Month: February 2024

By Colleen O’Connor

A February 5th column discussed, “Cherchez La Femme,” the old French maxim: “Look for the woman, by God! Look for the woman.”

That original column predicted:

“Women will determine the outcome [of the coming election]. About that, there is little doubt.  A seismic shift has occurred since the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and remove a woman’s right to control her own body.”

That was then: February 5th. This is now: February 25th.  Less than three weeks after the column appeared, that Cherchez La Femme imperative has exploded, thanks to the recent Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling that in-vitro fertilization is illegal.

Shelly Parks, the vice president of the OB Town Council, has sent out a meeting announcement for their Wednesday, February 28th public meeting.

It will be held at 7pm and will be both in person and online. Unfortunately, as parking is severely limited, the in-person meeting will be a short walk from Famosa into the Park Point Loma community.

Info on In-Person Meeting

If you are joining the OBTC in person on 2/28 at 7:00 pm, it will be at Park Point Loma Clubhouse at — 2390 Caminito Agrado.

Shelly Parks warns that “parking is limited, consider carpooling.” She advises that “Attendees will need to park along the street (Famosa) and walk into the housing community’s clubhouse.”

By Paul Krueger

More than eight months after a group of Hells Angels allegedly attacked three Black victims in Ocean Beach, two of the defendants pleaded guilty to violent felonies this week.

Jacob Berghaus was sentenced to four years in custody after pleading to a felony count of “assault by means likely to cause great bodily injury.” But the judge suspended that prison sentence and ordered Berghaus to serve 365 days in custody, plus two years probation.

The San Diego Veterans For Peace and Code Pink are hosting a weekly demonstration demanding a ceasefire in the current fighting in Gaza …. every Saturday from Noon to 1 PM at the corner of Sunset Cliffs Blvd and West Point Loma Blvd in Ocean Beach

Like so many Americans, local members of Code Pink, the San Diego Veterans For Peace, and their supporters and friends,

Restaurant Review

King Crab
3960 W. Point Loma Avenue
San Diego, CA  92110
619-269-0800

By Judi Curry

It has been a while since I have eaten at King Crab – [October 2022] , and as I looked over places I would like to go to celebrate my birthday, I thought that King Crab would be the perfect spot to alleviate my yearning for cold, sweet crab salad.  I don’t get yearnings very often, but when I heard that the crab production in Northern California has dropped so much because of weather and other variables, the yearning for this delicacy has increased.  I do not like hot or warm crab; I truly only like the cold meat that I get out of cracking my crab just as I am getting ready to eat it.  So … King Crab it was for dinner on Wednesday.

Seventeen luxury townhomes are for sale just outside OB in that transition zone between the beach and the Point – along that stretch of upper Voltaire.

The new Cabri at the corner with San Clemente Street has a website that now calls that stretch the “Voltaire Corridor” to find some descriptive term for the tunnel-like effect from all the construction of housing developments that have been built over the last few years along that stretch.

Firefighters were battling a two-alarm fire at a fitness center in the Midway District Thursday morning, and a hotel next door has been evacuated, officials said.

The fire was reported just before 6:20 a.m., and when crews arrived they saw heavy smoke coming from the second floor of the Victory MMA & Fitness gym in a shopping center on Midway Drive near Sports Arena Boulevard, officials said.

All occupants were out of the building when crews arrived, a spokesperson for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department said in an online report. More than 80 fire personnel were sent to the fire.

Midway Drive between Kemper and Duke streets is closed in both directions because of the fire.

By Geoff Page

At the request of some long-time OB locals, The Rag took a look at the volleyball situation on OB’s beaches. After years of observing volleyball on the sand, it never occurred to this writer that it was all a business. And it actually is a money-making business.

VOLO

A company named VOLO has the current permit for use of the sand to play volleyball.

There was a question about VOLO having changed its name recently from VAVi to VOLO. It is possible more people are familiar with the VAVi name, which was the former company that had the volleyball contract with the city. There was no name change, VOLO simply acquired VAVi.

The Board of Directors of the OB Town Council is planning to hold a public meeting on Wednesday, February 28, but the location has still not been nailed down; it will either be in the auditorium of OB Elementary or at Waterfront Church.

In the meantime, the Board  has new leadership, new president, vice-president and secretaries — yet struggles to maintain itself. The new president has already resigned from the Board. The Board itself is now down to about half-strength with only 9 members. This comes on the heels of the revelation of the scandal that has rocked the OBTC since its January public meeting, and the ouster of its former president, Corey Bruins.

New leadership was determined and it was:

Should San Diegans have our own municipal utility that would replace SDG&E?

The Power San Diego Campaign believes so.  They’ve launched a signature drive to get the question on the November ballot. On their website, the group claims SDG&E has the highest rates in the nation (although just recently, this has changed), that SDG&E profits are $1 million dollars a day from San Diego City alone, and that 25% of SDGE’s customer are behind on their bills.

By Michael Smolens / San Diego Union-Tribune / Feb. 18, 2024

San Diego’s electorate is not happy with the way things are going in the city.

The recent devastating failure of the city’s flood protection infrastructure is only the latest example of the municipal government’s seeming inability to do its job.

Homelessness continues at crisis levels despite many actions and much talk about reducing it.

Audits conclude the quality of city roads has dropped sharply and there’s no comprehensive funding plan to fix them.

The legal quagmire surrounding the city-owned 101 Ash St. building is not only a reminder of that boondoggle, but other costly city real estate debacles stretching over two mayoral administrations.