Category: Economy

OCEAN BEACH, CA. Every now and then, we like to check in to what’s been going on Newport Avenue – OB’s main drag. What is going on with the community’s main business street?

Well, there’s lots to report – both good and bad.

COW IS MOVING OUT OF OB

We spoke to Greg last week, the owner of Cow, Newport’s only music store. And unfortunately for the community, his business will be moving out of Ocean Beach by the new year. He is on a month-to-month lease. The reason for the move from the beach? Well, there are two reasons:

Editor: Way back in the Sixties, then-Mayor Frank Curran – before he was sent to prison for his involvement in the Yellow Cab scandal – proposed building a floating airport for San Diego off the southern tip of Point Loma. Well, the idea has resurfaced but this time off the shore of Ocean Beach. Is OB ready for its own airport? Hell, we can’t even deal with a marshmellow fight! Then we’d really need new public restrooms at the lifeguard tower.

by Jebediah Reed / The Infrastructurist / October 22n, 2009

San Diego desperately needs a new airport. It has needed one for years. The existing facility, San Diego International, is crowded onto a puny 675 acre parcel.

SUNSET CLIFFS, CA. About a week ago, on October 14th, a young man had to be rescued off of the cliffs. The cliffs are Sunset Cliffs, south of OB proper.

The rescue of somebody, whether they are plucked from the ocean, rappelled from the cliffs, carried out of the danger zones is not a new occurrence for these beautiful but dangerous cliffs. Over the years, many people have had to be rescued from either the ocean below or the cliffs themselves.

It is reported to us by a witness that four (4) police cars showed up. So did an ambulance. Plus three (3) lifeguards arrived. And to top it off, a fire truck made a show.

The Union-Tribune announced on Wednesday, July 15, that federal stimulus funds will be used to repair the Mission Bay channel entryway. This project, to begin in October, includes fixing the channel’s south jetty – OB’s north jetty, which was reportedly damaged by an El Nino winter storm ten-eleven years ago. The project will be overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Immediate questions arise for surfers: will the repair job affect the surf and surfing just south of the repaired jetty?

Two local OB residents are sitting on the newly-appointed and created Medical Marijuana Task Force. OB Business owner David Martin and Larry Sweet, a medical marijuana patient from Ocean Beach were both appointed to the 11-member Task Force by the San Diego City Council.

The Task Force has been charged, as its first order of business, to provide land use and zoning recommendations for the medicinal marijuana collectives by January 2010.

OCEAN BEACH, CA. As the debate over health care reform rages, OB Rag readers chimed in – and they chimed in heavily on the side of single payer or public option health care options.

From the poll, which ran for about one week starting on September 24, 2009, clearly 80% are dissatisfied with the current status quo. 72 voters out of a total 0f 90 responded that they either don’t have health insurance at all – 11%, or they want single payer – 32%, or want a public option-34%, and 2% said they have employer-provided insurance but don’t use it because of the high co-pay. That 66% want single-payer or the public option mirrors the figures in national polls.

Even before Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, the internet was seething with lurid conspiracy theories exposing his alleged subversion and treachery.

Among the many false claims: Obama was a secret Muslim; he was not a native U.S. citizen and his election as president should be overturned; he was a tool of the New World Order in a plot to merge the government of the United States into a North American union with Mexico and Canada.

Within hours of Obama’s inauguration, claims circulated that Obama was not really president because Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts scrambled the words as he administered the oath of office. A few days after the inauguration came a warning that Obama planned to impose martial law and collect all guns.

OCEAN BEACH, CA. Every now and then, an Ocean Beach organization takes one of the community’s problems head-on. This is happening with the old OB lifeguard station and its public restroom facilities. Recently, the OB Rag complained about the state of the restrooms.

Stepping up to the problems, the OB Town Council has “adopted” the public building – built sometime in the late Sixties – and plans to shepherd through some improvements with the facility.

I know that I am not the only one who is at odds with family over political issues. My latest family feud began innocently enough—a phone call yesterday with my beloved big brother, and only remaining immediate family member, in Western Pennsylvania.

When Jack told me that the prescription drug he takes for recurrent heartburn falls into the Medicare donut hole, and that he is going without it until the next cycle of coverage begins, I told him that his little sister is supporting health care reform to close that very donut hole.

His response- “I DON’T WANT ANYONE CRAMMING SOMETHING I DON’T WANT DOWN MY THROAT.” Yes, his response was in caps. Ouch.

New Census data show 850,000 county residents living in economic hardship
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Poverty in San Diego County shot up in 2008, rising at a much faster pace than in California or the nation. This plunge in quality of life for many San Diegans is documented in U.S. Census data released today.

The data show that 850,000 county residents — 29% of the population — were living in economic hardship in 2008, according to analysis by the Center on Policy Initiatives. That measure, using a threshold double the federal poverty level, is a more realistic gauge in cities like San Diego where living costs are higher than the national average.

On the first day of August, a mob of 200 right-wing Texans stormed the parking lot of a Randalls grocery store in southwest Austin. They were united in a single goal: Disrupt the “office hours” that Rep. Lloyd Doggett, the district’s congressman, had scheduled for his constituents. The protesters targeted Doggett for his role in crafting the House’s bill to reform health care, brandishing signs that read “No Government Health Care” and “No Government Counselor in My Home!!!” But their anger seemed to encompass a universe of conservative fears: higher taxes, illegal immigration, socialism.

Editor: We have heard that students at UC Santa Cruz have taken over a campus building in protest of the cuts proposed for the UC system. On September 24th, students at UC Santa Cruz began the occupation of the Graduate Student Commons as part of a day of action at all UCs across the state. The occupation continues. They have set up a website here. The students have issued the following statement:
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We are occupying this building at the University of California, Santa Cruz, because the current situation has become untenable. Across the state, people are losing their jobs …