Month: March 2023

By Kathy Blavatt

Photos by Kathy Blavatt

We will remember Winter 2023 as the year we got rain. Months of storms pounded our coastline. On  the upside, there were clear and even sunny days between showers. The clean air provided extraordinary views.

On a clear day, Cabrillo Monument at the tip of the Point Loma Peninsula is the primo local spot for views of San Diego, Mexico, and the ocean.

As I ventured to Cabrillo Monument for a hike, I was tantalized by the juxtaposed details of the far-off mountains that contrasted with the downtown urban center and the Coronado Cays.

Days earlier, at other viewpoints to the North, I could see snow on the mountains as far as Big Bear.

by Ernie McCray

I’m almost 85.
And with more years behind me
than ahead of me
I am thankful
to still be alive
and to have been brought to life
by a mother who
loved and befriended me
and guided me
towards a nice path
to take on my life’s journey,
a voyage
I’m thankful for
just for the gifts
that have been bestowed on me:

The Golden State can only stand up to its formidable climate disasters if it fully commits to its climate initiatives.

By David Helvarg / The Progressive / March 23, 2023

Ten years ago, I wrote a book called The Golden Shore: California’s Love Affair with the Sea. Back then, I suggested that California, with almost forty million people and the world’s fifth largest economy, was proof that you could grow a progressive society while protecting your coast and ocean—and that the two are intrinsically linked. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that the book “just might make you feel optimistic about the future.”

Well, that future has arrived and I’m less optimistic.

By Maggie McCann / SOHO / March-April 2023 Newsletter

After ill-conceived actions by the City of San Diego, Kensington’s parkways still retain 30 of the original California pepper trees planted when the subdivision was mapped in 1910.

When neighbors first proposed that the City designate the trees under Council Policy 900-19’s Conserve-a-Tree program as heritage trees, 37 trees were alive and doing fine. The City has since suspended the program, claiming that having trees designated as historic would cause them California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) problems. As if that’s a bad thing.

From Peninsula News / March 23, 2023

PLA member and former Officer, Ted Walker, attended the Port of San Diego’s public comment presentation concerning oversized vehicle parking at the Port’s Administrative Offices on March 16th.   The Port’s parking consultant presented the proposed regulation intended to address oversize vehicle parking on waterfront property, with particular focus on Shelter Island.

The city has announced that owner Dominic Ballerino has applied for a Coastal Development Permit to construct a new 3-story, 4,631 square foot building at 2077 Cable Street in OB.

The new buildings would include:

• a dwelling unit, laundry, and 2-car garage on the first level, and
• two 2-story accessory dwelling units on the second and third floors
• with a roof deck.

By Camden Painton / The Point / March 22, 2023

Marilyn Mulero was 21 years old when she received her execution date.

On May 12, 1992, two members of the Latin Kings gang were shot and killed in a bathroom in Humboldt Park in Chicago. There was one eyewitness to the shooting. The witness claimed to see a woman hand Mulero a gun, who then shot a man dead at midnight. Mulero was picked up by police the next evening and brought into the station, where she was denied legal representation and questioned for over nine hours.

Without counsel or sleep, Mulero signed a prepared statement that implicated her for both murders.

By Frank Gormlie

After decades of existance, the community planning boards of San Diego were delivered a devastating shock last September 13, 2022, when the City Council passed a breath-taking tsunami of so-called “reforms” that laid out a blueprint for the demolition of the city’s current 42 citizen volunteer planning panels.

In my post from yesterday, I outlined the 3 main methods the city will use to dismantle San Diego’s community planning boards.
None of this is hyperbole. Here is the language at the city’s Planning Department website page under “Community Planning Group Reform“:

By Kathy Blavatt / March 23, 2023

All Photos by Kathy Blavatt

This was not a traditional Grunion run, this was storm damage from a high tide and huge waves. Because of the high tide and waves up to 12 feet, Grunion washed in and were stuck in a new pond at North O.B. almost to the parking lot.

By Midnight Toker

Very briefly, here is how the State of California set up the licensed marijuana industry to fail.

Here is the receipt I received after purchasing an eight of an ounce (3.5 grams) of decent cannabis flower recently at a licensed dispensary (not in the city of San Diego):

The City of San Diego is holding a community workshop on the OB Pier renewal Saturday, April 1 at the Liberty Station Conference Center.

Presentations will be given at noon and at 2 pm followed by “self-paced interactive workshops” about the condition of the pier and for community input on “its potential renewal.” This workshop will be the first in a series of public meetings about the pier and “options for the structure.”

By Frank Gormlie

Last September, the San Diego City Council enacted a series of what they called “reforms” to supposedly make local community planning boards or groups “more independent” and the development review process more “streamlined.”

In truth, as the Rag and our writers Geoff Page and Mat Wahlstrom have been warning, is that the city is actually moving to dismantle these volunteer panels, including the Ocean Beach Planning Board — which has been around since 1976, three years shy of half a century. From a review of their writings, the following is offered: