Author: Source

From Associated Press , San Diego UT

Starbucks will pay about $35 million to more than 15,000 New York City workers to settle claims it denied them stable schedules and arbitrarily cut their hours, city officials announced Monday, hours before Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders visited striking baristas on a picket line.

The development came amid a continuing strike by Starbucks’ union that began last month at dozens of locations around the country [including San Diego].

The workers want better hours and increased staffing, and they are angry that Starbucks hasn’t agreed on a contract nearly four years after workers voted to unionize at a Buffalo store. Union votes at other locations followed, and about 550 of Starbucks’ 10,000 company-owned stores are now unionized. The coffee giant also has around 7,000 licensed locations at airports, grocery stores and other locales.

Workers and the company dispute the extent and impact of the strike, but Mamdani, Sanders and some state and city officials sought to amplify the baristas’ message by mingling with scores of strikers and supporters outside a Starbucks shop in Brooklyn.

“These are not demands of greed — these are demands of decency,” Mamdani, a democratic socialist who ran on pledges to aid working-class people, told the crowd. Some workers carried giant mock-ups of Starbucks takeout cups, bearing the union’s logo instead of the coffee chain’s insignia.

Joe Adamantly Still Supports 30-Foot Height Limit and Opposes Turquoise Tower

By Madison Beveridge / PB Monthly SDU-T / December 1, 2025 

Large-scale, controversial housing projects and people staying overnight in vehicles were the top concerns voiced by Pacific Beach residents during a recent town hall meeting.

The Pacific Beach Town Council hosted the Nov. 5 meeting with City Council President Joe LaCava at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in PB.

With attendees ranging from locals to government officials, the primary focus was a question and answer session with LaCava.

The councilmember, whose District 1 includes Pacific Beach, La Jolla, Carmel Valley, Torrey Pines and Del Mar Mesa, served as a sounding board for the community during the meeting. The evening was a chance for locals to connect directly with their elected city representative and address the region’s short- and long-term goals.

“Several of the most notable topics discussed were the two large project developments happening in Pacific Beach right now,” said PB Town Council President Charlie Nieto. “The first is the Turquoise Tower, which is a 23-story residential tower. The other is a newer project called Chalcifica, a 136-unit project.”

Zohran Mamdani’s plan for free buses is not a pipe dream. Montgomery County, Maryland, made its buses free this year.

By Alexis Goldstein / Truthout / December 1, 2025

During the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated economic downturn, many people couldn’t pay their transportation costs, and often didn’t. In New York City in 2021, some 21 percent of bus riders did not pay the fare, a figure that grew to 48 percent in 2024. Some local governments, including New York City, responded with reduced or free fare programs.

From 2023 to 2024, New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) ran a zero-fare bus pilot that served around 43,000 riders. The pilot, championed by then-assembly member Zohran Mamdani, offered free trips on one bus in each borough.

To expand this small pilot to universal zero-fare buses throughout New York City is a tall task, with a total 2024 bus ridership of 409 million and 6,300 buses. As mayor-elect Mamdani and his administration look to grow zero-fare buses in New York, they have a stellar example just a few hours south of New York, in Maryland.

The largest free bus program in Maryland by ridership is in Montgomery County, a suburb north of Washington, D.C.

“The world needs more independent bookstores.”

By Roxana Popescu / San Diego Union-Tribune / November 26, 2025

When Patrick Stewart walked into the vacant building that would become the new Library Shop Mission Hills bookstore, he was hit by two feelings: It’s perfect. And oh, boy. The empty bookshelves lining the walls spoke volumes.

But things needed to be spruced up and brought up to code. The building had housed the Mission Hills library from 1961 to 2019 and then sat unused for about five years, not counting the occasional squatter.

“We saw a lot of potential,” said Stewart, the chief executive officer of Library Foundation SD, which supports the library system through outreach, philanthropy and advocacy. “To be able to be in a community that is super, super supportive of the library, and super supportive of the Library Foundation, I think you couldn’t be in a better environment, a more welcoming environment, a very literary environment.”

Sometimes the best truth in a newspaper can be found in its Letters to the Editor.This is what happened in today’s (Dec.2) LA Times where a reader raised needed and serious questions about a recent news article about the “Feds monitoring, detaining drivers,” that was published in the Times on Nov. 21 — with a similar story being published in the Rag that same day, with the headline, “The Border Patrol Is Monitoring the Driving of American Citizens — Detaining Those With ‘Suspicious’ Patterns.” It’s such a crazy and frightening story that none of our readers raised questions or commented. But Charles Petithomme of Burbank had the nerve to do so with the Times. Here, below is his letter in full.

Re “Feds monitoring, detaining drivers,” Nov. 21

What a frightening story that leaves so many unanswered questions.

