Hundreds of Feet of Copper Wire Are Missing, for Example
By Geoff Page
The OB Pier is being surreptitiously cannibalized. The city knows about it. The city is unconcerned. The utter stupidity of city hall continues to amaze.
Recently, long time OB resident, Charles Landon, noticed something odd about the pier and investigated. He took some pictures that showed piping along the north side of the pier was missing. Two different diameter pipes that run along the outside of the north rail were cut and much of the large pipe was missing.
Landon took the pictures that appear in this story.
The smaller diameter pipe had carried electrical cables that ran out to the restaurant and powered the lights on the pier. The cables ran from the roof of the small building under the pier. The cables were cut at the roof and also at a small junction box under the pier, above the boardwalk.
Since the pier is closed and since the city decided to no longer light the pier at night, it might be logical for the city to cut the power source. It did not seem logical, however, that the city would remove all of the old copper wire.
The pipe carrying the wire from the junction box out onto the pier is cut a short distance from shore and it is obvious that the cable is no longer there.
The recycle value of copper is about $4.00 a pound. The size of the cables seen in the picture are heavy.
The size of the cable can be seen here.
There was about 1,000 feet of this cabling. A whole lot of valuable pounds of copper were in that pipe. Taking this wire was a felony based on the large value of the stolen material
But, there is more. The second, larger diameter pipe, is also missing as seen in this picture showing only hangers and no pipe.
This one is puzzling because the pipe involved appears to have been the soil pipe for the pier. This was what is called a “force main.” This just means the sewer was not a gravity flow pipe, the sewage was pumped under pressure to the shore where it went into the city sewer system.
Why this pipe is missing is a mystery. This type of main is usually a sealed metal pipe, cast iron or ductile iron. Regardless, the recycle value of iron is very small, hardly worth removing so much of it. It would have also been pretty dirty pipe considering what it carried.
Someone went to a lot of effort to remove this pipe. As can be seen in this picture, the chain link fencing that is attached to the rail on the inside had to be cut and pulled back to access the pipe, in multiple locations.
Landon alerted The Rag to this situation in October and he took a series of pictures on October 17. It has been one month since Landon’s discovery and, in that time the remaining lengths of the larger diameter pipe have also disappeared. The first picture from the 17th shows the large pipe hanging on the pier.
The second picture of the same area today, November 17, shows empty pipe hangers.
This means that much more of the pipe was removed since the city was notified by The Rag in October.
How was this done?
The first problem would have been to access the pier. According to the city, the thieves are cutting the gate locks or the fence. This picture shows a repair of the gate where it appears one steel upright was removed. This would not have been difficult.
The opening created was enough for a person, and probably some small carts, to slip through. The material removed from the pier was of substantial weight so some method of conveyance must have been used to get the wire, and possibly pipe, to the gate. From there, the material would had to have been handed through the gate opening onto other carts or into a truck.
That all sounds like quite an operation. No one noticed? In a city in love with surveillance cameras, this would have been a logical place to put one. Why isn’t one, or more, there focused on that gate?
There is another possibility. Instead of bringing everything down the length of the pier, boats could have been waiting under the pier to receive materials lowered from above. This would have avoided exposure at the pier gate. The city stopped lighting the pier a long time ago so this could have been done in complete darkness.
An email was sent to the heads of the Parks and Recreation Department asking if they could shed any light on the missing materials. There was still a possibility that the city was being fiscally responsible and had hired a recycling company to remove pier materials for a price. The slimness of this possibility cannot be seen with the naked eye, but it still needed to be checked.
As usual, the people who are actually responsible, who actually run departments, are insulated from having to comment by the mayor’s communication cadre, a six million dollar drain on the city’s finances. Here is the reply received from Benny Cartwright, Supervising Public Information Officer.
Thanks for reaching out! Sorry for the delay, I’ve been out since last week.
Individuals are gaining access to the pier either by cutting locks or the fence itself. More recently it’s been the fence as the department has upgraded the locks multiple times.
The City is currently working on a solution to prevent individuals from cutting the gate.
While not a verified fact, it’s likely that folks are removing anything that has some sort of scrap value to it.
