Category: Culture

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.

By Debbie Sklar / Beach & Bay Press / July 15, 2026

In 1941, Pacific Beach still looked like a place waiting for its future.

A photograph from that year — photographer unknown — captures a trailer camp set within the coastal landscape at a time when the neighborhood still held more open ground than development. It preserves a moment when San Diego’s shoreline suburbs were still evolving, long before postwar growth reshaped them into the communities known today.

By then, Pacific Beach had already been established, but it remained lightly developed. The coastal strip between La Jolla and Mission Beach had not yet filled in, and much of what is now dense residential and commercial space remained open or only lightly used.

The photograph captures that in-between stage. The trailer camp appears temporary by design — simple structures placed within a coastal landscape that had not yet taken its modern form. It sits in a version of Pacific Beach that feels familiar in geography but very different in scale and pace.

Trailer living during this period reflected a broader trend during that time across Southern California. Mobility, affordability, and seasonal work all helped shape small, temporary communities like this one. In coastal areas, trailer camps often appeared on open lots or undeveloped stretches near the ocean, where land had not yet been fully subdivided.

What makes the image stand out is not just what it shows, but what it doesn’t. There are no crowded streets, no busy commercial corridors, and no dense residential blocks pressing toward the shoreline. Instead, there is space — open land still waiting to be built.

That would change quickly after World War II.

By Paul Krueger

Bad government policies can have serious consequences. They can cost taxpayers money, and frustrate citizens who want access to public information that tells us why those policies failed and the price of those failures.

That’s happening now with the city of San Diego’s trash fee.

Instead of designing a budget for the new trash program that stayed within the estimated $29 monthly fee, a City Council majority last year added unnecessary new services and additional employees that increased the fee to $43.60.

Taxpayers revolted. Facing both a ballot measure and a lawsuit that could have invalidated any trash service fee, the council in May approved a compromise that significantly reduced both the fee and the scope of service.

But the road to compromise has been expensive. It required thousands of hours of staff time, and the legal settlement includes a $1 million payment to plaintiffs’ attorneys Mike Aguirre and Mia Severson.

Taxpayers will also shoulder the cost of an outside law firm that assisted the city attorney’s defense of that legal challenge.

Getting even basic information about those payments has been a frustrating exercise. Like too many other city officials, City Attorney Heather Ferbert routinely erects roadblocks to avoid disclosing public records that should be available for the asking.

Say his name: Joan Sebastian Durán Guerrero.

The second murder of an innocent man — this one in Biddeford, Maine — in one week by ICE agents — throws the entire nation in an uproar. These murders are sanctioned by our government, are performed on our watch and … we are responsible. It’s on us, the rest of America.

From CNN on July 15:

A simple memorial of flowers and candles has gone up near the spot on a Maine street where Joan Sebastian Durán Guerrero’s partner fell to her knees and his 3-year-old daughter cried after he was fatally shot by an ICE officer on Monday.

Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old food delivery driver from Colombia, died Monday in the historic Atlantic coast city of Biddeford, where neighbors remembered him as a good man and hard worker.

“Immigrants make Biddeford great,” read a sign at the makeshift memorial.

It was the second fatal shooting by a federal officer within a week, leading Immigration and Customs Enforcement to make a major reversal and direct officers to largely suspend vehicle stops until further notice, according to a source familiar with the guidance.

An ICE officer fired his weapon “fearing for public safety” as Durán Guerrero, in a vehicle, “attempted to flee the scene,” the Department of Homeland Security said in its first official statement nearly 12 hours after the shooting. He was not the target of the enforcement operation.

By Beth Demmon / San Diego Magazine / July 14, 2026

After 10 years of rooftop dining and brewing award-winning beers, OB Brewery is for sale. A local fixture on Newport Avenue, OB Brewery owner Mike Tajran is ready to retire and hand over the reins. “It’s got so much potential,” he says, pointing to the accolades the brewpub has collected throughout the last decade (it’s more than a few).