Questions about who is being pulled over: Was the system tested before being made operational? Does the targeting algorithm have built-in biases? What is the racial composition of the people being surveilled? What is the conviction rate of those being surveilled?

By Steve Rodriguez

First comes the sighting of a Venezuelan boat.
Just about any fishing boat will suffice.
Next, fixing the target in a missile’s
crosshairs. Followed by a dramatic
blasting of the vessel. Bright flash
of light ensues, conveniently captured
by camera for later media airing.

The annual Shop Small campaign by the Ocean Beach MainStreet Association has returned, of course, and held its kick off last Saturday along Newport Avenue.

Kristen Keltner, OBMA’s events and program manager, said the Association not only “encourages locals and visitors alike” to shop in OB but also wants people “to enjoy the holiday spirit and what small towns like Ocean Beach have to offer.”

What are some of those unique finds? Keltner points to the holiday decorations on light posts in the downtown business district and Christmas photo opportunities with the Pacific Ocean or the “Happy Holiday OB” banner, draped across the 4900 block of Newport Avenue, as a backdrop.

Then there’s the OB Christmas Tree, scheduled to appear today, Tuesday, Dec. 2.

What’s dubbed Shop Small Saturday in Ocean Beach is part of the movement known as Small Business Saturday, which follows Black Friday at the beginning of the post-Thanksgiving holiday shopping season.

By Dave Schwab / Times of San Diego / Nov. 24, 2025

Vino lovers: If you haven’t visited urban winery Gianni Buonomo’s new digs in Midway, you owe it to yourself to do so.

The boutique winery, previously on Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach, has relocated to 3492 Pickett St. in a building offering 18 on-site parking spaces.

The name, buon uomo, means “good man” in Italian.

Gianni Buonomo founder and owner Keith Rolle noted he benefits from being near the Pechanga Arena, just a seven-minute walk away.

“We opened here officially in October of last year,” he said, noting he’s going to be expanding his outreach, working with area restaurants to convince them to allow their customers to bring in Gianni Buonomo wine.

By Madison Beveridge / Times of San Diego / Nov.25, 2025

It’s guaranteed to be an intergalactic experience.

The 46th annual Ocean Beach Holiday Parade will kick off on Saturday, Dec. 6, at 5:05 p.m., running along Newport Avenue. This year’s theme, Galactic Holiday Beach Bash, will be all things aliens, spaceships, and cosmic holiday fun, boasting 106 floats.

Hosted by the OB Community Foundation and in partnership with Love Thy Neighborhood, this year’s is set to be one of the biggest yet.

The OB Community Foundation, a nonprofit focused on bettering the lives of those living in and visiting Ocean Beach since 2000, hosts several events annually geared toward deepening local community connections. The parade, however, is one of their biggest and best known events.

“This parade is our bread and butter. We have a whole committee of volunteers working with the city to get permits and put this on,” said Angelo Devlin, president of OB Community Foundation.

By Evan Weiner / Sports Talk Florida / November 19, 2025

The San Diego Planning Commission has recommended that the San Diego City Council give its approval to the Midway Rising project that could eventually become an arena-village.

San Diego needs an arena to have a chance to land either a National Hockey League or National Basketball Association franchise.

Different investors in Alpharetta, Georgia are planning to build arenas and are pushing to get an NHL expansion franchise. The NBA may expand by two franchises in the future and there might be an opportunity to land a financially struggling franchise with an expiring arena lease agreement around 2030. Las Vegas and Seattle more than likely will get the two expansion slots if  the league gets around to expanding.

San Diego has a 59-year-old arena that local elected officials and business leaders think needs to be replaced. A 7,500-seat arena opened in nearby Oceanside in 2024.

The Trio Plan to Open New Restaurant on Scott Street in Point Loma

By Beth Demmon / San Diego Magazine / Nov. 14, 2025

They say the third time’s the charm, but what if the first two are already pretty damn charming? I guess we’ll find out when Cesarina Restaurant Group goes for a trifecta of Italian joints. They’ve announced plans to open a new spot on Shelter Island next spring called Corallino at 1101 Scott Street.

The restaurant group is known for its round-the-clock-made pasta, consistently named some of the best in the city. Founded by chef Cesarina Mezzoni, her husband Niccolò Angius, and longtime friend Giuseppe Capasso, they first opened Cesarina in 2019 in Loma Portal (that stretch between OB and Point Loma on Voltaire St.). Then came Elvira in 2023,

By Jim Varnadore

Dear SD U-T Editor,

There are recent rumors that San Diego will soon have a new ride-share called “Waymo”. As I understand it, Waymo is a vehicle without a driver.

I look forward to reading the newspaper coverage of that new service.

It raises a question.

Under state law drivers must exchange identification and insurance information in the event of a collision. If I were to bump into a Waymo, how do I tell it who I am and who is my car insurance carrier?