May 2023

A Small Miracle — Part II: Video of Portuguese Festa in Point Loma

May 31, 2023 by Source

A Small Miracle: International Film Crew Meets Portuguese Festa in Point Loma Part II: Video

By Colleen O’Connor

Come inside for the Portuguese Festa Video, edited by Danny Cheng–the small miracle.

No need to sign on. Just click on link and wait a few seconds.

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OB Elementary Will Be Launch Site for Luminosity’s July 4th Drone Light Show

May 31, 2023 by Source

Ocean Beach Elementary School has been selected as the venue for the upcoming Fourth of July Drone Light Show. The Luminosity Steering Committee, in collaboration with the City of San Diego, is finalizing details to launch 300 drones from the school premises for the performance.

Initially, Dog Beach was the intended launch site. However, because of nearby sensitive habitats, the location required permits, studies, and applications from multiple government agencies, which caused the group to pivot to OB Elementary for this year.

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Circulate San Diego’s Undue Influence at City Hall and Lobbying for Legislation Violate Non-Profit Rules

May 31, 2023 by Source

By Geoff Page

This piece is an examination of a “non-profit” organization named Circulate San Diego, referred to as CSD here. It claims to be a nonprofit, public benefit corporation doing good for the community by advocating for “active transportation” and walkable neighborhoods.

Research into CSD’s affairs clearly shows a very close association with the San Diego development industry, which is gleefully in lock step with the YIMBY urbanists because they advocate building with no restrictions. CSD is also in lockstep with the current crop of politicians in city hall and it exercises an outsized influence in the affairs of this city.

The problem is that CSD’s operations appear to potentially violate IRS rules governing a tax-exempt organization and California rules for a nonprofit corporation.

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Tina Turner: Simply the Best

May 31, 2023 by Ernie McCray

by Ernie McCray

Tina Turner.
Gone.
I first saw her on stage
around 1957
or ’58,
and it was love at first sight.
Couldn’t help myself,
if I tried with all my might.
Not with the way
she and the Ikettes
moved and grooved

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Action Alert: San Diego Residents Urged to Contact Planning Commission by Thursday, June 1

May 30, 2023 by Source

From Neighbors for a Better San Diego – May 30, 2023

The Mayor’s Planning Department continues its push with the Housing Action Plan (HAP) 2.0, which includes the SB 10 opt-in. The next opportunity to push back against San Diego’s proposed SB 10 implementation is the Planning Commission meeting this Thursday, June 1st, 2023 at 9 AM.

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Coronado Residents Protest Sewage and Contaminated Water

May 30, 2023 by Source

By Megan Kitt / The Coronado Times / May 29, 2023

This year, Memorial Day kicked off a “summer of misery” – at least that’s how Laura Wilkinson Sinton, who is fed up with beach closures related to ongoing Tijuana sewage crisis, describes it.

“What do we want? Stop the poop!” chanted more than 50 people at a protest on Saturday. “When do we want it? Now!”

The protest was organized by Wilkinson Sinton and Marely Ramirez, who pulled it together in just three days after researching the extent of the sewage problem.

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One Love Story Giving Rise to Another

May 30, 2023 by Ernie McCray

by Ernie McCray

I was moving
my old bones
to the music of San Diego’s
Hoover High School Mariachi Band
which put me in a deeply responsive mood
for what was next
that afternoon,
a premiere of
“A Chicano Love Story,”
a documentary
featuring Linda and Carlos LeGerrette,
two of Cesar Chavez’s
most valued right-hand
woman and man.

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A Small Miracle: International Film Crew Meets Portuguese Festa in Point Loma

May 30, 2023 by Source

By Colleen O’Connor

Want some positive news with a great cast of characters?

It was all there in full, glorious color Sunday, May 29, with wonderful moments, and two distinct cultures sharing the sights and sounds of Point Loma’s Festa De Spiritus Sanctus and on full display during the parade route on Avenida del Portugal to St. Agnes Church in Point Loma

A 700-year old tradition that commemorates Portugal’s Queen St. Isable, who (during a famine) promised the Holy Spirit to give her crown to the Church, “if sent a miracle, so my people will be relieved of their hunger.”

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OB Slumlord ‘Transitioning’ Into Short-Term Rental Business

May 26, 2023 by Staff

Michael Mills has a reputation in Ocean Beach among our renter population. He owns over 300 rental units exclusively within OB, and is purchasing more.

