Author: Staff

By Geoff Page

The actions of a collection of community residents early Thursday morning resulted in a temporary stay of execution for the historic palm trees on upper Newport Ave. The city had told a resident on Wednesday they would be back this morning at 7:30 a.m. to cut down the trees and they would be bringing the police. So, the locals rallied and showed up to voice very vocal opposition to the city steamrolling the community.

They did indeed bring the police.

City Forester: “We don’t care what you think.”

By Geoff Page

The City of San Diego is moving forward aggressively to cut down iconic and historic, tall palm trees on Newport Avenue, Santa Monica and Santa Barbara.

They are lying to the public saying it is because of a safety issue.

These are healthy trees — there is no safety issue whatsoever. But, when talking to the city’s forester, Brian Widener, it soon becomes clear that he is one of those people who believe if you repeat a lie over and over, people will eventually believe it is true. No matter how many times he says it is a safety issue, it is still not true.

The city is not only using public safety as an excuse, they are bypassing all the normal procedures for removing city trees by designating these as emergency removals. There is no emergency, the city just does not want to take the time to explain to the public why removals are necessary.

On Tuesday, October 19, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors will honor Doug Porter, a former writer for the OB Rag, for all his contributions over the years to San Diego journalism.

The driver of a UPS delivery truck who was killed when a small plane crashed into a Santee neighborhood on Monday has been identified as Steve Krueger of Ocean Beach.

Krueger, 61, had worked at the company for nearly 30 years. The company identified him as the victim of this freak accident.

Dr. Sugata Das, a cardiologist from Yuma, was the pilot and was also killed. A moment of silence was held for Krueger’s by his UPS co-workers on Tuesday outside the UPS facility in Kearny Mesa where he worked.

Lori Weisberg in the U-T reported this morning:

As the city of San Diego prepares to implement in July its first-ever regulations for short-term vacation rentals, officials unveiled on Monday a lottery system that both longtime hosts and City Council members said failed to give priority to responsible operators, as promised earlier this year.

By Geoff Page

The regular monthly meeting of the Ocean Beach Planning Board, Wednesday, October 6, appeared to have a busy agenda, but much of it took very little time. Some of it was clearly just procedural by the city and looked like a waste of tax dollars.

Action Items #1 and #2 – Emergency coastal repair permits

Sonja Olsen, City of San Diego Transportation Department planner, represented the city in the two action items that involved emergency repairs. It was not clear why a planner from the transportation department was called on to present these two repairs to coastal areas instead of an engineer involved in the work.

Local governments and the media are scrambling to keep up with evidence that the Orange County oil spill has spread as far south as Del Mar and other San Diego County beaches.

Tar balls have been spotted at Oceanside, Carlsbad, Del Mar and Encinitas.

Volunteers with the Southern California oil spill response are now working on North County San Diego beaches, officials said Thursday.

Here’s a stupefying bombshell bit of news about San Diego’s Trump-Loving One America Network (OAN): It’s being funded almost entirely by the largest telecom company on the planet: AT&T.

The network, with offices in the Morena district, is known for spreading conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and Covid.

An in-depth Reuters review of court records shows OAN founder and chief executive Robert Herring Sr. testified back in 2019 that the inspiration to launch OAN in 2013 came from AT&T execs.

Early Tuesday morning, a skateboard suffered life-threatening injuries when he was hit by a car at the intersection of Nimitz and West Point Loma.

The unidentified 27-year old reportedly entered the intersection against a red light around 5:55 a.m. and tried to turn left (west).

He went in front of the 63-year old driver in a car driving south on Nimitz and was struck. The Nissan driver had a green light.

The San Diego County Department of Environmental Health and Quality Tuesday issued a general rain advisory to avoid water contact at all coastal beaches and bays due to recent rainfall.

Swimmers, surfers and other water users are warned that rain brings urban runoff, which can cause bacteria levels to rise significantly in ocean and bay waters, especially near storm drains, creeks, rivers and lagoon outlets.

Urban runoff may contain large amounts of bacteria from a variety of sources such as animal waste, soil and decomposing vegetation.

Bacteria levels can remain elevated after a rainstorm depending upon the intensity of the storm, volume of runoff and ocean conditions. Many coastal storm drains have permanent warning signs, but additional warning signs are not posted for general rain advisories.

Water contact such as swimming, surfing and diving should be avoided during rain and for 72 hours following the rain event.

Last weekend’s Saturday Night Live captured the OB “Whistling Guy”, played by comedian Bowen Yang. The “Whistling Guy” – you may recall – showed up at the San Diego County Board of Supervisors back in August and created quite a scene.