Author: Frank Gormlie

Recently, Voice of San Diego ran their “Politics Report” on the “the Midway Rising Bill” (behind a paywall) where they begin with this dire warning:

“…San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria has entered the nothing-is-going-to-get-in-our-way phase of the plan to build a new arena and more than 4,000 new housing units on the city’s nearly 50 acres of land along Sports Arena Boulevard in Midway.”

The focus of the report was on how different politicians and parties reacted to State Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson’s brand new bill to exempt Midway Rising from the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA.

The Voice noted, “The city is officially sponsoring the legislation …that would exempt the Midway Rising project from the sometimes onerous requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA. Inadequately fulfilling the requirements of CEQA and getting sued has caused countless projects delay or failure.” (We take exception with this phrase, “the sometimes onerous requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA”.)

Because this project — the Midway Rising redevelopment of the Sports Arena area — has been so contentious and important to our readers, we here recount the responses to this bill by both politicians and wannabe pols — like those running for District 2.

5:40 pm PDT Hey everybody, we’re wrapping up our live blog, as we’ve been blogging since 8:15 this morning.

Chula Vista

5:29 pm PDT Byron Morton sent a batch of shots from Chula Vista. He reported, “There were about 250 people of all walks on the sidewalks bordering the intersection of H Street and Broadway. There were multilingual signs. Protesters blew whistles and cars honked constantly in passing.”

Downtown
4:26 pm PDT Even though the main march downtown San Diego has been over for hours, photos are still coming in to the Rag. Here’s a batch of the Waterfront march taken by OBcean Charles Landon:

By Alex Cheney / CBS8 / February 25, 2026

The City of San Diego is actively searching for a new management company to operate the temporarily closed Tecolote Canyon Golf Course, a beloved community asset that has served local golfers for decades.

A trunk sewer line construction project forced the closure of the course, which cuts through the property and has rendered multiple holes unplayable. Construction equipment now occupies the fairways where golfers once played their rounds.

American Golf had managed the course for the last three decades before its lease expired. The city viewed the expiration as an opportunity to close that chapter and pursue a new operating plan.

“American Golf was on an expired lease, so it was the natural time to close out that former chapter, look toward the future investment of the course, and look toward a new operating and management plan,” said Jim Mandler with the City of San Diego.

As we finish up the four weeks of Trump’s war on Iran, it’s time to offer some key observations from Southern California.

• Trump is lying about the pace of “negotiations” with Iran in order to garner more time to accumulate more US troops in the region; this is all his “art of the deal” — confuse your opponent, make them believe you’re about to “walk away” from any talks on resolution. In this case, Trump has confused the American people, the mainstream media, European allies — even his own staff at the White House. On Thursday, he stated he didn’t care about the negotiations.
• Trump earned his TACO nickname, and changed his deadline for Iran, again for the third time. Trump Always Chickens Out.
• Despite Trump’s claims the “war is already won”, Iran and Israel continue to shell each other — even escalated attacks — and more deaths and injuries mount. Iran says 1400 of its people have been killed in the strikes over the last 4 weeks.
• The Straits of Hormuz are still closed to Iran’s adversaries. Trump couldn’t get any NATO or other ally to help free the fiery zone.
• Troops, marines, sailors are on their way; there’s reports that Trump has ordered another 10,000 soldiers to the region; there’s two ships filled with sailors and marines on their way to the Mid-East; there’s a brigade of the 82th Airborne Division on its way.
• America is on the verge of experiencing the largest protest — No Kings — in history, tomorrow March 28th as over 7 million people will be marching and protesting. Thousands of San Diegans will be protesting at the  22 events just in San Diego County. (The Rag will host an all-day liveblog about the events.)
• San Diego is about to enter the war big time: thousands of Marines from Camp Pendleton have been mobilized to go; many of their families live in the San Diego region, and if there are boots on the ground, expect to see many locals on casualty lists.

