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This Is a Challenge to City’s Passage of “Package A”

Today, March 24, Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) will file a lawsuit against the City of San Diego which challenges the City’s approval of profound changes to its historic preservation program without the required environmental review by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). This is about “Package A” which many OBceans are now familiar with.

SOHO’s suit in San Diego Superior Court “seeks an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) process to address adverse environmental impacts to historic resources posed by the City’s proposed Preservation and Progress project,” as SOHO stated in an announcement today.

Here’s the balance of SOHO’s announcement:

The City approved “Package A” of the project without analyzing the potential environmental impacts of weakening protections for historic resources across San Diego by modifications to the Municipal Code and General Plan.

By Nicole Gomez / 7SanDiego / March 20, 2026

A group of off-duty San Diego lifeguards is being credited with saving the life of a 57-year-old man who went into cardiac arrest at a restaurant in Ocean Beach.

The incident happened on March 1, around 7:30 p.m. at Blue Water Seafood, where three lifeguards — including Noah Herrera — had just sat down to eat when they noticed a man who appeared to be in distress.

Herrera said the situation quickly escalated.

“We rolled him, checking his pulse, and I didn’t feel anything after about 10 seconds, and I told Mitch, ‘I don’t feel a pulse, start compressions,’ and he just started on his chest right away,” Herrera said.

At the same time, another off-duty lifeguard, Griffin Houldin, was dining nearby with his girlfriend when they noticed the commotion.

Trumper Sheriff Bianco Is a Republican Candidate for California Governor

By Jen Rice / Democracy Docket / March 23, 2026

A Republican sheriff running for governor of California has seized more than 650,000 ballots cast in last year’s redistricting referendum election, an alarming signal that the FBI’s recent conspiracy-fueled raid of a Georgia county election hub could be just the first in a new string of attacks on the results of past votes.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco announced Friday that his office had seized the ballots and would conduct its own hand count after receiving complaints about an alleged discrepancy of 45,000 votes in the Proposition 50 special election. That vote allowed California Democrats to redraw the state’s congressional map to wipe out President Donald Trump’s gerrymandering gains in Texas.

In recent weeks, the FBI has taken custody of ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, and subpoenaed records from Maricopa County, Arizona. In both cases, the focus was the 2020 presidential race.

But like in those cases, there are signs that Bianco’s challenge to the Prop 50 vote is also based on wrong or downright false information.

In statements to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors last month, county registrar Art Tinoco said the actual discrepancy between ballots cast and ballots counted was just 103 votes — roughly 0.016% of ballots. And the claim of a 45,000-vote discrepancy? It was based on misinterpretations of unprocessed, raw data, he said.

by Scott Lewis and Will Huntsberry / Voice of San Diego / March 21, 2026

D2 Race Is On

What do you get when a French mime, an MBA student, a merchant marine and a former mayor walk into a community center in Clairemont?

That would be a League of Women Voters candidate forum, of course.

Seven people are running for the District 2 council seat, which includes Ocean Beach, Point Loma, Mission Beach and Clairemont.

Any District 2 voters looking for San Diego’s version of Zohran Mamdani didn’t find him at the forum, which happened earlier this month. The debate was dominated by reaction to new fees, homebuilding and what the candidates viewed as poor management by current city leaders.

Allow me to break out some lanes for you that appeared evident at the forum.

CNN: ICE agents deployed … on Monday, March 23. The above image is AI generated on Sunday, March 22.

President Donald Trump said ICE agents will head to US airports Monday, March 23rd, placing border czar Tom Homan in charge of the effort.

Instead of ending the Iran war or improving the economy, Senate Republicans are championing Trump’s MAGA voter suppression bill.

By Ari Berman / Mother Jones / March 18, 2026

The world is on fire. Gas prices are rising. The US economy is in shambles. President Trump has bulldozed through his promise of “no new wars” and 6 in 10 Americans believe the country is worse off than it was a year ago.

But instead of addressing the issues that Americans actually care about, Senate Republicans are spending the next week or more attempting to further what has become the central organizing principle of Trump’s presidency: making it harder to vote.

On Tuesday afternoon the Senate began debating the Save America Act, which voting rights advocates describe as the worst voter suppression bill that Congress has seriously considered passing.

At its core, the bill is a solution in search of a problem, predicated on the lie that non-citizens are systematically voting in American elections.

“My Brother Had a Name: Ryan Richard Taylor”

by Rachael Taylor / Voice of San Diego / March 17, 2026

When people hear that my younger brother died while experiencing homelessness, I can tell they want the story to stop there.

They want something tidy, contained and easier to process.

But my brother was not just another tragic ending on the street to be squeezed inside a statistic.

My brother had a name: Ryan Richard Taylor.

Last year, Voice of San Diego featured him in a story about people who received tickets over and over again because they were homeless. Authorities claimed their crackdown was reducing street homelessness. But Ryan continued to stay in Ocean Beach, where he felt most comfortable and at home, even after five arrests and nine citations for offenses related to homelessness.

He died in Ocean Beach on December 6, 2025.

by Katheryn Rhodes and Mandy Havlik 

In a Times of San Diego interview Mayor Todd Gloria discussed upcoming Budget cuts and he stated: “I am willing to do tough things. And I am willing to tell the public the truth. And they are probably not used to that.”

City of San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria claimed that the City Council directed him to exhaust every revenue option before entertaining any budget cuts. In November 2024, Measure E for a new +1% Sales Tax to the General Fund barely failed 50.31% to 49.69%.  And the only 06/02/2026 ballot measure for new revenue is the “Empty Homes Tax.”

However, new revenue streams have not been exhausted. Since 2014 Katheryn Rhodes has put forward several Ballot proposals to Reclassify Online Travel Companies (OTC) as Hotel Operators in the plain language of the TOT Ordinance in order to get the full Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) rate to no avail.

In 1965, before Online Travel Companies (OTC) existed, was the first and only time the citizens of San Diego voted to approve the City’s Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) Ordinance, including Definitions.

From Point Loma–OB Monthly / March 15, 2026

Ten Questions is a series in the Point Loma-OB Monthly that shines a spotlight on notable locals. This month’s featured personality is Glenn “Croc” Millar, president of Point Loma Summer Concerts, which recently received the Community Champion Award from the Point Loma Association.

Millar also is president and chief executive of Call Glenn Again Handyman and Home Services in Point Loma.

Q. What attracted you to the Point Loma-Ocean Beach area as a place to live and/or work?

A. My then-girlfriend, now-fiancée, Alexandra Watkins, and I came down here for a romantic trip in November 2017. We both love San Diego (she grew up here), so we decided to look at some houses just for grins. On the 10th house we walked into, Alexandra looked around and said “We’re buying this house.”

There is a 12-unit ADU project in Roseville on Canon Street that nearly slipped our collective mind. But our friends at Peninsula News are now reminding us – with the following “tour.”

Join them as the Ocean Beach Historical Society celebrates Daylight Saving Time at the Wisteria Patio Cottage, under the century-old Wisteria vines, on Thursday, March 19, 2026, 4:30 – 7:00 PM at 4761 Niagara Ave., in O.B.

By Donna Frye

On Wednesday, March 18, there was a discussion at the San Diego City Council Rules Committee to consider a ballot measure proposed by Councilmember Raul Campillo to maintain free parking at beaches and bays in the City of San Diego.

According to the staff report:

“The proposed ballot measure would add a new section to the San Diego Municipal Code establishing that parking in City-owned beach and bay parking lots shall remain free of charge. The measure would not apply to existing parking meters or other paid parking programs elsewhere in the City. Codifying this policy in the Municipal Code would help preserve access to beaches and bays for residents and visitors while maintaining the City’s longstanding practice of providing free parking in these coastal lots.”