Category: Election

By Tony de Garate

At a critical — perhaps even historic — time for the Midway community, two positions are available to serve on a volunteer citizen board that is overseeing an effort to determine what growth will look like for the next two decades.

The Midway Community Planning Group will host the balloting March 16 from 2:30 to 3 p.m. in the downstairs lobby of the West City Campus of San Diego Community College, Continuing Education, 3249 Fordham St. The group’s regular monthly meeting will follow upstairs in Room 205.

Both voters and candidates must live, own property or operate a business in the Midway Community Planning Area. Candidates, in addition, must have attended a meeting in the past year. To appear on the printed ballot, hopefuls must email Melanie Nickel, the group’s chair, by March 14 at MelanieN@stanfordalumni.org. Those who miss the deadline may run as write-ins.

Annual Election on Thursday, March 17, 2015 from 4-8pm at the Point Loma Library.

Editor: The following post on notes on some of the candidates for the upcoming Peninsula planners’ election was sent to us by Korla Eaquinta, a neighborhood activist from the Roseville area of Point Loma. Any opinions or observations made by Korla are her own.

By Korla Eaquinta

The Peninsula Community Planing Board (PCPB) Candidate’s Forum was held on Thursday, March 3, 2015 from 6-7:30 at the Point Loma Library.

Fourteen candidates have applied for five board positions. Applications received include:

By Bob Dorn / San Diego Free Press

I got one of those faux political surveys from the Democratic National Committee in the mail recently, the one my now-deceased mother-in-law used to receive because we listed her address as our own after she fell into Alzheimers years ago.

The surveys continued to arrive at our address, perhaps four times a year, until this time my name showed up on the envelope.

The introductory letter from the chair of the DNC, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, addressed me as a party leader — odd because I’m registered as “no party preference” — but I suppose that means Wasserman Schultz sees me as a California leftie and dropped the survey on me in hopes I can be attracted to Hillary.

Here are the “unofficial” results of Wednesday’s election of the Ocean Beach Planning Board:

• District 4
  

There is no winner as there is a tie between Craig Klein and Marissa Spata. The Board Election committee is awaiting for direction from city staff;

• District 5

Jane Gawronski was re-elected;

• District 6

John Ambert was elected.

By Marjorie Cohn / Common Dreams

Hillary Clinton refuses to make public the transcripts of her speeches to big banks, three of which were worth a total of $675,000 to Goldman Sachs. She says she would release the transcripts “if everybody does it, and that includes Republicans.” After all, she complained, “Why is there one standard for me, and not for everybody else?”

As the New York Times editorial board pointed out, “The only different standard here is the one Mrs. Clinton set for herself, by personally earning $11 million in 2014 and the first quarter of 2015 for 51 speeches to banks and other groups and industries.”

Another big name has entered the San Diego mayoral contest – Ed Harris – who represented Ocean Beach and Point Loma and the rest of District 2 for most of 2014 as an interim councilman – is in the race.

Harris – a Democrat – announced Tuesday he’s throwing his hat in the ring (any other analogies out there?).

Besides sitting on the City Council, Harris has been the head of the city’s lifeguards union. Harris has been a strong advocate for getting better health care for lifeguards, and has been alerting the City to a looming lifeguard shortage, as many experienced people are retiring over the next 2 years.

While on the City Council, he continued his support for labor issues, as well as community issues. He took issue with the City contracts with businesses leasing Belmont Park, popularizing the view that the City wasn’t getting enough out of the deal. His efforts were overturned later by Councilwoman Lorie Zapf, who won the seat in the primary.

Hey – Make sure you vote in the annual election to the Ocean Beach Planning Board today Wednesday, March 2nd.

Today – Wednesday, March 2nd – is the Ocean Beach Planning Board’s annual election. It will be held from 4 pm to 7pm at the OB Recreation Center, 4726 Santa Monica Avenue. (For details, see OB Planning Board’s website.)

Seven of the 14 seats on the Board will be up for election.

The March 2nd monthly meeting of the OB Planning Board will be one hour later than usual so members can count the ballots of the annual election to be held that day.

The meeting will begin at 7pm, at the OB Recreation Center, 4726 Santa Monica Avenue. The election is from 4pm to 7pm at the OB Rec Center, in the main meeting room. Eligible residents, property owners and business owners are urged to participate in the annual election of Board members. Usually there is one seat from each of the 7 planning districts open for election. The meeting will be held in the same room as the balloting, after ballots are counted.

As we complete our romping review of Ocean Beach’s planning districts, we round out our visit with District 7 – the South End of OB.

This has been our efforts at a public service as the OB Planning Board is holding its annual election on Tuesday, March 2nd, between 4 and 7pm at the OB Recreation Center, 4826 Santa Monica Avenue.

Here’s District 7

Here in south OB, the ubiquitous airplanes are off in the distance, as are the other attributes of living in a highly packed urban beach area, the noise, the traffic, the parking problems, the congestion, the tourists and other visitors. One can almost feel part of a different neighborhood than the raucous community to the north, the loud OB.

What OB Planning Area District do you live in? You’ll need to know in order to vote in the annual election to the Ocean Beach Planning Board coming up on Wednesday, March 2nd. This 14-member board reviews, approves and monitors development in OB as it adheres to the newly updated and approved OB Community Plan as the blueprint for the community.

OB Plan Area Map goodIn looking to heighten interest within the Village of OB for the election and the Planning Board itself, the OB Rag will be posting descriptions and a brief analysis of each of the seven planning districts over the course of the next 5 business days. Many of them are updated and edited versions of what we published 2 years ago.

Editor: As we continue in our series looking at the different districts within the Ocean Beach Planning Area, today we settle in District 4 – the Hub of OB. See their website for details.

District 4 – The Center of the Village – the Hub of OB

It’s easy to see why District 4 is indeed the center and hub of the community of Ocean Beach. Just look at a map and you’ll see that the business district and the main beach are both in this district.

Downtown OB – the 3 commercial blocks of Newport Avenue and the adjacent side streets – is certainly the center of the community, no matter how you measure it. Traffic, pedestrians, events, happenings, music, food – and of course drink – it all – or most of it anyhow – happens right there.

By Jim Miller

If you are an observant reader you might have noticed that last week, amidst the usual banal political commentary surrounding the Presidential race, the New York Times matter-of-factly reported that, “Seas are Rising at Fastest Rate in Last 28 Centuries”.

If you managed not to spit out your coffee, you read the alarming news that:

The worsening of tidal flooding in American coastal communities is largely a consequence of greenhouse gases from human activity, and the problem will grow far worse in coming decades, scientists reported . .

Those emissions, primarily from the burning of fossil fuels, are causing the ocean to rise at the fastest rate since at least the founding of ancient Rome, the scientists said.

And if that didn’t send you into a morning funk, you might have …