OB Rag

Sheinbaum Also Pushes Back on Trump’s Policy on Cuba

By Megan Janetsky and Will Weissert / Associated Press PBS News / April 14, 2026 

The Mexican government on Tuesday protested the deaths of its citizens in U.S. immigration custody as President Claudia Sheinbaum pushes back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies on multiple fronts.

The progressive Mexican leader has walked a careful line with Trump for more than a year, addressing provocations with a measured tone and meeting U.S. requests to crack down on criminal cartels more so than her predecessors, in an effort to offset threats of tariffs and U.S. military action against the gangs.

But in the wake of mounting deaths of Mexican citizens in custody of immigration officials and the Trump administration’s decision to impose an energy blockade on Cuba — a key Mexican ally — Sheinbaum has taken a harder line.

Register to Become Member and Vote — Ocean Beach Community Foundation’s 2026 Board of Directors Election is OPEN through April 27th!

Election is open to all members of the Ocean Beach Community Foundation. Not a member? Not a problem. Register for membership below and receive a ballot.

OBCF Membership is open to anyone who:

• lives,
• works,
• owns property, or
• operates a business in the 92107 area code and surrounding peninsula community!

Register below to receive your secure digital ballot today!

by Brooke Binkowski / La Jolla Village News / April 21, 2026

Ernest McCray has never stopped to consider whether something is impossible. There’s only one thing he says he isn’t capable of.

“I tried to be a grown-up — for about 30 seconds,” he said, laughing.

McCray’s life began in Arizona to a hardworking, music-loving family in which he was raised mainly by his mother. It was a different country then, and Tucson was still enforcing Jim Crow-style segregation.

“I was born in 1938, to give you an idea,” said McCray. “They didn’t desegregate schools in Tucson until I was going into the 8th grade. We couldn’t eat at the white restaurants, we could only swim in the ‘colored’ swimming pool.”

He found refuge from Jim Crow in the local library. Despite the animus enforced from above, McCray knew he had a voice — and he used it.

“That’s how I make it in the world,” he said. “Through writing and being an educator and a teacher and a principal…  I use my writing in school communities and working with kids and turning them on to writing.”

Above all, McCray said, he does everything he can to make the world a kinder place.

SB-958 Was Offered by Calif. Senator Weber Pierson to Allow CEQA Exemptions for Midway Rising

By Katheryn Rhodes 

SB-958. California Environmental Quality Act:

“This bill would, for purposes of CEQA, prohibit the environmental impacts that are associated with increased building height alone from being considered significant impacts on the environment, if a project meets specified conditions, as provided. Because a lead agency would be required to determine if a project meets the specified conditions, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program…”

“SECTION 1. Section 21081.5 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read: 21081.5.

a) For purposes of this division, the environmental impacts of a project that are associated with increased building height alone, including, but not limited to, air circulation, noise and light refraction or reflection, the potential to attract wildlife, or geotechnical or hydrological effects, shall not be considered significant impacts on the environment if the project meets all of the following conditions:

UPDATE: Pizza Port OB is NOW OPEN. Rag staff just checked their website and called them — and indeed, they are now open.

It’s a good thing that Pizza Port Ocean Beach just won a Silver award at the Brewers Association’s annual Craft Brewers Conference and its World Beer Cup — it was in the category of Session Beer for its Guillaume — because the place itself just was forced to close down temporarily due to this:

it “was ordered closed by San Diego County health inspectors on April 21, 2026 following a routine inspection that cited a major vermin violation alongside three additional findings. The closure ends a three-year run of A-grade inspections at the address and comes as vermin-related closures have surged across San Diego County in the wake of new state pesticide restrictions,” according to Hoodline.

(Pizza Port Solana Beach also won a Bronze.)

More from Hoodline:

What Inspectors Found
According to the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health and Quality, the April 21 inspection resulted in an “Ordered Closed” outcome driven by four violations. The critical finding was Vermin — classified as a Major violation and the trigger for the closure order. Accompanying it were a Minor holding temperatures violation, and two Out of Compliance findings: Equipment and Utensil Storage and Use, and Premises, Personal/Cleaning Items, and Exclusion Measures.

The largest Earth Day celebration in San Diego will return this weekend to Balboa Park with more than 100 vendors, a full day of live entertainment and presentations and other activities focused on keeping our planet healthy and green.

By Tanja Kropf / Explore Clairemont / April 22, 2026

This is the second in a two-part series of interviews with candidates for the San Diego City Council’s District 2 seat, currently occupied by Jennifer Campbell. District 2 includes Clairemont, Midway, Mission Beach, Mission Bay, Old Town, Ocean Beach, and Point Loma.

Part Two of this series includes candidate interview summaries of Mandy Havlik, Josh Coyne, Jacob Mitchell, and Paul Suppa.

Explore Clairemont interviewed all the candidates. All the questions asked of the candidates were submitted by Explore Clairemont’s audience, ensuring the candidates answered only the questions their future constituents wanted to hear.

Last week’s interviews included Richard Bailey, Nicole Crosby, and Mike Rickey.

The election will be held on June 2, 2026.

Ocean Beach has entered a time period that in less than two weeks, the coastal neighborhood celebrates the 50th anniversary of the very first community-wide democratic election to its OB Planning Board — a volunteer board that still exists to this day, Earth Day 2026.

May 4th, 1976 was a day when thousands of Ocean Beach residents, property owners and business owners voted on candidates for a 14-member board to help make urban planning and infrastructure decisions and recommendations to the city.