These are all multi-family structures ranging from 2 to 37 units.

He is a convicted slumlord, and was forced by the court to turn over management of his rentals to a 3rd party. (For more background on Michael Mills, see this Rag article from 2016.)  Here’s a quote:

Mills owns a lot of property in Ocean Beach – many rental units. And he has a long history buying up properties, raising rents, and maintaining sub-standard living conditions.

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Disappointing Turnout for OB Town Council’s Pier Update — No Word on Pier’s Repair or Re-opening

May 26, 2023 by Source

By Geoff Page

The event noticed here in the OB Rag on Tuesday, May 23rd, titled the “OB Pier Update & Discussion” came off as advertised. It was sponsored by the Ocean Beach Town Council and held at the Point Loma/Hervey Branch Library. As noted in The Rag “(and there’s plenty of parking),” was accurate, but plenty went unoccupied.

The advance notice for this gathering was, unfortunately, not well done as evidenced by the attendance. There were 12 people at the live event and three more attending virtually. While the OBTC’s effort was well-intentioned, the result was a missed opportunity, not a total loss, but underwhelming.

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Transforming NTC Building 178 Into a Performing Arts Center – A Photo Gallery

May 25, 2023 by Source

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Battle Over Northeast Mission Bay: Recent Backlash to City’s Plans Is Against Initial Backlash by Environmentalists

May 25, 2023 by Frank Gormlie

There’s been a battle going on over the future of northeast Mission Bay for at least the last 7 years, but just recently in what the U-T described as “a powerful backlash this spring from tennis players, golfers, boating clubs, campers and supporters of youth sports,” this new push-back appears to be on the late side.

Folks in this backlash claim that “the city’s plan to replace some recreational areas with hundreds of acres of climate-friendly marshland threatens vital local institutions that have been part of San Diego’s civic fiber for more than 50 years.

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Due to City’s Neglect, Local Planning Boards in Point Loma and Ocean Beach Faltering Before Our Eyes

May 24, 2023 by Frank Gormlie

It’s a sad but predictable truth, that the local planning boards of Point Loma — Ocean Beach, Peninsula and Midway — are faltering before our very eyes. And it’s all due to the city of San Diego’s neglect.

Take the following as prima facie evidence of this maddening trend.

Ocean Beach Planning Board

The OB Board has been struggling this past year in maintaining enough members to serve. At their May 3 monthly meeting, “there were only eight of ten board members attending for a board this is supposed to have 16 members,” as Rag reporter Geoff Page observed. Getting OBceans to turn out for their annual elections has also been a challenge over the last several years, not discounting the pandemic.

And despite a potentially controversial or contentious issue of planned roundabouts on Bacon Street on the agenda, Page reported, “There was only one person in the audience during the board meeting besides this writer and the District 2 representative.”

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County Joins City in Plan to Buy Ocean Beach Apartments, Ramada Inn and 2 Other Hotels

May 24, 2023 by Source

By Gary Warth / San Diego Union-Tribune / May 23, 2023

A divided county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday agreed to authorize up to $32 million in loans toward the city of San Diego’s potential purchase of four residential properties that could be used to house more than 300 homeless people.

The city’s Housing Commission is considering buying the properties with money from the state’s Project Homekey program, and the purchases are contingent on receiving the grants.

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Lay Those Pistols Down, Ja!

May 23, 2023 by Ernie McCray

By Ernie McCray

Hey,
LAY THOSE PISTOLS DOWN, Ja!
Enough of
all that jive foolishness,
flashing guns on videos
as though you’re a gangster wannabe
or some kind of an OG.
If it’s attention you want
you’ve already got that,
it seems to me,
because on a basketball court
your fans eat up
your razzle and dazzle
and wizardry and artistry
with unadulterated glee.

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Homeless Encampments Swept Out from Downtown End Up in Riverbed and on Ocean Beach Bike Path

May 23, 2023 by Staff

Wesley Hill, a 25-year resident of Ocean Beach, is upset. While riding the Ocean Beach bike path on his bicycle, after dodging trash and debris from homeless encampments along the pathway, he ran into a skateboard, crashed head first, cracking some teeth and costing him dental bills.

