Category: Civil Rights

This is the latest entry to the Rag writing contest.

By Anonymous #3

As our country prepares to celebrate 250 years of independence, I have been thinking about what America means to me. Our country isn’t perfect, but I still believe it is the greatest nation in the world because we have freedom and the opportunity to make our lives better.

I moved to Ocean Beach, California, in 1996, and I fell in love with it. There is something special about living in a community where people know each other, help one another, and appreciate the simple things in life. Living there has reminded me that America is not just a place on a map. It is made up of neighborhoods, families, and everyday people who care about their communities.

I am a caregiver for a veteran, and that has taught me a lot about sacrifice, service, and appreciating our freedoms. I have had the privilege of hearing stories from someone who served this country and seeing firsthand the pride and love that many veterans have for America. It has given me an even greater respect for the men and women who have defended our nation.

It is indeed the last four days of the OB Rag writing contest. Given that we’re nearing the 250th anniversary of American independence, the topic is: “What the 250th anniversary means today … living under Trump.”

Send 500 to about 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 9 p.m. Saturday, July 4th. (Maybe you weren’t inspired until the actual day was upon you — .)

Every Saturday at 10:30 am. San Diego Climate Mobilization Coalition Meetings.  July 4th,11th, 18th, and 25th. Keep up to date on climate issues and Climate Action events. To register email Jon Findley at jon@climatemobsd.org.  More info: https://www.facebook.com/SDClimateMobilization/

Every Saturday 10 am – 12 pm Peace Vigil for Palestine: Advocate for Peace and Justice in Gaza and Everywhere Join CODEPINK SD, San Diego Veterans for Peace, and Palestine Pals every Saturday at 10:00 am at Ocean Beach Gateway Plaza, on the corner of Sunset Cliffs Blvd. and W. Point Loma Blvd.  Wear pink and bring a peace-related poster if you have one!  Contact: Nathanael sandiego@codepink.org  More info:  https://www.instagram.com/codepinksd/

Every Sunday 1:30 pm – 3:15 pm Otay Mesa Vigil Otay Mesa Detention Center 7488 Calzada de la Fuente San Diego 92154 Event recommended by Peace Resource Center Peaceful gathering Bring a sign, friends, music and your voice in honor of the thousands of innocent human beings separated from their families, please join us at our weekly action at Otay Mesa Detention Center. Our movement grows stronger every week- but we need more voices out there with us. The inhumane and deplorable conditions our loved ones are forced to suffer through at OMDC cannot be accepted or tolerated. Please join us to bring HOPE and Solidarity.  Every week a different group brings us food – plenty of parking and good vibes always.  More info: https://www.instagram.com/borderlandsequity/

July 1st, 15th and 22nd. Resist Trump Flash Banner Action Wednesdays 4 pm – 5:15 pm– North Park Event by SanDiego 350   Landis St. and the I-805 3424 Landis St, San Diego 92104 The Raise the Alarm Team continues our Flash Banner Actions (FBAs) because resistance to the Trump administration remains as important as ever. So too is keeping climate change and the need for climate action before the public. We calculate that we are reaching about 5 to 10 thousand vehicles for each hour that our banners are up and the response from motorists is mostly positive. By our count, since 2025 we’ve held more than 30 FBAs in North County, Central SD, and the South Bay! We will banner on the Landis St. overpass of the I-805. We’ll meet on the overpass at 4:00 pm. Local street parking is available. Stay tuned for upcoming events! More info:  https://sandiego350.org/event/civi_event_1831/?instance_id=1496

July 1st Wednesday 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm Monthly Social for Makers, Tinkerers and Creatives Event by Zero Waste San Diego

What Was It, What Is It, and What Will It Be?

By Coastal Caretakers

Today, we will start with what it IS, complicated as it is, beginning with a cement block building, a new owner, and a new future, defined by the City of San Diego in the words of Accela, the city’s new permitting system and the reminder of an old joke ending in, “are you going to believe your lying eyes, or what I tell you?”

