Author: Staff

In the end at Tuesday’s City Council hearing on Mayor Gloria’s Housing Package, it was 7 to 1 “yay” to one “nay”. The long, contentious debate over the controversies of the plan that’s lasted weeks if not months came to a conclusion – the last time the council voted on the package, it was 5 to 3 against – but with one “hold-out” this time around – who had her own reasons for denying Gloria a full, unanimous endorsement.

The most important controversy being Gloria’s proposal to allow affordable housing developers to build the units “off-site” — that is not on the property where all the other units are being built, units allowed under the city’s current law. And that was the controversy the last time this package appeared, only to be closely voted down. The Rag called it a “give-away to developers.”

What’s happened in the interim is

New life has been breathed into plans for a multi-pool aquatic complex at Liberty Station’s NTC Park. The plans have been around for years but after multiple delays, funding and interest dried up.

But now after the city of San Diego has completed a feasibility study, the project is experiencing the most momentum it has had in years, says Stephen Rodi, chairman of the Peninsula Aquatic Complex Council and president of Point Loma High School’s aquatic boosters program, as quoted recently by Pt Loma-OB Monthly.

Details of the feasibility study are expected after the holiday season, Rodi said.

Beginning Dec. 9, fireworks will return to the sky over SeaWorld.

Dubbed “A Christmas Wish Fireworks Show” it will return every Friday, Saturday and Sunday in December. And beginning Dec. 22, the show will take place daily through Dec. 31.

The loud explosions will begin 10 minutes prior to the park closing at 10:30 pm. Special fireworks displays will be held at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 9 to kick off the Mission Bay Boat Parade, as well as at 9 p.m. Dec. 31 to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Local residents have been complaining about the fireworks for years

After a little over a decade of hosting more than 30 productions of Broadway musicals, OB Playhouse will soon close following a hefty rent increase at its space at 4944 Newport Ave in Ocean Beach. And the current and last show at OB Playhouse is “Rent.”

The current tenants, Bill and Jennie Connard, own and manage OB eBikes in front of the theater, were given a commercial eviction action against them in March 2022 by Lyle and Linda Cocking, who own the playhouse property. However, the case was dismissed back then.

A controversial package of housing measures rejected by the San Diego City Council on November 13 will be quickly revised and returned to the city council for potential approval this month — Tuesday, December 12.

Not too long after that contentious council hearing in Nov. where Mayor Gloria’s sponsored initiative went down to defeat, he and Council President Sean Elo-Rivera issued a joint statement declaring they’re moving quickly to revive the package because the city’s housing crisis is so urgent.

An eight-unit apartment property located at 4840 Del Monte Ave. was sold for $3,650,000.

Apparently the layout of the units (?), the apartment’s location and the abundant off-street parking were the factors that pushed the buyer, 9 Mendridge LLC, to clench the deal from seller The Gilbert K. & Sheila A. Sloan Family Trust. The buyer was represented by Graeme Henderson.

The Ocean Beach Planning Board meets Wednesday night, Dec. 6, at the OB Rec Center, 4726 Santa Monica at 6 pm.

Two notable items on the non-project agenda includes a board review of the application for an appointment to the board by Denise Larson for the empty District 1 seat. Also, somewhat controversial, the board will vote on whether they want to change the traditional monthly meeting of the board from the first Wednesday of the month to the first Tuesday.

The board will also form an election committee for the annual board election in March 2024.

A 37-year-old woman training to become a firefighting by swimming at night has gone missing from Dog Beach, her mother says, as reported by 10News. Amy D’Angelo texted her mom, Becky Obayashi, Wednesday night that she was going swimming at Dog Beach.

She took an Uber to Dog Beach with her black lab Charlie the night before Thanksgiving. The next day, Becky says police only found only Charlie and her sweatpants waiting at the shore. “He was half in the water at the shore, looking at the ocean,” Obayashi said of D’Angelo’s dog, Charlie.

On Wednesday, November 22, nearly 50 Loma Portal residents surrounded an historic lamppost in the middle of the street, linked hands and chanted, “Save our street lamps!” At one point, the protesters began moving around the street lamp. They formed up for a brief rally and a couple of people spoke.

Earlier, locals had noticed city crews taking down lampposts near Poinsettia and Lotus. Some are older than 100 years. And the call went out to gather – by phone and email and Nextdoor.

And gather they did. People like Elaine Burrell helped organize the protest. She shared her sentiment and those of her neighbors with CBS8:

About a week ago, the San Diego online news platform, inewsource, announced that former San Diego U-T cartoonist Steve Breen was joining its staff.
In its announcement, inewsource stated:

Steve worked for the San Diego Union-Tribune for more than 20 years, practicing an art form that explained, questioned and poked fun at newsworthy occurrences, from local to global. He left the paper as part of the exodus when Alden Global Capital bought it a few months ago.

At the most recent monthly meeting of the OB Town Council, a member of Mayor Gloria’s office tried to allay people’s concerns and fears about a homeless facility being established at “H Barracks.” Kohta Zaiser addressed the issue at the October 26 meeting of the OBTC by saying the entire concept and idea is “in the very early stages.”

H Barracks is the site of a former public safety training facility near the airport, nestled behind hotels and across the boat channel from the Liberty Station cultural and commercial complex in Point Loma.

The city has floated the idea of a potential plan to house hundreds of homeless people at the site. The current structures have been abandoned and will be demolished, and there are plans to build a pumping station built in about five years as part of the city’s Pure Water program to clean recycled water into drinking water.