Category: Culture

By The Associated Press / 7SanDiego / March 26 -27, 2026 

The Trump administration has opened investigations into how race is considered in admissions at three medical schools, ratcheting up its pressure campaign against colleges and universities.

The Justice Department opened the investigations Wednesday into possible discrimination at the medical schools of Stanford University, Ohio State and the University of California, San Diego. Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, announced the investigations on X.

Through a series of investigations and executive actions, President Donald Trump has been ramping up scrutiny of universities he decries as overrun by liberal influence. His administration previously has targeted undergraduate admissions at selective colleges, demanding they collect data to show they are in line with a 2023 Supreme Court decision forbidding affirmative action in college admissions.

The investigations were reported first by The New York Times.

In a letter to Ohio State, Dhillon wrote that the Justice Department was seeking any documents related to “the use or lack of use of race” in evaluating applicants. She said they were also seeking all applicant-level admissions data and any reviews by the school of admissions trends or outcomes by race.

By Alex Cheney / CBS8 / February 25, 2026

The City of San Diego is actively searching for a new management company to operate the temporarily closed Tecolote Canyon Golf Course, a beloved community asset that has served local golfers for decades.

A trunk sewer line construction project forced the closure of the course, which cuts through the property and has rendered multiple holes unplayable. Construction equipment now occupies the fairways where golfers once played their rounds.

American Golf had managed the course for the last three decades before its lease expired. The city viewed the expiration as an opportunity to close that chapter and pursue a new operating plan.

“American Golf was on an expired lease, so it was the natural time to close out that former chapter, look toward the future investment of the course, and look toward a new operating and management plan,” said Jim Mandler with the City of San Diego.

by Mariana Martínez Barba / Voice of San Diego / March 24, 2026

Four years ago, researchers found that if the city opened a safe parking lot for 24 hours every day, it would be easier to connect individuals who live in their vehicles to services.

Those findings encouraged city officials to make a safe parking lot in Mission Valley available 24 hours a day. That meant people staying at the lot didn’t have to leave during the day and could access services with more flexibility.

Other city safe parking lots have curfews, which means people staying there need to leave during the day and return at night. That’s the case at a safe lot near the airport, known as H Barracks. The city is currently in a legal battle with homeless individuals over the lot’s accessibility.

One of the researchers involved in the previous study of city safe lots still believes it’s more effective to open lots for 24 hours every day. City officials maintain that H Barracks is working as is and are not considering changing its operation hours. Homeless advocates say extended hours could help, but San Diegans living in their cars aren’t sure.

Editordude: Two Rag writers take aim today at the city’s rollout of the new trash cans. South OB Girl and Abby (who has writes under Csaba) offer their observations.

The New Gray Trash Cans Have Arrived

By South OB Girl

The new City of San Diego Environmental Services gray trash cans have arrived.  The new policies regarding trash have been a topic of much discussion in previous months and there was much discontent expressed by many San Diegans when the ballot measure was voted into action and approved by San Diego voters.  Some residents have filed a lawsuit in response and it is still under way.  For those still deciding about their trash service and trash can options, here are links to contact City of San Diego Environmental Services and calculate your potential trash fee, which would be part of your taxes:

Earlier this week, an opinion piece appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune, written by occasional Rag writer Jillian Butler, with the headline, “Why Ocean Beach needs ‘broken windows’ policing.” It decried the sad state of OB and complained of the graffiti, drug use and fights visible in public. Butler stated:

The 5000 block of Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach was once a cultural and business haven. Now, it is commonplace to stroll through the area on any day and witness individuals using heroin, openly selling drugs, defecating or masturbating. … However, as any business owner of an establishment on Newport can tell you, stabbings, druggings and brawls are no longer uncommon occurrences.

Butler states that non-violent offenses no longer are dealt with by San Diego police, OB needs what’s called “broken windows’ policing.” This is a community-based system of policing and caring for a community; repair the windows, cover up the graffiti to show that residents care about the neighborhood.

But drug use, graffiti and fights have been common in OB for decades. Yet, Butler raises the issue: has it worsened? Is Ocean Beach really getting this bad?

What’s your view?

Here’s Butler’s piece:

Why Ocean Beach needs ‘broken windows’ policing

By Jillian Butler

On the wall beside the CVS parking lot in Ocean Beach, a graffiti tag appeared months ago. Since then, more tags have followed. Drug use and fights in the parking lot are no longer unusual, and the sense that no one is responsible for maintaining order has become increasingly difficult to ignore.