Tens of Thousands Expected Across San Diego County for No Kings March 28 

Organizers anticipate largest San Diego turnout yet after 80,000+ joined October mobilization

Tens of thousands of San Diego County residents are expected at 22 rallies, marches and family-friendly events on Saturday, March 28, building on the 80,000+ who mobilized countywide in October 2025. Participants say they are mobilizing in defense of democratic institutions, civil liberties, and social programs affecting San Diego families. Events are scheduled across San Diego County, including Downtown San Diego, Ocean Beach, La Jolla, Carmel Valley, Mira Mesa, Carlsbad, Oceanside,Vista, San Marcos, Escondido, Fallbrook, Temecula, Valley Center, Rancho Bernardo, Ramona, La Mesa, El Cajon, Chula Vista, Otay Mesa and Borrego Springs.

Here’s the updated list of No Kings events within San Diego County, March 28

MAIN SAN DIEGO RALLY & MARCH
Waterfront Park
10:00 a.m.–noon | 1600 Pacific Hwy, San Diego, CA 92101

Schedule:
10:00–10:45 a.m. — Main program & speakers
10:45 a.m.–noon  — March; return to Waterfront Park

Send Email to Rag if You Can Cover Event(s) Here in SD County

Over 3,000 events are planned this Saturday, March 28 for the No Kings nation-wide protests. 19 are planned just in San Diego County. (See below for more context.)

Meanwhile, the Rag is searching for volunteers to take photos at the different event sites. We’ll be doing a livestream of the day’s protests and will be posting the photos up on the Rag. So far we have half a dozen people who have committed to taking photos at some of the sites — and we need more volunteers.

If you are attending one of the San Diego County events and can take and send us several photos, please email Editordude at obragblog@gmail.com and let us know which event or events you can cover.

Please help me understand the following:

There’s extremely long lines at major airports right now. They’re costing travelers hours upon hours of waiting.

There’s several factors causing these long lines … the weather, spring break … but the main one is that TSA agents have not been paid for over a month, and many of them have quit or are calling in sick — hundreds of them.

Now, the main reason the TSA agents have not been paid is because we’re currently in a partial federal government shut-down.

The main reason we’re in a partial government shut-down is because Republican and Democratic congressional members cannot agree to a budget (continual resolution).

The reason the two parties cannot agree is because Democrats refuse to fund ICE and the Department of Homeland Security — without reform —  due to the killings of people, mass arrests and abuse by ICE this year of immigrants and American citizens. TSA agents and ICE are part of the same government department, DHS.

The City’s Municipal Primary Election will be held on June 2, 2026. The top two vote-getters in the Primary will advance to the General Municipal Election, which will be held on November 3, 2026. The following candidates are qualified to appear on the ballot in the order below as selected by random draw:

Construction Could Start As Soon As Late 2027

by Dave Schwab / Times of San Diego / March 17, 2026

For those wondering what’s happening with the affordable housing project proposed in Famosa Canyon, the project is still a go.

It’s just taking a little while.

“Bridge Housing Corp.’s proposed development of affordable housing at the property at the corner of Famosa and Nimitz boulevards is still in the pre-development phase,” said Scott Marshall, vice president of communications and government relations for the San Diego Housing Commission.

Bridge Housing plans to conduct community outreach, submit plans to the city for consideration, apply for necessary financing, and request and obtain building permits before construction can begin.

Construction could start late in 2027, said Marshall. “However, many factors related to these pending items could affect the timeline,” he added.

Conflicting claims are flying around Point Loma these days regarding the property at 1004 Rosecrans — where a proposed four-story, 56-unit mixed-use project right next to the elementary school was on deck to be constructed. But community opposition quickly developed led by a grassroots group called Protect Point Loma — and it was recently announced that the owner / developer wanted to sell the site instead.

That was good news.

People in PL began celebrating – and started trying to find a developer and local investors who would create a more neighborhood-friendly project.

Eric Law, chair of both the Peninsula Community Planning Board and Protect PL, told Times of San Diego that the sale of the property / project to local investors would benefit everybody — seller, buyer and the community as a whole.

Law said Protect Point Loma is working with Peninsula developers of one sort or another with the idea of producing a different type of development that would be better for the community. He said real estate comparables, or “comps,” in the area are substantially lower than what the developer wants for 1004 Rosecrans.