Month: March 2023

By Terrie Best

The inhumane “lock ‘em up and throw away the key” philosophy is being reevaluated in the state of California and it sometimes has startling results. It’s the “throw away” part that has always been crushing to those who watched the harm of mass incarceration over the tough-on-crime decades. But lawmakers are offering hope and it’s working.

California plans to close a whole schedule of prison yards over the course of 3 years and there will be tears of joy and significant fear.  The effects are staggering to some. A lot of prison guards will be out of jobs. Clearly folks’ spirits are better off without a job warehousing others.

Prison cops who get laid off, if they even do, will land on their feet because the California Correctional and Peace Officers Association, a union that protects them, will do their job and the union is powerful.

Beginning in early April, the Ocean Beach Pier Taskforce and city will hold a series of workshops to find out from the public what they want to see and what having a pier in Ocean Beach means to them. The Taskforce will show the public what options they have to either repair, replace, or rebuild a new pier.

But by all accounts, from community leaders, Campbell’s office and city officials, the only real option is to rebuild a brand, new pier.

The OB Rag rarely toots our horn, but it was two years ago in April 2021 that the Rag determined that the iconic structure had to be replaced, not just patched up.  In his seminal April 13, 2021 post, Rag writer Geoff Page claimed, “Unless there’s a miracle, the Ocean Beach Pier is history.” No miracle is expected.

As early as February 2021 Page raised questions about the viability of the pier and its future.

This was after the city had consistently downplayed and even mislead the public about the crumbling status of the pier.

California is now home to more than 171,000 homeless individuals, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a 6.2% increase since 2020.

Roughly 67%, or more than 115,000 are unsheltered meaning that they’re living outside.

If all the state’s homeless individuals lived in one locale, they’d make up the 32nd largest city in California. This may not seem so much. But consider this.

St. Paddy’s O’Beach Party – Friday & Saturday, March 17-18, 2023 – 1 p.m. – 11 p.m.

Ocean Beach Pier Parking Lot, Newport Avenue

From St. Paddy’s O’Beach Party:

“The organizers behind the legendary OB Oktoberfest, announced their beachside event, ‘St. Paddy’s O’Beach Party’ is returning for its second year March 17-18.

Take a good look of the trees in this photo. They’re fairly large, provide lots of shade — and now ….

Take another look at them — they’re all gone and dead.

The massive chop down was discovered by Rag writer Geoff Page today, and here is a brief report:

After storing for 3 years more than a dozen empty trailers meant to be used by homeless people,  San Diego appears ready – finally – to utilize them for a safe parking lot in the Clairemont neighborhood near Rose Canyon.

The 20 trailers were given to the city by the state for the unhoused during the height of the pandemic. But for some reason, the city just stored 13 of them near the city’s Rose Canyon Operations Yard on Morena Boulevard — north of Costco. (It’s unclear where the other 7 are.) So, San Diego’s Trailergate — a minor scandal that no one really cares much about — may soon be over.

California’s second largest reservoir was down to its lowest levels ever recorded in September 2021 (628’).

Incessant parades of atmospheric rivers have almost refilled the 3.5 million acre-foot reservoir by March 2023 (845’).

By Senator Elizabeth Warren / NY Times – Reader Supported News / March 13, 2023

No one should be mistaken about what unfolded over the past few days in the U.S. banking system: These recent bank failures are the direct result of leaders in Washington weakening the financial rules.

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act to protect consumers and ensure that big banks could never again take down the economy and destroy millions of lives. Wall Street chief executives and their armies of lawyers and lobbyists hated this law. They spent millions trying to defeat it, and,

Usually dogs get all the attention. But not this weekend. Cats — especially feral cats — will be the beneficiaries of an art sale this weekend in Ocean Beach.

Hundreds of pieces or art will be on sale to help cats in need.

Stuart Glennon was a lifelong artist in OB and loved cats.  He died on December 23, 2022 at the age of 93.

His daughter Alison Glennon is selling his entire collection to the public and donating all of the money to the Feral Cat Coalition. “He dearly loved cats. He had them his whole life and so I thought that it would be something good to do,” said Alison.

Mt. Laguna late this morning, Thursday, March 16, 2023, from the live cam at Mt Laguna Lodge. Where did all that snow go?