Grassroots and Progressive views on local, national and world news

Having a ‘Whale’ of a Time in Mission Bay

by Source on May 24, 2024 · 0 comments

in Environment, Ocean Beach

By Christina Bravo / NBC7 / May 22, 2024

A gray whale who has been spotted frequenting San Diego’s Mission Bay in recent months was last seen in the inlet on Sunday. And, despite what some concerned San Diegans might think, the whale is not there by accident.

Jeni Smith, curator of SeaWorld San Diego’s rescue program, said their team and specialists with NOAA have been monitoring the whale since March and have not seen any signs of distress. The whale, which may or may not be the same one every time, comes and goes through the 820-foot-wide channel entrance as it pleases.

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Quilting Event for Uvalde, Texas 2nd Anniversary at San Diego’s Chicano Park Museum — Friday, May 24

by Source on May 22, 2024 · 2 comments

in Civil Rights, San Diego

Uvalde Anniversary Quilting

Normal fee of $8 for museum entrance for the event will be waived for the Uvalde Quilting event.\

Please join us in remembering and honoring the children and teachers who died by gun violence in Uvalde, Texas.

You can add one stitch or many stitches to a quilt created in their memory.

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Update on Hells Angels Accused of Racist Assaults on 3 Black Men in Ocean Beach in 2023

by Source on May 24, 2024 · 2 comments

in Civil Rights, Ocean Beach

By Paul Krueger

Eight Hells Angels accused of various roles in a racist attack on three African-American men last year in Ocean Beach have pleaded guilty and now face punishments ranging from 60 days in local custody to nine years in state prison.

The three victims of that brutal June 6, 2023 attack were enjoying a night out on Newport Avenue. Prosecutors say one of the men apparently spoke to a biker’s girlfriend, which might have prompted the attack. The suspects allegedly called the victims a racial epithet and told them “they didn’t belong in the neighborhood.”

According to prosecutors, one of the victims ran and escaped injury.

But members of the biker gang cornered the second victim and punched and kicked him repeatedly. One of the gang members then sucker-punched that second, knocking him out. District Attorney Summer Stephan said the third victim was also beaten and then viciously stabbed in the chest by long-time Hells Angel Troy Scholder.

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We Need an Independent Auditor to Review City’s Data on Housing Units and Population of Mission Beach to Ensure Correct Numbers for Short Term Rental Licenses

by Source on May 24, 2024 · 3 comments

in Ocean Beach, San Diego

By Gary Wonacott

In November of 2022, I submitted a story to the Rag that was published about a shrinking Mission Beach and the incorrect basis for the calculation of Tier 4 short term rental licenses by the City of San Diego.

At that time, I had an attorney send a demand letter to SANDAG, the STR Office with the City, the mayor and other officials requesting that the correct 2020 census numbers be used. The SANDAG estimates are 3,607 housing units in Mission Beach, compared to a number that I confirmed of 3,177.

Fast forward to today. SANDAG has released its revised estimates supposedly based on the 2020 census according to a SANDAG employee, Dr. Cindy Burke, in a letter in response to the demand letter.

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The Widder Curry: ‘A Future Without a Pet Is Sad, So Help Out Those Who Rescue Dogs’

by Judi Curry on May 23, 2024 · 3 comments

in Ocean Beach

By Judi Curry

I have had dogs for as long as I can remember. Usually they have been Golden Retrievers, but in the past few years I have had other breeds.

After my last Golden passed away, I was so devastated that I wanted to have a dog right away and I contacted a rescue that had a Husky/Australian Shepherd mix available. She had just been rescued from a “kill center” in San Bernardino. Rescued after just giving birth to 9 puppies and weighing in at 27 pounds! She was being fostered at a home in the ranch lands of San Diego along with her 9 puppies. It was the day that she was going to be euthanized at the dog pound.

I told the rescuer that I was interested in the dog, and when she brought her over to the house I decided I wanted her.

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Another Longtime Business on Newport Ave Pulling Up Stakes Due to 20% Rent Increase

May 23, 2024 by Source

Gianni Buonomo Vintners Set to Move to Midway District

From SanDiegoVille

San Diego’s award-winning Gianni Buonomo Vinters urban winery is leaving Ocean Beach after nearly a decade to relocate to a new facility in the Midway District, which some consider Point Loma.

Longtime Ocean Beach resident Keith Rolle opened his urban winery Gianni Buonomo Vintners on Newport Avenue in OB in early 2016.

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Reader Rant: ‘My 4 Favorite Moments of the Comic Opera of a City Council Meeting on Uptown Planning’

May 23, 2024 by Source

By Kate Callen

Here are my four favorite moments during that comic opera of a San Diego City Council hearing on Tuesday on Uptown planning.

Von Wilpert reciting Council policy that “the City does not direct or recommend the election, appointment, or removal of voting members of CPGs” and telling her chastened colleagues, “What I feel I’m being asked to do today is to vote on who should sit in what seat.”

The razor-sharp Uptown Planners presentation revealing that, on the diversity front, their group and Vibrant match the Uptown district closely in all but one demographic: Vibrant skews wealthy on the socioeconomic scale.

Cartoon: ‘I don’t need a television to see two old guys arguing!’

May 22, 2024 by Frank Gormlie

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Nice Town, Savannah

May 22, 2024 by Ernie McCray

by Ernie McCray

Just returned home after
spending a very nice couple of days
in Savannah, Georgia,
a town well thought of
by anyone I’ve ever known
who has been there
and after being there myself
I can sing its praises too,
the beauty of its live oak
and Spanish moss trees,
the busy energy in the ports
off the river
that carries its name,
cobbled streets that remind you of
times gone by,

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Two Hospitalized — One With Life-Threatening Injuries — After Motorcycle Rear-Ends Car in Ocean Beach

May 22, 2024 by Source

A 42-year-old man suffered life-threatening burn injuries when his motorcycle rear-ended a vehicle in Ocean Beach and caught fire while his passenger was ejected and seriously injured Tuesday afternoon, San Diego police said.

The collision happened shortly after 4:35 p.m. when the motorcyclist, who was heading west on Voltaire Street, ran into the back of a Honda CRV stopped at a stop sign at Bacon Street, police said.

Reader Rant: ‘Our Beloved Uptown Planners Was Unjustly and Savagely Abused by Our Ignorant and Self-serving City Council’

May 22, 2024 by Source

By Lisa Mortensen

Yesterday’s [May 21] council meeting was a first hand look at the total Pay to Play culture of our city hall in their 8-1 vote to publicly recognize Vibrant Uptown as the community planning group. This is a bunch of hand-picked (non-elected) minions of Todd Gloria.

They are his footmen you could say who are hellbent on getting the Plan Hillcrest high-rise, high density agenda pushed through in just a few months time and then begin their destruction and ‘one-size fits all, tear down the old, and build the new big box projects added to our landscape in all our communities, not just the Hillcrest core. Here it comes, people!

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It Was Always the Plan: City Council Votes 8-1 to Silence Critics of Over-Development in Uptown

May 22, 2024 by Source

By Mat Wahlstrom

Perhaps the only surprise about the foregone decision by the City Council yesterday to disenfranchise the citizens of Uptown was how messy it was.

For those who don’t know: back in 2021, at the behest of his pro-developer underwriters, Councilmember Joe LaCava began work to further hobble the 42 elected community planning groups (CPGs) that had already been crippled the previous year. He received approval to again rewrite the policies and procedures that govern CPGs.

At the time, it was mystifying why a second bite at the apple was even necessary. But yesterday the reason was made clear: It wasn’t about CPGs in general, but the Uptown Planners CPG in particular.

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Appeal of 7-Story, 223 Unit Building with 15% Affordable at Perry’s Cafe — City Council, Tuesday, June 4

May 22, 2024 by Staff

The City of San Diego has notified the public that the City Council will hear an appeal of the decision to approve a 223-dwelling-unit, seven-story building at Perry’s Cafe on Tuesday, June 4th in Council Chambers.

15% of the units in the huge project will supposedly be affordable. At the edge of the interchange of two major San Diego freeways, Perry’s Cafe has been a mainstay for decades and sits within the Old Town planning area and in District 2.

