Author: Source

By Arturo Castañares / La Prensa / July 18, 2024

San Diego County Board of Supervisors this week asked staff to examine the level of corporate ownership of single-family rental homes in the region and look for ways to protect renters through legislation or even lawsuits.

The proposal by County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer directs the County’s Chief Administrative Officer Ebony Shelton to report back to the Board on the percentage of ownership of single-family homes held by corporate landlords and to “explore options for initiating, pursuing, and/or joining litigation against corporate landlords and property firms to address allegations …”

By Colleen O’Connor

As I predicted in an OB Rag column on December 12,  2022. “Thus, the big predictions.  Neither Biden nor Trump will be the U.S. President.” Simple reason two years ago. Same simple reason today.

As I also stated in another OB column. “It’s the Women, Stupid” who will decide in 2024. Despite all the chaos, the cruelty, the ignorance and the fear, good things have already happened and will continue. Credit women. The suffragettes.

By Patty Ducey-Brooks

Residents, business owners and homeless advocates from throughout the city of San Diego are meeting at 1 p.m., Monday, July 22 at City Hall, located at 202 C Street, to urge the City Council to fulfill its fiduciary duty by rejecting the flawed Kettner & Vine Homeless Shelter Lease because of the major operational, legal and financial risks it imposes on San Diego identified in the City Attorney and Independent Budget Analyst Reports to the City Council.

(1)  Lack of Adequate Protection for the City:

The Callen Report

By Kate Callen

Once again, Mayor Todd Gloria wants the instant gratification of a real estate deal that seems financially perilous and legally tenuous. This time, he may not get it. Like 101 Ash Street and Midway Rising, the Kettner and Vine homeless campus has been hurtling forward at Gloria’s insistence since he abruptly announced the project April 4.

The scenario is all too familiar: Gloria is exuberant about a land use proposal, and he wants it to happen fast. Maybe the estimated costs of tenant improvements seemed reasonable (101 Ash). Or maybe the winner of a bidding process was an unknown player with no track record (Midway Rising).

Demler Brothers Egg Ranch site of a 2019 animal cruelty investigation

From Direct Action Everywhere

A large barn fire broke out Thursday, July 18, at Demler Brothers Egg Ranch, a factory egg farm in Ramona that confines approximately two million chickens and supplies eggs to Walmart, Smart & Final, and other chains.

Tens of thousands of birds inside the impacted barn burned to death,

Quisling Pride

By Mat Wahlstrom

Ever heard of “Cop City”? No, that isn’t the name for the unseemly rush to install surveillance cameras throughout Hillcrest before this coming weekend, in violation of the TRUST Ordinance — though there is a direct connection.

I don’t see that it’s been written about here before, so allow me to explain. Cop City is the nickname for the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, a project to bulldoze hardwood forest and historic structures to build a massive complex — the largest in the nation — for the sole purpose of training law enforcement as urban paramilitary, in a historically Black and unrepresented section of Atlanta.

By  Bonnie Kutch

Blame it on the “Strong Mayor System.”  With almost total administrative authority previously held by the city manager, and the power to appoint and dismiss department heads, one man alone has all but succeeded in pushing through what’s likely to be the most deceptive and destructive community plan update in San Diego’s history.

The University Community Plan Update, which goes before the San Diego City Council for a final vote on July 30th, would add 30,480 housing units to the existing 26,520 homes, swelling the population from 64,206 to 129,566 people – without adding the infrastructure needed to support such an enormous population increase.  The community, which already experiences heavy traffic congestion, has a limited traffic grid and sits within a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone.

The OB Planning Board’s Transportation Committee wants residents’ input on two new, big ideas: a parking district for OB and a new link between OB and Interstate 8.

The Committee meets on Monday, July 22 at 6:30 pm at the OB Woman’s Club, located at 2160 Bacon Street.

We recommend anyone interested go to the OB Planning Board’s website and click on items for the meeting on 7/22/24.

by Branden C. Sigua and Geneviéve Jones-Wright / Voice of San Diego / July 15, 2024

[Please go to original for links]

In his January State of the City address, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said we “should be locking up criminals, not laundry detergent,” an unduly callous statement meant to discredit Proposition 47, which passed into law in 2014 with the support of 55 percent of San Diego’s voters. Ironically, in the same speech, Gloria proudly declared San Diego “one of the safest large cities in America.” Two months later, he praised the two-year downward trend in San Diego’s crime rate.

Mayor Gloria should give credit where credit is due. In the decade since its passage, Proposition 47, also known as the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, has been a social and fiscal game-changer for our region and state. The truth is, Proposition 47 is a success for all Californians.

July 18- A Willow Tree Becomes A Forest

The Ocean Beach Historical Society presents: “A Willow Tree Becomes A Forest” on Thursday , July 18, at 7 pm, at Waters Edge Community Center, 1984 Sunset Cliffs Blvd.