Criminologists call this the “broken windows” theory: Visible signs of disorder signal that lawlessness will be tolerated, inviting more serious crime to follow. Though critics dubbed this theory inequitable, my coastal San Diego neighborhood of Ocean Beach has become a case study in what happens when small crimes and public disorder are allowed to persist.

The View From Canada by Former OBcean

By Marc Snelling

OB has always been ice-free.  Closest I’ve seen it come was a dip into the high 30’s during the El Nino winter of 1997-98.  Or people driving back from Cuyamaca with snow they deliberately put on their hood.  An endless source of laughs for any Northern transplant to OB that has spent winters constantly clearing snow off their car.

Canadians do love ice, in their drinks, under their skates. But ice in some places raises their anxiety levels like on highways… and in airports.  Driving the highway in freezing rain is a white-knuckle experience. Statistically you know only a small percentage of people will end up in the ditch, but you sure don’t want the consequences that come with being part of that small percentage.

The same psychology is at work on Canadians as ICE is deployed to American airports. Everyone knows the statistical chances of being detained are minimal. Still those Canadians who are part of that percentage being detained are highly visible. Just like you slow your roll on the highway when you see a car in the ditch, Canadians have been given yet more reasons to slow down and question if they want to travel through American airports.

Voice of San Diego Staff / March 26, 2026

State Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson has introduced a bill that would exempt the Midway Rising project from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act.

We had reported that San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and his team were considering seeking legislation like this to ensure the project could survive legal challenges even after courts threw out two voter-approved ballot measures to raise the height limit in the Midway area. Developers were confident they could rely on the state’s density bonus housing laws to ensure they could build higher than the 30-foot building height limit on the coast.

Now legislation is moving forward to pre-empt any legal challenges.

The bill: It’s SB-958. You can read it here. It would have the Legislature declare the many attributes of the project — the thousands of new homes, including many restricted for people with low incomes, new parks, new arena and other improvements.

By Kate Callen

The people of San Diego are the real stakeholders of Balboa Park, and they are ready to take back their “crown jewel” from a city government that has neglected and exploited it.

A grassroots drive to create a public-private Park conservancy will launch Saturday, March 28, at a San Diego Community Coalition town hall at 9:30 a.m. at the Mission Valley Library, 2123 Fenton Parkway. The forum is co-hosted by Neighbors for a Better San Diego.

Compiled by Lisa Mortensen

by Frank Sabatini Jr./ Uptown News / March 22, 2026

The brouhaha over paid parking in and around Balboa Park became exceptionally clear to me after making two visits by car to our gorgeous public land in recent weeks.

My first visit under the new revenue- generating program was on a balmy weekday in February. It was 50 days after the initiative was implemented in early January — the plan was championed by Mayor Todd Gloria and approved by the San Diego City Council — seemingly enough time for city officials to acquaint us with a cohesive payment system.

I was there to briefly meet a friend at the Timken Museum of Art. I drove into the park at its northwestern section off of Sixth Avenue. That put me onto tree-lined Balboa Drive before hanging left to cross the Laurel Street Bridge. It’s the route I always take to my favorite parking lot located behind the Organ Pavilion, which sits in proximity to the park’s cultural heart, the El Prado.

The sight of pay stations and heavy signage pertaining to the new reality of paid parking was saddening. The materials are aesthetically cold and gawky against the park’s backdrop of lush foliage and historical architecture. It’s as through somebody walked into a large, airy room with good feng shui and cluttered it.

Bigger disappointments followed.

by Thomas Murphy / Beach & Bay Press / March 23, 2026

A 75-year-old waterfront restaurant in Mission Bay could be forced out by the city of San Diego’s redevelopment plan, putting Joe Busalacchi’s family business and one of the bay’s oldest tenants at risk.

Sportsmen’s Seafood was the first lease signed in Mission Bay, operating even before the area’s first bridges were built.

Busalacchi has run the restaurant for 36 years, continuing a three-generation family business after his father passed away.

“The city is supposed to serve and protect the citizens of San Diego. They want to kick out all of these people who have to pay rent and pay for their children,” said Busalacchi. “How is that serving and protecting? They ain’t serving me, any of my employees, or anyone on the docks.”