Category: Economy

From OB Community Foundation

December 15-20, 2025

A 40 year tradition in Ocean Beach, the OB Food & Toy Drive brings together volunteers, neighbors, donors, and community members during the holiday season. This year our goal is to spread extra holiday cheer to 100 families and 75 seniors in OB.

Here’s how you can get involved:

Receive Cheer [Editordude: it’s too late to sign up to receive food and toys as registration closed on Thanksgiving (11/27).]

Donate Time, Treasure, Food, Toys, Gifts, and More

Volunteer – Register for a volunteer shift December 15-20.

Donate (financially) – Earmarked donations to OB Food & Toy Drive supports supplies (wrapping paper, boxes, etc.), toy and gift purchases, food purchases, as well as gift cards for the families and seniors.

Our 2025 toy collection locations throughout OB are hosted by:

City Says Environmental Impacts in Community Plan Updates for Clairemont and the College Area are Significant, Unmitigated, Unavoidable but Acceptable
City Council to Vote on December 16 to Approve Plan Updates without Requiring an Updated Environmental Impact Report

By Donna Frye

The following is a letter I sent to the city council on December 14 requesting a continuance on the Community Plan Updates for Clairemont and the College Area and the Overlay Zones.

RE: December 16 City Council Meeting, Items 609, 610 and 611; Request for a Continuance to Allow for the Preparation of an Environmental Impact Report

Dear Councilmember,

On December 16, the San Diego City Council will be voting on whether to approve the Community Plan Update for the College Area (Item 609), the Clairemont Community Plan Update (Item 610) and the Citywide Community Enhancement Overlay Zone and Removal of the Community Plan Implementation Overlay Zone for College Area and Clairemont Community Planning Areas (Item 611).

According to the city, Clairemont and the College Area have not had a comprehensive update to their community plans since 1989 – over 35 years ago. The updates will provide “ a comprehensive policy framework for growth and development over the next 30 years.”

Editordude: Since the issue of “middle managers” employed by the City of San Diego has again emerged during the most recent debates over the city’s budget, we thought it appropriate to re-publish U-T reporter David Garrick’s piece on the subject from last July. And just to remind, Garrick, will be speaking on Saturday, December 13 on “This Just In: Covering the City Hall Beat.” See here for more.

By David Garrick / San Diego Union-Tribune / July 14, 2025

The recent fight at San Diego City Hall over how many middle managers the city employs could signal the start of a shift away from such jobs in the future, after years of their ranks quickly growing.

The battle over middle managers, which emerged during controversial budget negotiations this spring, pitted Mayor Todd Gloria against city labor leaders — and eventually most of the City Council.

Labor leaders lobbied for sharp cuts to middle management positions so the city could lay off fewer front-line workers like librarians and parks maintenance staff in its effort to close a $350 million deficit.

The Municipal Employees Association stressed that there are more than five times as many high-paid middle managers known as “program coordinators” and “program managers” at the city as there were a decade ago.

By Michael J. Stepner & Mary Lydon / The Daily Transcript / Dec. 10, 2025

The city of San Diego is going through a process to update their heritage preservation program called “Preservation and Progress.” The initiative is a comprehensive update that will streamline processes for new homes and other uses while protecting places of historic, architectural and cultural importance, and encouraging their adaptive reuse.

Historic preservation has gotten tied into the controversy that every perceived obstacle to more housing needs to be eliminated. This is incorrect, but it has become part of the YIMBY versus NIMBY debates, which have become counterproductive.

by: Rhea Caoile / Fox5 San Diego / Dec 8, 2025 

The parent company of SeaWorld San Diego and Sesame Place in Chula Vista has been faced with a class action complaint, accusing the theme parks of misleading customers about ticket prices.

Johnny Ngo, an Orange County resident, filed the complaint in the Superior Court of the State of California for San Diego County against United Parks & Resorts, Inc., also known as SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, Inc.

The complaint alleges that consumers have to navigate through multiple screens when buying tickets online for all of the company’s theme parks but do not learn the “true” cost of those tickets until they reach the final checkout screen.

The multiple screens include requiring a customer to select the number of tickets at a certain price for a specific date and then being presented with additional experience they may choose to add to their cart.

By Kate Callen

The first time I saw Richard Nixon, I was five years old, and I thought he was creepy.

We were watching the first 1960 Presidential debate. Nixon looked cold-blooded. My parents didn’t trust him. Over the next 13 years, the more I saw of him, the more he creeped me out.

Then, on August 9, 1973, when he tearfully bid farewell to his staff before flying into the void, my heart ached for him. Yes, he was atrocious. But I didn’t want to see him publicly disgraced.

Nixon’s fall came back to me when I heard reports that Mayor Todd Gloria was loudly booed at public holiday festivities last weekend.

These included tree lightings in La Jolla and at December Nights in Balboa Park (where Gloria has instituted paid parking). When Council President Joe La Cava introduced Gloria at the La Jolla ceremony by praising his work ethic, the crowd erupted in jeers.

