Serving OB, the Peninsula and San Diego Beaches
by Ernie McCray
With the tragedy
at the mosque
still on my mind
I’ve been thinking
of a wonderful book
I just finished,
“The Future is Peace,”
written by Aziz Abu Sarah,
a Palestinian,
and Maoz Inon,
an Israeli,
who, rather than focusing on their ethnicities,
choose to view themselves
as human beings
who are trying to cultivate
By Lauren Fimbres Wood / Scripps Institute of Oceanography / July 9, 2026
Following a four-year study, scientists at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography released a new report to determine if an early warning system could potentially detect a landslide before it happens. The “California Coastal Landslide Early Warning Research” report found that a network of in-ground sensors can provide a reliable warning of impending, dangerous landslides with hours to days notice, but that more work is needed to formalize the findings into an actionable warning system.
Roughly 70% of the California coast is made up of eroding coastal cliffs. These cliffs are home to important infrastructure like highways, railways, coastal access points, energy facilities, and structures, and can be deadly to beachgoers when a cliff collapse occurs.
In August 2019, at Grandview Beach in Encinitas, Calif., three women were killed following a 30-foot by 25-foot section of a cliff collapsing onto the beach. Other fatal events have occurred throughout the state in Big Sur, Santa Barbara, Point Reyes and San Francisco. The tragedy in Encinitas inspired California Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, whose district includes San Diego’s coastal North County, to introduce a bill, AB 66, and secure funding through the State budget, to enhance coastal monitoring to better understand the timing of bluff failures and help inform recommendations towards the development of a potential early landslide warning system.
Meeting Organized by Several Local Planning GroupsA number of local community planning groups have organized what they’re calling a “Town Hall” to discuss and debate several key development projects facing this area of San Diego: The Peninsula Community Planning Board, the Uptown Community Planning Group, Old Town Community Planning group and Protect Pt Loma Community Association are co-sponsoring this event. (Interesting that the OB Planning Board is not included.) The issues:
It’s all happening:
Tuesday, July 28th, 2026
6pm – 7:30pm
Pt Loma Library
3701 Voltaire Street
San Diego, CA 92107
Organizers say they will have a brief presentation on the background and serious consequences if the Midway Rising and NAVWAR projects are approved. Then they will open up the forum to public comment and discussion. This meeting will be recorded, and they say they will send this to each of the Assembly members who sit on the Appropriations Committee the first week of August.
Most people who spend some time in San Diego understand that it’s a coastal desert city. “Desert” being the main word here. Because of this understanding, many adjust their behavior into conserving a desert’s most priceless commodity: water.
People take out their green grass and plant cacti and succulents; they don’t wash their car as much; they use less water in their normal day-to-day living and chores. And up to now, those residents who use less water were rewarded by a city of San Diego water rate system in which customers who use less water paid a lower rate, and those who use more water paid more.
Now, all of that is going to change.
A recent court ruling against the city of San Diego and its tiered pricing system has prompted a proposed rate change that would eliminate the city’s tiered pricing system.
Which means, if enacted, San Diego residents who use less water could see their monthly water bills increase next year and those who don’t use less water will actually see a decrease in their monthly bills. If approved, all customers would pay the same rate, regardless of how much water they use.
Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?
Where would the incentive to save water go?
And critics of the proposed changes malign the idea as just one more cost being heaped on the average consumer. One Kensington homeowner, Cynthia Hillman was quoted by local TV station 7SanDiego as saying the potential increase comes at a difficult time for many families.
“For somebody who’s having to pay higher gas prices, higher grocery prices, this is just one more thing that makes life very uncomfortable,” she said. She also expressed concern about who would bear the added cost. “You’re asking the little guy to pay more,” she said.
Kensington resident Connie Kirk also was quoted: “That doesn’t sound very fair because if they’re using more that means they’ve got more property, which probably means they’ve got more income period.”
Rag readers have also expressed outrage.
The proposed changes stem from a legal decision in a case against the city of San Diego that requires the city to move away from a rate structure that incentivizes lower water usage.
By City News Service / 7SanDiego / July 10-13, 2026
The comment period for a proposed redevelopment of East Harbor Island for a Topgolf and Waterfront Park Project is open, Port of San Diego officials announced Friday.
The port published a Draft Environmental Impact Report for the project, with the public comment period open through Aug. 24.
The project, if approved, would entail a 10.1-acre public waterfront park with a promenade, plaza areas, playgrounds, restrooms and public art. It also includes a 16.5-acre section designated as an entertainment district, with 9.8 of those acres set aside for the popular arcade/ driving range company Topgolf. The remainder is slated as “eatertainment” concepts, to be determined by a competitive public solicitation process.
Additionally, the proposal calls for realignment of Liberator Way with new public parking, sidewalks, planting buffers and reconfiguration of adjacent intersections.
OBCF Hosts Second KickbackBy Jillian Butler
The Ocean Beach Community Foundation (OBCF) hosted its second “kickback” style meeting, on Monday, July 20. Hosted at the Harp Irish Pub on Newport Avenue about 20 various community members were present.
Founded in 2000, the OBCF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit centered around promoting the greater good of Ocean Beach and its residents. The group operates off of the values of community, collaboration and inclusivity, respect, creativity and innovation, and civic engagement. It is responsible for a multitude of events, including the lighting of the Crooked Tree and food and toy drives.
Unlike specific task force and community forum meetings, the kickbacks are intended to be a more casual get together. Community members are able to support a decades old ocean beach eatery and meet in a laid-back setting.
