Category: Culture

Editor: The following are prepared remarks made by Jarvis Ross before the San Diego Planning Commission on May 26 on the issue of the controversial Froude Street project. Ross is, a member of the Peninsula Community Planning Board for 15 years. The project is slated for 2257 Froude.

Statement by Jarvis Ross

Planning Commission Chairman Haase and Commissioners I am Jarvis Ross and had been a member of the Peninsula Community Planning Board excepting term limits from the year 2000 until March of this year.

While I was on the board the Froude Street project was opposed by the Peninsula Planning Board, nearby residents and Ocean Beach Property owners backing up to the South side of Froude Street.

by American Institute of Architects San Diego / San Diego UrbDeZine / May 31, 2016

At first glance, the recent East Village Convadium proposal has many appealing qualities: it is an attractive, modern complex with many interesting features. However, the Charger’s owners hope to capitalize on the recent trend in California and use the ballot initiative process to “expedite” California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review, and for good reason. The flash and hype of the ballot initiative covers many significant, unanswered questions about potential cost overruns and environmental impacts that may cost San Diego taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Like many San Diegans, the American Institute of Architects San Diego (AIASD) would like to see a NFL franchise remain in San Diego. However, our 900 member organization is dedicated to advancing good urban planning and design in San Diego, and we have many concerns about the current Convadium proposal. We also feel it is critical to remind San Diegans there are better alternatives.

* OB Featured in Latest CityBeat

* Point Loma Fire Station to Be Demolished and Remodeled
* Gunshot and Stabbing at Santa Cruz Cove
* Police Moving into Holiday Weekend and Shift Changes
* Lifeguard Stats for April
* OB Exposed! Winners

* OB Town Council Offers Community Grants

* Graffiti on OB Benches
* New Helm’s on Newport Gets Notice
* Local OB Bicyclist Mentioned in U-T on Wishes for More Than Bike Lanes
* Fund Raisers for Point Loma High Vice-Principal Battling Cancer
* Dia de Portugal Is Coming on June 11 in Point Loma
* Point Loma Summer Concerts on Schedule

Open Letter From SDSU Staff and Faculty Regarding Naming and Targeting of Students

The following is an open letter sent to President Hirshman from the undersigned staff and faculty at San Diego State University regarding flyers posted on the university campus in April. The flyers listed the names of seven students from Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Muslim Students Association (MSA), accusing them of “Jew-hatred” and of being linked to “terrorists.”

They were singled out because of their support of the boycott, divestment, sanctions movement (BDS), which is used as a means of holding Israel accountable for human right violations against Palestinians. The letter touches on the broader implications of the flyer incident, whereby the naming and targeting of students represents a marked escalation of wide-ranging efforts to suppress the growing momentum of BDS campaigns across American campuses.

June 9th Thursday 7 p.m. Film Night “The True Cost” at OB Green Center

June 11th Saturday 9:00 am – 11:00 am Dog Beach Clean Up

June 11th Saturday 11:00 am – 2:00 pm OB First Responders Appreciation BBQ

June 14th Tuesday 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm OB Woman’s Club monthly meeting

June 16th Thursday 7:00 p.m. OB Historical Society Meeting – History of the OB Rag

P.L. United Methodist Church, 1984 Sunset Cliffs Blvd, 92107. Learn the history of the OB Rag by current OB Rag Editor Frank Gormlie.

COME INSIDE FOR DETAILS AND MUCH MORE ….

Channel 10 News is running a story about somebody carving racist and nasty messages into freshly poured concrete in Ocean Beach – near the residence of Juan Viella, a five-year resident.

The messages were racist and political and were signed “OB SS” – “SS” being a Nazi reference.

Here are the messages that Viella found (WARNING: vulgarity approaching):

“Trump 2016,” “F*ck Bernie”, “Build the wall,” “No F**s, OBSS”

Viella has since scraped most of the hateful messages off the concrete on Lotus Street near Sunset Cliffs .

By Alliance San Diego

Editor: Following last Friday’s anti-Trump demonstrations at the San Diego Convention Center, local police and other law enforcement agencies descended on Barrio Logan in an unnecessary show of militarized force, corralling a community and making over 2 dozen arrests. This is a statement in response by Alliance San Diego. After the statement, we publish an update by Doug Porter from today’s San Diego Free Press.

Community leaders were shocked by the unwarranted show of force that law enforcement used during the peaceful rallies and marches that took place on Friday May 27 in response to the visit of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

OB Residents to Protest Mills’ Outrageous Rents at Saturday June 4th Rally

By San Diego Tenants United

San Diego is currently facing a massive Housing Crisis: rents have increased 25% over the past decade and are expected to increase by 19% in just the next five (5) years, while wages have actually decreased for many San Diego residents.

A February 2015 KPBS article exposed multiple shortcomings with the current system in San Diego for ensuring basic living standards for tenants, making the case that slumlords are not held accountable in San Diego.

Fortunately, tenants in Ocean Beach are fighting back against one such landlord: Michael Mills.

“In the apartment complex I am in, almost half of the apartments are empty because he [Michael Mills] just keeps raising the rent,” explains one displaced Ocean Beach resident.

The Saga of the Controversial Froude Project at the San Diego Planning Commission

By Tom and Judy Parry

The decision by the San Diego Planning Commission was pretty clear: Five votes to allow a McMansion to go forward on our quiet Ocean Beach block of Froude Street, one vote to stop it.

Amid our disappointment, we’re allowing the lessons we learned to sink in. The one most frightening is that it can happen on any O.B. street with similar zoning, even if no McMansions are present, even if the entire block is dead set against it.

We live on Froude Street, between Voltaire and Greene streets. As we blogged before, a 50-parcel with one single-family house is about to be split into two 25-foot lots, each with a three-level residence filling the lot and pushing the 30-foot height limit.

Froude sits on the boundary of the Peninsula and Ocean Beach advisory planning boards. We live in the Peninsula district, where the planning board voted against the project 9 to 1. The Ocean Beach board, though their boundary line down the middle of the street is just 20 feet away, was never notified by the city and not allowed to vote. The reason? “We’re not required to [notify them].”

The OB Planing Board meets Wednesday, June 1st, at the OB Recreation Center. And at the top of their agenda are a series of presentations and updates, with no new development projects up for review by the Board.

Instead, the Board will receive a presentation about the so-called “Citizens Plan for San Diego” by veteran politico, Jeff Marston. This is the plan backed by the Chargers and some environmentalists and public-interest lawyers to construct a new stadium and convention center downtown.

Next up, is a presentation by Joe LaCava, head of the Committee of Planning Committees – a body of all the planning boards and committees across the city – about the City’s goal to install twenty round-abouts throughout the city. We know the City and OB planners have been considering a round-about at the intersection of West Pt Loma and Bacon.

Free Speech Rights, Free Speech Zones, Interactions with Police, Resources and MORE

By the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties

The right to join with fellow citizens in protest or peaceful assembly is critical to a functioning democracy.

But it is also unfortunately true that governments and police can violate this right—through the use of mass arrests, illegal use of force, criminalization of protest, and other means intended to thwart free public expression.

Standing up for your right to protest can be challenging, especially when demonstrations are met with confusion, excessive force, or violence. But knowing your rights is the most powerful tool you have against the stifling of your voice.

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“If the Planning Commission does not listen to the voice of the Peninsula Planning Board or the Ocean Beach Planning Board, then what is the purpose of having community groups speak on behalf of the communities they represent.”
– John Ambert, Chair of OB Planning Board

On Thursday, May 26th, residents along Froude Street in northeast OB received bad news. The San Diego Planning Commission had approved the controversial project where 2 two large homes with 2 stories and underground garages is planned for 2 small lots. A single-family residence is currently on the lots.

Part of the problem, as we have reported, is that the property is just a few yards from the formal Ocean Beach planning district line – and if it had been in OB, it would not have met the more restrictive requirements that the OB Community Plan. But it was in the Peninsula Community Planning Board’s jurisdiction. Yet, the Peninsula planners voted 9 to 1 against the project and some of them called it “sore thumb” because of its relatively large size and flashy, more modern architecture.

And the OB Planning Board didn’t have a say at all.