Author: Frank Gormlie

For the last bunch of years, the OB Rag has held our annual summer fundraising campaign during the month of August. And it’s that time of year again!

We only do this once a year, so help us reach our goal of $3,000 over the next two weeks. We do have bills — and our server bill just went up to $900. We do pay some of our reporters and writers a small amount, usually $35 to $50 an article, plus we have subscription bills and utilities to pay.

Over this last year, the Rag has become the online platform for dissatisfied residents of many neighborhoods besides Ocean Beach and Point Loma – disgruntled and frustrated fellow citizens upset with the leadership of the city – people from University City, Hillcrest, Mira Mesa, Pacific Beach, Barrio Logan, Southeast — the list keeps growing.

The San Diego Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on an application to convert 21 apartment units within three existing buildings into condominium units located at 2916 through 2996 Worden Street.

The hearing will be August 8, 2024, at 9 am in Council Chambers, 12th floor of the City Administration Building at 202 C Street. If the conversion project is approved, then all the tenants who currently live n the 21 apartments would be required to move out, to vacate the premises.

Those same tenants will have the right to contract for the purchase of their unit — for a limited period of time, however — 90 days from the issuance of a building report (see official notice below). The 1.2 acre project site is within the Peninsula Community Plan area.

The applicant for the conversion is Hunsaker & Associates, who describe themselves

San Diego’s Fox5 has provided the rest of us with an update of the Navy’s ambitious effort to revitalize the 70.3-acre Old Town campus with the redevelopment of the NAVWAR facilities.

Why, it was just Monday, July 29, that Navy officials reported the environmental review process was proceeding alongside the exclusive negotiation period for a long-term lease with the potential master development group military officials selected to lead the renovation, Manchester/Edgemoor.

Manchester / Edgemoor consists of two firms — Manchester Financial, a hotel and commercial development firm, and Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate, an affiliate of Clark Construction that specializes in public-private partnerships.

Ocean Beach Slumlord Micky Mills Able to Obtain 115 Licenses Due to Loop Holes

Some have thought that Councilmember Jen Campbell had reformed and sanded off some of her rough edges, but after Thursday’s Community and Neighborhood Services Committee, which she chairs, those thoughts crashed and burned.

Because it’s been a little over a year since the requirements imposed by the City to license short-term rentals went into effect, it was time for the committee to review the results of the STRO and pass on any recommendations for improving the ordinance to the full Council.

George Varga at the San Diego Union-Tribune just published a piece about the new inductees to the San Diego Music Hall of Fame this year, and they include two musicians with strong ties to Ocean Beach.

One is being honored posthumously — and that is San Diego blues godfather Tomcat Courtney, who died in January 2020 at the age of 91. Tomcat used to play regularly at a bar on Voltaire Street in OB during the seventies. Also being inducted is the well-known Grateful Dead tribute group the Electric Waste Band,

President Joe Biden just announced he was ended his candidacy for the 2024 campaign. He thanked Kamala Harris for being a good partner and endorsed her.

Here’s his statement to the American people:

My Fellow Americans,

Over the past three and a half years, we have made great progress as a Nation.

Rebecca Taylor, the chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party, died as a result of a motorcycle accident in Utah on Tuesday, July 16. “Becca” as she was known by many, was on a cross-country trip on a motorcycle and hit from behind by another vehicle, 10 News reported.

Taylor, 40, grew up in OB and at one point, served on the OB Town Council. (Go here for a Rag post about Becca from February 2023.) That’s where I first met her.

MacKenzie Elmer at Voice of San Diego just brought to light that the San Diego Audubon Society is demanding the California Coastal Commission halt the SeaWorld fireworks after bird activists found dead eggs, chicks and adult elegant terns that had been washed ashore after consecutive days of displays.

Elmer reported:

Soaked carcasses of dead unborn, chick and adult elegant terns washed ashore at Kendall-Frost Marsh Reserve just days after San Diego SeaWorld and Discover Mission Bay set off well over 500 pounds of explosives over the Fourth of July weekend. Bird biologists uncovered their bodies and reported the incident to the San Diego Audubon Society, which subsequently called on the California Coastal Commission to revoke SeaWorld San Diego’s fireworks permit through most of the breeding season.

The 40th anniversary of the horrible San Ysidro Massacre is coming up on July 18th and Charlie Minn has made a film about it, “77 Minutes.” And there is an anniversary screening on July 18, 2024 at Reading Cinemas Town Square, and the film will be shown for a week through July 25.

Over the years, the Rag has posted several articles about it. For starters,

It’s with sadness we have to report the passing of Tom Gawronski. Tom was literally a fixture on the OB Planning Board as he was a member of its board for years and even decades. (See my delightful interview with him and Jane here back in 2013.)

This is the official obituary:

Thomas Henry (Tom) Gawronski was born September 22, 1940, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and died June 29, 2024, in San Diego, California.

After the Rag posted the amounts of trash collected this year the day after July 4th from OB beaches, a couple of readers questioned the amounts collected from Dog Beach. San Diego Surfrider sponsored this year’s “Morning After Mess” clean-up and provided the numbers of trash in pounds.

I did a quick review of some of the trash totals from the last few years and constructed the following chart:

2024

• 120 pounds from around the OB Pier,
• 1,575 pounds of trash at Dog Beach.