Author: Source

The new owners to OB Hardware have just introduced themselves to the community.

Joe and Jenae Kuchman announced that the storefront is open and invited villagers to come by during September as they celebrate with “a little throwback disco theme – this OB original is stayin’ alive!”

Here is their announcement, posted on Nextdoor:

From Cabrillo National Monument facebook:

Due to a necessary maintenance requirement, there will be a temporary closure of the Old Point Loma Lighthouse and the Assistant Keepers Quarters (AKQ).

In efforts of preservation and for visitor safety purposes, no access will be permitted at the Old Point Loma Lighthouse. The closure will begin on Monday, August 30th and last through Wednesday, September 1st.

By John Nichols / The Nation / August 31, 2021

“When we can discuss socialism rationally. It will be as if a heavy curtain has been lifted from man’s eyes.” Those were not the words of Karl Marx or Eugene Victor Debs, though either of those radical thinkers might well have uttered them.

Those were the words of Ed Asner, the actor who became a household name in the role of gruff but lovable Lou Grant, the boss at a TV station, in the 1970s TV comedy The Mary Tyler Moore Show. He then carried the character over, with a new job as a Los Angeles newspaper editor, to one of the most socially conscious programs in the history of television, the eponymous Lou Grant of the late 1970s and early ’80s.

When he died Sunday, at age 91,

Neil Young pulled out of Farm Aid earlier in August due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In an August 23 op-ed, Young elaborated on his concerns which accused large concert promoters of valuing profits over safety.

Here is Neil Young’s op-ed:

By Neil Young

Recently I pulled out of Farm Aid for fear that unprotected children may become infected with Covid by folks who went to the show, caught the virus, had no symptoms and returned home to hug their kids or someone else’s kids. I felt that we didn’t know what we were up against and we were endangering others, unprotected innocent children in particular. I know of tours that are out there and have to stop where they are and isolate in motels because one person among them tested positive. I ask myself, why are they out there?

by Kate Callen / Times of San Diego / August 27, 2021

Political troubadour Pete Seeger had an apt formula for comparing education and experience: “Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get when you don’t.”

For decades now, San Diegans unschooled in reading the fine print have lost hundreds of millions of dollars to painful experience: the public pension fiasco, the Chargers ticket guarantee fiasco, and more recently, the 101 Ash Street and inflated hotel purchase fiascos.

Each of these scandals began as a City Hall proposal sold quickly to a trusting public. Each erupted when taxpayers learned too late that they should have read the fine print, paid closer attention earlier, and asked tough questions.

And now a batch of stealth government ploys is costing San Diegans two commodities that are as precious and finite as money: public road space and neighborhood open space.

The Ocean Beach Oktoberfest – the uniquely Southern California salute to the celebration of German culture and fun – is returning this year. It’s scheduled for October 8th and 9th, 2021.

The return was announced at the August 25th OB Town Council zoom meeting, by Denny Knox, head of OB Mainstreet Association.

Public Service Information

by Elizabeth Ireland / Times of San Diego / August 26, 2021

San Diego County public health officials reported 1,327 new infections Wednesday and logged 8 coronavirus-related deaths, increasing the cumulative totals to 327,166 cases and 3,859 fatalities.

San Diego County’s case rate per 100,000 residents is 35.2 overall, 9.3 for fully vaccinated people and 66.9 for not fully vaccinated San Diegans.

A total of 16,915 tests were reported Wednesday, and the percentage of new positive cases was 7.8%. The 14-day rolling percentage of positive cases among tests is 7.3%.

by Danna Givot / Times of San Diego / August 23, 2021

From San Diego to Mt. Shasta, homeowners and their representatives are speaking out against the state legislature’s ill-conceived effort to eliminate single-family zoning. I’m adding my voice to that tidal wave of opposition because I’m convinced that Senate Bill 10 also presents an ethical and probably indefensible legal problem for our elected officials.

I’ve read the fine print in SB 10, and there’s no doubt that the proposed law allows the construction of ten housing units on a single-family lot, plus four additional “Accessory Dwelling Units” (also known as ADUs or “granny flats”). That’s a total of 14 housing units, on one parcel, in a single-family neighborhood like mine.

Those are the facts, even though the author of SB 10 tried to minimize the negative impact of his proposal by not counting the four additional structures as “housing units.” Why the sleight of hand?

By Paul Krueger / San Diego Union-Tribune Op-Ed / August 24, 2021

I’m a veteran cyclist who commuted 14 miles to work and back for years. I’m fully committed to clean air, climate action and reduced use of solo-driver vehicles.

But I believe our city’s current strategy for attaining these laudable goals is misguided, and think it has already backfired by alienating the majority of San Diegans whose support we need.
My reading of public opinion — and what I see every day on our streets — has convinced me that only a tiny minority of San Diegans will ever consider commuting by bike. Most live too far from their jobs. Their routes to work include hills and uncrossable freeways. And their bikes won’t carry their briefcases, lunches and the change of clothes they need at their workplace.

The facts confirm my perspective.

By Kathy Blavatt

Will we remember Ocean Beach’s tropical warm, humid days months from now? Will we remember the juxtaposed unusual summer water temperatures in July and August that dipped into the fifties as the surfers wore full wetsuits?

I remember my garden emulating a giant hothouse where my sleepy cats couldn’t bother moving for hours.

While the cats sleep their days away, caterpillars build their cocoons and metamorphizes; then, burst out with fluttering wings butterflies feasting on the flower nectar of their favorite blossoms.

My tropical plants are growing as they live in Hawaii. Unfortunately, the weeds have also thrived during the muggy weather.

By Mat Wahlstrom

Two weeks ago today, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its sixth report since 1990, with the appropriate description that it represents a “Code red for humanity.”

Although continued sea level rise is already ‘irreversible’ for likely thousands of years, strong and sustained reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses (GHGs) could make air quality better and stabilize global temperatures within a few decades.

The question is how, per IPCC advice to policymakers, this can be accomplished through ‘sustainable development’ — and what exactly that means. So it would seem to make sense that we look at all the sources of GHGs and figure out how to reduce them.