Author: Staff

By Samantha Mason

This is my third of a series of exploring new or interesting businesses in Ocean Beach and this time it’s all about my impressions of Voltaire Street. I spent my Tuesday morning traversing this avenue, meeting new people and seeing cool things. You know the drill!

Dog Lodge (4844 Voltaire St)

I kicked off my adventure at Dog Lodge, a dog daycare and puppy heaven. Open since January, Dog Lodge offers a variety of services for furry friends, like grooming and overnight boarding. I got the chance to speak to the owner and founder, Donovan, who opened the lodge after getting a dog of his own. He’s been in the animal care industry for seven years, and is truthfully living my dream life as a fellow dog lover.

He said there’s nothing better than spending time with the dogs, and that being in OB is the cherry on top. “It’s such a small community, and it feels like it gets smaller by the day,” he expresses, “I love seeing all of the familiar faces.”

With the San Diego City Council voting Sept. 9 on proposed improvements to Sunset Cliffs, the boulevard and the area, to save it from sea-level rise and ongoing erosion, you can bet that Peninsula residents are divided over the proposals coming out of the Coastal Resilience Master Plan. [Here’s the City’s Coastal Resiliency Masterplan]

One of the more controversial proposals is the one that wants to re-configure Sunset Cliffs Boulevard from a two-lane, north-south major collector road to a single southbound lane. One recent Rag reader rant felt it was premature to make Sunset Cliffs Blvd into one-way. There’s been other issues and questions. (See the many and diverse comments to Rag posts on the Cliffs.)

When the Plan was first rolled out, one Rag writer felt the ‘OB Presentation akin to Keystone Cops’ and another questioned, “Where is the Masterplan Board Hiding?”

Two of the more important community planning groups in the Peninsula are divided. The Ocean Beach Community Planning Group voted in favor of the plan, said Andrea Schlageter, who chairs that board. Schlageter said, in her own opinion, the plans for the one-way street add much needed room for recreation where there is no dedicated lane for pedestrians. “It’ll take the pressure off the cliff,” Schlageter said. “Whether we make it a one-way street now or let it erode into the ocean, it’ll be a one-way street eventually.”

The Peninsula Community Planning Board, on the other hand,

There’s a 36 foot giant agave plant towering over everything else along Point Loma Avenue in Ocean Beach these days. Right now it towers over other plants, trees, nearby homes, palm trees and power lines. But as agave observers know, it’s all temporary and in just months, the large stock will look much different.

It’s all happening in Bridget Seegers’ front yard. It was a six-foot agave plant when Bridget moved in around four years ago. Her neighbors say it had been about the same size for 30 or 40 years. That changed in April when the plant suddenly began sprouting, as CBS8 reported.

By Kate Callen / August 28, 2025

When Mayor Kevin Faulconer challenged San Diegans in 2019 to ditch their cars and take public transit, I invited him to join me on my weekday MTS #2 bus ride from North Park to downtown.

In an op-ed published in the San Diego Union-Tribune, I began by assuming that because Faulconer promoted mass transit vigorously, he must be a regular transit user. But in case I was wrong, I gave the mayor a tutorial on the challenges of commuting by bus. And I offered to pay his fare if he rode with me. He never responded.

I’m extending that same invitation to Nicole Capretz of the Climate Action Campaign after reading her August 28 U-T commentary, “Housing Policies Sabotage Families, Climate Goals,” an argument for pro-density Senate Bill 79.

As Capretz tells it, the passage of SB 79 will stack more housing “near transit,” and then commuters will switch from cars to buses and trolleys, traffic will diminish, greenhouse gases will dissipate, and our lives will be happier and healthier.

That’s a tidy scenario. But the reality of mass transit in San Diego is tangled. The only way to learn that is to navigate the cat’s cradle of buses and trolleys to go from Point A to Point B – or, if you must transfer to reach your destination, from Point A to Point B to Point C.

ALL DETAILS ARE INSIDE

Come Labor Day in San Diego County, September 1, there are 6 planned protests against the Trump regime, titled “Workers Over Billionaires.”

They’re in downtown San Diego, Chula Vista, La Jolla, Mira Mesa, Carlsbad and Escondido. (All details are herein.)

Downtown San Diego

It begins at 10am and runs to 12 noon at the Waterfront Park at 1600 Pacific Hwy. (That’s San Diego CA 92101)

About this event (Each event — except Escondido — starts at the same time, 10am, has the same demands and script, so we’re running just the downtown San Diego details, but with more info about each of the events.)

There are actually two events, one sponsored by the coalition that organized the No Kings event at Waterfront Park. The other, at the same place and time, is sponsored by San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council, No Kings and a host of other groups we list below.

Here’s their script:

This Labor Day we will continue to stand strong, fighting for public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, shared prosperity over corporate politics.

Working people built this nation and we know how to take care of each other. We won’t back down—we will never stop fighting for our families and the rights and freedoms that ensure access to opportunity and a better life for all Americans. The billionaire’s time is up.

On September 1st we will continue the movement we launched together on May 1st, standing in solidarity with all our communities under attack and fighting for real wins for all our people.

WANTED: Writers and reporters to work on assignments. Assignments to be assigned by editor. Some journalism experience preferred. Payments range from $35 to $50 per article of 500 to 1,000 words. Camera needed. Contact Editordude at obragblog@gmail.com

WANTED: Restaurant reviewer. Want to try your hand or tastebuds on reviewing restaurants and eateries in Ocean Beach and Point Loma? Some experience preferred. Earn $50 per article. Your choice of target but be open to suggestions by staff. Contact Editordude at obragblog@gmail.com; enter “restaurant reviewer” in subject line.

