Author: Frank Gormlie

/>bold /italicBased on a polling of our writers, the OB Rag now endorses Mandy Havlik for District 2 of the San Diego City Council.

Mandy has long been active in the communities of Point Loma and Ocean Beach and has ingrained the wishes, dreams and complaints of the residents of this sector of District 2. For instance, she’s been the first vice-chair of the Peninsula Community Planning Board for years, has been active in helping maintain Sunset Cliffs as a local treasure, active in the local Rotary and among the leadership of the local Democratic club.

On April 27, the mayor sent a memo to the City Council laying out three options for cutting costs at libraries:

Option 1 focuses on preserving hours in Districts 4, 8, and 9 (historically underserved communities), while cutting hours at 14 other branches. Six of these branches would eliminate a full day of service. Eight branches would be reduced to a half-day on Saturdays.

Option 2 would result in more uniform cuts across the city for branches open Monday-Saturday. Most locations would lose Saturday hours, and four locations (Carmel Valley, North Park, University Heights, and Allied Gardens) would lose Monday hours entirely.

Celebratory Party Being Planned for Later in May

It was May 4, 1976, and thousands of OB residents, property owners and business owners took part in a day-long election to select the very first Ocean Beach Planning Board. It was the first time a community democratically elected their volunteer citizen planning committee in San Diego history.

Fifty years later, we celebrate this victory for the OB Planning Board is still alive and kicking. And now there are over 40 other community planning boards across the city.

Here’s the history of the moment 5 decades ago.

Working with the San Diego County Registrar of Voters and the League of Women Voters, Ocean Beach was divided into 7 voting districts, and on May 4th, there were one to two voting sites per district, mainly in front of markets. The balloting took place all day – and at the appointed hour, ballot boxes were taken to the OB Recreation Center for counting, with everything monitored by the League of Women Voters.

When the votes came in, it was apparent that the election and its turnout had been astounding. Thousands had voted. All told, nearly 4500 ballots were cast in this special election. With a community population of 13,000, the eligibility rolls included 6,100 registered voters, 2,100 property owners (1,100 inside the plan area and 1,000 outside the area), and 600 business license holders.

Here are some brief thoughts and observations about the candidates running for District 2 of the San Diego City Council. I attended the candidate forum last night in Liberty Station — and the cavernous hall was packed — a great turnout. Someone told me the hall had a capacity of 200 or 250. Lots of gray heads. Six candidates were on the stage: Richard Bailey, Paul Suppa, Mandy Havlik, Jacob Mitchell, Nicolle Crosby and Josh Coyne.

League of Women Voters did a great job in organizing the forum, which was co-hosted by the Point Loma Association.

Opening Statements

Bailey wants us to “stand up to city hall,” as does Suppa and Havlik. Suppa says San Diego is in a state of crisis due to its budgetary problems. Our city, he says, spends twice the national average on the police department, and that we need to “stop overtime for police.”

Havlik knows the city is in trouble. She expressed her love for the community, has spent years serving the community, has stood up against bad projects and her campaign is “grassroots and people-powered.”

The youngest candidate on the stage was Jacob Mitchell, who became the crowd favorite for his honesty and naivete. But nobody thinks he can win.

Ocean Beach has entered a time period that in less than two weeks, the coastal neighborhood celebrates the 50th anniversary of the very first community-wide democratic election to its OB Planning Board — a volunteer board that still exists to this day, Earth Day 2026.

May 4th, 1976 was a day when thousands of Ocean Beach residents, property owners and business owners voted on candidates for a 14-member board to help make urban planning and infrastructure decisions and recommendations to the city.

Not only was it the first election of the OB Planning Board, it was the first democratic election of ANY community planning group in San Diego’s history. So, May 4th ought to be celebrated by the over 40 community planning groups across the city.

Nine months before the scheduled election, on July 3, 1975, the San Diego City Council heard presentations about a so-called “OB Plan.”

It was standing room only in the Council Chambers, which brimmed with residents, property-owners and merchants from OB. After all the public testimony and speeches, after more discussion among councilmembers and staff, the Council – with Republican Mayor Pete Wilson at the ceremonial helm – took a vote and passed the OB Precise Plan — which included a number of amendments made by an OB grassroots organization, called the Community Planning Group.

The most important of these amendments was the provision for a community election of a planning committee. The City Planning Department was ordered to implement a Planned District for Ocean Beach, from the motion itself:

“the new committee formed for the purposes of implementing the Plan, should be elected by the citizens of Ocean Beach in a democratic fashion, using a process monitored by a neutral party to be appointed by the Mayor and Council.”

Could Kamala Harris become the next governor of California?

What with Swalwell’s exit from the race and now Betty Yee’s departure, suddenly there is renewed speculation and interest in the former vice-president and defeated 2024 presidential candidate being a candidate for governor of the arguably bluest state in the union. As many have observed, there aren’t any stand-out top-tiered faces in the crowded race, and now Kamala’s is being visualized.

Certainly she has great name recognition — for good and bad reasons — and as she makes signs of joining the 2028 presidential race, there are sounds of groans within Democratic — and generally progressive — ranks of voters. And the ranks of voters not enthusiastic for Harris to run for the White House again are thick — and this gambit — having her run for governor, might just solve a couple of problems.

Here’s how major California cities are trying to deal with or get around Senate Bill 79 — one of the most undemocratic housing mandates to ever come out of Sacramento.

Senate Bill 79 (SB79) goes into effect this year on July 1. When it passed — there were lots of machinations and maneuverings among state legislators to get it over the top in terms of votes — it made it legal for developers to build mid-rises — some as tall as nine stories — in major metropolitan neighborhoods near trains, subways and dedicated bus stops.

Yet some think that the final version “offered local governments plenty of wiggle room over the where, when and how of the new law,” wrote Cal-Matters reporter, Ben Christopher in his piece (reposted by Times of San Diego). Christopher wrote: “With the summer deadline rapidly approaching, cities across the state are starting to wiggle.”

Like a statewide game of Choose Your Own Adventure, local elected officials for the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles to San Diego are exploring ways to either lean into the spirit of the law, come up with their own plan tailored to the city’s whims and needs, or slow the local roll out for as long as possible while considering their options. Those that do nothing will be forced to accept the transit-oriented rezoning prescribed by state legislators.

We sifted through the piece and here offer a focus on the major cities, as per Christopher.

It’s time to brag about the Rag.

On March 6th we published JW August’s post “Trump’s Plan to Reduce Federal Workforce Includes Culling Out ‘Disloyal’ Veterans“. It was bombshell reporting … but never really found much traction from the mainstream media — until just last week.

Here is most of August’s post:

The Trump administration has rolled out a plan to begin further cuts in the federal workforce, a move that some sources say has a hidden agenda  — to remove employees who are seen as not loyal to the president.  We are told by a long time source that U.S.Veterans who voted Democratic or Independent will be on an administrative hit list as the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) just released “reductions in force ” (RIF) is rolled out.

Today, we’re having fun and games with Richard Bailey, a candidate for District 2 of the San Diego City Council.

First, a new PAC for Bailey has just been announced. This is serious stuff. But it’s also a game. Steven Richter, a semi-retired tax attorney, is the principal officer for ‘SD Policy over Politics’, the new PAC.

Here’s Arturo Castañares’ write up about the new PAC, published April 13. Castañares is the editor at large of La Prensa.

A longtime Point Loma resident has launched a new political action committee (PAC) to support a candidate in the upcoming election for San Diego City Council, according to documents filed with the California Secretary of State last week.

Please join Ocean Beach Historical Society, Thursday, April 16, 2026, at 7:00 pm, for “What Ever Became of Dutch Flats“- an eye-opening excursion into the hidden history of the boggy estuary that once stretched between Old Town and Loma Portal – Dutch Flats.