The meeting was led by Cody Machado, the organization’s new president and a lifelong Ocean Beach resident. Other board members were present, as well. As per Machado’s observation, the size of OBCF has grown since the kickback meetings began. It is his hope that one day OBCF will be able to fill the Harp and speakers will have to use the stage to speak.
By Andrea Margolis / Fox News / July 18, 2026
A family’s unusual discovery in a rental home that left some TikTok viewers shocked finally has an explanation.
Libby Birrell and Aubrey Birrell, two sisters from Utah, recently went viral on social media after checking into an Airbnb rental and recognizing members of their own family in a framed beach photo hanging on the wall.
In an interview with Fox News Digital this week, the sisters admitted they were extremely “creeped out” by seeing the picture.
They were at a rental home in Oceanside, San Diego, with about 30 relatives to celebrate their grandfather’s 80th birthday in early July, they said, when they spotted the photo.
“The moment we saw it, we made everyone come up and look, and they were all in awe,” Aubrey Birrell said. “I started FaceTiming my friends because they all know my family. They were in shock, too. It was crazy.”
By Sam Halpern, M.D.
I have spent my working life in medicine as a clinician and a medical scientist. I have watched with awe as basic and applied medical science placed new and effective tools in the hands of physicians to diagnose and treat diseases that were once a death sentence.
The progress we have made in medical research has only been possible because the American people supported a commitment to long-term funding and scrupulous attention to awarding funds to research judged by the scientific community to be the most promising and well-conceived among competitive proposals. Who a scientist voted for in an election, or whose political priorities they supported, never entered into the question of whether a grant proposal merited funding.
But on July 13, 2026, I was stunned to see a headline in the Los Angeles Times: “WARNING AGAINST POLITICS IN RESEARCH FUNDING,” by Corinne Purtill.
The article states that a new rule, proposed by the White House Office of Management and Budget, has the potential to overhaul the way federal grants are awarded and overseen. One scientific society has said that it would “all but end the use of scientific merit in the selection of grants and programs across the government.”
The new rule will give political appointees control over federal grants for scientific research, education and infrastructure and specifies that government funds can be spent only on projects “aligned with administration policies and priorities.” That shocked me! I had never heard of this proposal, and it has been around since May!
David Garrick at the San Diego U-T wrote an analysis of the current City Council races on July 12th, and here is a summary of some of his findings.
First, they “attracted an unprecedented amount of cash this year from groups funded by labor unions, business interests and statewide organizations,” and he found “the results were decidedly mixed.”
For example, in the District 2 race, “A committee supporting Josh Coyne … spent $300,000, but Coyne didn’t come close to making the November runoff.” In contrast, “Richard Bailey finished first in District 2 thanks partly to more than $200,000 in committee support.”
Yet, candidate Rafael Perez in the District 8 race finished last despite $150,000 in committee support. One of the candidates who made the primary run-off was Gerardo Ramirez “after benefiting from more than $200,000 in committee support….”
Overall, the monies spent on these races “are dramatically higher than typical San Diego council race contributions from independent committees, which allow supporters to exceed the $800 maximum an individual can contribute directly to a campaign,” reports Garrick.
By Dorian Hargrove and Andrew Keatts / Times of San Diego / July 16, 2026
A 40-yard green dumpster sits in front of 1461 Hilger in Encanto. Trash and debris tower over the railing. Less than 40 feet below sits a dilapidated wooden shed, or, as neighbors describe it, the makeshift garage where stolen cars are stored and disassembled throughout the night. The two-story house on the other side of the dumpster is littered with appliances and trash.
At least, that was the scene at the home until Wednesday morning, when the property owner, San Diego police and code enforcement officers executed a massive clean-up on the property two days after Times of San Diego asked for comment on the derelict property. Squatters had been living there and engaging in lawless behavior for nearly 8 months, neighbors say.
The home, and a neighboring property that was also occupied by squatters, are owned by a company formed by Christian Spicer, whose companies have been at the forefront of capitalizing on the city of San Diego’s accessory dwelling unit regulations, which are among the most permissive in all of California.
His companies have specialized in converting single-family properties into large apartment complexes, capitalizing on the city’s ADU rules. That includes the Chalcifica project in Pacific Beach, which would have turned two parcels into 136 units.
In an investor brochure for SDRE, Spicer’s company, before he rebranded it to Infill Innovation, the ADU developer promoted his plans to convert 53 single-family homes spread throughout San Diego into 1,178 total units.
The total cost to acquire the 53 properties, according to the brochure, was just under $62.8 million. If all of his projects were built according to plan, Spicer predicted revenue from adding the 1,100-plus ADUs would be more than $538.8 million, a 750 percent increase.
But Spicer’s plan hit snags. Residents in Encanto, Pacific Beach, and the College Area pushed back, delaying the projects from starting, and in some cases, such as the Chalcifica project in Pacific Beach, the projects wound up in court, where a judge temporarily halted the project from moving forward until a trial is held.
By: Ben Higgins / 10News / July 16-17, 2026
Major League Pickleball is back in San Diego, bringing professional competition to Barnes Tennis Center in Point Loma this weekend [July 18-19].
The event marks year two of Major League Pickleball in San Diego. Day one drew local fans to the venue while cameras and commentators streamed and broadcast matches for viewers around the world as pickleball’s popularity has continued to grow over the past decade.
The So Cal Hard Eights swept the Florida Smash on the opening day of competition. Among those leading the charge was Murrieta native Meghan Dizon, a pickleball pro who said the sport caught her attention during the pandemic.
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