First of all, did you know the city had approved this project? We did not. It flew by below our radar.

Here are more details:

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Cheswicks to Close After Memorial Weekend – Will Reopen With New Name and New Owners

May 21, 2024 by Source

From SanDiegoVille / May 20, 2024

The tiny biker bar with a big window, San Diego’s decades-old Cheswick’s West is under new ownership in Ocean Beach and will soon close to rebrand into a different concept.

In 1983, Ocean Beach resident Dean Hall opened Cheswicks West. Over the more than 40 years in business, the dive bar has hosted eclectic blend of patrons ranging from bikers, to surfers, to hippies and musicians, and everyone in between. Last year, a large brawl occurred outside of Cheswick’s, resulting in a stabbing and multiple people injured. Reportedly 17 Hells Angeles were indicted connected with the incident.

Uptown Planners Need Your Support — Today, Tuesday, May 21

May 21, 2024 by Source

by Mat Wahlstrom

City Council will be deciding today, Tuesday, 5/21 on whether Uptown’s current Community Planning Group (CPG), Uptown Planners, will continue or whether a new CPG proposed by a group calling itself Vibrant Uptown will be chosen to take over advising the city on how our community feels about development.

We need your support on Tuesday! The developers who want to make Uptown into the new Downtown will be coming out in force. The people who promote 20 to 30 story high rise apartments will be there. The people who oppose off-street parking requirements in new buildings will be there. The people who don’t care why you selected Uptown to live and work in will be there. We need to be there too!

There are important ways you can help!

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Hillcrest Is Ground Zero for San Diego’s War on Community Planning Groups

May 21, 2024 by Source

By Kate Callen / Times of San Diego / May 16, 2024

If you’re wondering why Uptown Planners has become a prime target of City Hall’s war on planning groups, the battle over the unpopular Plan Hillcrest offers a case study.

When the Uptown community first questioned the city’s radical proposal to shoehorn more density into an already congested community, the planning group went to work. After seeing what looked like development overreach — 50,000 new residents, 30-story buildings – they requested public records that might elucidate how this startling proposal was conceived and crafted.

The city responded with a 600-document data dump. Undaunted, Uptown leaders sifted through the pile and zeroed in on several dozen relevant document pages.

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Update on Status of OB Town Council and OB Community Foundation

May 21, 2024 by Source

The following is from the Board of the OBCF

May 15 Town Hall Recap: Public Statement Regarding the Status of OBTC & OBCF

The Ocean Beach Community Foundation held a town hall meeting on Wednesday, May 15 at 7:00 pm to discuss the status and facts of the OBTC and OBCF organizations with the community. Below is a summary of our public statement from this Town Hall:

Introduction

As a board, we have a lot of information to share tonight, so we respectfully request to present everything before receiving comments and questions from the audience. This is an interim report, as work is still underway to uncover all of the missteps of the past and take corrective action. The facts that we are going to share may be shocking and as you process this information it may feel similar to the stages of grief and loss.

The OB Kite Festival 2024 — A Video

May 21, 2024 by Source

Check out Charles Landon’s video on the OB Kite Festival.

U-T Editorial Board: San Diego Residents Trust City Council Less Than They Trust SDG&E

May 20, 2024 by Source

Lack of Trust Reason Power San Diego Couldn’t Collect Enough Signatures for Ballot

San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board / May 17, 2024

San Diego Gas & Electric is easily the least objectionable of the state’s three giant investor-owned utilities. It is not a corporate felon on “a crime spree,” as a federal judge described Pacific Gas & Electric in 2022. It didn’t launch the clandestine scheme to make ratepayers cover far too much of the cost of shuttering the broken San Onofre nuclear plant. Though SDG&E benefited, that was the work of an Edison executive.

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Workers at Better Buzz Hillcrest Win Union Election

May 20, 2024 by Source

Baristas Join UFCW Local 135 to Bargain for Better Wages and Working Conditions

San Diego, CA – Workers at Better Buzz Coffee’s Hillcrest location have achieved an important victory in their pursuit of better wages, fair treatment and improved working conditions. In a decisive election held by the National Labor Relations Board on Friday, May 17, the baristas, trainers, and shift supervisors voted overwhelmingly to join the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 135.

