Dave Rice

Articles by Dave Rice

Dave grew up in East County, where El Cajon meets La Mesa meets Spring Valley, but always had a fondness for OB, where his parents had been taking him on weekends since he was young. He bounced in and out of private, public, and home school systems before finally dropping out about halfway through his third freshman year of junior college. Politicized at an early age by his father, his interest has always been in opposition politics, though his slant toward progressive ideas developed later. At 13, he started working in a bicycle shop and had his own parts-and-repair business operating by 16. After a brief stint in banking (he was fired for performing his job too effectively), he's returned to the family real estate brokerage with his father and sister. He currently resides in the southern portion of OB with his partner and elementary-age daughter.

Dave has written 39 articles for the OB Rag!

Sailboat for Peace Crashes Fleet Week

October 18, 2017 by Dave Rice

Golden Rule Sails In Peacefully

By Dave Rice /San Diego Reader / Oct. 15, 2017

On Saturday (October 14), Fleet Week was in full swing at San Diego Bay.

Crowds lined the waterfront from Tuna Harbor north along the Embarcadero to watch Navy and Coast Guard vessels and helicopters performing in and over the water. More waited in line to tour Broadway Pier, where sailors sporting sidearms and semiautomatic rifles guarded access to the amphibious transport ship USS Anchorage, troop transports, churro vendors, tanks, bubble tea stands, and pieces of heavy artillery on display.

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An Open Letter to Whoever Stole My OB Bike Last Week

July 17, 2017 by Dave Rice

Hi, Buddy!

You must be feeling awful clever right about now, having made off with my shiny, precious toy. I’m sure it took not only daring but a remarkable measure of stealth to find your way into my apartment building’s garage, defeating not only the locked access doors but also the 24/7 surveillance cams with what I imagine must have been a sizeable set of bolt cutters to cleave through my lock so efficiently. Kudos!

Also, thanks for not scratching my wife’s car while you conducted your theft – the foresight and careful touch with which you extracted my ride is much appreciated, since I’m sure damage to her bumper would’ve been much costlier than the spoils of your hard work was worth to me, in terms of dollars and cents anyway.

But that’s not entirely what my bike was worth. You see, even though it may have looked shiny and new, …

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The Last Days of ‘Eating on Less than $5 a day’

May 15, 2017 by Dave Rice

By Dave Rice

The finish line is approaching – for the last week, my family has been participating in the San Diego Hunger Coalition’s CalFresh Challenge, winding down on Friday. It’s actually finishing a few hours early for me, as I’m sure to blow my meager $58.52 weekly budget (that’s what a family of three receiving a state food allotment gets to spend for four and two-thirds days of meals) and then some taking my wife and daughter out to celebrate our 10 year anniversary as a family on Friday night.

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Eating on Less Than $5 a Day – Continued

May 12, 2017 by Dave Rice

Editor’s Note: Local OB writer, Dave Rice, decided to take the challenge of eating on less than $5 a day. On May 10th we posted his first installment on this journey. Today is his latest.

By Dave Rice

Sunday night, the eve of the impending CalFresh Challenge, where my family will join more than 100 people across San Diego County in learning what it’s like to live on the average budget for area food benefit recipients – $4.18 a day.

Earlier, I’d planned to ride my bike up to the local market, advertising boneless skinless chicken breasts for $1.97 a pound. It rained all day, so I ended up driving, a luxury not available to many CalFresh recipients, and snagged three breasts for $4.69.

In my last post I’d mentioned a lunch dilemma – I had nothing planned.

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How well can one eat for less than $5 a day? My family is about to find out.

May 10, 2017 by Dave Rice

By Dave Rice

How well can one eat for less than $5 a day? My family is about to find out.

According to the latest available statistics, 285,000 people in San Diego County receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Once referred to as “food stamps,” here the government food assistance program goes under the moniker CalFresh.

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Spanking in the Name of the Lord

May 21, 2013 by Dave Rice

When Children are Maltreated by Religious Groups

By Dave Rice

Child sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church have repeatedly rocked the nation for more than a decade now, and in 2010 spread locally to reach the San Diego Diocese. The so-called “Satanic Panic” of the 1980s and early ‘90s brought the prospect of harm to children through mysterious and violent rituals to the forefront of the nation’s attention, while periodically stories reach the news involving the tragic death of a child raised by a family of religious separatists.
These stories, however, just scratch the surface of a more widespread problem concerning the mistreatment of children in the name of religion, says Janet Heimlich, author of Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment.

