Category: Civil Rights

The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members and the general public informed about important Council hearings and other city public meetings.

Monday, June 29: City Council, 2:00 p.m.

Agenda:

Item S400: Proposed FY 2027 Recreation Center Fund Budgets, Opportunity Fund Budget, and 2025 Come Play Outside

Why it matters: Funding for city Rec Centers and the proportions of available funding that go to “low resource” neighborhoods continue to be an issue of concern.

Item S401: Information Guide on Group Participation Updates and Council Determination of Community Engagement Efforts

Why it matters: Community Planning Groups have seen their input on density and development issues greatly reduced under the Faulconer and Gloria regimes. The Community Planners Committee is demanding a “Seat at the Table” on important land use decisions. Background:

We’re beginning an OB Rag writing contest today — Thursday, June 25th — given that we’re nearing the 250th anniversary of American independence.

The topic: “What the 250th anniversary means today … living under Trump.”

Send 500 to 1,000 word entries to us at our email: obragblog@gmail.com  (The best way is to simply paste the essay into the text of an email and send it to us.) All entries will be judged by a panel of citizen journalists and professional writers. The deadline is July 4th.

The winning essay writer will be awarded $100.00 to be delivered by the U.S. Postal Service.

A mounting wave of pushback against ed tech has sprung up recently including from some Ocean Beach parents. San Diego Unified’s board just took steps to rein it in.

by Jakob McWhinney / Voice of San Diego / June 24, 2026

San Diego Unified’s board on Tuesday, June 23 unanimously passed a resolution that places new limits on screens in classrooms and how students will be able to use district-issued laptops. It also lays the groundwork to restrict the use of AI-enabled software that hasn’t been specifically approved by the district.

By the start of the school year, students will no longer be able to access video-streaming or gaming platforms on district-issued laptops. The resolution also sets a timetable for other changes, like more comprehensive regulations on screen-usage based on grade level. Officials will create a committee to usher in the changes.

But not everyone’s stoked. Los Angeles Unified recently passed restrictions that went even further. Some of the activists who pushed for local restrictions are disappointed San Diego Unified’s action didn’t do more to limit screens.

The new restrictions are the local front of swelling, nationwide pushback against the ubiquity of educational technology in schools.

Editordude: The Rag has been highlighting this fight to save land for a park in Emerald Hills for over a year and half now. Here is some commentary from local resident and occasional Rag writer, Rob Campbell:

The City is attempting to limit public comment by instituting new rules starting July 1st. The public meeting is July 7th. The City is pulling out every measure they can to stop resident voices. They are calling the new program “Enhanced Community Engagement at City Hall” and have thrown up significant barriers to pool voices together during public comment. See you all on July 7th at 2pm, when the City of San Diego makes history – one way or another.

Here’s the latest on the battle:

By Katie Hyson / KPBS /  June 24, 2026

Two radio towers mark a high point in Emerald Hills. For now, the 31-acre property is quiet, green and mostly empty. An upcoming appeal hearing could decide how that changes. It offers a rare 360-degree view from Mexico to La Jolla.

From his backyard, Kenny Key uses a rope and makeshift boards to scale a steep incline and take in the view. Every morning, he can look to the east and watch the sun rise over San Miguel Mountain. He tracks its wide arc through the sky to set between the Coronado Bridge and Point Loma Lighthouses, and sees the moon rise in its stead. He can see every plane that flies over the city and every ship that docks in its harbor.

“We see the beauty of San Diego every day,” he said. “And so we love our community.”

Key’s mother bought their home in the early ‘70s, around the time redlining had recently ended. The hilltop property had been a country club and golf course. “Blacks weren’t allowed to play up here. Blacks weren’t allowed to build up here. So when we came up here … it was like, ‘Upgrade!’” he said.

From First Amendment Coalition

We’re writing to sound alarms about California Assembly Bill 1821, which would have disastrous effects on transparency, accountability, and our democracy. Well, it’s crunchtime.

The bill, which was amended at the proverbial 11th hour in a transformation that a local watchdog group called “a virtual horror show of governmental non-transparency,” is set for a crucial committee hearing June 30. We need your help to stop it.

If passed, the bill would fundamentally alter the California Public Records Act, a vital sunshine law that ensures the people’s business be done in public view, making state and local governments less transparent and less responsive to the people they serve. Specifically, it would:

• Allow government agencies to charge hefty fees for public records
• Give local governments the authority to deem requests “not properly requested” and therefore invalid
• Allow local governments even more time to delay their responses
• Empower government agencies to sue members of the public if they feel a request was made with “malicious intent,” which seems left to the interpretation of whoever is holding the public records someone is asking to see

By Colleen O’Connor

Wonder of Wonders.  A real treasure exhibited itself Saturday, June 20 at the Peninsula Community Senior Center’s “Summer Celebration.”

Hard to ignore the chaos, fear and tragedies that surround us now.

But, fabulous to watch senior citizens and their friends, family and neighbors converge on a triumph of grace, humor, and support for not just those present, but all of Point Loma and environs.

Lisa Nokes, the Executive Director, and her staff, volunteers, neighbors, and friends, delivered a celebration of what “Neighboring” is— that great coming together to protect and aid those in need of their services.

From San Diego Energy Justice Alliance

With City studies concluding a not-for-profit utility would save San Diegans billions, a coalition of groups is calling on the City Council to begin organizing a public utility.
The most recent city-funded study will be presented to the council this Monday afternoon, June 22, during a meeting set to begin at 2 p.m. in council chambers.

Using the most conservative assumptions, the city’s consultants concluded in the study that not-for-profit public power would save utility customers $500 each year.
Under more realistic assumptions, projections, total savings for customers are projected to reach tens of billions of dollars in coming decades. An earlier city funded study also found a not-for-profit public utility would lower electric bills for customers.

“We have the studies and know the facts,” said Dorrie Bruggemann, a board member of Public Power San Diego, which is among the groups in the newly formed San Diego Energy Justice Coalition.

The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members and the San Diego public informed about important Council hearings and other city public meetings.

Monday, June 22: City Council, 2:00 p.m.

Agenda:

Item 200: Public Power Feasibility Study, Phase II Report

Item 201: SDG&E Franchise Independent Audit Report and Compliance Review

Why they matter: These items will shed light on two options: a new municipal energy utility (MEU) vs. the existing SDG&E utility. The Phase II report found that “financial projections support the feasibility of establishing an MEU.” The review found that SDG&E complies with its franchise agreement but adds “compliance alone does not fully resolve broader concerns regarding affordability, rate impacts, and alignment with the City’s policy objectives.”

Tuesday, June 23: City Council, 10:00 a.m.

Agenda: 

Item S501: Municipal Code Amendment Relating to Electric Bicycle Safety

by Ernie McCray

Juneteenth is a celebration
that causes me to wonder
what enslaved men and women
felt when they got the news
of their emancipation
approximately 900 days late.

So many of them, surely,
must have stood gasping and crying, in disbelief,
feeling joy from such an outrageously delayed freedom
while, simultaneously,
grieving from the realization
of all the hardships
that came from the years stolen from them,

By John McNab

We rarely talk context of why the public coast is disappearing and high rises are sprouting up everywhere.  The below is a perspective on going from freeing animals to caging humans – San Diego’s shift in priorities

A black-and-white movie on TV in the early 60’s was about a boy who went to the zoo with his grandfather. Upon seeing the animals in cages, he broke down. Likely because he loved to spend time under the warm sun playing in the canyons with the lizard and birds. Seeing the zoo animals poorly treated broke his heart.

Upon getting home, he was still in tears. It was recommended he did something. So he started protesting at the zoo. The editor at the local paper thought the story was cute and ran a piece on the boy and his protest. It struck a nerve and suddenly citizens were up in arms. So the embarrassed zoo changed. The last scene, in Technicolor, was the front of the San Diego zoo.

Yet what could be a sequel to the story?

A mother had many errands to run so she dropped off her son with his grandfather. The son, full of energy, got on the grandfather’s nerves. “Why don’t you go outside and play?” The boy answered in tears, “there’s nowhere outside to play”.

San Diego Gas & Electric has just formally requested an 8.6% rate increase with the California Public Utilities Commission. SDG&E wants it to begin in 2028.

The utility seeks approximately $3.8 billion for 2028, including about $2.9 billion for electric operations and $900 million for natural gas service. If the CPUC approves their request, “SDG&E estimates the increase would add roughly $14.03 per month to the average residential electric bill and $8.45 per month to the average residential gas bill compared to 2027 rates,” reports CBS8. That’s a combined $22.48 to the average monthly bill, reports the OB Rag.

The filing by San Diego’s for-profit utility, launches “what is expected to be an 18-month review process before state regulators determine whether to approve, modify or reject the proposal,” says CBS8/

Meanwhile, the San Diego City Council on Tuesday, June 16th, voted to endorse 10 bills in the state legislature aimed at lowering electricity rates and making investor-owned utilities more accountable to ratepayers, reports KPBS.

Last week, we posted an article about anti-short term rentals stickers being plastered around north OB.

Now, we find residents of Clairemont have done one better against the ADUs that have clobbered their community over the last couple of years. (See above)

Go here to see the photos of the small professionally made and anonymous signs that have popped up in the Clairemont Mesa area.: