Category: California

Union-Tribune Finally “Finds” San Diego’s Black Panthers

In a very decent February 28 article about San Diego’s Black Panthers penned by Peter Rowe of the San Diego U-T, some of the city’s turbulent civil rights and Black power movement history from the Sixties and Seventies was uncovered.

First, it’s amazing to some San Diegans, including Rowe, that San Diego even had a Black Panther chapter back in the day. And that’s a credit that the San Diego Union and Tribune themselves can claim, for the coverage of local Panthers and the civil rights movement in general was skewed due to the right-wing – and yes, racist – policies and bias of its owners and editors. Think the Copley family, who ran the city’s only pair of dailies for decades.

But now thanks to Rowe, some of this history has been dusted off and bared for all to read. Much of the article recounts the experiences of one Henry Lee Wallace, now 64 and still in San Diego, but back then, a member of the local Panthers.

By Murtaza H. Baxamusa / San Diego UrbDeZine

Over 120 cities and counties in California have a climate action plan either completed or in the pipeline. As cities develop these plans and initiatives to address climate change, it is important to emphasize that social equity is integrated within environmental policies.

The vulnerabilities, resilience and sustainability of the human ecosystem are as much determined by diversity and interdependence as its natural counterpart. As Pope Francis said inLaudato Sí, “a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.”

Sustainability is framed as a three-legged stool consisting of the three ‘E’s: environment, economy and equity. However, the third leg, social and economic equity, is often the weakest.

Hey – Make sure you vote in the annual election to the Ocean Beach Planning Board today Wednesday, March 2nd.

Today – Wednesday, March 2nd – is the Ocean Beach Planning Board’s annual election. It will be held from 4 pm to 7pm at the OB Recreation Center, 4726 Santa Monica Avenue. (For details, see OB Planning Board’s website.)

Seven of the 14 seats on the Board will be up for election.

The March 2nd monthly meeting of the OB Planning Board will be one hour later than usual so members can count the ballots of the annual election to be held that day.

The meeting will begin at 7pm, at the OB Recreation Center, 4726 Santa Monica Avenue. The election is from 4pm to 7pm at the OB Rec Center, in the main meeting room. Eligible residents, property owners and business owners are urged to participate in the annual election of Board members. Usually there is one seat from each of the 7 planning districts open for election. The meeting will be held in the same room as the balloting, after ballots are counted.

As we complete our romping review of Ocean Beach’s planning districts, we round out our visit with District 7 – the South End of OB.

This has been our efforts at a public service as the OB Planning Board is holding its annual election on Tuesday, March 2nd, between 4 and 7pm at the OB Recreation Center, 4826 Santa Monica Avenue.

Here’s District 7

Here in south OB, the ubiquitous airplanes are off in the distance, as are the other attributes of living in a highly packed urban beach area, the noise, the traffic, the parking problems, the congestion, the tourists and other visitors. One can almost feel part of a different neighborhood than the raucous community to the north, the loud OB.

What OB Planning Area District do you live in? You’ll need to know in order to vote in the annual election to the Ocean Beach Planning Board coming up on Wednesday, March 2nd. This 14-member board reviews, approves and monitors development in OB as it adheres to the newly updated and approved OB Community Plan as the blueprint for the community.

OB Plan Area Map goodIn looking to heighten interest within the Village of OB for the election and the Planning Board itself, the OB Rag will be posting descriptions and a brief analysis of each of the seven planning districts over the course of the next 5 business days. Many of them are updated and edited versions of what we published 2 years ago.

As we move south across the map of OB in our continuing series about the different planning districts within the Ocean Beach Planning Area – we come to District 6 – “The Hills of OB“.

The review of this district is part of the OB Rag’s public education service to build support and knowledge of the upcoming OB Planning Board annual election on March 2nd, 2016.

District 6 of the Ocean Beach Community Planning Area

Stretching from the lowlands of Cable Street going east, District 6 immediately begins to climb up the hill – the hill of Point Loma – which is very steep at times, hence “Niagara Avenue” – and reaches the “peak” of OB at the intersection of Coronado Avenue and Froude Street. This is the highest point in “official” Ocean Beach – the geographical area of the community of OB that is recognized by the City of San Diego.

Editor: As we continue in our series looking at the different districts within the Ocean Beach Planning Area, today we settle in District 4 – the Hub of OB. See their website for details.

District 4 – The Center of the Village – the Hub of OB

It’s easy to see why District 4 is indeed the center and hub of the community of Ocean Beach. Just look at a map and you’ll see that the business district and the main beach are both in this district.

Downtown OB – the 3 commercial blocks of Newport Avenue and the adjacent side streets – is certainly the center of the community, no matter how you measure it. Traffic, pedestrians, events, happenings, music, food – and of course drink – it all – or most of it anyhow – happens right there.

From Restaurants to the Beach, Private Interests Are Taking More Public Grounds

The recent uproar among OBceans over the intrusions into public sidewalks by two Ocean Beach restaurants illustrates a broader and growing wariness by the public of the larger issue of encroachment by private interests into public space.

Just several weeks ago, the 2 OB restaurants, The Joint and the yet-to-open OB Brewery – both on Newport Avenue – have installed permanent fixtures outside their establishments that seriously curtail pedestrian traffic and block the public accesss to the public sidewalk immediately in front of the restaurants.

By Jim Miller

With the death of Antonin Scalia on February 13th, public sector unions in America were given a reprieve from what was sure to be a bad ruling in the Friedrichs v CTA case before the Supreme Court.

As Michael Hiltzik explained in the Los Angeles Times:

The target of the Friedrichs lawsuit, and several others just like it, is the “agency” or “fair share” fee. Under the law and according to a 1977 Supreme Court decision known as the Abood case, unionized public employees can be assessed nonmember fees to cover solely the cost of negotiations and contract enforcement, without being compelled to join the union and support its political activities by paying full union dues. That’s the arrangement in California.

Thursday, February 18, 7 pm, Ocean Beach Historical Society Presents:

“Centennial of the Devastating 1916 Flood and the Rainmaker” at St. Peter’s by the Sea Lutheran Church 1371 Sunset Cliffs Blvd, Ocean Beach;

In words and pictures this presentation will re-visit the famed Rainmaker Flood and look at the strange story of an itinerant sewing machine salesman-turned rainmaker, who claimed the historic rainfall as “an act of Hatfield.” Rick Crawford is the supervisor of Special Collections at the San Diego Public Library and former archives director at the San Diego Historical Society.

By Dan Bacher / Indybay.org

Legislators, members of commercial fishing families, fishing group representatives and Brown administration officials testified about the dire situation that the salmon and crab fishery is in at a recent forum at the State Capitol on February 11th.

It was during the 43rd Annual Zeke Grader Fisheries Forum of the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture held in Sacramento.

“This forum works, but the fishermen are not,” said Senator Mike McGuire, Chair of the Committee, in his opening comments. “The salmon and crab fisheries are threatened by a historic crisis. We’re facing a fishery disaster that will impact many families.”

“We’ve gone from abundance to scarcity. The crab fishing fleet is sitting at the docks right now,” said McGuire.