Serving OB, the Peninsula and San Diego Beaches
Informational stickers appearing in front of OB short term rentalsBy Joaquin Antique
This reporter recently returned from an extended vacation outside of the bubble to find anti-STVR stickers popping up on sidewalks all over north OB. The numbers of these stickers on almost every street I’ve walked on since I got back to OB is mind blowing.
SanDiegoVille / May 29, 2026
The “temporary” Mission Beach lifeguard tower is a multimillion-dollar monument to decades of civic neglect and a preview of what happens when a city government confuses managing a crisis with causing one.
Stand on the Mission Beach boardwalk this summer and take a look at what may be one of the most expensive temporary structures in San Diego history. Rising above one of California’s busiest beaches is an industrial steel framework wrapped in chain-link fencing, crisscrossed with exposed bracing and exterior staircases, topped by what appears to be a lifeguard observation cab bolted to the roof. The Giant Dipper roller coaster towers behind it. Visitors from around the world stop, stare, take photos, and wonder if construction is still underway.
It isn’t. This is the finished product. This is the City of San Diego’s replacement for the busiest lifeguard station in its municipal system.
Eric Law, the chair of the Peninsula Community Planning Board, has just announced that Navy representatives will provide a briefing to the community on Navy plans for the redevelopment of the NAVWAR Old Town Campus.
The update will be at the Peninsula Community Planning Board monthly meeting on Thursday, June 18th, 2026 — 6PM at the Point Loma Hervey Library Community Room, 3701 Voltaire St, San Diego, CA 92107.
Law stated, “The NAVWAR Old Town Campus (OTC) Revitalization program manager and the Navy Region Southwest Public Affairs Officer have confirmed that they will provide a briefing to the community on the OTC program ….”
The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members and the general San Diego public informed about important Council and Planning Commission hearings and other city public meetings.
Items 600, 601, 602, 639, 643, 644: Proclamations
Why it matters: We must ask again for an explanation of how and why honorees are chosen. The last three were added to a very packed agenda in the last few days. The last two (including a Scripps Health administrator who is a Rotary Club officer) have no supporting documents. Everyone agrees that Council meetings run too long. These performative agenda items add extra time but little civic substance.
Item 613: 2026 Update to the San Diego Municipal Code (Land Development Code)
Why it matters: Staff report notes that one of the amendments “would increase … the City Council appeal fee [on project and environmental appeals] from $1,000 to $2,380,
Reporter David Garrick at the Union-Tribune today wrote an article entitled, “Public displeasure with San Diego City Hall boils over in early election results.”
He wrote that the primary results “show notable voter backlash against San Diego City Hall, with outsiders leading in three out of four council races as some well-funded insiders struggled and incumbents fared worse than usual.”
He’s right, of course, as ‘public displeasure’ with City Hall has been building dramatically over this last year or two. All one has to do to survey this building displeasure — or even rage — is to peruse the pages of the OB Rag. From the devastating San Diego extremist rules for bonus ADUs, the increased fees for paid parking, the trash fee debacle to the paid parking in Balboa Park quagmire, the budget crisis and threats to libraries and rec centers, the cuts to arts funding, to the general sense by the San Diego public that city hall is trying to “nickel and dime” them to death.
This “displeasure” with downtown San Diego political leaders has finally surfaced in results that the establishment can recognize — voting tabulations and results.
Help Make Sure Gloria’s “Homes for All of Us” Includes “All of Us”
By Paul Krueger
The Mayor’s Planning Department is hosting a June 9 “community input” meeting on his “Homes for All of Us” initiative on Tuesday, June 9, at 5:30 p.m. at the Malcolm X Library at 5148 Market Street in Valencia Park.
If you care about the impact of new housing development on your community, please plan on attending. And be prepared to cut through the bureaucratic spin by asking pointed questions.
Gloria says Homes for All of Us “…will create clear pathways to build townhomes, duplexes, and small-scale multiple homes … and provide more homeownership opportunities.”
Such a program would be a positive step towards providing much-needed for-sale housing, as opposed to the high-rise, cookie-cutter, $2,750/month studio and one-bedroom apartments (with no parking) that are blighting our neighborhoods.
But there’s a very real danger that this potentially valuable initiative will morph into yet another program that serves developer and investor interests by ignoring community input,
Election day and night are over and it’s now clear who will advance to the General Election in District 2: Nicole Crosby with 31.3% and Richard Bailey with 38.8%.
The two other top vote-getters were Josh Coyne with 11.3% and Mandy Havlik with 10.5%.
Here’s the latest numbers from the Registrar of Voters — with nearly 25% of the ballots counted:
By Scott Lewis / Voice of San Diego / June 1, 2026
A campaign text message hit phones Friday with a striking claim: “No more overdevelopment! Richard Bailey will stop the Midway Rising mega-development, limit ADUs, and stop city hall politicians from destroying our communities.”
The mailer was paid for by Steven Richter, the resident who poured money into an effort to support Larry Turner for mayor in 2024,
This was interesting because we’ve tracked Bailey on Midway Rising for months now and, while he was at first saying pretty harsh things about it, he seemed to be settling into a it’s-not-my-favorite-but-what-are-you-going-to-do message.
San Diego Gas & Electric wants to lay down a 140-mile, 500-kilovolt high-voltage transmission line that would cut through California’s largest state park, the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. They call it the Golden Pacific Powerlink and it would run from the Imperial Valley to the Orange County border.
The proposed line has also sparked massive opposition from environmentalists and local communities who are strongly against the overhead route. They are demanding the project be entirely rerouted away from protected environments and population centers.
Opposition to the line is lead by the Anza-Borrego Foundation, which is fighting to keep the lines out of California’s largest state park. Opponents point out that a previous proposal (the 2008 Sunrise Powerlink) was rejected for its park path, and warn that nearly 200-foot-tall towers would ruin dark skies, impact endangered bighorn sheep, and destroy fragile cryptobiotic soils.
Nearly 100,000 Impacted in San Diego County; 665,000 in CaliforniaNew federal rules will go into effect Monday, requiring some San Diego County residents who receive CalFresh food benefits to meet work or volunteer requirements to get or keep benefits.
State-wide, the updated CalFresh work rules impact approximately 840,000 recipients, with state officials estimating that up to 665,000 Californians are at risk of losing their food benefits if they do not meet the new requirements.
The updated federal rules apply to certain Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents, or ABAWDs, who are applying for or renewing CalFresh benefits. Those affected are individuals who:
VOTE TODAYWith Election Day upon us and uncertainty in the governor’s race, let’s recap some common election questions to prepare you.
[Go here for all links from below, at Times of San Diego]
Why are so many people running for governor?
It’s a wide-open field in part because the big names in the Democratic Party — former Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla — passed on running for governor. Democratic voters in early spring appeared to be coalescing behind former Rep. Eric Swalwell, but he withdrew from the race following allegations of sexual misconduct.
By Jim Varnadore
Now that we’ve begun making sense of the trash fees and the hateful parking fees at Balboa Park, you might give sober consideration to the suggestions your constituents sent you for bringing city expenses down to match its income.
One very helpful suggestion is to cut your personal staffs in half, eliminating the higher paid half but not increasing the lower paid half – neither numbers nor pay. Your constituents would no longer pay staff members whose main job is to win your next election.
Say Keep it goin' to the OB Rag
with your donation today!
Copyright © 2026 OB Rag
Recent Comments