At the 2017 Great American Beer Festival, OB’s Hidden Gem Dunkelweizen won silver in the German-Style Wheat Ale category, followed by a World Beer Cup silver medal as a South German-Style Dunkel Weizen in 2026. In 2018, GABF named OB Brewery Small Brewpub of the Year, brewer Jim Millea earned Small Brewpub Brewer of the Year, and the B. Right On pale ale nabbed a gold medal in the American-Style Pale Ale category. The Elevator Red IPA also took bronze that year at the San Diego International Beer Festival, and earlier this year, they won gold for Couple’s Therapy chili beer and silver for Rauch Me smoked beer at San Diego County Fair Craft Brew Competition.

It’s a solid foundation for the right buyer, he says—someone with brewing and business chops ready for a turnkey operation in a favorable location a block from the beach on Ocean Beach’s busiest street. (And while he’s letting go of the brewpub business, he’s also open to selling the building as part of the deal.)

by Bradley A. Schnell / Beach & Bay Press / July 14, 2026, 10:00 a.m.

Thirteen public restrooms in Mission Bay Park are now closed. Last year the city tried to remove more than 180 fire rings. The Mission Beach Lifeguard Station deteriorated to the point that a structural evaluation called for its immediate closure. And across multiple parking lots, the city’s response to after-hours activity and maintenance challenges has been to install gates and impose timed overnight closures.

These unfortunate decisions are not isolated incidents. They are predictable results of a system that has lost the ability to deliver basic, consistent care for one of San Diego’s most important public assets.

Mission Bay Park was granted by the state of california as tidelands trust property and permanently dedicated as a public park for the benefit of all San Diegans over 80 years ago. It was conceived as a generational public asset — a place of open beaches, boating and shared enjoyment that would serve the region for decades to come.

As trustee of these tidelands, the city of San Diego carries a legal and fiduciary responsibility to maintain the park for public benefit. For most of its history the park largely fulfilled its promise, despite chronic underfunding. But it has never been as neglected as it is today.

By Michael Hernandez
With all of the ongoing major neighborhood shifts taking place in Ocean Beach, from the plan to replace the 60-year old Ocean Beach Pier to the addition of time limits and overnight closing to coastal parking, it’s easy to let some other changes in OB and Point Loma slip through the cracks. Here’s a look at five local properties up for grabs which could spell change for the communities in the near future:

Ocean Beach Upholstery – 4838 Voltaire St 

The first of  the five properties going up for sale is the long-standing local specialty shop Ocean Beach Upholstery, located in the heart of Ocean Beach at 4838 Voltaire St. Just three blocks from the beach, OB Upholstery has occupied the property for almost 50 years where it has specialized in custom marine/ auto interiors, and the restoration and replacement of soft tops, classic car seats, and boat covers. The property is currently being marketed as an approximately 3,800 square foot retail storefront on a 5,000 square foot lot. A marketing brochure from investment management company, Colliers, notes the “tenant is on a month-to-month lease allowing for an owner-user or investor to raise rent substantially”. Listed for sale alongside the upholstery shop is the adjacent property at 4826 Voltaire St. Built in the 1920s, the three-bedroom two-bath single family residence is also currently inhabited by a tenant on a month-to-month lease.

If you walk down the south side of West Point Loma Blvd. between Abbott and Bacon Street you might notice a cute and charming new addition to the neighborhood that celebrates OB’s love for our four-legged residents.

With the words “Take a toy, leave a toy” written on the library door, fun artwork, and dog celebrating quotes, the Ocean Beach Dog Toy Library has been open since April 2026 and has quickly become wildly popular due to its location in a sweet spot between OB Dog Beach and OB’s many parks.

The Library, installed by Tracy Dezenzo (long-time community volunteer) and Bill Orvis (OB holiday tree Santa), celebrates OB’s vibrant dog-loving community and encourages sharing and reuse vs consumerism and waste. Instead of letting gently used or ignored tennis balls, squeaky toys, and other chewies wind up in the garbage, neighbors can now drop them off for other dogs to enjoy.

By Debbie L. Sklar / Special to the OB Rag

Linda Vista may not always be the first San Diego neighborhood that comes to mind when people think about local history, but its story is deeply connected to the growth and transformation of the city itself.

Located on a mesa overlooking Mission Valley, the neighborhood was born out of necessity during World War II, when San Diego was rapidly becoming one of the nation’s most important defense and aviation centers.

What began as a federal housing project for wartime workers eventually grew into a diverse community with its own identity, traditions, and history.
The name Linda Vista, which means “pretty view” in Spanish, dates back to the late 1800s. But the Linda Vista we know today began taking shape in 1941, when the federal government purchased land to build housing for thousands of workers arriving in San Diego to support the war effort.

At the time, companies such as Consolidated Aircraft were expanding rapidly, producing aircraft needed by the military. Workers poured into the city, creating an urgent need for housing. The answer was Linda Vista, one of the largest wartime housing projects in the United States.

By JW August

Laurie Holcomb, founder of a multiple cannabis companies, has made serious errors in judgment, alleges the U.S.Attorney’s Office in San Diego. The government announced last week it had filed a false claims act complaint against her, claiming that she had illegally obtained five pandemic loans from the federal government.

Her companies were engaged in the “cultivation, distribution, and retail sale of recreational cannabis and cannabis products,” according to the government’s filing.  As is commonly known, it’s legal to plant, cultivate and smoke marijuana in California if you play by its rules.  Not so with the federal government if it’s sold for recreational use, it’s still considered highly restricted Schedule I drug.

Holcomb’s mistake, the U.S. Attorney alleges, was when she asked the government for money. It was during the pandemic times and she borrowed from the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, which was created to help businesses during the pandemic.  She  convinced the government to give her $1.4 million.

Holcolm’s company claims to have generated $100 million in annual sales of cannabis, according to various media reports. The company also has a 100,000 square-foot cultivation campus in Los Angeles.

The company is described in the media reports as one of the leading legal cannabis companies in the state, having distributed marijuana all over California, including numerous locations in San Diego. Debts and merger decisions forced her to file for bankruptcy protection in March of last year.

By Steven Mihailovich / Point Loma-OB Monthly / July 10, 2026 

With ideas ranging from installing additional pedestrian beacon crossings to a complete replacement of the Ocean Beach recreation center, the Ocean Beach Planning Board unanimously approved a list of 14 capital improvement project requests to submit to the city of San Diego for consideration and execution, at its July 7 meeting.

The creation of a CIP list by the OBPB is an annual exercise dictated by the city, which combines the list with input from the local councilmember and other qualified agencies and groups to direct limited city funding for projects that best meet the community’s wishes. And though the CIP requests were predominantly replays from last year’s list, the board adopted three more following public feedback at the OB Street Fair on June 27.

Big Ticket Projects
In composing the list, OBPB treasurer Tracy Dezenzo wondered whether perennially listing requests for large ticket items in the millions of dollars would serve any practical purpose.

“The question is, do we want to again ask for the pier (to be replaced), ask for the lifeguard tower (to be replaced), just to make sure that’s on our list every single year?” she asked. “Or do we think that they know by now that we’ve asked for it every single year?”

Thus, the conversation focused on the OB Pier.

Monday & Tuesday: Last Chance to Speak Out Against Mission Bay Bathroom Closures

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

Tuesday, July 13: City Council, 10:00 a.m.

Agenda:

Item 52: Sixth Amendment to Increase Expenditure Authority for the Procurement Contract Between the City of San Diego and Rehrig Pacific Company for Waste Carts, Recycling Cars, Cart Parts, Bins and Related Products

Why it matters: This consent item reveals that the City’s haphazard effort to close its budget gap by charging for trash collection has so far cost a whopping $106,526,000. That expenditure is roughly *200* times the $546,000 the city will save by closing 13 (nearly half) of the 28 bathrooms at Mission Bay.

Speaking of which…

Last Chance to Speak Out Against “Petty Assault” of Mission Bay Bathroom Closures