Not only was it the first election of the OB Planning Board, it was the first democratic election of ANY community planning group in San Diego’s history. So, May 4th ought to be celebrated by the over 40 community planning groups across the city.

Nine months before the scheduled election, on July 3, 1975, the San Diego City Council heard presentations about a so-called “OB Plan.”

It was standing room only in the Council Chambers, which brimmed with residents, property-owners and merchants from OB. After all the public testimony and speeches, after more discussion among councilmembers and staff, the Council – with Republican Mayor Pete Wilson at the ceremonial helm – took a vote and passed the OB Precise Plan — which included a number of amendments made by an OB grassroots organization, called the Community Planning Group.

The most important of these amendments was the provision for a community election of a planning committee. The City Planning Department was ordered to implement a Planned District for Ocean Beach, from the motion itself:

“the new committee formed for the purposes of implementing the Plan, should be elected by the citizens of Ocean Beach in a democratic fashion, using a process monitored by a neutral party to be appointed by the Mayor and Council.”

The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members and the San Diego public in general informed about important Council and Planning Commission hearings and other city public meetings.

Monday, April 20: City Council, 10:00 a.m.

Closed Session Agenda:

Item CS-3: Class action case alleges the City violated Proposition 218 by charging tiered water rates to single family residential water customers and seeks refunds. City Attorney’s Office will update Mayor and City Council on status and seek direction.

Why it matters: “Recent court rulings on tiered water rates are creating confusion and uncertainty at water agencies across California, including in San Diego, where one ruling will mean rate hikes for most single-family homes.” [Union-Tribune, March 13]

Item CS-4: The Council will meet with its negotiator on price and payment terms for potential long-term ground leases with Midway Rising, LLC, to redevelop the City-owned real property.

Why it matters: The state Court of Appeal ruled that the city failed to perform an adequate environmental review of the Midway-Pacific Highway area around the proposed project. The Supreme Court agreed and declined to hear the city’s appeal. So why is the city moving ahead to negotiate price and payment terms for the project without analyzing the environmental impacts and the scope of the court’s ruling?

By Van Whiting / Times of San Diego /  April 21, 2026

In 2020, the city of San Diego budget authorized 11,820 full-time-equivalent positions. The budget for fiscal year 2026 carries 13,062. That is roughly 1,200 added positions in six years, while city population held flat.

The mayor’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2027 eliminates nearly $12 million of the city’s $13.8 million arts and culture budget — a cut of roughly 85% — along with reductions to libraries and recreation. But it trims only about 290 of the 1,200 positions added since 2020.

This is neither logical nor good governance. Start with the math.

City employees do not cost only their salaries. Fringe benefits — pensions, health care, related costs — add roughly 50%-60% on top of pay. A manager at $200,000 costs the city about $320,000 fully loaded. That figure is illustrative of the marginal, higher-compensation positions driving growth in internal functions, not the average employee.

By Alexandra Mendoza / San Diego Union-Tribune / April 18-19, 2026

The people of Tecate, Mexico, had heard the Trump administration would be continuing construction on the border fence in the area. But the blasts that have echoed through the small border town in recent weeks were not what residents had expected.

Heavy machinery and explosions have rumbled up the U.S. side of Kuchamaa Mountain, a place sacred to the Kumeyaay people on both sides of the border.

“It feels like they’re hurting a part of us,” said Luis Rafael Cota, who lives in the Juntas de Nejí y Anexos Kumeyaay community in Tecate and has witnessed the blasts, “a part of our culture.”

Kuchamaa Mountain, also known as Tecate Peak, or Cerro Cuchumá in Spanish, sits between two towns with the same name — Tecate in California and Tecate in Baja California.

In 1992, Kuchamaa Mountain was the first sacred mountain to be added to the National Register of Historic Places, as an “important religious site to the Kumeyaay Indians of San Diego County and Baja California,” the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said at the time.

By David Garrick / San Diego Union-Tribune / April 21, 2026

A new analysis by Balboa Park leaders says paid parking has caused already-falling attendance and revenues to drop even more steeply, warning that the decline could lead to layoffs and program cuts.

According to the nonprofit Balboa Park Cultural Partnership, average attendance is down nearly 34% at museums and other park venues in the months since paid parking began Jan. 5, compared with the same period last year.

The partnership also says revenue is down $5 million total across its organizations year-over-year and is predicting revenue will be down $10 million for the calendar year.

City officials released parking data from Balboa Park on Monday that show revenue has kept rising since January, raising questions about why museum attendance would be down if more people are using the park.

The cultural partnership, an umbrella group for organizations within the park, is calling on city officials to make “swift and meaningful changes” to the parking rules and policies but also contends a major city retreat in February actually made things worse.

By JW August / Times of San Diego / April20, 2026

After a 12-year journey, “The Black Family” statue will soon resume its place in one of San Diego’s oldest parks — and in the city’s arts world.

A new version of the statue will replace the 52-year-old original that was removed due to years of decay, at its old home at the front of Neal Petties Mountain View Community Park, formerly known as Mountain View Community Park. It will be unveiled on June 13 as part of the annual Juneteenth celebration.

The stainless steel statue, like the original made from painted redwood, will continue to honor late artist Rossie Wade’s image of Black values and community pride, as it did when it was dedicated in the southeastern San Diego park in 1974.

Wade’s concept was inspired by an abstract painting he created in the 1950s of a Black family of four. The new statue is intended to reflect the earlier work’s message of hope, depicting a Black family of four including a father, mother, son and daughter reaching for the sky.