Category: Environment

by Kim

World Oil’s proposed construction is overwhelmingly over-the-top when considering bulk and scale and leaves much to be desired when considering compatibility with the existing community character.

Sure, the rights of the property owner should not be disregarded, but what about the community for a change?

Sunset Plaza, the World Oil project slated for the corner of Voltaire and Sunset Cliffs is coming back before the Ocean Beach Planning Board at its general meeting Wednesday, August 5th. But you wouldn’t know it by checking out the Planning Board’s website.

Editor: In response to our recent post, “Sunset Cliffs – and surf culture – in danger of erosion” by Mary E Mann on July 20th, we have received the following article by Ann Swanson, current Chair of the Sunset Cliffs Natural Park Council.

by Ann Swanson

The article on Sunset Cliffs is filled with misinformation and distortions. I welcome the opportunity to give the facts …

by Frank Gormlie

Since I came of age here in Ocean Beach, I’ve always believed that urban planning should be a process in which the citizens and residents of a community have a significant and substantial role to play.

This concept was shared by an entire generation of grassroots activists here in OB during the first half of the Seventies.

In this continuous series about the history of urban planning in Ocean Beach, I’m attempting to outline the historical record so newer generations of OBceans can appreciate how OB came to be what it is today.

Recently, we have raised the issue of gentrification here in Ocean Beach, the controversial process of urban renewal. Acknowledging that it has been on-going here in OB since at least the early 1970s, it is important to understand it and to appreciate it when it rears its head.

Many neighborhoods in major cities across the country have experienced gentrification, where older housing is torn down to make way for newer, spiffier, and more expensive homes, condos, and apartments. The process often displaces the poorer – and in many cases – ethnic minorities – from neighborhoods that have historically been theirs.

OCEAN BEACH, CA. Two recent polls – one by this blog – and one that is still on-going by the Peninsula Beacon, show that most – or at least the respondents – want to keep the annual July 4th Marshmallow War around. The Ocean Beach public event has been the subject of debate recently after the mess that was left behind.

Our blog ran a poll for a week and received 80 respondents. Clearly most – 56 respondents, 71%, wanted the event to continue, although …

by SDNN / July 23, 2009

A judge Thursday delayed the removal of harbor seals from the Children’s Pool beach in La Jolla.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Yuri Hofmann ruled that the new law, SB 428, signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday shifting control of the Children’s Pool back to the city warrants a hearing on the issue Oct. 6.

One of our bloggers, Jon Carr, has just written a new song for OBceans about his experiences picking up trash and painting out tagging the past couple week.

Here it is – sung to the tune of “The Twelfth Day of Christmas”:

On the 22nd of July the homeless left for me
A twelve pack of cheap beer …

Editor: World Oil’s Sunset Plaza is coming back to the OB Planning Board on August 5, 2009. We thought it would be worthwhile to re-post this article, originally posted December 3, 2008.

ORIGINALLY POSTED DEC 3, 2008
Will Ocean Beach be left with an ugly and empty office building at Voltaire and Sunset Cliffs? On Dec. 3rd, in a 9 to 4 vote, the Ocean Beach Planning Board approved the “concept” of World Oil’s Sunset Plaza, a two-story 6600 square foot building, designed to provide medical and dental offices at the controversial corner.

by Mary E Mann

“All this shit – the benches, the trail, the signs – none of it matters if we don’t stop the erosion of the cliffs.”

This is Richard Aguirre’s main message, filtered through a long discussion of erosion, geology, politics, surf culture, and safety hazards.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law Sen. Christine Kehoe’s bill giving the city of San Diego full authority over the La Jolla Children’s Pool.

The move comes just hours after a local judge ordered the City Council to begin the dispersal of the seals within 72 hours.

UPDATE: SEN. KEHOE MAKES STATEMENT – see inside…

The tennis match over the seals at a La Jolla beach ping-pongs again. This time, Superior Court Judge Yuri Hofman, ordered the City of San Diego to remove the seals within 72 hours.

This improbable scenario has been playing back and forth for a couple of years as each side of the warring factions gets a favorable court ruling.