OB Rag

OB Rag Staff Report

Jack McGrory has seen a lot happen in San Diego over the past 50 years, and he knows a lot about how the city has evolved. In his 24 years at City Hall, where he rose from a trainee in 1973 to City Manager between 1991 and 1997, McGrory had a singular role in helping shape our city government.

At a June 20 dialogue hosted by the San Diego Community Coalition and Neighbors for a Better San Diego, McGrory answered questions about City Hall’s perilous state with astonishing candor.

In this Part I of a report on the forum, McGrory discusses how a lack of professionalism at City Hall has led to financial instability and public distrust.

On city government “best practices”:

We always measured ourselves against other large cities. All the city managers would meet every six months, and we’d exchange ideas about best practices. San Diego went to automated trash pickup because I saw Phoenix doing it, and they showed me their numbers. Before we had automated pickup, we had two or three people on every truck handling 11 tons of trash a day. The costs of back injuries and workers’ comp were insane.

At another one of these conferences, someone described a new technology for fixing potholes that used trucks with computers and hot tar dispensers. The truck would drive over the pothole, and the computer would drop the hot tar and tamp it down. I bought eight pothole trucks, and we were fixing potholes in 24 hours.

Then one day, I saw a city employee fixing a pothole by shoveling in hot tar. I asked, “Where are the pothole trucks?” He said, “One of the drivers got carpal tunnel syndrome, so the union lobbied the Council, and they got rid of the trucks.”

by Dorian Hargrove / Times of San Diego / June 25, 2026

The public fight over yoga in San Diego city parks and at popular beaches is far from entering the final stretch.

As the city and yoga teacher Steve Hubbard, known by his moniker NamaSteve, and teacher Amy Baack, are embroiled in two public court battles over whether free yoga classes should be considered a First Amendment right, Yoga instructor Hubbard has thrown yet another proverbial punch.

Meanwhile, the city of San Diego is digging in its heels on the previously filed federal and state lawsuits and attempting to subpoena the financial information of the yoga practitioners who donated to Hubbard and fellow yoga instructors, in hopes of proving that the students were paying a fee for the yoga classes.

On June 22, Hubbard filed a third lawsuit against the city of San Diego over the three citations issued by San Diego Park rangers to Hubbard in 2025, in the weeks following a federal court order that stated the city’s interpretation was unconstitutional.

We’re beginning an OB Rag writing contest today — Thursday, June 25th — given that we’re nearing the 250th anniversary of American independence.

The topic: “What the 250th anniversary means today … living under Trump.”

Send 500 to 1,000 word entries to us at our email: obragblog@gmail.com  (The best way is to simply paste the essay into the text of an email and send it to us.) All entries will be judged by a panel of citizen journalists and professional writers. The deadline is July 4th.

The winning essay writer will be awarded $100.00 to be delivered by the U.S. Postal Service.

By David Helvarg / Los Angeles Times Guest contributor / June 24, 2026

The Reflecting Pool on the National Mall in Washington has turned pea green with algal growth — as shallow bodies of still water tend to do in summer when temperatures rise. President Trump’s $14-million no-bid “American flag blue” paint job was never going to stop that. It may in fact have contributed, as being darker than the previous pool bottom it absorbs heat more readily.

Algal blooms are on the increase globally as the oceans and other bodies of water continue warming due to fossil-fuel-fired climate change and increased nutrient runoff from agriculture, deforestation and urban pollution. Some of these — known as harmful algal blooms — involve toxic species and can affect wildlife, drinking water and industry.

The global increase has contributed to massive piles of sargassum seaweed smothering beaches in Florida and the Caribbean and “green tides” of sea lettuce coming ashore in southern China. In March, the United Nations reported that harmful algal blooms are continuing to increase in distribution, frequency and effects, sparking fish and marine mammal die-offs and causing human harm either through toxic seafood or direct exposure.

On the other hand, we can thank algae, the first complex life form on Earth, along with cyanobacteria, for giving us our atmosphere in the Great Oxidation Event of 2.5 billion years ago. Algae also became the ancestor of all the world’s plant life that, like it, photosynthesize, taking in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. And while some people, with their bipedal air-breathing terrestrial biases, like to call the rainforests “the lungs of the world,” marine microalgae including phytoplankton generate about half the world’s oxygen while macroalgae in the form of some 12,000 species of seaweed, along with sea grasses, mangroves and salt marshes, may contribute another 20%.

by Ernie McCray

I experienced an evening
in these times of cares and woes
just a short time ago
that was ever so heavenly,
like sweet music to my ears,
beginning with a Lyft ride
in a car
whose radio,
speaking of music,
was playing
a Sonny Rollins’ song
in memory
of him
now that he’s gone
and the bebop phrasing
coming from his tenor saxophone
those deep rich strong tones
for which he’s known
set the tone
for a dinner
I was going to at the home of my friend,
Cecil Lytle,

A mounting wave of pushback against ed tech has sprung up recently including from some Ocean Beach parents. San Diego Unified’s board just took steps to rein it in.

by Jakob McWhinney / Voice of San Diego / June 24, 2026

San Diego Unified’s board on Tuesday, June 23 unanimously passed a resolution that places new limits on screens in classrooms and how students will be able to use district-issued laptops. It also lays the groundwork to restrict the use of AI-enabled software that hasn’t been specifically approved by the district.

By the start of the school year, students will no longer be able to access video-streaming or gaming platforms on district-issued laptops. The resolution also sets a timetable for other changes, like more comprehensive regulations on screen-usage based on grade level. Officials will create a committee to usher in the changes.

But not everyone’s stoked. Los Angeles Unified recently passed restrictions that went even further. Some of the activists who pushed for local restrictions are disappointed San Diego Unified’s action didn’t do more to limit screens.

The new restrictions are the local front of swelling, nationwide pushback against the ubiquity of educational technology in schools.

Editordude: The Rag has been highlighting this fight to save land for a park in Emerald Hills for over a year and half now. Here is some commentary from local resident and occasional Rag writer, Rob Campbell:

The City is attempting to limit public comment by instituting new rules starting July 1st. The public meeting is July 7th. The City is pulling out every measure they can to stop resident voices. They are calling the new program “Enhanced Community Engagement at City Hall” and have thrown up significant barriers to pool voices together during public comment. See you all on July 7th at 2pm, when the City of San Diego makes history – one way or another.

Here’s the latest on the battle:

By Katie Hyson / KPBS /  June 24, 2026

Two radio towers mark a high point in Emerald Hills. For now, the 31-acre property is quiet, green and mostly empty. An upcoming appeal hearing could decide how that changes. It offers a rare 360-degree view from Mexico to La Jolla.

From his backyard, Kenny Key uses a rope and makeshift boards to scale a steep incline and take in the view. Every morning, he can look to the east and watch the sun rise over San Miguel Mountain. He tracks its wide arc through the sky to set between the Coronado Bridge and Point Loma Lighthouses, and sees the moon rise in its stead. He can see every plane that flies over the city and every ship that docks in its harbor.

“We see the beauty of San Diego every day,” he said. “And so we love our community.”

Key’s mother bought their home in the early ‘70s, around the time redlining had recently ended. The hilltop property had been a country club and golf course. “Blacks weren’t allowed to play up here. Blacks weren’t allowed to build up here. So when we came up here … it was like, ‘Upgrade!’” he said.

From First Amendment Coalition

We’re writing to sound alarms about California Assembly Bill 1821, which would have disastrous effects on transparency, accountability, and our democracy. Well, it’s crunchtime.

The bill, which was amended at the proverbial 11th hour in a transformation that a local watchdog group called “a virtual horror show of governmental non-transparency,” is set for a crucial committee hearing June 30. We need your help to stop it.

If passed, the bill would fundamentally alter the California Public Records Act, a vital sunshine law that ensures the people’s business be done in public view, making state and local governments less transparent and less responsive to the people they serve. Specifically, it would:

• Allow government agencies to charge hefty fees for public records
• Give local governments the authority to deem requests “not properly requested” and therefore invalid
• Allow local governments even more time to delay their responses
• Empower government agencies to sue members of the public if they feel a request was made with “malicious intent,” which seems left to the interpretation of whoever is holding the public records someone is asking to see

By Jillian Butler

Citing environmental preservation, public safety, and concerns about commercialization, the City of San Diego has increased legislation and enforcement against pop-up events at Sunset Cliffs. However, some businesses are using loopholes to continue their operations in the letter, rather than the spirit of the law.

Once a sacred Kumeyaay site, Sunset Cliffs Natural Park is an area of immense beauty. The quintessential section of the San Diego coastline brings in over 1.7 million pedestrians, surfers, birdwatchers, tidepoolers, site seers, and artists per year.

In our current digital era, many people prioritize the social media share-ability of an experience as much as the experience itself. Businesses have taken note of this trend and picked up on Sunset Cliffs as the perfect place to fill a gap in the market. Using this stretch of coast between Ocean Beach and Point Loma, entrepreneurially minded individuals have capitalized off of Instagram-worthy picnics, yoga classes, concerts, and raves.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many restaurants, nightlife venues, and fitness classes closed down. Many organizations adapted by moving gatherings outdoors. This is when the rise of pop-ups began. However, decades long codes and licensure requirements regarding gatherings were not applied to these new businesses.

Editordude: The following is an unsolicited manuscript involving a personalized account of locals and our history, and especially that of the famous “Osprey Mansion.”

By Steven Franklin

Margaret McIntosh, the flamboyant, beautiful and emotionally demonstrative mother of a close friend and a woman who was very kind to me when I was a child while living in difficult circumstance, died last week at 85.

Margaret´s death sent me searching nostalgically into our common past, where I found this photo of the historical Osprey Mansion taken from where Sunset Cliffs meets the Pacific in Point Loma, California, a place where Margaret´s family once lived.

Despite the great distance between us, I was able to remain close with Margaret on-line these last few years, and we communicated often. Just before she passed away Margaret shared a post about her favorite musician. I commented, recounting the day her fourteen year-old son saved that musician´s life after he had suffered a long fall from Sunset Cliffs onto the rocks and into the tidal pools below and was seriously hurt and drowning during a daring rescue in front of the old mansion, and how that musician recovered from the fall and went on to become a member of one the greatest rock and roll bands in history.

My recalling to Margaret what I had largely witnessed pleased her immensely, and she responded to me how proud it would make her if I wrote down what happened that day and shared it with our many mutual friends, which I promised Margaret I would do. Margaret died, however, just a few days later. I am fulfilling the promise that I made to her here.

The year was 1973. The unexpected hero´s name is David, but I understand that these days he goes by his middle name “Granger.” I´ve called him plenty of other names also, over the years, as young boys and men are often fond of doing. But back then we knew him mostly as David…David Granger Faulk.

I spent thousands of hours of my youth at David´s house, as his mother Margaret had generously given me a safe harbor in her home while escaping my own alcoholic and broken family circumstance.

By Debbie L. Sklar

Rose Creek is one of San Diego’s quieter but most ecologically important urban waterways, flowing from inland canyons through residential neighborhoods before emptying into Mission Bay. Often overlooked by commuters on nearby freeways, it remains a rare continuous green corridor in a heavily developed coastal city.

The creek begins far inland on MCAS Miramar east of I-15, a detail that still surprises many who know only its lower stretches. From there, it flows west through Rose Canyon to I-5, then turns south toward Mission Bay, forming the main freshwater tributary feeding the bay’s ecosystem. Along the way, it passes through a patchwork of neighborhoods, including University City, Clairemont, and Pacific Beach, linking upland canyon habitat to coastal wetlands.

Long before Mission Beach developed into a resort and residential community, Rose Creek carried seasonal flows from inland canyons into the marshes and tidal flats that once dominated the northern end of Mission Bay. As the bay was dredged and reshaped during the 20th century, the creek remained one of the few natural waterways still feeding the system.

Much of the upper watershed is protected as part of Rose Canyon Open Space Park, where native sycamores and willows still line sections of the creek.

This is an edited version of Voice of San Diego’s “Reining in E-Bikes”

The San Diego City Council passed new e-bike regulations on Tuesday. It joins Chula Vista, Coronado and Carlsbad, which have also passed regulations.

The new law will ban children younger than 12 from riding Class 1 and 2 e-bikes. (Class 1 and 2 bikes can not go faster than 20 miles per hour. Class 3 bikes are already limited in California to people 16 and older.) Children who break the law will be subject to fines.

A study at one trauma center in San Diego found that e-bike accidents involving children increased by more than 300 percent between 2019 and 2023, according to a report by city staff.