Author: Staff

By Geoff Page

The Ocean Beach Planning Board held its regular monthly meeting in person for the first time in well over a year, Wednesday, May 4 at the OB Rec Center. The meeting was held to two hours because of the Rec Centers current operating hours.

The short meeting agenda was shortened even more when one of the two projects on the agenda was postponed until June by the applicant.

4953 Coronado Avenue

The project that was presented at the meeting is located at 4953 Coronado Avenue. This project actually generated a great deal of discussion.

The primary is just a month away — on June 7 — and District 2 has the most interesting race going on, what with three Democratic challengers to the Democratic incumbent.

Most of them have been out fundraising. And the latest round of campaign contribution disclosures were submitted by candidates last week. Here’s what they’ve raised, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Early voting for the June 7 primary starts 30 days before the election. And the San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board is hosting a series of live and in-person community forums for San Diego City Council candidates.

These events, which will occur both in person and via Facebook Live, will give community members the chance to hear the candidates answer a range of questions from members of the Editorial Board as well as ask questions of the candidates themselves.

Masks will be provided and are encouraged for in-person attendees.

By Geoff Page

There was nothing earth-shaking or controversial during the Peninsula Community Planning Board’s monthly meeting April 21 but the agenda was not uninteresting. The agenda, in fact, represented the things planning boards were created for.

Before moving on, a point on how PCPB chair Fred Kosmo starts each Zoom meeting. During the Zoom meeting era, Kosmo has always reminded the audience that the meeting is being recorded as a sort of warning, which is unnecessary. This is a public meeting and anyone at a public meeting should already know they may be filmed or photographed without permission.

Today Tuesday, America is waking up to a country whose Supreme Court appears ready to soon ban women’s right to an abortion and overturn nearly half a century of precedence granting the right to choose.

This all came out yesterday when Politico released what it calls a draft of a majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito that would strike down Roe v. Wade.

Last night, we learned right-wing justices on the Supreme Court intend to overturn Roe v. Wade. This decision would allow states to ban abortion across the country, leading to even further assaults on reproductive health.

Today, we show up—to say abortion care is health care and #BansOffOurBodies!

Can you show up in your community at 5 p.m. local time tonight, Tuesday, May 3, at your local federal building, courthouse, or town square, for a rapid-response protest against the right-wing attacks on abortion rights and demand our elected officials act now before any more services are cut off?

By Geoff Page

In a previous OB Rag piece about the Newport palms, “The City of San Diego and its Forester Misrepresented ‘Immediate Safety Hazard’ in Effort to Remove Point Loma Palm Trees,” the subheading was “Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire.”

That subheading was there because it had been proven that the forester’s and city official’s claims that the FAA was calling the shots was exposed as a lie. The piece even included a cartoon graphic showing a man running with his rear end on fire.

They lied again but it is not so funny anymore because five trees are gone forever. The action was based on the same lie the forester and the city tried before, including the FAA in this. Suspicious that the city was lying again,

Here’s the complete packet of FAA documents regarding the 5 historic palm trees the City of San Diego cut down this week in Point Loma.

There’s a 7 page letter on each of the identified palms – and except for the palm’s location and height, the letters are identical. Along with the five letters, there were a number of photos of many palms and an accompanying graph.

Here’s the packet for “Tree #1”:

The OB Rag has copies of the FAA documents the city of San Diego told the public were a mandate to cut down five specific palm trees.

The documents include a letter dated February 28, 2022, regarding each identified palm on Newport Avenue, but they’re basically form letters and except for the address of the specific palm and its height, they’re all identical.

But here’s the problem for the city. Each letter calls for public notice and comment. This means the city misrepresented the FAA mandate. Not only that, the letter(s) spell out a required process that states the outcome of each identified palm tree “cannot be predicted prior to public circularization.” That means, nothing can happen, no outcome can be resolved before the public is notified and has an opportunity to comment.

By Geoff Page

A long presentation by one of the Midway redevelopment project proposers that the city wants to jettison and more about the homeless were the main points of interest at the Midway-Pacific Highway Community Planning Board’s regular monthly meeting Wednesday, April 2022.

“Neighborhood Next”

Neighborhood Next is the name of the consortium that made the presentation. They are one of the original seven proposers on the Sports Arena redevelopment project. At the outset, the city declared two proposers to be unresponsive. Just recently, the city again cut the list from five to three proposers. Neighborhood Next was one of the two that were dropped.

OB Rag reporter Geoff Page was on site this morning as city crews removed 5 tall, healthy palm trees on Newport Avenue.

Here is a photo gallery of what he witnessed.

The April 20th, 2022 agenda for the OB Planning Board Project Review Committee has 2 projects — located at 4705 Point Loma and 4953 Coronado Avenues. The sub-committee of the Board will also appoint its chair, vice-chair and secretary. Lastly, it will take up the issue of when to return to in-person meetings.

4705 Point Loma Ave. – the Former Ranchos

This is a coastal development permit for the demolition of the existing retail building — the site of the former Ranchos — and the construction of two MDU (multi-dwelling unit) buildings – each with 4 units. The agenda states: “This project is an affordable housing density bonus project of 8 units total.”