Author: Frank Gormlie

Earlier today, Friday, Feb. 20, the Rag re-posted an article from the Times of San Diego about Richard Bailey, the former mayor of Coronado, who has just announced he is in the running for the District 2 San Diego City Council seat.

In Times reporter Tessa Balc’s Feb. 19 article, she says this:

“As mayor of Coronado he [Bailey] was affiliated with the Republican Party. He has since re-registered as an independent.”

Now to be clear, Bailey is not quoted as saying this — Balc the reporter says it. Where did she get it, if not from Bailey? (We have a call into her at the Times.)

OB’s Historical District Needs to Be Protected

As it stands now, on Tuesday, the 24th of February in the afternoon, the San Diego City Council will get to decide on a good deal of the future of Ocean Beach.

There is an animal out there ready to devour our sedate coastal village and it’s called “Preservation and Progress Package A.” It’s a set of policy proposals affecting how the city preserves and designates historical properties — or neighborhoods. These “reforms” specifically call out the historic district that Ocean Beach enjoys, called the “Ocean Beach Cottage Emerging Historical District”.

Why? What’s going on?

OBceans aware of the neighborhood know there’s many small cottages scattered throughout the blocks that make up Ocean Beach, but may not be aware that these old cottages add besides the obvious an historic character to the community — plus add certain protections.

The original application for an Ocean Beach historical district designation was filed with the state Department of Parks and Recreation on June 2, 1999, by the now-late OB Planning Board member Priscilla McCoy.

The district is termed “emerging” because there never has been a complete survey of all the buildings that potentially qualify to be historic. Usually a full historic district designation protects surrounding buildings, even ones not considered historic, in order to preserve community character. And lately, the city has been arguing that OB’s historical designation applies only to the 72 cottages, built between 1887 and 1931. And nothing else. Yet, several local OB historians estimate the total number of potentially historic cottages at more than 300.

By many indications, it appears that California will be one of the targets of the next “ICE surge.” Even though there won’t be any surge during this current government shutdown, ICE still is currently expanding its physical presence across the country. Its parent, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is carrying out a hush-hush campaign to open up 250 facilities and offices in nearly every state, and the Golden State — long a demises for Trump — is at the top of the list.

Check out the following coming down in California:

• Irvine: New offices at 2020 Main Street, located directly adjacent to a childcare agency.
• Los Angeles: General expansion of existing federal office spaces.
• Sacramento: Security upgrades and expansion at the John E. Moss building, which houses a DOJ immigration court.
• San Diego: Growth at the Edward J. Schwartz Courthouse and federal building.
• Santa Ana: Expansion at the Santa Ana federal building, situated blocks from a church and a major high school football stadium.
• Van Nuys (Los Angeles): Expansion at the James C. Corman federal building.

This secret federal government campaign to purchase warehouses for the massive expansion of ICE is now known due to documents posted online late last week by  Republican New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte. Also, a federal official said that California — and New York are among the “next” for a surge similar to the campaign in Minneapolis. These plans include embedding hundreds of new ICE offices in Sacramento, Irvine, Santa Ana and Van Nuys, according to an explosive report by WIRED magazine.

The current rain and wind storm badgering San Diego has brought snow to the local mountains,  particularly Mt. Laguna. Here is a photo from the webcam at Mt. Laguna Lodge taken Monday, Feb. 16, at approx. 10:25 p.m.

In a potentially explosive development, the largest private section union in San Diego has called upon the state-wide teachers’ union to withdraw their recommendation of Richard Barrera for California State Superintendent. Barrera is a trustee with San Diego Unified School District.

On February 9, the head of Local 135 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, Todd Walters, sent a letter via email to David Goldberg, president of the influential state-wide California Teachers Association (CTA) requesting that they withdraw their recommendation of Barrera because of his role and lack of leadership during a scandal involving his former union, UFCW Local 135. It revolves around a former UFCW Local 135 president, Mickey Kasparian, who eventually resigned in disgrace.

In a statement from the Local, the main claim is explained:

“At the center of UFCW Local 135’s concerns are Barrera’s record of leadership, specifically his refusal to speak out or take meaningful action during” the scandal.

“Barrera served as Secretary-Treasurer of UFCW Local 135 and was widely regarded as Kasparian’s right-hand man. During a period marked by public allegations and lawsuits involving sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and retaliation, Barrera remained silent. He did not publicly challenge Kasparian, nor did he stand with the women who came forward.”

Residents of Pacific Beach and other coastal communities who’ve been watching all the maneuverings by the developer, the city and mainline politicians around what’s called the PB Tower, (or Turquoise Tower, or Project Vela), may have become familiar with the name Matt Awbrey.

Matt Awbrey has become the face of Kalonymus, the developer of the Tower as he’s assumed the role of spokesperson. Just recently, Awbrey informed city planning officials that Kalonymus planned to resubmit plans for the 23-story structure, at 970 Turquoise Street, for a fifth time. This was in response to the ongoing dispute between the city and Kalomymus.

The in-your-face aggressiveness by Kalonymus over the past year has no doubt thrown Awbrey into a position that he savors, because this is not the first controversy he’s headed up. In a statement about the Tower to the Union-Tribune, Awbrey asserted, confidently:

In an episode right out of the sixties satirical movie, “Dr. Stranglove,” with Peter Sellers, it was announced after the El Paso airport was shut down by the FAA initially for 10 days — only to have it rescinded within hours, that the U.S. military shot down what it initially assessed to be a suspicious drone near El Paso only to later determine the object was … a party balloon.

OMG! Are the people at the top of the FAA so incompetent that an international incident was caused — and then averted — because a party balloon was mistaken for a drone at the border?