This is the reaction from the administration regarding the city being robbed, the pollution liability from anything the thieves have dropped in the ocean, and the liability the city faces any time anyone is on the pier.
The city could have contracted with a recycling company to harvest the cable from the pier resulting in a gain for San Diegans, not a loss. If a thief is injured while on the pier, the city will be liable for any injuries for failing to properly secure the pier from access.
This thievery could have been prevented had the city continued to light the pier, despite it being closed. This kind of operation would not have been possible under those lights.
The city could also have installed a surveillance system, things like cameras and motion detectors.
All the city did was replace some locks, mend the gate, and is “currently working on a solution” for this, on a pier that has been closed for two years.
This writer made a formal; request of the city to tour the pier and see what current shape it is in. Once again, the heads of the Parks Department punted the request to the Communication Department. The response came from Tyler Becker, Senior Public Information Officer.
The request was refused. Becker also refused to provide the names of who, exactly, in the city denied the request. Certainly the “Senior Public Information Officer” had no authority to deny the request. All Becker would ever say was that various staff was consulted.
Hopefully, Becker consulted some of the staff by email, which should be provided pursuant to a Public Records Request already in the works.
After a career in construction, this writer can say that demolition of a structure over the ocean is a very touchy business that requires several permits. The work usually has to be carefully done so that nothing falls into the ocean, involving netting and other precautions.
Obviously, none of this was done here, which should be of interest to various agencies. Perhaps that is what is needed to wake up the city.
I sent an email to the city telling them that more pipe has been taken from the pier since my first email to them October 7. Here is their respons:
“The information I shared on Nov. 12 still remains fairly unchanged, however the City’s next effort on this will be to weld sheet metal to the back of the gate. This work is planned, but I don’t have a timeline for the work yet.”
I asked if this was the reply to our discovery that much more pipe was removed since my first email? Here is that response:
“Apologies for not being clear. Yes, I was trying to say that I understand items continue to disappear such as the piping and the Parks and Recreation Dept. is continuing to work to implement better security measures, such as welding sheet metal to the gate.”
Welding sheet metal to the gate will ruin what’s left of the view, and provide more concealment to criminals. They should just weld some strips across it to make it harder to remove the bars.
There is/was a large ~4″ copper pipe running the length of the pier, could’ve been for waste, as I doubt they’d need that much pipe for water.
Do you know for sure that 4″ pipe was copper? That is one thing I haven’t nailed down. I’d never seen that large a diameter copper pipe used as a force main. But, that would surely answer the question of why salvage that pipe.
Thank you, Geoff, for once again bringing the city’s neglect of our Ocean Beach Fishing Pier to the forefront.
What should concern all of us is that this iconic public treasure — our beloved OB Pier — has effectively become a forgotten park resource under the Todd Gloria administration. What began as a promising effort in May 2021, when Mayor Gloria, less than six months into his first term, expressed strong enthusiasm for jump-starting a new pier, has now seemingly stalled.
For context, it’s important to remember that the initial momentum, via via community urging, arrived when Mayor Todd Gloria, with help from Senate President pro Tem Toni Atkins, secured an $8.4 million state grant to begin design work. Details of that effort can be found on the city’s OB Pier Renewal Project page, including the recently posted Task Force White Paper:
https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/2025-11/2024-09-03-task-force-white-paper-draft-final_signed.pdf
This document — made public only after multiple requests — makes it clear that real progress is slipping away. The contrast between the 1½-year construction timeline in the September 2024 White Paper and the protracted 3½-year timeline currently shown on the city’s website speaks volumes about the administration’s waning interest. And just as the project loses momentum, the pier itself is literally disappearing, piece by piece. I doubt this level of prolonged neglect of a historically recognized coastal icon sits well with the California Coastal Commission.
Your reporting makes the demolition-by-neglect painfully obvious: copper and iron piping stolen, gates breached, lighting stripped, and the structure left unsecured and unlit — all predictable outcomes of treating a landmark as an abandoned asset rather than a park facility in transition. When a closed public structure is left dark, unguarded, and ignored for years, theft, decay, and even a recent murder are not surprises — they are the direct consequences of municipal inaction.
