History

Items that are historically significant in some way. They may be recent history or ancient history, pertinent to local history or something on a grander scale…

OB Historical Society: ‘Astounding Stories with John Freeman’ — Water’s Edge Church, Thursday April 18

April 16, 2024 by Source

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Staff Report: Demolition of Sports Arena Will Have ‘Significant Historical Impacts’

April 15, 2024 by Source

By Dorian Hargrove / CBS8 / April 12, 2024

The future of San Diego’s push to build a new sports arena is in flux after a new report recommended that the San Diego Sports Arena, built in 1966, be considered historic.

In an April 11 staff report to the city’s Historical Resource Board, staff found the San Diego Sports Arena qualifies for all three historical designations and that demolition of the currently named Pechanga Arena will create “significant” historical impacts.

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John Sinclair, Activist Immortalized in John Lennon Song, Dies at 82

April 3, 2024 by Source

Associated Press – Politico / April 2, 2024

John Sinclair, a poet, music producer and counterculture figure whose lengthy prison sentence after a series of small-time pot busts inspired a John Lennon song and a star-studded 1971 concert to free him, has died. He was 82. Sinclair died Tuesday morning at Detroit Receiving Hospital of congestive heart failure following an illness, his publicist Matt Lee said.

Sinclair drew a 9 1/2-to-10-year prison sentence in 1969 from Detroit Recorder’s Court Judge Robert Colombo for giving two joints to undercover officers. He served 29 months but was released a few days after Lennon, Stevie Wonder, Bob Seger and others performed in front of 15,000 attendees at the University of Michigan’s Crisler Arena.

“They gave him 10 for two/What else can Judge Colombo do/We gotta set him free,” Lennon sang in “John Sinclair,” a song the ex-Beatle wrote that immortalized its subject.

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Does America Now Have a Record Number of Bees?

April 2, 2024 by Source

by Andrew Van Dam / Washington Post / March 29, 2024 

Where in the unholy heck did all these bees come from?!

After almost two decades of relentless colony collapse coverage and years of grieving suspiciously clean windshields, we were stunned to run the numbers on the new Census of Agriculture (otherwise known as that wonderful time every five years where the government counts all the llamas): America’s honeybee population has rocketed to an all-time high.

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It’s César Chávez Day in California — Here’s His Life History

April 1, 2024 by Source

In San Diego, City, county and local offices will be closed today, Monday for César Chávez Day along with courts, public health clinics, family resource centers, libraries and animal shelters. County parks, campgrounds, and neighborhood day-use parks will largely remain open, though county officials said certain facilities will be closed Monday.

There will be mail delivery because César Chávez Day is a federal commemorative holiday, first proclaimed by then-President Barack Obama in 2014, and not a federal holiday.

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Claudia Jack – the Unofficial Mayor of Ocean Beach – Has Passed – RIP Sister

April 1, 2024 by Frank Gormlie

Over the weekend we heard that Claudia Jack, the unofficial mayor of Ocean Beach, has passed on. Hodad’s gave us the word:

Ocean Beach doesn’t toss the word LEGEND around too easily. Same with LOCAL. So when we tell you that OB lost a true local Legend today, it is with the upmost respect. Claudia Jack… Never enough Thank You’s for all of the energy you pumped into this community. Rest in Peace Claudia Peters Jack.

Here is a tribute I wrote about her a few years ago:

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Today’s the 45th Anniversary of 3-Mile Island – the Worst Nuclear Power Plant Accident in US History

March 28, 2024 by Staff

Forty-five years ago today — March 28th — Central Pennsylvania suffered a historic tragedy when one of the nuclear reactors at Three Mile Island experienced a partial meltdown.

The accident, which occurred at the Generating Station along the Susquehanna River on March 28, 1979, went down in history as the most serious nuclear power plant accident in United States history.

According to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, researchers were able to determine that the meltdown had “negligible effects on the physical health of individuals or the environment” — but that’s not to say there weren’t any lasting impacts.

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OB Woman’s Club Annual Hat Contest — Thursday, April 4 — at Dirty Birds Restaurant

March 28, 2024 by Frank Gormlie

The Ocean Beach Woman’s Club is holding their fourth annual hat contest scheduled for Thursday, April 4, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. , at Dirty Birds restaurant, located 1929 Cable St.