The previous owner, Sunset Cliffs Creative House, LLC morphed a $2.2 million investment into a $2.8 million sale to Yoffee, LLC, which has a San Diego mailing address on Casitas St, a San Diego property owned by Yoth, LLC, and a business named Daylight Coffee, LLC, — all Wyoming LLCs. This is a situation that gets us very close to where we are today.

Yoffee LLC is the owner of the property, and the address of Yoth LLC owns the mailing address for Yoffee, LLC, a business to be occupied, according to its application in 2025 for a liquor license for Daylight Coffee, LLC, also at the Yoth, LLC-owned address.

And now we enter the twilight zone of Accela, a new world in Mission Valley without paper but with three windows to pay fees. Any member of the public can right now get an Accela account, log in, and type in (with some difficulty) “1404 Sunset Cliffs Blvd” as the address.  You will see what it says.  (And if you are wondering, you can see the same thing using the Rite-Aid address.)  The paper world has been forgotten, but the original plans are still there.

By Paul Krueger

I used to zone out when politicians debated the strengths and weaknesses of policy proposals, especially when I covered government meetings for NBC 7. Revisions, compromises, and continuances left me frustrated. I’d think, “Come on, just agree, vote, and move on.”

But my six years as a community advocate have given me a new appreciation for the value of policy debates and public disagreement among our elected officials.

I’ve seen how a philosophical split on the County Board of Supervisors — with three liberal Democrats and two conservative Republicans — gives us a better understanding of policy issues and exposes the possible pitfalls of proposed legislation.

Pointed but civil disagreements between the Supervisors have revealed important details — pro and con — about proposed reforms to the county charter and the use of reserve funds to expand programs and hire more employees.

That’s why I grimaced when Mayor Todd Gloria described the city of San Diego’s recent budget negotiations as “more collegial” than last year’s. “I don’t think anyone at the outset of this process would have envisioned a unanimous adoption of the budget and no line-item vetoes,” Gloria told the U-T’s David Garrick.

That “Kumbaya” moment is good example of what’s wrong at City Hall. This go-along-get-along attitude enables our elected officials to avoid scrutiny for their votes. And it deprives residents of the information they need to assess their representatives’ performance.

By JW August / Times of San Diego / June 28, 2026

The city of San Diego has spent years trying to build a new fire station in the Mid-City area that would address a glaring weakness in the city’s emergency response system.

But environmental and community groups have opposed the specific location the city has settled on, arguing it would remove precious open space from a neighborhood that’s already starved for it.

The city selected its preferred site — on a hillside in the Webster neighborhood of City Heights, at 47th Street and Fairmount Avenue near a mobile home park catering to seniors — in 2015. That was five years after an outside report by a consultant identified the area as the most significant gap in the city’s fire response. Another report, in 2017, confirmed the need.

Project opponents — like Charles Rili, deputy director of the Sierra Club’s local chapter, and Leslie Reynolds, executive director of Groundworks San Diego-Chollas Creek — share the desire to plug that gap. But they argue the chosen location would permanently scar current open space and lead to the destruction of habitat in the Chollas Creek watershed.

Rilli said the the city is “digging its heels in” and refusing to recognize the location as one of the few open spaces for residents in the urban environment.

From Neighbors for a Better California

The latest public records released this past week confirm that Project Vela remains under active City review. No final decision has been made on the project’s requested height, scale, incentives, or waivers.

Before the City can make those determinations, the developer must still resolve key technical issues identified during the review process, including floor area calculations, fire protection, stormwater management, and the legal basis for the project’s requested waivers.

Rather than becoming clearer as the review has progressed, the records show that important questions remain unresolved across multiple technical areas.

NFABC has submitted an additional Public Records Act request for missing documents referenced in the file. Our volunteer team brings experience in law, city planning, community planning, public communications, and state housing legislation. This expertise allows us to analyze complex records, ask informed questions, and help hold the City’s review process accountable so Project Vela is not approved for more height, density, or scale than California law and the San Diego Municipal Code allow.

What the Latest Records Show

Fire Safety Review Continues

The City’s Fire Suppression reviewer stated that, after multiple rounds of review, proper and complete responses had still not been provided for the issues identified. The reviewer noted that little progress had been made and advised the design team to resolve the outstanding issues before additional reviews continued.

‘What the 250th anniversary means today … living under Trump.’ Rag writing contest second entry.

By Anonymous #2

On this 250th anniversary of our country, while being under the control of Donald Trump, I am reminded of those men and women who fought to allow the birth of this county in the first place: the original patriots.

I am reminded of patriot George Washington who understood the importance of healthcare within a military, thus mandated inoculations of the troops.

“The small pox has made such Head in every Quarter that I find it impossible to keep it from spreading thro’ the whole Army in the natural way. I have therefore determined, not only to innoculate all the Troops now here, that have not had it, but shall order Doc Shippen to innoculate the Recruits as fast as they come in to Philadelphia. They will lose no time, because they will go thro’ the disorder while their clothing Arms and accoutrements are getting ready.” – George Washington

I am reminded of patriot John Adams who understood, not just the importance of healthcare wtih a military, but of commerce and a country, thus advocated for universal healthcare with a government run system.

Editordude: This is the first entry in our Rag writing contest, a contest asking writers to express ‘What the nation’s 250 anniversary means today … living under Trump.’ Our panel of judges will determine the winner after the July 4th weekend; the contest runs until then and is open to anyone living in the City or County of San Diego. The winning essay will be awarded $100.00. (All entries will be published anonymously. Applicants should email us the essay to obragblog@gmail.com)

By Anonymous #1

“The arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Philosophers, reformers and leaders often talk trajectory, making reference to progress like the kind seen in comforting movements of an arc. A line following that unfamiliar path ultimately expected to bend in the proper direction. So very appealing a concept – geometrically speaking.  A simple shape reassuringly capable of reflecting empirical truths.

Most of us have previously encountered the above famous quote, long attributed to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, who included it in a 1956 speech addressing the Montgomery Bus Boycott. However, the original concept came from 19th century Unitarian minister and abolitionist Theodore Parker. In an 1853 sermon, Parker stated…”I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways…But from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.”

By Danna Givot / Commentary SD Union-Tribune / June 27, 2026

If San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and the City Council care — or even just wonder — why they’ve lost the public’s trust, they need look no further than their so-called “Technical Working Group” for Neighborhood Homes for All of Us.

What is the Technical Working Group? A secret group of “experts” hand-picked to develop site plans and four building designs (with up to 10 units each) for “single-family” zoned lots in San Diego’s neighborhoods.

Three years ago, the planning commissioners rejected San Diego’s Senate Bill 10 (SB 10) proposal, which would have allowed single-family homes to be replaced by 10-unit apartment buildings. To their credit, the commissioners recommended that community stakeholders have seats at the working group table when crafting the next iteration of infill housing in our single-family neighborhoods. I asked the Planning Department to give Neighbors For A Better San Diego a seat at that table but received no response. This was after two members of the Technical Working Group told me they were in the group, although the city’s deputy planning director told me days later that it had “not been formed.”

For the past year, I have repeatedly requested, via email and in person, data about this working group: its membership, mission, meeting dates, locations and minutes. Neither the planning director nor her deputy has answered my inquiries, even after they confirmed in their April 2026 Planning Department Update, that the Neighborhood Homes Technical Working Group met this March. A year after first requesting information about this body, it continues to operate secretly. I finally resorted to submitting a public records request for this material on May 30, but have received no information.

The city pretends to give the public a voice by inviting us to meaningless “focus groups” and useless “workshops” where we are told to place plastic housing cut-outs on mats with different sized lots. We are not allowed to ask questions — instead, we are told to submit inquiries to a website. I have been submitting questions to Planning Director Heidi Vonblum for a year without a meaningful response.

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: