Category: Culture

OB Rag Staff Report

San Diego’s 22-year experiment with a “strong mayor” has been hobbled by a string of financial crises.

Is it time to consider restoring the position of City Manager?

Jack McGrory, a former city manager for San Diego, will share his thoughts at a town hall forum on “Why We Need a City Manager and Other Insights” on Saturday, June 20, from 12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Mission Valley Library, 2123 Fenton Parkway.

Sponsored by the San Diego Community Coalition (SDCC) and Neighbors for a Better San Diego (NFABSD), the forum is the fifth in a series of question-and-answer sessions on important civic issues.

These events are free and open to the public, but seating is limited.

Sponsorships Light this Year for Free Concert Organizers

By Dave Schwab / Times of San Diego / May 25, 2026

With the start of the Point Loma Summer Concerts series just weeks away, organizers are seeking donations to help offset the rising costs of delivering five weekly concerts from July 10 to August 7.

The free concerts are held every Friday evening at Point Loma Park, 1049 Catalina Blvd., with a performance on the junior stage at 5:30 p.m. followed by the Main Stage band kicking off at 6:30 p.m.

“For 26 years, the Point Loma Summer Concerts has brought our community together for free summer concerts in the park,” said Glenn Millar, president of the nonprofit concert series for 2026. “But keeping the concerts free is not free.”

From Voice of San Diego / May 27, 2026

When Mayor Todd Gloria first proposed eliminating grants that support arts institutions and community programming in the city’s budget, many of us in the arts community were deeply concerned. The proposed $11.8 million reduction to arts funding—an 86.6% cut—would have a significant impact on organizations and programs that serve hundreds of thousands of San Diegans each year.

Arts and culture contribute so much to the economic vitality and civic life of our region, but these proposed cuts threaten the ability of arts organizations to continue to play that role into the future.

When the mayor later released his revised budget in May, however, no funding was restored for arts and culture. Indeed, as funds were found for other areas of the budget, the arts were left behind. For many in the sector this was profoundly discouraging and intensified fears about the future stability of arts programming. It raises significant concerns about the city’s priorities and our collective future.

City arts and culture funding does not bankroll lavish galas or extravagant productions. It supports community theater in neighborhoods that otherwise have little access to the arts. I

By Ed Harris

My experience as a former District Two Council Member and Lifeguard taught me that most of our elected officials do not represent the communities. They spend their careers pleasing special interest to ensure they get donations for their next office. When deciding who to vote for please follow the money. The other candidates in this race are already indebted to special interests. They are getting ads paid for by committees and parties who spin the truth. When you are flooded with campaign mailers take a look at the bottom to see who funded it. Then you will know who will own that candidate. Mandy is the real deal. She’s not bought and paid for by special interests.

She hasn’t sold out our neighborhoods, our coastline, or our community values for political favors or insider backing. She’s independent, she’s authentic, and she’s exactly the kind of leader we need at City Hall right now.

We do not need another rubber stamp politician.

By Jacob Mitchell

I am a fourth generation San Diegan and the son of an Olympian. My life has been defined by the idea that if you play by the rules and put in the work, you deserve a fair shot at the podium, but if you look at San Diego today, you’ll see a city where the playing field is tilted.

We are currently governed by a system that treats residents as a revenue source and institutional developers as the only viable solution to our problems. I am not a politician, as a chemist and an MBA candidate, I don’t believe in vague talking points; I believe in data, systems, and accountability. It’s time we stopped managing San Diego through headlines and started managing it for long term results.

Housing: Bridging the Generational Divide

The most pressing issue facing our beach communities is the housing crisis. State policy mandates a certain number of new homes San Diego needs to build in 9 year cycles. Currently, the City’s response to the mandate is to drop development fees for corporate entities and hand out subsidies for hyper-dense projects that lack community oversight.

I hear two very different, yet equally valid, fears in our district.

Voice of San Diego / May 27, 2026

Tonight, Wednesday the 27th, the San Diego City Council will hold a public hearing on this year’s proposed budget, which seeks to close a $118 million deficit. Tonight’s public hearing will be held in Council Chambers starting at 6:30 p.m.

The meeting is the latest deliberation following Mayor Todd Gloria’s May revision. He restored some library and recreation center hours after Councilmembers pushed back, saying those cuts pose a threat to public safety.

But there are still some tense conversations ahead.

WE WANT MAXIMUM PARTICIPATION
Join San Diego ART Matters, Arts+Culture: San Diego, and regional arts and culture leaders for a public press conference calling attention to the proposed elimination of City funding for arts and culture grants in the FY27 budget.

News Item: In 2025, the San Diego City Council passed a final budget that reduced the San Diego Humane Society’s (SDHS) annual animal services contract by $1 million. While the city initially proposed a more devastating 20% ($3.5 million) cut, the compromise forces the organization to evaluate fee increases and operational adjustments while facing critical shelter capacity issues.

By Debbie L. Sklar

Public discussion has included questions about the San Diego Humane Society, including shelter capacity, animal control responsibilities, and executive compensation. San Diego Humane Society President and CEO Dr. Gary Weitzman is compensated at more than $500,000 annually, according to publicly available IRS Form 990 filings. Records published through ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer list total compensation of approximately $509,396 in the most recent reporting period, including salary and other reportable compensation. The filing also lists approximately $72.8 million in annual revenue and more than $100 million in net assets.

Weitzman has served as president and CEO of the San Diego Humane Society since 2010.

by Ernie McCray

Attending a
Community College league of California
Trustees Conference
with Maria, my querida,
a trustee,
I happened upon
a session that very much interested me,
one regarding
protecting campuses
from ICE
who a while back
became a concern
to Santa Barbara Community College
when agents, nevertheless,
although they didn’t harass or arrest
any students,

UPDATE: Police identified the suspect, 29-year-old Charles Fluker, as the victim’s brother.Just around midnight Monday, May 25, an unidentified man was stabbed in the parking lot near the Barons Market off West Pt Loma, following an altercation with another man.

Police Officers arrived to find a guy with stab wounds. He was taken to UC San Diego Medical Center in Hillcrest for treatment but died after arrival, police said.

The person suspected in the stabbing left the scene in a vehicle. Hours later, around 4:45 a.m., police arrested the suspect at a home in Linda Vista.

Today, Monday, May 25th, — Memorial Day –, the San Diego Veterans For Peace set up its “Hometown Arlington West Memorial” on the front lawn of the USS Midway Museum, 910 N. Harbor Drive, near the corner of Broadway, in downtown San Diego.

Chapter veterans from all military services will be honoring our 288 fallen brothers and sisters from Southern California who have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with special memorial markers. The public is asked to stop by, read their names, honor the ultimate sacrifice made by these local fallen men and women, and to reflect on the overall costs of these two wars and wars going on now in Iran, Ukraine and elsewhere. Fom 7 AM to 4 PM.

By Will Baker

Portuguese flags rippled in the wind this May as one of San Diego’s tightest-knit communities continued a long-standing annual tradition with the 116th Point Loma Portuguese Festa do Espírito Santo.

Centered around the U.P.S.E.S Portuguese Hall, the Festa opened Friday, May 22nd with a flag-raising ceremony and continued throughout the weekend. Those three days saw hundreds of community members come together to celebrate their heritage, creating a unique cultural space in the heart of Point Loma. Traditional food, folk dancing, and beautiful regalia all contributed to the rich atmosphere of this year’s Festa, the latest iteration of the oldest ethnic European religious celebration in San Diego.

Saturday night was marked by a procession from the chapel (or capela) adjacent to the Portuguese Hall to the nearby St. Agnes Catholic Church. Resplendent in their dresses and suits, the young people of this year’s Festa court followed the Festa 2025 Queen as she carried the crown up the Avenida de Portugal to St. Agnes, where they attended a recitation of the Holy Rosary before returning to the Portuguese Hall, where a nighttime bazaar was in full swing under a large canopy housing hundreds of guests. The bazaar, open both Friday and Saturday night as well as the majority of Sunday, featured traditional Portuguese food such as malassadas and linguiça alongside a fantastic dance performance by the Grupo Folclorico Mar Bravo Casa dos Acores de Himar.