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San Onofre Opponents Battle With Ideas at Simulation Center

December 5, 2012 by Dave Rice

Nuclear warfare: Nuclear backers, opponents present opposing ideas on San Onofre

By Dave Rice / San Diego Reader / December 5, 2012

The World Resources Simulation Center played host Tuesday evening to an open forum: “Green Scene – the Costs and Benefits of San Onofre Nuclear Power in our Backyard.” The Downtown-area Center, described as an “immersive visualization center,” outfitted with a dozen large-scale projectors and internet-equipped laptops scattered amongst the crowd, …

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Woman Rescued From Fall at Santa Cruz Avenue Cliffs

October 31, 2012 by Dave Rice

It was another fall off Sunset Cliffs. This happened Tuesday night, October 30th, about 7:30. An unidentified woman in her 20s was transported by paramedics and lifeguards off the beach at the foot of Santa Cruz Avenue into an ambulance. Her condition is not known.

One officer was overheard by Dave Rice, blogger for the Reader, to comment: “She just got drunk and fell off a cliff.” About a crowd of two dozen had formed to witness the rescue.

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Book Review: “Billionaires & Ballot Bandits”

September 19, 2012 by Dave Rice

Book Review: Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps

Author: Greg Palast / Introduction by: Robert F. Kennedy Jr
Seven Stories Press / Release Date: September 18, 2012

Ten elderly nuns get kicked out of an Indiana polling station for not having driver’s licenses or other state ID.

Electronic voting machines in Georgia report massive malfunctions – but only in Democratic-leaning low income districts, where the hot, humid conditions of polling stations aren’t conducive to electronics. The ones in wealthy, Republican-leaning districts are protected in well kept, air-conditioned buildings – and have no problems registering votes.

Thomas Brown, a black Floridian, has his name purged from voter rolls because a white man with the same name and birthday once committed a felony.

Foreclosure firm Trott & Trott shares an office building with John McCain’s Detroit campaign headquarters. Whenever Trott completes a foreclosure, the McCain campaign challenges the foreclosure victim’s voter registration to have it purged from Michigan’s voter rolls: if they’ve been kicked out of their home, the address they used to register must not be valid.

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OccupySD Facebook not the real Occupy San Diego

October 12, 2011 by Dave Rice

So everyone’s been weighing in on the Occupy protests lately. I’ve done a few lightweight “just the facts, ma’am,” pieces on my other site, but I feel like what I’ve really got is commentary, reaction, and editorializing. In one of my day jobs I’m a reporter of straight news, in the other I’m a real estate and mortgage broker, which probably qualifies me as a 1%er (and not in the HA kinda way) and worthy of lynching. But I’m bringing the unqualified opinions that follow home to the OB Rag, the place where I cut my pseudo-journalistic chops.

The point of my rant today is the official Facebook page of the Occupy SD movement.

A Brief Recap of OB Planning Board Meeting of July 7, 2011

July 8, 2011 by Dave Rice

For those that are interested…

Faulconer and the Mighty, Mighty FAR

Fresh Funds for Farmer’s Markets

Variances for Chickens

SANDAG’s 2050 Regional Transportation Plan

Ocean Beach qualifies under SANDAG as a ‘Smart Growth’ community

Details inside…

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Dave Songs Episode 5

June 7, 2011 by Dave Rice

Sage Francis is an anomaly – a heavyset, full-bearded, white, hip-hop artist in his mid-thirties. While he’s got a lot of interesting and timely things to say about the state of the modern ‘family,’ culture, and other contemporary topics, his political commentary stands out and is most pertinent to this venue. Here’s a little flow he put together while contemplating the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and the impact of mass media on the public psyche…

See full article for video…

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Marijuana-fueled party featuring nudity and pre-Rapture sex excluded from local historian’s book detailing the early days of Ocean Beach

June 2, 2011 by Dave Rice

Thumbnail image for Marijuana-fueled party featuring nudity and pre-Rapture sex excluded from local historian’s book detailing the early days of Ocean Beach

(Author’s note – while this is a brief write-up on Ruth Varney Held’s Beach Town: Early Days in Ocean Beach, – originally published in 1975 and updated in 1984 and 1990 – a history that gracefully glosses over any social improprieties, this article’s title has been slightly modified in order to shamelessly trick you into clicking through to the full post…)

Having been itching to read a book recommended to me several weeks ago at a Rag-sponsored picnic commemorating the Collier Park Riots, I finally headed into the library last week to pick up a copy of Beach Town…delayed by at least two weeks’ searching for and fretting over my lost library card that ended up costing me only $2 to replace. The book is out of print and used copies are retailing for as much as $35 at Amazon, but the OB branch library has at least three copies on hand.

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Dave Songs (Edition Four) – Michael Franti & Spearhead

May 11, 2011 by Dave Rice

Michael Franti of Spearhead is hands-down, bar-none my favorite musician alive, today or ever. Lately his music has been popping up on the radio, on TV in video game and Corona beer ads, and elsewhere in the public sphere, so you’re probably familiar with Franti and his band Spearhead’s reggae-funk-ska-hip-hop-world beat fusion, whether or not you know it. But were you aware of how deep his tracks really go?

See inside for the video.

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Dave’s Music v3.0 – Dropkick Murphy’s, We Got The Power

May 3, 2011 by Dave Rice

Hello again! Thanks for following me last week with a departure guest entry, I hope it was as well-received as it was deserving. This week I’m going back to my own idea bin, and I’ve got a video that, even though you might not dig the music, provides an awesome slide show to check out.

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By Popular Demand – Other People’s Music Selections (vetted by Dave)

April 26, 2011 by Dave Rice

For fear of overexposure, I’m hesitant to add an extra edition of this music thing. But I’ve gotten such a positive response, it’s tempting to make like Catherine Zeta-Jones in all those obnoxious T-Mobile commercials from the late ’00s and start throwing out more than one post every week or so. And you people that read me and watch my videos are coming up with some good suggestions that I don’t want to put on the back burner…and I don’t want to stop firing on all cylinders myself (at least not yet, because I’ve got a few months’ worth of ideas of my own). So with no further ado, I give you Green Day, a suggestion by the esteemed Andy Cohen.

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Dave’s Politi-punk Song-a-da-Week goes Hip-Hop

April 21, 2011 by Dave Rice

Well hello again. It seems my first attempt to bring political pop punk to the masses worked out okay…or at least well enough that I’m going to try it again. But after just one week of staying true to my theme and posting a punk rock video, I’m going to switch it up and dive into some hip-hop.

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San Diego City College Protest Against Budget Cuts, April 15, 2011

April 15, 2011 by Dave Rice

My faith in the ability of my generation and the one following mine to actually give a damn got a major boost today when I headed down to City College at the (for the under-30 and under-employed set) ungodly hour of 8:00 for the pre-rally to a protest of the educational budget cuts proposed by Governor Jerry Brown.

First off, I’ve got to say that in general, I admire Brown’s apparent willingness to compromise on shrinking the state budget gap with equal measures of cuts and taxes …

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Dave’s Politi-punk Song-a-da-Week, Part Uno

April 12, 2011 by Dave Rice

Okay folks, Frank and Patty have given me a platform to post a random piece of marginally-listenable music once a week Anna, sorry if this is ripping you off, but what’s the sincerest form of flattery? I’ve chosen my videos among a handful of available YouTubes, going with what I feel does the best to convey the song’s message… lots of times it’s the band’s official video.

See inside for the video…

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California Association of Realtors Open Letter on Short Sales

March 15, 2011 by Dave Rice

So last Thursday my ‘union’ (California Association of Realtors, CAR) spent the equivalent of several thousand years’ worth of individual members’ dues publishing an ‘open letter’ in every major newspaper in California. I use the term ‘union’ loosely here, as the preferred nomenclature is ‘trade association.’ While membership is not mandatory, it is compulsory in […]

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Loan Modifications in Today’s San Diego

January 26, 2011 by Dave Rice

Editor: This occasional column by our financial whiz Dave Rice will give us snippets of views of the world of mortgages, finance, loan modifications and …. To many borrowers trapped in ‘upside-down’ loans and struggling to make payments, getting a loan modification sounds like an ideal solution—you keep your house, if you’ve missed any payments they’re tacked […]

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An Ode to My Cat (or why my Christmas was a downer).

December 26, 2010 by Dave Rice

It’s 5:35 in the morning, December 26, when I finally begin to type. I’ve been sitting here for almost four hours now, operating on something like three hours’ sleep in as many days waiting for the words to start flowing, or for the bottle of rum at my side to take effect and begin to lull me off to a dreamless sleep.

Last night was Christmas Eve – even though we’re not a true Christian family as much as we are a sloppy mixture of agnosticism and Wicca with a dose of traditional Christian values thrown in …

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“Terriers” lightening round: Recaps of Episodes 6 – 9

November 24, 2010 by Dave Rice

Episode #12 is on tonight, Wednesday, November 24th, on FX (ch 43 on Cox Cable) at 10:00 pm. Greetings once again folks, and welcome to the lightning round! I left off a week or so ago with a Terriers episode 5 recap, right before episode 11 went on air. Since this leaves us lagging considerably […]

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“Terriers” – Cast of Characters

November 24, 2010 by Dave Rice

UPDATED November 24, 2010 This list is mostly accurate through episode 9, “Pimp Daddy,” and will be updated as more recaps become available Main Players Hank Dolworth – our main character, played by Donal Logue. Think of the Dude, if you added ‘recovering’ to his preferred title of ‘alcoholic.’ Kicked off the police force, he […]

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“Terriers” Recap: Episode #5 – “Manifest Destiny”

November 10, 2010 by Dave Rice

Hello again! There’s a new episode airing tonight, check it out…here’s another recap from a couple weeks back that we’ll call “Manifest Destiny,” (mainly because that’s what the writers would like us to call it)…and if you find yourself confused click here.

We leave our heroes heading down to the police station for questioning about the disappearance of Robert Lindus (which they know nothing about), with Steph hovering over his corpse in Hank’s bathtub. Down at the station, the boys deny all of Mrs. Lindus’ story, including the true part about their abducting Lindus that’s verified by the couple’s two children.

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“Terriers” – Recap of Episode #4 – “Fustercluck”

November 8, 2010 by Dave Rice

Welcome back, brave souls who’ve endured my first three rambling diatribes! I see no reason to bore you with much off-topic banter, so let’s launch into Fustercluck, the fourth installment in the new Terriers series.

If you’re new and lost, click on my name at the top of the article and you’ll be linked to previous articles that will bring you up to date, along with other things I’ve written that, due to the quality of content, should not be viewed by anyone.

We open to Hank, sleepless at half past four, trying to catch the rats that he’s been hearing scurrying around in the night and presumably eating all his food. Bummed out with his kill rate of zero, he cruises down to the Old Townhouse Restaurant to meet Britt for breakfast.

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Recap of “Terriers” Episode #3

November 4, 2010 by Dave Rice

Hi kids! Welcome to our third and much-delayed “Terriers” recap.

The series by now is really starting to take shape, and going forward focuses a little less on character development and more on the weekly plot, making me think my initial classification of the show as a soap opera might’ve been a bit dramatic. As other (professional) critics have decided, this is a show that can be picked up and watched one episode at a time, though the back story tying the series together is what turns the show into something I really want to watch. Some of the best dialogue I can remember seeing on TV and the occasional ‘hey, I hang out there!’ moments don’t hurt either.

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“Terriers” – Episode 2 Recap

November 3, 2010 by Dave Rice

Welcome to week two of what looks to be, should it survive through the end of the season, the longest-running TV show set in Ocean Beach. I don’t think it’s going to overtake Almost Famous as the most prominent showcase of our town on film, but it’s still garnering some attention. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, and whether we the townspeople as a whole benefit or suffer as a result is certainly debatable, but for right now I’m focusing this article series on the show itself, for those that would rather just catch Cliff’s Notes on the storyline.

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Catchin’ up on “Terriers”: The Pilot – First Episode

October 26, 2010 by Dave Rice

As a rule, I hate soap operas for several reasons. First, I’m not that big on TV in the first place, and when I do watch I tend toward news or other politically relevant programming. Since I don’t watch a lot of television, I can’t be counted on to plop my butt on the couch at precisely the same time week after week to vegetate for an hour or more, so I think I should be able to pick up and put down a show as I please. South Park works for this, but if I miss an episode or three of a soap, I’m lost and might as well go find a magazine article or Rag post to feed my decidedly inattentive attention span.

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OB Planning Board: Kevin and the Amazing Technicolor Toilet

July 8, 2010 by Dave Rice

by Dave Rice

In a proposal originally scheduled to run from 6:10 to 6:30 at the Ocean Beach Planning Board this Wednesday evening, Kevin deFreitas, a local architect based in Point Loma, delivered a nearly hour-long sermon on his vision of blending local landscape, culture, and . . . feces.

North OB has been without public facilities since late last year, when the original bathrooms constructed in 1964 were demolished due to concerns about the structural integrity of the roof.

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