This worker victory marks the culmination of a determined effort by the employees, who organized under the name Better Buzz United. The workers cited concerns about wages, benefits, scheduling, and overall workplace safety as primary reasons for seeking union representation.

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Application for Construction of Large Church in Del Cerro Was Properly Denied

May 20, 2024 by Source

By Michael Livingston of Save Del Cerro

On January 9, 2024, in a 6-2 vote, San Diego City Council denied the All People’s Church (“APC”) application to build a 54,476 square foot, 900 seat facility, with over a dozen classrooms, over 20 offices, over 350 parking spaces, along with a 71,010 square foot two-level parking structure, at the intersection of Interstate 8, College Avenue and Del Cerro Boulevard. In response, APC filed a federal lawsuit alleging religious discrimination. All Peoples Church v. City of San Diego 24 CV 0562 TWR-MSB.

The City Council denied APC’s application based upon the inadequacy of the 2019 traffic analyses that APC used to support its application and the safety dangers that the proposed project created. Both parties will now need to spend significant time and money litigating APC’s claims, when the traffic analyses and safety issues could have been decided years ago— indeed even when APC first made its plans — if APC had simply provided full and accurate traffic as well as safety analyses.

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Point Loma’s Portuguese Festa 2024

May 20, 2024 by Source

It’s More Than Just The “Wow” Dresses

By Colleen O’Connor

The annual Portuguese Festa de Espirito Santo has a 100 plus year tradition. It is family oriented, based in devout Catholicism, an affinity for the Portuguese community, their fishing history, and a bit of fun. A joy in serious times.

The parade on Sunday, with High Mass to follow, was delightful. Bands, lots of children in costumes, and dresses.

Celebrations, Flowers and Remembrance of Colorful Lives in Ocean Beach

May 17, 2024 by Source

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Sign Surfrider Petition to Keep Public Access to San Onofre Beach

May 17, 2024 by Source

Surfrider has launched a petition directed toward decision makers to keep public access to San Onofre State Beach.

Here’s their statement on the Petition.

California’s State Parks’ lease allowing public access to San Onofre State Beach expires in August 2024. Without a lease renewal or extension, we could lose public access to this valuable stretch of coastline and world-renowned surf breaks indefinitely!

Make your voice heard by these key leaders and decision-makers:

OB Weekly Vigil for Ceasefire in Gaza — Saturday, May 18

May 17, 2024 by Source

This Saturday, May 18th, 2024 at Noon in Ocean Beach !!

Come join a growing number of your friends and neighbors, 45 folks last Saturday, our largest group yet, standing out on a busy corner in Ocean Beach, demanding a CEASEFIRE in Gaza, and demanding that the U.S. stop providing Israel with weapons that have already killed 32,000+ Gazans.

This weekly demonstration, organized by the San Diego Veterans For Peace and the progressive women’s group, Code Pink, will mark the sixteen consecutive Saturdays at the same location,

March for Animal Rights — Downtown San Diego to Little Italy: Saturday, May 18

May 17, 2024 by Source

Hundreds of activist will march for animal rights from Pantoja Park in downtown San Diego starting this Saturday May 18th at 10 AM. The march will go to Little Italy and then end back at Pantoja Park. There will be large, colorful art depictions of animals along with a “Barbie” theme.

Celebrate the History of the Peninsula — Tuesday, May 21

May 17, 2024 by Source

Come Inside for More Details

More Outside Agitators Found at UC Irvine

May 17, 2024 by Staff

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Trump Makes $1 Billion Deal With Oil Companies to Reverse Climate Regs — But US News Blackout Is Scarry

May 16, 2024 by Source

By Ruth Milka / Nation of Change /May 15, 2024

Amidst a backdrop of escalating environmental and political stakes, a recent report by The Washington Post unveiled a controversial offer by former President Donald Trump: the reversal of crucial climate regulations in return for a staggering $1 billion donation to his campaign from oil industry titans