Author: Matthew Wood

By Matthew Wood

The area around Ocean Beach Elementary School is about to get a little bit safer.

Work on the proposed crosswalk on Santa Monica Avenue just outside the school is expected to begin in the next few weeks, according to John Ly, a council representative and policy adviser for Councilmember Kevin Faulconer’s office.

In an e-mail, Ly said construction on a street light – a step necessary to stay within city code for crosswalks – would begin Dec. 23, the first official day of winter break for the school. He said he expects work on the street light to be completed by the time students return on Jan. 6, at which time work can begin on cutting curbs for the crosswalk.

By Matthew Wood

OBceans looking to buy a Christmas tree in the neighborhood basically have a couple options.

You can go to Rite-Aid and buy an overpriced tree that was probably shipped in before Thanksgiving – at last check they had about a half-dozen left on the lot.

Or they can go see local residents Blake Finvold and Ginnie Lynch at OB Trees in the parking lot behind James Gang.

Seems like a no-brainer. (For the record, Stumps Market has quite a few quality trees for a moderate price. But to say they are located in OB is a bit of a stretch.)

“It’s so amazing being a part of the community,” Lynch said of selling trees in the neighborhood for the past five years.

“I just love OB.”

Yes, these are the same people who have been selling out of the Apple Tree Market parking lot.

By Matthew Wood

It’s officially the holiday season in Ocean Beach: The OB Christmas tree has been planted in the sand.

The 60-foot-or-so star pine was cut down Tuesday morning from the yard of the Kuhn family at 4879 Coronado Ave. and transported with much fanfare to its spot near the boardwalk just off Newport Avenue and Abbott Street.

“Whenever we do a tree, we want to find one that can be donated,” said OB Town Council president Gretchen Newsom, who said the tree’s roots were coming into the house and it needed to be cut down anyway.

By Matthew Wood

The nightmare that has been Vince Adame’s long shrubbery saga is finally over.

He has been battling a citation over his trimming of some bushes across the alley from his house that somehow turned into a felony vandalism charge. When the district attorney’s office finally dropped the charges Monday night, the longtime Ocean Beach resident was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

A press conference …

Editor: There are changes afoot in north-west OB, particularly at the corner of Abbott and Voltaire. Here is Matthew Wood’s latest report.

OB Rag Confirms Pat’s Liquor Up for Sale

By Matthew Wood

The long-vacant lot at the southeast corner of Voltaire and Abbott Streets has just been recently sold, which may spark a domino effect of land sales on that corner.

Ray Adams, of Cassidy Turley Commercial Real Estate, confirmed the two lots had been sold for $635,000. The lots are 2,500 square feet each – 5,000 square feet total – and are zoned for residential housing. The Keen Family Trust was the seller.

By Matthew Wood

Growing up in the Ocean Beach area, Ryan Ybarra had a dream in life: To become a fire fighter at the OB Fire House No. 15. He waited for his opportunity, even enduring a hellacious commute from a job at a fire department the Los Angeles area back to his wife and kids in OB.

Finally, about two years ago, a position opened up at the OB station on Voltaire and Ebers and Ybarra grabbed it. Didn’t matter to him that he lost the seniority he had built up. Or that he had to go through training and the department’s probation program. He knew he was home.

“And I’ll probably finish here,” he said with a smile. “As a kid, I always wanted to work in OB. That commute (from L.A.) just about killed me. But it was definitely worth it.”

Ybarra is an engineer on the 12-man crew at OB fire house. The guys were nice enough to give me access to their daily routine, and even ride along in the fire truck to their daily workout regimen.

Here’s a bit about how it works:

Crosswalk Coming to the Mid-Block on Santa Monica Avenue – Eventually

By Matthew Wood

The city is putting in a much-needed crosswalk on Santa Monica Avenue outside Ocean Beach Elementary School, just not as soon as teachers and parents were hoping. In the meantime, a group of concerned fathers have taken up the cause to ensure safety for kids going to and from school.

According to John Ly, a council representative and policy advisor for Councilmember Kevin Faulconer’s office, funding has been secured and the project is set to be completed by the end of the fiscal year, which is June 2014. He said part of the holdup comes from

By Matthew Wood

A longtime Ocean Beach resident is facing up to 16 months in jail and $3,300 fine for a felony vandalism charge he says stems from a simple case of trimming nearby bushes. Problem is, the bushes are on City property – property on strips of land right next to and near the OB Pier.

Vince Adame, who owns three different properties near the end of Niagara Avenue – a couple of cottages from the Pier, says he has been trimming the New Zealand Christmas Bushes and cleaning up the area across the street on property along with a neighbor, who lives in New York. A lot of what Adame does is pick up the debris and garbage left by homeless people who sleep in the canopies provided by the larger bushes. [Ed.: original post erroneously cited Adame as believing property belonged to a neighbor; Adame has known it was city property.]

Local doc leaves OB practice, but won’t stop helping those in need

By Matthew Wood

After more than three decades with a local practice, Dr. Jeoff Gordon is getting back to his roots.

He is retiring and will be closing his Ocean Beach Medical Group on Friday, October 18, ending a run of more than 15 years in OB and more than 40 in the beach area.

“I want to live a little bit of life,” he said. “I’ve got two kids and a dog and a pile of books I want to read.”

But the good doctor is far from done helping people. He will work part-time a few days a week at the Family Health Centers, an offshoot of a group he helped organize in the 1970s.

By Matthew Wood

Sprechen sie Dude?

Thousands will flock to OB next weekend – October 11th & 12th – to speak German – or at least drink German – at the annual Oktoberfest on the beach and in the OB Pier parking lot, presented by the Ocean Beach Mainstreet Association, Ocean Beach Community Foundation and a group called Hoy Hoy Boys.

This year’s two-day event is chock-full of contests, prizes, food and lots of beer. Hit the grassy area by the beach on Newport and Abbott for a more family-friendly atmosphere with music and games for the kids. Those who want to take it up a notch (and are of age) can head to the “beer garden” in the beach parking lot for beers, food and some rowdier times.

By Matthew Wood

A potential new cell phone tower could be going up on the roof of the Newport Antique Center, at 4864 Newport Avenue.

Craig Gerwig, owner of the antique store between Sunset Cliffs Boulevard and Cable Street, confirmed that he had plans to add the tower, but said no contracts were in place. A group of men were seen on the rooftop of the building late last week, presumably scoping out the site.

Gerwig refused to answer any questions about the possible addition to his business, but did say he had no concerns about any health issues that might arise from having a tower so close to a residential area.

By Matthew Wood

The Torrey Pine on the 4300 block of Orchard Street estimated to be more than a century old is still standing, but neighbors wonder for how long.

A tree maintenance service team, scheduled to cut the tree down last week, was persuaded by Doug Harvey and Mary Cairns, neighbors across the alley, to postpone the job. They had reached out to Chris Caplaneris, the owner of the house where the tree sits, to trim branches that reached out over the alley. That somehow turned out into Caplaneris deciding to take out the entire tree, the neighbors say.

“This all came about because we wanted some branches to be pruned,” said Harvey, a real estate agent who says he is in the process of obtaining a degree in landscape architecture. “We’ll live with some sap.”