Category: Civil Rights

By Eric Law

I have written the following document that consolidates citable quotes countering the YIMBY discussion points with sourced reference material. I’ve assembled them into themes that can be used to emphasize specific points. (I have most of the reference materials soft copy as well.)

While most YIMBY shills can’t be persuaded to read and would likely melt down when confronted with a 50-page academic economic treatise, there is a slice of influential people who might be persuaded to consider a different policy track when confronted with actual data and analysis.

I hope that includes our legislators/ city council members. I continue to add to this information repository as I read and analyze more information.

By Jeff McDonald / SD Union-Tribune / August 8, 2025

A Superior Court judge on Thursday, August 7, ordered attorneys for San Diego homeowners challenging the city’s recently imposed trash pickup fee to meet and confer with lawyers defending the city before he considers whether to expedite a trial.

Judge James A. Mangione issued the order after a 30-minute hearing at which the plaintiffs asked for their trial to begin in September, before the upcoming tax rolls are finalized. The parties will meet to discuss their differences and potential remedies over the next several days and present their positions to the judge at a hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

The plaintiffs argue that the trash fee adopted by the City Council in June violates the state constitution by exceeding the city’s costs of trash pickup and say officials plan to divert some of the new revenue to pay for other projects. They sued in May, weeks before the council voted 7-2 to impose the trash fee. Now they want a trial before the 2025-26 property tax rolls are finalized with the county treasurer-tax collector.

“The indirect evidence supports the reasonable inference that the city is doing this to plug financial holes,” said Michael Aguirre, the former elected San Diego city attorney who represents the 15 homeowner plaintiffs.

By Steven Mihailovich / Monthly San Diego U-T / August 6, 2025 

About 20 local activists from Neighbors for a Better Pacific Beach attended their first Pacific Beach Town Council meeting after recently becoming members.

They led the discussion on housing policy and proposed developments by questioning representatives for City Council President Joe LaCava and state Assemblymember Tasha Boerner on where their bosses stand on accessory dwelling units during the July 16 meeting. LaCava and Boerner’s districts include Pacific Beach.

Cambria Head, LaCava’s representative, was asked about the City Council’s repeated delays on a ceremonial second reading to pass an ordinance that would reform the city’s ADU Bonus Program. It was approved on June 16.

Ross Tritt, Boerner’s representative, was asked about Boerner’s position on Senate Bill 79, which, if passed, would annul the city’s 30-foot height limit for buildings within a half-mile of public transit.

By Patty Ducey-Brooks

Elda Developments CEO, Ahmed Eldahmy, has made several recent statements to the press that community members “refuse to participate in the solution” for his proposed 14-story high-rise, located in the heart of a Middletown residential neighborhood. He has also characterized the opposition as “wealthy neighbors living up the hill” who “do not care about the housing crisis and instead appear only to care about protecting their net worth.” Furthermore, he recently paid for a KUSI informercial with Roy Roberts that aired on August 4th where he claims to be trying to work with residents.

The Stop Columbia High Rise effort is supported by over 1,000 residents, including renters, homeowners and local businesses. They are opposed to this high rise for the many harmful issues it creates, documented here  (www.StopColumbiaHighRise.org).  Eldahmy’s attempt to mischaracterize the opposition as wealthy landowners reveals the company’s disregard for the neighborhood and its tone-deafness to the growing resistance.

By Kate Callen 

In 2018, the last election year when San Diego City Council District 2 had an open seat, the winner, Jen Campbell, was best known for being David Axelrod’s cousin. Before her first term was up, Campbell faced a recall effort, and she was replaced as Council President amid charges her staff illegally influenced the redistricting process.

In 2022, Campbell ran for re-election as a tarnished incumbent. Then a funny thing happened. A dark money group linked to Mayor Todd Gloria blanketed District 2 with hit pieces smearing Lori Saldana, Campbell’s formidable Democratic challenger. Saldana finished third behind obscure Republican Linda Lukacs, and Campbell kept her seat.

The 2026 open seat election will be consequential for a district hard hit by City Hall’s subservience to developers. From a 10-unit complex on a small Clairemont cul-de-sac to a 56-unit mid-rise at a major Point Loma intersection, giant housing projects are hammering D2 neighborhoods.

By JW August

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, as reported by the Associated Press, is asking 15 states, including California, for copies of voter registration lists from election administrators for 2020 and 2024.  The Department of Justice is leading the effort to pursue what it’s calling “widespread” voter fraud. It’s a reversal of the department’s longtime policy of protecting access to the ballot box.

These debunked claims of fraud have long been perpetuated by Trump and his allies.

My Feb. 1 story published by the OB Rag now appears to have been just the beginning — a small reveal inside the Pandora’s box of this president’s politics. 

by Ernie McCray

That shit ICE pulled in my old neighborhood
still sits with me,
all that rushing into town,
spraying gasses
and snatching people around,
ridiculously and literally laying siege on
a community,
fueled by a sick man’s
hatefulness and insanity.

And I can’t help but take it personally
because I spent 30 of the most wonderful years of my life
on the very block
this incredibly wicked abuse
took place –
a neighborhood as good as any to be found
any place.

It’s that time of year again — the OB Rag’s annual summer fundraising campaign during the first weeks of August.

We only do this once a year, so help us reach our goal of $3,000 over the next two weeks. We do have bills — just our annual server bill is $900. We do pay some of our reporters and writers a small amount, usually $35 to $50 an article, plus we have subscription bills and utilities to pay.

Over this last 2 years, the Rag has become the online platform for dissatisfied residents of many neighborhoods besides Ocean Beach and Point Loma – disgruntled and frustrated fellow citizens upset with the leadership of the city, the mayor’s Bonus ADU program, the so-called Complete Communities plan  – that people from University City, Encanto, Middletown, Hillcrest, Talmadge, Pacific Beach, Linda Vista, Clairemont — the list keeps growing – are increasingly using the Rag to sound off.

For some reason, locals are having trouble gaining traction about their travails from the mainstream or other online media and press. So, increasingly, they look to the Rag for support.

As the Rag is a platform of and for citizen journalists, we are often there for them.

So, help us keep it going.

How to Support Us

Send us a one-time donation via our PayPal button on the homepage; or

Become a regular monthly contributor; via PayPal on the homepage; or

Send us a check made out to “OB Rag” to:

OB Rag
PO Box 7012
Ocean Beach, CA 92167

Here are more reasons to contribute to the OB Rag:

By Allison Depner

You’ve probably seen me traipsing around O.B. wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt or dress along with dangly earrings while using my white cane.  Lately, I’ve added sunglasses and a hat to my ensemble. As a blind person, I’ve encountered all sorts of behaviors from sighted people. The most common reaction I encounter is unsolicited help in the form of taking hold of my arm. Other reactions include telling me that a curb is coming up and silencing a conversation until I pass. I’ve also been accused of pretending to be blind or being able to see more than I let on.

Until yesterday, these mostly benign behaviors have been somewhat easy to ignore and could be attributed to ignorance. Sure, sometimes I feel annoyed, and respond with impatience and irritation.  I try to remind myself that the average well-meaning person on the street probably doesn’t know that telling me about the upcoming curb actually distracts me from focusing on the tactile information that I receive from my cane. I realize that most people truly want to help, and their hearts are in the right place.

So, what happened yesterday?

By Donna Frye

Below are  my comments to the Mission Bay Park Committee for the August 5 Meeting.

RE:  Oppose Item 202, Recommendation to City Council to Declare City-Owned Real Property within Mission Bay Park as Surplus Land

Dear Chair Johnson and Honorable Committee Members,

I am writing to ask this committee to oppose the mayor’s recommendation to declare City-Owned Real Property within Mission Bay Park as Surplus Land.

Last month, when I first learned that the mayor was asking the city council to declare three properties in Mission Bay Park “surplus land” I could not believe what I was reading. After lots of research, it became clear that a “surplus land” declaration would allow developers to submit proposals to the city to build affordable housing in Mission Bay Park.

How could state-granted Tidelands on dedicated public parkland (that was codified by the voters as parkland in perpetuity by San Diego City Charter Section 55 ) be declared “surplus” and made available for developers to submit proposals to build affordable housing?

It made no sense to me then and it still doesn’t.

August 4, 2025

PRESS ADVISORY

City Council Attempts To Give Away Mission Bay Park Land  – Committee Meeting Tuesday, 6 pm., at Paradise Point.

The Mission Bay Park Committee (MBPC) will meet at 6:00 p.m., on Tuesday, August 5, 2025. The meeting will be at Paradise Point (Mission Bay Room)
It is reported that multiple City Councilmembers will be appearing in an effort to explain why the City is trying to sell parklands (potentially for upscale condominiums). The meeting will be held in Paradise Point’s Mission Bay Room.

Without input from the MBPC or San Diego Park Board, the Council attempted to move forward to declare three separate parcels in Mission Bay Park as “surplus land,” under State law, in order to put them out to bid. Under State law, once land becomes surplus, priority has to be given to low income housing projects. Most likely, any “low income” project would simply put expensive condominiums in Mission Bay Park, with the developer building low income housing elsewhere as a credit to get the long-
term lease.

This would be first time that the City of San Diego has sold off park land for residential development.

Dozens of Pacific Beach residents and supporters gathered Monday, August 4th, at the site of a controversial large-scale ADU development planned for the corner of Pacifica and Bluffside as an attorney announced a lawsuit against the City of San Diego.

The neighborhood group Neighbors for a Better Pacific Beach is the chief plaintiff in the suit, designed to halt the planned Chalcifica project, with more than 100 units.

The suit argues the planned project would harm the environment and public safety, and the group behind it points out it’s on the site of a well-known Kumeyaay coastal village.

In today’s San Diego Union-Tribune, writer Jemma Stephenson reports:

According to the plaintiffs, the city should have processed the project application on a discretionary basis but instead has handled them all on a ministerial basis, based on set standards rather than individual judgments. They also say the city never responded to the Kumeyaay Cultural Repatriation Committee’s request to meet about the issue.