Category: Culture

Our children. They have always been our pride and joy. Two girls, Tawny Maya and Nyla Summer and Carlos Biko, our tremendously energetic boy. I can’t adequately express just how much I admire them for how they’ve stood tall in spite of the smothering sadness they’ve endured with their mother no longer in their lives other than in a spiritual sense.

I don’t know how I could have made it without them making sure that we continue hanging out to have a little fun every now and then as we’ve always done as a family.

* OB Pier Closed Due to High Surf and Damage

* Circle of Life Comes to the OB Rag

* Local Coastal Commission Manager Insists on Public Hearing Before Removal of Fire Pits by City

* Contest to Find Missing 9th OB Fire Pit

* OB Cottage Becomes Home Design Classroom

* Don’t Crap On Us

* Volunteers Needed for Dog Beach Dune Habitat Restoration Project – January 23rd

* OB Poet Hosts Poetry Reading at Jungle Java

My mother (Midge) had always told us that her grandfather, Cornelius Donahue, had come to this country from Ireland, but exactly where in Ireland was murky. Maybe County Cork, maybe not.

At a certain point, my brother (Lou) and I became interested in obtaining dual US/Irish citizenship for ourselves and for our mother. But in order to do this, first of all we had to document where in Ireland Cornelius came from.

So began my quest, “In Search of Cornelius.”

Editor: The OB Rag is beginning a series on ‘Getting to know our public servants’ with this report by Mary E Mann of an interview with OB’s Community Relations Officer.

Picture your high school guidance counselor in a police uniform, and you have a pretty good idea of Officer David Surwilo, the one and only community relations officer in San Diego Police Department’s Western Division.

The Western Division is huge and diverse, comprised of North Park, Hillcrest, Mission Hills, Linda Vista, Hotel Circle, Fashion Valley, Old Town, Sports Arena, Ocean Beach, Point Loma, and the airport area. Surwilo used to manage this area with three other officers, with four different “storefront” offices. That was in the sunny days before budget cuts hit the SDPD hard, and three officers and three storefronts were cut, leaving only Surwilo and his office on Sports Arena.

The high surf and the beautiful skies of OB and the Cliffs electrify the spirit. Capturing nature’s wonders with human-made technology and sharing them with neighbors – either of geography or of mind – is a way of channeling that energy. Join us now for some sharing by John Noble, Doug Porter, Steven Kendrick and Jim Grant.

Saratoga Park Condos Delayed – Apartment Up for Sale

Where Is the Missing OB Fire Pit?

Lifeguards Do Cliff Rescues – Man on Sunday and Woman on Saturday

Competition between OB’s Dog Beach and Coronado

Short Film by Nazarene U Alumnus Could Get Oscar Nod

Longboard Association to Hold First 2010 Event at Ocean Beach

San Diego Reader: Sand Shift at “Big Jetty” Still a Concern for OB Surfers

Sunset Cliffs Restoration Party – January 16th

OB Artist Designs Local Postage Stamps

by: Ángel Luis Lara / La Jornada (Mexico) – truthout / 04 January 2010

We live in the era of hype. The word, which bounces and bounds throughout the matrices of our information age, refers to a cultural product that has been so juiced up with marketing that its popularity takes off independently and regardless of its quality. It is the wrapping that matters: the advertisement is louder, more important and more real than what is advertised. James Cameron is the author of the latest, greatest global hype: “Avatar.”

The force behind the bludgeoning impact of “Avatar’s” promotional blitz has been driven by three main factoids: it’s the most expensive movie in the history of movies, it has revolutionized the world of special effects and it was shot in 3-D.

Occasionally news in San Diego affects us at the beach. Here are a few recent headlines of interest to sand crabs, seagulls and smoldering fire pits:

Lawyers Group Honors Judge Boycotted by DA Dumanis

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in town pushing for jobs

City Council declines endorsement of medical marijuana regulations

Court upholds San Diego School District’s right to assure that school construction jobs will employ local residents

January 6, 2010. Tonight, the Ocean Beach Planning Board voted unanimously to “strenuously oppose” the removal of fire pits from Ocean Beach Park. The meeting, chaired by vice-chair Giovanni Ingolia, was held at the Recreation Center and started at 6pm.

Brought to the Board via an agenda item initiated by Board member and former chair, Landry Watson, the issue of the City’s planned removal of OB’s eight fire pits along with the remaining pits around San Diego – a total of 186 – was termed “a hot issue” by Watson.

By Patrick Goldstein / Los Angeles Times / January 5, 2010

It’s no secret that “Avatar” has been stunningly successful on nearly every front. The James Cameron-directed sci-fi epic is already the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time, having earned more than $1 billion around the globe in less than three weeks of theatrical release. The film also has garnered effusive praise from critics, who’ve been planting its flag on a variety of critics Top 10 lists. The 3-D trip to Pandora is also viewed as a veritable shoo-in for a best picture Oscar nomination when the academy announces its nominees on Feb. 2.

But amid this avalanche of praise and popularity, guess who hates the movie? America’s prickly cadre of political conservatives.

It’s been nearly half a century since the Peninsula Community Plan was officially launched by Peninsulans, Inc., its creator, in December of 1965. For the first time the organization of Point Loman business and property elites opened their vision of Point Loma and its sub-communities to the public.

The first urban plan for Ocean Beach was to grow out of this endeavor, as OB then was simply viewed as one of those sub-communities of the greater peninsula.

Peninsulans, Inc., or just “Pen Inc” – itself the child of the Peninsula Chamber of Commerce – had been officially endorsed by the San Diego City Council as “the citizen’s committee” for area planning on Point Loma. In 1968, three years after its launch, the Peninsula Community Plan was adopted by the City Council as the official plan for the Point Loma communities.

The most recent reader poll by the OB Rag shows very broad support for San Diego’s fire pits – 82% want to keep them. Three-quarters of those who want to keep them think the “Adopt-a-Fire-Pit” program is a good idea.

Respondents to the two and half week poll, which ran from December 15th to January 3rd, were divided in how they want the fire pits to be saved. 55% like the Adopt program for OB. 6% thought someone with “deep pockets” should be found to pay for their maintenance. Another 14% were more demanding in their approach – and voted for “I pay taxes – at least give me a fire pit,” while another 8% voted to save all of San Diego’s fire pits. 1% said ‘you use it – you clean it.’