This competition is free and open to everyone who has a favorite hat – or who wants to craft a new one.

This year’s “hat-egories” are:

  • Best Party Hat,
  • Most Ridiculous,
  • Most OBcean and
  • Ode to Mae, a nod to the club’s garden tradition.
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Gloria Joins Infamous List of Damaged Mayors – Dick Murphy and Roger Hedgecock

March 27, 2024 by Source

By Arturo Castañares / La Prensa / March 25, 2024

It’s now apparent that a majority of San Diego voters are shopping for a new Mayor after Todd Gloria fell to less than 50% in last week’s primary election.

The incumbent Mayor seeking re-election now joins a list of damaged mayors who failed to garner more than half of the vote in a primary and limped into a head-to-head matchup where voters seemed willing to make a change at the top to push the City into a new direction.

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A Deep Dive into the Recent History and Future of the ‘Upper Voltaire Corridor’

March 15, 2024 by Source

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Tunaman Memorial Invokes Portuguese Origins and Influence of ‘Tunaville’ in Point Loma

March 15, 2024 by Source

The tuna fishing industry had a profound influence on the Roseville community, known as ‘Tunaville.’

By Eric DuVall / Point Loma – OB Monthly /March 15, 2024

Commercial fishing can be a lucrative business. It also can be a very dangerous business.

The tuna fishing industry has had such a profound influence on the development of Point Loma’s Roseville community, aka “Tunaville,“ that the area was once widely known as the “Tuna Capital of the World.”

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The Fukushima — California Connection: A Video

March 13, 2024 by Source

Please take a moment to reflect on Japan’s Nuclear Disaster at Fukushima 13 years later, billions spent, unchecked meltdowns persist while contamination abounds with no end in sight.

Please watch this 12 minute video made especially for this somber occasion, and remember that it could still happen here too, with 3.6 million pounds of nuclear waste 100 feet from the ocean at sea level, in a tsunami zone.

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The Rhetoric Behind San Diego’s Historic Preservation Debate

March 12, 2024 by Source

From SOHO March-April 2024 Newsletter

Preservation isn’t just a coat of paint or a nostalgic sentiment; it’s the very fabric of our city’s identity. At SOHO, we know firsthand the immense value historic preservation brings to San Diego.

The benefits of preservation are manifold, spanning aesthetics, culture, society, education, and economics. Despite SOHO’s relentless advocacy and educational endeavors, historic preservation is clearly under siege in our city.

Often, the critics are well-intentioned but misguided community activists, who erroneously argue without substance that preservation fuels gentrification and racism and impedes necessary new housing and urban density. Their arguments lack in-depth research to stand against the facts.

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Ancient Ritual of Harvesting Cork Is Revived to Help Displace Plastics

March 11, 2024 by Source

By Marta Vidal / Washington Post / February 5, 2024

CORUCHE, Portugal — The rhythmic noise of axes whacking trees echoes in the depths of the cork oak forest. But in Coruche, a rural area south of the Tagus River known as Portugal’s “cork capital,” the bang of trees falling to the ground doesn’t follow the sound of the ax strokes. Instead, experienced workers carefully peel away the bark from the tree trunks.

This annual rite of extracting cork in the summer months has been around for thousands of years in the western Mediterranean. Egyptians, Persians, Greeks and Romans used the material to make fishing gear and sandals and to seal jugs, jars and barrels. As glass bottles gained popularity in the 18th century, cork became the preferred sealant because it is durable, waterproof, light and pliable.

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Neighborhood Coalition Urges City to Conduct Economic Study of San Diego’s Historic Preservations

March 8, 2024 by Source

SOHO / March-April 2024 Newsletter

San Diego is at serious risk of losing the irreplaceable authenticity, architectural evolution, and unique character embodied in our historic homes, neighborhoods, heritage sites, and cultural landscapes.

Not only is the City of San Diego starting to overhaul its Heritage Preservation Program, with some officials fallaciously assuming that preservation curtails affordable housing creation, City officials are also acting on these important issues without a clear economic picture to guide them.

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SOHO: Recent San Diego City and County Historic Designations, Redlining and Racism

March 7, 2024 by Source

By Ann Jarmusch / SOHO Newsletter March-April 2024

(The following is an edited version of the original.)

