Month: October 2024

Neighbors for a Better San Diego

We sent six questions to San Diego’s Mayoral and City Council candidates. Four of the six candidates responded. Their responses are below.

Note: Neither Mayor Todd Gloria nor Councilmember Stephen Whitburn have replied, but if/when they do, we will post their replies.

Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, District 9, declined to answer the questions specifically. He instead sent the following one-sentence reply to our questionnaire:

“I stand by my record of championing tenant protections, investing in more affordable housing, increasing safe and sustainable mobility options, and strengthening the Council’s role in the legislative process.”

By Mat Wahlstrom

Of the fifteen state and local measures on this November’s ballot, arguably none would be more beneficial to the largest number of Californians than Proposition 33. Which is why it’s curious that one cannot find a single mainstream media outlet which supports it.

Proposition 33 is a clean repeal of the 1995 Costa-Hawkins Act, which bans cities and counties from limiting the amounts that new and existing tenants can be charged for rent. That’s it. It doesn’t specify any limits; it simply allows them to be enacted.

And that’s the ugly truth that’s being ignored: we already have rent control, but it protects landlords not renters. Current state law prevents even the possibility of tenant relief.

by Ernie McCray

I will forever remember

Kamala Harris

walking into a presidential debate space

at a nice snappy pace

with the most beautiful smile on her face

extending her hand

as she looked at what was to become her prey

directly in his face,

taking control, from the beginning,

The call went out to other “SavePB” members, “Gather on October 9th at 5:45 p.m. in the library courtyard, where speakers and media will be present.”

It was all about showing up to protest a planned 23-story building being proposed for 970 Turquoise Street before the PB Planning Group meeting where the developer is going to present the plan to the group.

The meetings, SavePB says, “are crucial because you will hear about the disregard of building rules and coastal height limits and their negative impacts on Pacific Beach.
Join us before the meeting to voice your concerns in public. Taylor Library, 4275 Cass St.”

PB residents are also fighting a 5-story building on Garnet (more of that later). SavePB members were also given this outline:

970 Turquoise: Vela, 23-story building

At the north corner of Cass and Tourquoise, where the German Motors garage, Freddy’s Liquor store, and the French Gourmet, now closed, are located, a 23-story building project is proposed on four lots.  23-story privately funded high rise in Pacific Beach

By Lisa Deaderick / The San Diego Union-Tribune / October 5, 2024

It’s not even that Dawud Hasan Tarleyb (who goes by Dawud Hasan) is a science nerd or anything like that. He’s not; he’s a writer, an independent hip hop artist, a community organizer, and an event planner. It’s in those creative spaces where he’s found himself open to expand his work and his visions for what he can do, including incorporating science into his creative work.

An opportunity came late last year in the announcement of the “Art for Planetary Health” community art project with the Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park. The program invited five local artists from diverse San Diego neighborhoods (Hasan, southeastern San Diego; LaRaza Webb, southeastern San Diego; Claudia Biezunski-Rodriguez, Barrio Logan; Yvette Roman, San Ysidro; and Kline Swonger, National City) to collaborate with their communities in creating art focused on alignment between communities and the health of the planet, and promoting an environmental consciousness.

From Neighbors for a Better San Diego

After our August 2023 defeat of Mayor Gloria’s implementation of Senate Bill 10, we warned that SB 10 would be back in some form.

Sure enough, Mayor Gloria is applying for a $7 million federal (HUD) grant that would allow up to 9 units on single-family lots — just like SB 10.

Mayor Gloria continues to blame homeowners for the city’s housing challenges, despite our thoughtful and respectful efforts to suggest improvements to San Diego’s land development codes.

The grant application amps up the Mayor’s anti-homeowner sentiment by distorting what’s possible in single-family zoning.

For example, the proposal states multiple times that

In an open letter to the Board of Directors of the OB Community Foundation, the group that rebranded the OB Town Council, long-time resident and former OBTC Treasurer, Keith Fink, criticizes the board and lays out some urgent recommendations “to gain the community’s faith.” Here is his letter:

To the Members of the Board of Directors of the OB Community Foundation (OBCF):

I and other OBceans are concerned and disappointed with some of the actions, and inactions, of the OB Community Foundation.

When the OBTC imploded, the community was stunned, angered, indignant. There was a cry for answers – most notably, accountability and transparency.

The former was partially fulfilled with the resignations of the Executive Board, though it appears that all board members who had held their seats for the previous year or more were asleep at the wheel and equally culpable.  The latter – transparency – never occurred.

One of the Rag’s most loyal readers, Chris Thomas, is a huge fan of bike lanes — and here is his photo montage of how life is brewing along 30th Street, claimed by some bike lane critics as a ‘ruined business area.’ So, Chris set out a couple weeks ago to prove those claims wrong.

(The bike lane critics are not opposed to bike lanes but how they’re installed in San Diego by the Gloria administration.)

Stone, Ballast Point, Green Flash & Modern Times All Lost Their Crowns

From SanDiegoVille / October 5, 2024

Once hailed as the craft beer capital of the world, San Diego’s brewing industry has seen its rise to global prominence and subsequent decline, marked by the challenges and downfalls of major players like Stone Brewing, Green Flash, Ballast Point, and Modern Times.

San Diego was once celebrated as the “Capital of Craft,” home to a burgeoning craft brewing scene that shaped the direction of American beer for decades. At its peak, the county boasted over 150 breweries, making it a mecca for hop heads and beer enthusiasts alike. However, as the industry matured, some of the city’s biggest names – Stone Brewing, Green Flash, Ballast Point, and Modern Times – struggled under the pressures of overexpansion, corporate acquisitions, and fierce competition. The stories of these craft beer titans, along with the role of early pioneers like Karl Strauss, reflect both the meteoric rise of San Diego’s beer scene and its subsequent decline.

The Rag has been buffeted recently by lots of requests or inquiries on whether we’re putting out some kind of election guide, and the answer is yes!

The 2024 Election Guide is coming soon —

By Lori Weisberg /The San Diego Union-Tribune / October 4, 2024

More than five years after announcing plans to transform the 44-acre Paradise Point Resort & Spa on Mission Bay into a Jimmy Buffett-inspired resort, the ownership is resurrecting its long-stalled renovation project but its ultimate fate rests in the hands of the California Coastal Commission.

While the hotel ownership says it remains committed to reimagining the 6-decade-old resort as a Margaritaville property, it says its first priority is to navigate the approval process with the state coastal agency before it can firmly commit to future branding plans.

By Dave Summers / 7SanDiego / October 4, 2024

The owners of a popular donut shop in Point Loma, Christy’s Donuts, are trying to put their lives back together after someone stole their life savings. It happened at their home just a few blocks from the shop at around 6 p.m. on Wednesday, October 2.

Burglary victim Chris Tou returned home to his house turned upside down. He was gone just an hour to help fix his brother-in-law’s flat tire. “As soon as I drive in to my entrance and to my house, that’s when they left,” Tou told NBC 7.