Category: Culture

The largest Earth Day celebration in San Diego will return this weekend to Balboa Park with more than 100 vendors, a full day of live entertainment and presentations and other activities focused on keeping our planet healthy and green.

By Tanja Kropf / Explore Clairemont / April 22, 2026

This is the second in a two-part series of interviews with candidates for the San Diego City Council’s District 2 seat, currently occupied by Jennifer Campbell. District 2 includes Clairemont, Midway, Mission Beach, Mission Bay, Old Town, Ocean Beach, and Point Loma.

Part Two of this series includes candidate interview summaries of Mandy Havlik, Josh Coyne, Jacob Mitchell, and Paul Suppa.

Explore Clairemont interviewed all the candidates. All the questions asked of the candidates were submitted by Explore Clairemont’s audience, ensuring the candidates answered only the questions their future constituents wanted to hear.

Last week’s interviews included Richard Bailey, Nicole Crosby, and Mike Rickey.

The election will be held on June 2, 2026.

Ocean Beach has entered a time period that in less than two weeks, the coastal neighborhood celebrates the 50th anniversary of the very first community-wide democratic election to its OB Planning Board — a volunteer board that still exists to this day, Earth Day 2026.

May 4th, 1976 was a day when thousands of Ocean Beach residents, property owners and business owners voted on candidates for a 14-member board to help make urban planning and infrastructure decisions and recommendations to the city.

Not only was it the first election of the OB Planning Board, it was the first democratic election of ANY community planning group in San Diego’s history. So, May 4th ought to be celebrated by the over 40 community planning groups across the city.

Nine months before the scheduled election, on July 3, 1975, the San Diego City Council heard presentations about a so-called “OB Plan.”

It was standing room only in the Council Chambers, which brimmed with residents, property-owners and merchants from OB. After all the public testimony and speeches, after more discussion among councilmembers and staff, the Council – with Republican Mayor Pete Wilson at the ceremonial helm – took a vote and passed the OB Precise Plan — which included a number of amendments made by an OB grassroots organization, called the Community Planning Group.

The most important of these amendments was the provision for a community election of a planning committee. The City Planning Department was ordered to implement a Planned District for Ocean Beach, from the motion itself:

“the new committee formed for the purposes of implementing the Plan, should be elected by the citizens of Ocean Beach in a democratic fashion, using a process monitored by a neutral party to be appointed by the Mayor and Council.”

By Van Whiting / Times of San Diego /  April 21, 2026

In 2020, the city of San Diego budget authorized 11,820 full-time-equivalent positions. The budget for fiscal year 2026 carries 13,062. That is roughly 1,200 added positions in six years, while city population held flat.

The mayor’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2027 eliminates nearly $12 million of the city’s $13.8 million arts and culture budget — a cut of roughly 85% — along with reductions to libraries and recreation. But it trims only about 290 of the 1,200 positions added since 2020.

This is neither logical nor good governance. Start with the math.

City employees do not cost only their salaries. Fringe benefits — pensions, health care, related costs — add roughly 50%-60% on top of pay. A manager at $200,000 costs the city about $320,000 fully loaded. That figure is illustrative of the marginal, higher-compensation positions driving growth in internal functions, not the average employee.

By JW August / Times of San Diego / April20, 2026

After a 12-year journey, “The Black Family” statue will soon resume its place in one of San Diego’s oldest parks — and in the city’s arts world.

A new version of the statue will replace the 52-year-old original that was removed due to years of decay, at its old home at the front of Neal Petties Mountain View Community Park, formerly known as Mountain View Community Park. It will be unveiled on June 13 as part of the annual Juneteenth celebration.

The stainless steel statue, like the original made from painted redwood, will continue to honor late artist Rossie Wade’s image of Black values and community pride, as it did when it was dedicated in the southeastern San Diego park in 1974.

Wade’s concept was inspired by an abstract painting he created in the 1950s of a Black family of four. The new statue is intended to reflect the earlier work’s message of hope, depicting a Black family of four including a father, mother, son and daughter reaching for the sky.

Could Kamala Harris become the next governor of California?

What with Swalwell’s exit from the race and now Betty Yee’s departure, suddenly there is renewed speculation and interest in the former vice-president and defeated 2024 presidential candidate being a candidate for governor of the arguably bluest state in the union. As many have observed, there aren’t any stand-out top-tiered faces in the crowded race, and now Kamala’s is being visualized.

Certainly she has great name recognition — for good and bad reasons — and as she makes signs of joining the 2028 presidential race, there are sounds of groans within Democratic — and generally progressive — ranks of voters. And the ranks of voters not enthusiastic for Harris to run for the White House again are thick — and this gambit — having her run for governor, might just solve a couple of problems.

by Crystal Niebla / inewsource / April 9, 2026

Beside a 10-foot-tall pile of construction debris, dozens of people sat at folding tables and brainstormed how to reclaim a piece of land in National City used as a dumping ground.

The 7-acre site at Division Street and Palm Avenue, situated underneath Interstate 805 and near on-ramps, is the product of how freeway construction divided communities decades ago. Locals are now making their mark on the barren land with hand-painted signs, new plants and public art.

They say they want to see it turned into more.

