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Wisteria Garden Goes Online!

By Kathy Blavatt

One of the best things about living in Southern California is that you can have a usable yard. Many locals in Ocean Beach and Point Loma are very proud of their yards. They use it as outdoor living space, edible gardens, socializing, working-out, sunbathing or relaxing in the shade, planting, playing with pets, and hundreds of other uses.

In addition, as COVID has proven, a garden can improve your health and mental state. Many gardeners these days are looking to personalize their gardens to their specific needs and wants.

Ocean Beach’s best-know garden is the historic Wisteria Garden on Niagara Avenue just up the block from Sunset Cliffs Blvd. on the southside.

Our friends at the Point Loma Association have discovered something fishy in the latest noise study by the San Diego Airport. They found a “hole” in it, as in Jackson Hole. And our friends at PLA who publish their email newsletter were pretty disgusted with it all.

Let them explain.

From Point Loma Association:

The San Diego International Airport Draft Part 150 Report.

It is now available for review.

For people following the future of our airport, it’s a big deal. Part 150 is a noise study. (Yes. Yet another.) It’s been in the works for about three years.

By Colleen O’Connor

How can anyone justify needing an assault rifle for personal use?

How can anyone justify the horrific killings of people just shopping, going about their business, about their day, about their job in Colorado or any place else?

How can anyone justify cowardly silence and inaction in a moment of another mass killing?

No one can or should ever even try.

And no one can possibly find the words, the emotions, even the thoughts to describe what happened in Boulder, Colorado yesterday; or any of the other multiple mass murders of innocents. We, as a nation, have almost become numb.

So, I stand up and applaud the President of the United States, Joe Biden who has shown no hesitancy, whatsoever, on doing the right thing.

And I quote him:

San Diego officials – including Mayor Todd Gloria – are encouraging city residents to apply for an $83 million rental relief program that launched last week.

The City of San Diego COVID-19 Housing Stability Assistance Program can pay up to 80 percent of past-due rent and utility bills for families with household incomes at or below 80 percent of the area median income — which is about $92,400 a year for a family of four or $64,700 for an individual.

To qualify, renters must show that at least one member of the household lost wages due to COVID-19. The program will pay 80 percent of unpaid rent from April 1, 2020, through March 31, 2021 — if the landlord agrees to waive the remaining 20 percent.

If the landlord declines, the program pays 25 percent of the past-due rent.

Straight Up With a Twist

By Edwin Decker

Dear Ed, With restaurants only offering take-out, I’ve wanted to do my part in helping them, so I’m often getting food from establishments I love. While I’ve always considered myself a great tipper, I have never been someone that tipped the person at Starbucks with a tip jar. To me, they’re a cashier, not a waiter. . . My logic is . . .I’m already spending money on the food, and the inconvenience of taking it home and not enjoying the ambiance of their restaurant . . .

Election of Mike Allman to San Dieguito Union High School Board Achieves MAGA Majority

By Thomas Ultican / Tultican / March 15, 2021

One of America’s wealthiest public school districts typifies the damage MAGA Republicans are doing to public schools.

San Diego County’s San Dieguito Union High School District (SDUHSD) serves just over 13,000 students in five middle schools and five high schools. With former Republican congressional candidate Mike Allman’s narrow school board victory, a MAGA coalition has achieved a 3 to 2 majority.

This election result advances using school reopening as a political wedge issue. Normally nonpartisan school board elections have been turned into partisan political battle grounds.

By Colleen O’Connor

Campbell or Newsom: Which One Reaches “Escape Velocity?” Make an educated guess. Based on what the public facing information thus far, consider these points.

The Recall initiative against Governor Newsom has already gathered the necessary, probably verifiable signatures, to require a special election; over two million.

The Recall initiative against Councilmember Campbell is just getting started, so the signature gathering numbers are as yet unknown.

Just as an aside, the volunteer effort is stronger against Campbell than Newsom and necessarily so. Factor in that professional, paid signature gathering, now costs $7.50 per valid entry. The statewide Republican war chest helped pay for, and deliver, the professional results to recall Newsom.

Editordude: Eric DuVall, president of the OB Historical Society, has written another OB history piece, published today in the OB – Point Loma Monthly.

By Eric DuVall / March 15, 2021

The blustery breezes of March have always blown some added anticipation and excitement into the hearts of Ocean Beach children. In fact, all true Obcecians feel the same way, for we know that those March gusts portend the arrival of kite season! And in the kite capital of the country, that is no small thing.

So return with us now to a time not so long ago — those simpler days of, say, the 1980s, an era before entertainment and experiences had become “virtual” and when the Kite Parade still proceeded proudly down the middle of Newport Avenue.

Leucadia Boulevard pylons contribute to killing cyclist

By Phillip Young / San Diego Reader / March 8, 2021

City planners and some cycling advocates insist that protected bike lanes are the best and safest way to encourage many San Diegans to ditch their cars and join the cycling transportation revolution.

Bordered by raised asphalt barriers and bright plastic pylons, these lanes create a sort of safety bubble that protects cyclists from vehicles moving alongside them, in the same direction. In theory, cyclists of all ages and abilities can enjoy the San Diego sunshine and scenery, while cars and trucks whizz by in the adjacent vehicle lane. Motorists will see the fun-loving bikers not slowed by traffic jams and join them in droves. Soon, we’ll all be pedaling together in cycling bliss.

But those rosy assurances crumble, when we confront the real dangers of protected bike lanes, and the emotional and economic cost of the accidents, injuries, and deaths that plague them.

Water & Wastes Digest / March 11, 2021

San Diego, California is ready to build the Pure Water sewage recycling system.

According to city officials, officials resolved litigation that delayed the project 18 months and increased its estimated cost to $5 billion.

The Pure Water sewage recycling system will recycle 83 million gallons of treated sewage into potable drinking water by 2035. The project consists of 10 projects in its Pure Water phase one.

Regulatory permits have been secured and construction bids are being opened and analyzed for the 10 projects. A large treatment facility is slated to open in 2025 near Miramar that will be connected to many miles of pipeline in the northern part of the city.

For phase two of Pure Water, a separate recycling facility near San Diego International Airport is slated to start operating in 2035.