jensens, Lazy Acres, Target etc. — should rally against this merger. The average consumer cannot afford the higher cost premium grocery stores, and Costco may not make sense for small families.

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New House GOP Agenda – Legislating or Just Irritating?

November 21, 2022 by Source

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New Book: 50 Year Anniversary of ‘Race Riot’ Aboard Aircraft Carrier Kitty Hawk — Only Black Sailors Punished

November 21, 2022 by Source

New book by Navy lawyer who defended accused Black sailors documents one-sided investigation, dubious testimony and other injustices in case that rocked the military

By John Wilkens / San Diego Union-Tribune / Nov. 20, 2022 (Only for subscribers)

For 50 years, Marv Truhe kept the boxes. He moved from San Diego to South Dakota, from South Dakota to Colorado, and a lot of belongings came and went. Not those boxes. There were five of them, cardboard Bankers Boxes filled with official investigations, witness interviews, medical reports, trial transcripts and other documents from an incident that rocked the U.S. Navy in October 1972: a Black vs. White race riot aboard the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk.

“I knew some day I wanted to tell the full story,” Truhe said.

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The 4th Annual 2022 San Diego Music Hall of Fame Was Held in Ocean Beach

November 21, 2022 by Source

From SDMHF

Our ceremony began with a full house on Veteran’s Day. Our silent auction area was full of awesome items including instruments from Taylor Guitars, Pit Bull Audio, local art, loaded gift baskets and more.

A warm welcome came from Master of Ceremonies, Jefferson Jay, venue host Pastor Mike Quinn, and awesome San Diego musical talents, Gato Papacitos.

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San Diego’s Susan G. Komen Walk: ‘3 Days. 60 Miles. Not As Hard As Breast Cancer’

November 21, 2022 by Source

By Colleen O’Connor

Need more proof than the 2022 election to comprehend the strength, dedication and power of women.

You must have seen them.  Over 1700 women (and men) in all sorts of pink outfits walking, singing, smiling and some dancing, all devoted to eradicating breast cancer.  It was the 18th annual Susan G. Komen 3-Day 60-mile walk to promote awareness and raise funds to save lives. Each participant walked 20 miles a day, raised funds, and camped outdoors overnight.

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Ocean Beach Starbucks to Close Mid-December

November 21, 2022 by Frank Gormlie

The online SanDiegoVille reported on Sunday that the Ocean Beach Starbucks will close by mid-December this year.

It stated:

Starbucks sole Ocean Beach branch will shutter after service on December 12, 2022. Employees will be offered positions at other area stores. Earlier this summer, Starbucks announced the closure of many stores throughout the country due to ongoing safety issues.

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Winners in Bodyboarding Competition Held in Ocean Beach

November 18, 2022 by Source

Vert Magazine / Nov. 16, 2022

The California Bodyboarding Tour 2022 stopped off in Ocean Beach November 12th-13th for the US Festival.

As usual, the event was a get together of the boogie scene in Southern California despite the clean and small waves, with new faces showing up in Ocean Beach but also a couple legends like Jay Reale competing and winning, for the second year in a row, the Masters division.

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Pt. Loma Nazarene Students Contend With Mold in the Dorms

November 18, 2022 by Source

By Sofie Fransen / Lomabeat.com / Nov. 16, 2022

It is November, the time of year when cold weather and cold symptoms prey on students.

Some students, like third-year organizational communications major Bree Brandon, may not be so quick to peg the long-lasting cough as a cold.

Last October, Brandon got a cold that quickly turned into a two-month-long cough, stopping only when she went home to Colorado for Thanksgiving. Her roommate in Finch experienced the same thing. As soon as they returned to Point Loma Nazarene University’s campus, they got sick again. She then realized that her cold symptoms must be attributed to her living conditions.

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‘No Humanity Whatsoever.’ Homeless Mothers and Children Forced to Sleep in Cold After SDPD Tows Vehicles

November 18, 2022 by Source

By Artie Ojeda / 7SanDiego News / November 15, 2022

Two homeless mothers say they were forced to sleep outside in cold, damp weather with their young children after San Diego police towed their vehicles, which they had been using as shelter.

“I explained to them, ‘Please don’t take my vehicle. This is our only shelter.’ And they just didn’t care,” said Lisa, 54, who says she’s been homeless since August. “I was so mad. I was so sad. I was heartbroken. I was frozen in fear,” said June, 41, who’s been homeless for the last year.

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Port of San Diego Ends Lease for Driscoll Marina on Shelter Island

November 18, 2022 by Source

From Peninsula News

Since 1992, the Driscoll family has run this wharf at America’s Cup Harbor. It mainly serves San Diego’s Commercial Fishing Industry.

Over three decades it needed more maintenance than it has received. A Revitalization Plan, for $285k, upgraded a few things in 2013.

Still the fishermen grumbled.

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Councilmember Campbell’s Budget Recommendations Show a Slavish Kowtowing to Bicycle Advocates for Votes

November 18, 2022 by Source

By Geoff Page

After perusing Council member Jennifer Campbell’s September 10, 2022, Memorandum titled “Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Recommendations,” the not-so-shadowy hand of the cycling community becomes immediately apparent. One sentence in particular made this clear and caused a closer look at the memo.

“While flexible bollards are useful for demarcating space for bicyclists, they do not have any stopping power to prevent distracted, impaired, or malicious drivers from hitting bicyclists.”

“Malicious drivers?” Only the cycling advocates would say anything like that and Campbell included it in her budget memo. The closer review of Campbell’s budget memo revealed much more.

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