Why this matters
The federal government’s construction of the interstate highway system decades ago including intentionally building through Black and brown communities and resulted in taking homes via eminent domain, exposing residents to higher levels of air pollution and unsafe pedestrian routes. Scholars — and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — have described the practice as racist.

Friday’s outdoor session kicked off the first of seven workshops across San Diego County assessing how to correct harmful infrastructure to historically underserved communities. The workshops will inform a study by the San Diego Association of Governments in partnership with Caltrans meant to explore projects related to transportation, housing, green spaces, and more “that support community reconnection.”

Organizers are calling the land Maat Mataa Yum — loosely translated from Kumeyaay to “where the people come together on the land,” said community organizer Janice Luna Reynoso.

A Report of the Ocean Beach Historical Society Meeting

By Jillian Butler

On April 17th, 2026, the Ocean Beach Historical Society held a presentation about the history of the “Dutch Flats”. Hosted in OB Joyfull (formerly known as Water’s Edge Community Center and OB’s Methodist church), with 30-50 present, this gathering delved into what few know is home of the roots of air travel in America.

The Ocean Beach Historical Society is a grassroots organization that “helps preserve local history through programs, postcards, the Sea Scrolls, articles, local events, and history conferences”. Their general meetings are held every third Thursday at OB Joyfull at seven PM. They are free and open to the public.

Before delving into the history of Dutch Flats, the meeting began with a general recap including the rebrand of Water’s Edge to OB Joyfull and the Wisteria Patio Party. It was also announced that the Ocean Beach Historical Society has branched out on social media, including both Instagram and Facebook.

Representatives from other local advocacy organizations were present as well. Lynn Miller from Coastal Caretakers, an organization centered around fighting against overdevelopment in San Diego took to the floor. She announced that Coastal Caretakers has paired with Save Our Heritage Organization to file a lawsuit against the city for failing to protect historical communities from developers. She is confident they will win, but requested donations from attendees.

Here’s how major California cities are trying to deal with or get around Senate Bill 79 — one of the most undemocratic housing mandates to ever come out of Sacramento.

Senate Bill 79 (SB79) goes into effect this year on July 1. When it passed — there were lots of machinations and maneuverings among state legislators to get it over the top in terms of votes — it made it legal for developers to build mid-rises — some as tall as nine stories — in major metropolitan neighborhoods near trains, subways and dedicated bus stops.

Yet some think that the final version “offered local governments plenty of wiggle room over the where, when and how of the new law,” wrote Cal-Matters reporter, Ben Christopher in his piece (reposted by Times of San Diego). Christopher wrote: “With the summer deadline rapidly approaching, cities across the state are starting to wiggle.”

Like a statewide game of Choose Your Own Adventure, local elected officials for the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles to San Diego are exploring ways to either lean into the spirit of the law, come up with their own plan tailored to the city’s whims and needs, or slow the local roll out for as long as possible while considering their options. Those that do nothing will be forced to accept the transit-oriented rezoning prescribed by state legislators.

We sifted through the piece and here offer a focus on the major cities, as per Christopher.

By Kate Callen

When I moved to San Diego to live with my new husband, Neal Matthews, he drove me around town to show me many places he loved and a few he loathed.

In the first category, we visited The Black, where we bought a water pipe. “Ocean Beach,” he said, “is the real San Diego.”

The second category took us to another coastal stop: Coronado Shores, a cluster of ten 15-story towers that would be a strong contender for “most monstrous development on the Western Seaboard.”

Neal was a San Diego Reader reporter who had covered the saga of the Shores construction in the 1970s. “These eyesores,” he said, “are partly why California established a Coastal Commission.”

Thanks to the Commission, developers can no longer turn San Diego into Miami Beach by erecting massive towers that block off the ocean. But there are smaller ways that arrogance can commandeer public spaces for private benefit.

I saw an example on April 16, when I drove to Coronado to walk on the beach. I regularly park in a public access lot that Coronado Shores was required by law to provide. It fills up on weekends, but spaces are available on weekdays.

The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members and the San Diego public in general informed about important Council and Planning Commission hearings and other city public meetings.

Monday, April 20: City Council, 10:00 a.m.

Closed Session Agenda:

Item CS-3: Class action case alleges the City violated Proposition 218 by charging tiered water rates to single family residential water customers and seeks refunds. City Attorney’s Office will update Mayor and City Council on status and seek direction.

Why it matters: “Recent court rulings on tiered water rates are creating confusion and uncertainty at water agencies across California, including in San Diego, where one ruling will mean rate hikes for most single-family homes.” [Union-Tribune, March 13]

Item CS-4: The Council will meet with its negotiator on price and payment terms for potential long-term ground leases with Midway Rising, LLC, to redevelop the City-owned real property.

Why it matters: The state Court of Appeal ruled that the city failed to perform an adequate environmental review of the Midway-Pacific Highway area around the proposed project. The Supreme Court agreed and declined to hear the city’s appeal. So why is the city moving ahead to negotiate price and payment terms for the project without analyzing the environmental impacts and the scope of the court’s ruling?

From Adams Ave Association

On April 25, 2026, Adams Avenue will host the free musical walkabout, Adams Avenue Unplugged. This event features 90 live musical performances at 26 locations hosted by restaurants, bars and coffee houses lining a two-mile stretch of Adams Avenue.