This would not be unusual in East Coast cities like New York and my hometown of Philadelphia, where Eagles fans once booed a man dressed as Santa Claus. In San Diego, this is unheard of.

by Roberto Camacho / Times of San Diego / Dec. 3, 2025

Arturo González started his morning on Nov. 18 the same way he has most days since the beginning of last summer — patrolling the neighborhood looking for potential Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity — when he came across an unmarked vehicle similar to models commonly used by federal agents.

González, a San Diego-based social justice activist, first began documenting events during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protest when he was 17.

González is unlike many others who started community patrols as federal law agencies increased immigration enforcement. He is unaffiliated with any formal organization, a one-man shop who is well known locally for broadcasting his patrols to more than 422,000 followers on TikTok and other social media platforms.

Over the summer, González began covering protests in Los Angeles during the Trump administration’s massive surge of ICE raids there, which sparked days of protest and Trump deploying Marines and National Guard troops in response.

By M.G. Perez / 7SanDiego / December 7-8, 2025 

The most recent round of King tides off San Diego’s coast dissipated over the weekend.

While the rising water provided a beautiful show, it also served as a reminder in Ocean Beach of the battered, badly damaged pier that has been closed since October 2023.

“My favorite memories (on the pier) are definitely the cold winter and the hot chocolate I got from the cafe,” said Chelsea Banales. She grew up in San Diego and visited OB frequently with her dad when he went fishing on the pier. As an adult, she brings out-of-town friends to her favorite beach and doesn’t understand why the pier hasn’t reopened.

“I really hope that they don’t just abandon the project because of money and it loses its infrastructure, coming down and then is just completely forgotten about,” Banales said.

The structure officially opened on July 2, 1966, as the San Diego Fishing Pier. The 1,971-foot concrete pier is the longest of its kind on the West Coast.

Decades of storms and the churning ocean made the pier unsafe as pilings sank and pieces of the structure fell off. After closing it for good more than 2 years ago, the City of San Diego planned to replace it rather than repair it.

By Paul Krueger

Mayor Gloria and his minions routinely claim credit for accomplishments they didn’t make happen. In their latest PR contrivance, the “Todd Squad” is crowing about a national survey that shows 76 percent of San Diego residents are “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with their city.

According to Gensler Research, San Diego ranks second in “satisfaction with their city as a place to live,” trailing only San Antonio, TX, with a 78-percent score. (Axios, which published the results, cautioned that “satisfaction” is a “broad” term, defined as “a general vibe check on how people are feeling about job opportunities, housing costs, safety, and other key urban issues.”)

Our ever-smiling Mayor immediately plastered his social media accounts with the upbeat poll results. Remember, this is the man who rammed through lax multi-unit ADU development, agreed to revise them in the face of neighborhood outrage, and then had the temerity to take credit for the reforms.

Still, did anyone in the Land of Todd even read the Gensler report? A glance at the survey methodology reveals a very significant — even disqualifying — limitation: The poll was conducted more than a year ago, from July 18 to November 24, 2024.

Coalition Bulletin: This Week at City Hall

The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members informed about important Council and Planning Commission Hearings. Agendas may change before the meetings. For an updated list, visit the OB Rag on Monday.

Monday, December 8: City Council, 2:00 p.m.

Agenda Link:

Items include:

— Selection of a 2026-2027 Council President
— California Coastal Commission Modifications to Transit Priority Area Parking Reform and Housing Action Package 2.0
— “40th & C Project”: This will consolidate and subdivide sixteen existing lots into ten new lots and the construction of eleven new single-dwelling unit homes with eighteen new Accessory Dwelling Unit homes.

By Alexis Sterling   / Nation of Change / Dec.5, 2025

A new confrontation between the White House and blue states raises concerns about the political use of food assistance programs

The Trump administration is poised to block key federal funds tied to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as part of an escalating dispute with Democratic-led states over data demands involving millions of low income households.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told President Donald Trump during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Dec. 2, that the Department of Agriculture would begin halting federal transfers next week for states that have not turned over detailed information on SNAP recipients. The move has triggered legal challenges, sharp criticism from lawmakers, and questions about whether the administration has the authority to interrupt a program that helps 42 million people afford food.

Rollins said on Tuesday that the administration had requested state data earlier this year to address what she called “rampant” fraud in the program.

By OB Staff 

David Garrick, the San Diego Union-Tribune’s City Hall Reporter, will give a Saturday, December 13 presentation on “This Just In: Covering the City Hall Beat.”

The forum, part of a series organized by the San Diego Community Coalition, will take place from 12 noon to 1:00 p.m. at the Logan Heights Library, 567 S. 28 Street. Following Garrick’s brief remarks, the floor will open for questions from the audience.

Garrick has had a front row seat in San Diego politics for more than a decade. When he started covering City Hall in 2014, Kevin Faulconer was the new Mayor, Todd Gloria was City Council President, and Sempra Energy occupied the tower at 101 Ash Street.