Serving OB, the Peninsula and San Diego Beaches
From Neighbors for a Better San Diego
We Asked.
The City Refused.
Now We’re Suing.
San Diegans deserve to know who the Mayor’s secret housing advisors are.
Earlier this year, we asked a simple question:
Who is helping shape the housing and density policies that could dramatically change San Diego’s neighborhoods?
By Kate Callen
Andy Kopp wants to make a name for himself, and he has chosen Balboa Park as the place to do it.
Kopp, a former Navy intelligence analyst, is spearheading the “Balboa Park Restoration & Community Improvement Act,” an initiative aimed for the 2028 ballot. If voters approve $1 billion in general obligation bonds, that debt would be paid by an additional tax assessment of between $3.50 to $23 per $100,000 of assessed parcel value.
The proceeds would clear the Park’s deferred maintenance backlog, expand the Museum of Art (cost: $250 million), restore the Old Globe and the Starlight Bowl, renovate the Morley Field Sports Complex, and build a pedestrian bridge from Golden Hill to Inspiration Point.
With his proposal, Kopp has become a player in Balboa Park advocacy circles, where people don’t know much about him but are impressed by his chutzpah. He took the stage at a September 19 Friends of San Diego Architecture Park forum like a prizefighter entering the ring.
Speaker Mike Johnson could block the seating of victorious Democrats in the House of Representatives on January 3.By Marjorie Cohn / Truthout / September 23, 2026
After the 2020 presidential election that resulted in a clear victory for Joe Biden, Donald Trump tried mightily to overturn the outcome. He has persistently insisted to this day that he won and Biden lost. On January 6, 2021, Trump ordered then-Vice President Mike Pence to violate his constitutional duty to certify the duly elected electors before the joint session of Congress by counting only some of the electoral votes from certain states and returning the rest to state legislatures.
But Pence refused to obey Trump — and, in response, MAGA fanatics threatened him with execution by hanging. Court after court rejected Trump’s entreaties to reverse the results of the election.
Now it appears that Team Trump may be poised to undertake a similar tactic to prevent Democrats who prevail in the midterm elections from being seated in the House of Representatives.
In an explosive op-ed in The New Republic, former Judge Michael Luttig, a noted conservative, argues that the “catastrophic end [of U.S. democracy] could well come on January 3, 2027, when Trump and his Republican congressional allies wage the final battle in Trump’s determined war to corrupt America’s democracy and deliver a lasting political victory over the Democrats for his MAGA Republican Party.”
From CNN / Sept. 24, 2026
CNN, MS NOW and Politico filed an emergency request for a hearing Thursday morning after reporters were refused access to the White House despite a court order.
Federal Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the Trump administration to temporarily reinstate CNN, MS NOW and Politico’s access to the White House after they were banned from the premises by President Donald Trump.
In his ruling, Kelly found the revocation of reporters’ press badges was done without “constitutionally adequate due process.”
The ruling — which comes just hours before Trump is set to welcome Chinese leader Xi Jinping — means journalists should now be able to return to work at the White House complex, but some staffers from all three outlets were refused entry.
CNN reporter Betsy Klein and a photojournalist were denied access to the White House grounds despite multiple attempts, including one after 9:00 a.m. One CNN producer was able to enter the White House using their pass after 6:00 a.m. It was not immediately clear why the person had been able to access the building.
By Marty Graham / Special to the OB Rag
Our worst fear about the city trash fee being placed on the tax bill came true this week.
The city bungled the numbers provided to the county, which then billed the mostly higher fees (though a small number were lower) on the county property tax bill – and my mortgage company got the numbers.
Councilmembers Joe LaCava and Sean Elo Rivera fought the public and insisted on putting this service fee on the tax bill issued by the county tax collector – while saying it’s not a tax – at the June 24th, 2025, city council meeting. The council voted 7-2 in favor with only council members Henry Foster and Raul Campillo voting no to tax roll billing.
Those councilmembers approved this mess – pushed by LaCava and Elo Rivera, despite 46,000 protest votes and dozens of written and spoken comments. Tax roll billing would save money, they said, agreeing to pay the county and setting us up for unpaid tax liens if we don’t pay in full.
So we have this error in front of us now. We knew this would happen, we just didn’t think it would be as widespread – with current estimates of 87,000 wrong bills.
SB 79 and Budget Cuts in Letters to EditorSometimes the truth is more forthright and evident in the Letters to the Editor than in the news articles — or lack of — themselves.(I always check them out in both the U-T and LA Times daily.)
Here’s two from today, Wednesday, Sept. 23, that speak volumes; they both are responding to the news that San Diego’s Metropolitan Transit System may have to make budget cuts that would eliminate over one-third of the current bus routes, force cut backs on another third, and less frequent trolley trains on all four lines. The letters make the case that with drastic, even draconian budget cuts to MTS, the foundational logic for Senate Bill 79 and other pushes for high-density near transit has been lost. Despite this, our politicians are not taking note of these potential heavy-weight changes to our urban landscape.
Let’s say that again, as it’s very important and immediately stands out amid this news.
The grim news of potential major service cuts— including eliminating a third of bus routes and reducing trolley frequency due to projected $100M–$150M deficits by fiscal year 2030—has intensified criticism that building high-density, low-parking housing near transit stops under laws like Senate Bill 79 is losing its foundational logic.