At the January 2024 meeting of the City of San Diego Historical Resources Board, members heard public testimony on the proposed Talmadge Park Estates Historic District (1926-1951) before voting 6-2 to approve it in concept.

As other groups have done to allow for the process of creating a historic district, Talmadge residents bypassed local designation because the local process has hopelessly stalled. Instead, they worked with the State Office of Historic Preservation …

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The Point Loma Operational Lighthouse ‘Is in Good Standing for Another Century’

March 5, 2024 by Source

By Eric Duvall / sdnews.com / March 5, 2024

La Playa Trail Association presents its next history lecture, “The Restoration of San Diego’s Operational Lighthouse” by authors and twin sisters, Kim Fahlen and Karen Scanlon at Point Loma Assembly, 3035 Talbot St., on Tuesday, March 12. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. with lecture 6-7 p.m. A donation of $10 is accepted at the door.

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OB Woman’s Club Celebrates 100 Years of Sisterhood

February 29, 2024 by Source

The Ocean Beach Woman’s Club has just celebrated its 100th anniversary — and here are some excerpts from Regina Elling’s touching account of their celebration in a recent Pt Loma – OB Monthly:

For 100 years, the Ocean Beach Woman’s Club has stood for friendship, philanthropy and sisterhood. The club is well-known across OB for its community advocacy, and it was honored recently with an official proclamation from San Diego Mayor

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An Alternate History of PLNU: ‘The Blunt’

February 15, 2024 by Source

By Steve Anderson / LomaBeat.com / Feb. 14, 2024

Part I: Before There Was a Blunt… There Was A Point

The college was on unstable ground. A once-stout Nazarene college that sat northeast of Los Angeles in Pasadena decided to move to San Diego in 1973, drawing more than just Nazarenes. Their new campus sat on Sunset Cliffs, a dreamy oceanfront property that brought surfers and Nazarenes alike to the newly named Point Loma College (PLC): An Institution of the Church of The Nazarene.

The move couldn’t have come at a more socially intense period. Fresh out of the 1960s cultural revolution, the 1970s were just the next step in a radical socio-political attitude. An attitude especially poignant among the youth.

PLC didn’t lack its fair share of radicals;

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Urgent Defend San Diego Preservation and History Alert from SOHO

February 13, 2024 by Source

From SOHO

Recently a missive from the mayor’s office in the form of an initiative to “modernize historic property regulations to preserve important places and streamline new home construction” was sent out as a press release.

The mayor and city council are advocating for reforms based on promoting new home construction and not historic preservation.

It is essential to dispel the misconception that historic preservation and development are inherently conflicting. In reality, historic preservation impacts only a small fraction of development projects, and importantly it plays a vital role in maintaining the unique identity of our city and its neighborhoods.

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OB Historical Society Celebrates 30 Years — Thursday, Feb.15

February 12, 2024 by Source

Have We Got Some Stories for You!

Please join Ocean Beach Historical Society on Thursday evening, February 15th at 7:00 pm as they celebrate their 30th year.

Teachers, writers, business owners, artists, designers, photographers, old time hippies, community activists, owners of historic homes, elves, gnomes, and similar unusual and splendid individuals

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Journalist Objects to KPBS Coverage of Talmadge’s Push for Historic Designation as Efforts to ‘Preserve Former Whites-Only Neighborhood’

February 9, 2024 by Source

Editordude: Local journalist Paul Krueger, a resident of Talmadge — and an occasional writer here – has objected to recent KPBS coverage by reporter Katie Hyson of a meeting of San Diego’s Historical  Resources Board on efforts by Talmadge residents to achieve historic designation by the state for their neighborhood.

Krueger was particularly disturbed by KPBS’ headline of “Residents seek to preserve former ‘whites-only’ neighborhood as historic district,” because it was “terribly misleading and needlessly inflammatory,” as he stated in a letter to KPBS, which he shared with the Rag and is posted below. 

Dear Katy,

I’m a resident of Talmadge, but don’t live in that portion of the neighborhood that’s the subject of your story.

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Target Announces Intent to Sell Alcohol, Retreating on Early Pledge Not to

February 8, 2024 by Frank Gormlie

There’s a new sign adorning the windows of the Ocean Beach Target that has taken some residents aback. It’s a Public Notice announcing an application to sell alcoholic beverages within the giant corporate store.