WANTED: Guerilla artists and banner hangers.

The Rag is in the beginning of our annual summer fundraising campaign. And we have to express that keeping the Rag alive does take donations from our readers and supporters, for afterall, a free press is not “free.”

We do have expenses — our annual server bill is $900 alone; plus subscriptions, utilities — and we actually pay many of our writers and reporters for reporting on community meetings and on issues that no one else covers.

Here are 17 Reasons to Support the OB Rag:

1. Our Progressive Politics: we stand for the Constitution, liberty and democracy and for a woman’s right to choose. We are diametrically opposed to Trump’s banana republic and against his authoritarianism — which include plans for the end the Rule of Law. We’re for racial and gender equality.
2. We Oppose the Direction that San Diego Has Been Going: the current city leadership has been taking us down the wrong road in its imposition of un-democratically-forced rules that threaten our neighborhoods, like the Bonus ADU program and Complete Communities.
3. We have been at the forefront of forcing reforms to the ADU policies along with neighborhood groups and networks like the San Diego Community Coalition and Neighbors for a Better San Diego.
4. We stand for more affordable housing, renters’ rights and an end to the corporate ownership of our housing stock. We also find it unacceptable that large campaign donors can reap the award of public land and development projects.
5. We also focus on maintaining parks and the public common — such as Mission Bay Park. We broke the story of how the Mayor wants to break off sections of Mission Bay and make them “surplus lands” in order to lease them to commercial and private interests in order to bring a cash-strapped city with a few bucks.

By Geoff Page

What follows is a more detailed accounting of the Mission Bay Park Committee meeting on August 5. As recounted here in The Rag on August 6, the committee sent the city a clear message by voting 7-2-1 against the city’s proposal to declare Mission Bay park land surplus land.

The city’s position and the opposition’s position at the meeting are detailed in the following paragraphs.

City’s Position

Andy Field, Director of the Parks and Recreation Department, presented the city’s surplus land proposal. His first references were to the City Charter to explain how Mission Bay lease revenues are shared.  Field referenced Article V, Executive and Administrative Service, Section 55: Parks and Recreation, SubSection 55.2: Mission Bay Park and Regional Parks Improvement Funds.

It’s that time of year again — the OB Rag’s annual summer fundraising campaign during the first weeks of August.

We only do this once a year, so help us reach our goal of $3,000 over the next two weeks. We do have bills — just our annual server bill is $900. We do pay some of our reporters and writers a small amount, usually $35 to $50 an article, plus we have subscription bills and utilities to pay.

Over this last 2 years, the Rag has become the online platform for dissatisfied residents of many neighborhoods besides Ocean Beach and Point Loma – disgruntled and frustrated fellow citizens upset with the leadership of the city, the mayor’s Bonus ADU program, the so-called Complete Communities plan  – that people from University City, Encanto, Middletown, Hillcrest, Talmadge, Pacific Beach, Linda Vista, Clairemont — the list keeps growing – are increasingly using the Rag to sound off.

For some reason, locals are having trouble gaining traction about their travails from the mainstream or other online media and press. So, increasingly, they look to the Rag for support.

As the Rag is a platform of and for citizen journalists, we are often there for them.

So, help us keep it going.

How to Support Us

Send us a one-time donation via our PayPal button on the homepage; or

Become a regular monthly contributor; via PayPal on the homepage; or

Send us a check made out to “OB Rag” to:

OB Rag
PO Box 7012
Ocean Beach, CA 92167

Here are more reasons to contribute to the OB Rag:

By Geoff Page

It seems that City Hall – Todd Gloria – has found a new golden egg called “surplus lands.” This term first surfaced during the Midway redevelopment debacle. The city declared the 40 plus acres as surplus land so it could make a deal with a developer.

The term “surplus” land does not make sense, intuitively, when commercial and entertainment businesses cover the land, all making lease payments to the city. Surplus brings to mind unimproved scrub land not anything like the Midway property.

City Hall now wants to designate as “surplus lands” 23 acres at Marina Village, 1936 Quivera Way, 4.5 acres at Dana Landing, 1617 Quivera Way, and 0.8 acres at 2590 Ingraham Street, where Sportsmen’s Seafood is now.

The June 23, 2025 city staff report states:

The City intends to issue a NOA [Notice of Availability] for the lease of the Properties. In the NOA, the City will indicate that the following steps would be required to allow for the development of affordable housing on the Properties

Housing in Mission Bay Park? Affordable housing? Does this mean a hi-rise of multimillion-dollar condos with a few small, affordable apartments in the basement?

A was is raging within America — between the people and immigrants versus ICE and its enablers. Here is a collection of recent articles about ICE:

ICE Budget Makes It Larger than Most of World’s Militaries — and Largest Law Enforcement Agency in U.S.

The House and Senate have now passed a bill making Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) the United States’ largest interior law enforcement agency, with funding for Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda higher than most of the world’s militaries, including Israel’s.Trump’s bill means a massive increase in ICE funding as part of an immigration enforcement agenda worth $150 billion over four years.

Will ICE Be Building Labor Camps in America?

One aspect of the Republicans’ big, ugly bill that didn’t get enough attention until Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez elevated it over the last few days is the massive amounts of money it directs to the apprehension and detention of immigrants. On Thursday, right after the bill passed the House, AOC posted on Bluesky:

This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion – making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined. It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.