Hill told Brian White of CBS8:

“The bike path has been a mess for months, if not years. Encampments, other people using it to do drugs, it’s become a public toilet. Frequently, you see shopping carts all over the place.”

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‘Why I Founded the California Innocence Project’ — OBcean Justin Brooks

May 23, 2023 by Source

By Justin Brooks / SD U-T OpEd / May 19, 2023

In 1995, I read a newspaper article about a young woman in her early 20s named Marilyn Mulero. Marilyn was awaiting execution in Illinois after being convicted of a double homicide.

The article said she was sentenced to death on a plea bargain, but I didn’t think that could be accurate. How could anyone be sentenced to death on a plea bargain? A plea bargain is supposed to be a bargain — meaning you give up your right to a trial in exchange for a lesser sentence. Death is the most severe punishment the government can dole out.

At the time I read about Marilyn, I was a law professor teaching and living in Michigan.

I felt a deep need to find out more about her case, so I set up a meeting with her and drove hundreds of miles to the prison where she was housed in rural Illinois.

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City Council Consents to Coastal Commission ‘Crack-Down’ on Loss of Parking Spaces by Restaurants in Beach Areas

May 23, 2023 by Frank Gormlie

The San Diego City Council on Monday, May 22, “reluctantly” consented to new California Coastal Commission regulations that will require restaurant owners in the city’s coastal zone to replace any lost parking spaces taken up by outdoor dining areas they operate on the street, as reported by Lori Weisberg at the U-T.

What is affected is a narrow strip of coastal zone known as the “beach impact area,” defined as a stretch of coastline that begins at the northern end of Torrey Pines State Reserve and runs about 15 miles south to Sunset Cliffs Natural Park. And the boundary extends inland approximately a quarter of a mile or more for much of the zone.

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‘It’s All About the OB Pier’ at Ocean Beach Town Council Meeting — Wed., May 24 at Pt Loma Library

May 23, 2023 by Source

Everyone’s invited to the “OB Pier Update & Discussion” at the Ocean Beach Town Council meeting, Wednesday, May 24th at 7 PM. The meeting will be held at the Point Loma/Hervey Branch Library, at 3701 Voltaire Street –(and there’s plenty of parking).

The public May Town Council meeting will be “a session wholly dedicated to discussions surrounding the future of our beloved OB Pier,” as an announcement for the meeting stated.

The agenda will cover:

  • an update from the City of San Diego about the current status of the pier,
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Father of Hit-and-Run Victim Led ‘Community-Wide Detective Squad’ to Ocean Beach Suspect, Who’s Arrested

May 22, 2023 by Staff

The father of a Point Loma teen severely injured in a hit-and-run incident led a “community-wide detective squad” to find and locate an Ocean Beach person suspected of causing the incident.

Tim Ash is the father of Alex who was wrapping up a ride on his E-bike on Catalina Blvd on a recent Friday night when he was hit by an SUV that then took off. Alex fractured his pelvis in 3 places and he had internal bleeding in his bladder which was life-threatening. After his son was injured and hospitalized Tim and other family members and friends went to work, in search of the SUV, believed to be a black Jeep Grand Cherokee.

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Kudos to Senator Diane Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi and Her Daughter

May 22, 2023 by Source

By Colleen O’Connor

All your enemies
Have opened their mouths wide against you;
They hiss and gnash their teeth.
They say, “We have swallowed her up!
Surely this is the day for which we waited; (From the Bible: Lamentations 2:16)

But, they have not swallowed her up.  Not Senator Diane Feinstein, not Nancy Pelosi, her neighbor of 30 years, and not Pelosi’s eldest caregiving daughter, Nancy Corinne Prowda.

For months, the GOP, many self-important, ineffectual politicians and op/ed columnists have railed against Senator Feinstein, demanding her resignation and heaping scorn on those who protected, sheltered, and cared for a woman who is elderly, recently recovering from shingles and its maladies.

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Peninsula Planners Rescind Request for Stop Sign Along Voltaire

May 22, 2023 by Staff

By Geoff Page

There were two main items of interest at the Peninsula Community Planning Board’s regular monthly meeting, Thursday, May 18: traffic and cell towers.

The PCPB has resumed in-person meetings at the Point Loma/Hervey Library the third Thursday of each month. Zoom meetings have been discontinued.

Voltaire Street traffic

The traffic issue on Voltaire drew a number of people to the meeting.