Here’s the first from RC of Sunset Cliffs:
What an eye-opener. After years of the “build, baby build” housing policies of the YIMBYs, Todd Gloria, our City Council and the state Legislature — pushing the building of high-density housing along transit routes — we learn that MTS is going broke and may need to cut back bus routes and trolley service. Yet our politicians keep wanting to build high-density housing with minimal parking requirements.
By Laura Henson
As San Diego considers the future of Mid-City through its Community Plan Update, we should ask a fundamental question: What kinds of neighborhoods does a healthy city need?
Mid-City already offers an extraordinary range of housing choices—from apartments, condominiums and duplexes to small cottages, historic neighborhoods and single-family homes. Its underdeveloped commercial corridors also offer significant opportunities for additional housing. The lack of development on the transit corridors is a deficiency that needs to be corrected. All this diversity should be considered an asset, not a planning problem that needs to be corrected.
Cities need apartments. They need condominiums, townhomes, affordable housing, senior housing and homes near transit. But healthy cities also need something increasingly dismissed in today’s housing debate: stable single-family neighborhoods.
Housing is not simply a matter of how many units can be placed on an acre of land. It is also about how people live, and how their housing needs change at different stages of life.
By Michael Angelo Hernandez
“You can’t go home again” is an expression that comes from the famous 1940 novel of the same name, from American author and social commentator Thomas Wolfe.
At its core, the phrase simply means one cannot return to a previous time or place. Even if one did, they would find both themselves and the world around them have changed since, as change is a fundamental law of the universe.
Back in July, I wrote about some changes coming to Ocean Beach by way of five commercial properties listed up for sale. Since then, there have been some updates to the status of these properties, as well as the addition of more properties being put on the market. Here’s a look at three more properties up for sale in Ocean Beach.
4649 Voltaire Street – The Twin Cypress Apartments
The first property up for sale is the Twin Cypress Apartments at 4649 Voltaire Street. The 18-Unit Apartment building is priced at almost $430,000 per unit, for a grand total of $7.7 million.
Corey Bruins, the former president of the OB Town Council, who drove the long-time favorite OB organization into the drink — forcing it to re-organize itself under a new name and leadership, and then who was charged with embezzling thousands of dollars from the group — has now had his apparent stalling tactics brought to an end, hopefully. Bruins was originally charged more than 18 months ago.
Bruins is charged with nine felonies, including embezzlement as an aggravated white collar crime, grand theft, and six counts of identity theft. He pleaded not-guilty, and was released from custody shortly after his arrest without posting bail.
Bruins’ and his lawyers have repeatedly delayed his preliminary hearing, at which prosecutors will submit evidence and testimony about Bruins’ alleged embezzlement and identity theft.
Most recently, a judge agreed to delay the preliminary hearing after Bruins parted ways with his private-practice attorney, Earl Pott. The public defender’s office then assumed Bruin’s case, and his preliminary hearing was rescheduled for later this year, to give that attorney time to familiarize themselves with the evidence.
George Varga at the U-T is reporting that Winstons, the historic live-music club in Ocean Beach, will be closing this upcoming weekend — only to rebrand under new ownership and then re-open sometime in the near future.
There will be a “Last Call” party, open to the public and all past and current employees of Winstons, this Saturday, Sept. 26. Winstons has been around for nearly 40 years on Bacon Street in OB. But it will reopen the next day for business as usual, Slaga said.
“It’s a misconception that we’re closing,” he stressed. “We’re going to keep the good stuff from Winstons and enhance it.”
Winstons’ co-owner Scott Slaga told the U-T:
“The live-music world in general is just a struggle now, and that’s kind of the impetus behind the changes.”
Varga reported:
Budget Crisis Could Force End to One-Third of Bus Routes and Less Frequent TrolleysDavid Garrick at the U-T reported on a scary scenario for San Diego’s mass transit system. Garrick stated “a looming budget crisis” could “eliminate one-third of bus routes,” — and “reduce service on another one-third” and force “San Diego trolley’s four lines [to run] less frequently.”
This is certainly a doomsday outlook as Metropolitan Transit System officials attempt to deal with “annual budget deficits of $100 million to $150 million” but not until fiscal year 2030.
It’s all a “rough draft”, Garrick says. But it could “wipe out 33 of the 95 MTS bus routes….” That’s a lot of bus routes. Garrick must get his info from MTS and he reports the wipe out could include “the end of service to SeaWorld, Cabrillo National Monument, Tierrasanta and parts of Mission Hills.”
There would be notable service reductions for another 29 routes. Like, “Sunday service could be eliminated on a route or the frequency of service could be reduced from once every half an hour to once every hour.”
All four trolley lines – blue, green, orange and copper – would also see reductions in service frequency, MTS officials said. Trains now typically run every 15 minutes on most routes.
OB Rag Staff Report
The controversial Midway Rising project will move one step closer to being a done deal on Tuesday, September 22, when the City Council receives a closed session briefing “regarding the price and payment terms for potential long-term ground leases.”
As the Union-Tribune reported August 20, “Although not formally docketed, the proposed real estate deal between the city and the development team is expected to be taken up by San Diego’s Land Use & Housing Committee on Oct. 8, Councilmember Kent Lee, who chairs the committee, told the [newspaper].”
City Hall wants to fast-track the project, but the public must still be heard. Tuesday’s closed session agenda notes that “public testimony … will be taken during the 10:00 a.m. Council meeting.”
For San Diegans who fear that the Midway project will result in overcrowding, traffic congestion, air pollution, loss of naturally occurring affordable housing, and flood risks from a rising water table,
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