Author: Staff

San Diego Police have announced that following an extensive investigation, detectives have made an arrest in a 2023 Ocean Beach homicide.

Andrew Restrepo, described as a 36-year-old Latino, was arrested as the suspect for the murder of Sean Glenn. Glenn was slugged by a man while standing at 5000 Newport Avenue on May 10, 2023, at approximately 10:51 p.m and knocked unconscious.  Glenn was transported to the hospital for his injuries and remained hospitalized until he succumbed to the injuries on August 5 that year.  He was 35.

The Callen Report

By Kate Callen

The meeting started with a snoozefest.

Christian Hoppe from the Development Services Department (DSD) led off by mechanically reading Ocean Beach’s appeal to block The Pointe (that’s with an “e”), and DSD’s responses. The department’s reasoning came out of a vortex: You have no grounds to appeal our decision because we say you have no grounds to appeal our decision.

The Craigs took command.

Craig Sherman, attorney for appellant Patricia Lewis, challenged DSD on due process grounds for refusing to release supporting materials. He said the City was ignoring the protected status of OB’s Cottage Emerging Historical District – “It has geographical boundaries that are not subject to dispute” – and he rebuked DSD for giving developer Takeoff Capital inexplicable waivers and incentives.

OB attorney Craig Klein, speaking for the community, delivered a clear message: The Pointe is Too Much, Too Quick. “This community has worked so long to preserve its historic location as the last real beach town south of Point Concepcion. This is the first project that has attempted to extend Complete Communities into Ocean Beach. If this passes, do you think other developers aren’t watching?”

Live Streaming of Hearing Available

The San Diego Planning Commission is taking up the issue of the 20 units of the proposed ADU apartment for Point Loma Avenue in Ocean Beach.

12:12 Commissioners begin making comments and asking questions.

12:10pm public comments have concluded.

There aren’t too many in favor of the project.

1201 Rep from YIMBY Democrats who supports the project called the appeal “frivolous.”

12:00 Speakers continue to argue against the project and in favor of the appeal.

9:54 am; staff is now presenting the project; this is an appeal by the community of staff’s decision to allow the project.

By Geoff Page

As reported here in The Rag last Friday, the City of San Diego held its Open House Meeting designed to garner input on the coming trash collection tax at the Point Loma Hervy Library, Monday August 26. According to those managing the event, about 40 members of the public attended.

To refresh memories, in 2022, Measure B, the ballot initiative that asked if San Diegans would be willing to pay for trash service, was approved. It was passed by only 50.48 percent of voters. To put that into perspective, the difference was only 3,839 votes out of 400,000 cast.

The city is now trying to figure out what to charge the public to collect trash.

On Monday, August 26, a group of Mira Mesa residents protested the removal of nearly 70 mature trees from a local park. They said the chopping down and killing of 50 to 75-year-old trees at the Mira Mesa Community Park is not in line with San Diego’s efforts to build out the urban tree canopy as part of its climate action goals.

The trees are set to be removed ostensibly to make room for improvements at the park, including added parking spaces, a proposed pool and skate park, and other improvements, which have been in the works for some time. But residents said they were in the dark about the fact that 68 mature trees in the area would be torn down and replaced with young saplings.

Fortunately for California’s coast, Assemblymember David Alvarez (D-San Diego) was forced to withdraw his controversial bill, AB 2560,  last week when amendments added went counter to Alvarez’ intent.

Alvarez and his so-called YIMBY supporters claimed the bill would have streamlined the approval of housing developments in the coastal zone that make use of the state’s affordable housing density bonus law. Developers liked the bill because it offered them a streamlined process if they set aside a portion of the homes in their projects as affordable housing.

Yet the bill ran afoul of the powers of the California Coastal Commission which, of course, has broad veto power over density bonus projects

Now that the OB Rag has closed the entry-phase of our “Worst ADU” contest, it enters the judging stage where our judge panel will examine the entries and eventually decide the Gold, Silver and Bronze awards.

The Rag received 43 entries from 20 neighborhoods

The response to our contest has been astonishing. By last Friday’s deadline, we received 43 entries from 20 communities across the city — from Torrey Hills to Logan Heights, from Ocean Beach to Kearny Mesa.

While the volume of entries was great for our contest, it also speaks to the disaster Todd Gloria’s “Bonus ADU” program has brought to many San Diego neighborhoods.

The City of San Diego wants residents’ views on the new trash service and charges.

So, the city is holding an online meeting on Saturday, August 24, and an in-person meeting in Point Loma next week about implementing Measure B, which amends the People’s Ordinance to allow the City to begin charging for trash pickup from single family homes. Plus, they’ll be out at OB Farmers Market on that Wed. (See below)

As part of the Cost of Service Study, the City is holding public meetings in all the Council districts to collect input from the public on services and fees.

Tomorrow — Friday, August 23 — is the deadline for the OB Rag’s “Worst ADU in San Diego” contest. If you haven’t yet sent in the address of a local ADU eyesore, time’s running out.

This contest set out to convey how the modest “granny flat” concept has spawned grotesquely large buildings on small lots. Along the way, it opened a heated debate about the social and ethical aspects of building massive ADUs:

Less than a half hour after Point Loma High let out for the day on Wednesday, August 21, gunshots rang out on Zola Street — about a block from the school. Two people were killed, a mother wounded and her son was arrested as the suspected shooter.

When police arrived, they found the wounded mother, who is in her 80s, in the front yard of her residence. She was taken to a hospital with “very serious” injuries.

Her 60-year old son was also in the yard and was arrested without incident.

By Geoff Page

On Monday, August 19, Channel 5 Fox News did a story on, well, signs. A person might wonder why a news station would do a story about signs. Fox was not motivated by a tip about a fascinating, untold sign story. Fox was showing how this city’s administration works by doing the city’s bidding.

The story was about new signs the city posted on the pier. A little background first.

The Rag carried a piece on these signs July 31.

In that story, this writer related telling the lifeguards about the missing sign on the pier, warning surfers to stay 75 feet away from the pier, that had been there for decades. Not trusting the lackluster reaction from the local lifeguards, the following email was sent a week later, on August 8, to the lifeguard management.

Earlier this week, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow issued a warning to America that those Republicans on election boards across the country could refuse to certify the 2024 election results if Trump loses in November.

In an op-ed in the New York Times (behind paywall) Maddow wrote:

“Election boards across the country now include Republican officials who have not only propounded Mr. Trump’s lies about the last presidential election being ‘stolen,’ they have tested how far they can go in denying the certification of the vote.”

The spread of what Maddow called “refusenik Republicans” started back in 2020, she argued, when Trump and RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel pressured two election officials to certify vote totals in a key Michigan county. As The Hill stated in a recent article about this:

Since then, a number of election officials across at least eight states have been charged for alleged efforts to interfere with the certification of the 2020 election and 2022 midterm results, Maddow noted.