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Midway Rising Developer and Todd Gloria’s Top Campaign Contributor Is an Owner of New San Diego Soccer Team

May 19, 2023 by Frank Gormlie

Did anyone else notice it?

Amidst all the hoopla and genuine joy over the recent announcement that San Diego will have a major league soccer team, is the little-emphasized fact that Brad Termini — the Midway Rising developer and Mayor Gloria’s top campaign contributor — is one of the owners of the new franchise. A minority one, yes, but one nevertheless.

Yesterday’s U-T gave us an insight into the whole origin story and with a nod towards Termini’s role.

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New Art Gallery in Mission Hills Debuts Sat., May 20

May 19, 2023 by Source

SD Art Advisory, a new art gallery, will soon debut in Mission Hills — a project from fine artist and gallerist Alexander Salazar and local interior designer Darcy Kempton.

Their 4,200-sqft space will feature two levels of works by both local and world-renowned artists, plus a salon where collectors can purchase NFT art in partnership with dealer Chris Trueman.

The curators hope the gallery shines a spotlight on the San Diego art scene while also benefiting the arts communities across SoCal and Baja California.

SD Art Advisory opens at 12 p.m. this Saturday May 20 at 3977 Falcon St

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Eric DuVall: The Story of ‘The Beach News’- Pt. Loma Assembly Tuesday, May 23

May 19, 2023 by Source

Please join La Playa Trail Association for a presentation by Eric DuVall on the “Story of The Beach News” at the Point Loma Assembly, Tuesday, May 23 at 5:30 pm.

Point Loma Assembly is located at 3035 Talbot Street. DuVall is the president of the OB Historical Society – and one of  the best writers on the Peninsula.

The Beach News was an early community newspaper for Ocean Beach and eventually morphed into The Peninsula News in the 1950s. Eric will present some of the great features, funny old ads and shameless boosterism that characterized the early The Beach News.

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Cannabis Advocacy Groups Launch Citizen Survey to Gauge Level of Support for Inner-City Access

May 18, 2023 by Source

Roll Up for Cannabis Equity – a Monthly Column

By Terrie Best

Three of San Diego’s oldest cannabis advocacy groups have launched a survey titled Roll Up For Equity, the San Diego Chapter of Americans for Safe Access, San Diego Blue Dream Democratic Club and San Diego NORML have printed citizens survey cards for community members to fill out which gauge feelings about cannabis proximity to neighborhoods, social equity and consumption lounges.

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Sleepover at Grampy and Maria’s House

May 18, 2023 by Ernie McCray

by Ernie McCray

Two of my grandchildren,
Lyric and Marley,
Lyric almost ten,
Marley, eight,
slept over
the other night
and things went great.

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10 Minutes to Think

May 18, 2023 by Source

The bean counters of medical establishments have figured out how to keep our doctors busy

By Joni Halpern

Take a good look at your doctors the next time you go to see them.  They don’t have time to do more than glance at you, so you can give them a good going over while they engage in cyber-course with computerized algorithms that now dictate every moment of their working life.

You’ll notice a growing number of your doctors look tired; they have bags under their eyes, regardless of their age. 

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‘Glad I Hear From My Grand Kids Regularly!’

May 18, 2023 by Judi Curry

By Judi Curry

For the second time in two weeks I have received a telephone call from “my favorite” grandson.  Since I have 9 grandsons (and 11 granddaughters) it is difficult for anyone to assume that he/she is my “favorite” but apparently the person on the other end thought that he must be THAT ONE.  Funny though – he wasn’t sure of his name when I asked him which one.

When I answered the phone he said, “Hello grandma.  This is your favorite grandson.”

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Housing Commission to Apply for State Funds to Buy Abbott St. Apartments in OB and Midway’s Ramada Inn for Homeless Residents

May 17, 2023 by Frank Gormlie

At their May 12 meeting, the San Diego Housing Commission unanimously agreed to apply for state funds to help purchase a vacant apartment building at 2147 Abbott Street in Ocean Beach and the Ramada Inn in the Midway District  to provide permanent housing for homeless people.

The Commissioners voted to apply for up to $5 million to help purchase the apartment building which would create 13 units. Vacant since January 2022, the property — if bought — would provide 13 units for people who had experienced chronic homelessness and whose income is up to 30 percent of the area median income, which is $27,350 a year for a one-person household.

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