By Eric Duvall / Pt Loma-OB Monthly / April 16, 2024
“See that big old tree,” Scotty Hunter would say as he regaled his cronies. “Teddy Roosevelt planted that tree.”
Quite a claim, you’ll agree. The fact that the great Afrocarpus gracilior, or African fern pine, stood in a shady section of Point Loma’s Wooded Area made that pronouncement even more remarkable.
Tall tale? The big tree certainly was tall. True story? Not really, no. But at least one of those former cronies is willing to cut the grandson of midcentury nursery proprietors Don and Kathryn Hunter some slack on that exuberant claim. Sure, it’s a great story, and probably the way he had heard it most of his life, but for the enchanted aisles of Rosecroft Gardens, hyperbole was never necessary.
Current evidence that a world-renowned exotic and tropical nursery once thrived in the wilds of a very quiet and out-of-the-way neighborhood is scarce. Street signs for Rosecroft and Garden lanes might help you triangulate the grounds where acres of begonias, bromeliads, azaleas, fuchsias and ferns once bloomed spectacularly in the dappled sunshine under their lath and later shade cloth canopies.
By David Helvarg / Daily Kos / April 22, 2024
The rightwing Heritage Foundation has written “Project 2025,” a plan for what it hopes will be a second Trump administration. The plan calls for rapidly expanding fossil fuel emissions and includes a chapter on opening up the Department of Interior’s lands to mineral mining and oil drilling written by Wise Use veteran, William Perry Pendley.
30 years ago, I wrote a widely-read book, ‘The War Against the Greens – The ‘Wise Use’ movement, the New Right and Anti-Environmental Violence,’ describing how a “populist” backlash against environmental laws and violence against grassroots activists was ginned up by western public lands corporations seeking to defend their federal subsidies in mining, logging and cattle grazing. They aligned with gun rights and off-road vehicle groups and think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and in doing so created a template for today’s anti-environmentalism.
By Gary Robbins / San Diego Union-Tribune / April 20, 2024
A decision by Point Loma Nazarene University to limit the screening of a documentary about the Bible and homosexuality has angered students who say the move was disrespectful to the gay community and is having a chilling effect on free speech and academic inquiry.
The outcry is the latest in a series of controversies that have strained relations between the small, private Christian school above Sunset Cliffs and members and supporters of the LGBTQ+ community.
by Crystal Niebla /inewsource / April 24, 2024
Nearly two years after the city of San Diego changed longstanding policy to begin requiring community planning groups to pay for appeals, the groups’ leaders say the $1,000 fee has proven to be a barrier to fight against projects they oppose.
The appeals process allows anyone to challenge approved projects if they believe there are factual errors, new information, unsupported findings or conflicts with a city plan or rule.
But while other residents paid $1,000 to appeal decisions, community planning groups were exempt.
That changed beginning in 2022, when the City Council removed their fee waiver. Joe LaCava, the District 1 councilmember who has led efforts to overhaul planning group rules, said city officials believed it was inappropriate to give “a special benefit” that was not applied to other organizations.
Student Host Group Forced to Show Film at Much Smaller Venue
By Kate Callen
by Marisa Kendall / 
By Jeff McDonald / 
By Joely Proudfit / 
By Katy Jae Waldman
Editordude: Several years ago, before the pandemic, I spoke with San Diego historian and archaeologist Richard Carrico at an OB Historical Society event about his well-known book on San Diego’s Kumeyaay native peoples, Strangers in a Stolen Land. What had caught my attention in his book was a map of San Diego County with the locations of major Kumeyaay villages and I asked him about it, as I was at the time on a quest to learn more about them.
By chloris creator /
By Paul Krueger
The City of San Diego has just sent out public notices for two new projects proposed for West Point Loma Boulevard, one at 5184 and the other at 4954.
A 3-story multi-family building consisting of 8 ADUs is being proposed for the 4500 block of Pescadero Avenue in Point Loma.
(Written for a Black Student Union Coalition Conference)
By Lisa Mortensen / April 7, 2024
Dear Councilwoman Jennifer Campbell,
Year-old law isn’t strong enough on Tier 2 rentals, hosts, enforcement, density and impact on long-term housing.
By David Garrick / 
If the current Board of Directors of what was the Ocean Beach Town Council hold to their plan, they will do a rebrand and morph into the “Ocean Beach Town Council Foundation” and allow the group and name “Ocean Beach Town Council” to dissolve and fall by the wayside.
Yesterday’s Rag announced the upcoming meeting of the Project Review Committee of the OB Planning Board — Wed., April 17 — and recounted how the committee only had one project to review. (Usually, the committee makes recommendations on proposed projects to the full board.)
By Carolyn Chase
Every year, the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists hosts an event called “Walls and Windows” in order “to honor those in our community who have worked hard to expand the public’s right to know by fighting for transparency — and hold accountable those who have stifled these efforts.”
Lance Murphy April 25, 2024 at 6:29 am on Open Letter to Councilwoman Campbell on ‘Complete Communities’ from Point Loma HomeownerLynne, Feel free to distribute my comments if the goal is to support a discussion and enable a sharing of experiences, perceptions, facts and opinions....
Mat Wahlstrom April 24, 2024 at 7:38 pm on City Council Committee Sides With Upstart Planning Group in Uptown and With Existing Group in La JollaTook the words right out of my mouth, kh – literally and figuratively, from almost three years ago: https://obrag.org/2021/11/another-assault-in-the-war-on-san-diegos-community-planning-groups/ 
Chris April 24, 2024 at 6:15 pm on Students at PLNU Are Angry With Administration For Disrespecting Gay Community and Chilling Free SpeechNot to excuse the administration, but why did these students choose a school with a known anti LGBTQ stance due its religious affiliation? 
kh April 24, 2024 at 5:55 pm on ‘Hey You! Get Up! We’ve Outlawed Sleeping in Public!’Not making false pipedream promises would be a start. I wish I could locate that press release from Todd Gloria as a councilmember where he...
T April 24, 2024 at 5:03 pm on Planning Groups Forced to Pay New $1,000 Fee to Appeal Projects Stifles Community DemocracyThis is great info. Last week at the PBPB meeting their planner was talking about the new $1000 appeal charge and why the city thinks...
gilbert field April 24, 2024 at 4:47 pm on ‘Hey You! Get Up! We’ve Outlawed Sleeping in Public!’Getting back to the original comment, which was what Larry Turner would do to reduce homelessness, I am still not sure what he means or...
chris schultz April 24, 2024 at 3:34 pm on ‘Hey You! Get Up! We’ve Outlawed Sleeping in Public!’Exactly, land gets more expensive the closer to the coast generally speaking. The same standard doesn't apply everywhere. 
CARL M ZANOLLI April 24, 2024 at 3:32 pm on Students at PLNU Are Angry With Administration For Disrespecting Gay Community and Chilling Free SpeechParents spend so much $$$ to send their kids to PLNU because they weren't accepted elsewhere. 
Gail April 24, 2024 at 3:10 pm on Planning Groups Forced to Pay New $1,000 Fee to Appeal Projects Stifles Community DemocracyI agree, these are land use issues heard at community planning meetings, by volunteers. There is a $500 stipend offered by the City for the...
Dr. Jack Hammer April 24, 2024 at 11:35 am on Students at PLNU Are Angry With Administration For Disrespecting Gay Community and Chilling Free SpeechBut isn't that why the parents pay so much $$$ for this education? So their little darlings can be protected from the 'evils' of the...