As quoted in Dave Schwab’s October 2 Peninsula Beacon article:
“The loss of the OB Pier continues to be a significant loss for Ocean Beach and the greater region. It was both a treasured public resource and a vital economic driver.”
Along with other community members, I have repeatedly asked this administration to produce the long-promised comprehensive economic impact analysis — a document explicitly included in the $8.4 million scope and requested many times during Task Force meetings. The public deserves to understand not only what the original pier contributed to the regional economy, but what a new pier could return in tourism, coastal access, and community value.
This OB Pier Renewal Project is a heavy lift; and we are constantly told that “funding is tight,” yet billions continue to be poured into poorly conceived or mismanaged projects — bike lanes that remove needed parking and disrupt small business districts, or the state’s bullet train that devours taxpayer dollars while delivering virtually nothing. If government can repeatedly find money for projects that are overbuilt, underused, or perpetually delayed, why can it not prioritize one of the most treasured coastal landmarks in San Diego?
No one underestimates the complexity of the pier renewal. It is a heavy lift. But that is precisely why we need real leadership — not stalled timelines and vague reassurances.
San Diego needs a win. The Ocean Beach Pier Renewal Project is exactly the kind of generational investment this city deserves, with real state and federal funding opportunities waiting to be pursued.
Mr. Mayor, will you return to this effort and help secure the support this community deserves?
Ralph Teyssier, S.E.
Former Task Force Member, Ocean Beach Pier Project
Very well said, Ralph, very well.
For anyone not familiar with Ralph, his father built the pier. Ralph, himself, has volunteered many hours and a lot of energy to the pier replacement effort. Not just a guy with an opinion, someone who is worth listening to.
Thank you Geoff, very kind of you to say. However, if it hadn’t been for you, I, and others may have not known about the end of service life for the Pier for perhaps years to come. But you persevered, and in 2019, finally obtained a copy of the Moffitt and Nichol Assessment report which you shared with the community via the OB Rag.
That report was buried from the public as it was intentionally marked “Draft”, thereby making it challenging to have it released to the public via public records request. And that’s how we first met.
Thank you also for acknowledging the efforts of others. I am very proud of the work the Task Force (the community members as well as the city members) has done to date, and while Ocean Beach is not the neighborhood I was born and raised in, I feel my family is nonetheless a part of the OB community. As such was honored to volunteer.
As mentioned by my father, on more than one occasion, he remarked: “Ocean Beach is really proud of their community; and we are so lucky that they are”.
Looking at Historical Resources in OB, I was surprised to see the OB Pier listed. From AI: “The Ocean Beach Pier has a local historic designation from the City of San Diego. This designation recognizes the pier’s significance to the area’s history and includes elements like the restaurant and lifeguard watchtower, although it may present challenges for the ongoing pier renewal project.” Of course, the OB Rag had already told us that:
https://obrag.org/2023/07/ocean-beach-pier-officially-designated-as-san-diego-historic-resource/
Thank you for that mention. Yes, the Pier was designated as historic not too long ago. This particular designation (there are several types as I had learned through the designation process), honors the history and culture created by the 1966 Pier, not the aged (“bricks and mortar” of the) pier itself to be preserved (impossible at this juncture as it is now outlived well beyond its service life).
So, honoring the 1966 OB Pier – the history, the culture, the memories – comes by way of the OB Pier Renewal Project. The “renewed” pier, which we all hope to see before the end of this decade, will have a design that honors the past and will honor the community and the region as a whole. More information can be found here on the City of San Diego’s website:
https://www.sandiego.gov/cip/project-info/project-profiles/ocean-beach-pier-renewal
The Teyssier family whole heartly embraces the Pier Renewal Project and we are honored that the new pier will perpetuate the history, culture and the memoires that make it such an iconic part of the unique beach town community we call Ocean Beach. As Leonard Teyssier, contractor of the 1966 OB Pier, stated at the 50th Anniversary (July 2, 2026): “Ocean Beach is so proud of their community, and we are so thankful they are”.
Btw, for anyone interested in construction photos and other pieces of history, check out the OB Main Street Association website here:
https://oceanbeachsandiego.com/attractions/ocean-beach-pier