Given the store’s controversial opening 6-7 years ago, the intent to sell alcohol is just one more slap in the face of the community where many residents rose up to oppose its opening. How so?

Back in 2017, Target officials pledged that the new store would not open with alcohol for sale. It was a big issue for OBceans at the time.

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‘Citizen Trump’ Not Immune to Criminal Charges, Appeals Court Unanimously Rules

February 6, 2024 by Source

By Jessica Corbett / Common Dreams / Feb 06, 2024

A three-judge panel from the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday unanimously ruled against former U.S. President Donald Trump’s claims of immunity in a criminal case stemming from his efforts to overturn his 2020 loss.

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Former San Diegan and Trumpist Peter Navarro Gets 4 Months in Prison for Contempt of Congress

January 26, 2024 by Frank Gormlie

Former San Diegan politician Peter Navarro who became a Trump advisor, was sentenced on Thursday, Jan. 25, to four months in prison for contempt of Congress after refusing to cooperate with an investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Navarro, 74, was well known in San Diego back in the day because as a slow-growth advocate he founded a group called PLAN for “Prevent Los Angeles Now” when he was a Democrat and ran unsuccessfully for local and state offices five times. He ended up teaching at UC Irvine for years … until he underwent a severe change into his dark side.

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San Diego Poised to Gut Historic Protection Rules to Give Developers Even More Leeway to Make Their Profits

January 18, 2024 by Source

There will probably come a time in the city of San Diego’s future (if it survives 2024 and sea-level rise) when historians, architects and residents of good-will will try to understand what happened to the city’s soul.

They’ll ponder why the city destroyed its historic buildings and neighborhoods and will look at this moment, in the middle of the century’s second decade, as a game-changer, for it will be known that in the name of “reforms” the city government decided to gut historic protection rules so developers could have even a wider landscape and latitude from which to make their obscene profits.

Here’s David Garrick at the U-T in the latest:

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UCSD Study Confirms Masking, Proper Ventilation Helped Prevent COVID Cases During Pandemic

January 18, 2024 by Source

by Debbie L. Sklar / Times of San Diego / Jan. 17, 2024

Infection preventative measures, including high ventilation standards and universal masking, prevented many SARS-CoV-2 transmissions during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a UC San Diego-led study published Tuesday revealed.

What the data revealed, the authors at UCSD School of Medicine wrote, was that amongst patients who tested positive for the virus, the use of personal protective equipment shielded and virtually eliminated health care associated transmission.

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Latest on Methodist Church Ending its Congregation at Water’s Edge, Tales of the Cornerstone and Other Stories from Church Row

January 16, 2024 by Source

By Eric DuVall / Pt Loma – OB Monthly / Jan. 16, 2024

Standing on the southwest corner of the bustling intersection at Saratoga Avenue and Sunset Cliffs Boulevard, the big Methodist church has been a hub of Ocean Beach activity for just shy of a century.

Something is happening on the church campus every day. Weekdays often are even busier than Sundays, at least in the past few years.

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‘Travels Through Time, History and Back to OB’ – OB Historical Society – Thurs., Jan.18

January 16, 2024 by Source

Please join the Ocean Beach Historical Society on Thursday evening January 18th as they kick off their 30th year of our free monthly lecture series.

Ocean Beach photographer Randy Dible will present a program of his own wonderful photos mixed with the great historic photos of his grandfather, San Diego photographer Robert Thompson, from his travels around the world in the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s.

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Trump and Lawyers Argue He Could Assassinate Rival With Immunity as Long as He Ducks Impeachment

January 12, 2024 by Frank Gormlie

Trump Echos Nixon’s ‘If the President Does It, It’s Legal By Definition’

On Tuesday, January 9, 2024, Donald Trump’s lawyer argued a preposterous and frightening legal point in front of a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel: the president could order the assassination of a political rival and get away with it as long as he wasn’t impeached.

Before the three justice panel — incidentally, all women — Trump’s attorney John Sauer was asked if the president would be persecuted if he ordered SEAL Team Six to assassinate a political rival. Sauer’s response made history — as it was the first time such an argument had ever been made inside a high level American court.

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