The moment should be called, ‘How I Stopped Worrying About the Mexican Cartel Drones.”

[Dear reader: do you recall where the expression, “Heavens to murgatroyd” was popularized?]

Here’s an update from Newsweek:

Fox News first reported that the airborne object was intercepted after raising concerns of a potential drone operating near the southern border. Officials later concluded the object was not an unmanned aircraft but a party balloon, a U.S. official told the outlet.

It’s another one of those ‘who’s minding the store?’ moments for San Diego leaders. As U-T reporter David Garrick explained yesterday, Feb. 11:

A new audit finds San Diego is missing out on millions that could help close budget deficits by not aggressively updating leases for Fairbanks Ranch Country Club and seven other golf facilities the city owns but doesn’t operate.

Does this sound familiar? As Balboa Park patrons are forced to shell out good money for parking and as city residents are saddled with new fees, Garrick reports this new “audit criticizes city officials for allowing expired leases to remain in place at below-market rates despite golf’s sharp increase in popularity since the COVID-19 pandemic began.”

Again, we ask, ‘which middle manager(s) making 6-figures are/ were overseeing this branch of the city?’ How did these highly-paid servants of the public miss this? Who is/ was responsible for regular site inspections of the golf courses? Who allowed the leases to lapse, causing them to remain in place “at below market-rates”, costing San Diego millions?

The budget crises have forced city leaders to contemplate cutting back on hours and services of our public recreations centers and public libraries, and to attach fees to just about every service or resource the city “provides”.

Here’s the rest of Garrick’s report:

In fiscal year 2024, the city earned only $3.7 million in lease revenue despite the eight properties — seven courses and the Lake Hodges driving range — generating $34 million in revenue.

A locally-based real estate company has just purchased a huge, 180-unit project in the Point Loma / Midway area — the site of the former Barnard Elementary School.

MG Properties, a San Diego-based multifamily real estate investment firm, announced the purchase of Dylan Point Loma Apartments, a massive piece of property that opened in 2016 consisting of one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans. The colorful announcement states that the project is “complemented by a resort-style saltwater pool, a fitness center, community club house, a conference room, game lounge, demonstration kitchen, dog park and a volleyball court.”

It’s “colorful” because although the announcement claims the project is in “Point Loma,” it’s actually situated in the more problematic neighborhood of the Midway District, which is beset with a large homeless population, fast-food joints, malls and shopping centers, often described in negative terms by urban planners, police and developers. In contrast, the announcement asserts “Dylan Point Loma is situated in one of San Diego’s most desirable coastal submarkets, offering residents convenient access to major employment centers, beaches, dining, and entertainment.”

The purchase price was undisclosed. MG Properties bought the site which has a formal address as 2930 Barnard St, San Diego, CA 92110, from JLL Income Property Trust.

By Frank Gormlie

Ever since armed ICE agents shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis within a two week period this year, the mood of much of the country has turned against ICE and its enabler Donald Trump. Both Good and Pretti were acting objectively in protest of the masked, deadly agents terrorizing neighborhoods in the Twin Cities area.

Yet, this tragedy is not the first time armed agents shot and killed protesters in America. In early May of 1970, in the midst of college students nation-wide demonstrating against President Richard Nixon’s expansion of the Vietnam war with his invasion of Cambodia, National Guard troops fired into crowds of unarmed students at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four — two were not even demonstrating; one was a ROTC cadet and another was on her way to class.

The uproar that followed these senseless killings swept across the country like a tsunami and created a debilitating crisis for the establishment, Nixon’s administration and America’s higher education system. I know. I spent five years studying what happened that May on over 700 college campuses, and wrote a book about it in 2024 — The May 1970 Rebellion.

The former Rite Aid property in Ocean Beach has been sold for a cool $12.6 Millions. The 1.66 acre site at 4840 Niagara Avenue has been a tempting plum to pluck for months since Rite Aid closed and now it has happened. The retail building — which used to be a Mayfair market before Rite Aid — is 20,155-square-feet.

One of the largest  commercial real estate and investment firms in the country — if not the world — CBRE — facilitated the sale, with agents from CBRE (Chase Bank Real Estate) representing both the seller and the buyer in the transaction.

At this moment, we don’t know who the buyer is, but we do have a call into the CBRE media agent listed in the recent announcement dated Jan. 28, 2026.

A senior vice-president of CBRE, Reg Kobzi, was quoted in the announcement:

“This transaction underscores the enduring appeal and scarcity of well-located, parking-rich retail assets in San Diego’s coastal communities. Big-box retail opportunities like this former Rite Aid with on-site parking in Ocean Beach are extremely rare, reflecting strong investor confidence in the area’s fundamentals and tenant demand.”

Dozens of demonstrators gathered in front of the Rady Shell, Monday, Feb. 2, protesting the high electrical rates of San Diego Gas and Electric. It was held outside of DTECH, an annual meeting that bills itself as the largest gathering of utility professionals in the country.

One of the speakers at the meeting’s keynote session at the Rady Shell was none other than SDG&E President Scott Crider.

The protesters, from a number of environmental and community groups, pressed the utility of its high rates, a sore spot among San Diegans who have made their complaints louder lately. A big reason — SDG&E’s plan to increase rates again, which could make San Diego one of, if not the most, expensive cities when it comes to utility rates.

The U-T reported:

According to the California Legislative Analyst’s Office, average rates for SDG&E, Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison increased between 48% and 67% from 2019 through 2023. A blog post in 2023 by the Haas Energy Institute at UC Berkeley reported SDG&E had the highest electricity rate in California. …