Category: Health

By Samantha Mason

Today, I journeyed down to Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. It was rainy and muggy out, and I felt like I was in Florida rather than Ocean Beach. I wanted to take advantage of the rain and go back out to explore some of the businesses on OB’s main north-south avenue.

I arrived at noon on Thursday afternoon, and scored a street parking spot. (I’ll consider this a redemption from my “Ocean Beach Has The Character I’ve Been Missing” story, where I embarrassingly admitted to paying over $20 for parking in –what am I, a tourist?)

Blendies (1830 Sunset Cliffs Blvd)

My first stop was Blendies, a small smoothie and acai bowl spot on the corner of Sunset Cliffs and Niagara Ave. I met a woman behind the counter named Jessie, who is one of the business partners. She told me Blendies has only been open for a month, and they also own Social Thai Kitchen next door. It’s a family business, and the inspiration to open the location came from their love of cafe culture.

In June 2021, Kobe La was attacked during an argument over a fire pit.

By Melissa Mecija / 10News / August 28, 2025

More than four years after an attack in Ocean Beach left Kobe La with serious injuries, the civil case he filed is finally over as a judge recently awarded La more than $700,000.

La was just 22 at the time, excited to be with friends for the first time since restrictions were relaxed during the pandemic.

Their celebration came to an end when a man approached them claiming La and his friends stole his spot.

La said they could share, but the man returned with a group of friends and attacked them, while also yelling racial slurs.

by MacKenzie Elmer/ Voice of San Diego / August 27, 2025

One often wonders while strolling atop the bluffs at Sunset Cliffs: Will today be the day the path crumbles into the sea?

Determined to enjoy the view, families and elderly couples navigate a dwindling, dusty trail along Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. Exercisers dart into the road or hurdle barriers where erosion has already consumed any remaining clifftop.

[Here’s the City’s Coastal Resiliency Masterplan]

Knowing the ocean will eventually rise and more of the cliffs will fall, the city of San Diego plans to epically change how people use this peninsula’s crown jewel.

Namely, parking lots have got to move off the cliff’s edge and onto the street, making more space for natural land and hiking trails, the city’s plan says. On Sunset Cliffs at Monaco Street, traffic would switch to one-way heading south leaving one lane for parking and a protected walkway. (A southbound direction is the preference of emergency responders, I’m told.)

That’s a lot of reshuffling. Finding parking on a Sunday before sunset is already a battle royale even with parking available on both sides of the now two-lane street. The city is also leaving open the option of adding meters to shifted street parking, according to a presentation to City Council’s Environment Committee.

Reader Supported News / Aug. 27, 2025

“The article below is satire. Andy Borowitz is an American comedian and New York Times-bestselling author who satirizes the news for his column, ‘The Borowitz Report’.”

Complicating Donald J. Trump’s plan to send troops to Chicago, on Tuesday thousands of National Guard members called in sick with bone spurs.

The White House was plunged into chaos after receiving over seven thousand notes from guardsmen’s podiatrists, sources said.

An enlarged tree branch fell in the children’s park at Ebers and Saratoga on Sunday, August 10, which could’ve seriously injured or even killed any of the 12 toddlers playing at the park that day had they been right underneath it.

A local parent immediately contacted the city — as well as the Rag about this. He had one question: “Have recent city budget cuts affected tree maintenance and surveillance at public parks?” He wrote:

This is unacceptable, this is the only child’s park in Ocean Beach. This deserves more awareness and exposure.

He wrote:

My wife and I are very shook by what we saw (we saw it fall in real time) Because they were many children, including our own, in that area minutes prior. We have many family pictures picnicking under that tree as well. It just adds to a growing sentiment we have about the city falling short in protecting its residents, including its most vulnerable—children.

By Blake Nelson / The San Diego Union-Tribune / August 26, 2025 

Several residents of San Diego’s designated camping areas for homeless people are suing to overhaul the program, alleging that both lots are dirty, lack quality food and remain unequipped to aid those with disabilities.

The safe sleeping sites hold hundreds of two-person tents near Balboa Park. Each location is “rodent infested” and a “fire hazard,” according to the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court. They are also host to “excessive and dangerous heat” during part of the year as well as “cold and flooding in the winter,” weather that often leaves belongings “saturated with mold.”

All in all, “living conditions in the Camps” are “untenable, seriously threatening and aggravating mental and physical health,” the filing says.

The lawsuit asks a court to force reforms on the effort.

by Drew Sitton / Times of San Diego  / Aug. 24, 2025

A controversial 453-unit housing development has been unanimously approved by the San Diego County Planning Commission in Harmony Grove, an unincorporated rural residential area in North County sandwiched between Escondido and San Marcos.

Several neighbors spoke out at the meeting over the controversial proposal because it does not include a secondary access road to escape wildfires.

They fear entrapment if a wildfire came from the direction of the single dead-end road.

Winding approval
The project, Harmony Grove Village South, had been before the commission in 2018 and later approved by the Board of Supervisors.

However, CEQA litigation from the Sierra Club, residents and other parties had delayed construction.

The board rescinded approval in 2022 after a trial court sided with residents. However, a state appellate court then found all but one aspect of the project complied with CEQA.

The same project as in 2018 is now headed back before the board for the third time,

By Abbie Black / CBS8 / August 15, 2025

What appears to be pristine water in San Diego Bay is hiding a disturbing secret beneath the surface.

University of San Diego graduate students working with a local company have discovered alarming levels of heavy metals, microplastics and invasive species in Mission Bay and San Diego Bay using innovative cleanup booms made from recycled materials.

The partnership, called 24/7 Blue, pairs USD students with San Diego-based Earthwise Sorbents to test sustainable cleanup technology that could serve as a model for ports and marinas nationwide.

“It’s unbelievable the amount of material that we are picking up,” said Dr. Michel Boudrias, who chairs USD’s sustainability task force. “We’re picking up 30 times the amount of heavy metals that are typically out there.”

The 5-pound, 10-foot booms are placed in local waters for two to three months before being replaced. When flipped over, the seemingly clean-looking devices reveal the extent of contamination lurking in San Diego’s waterways.

by Dave Schwab / Times of San Diego / Aug. 20, 2025

Some residents are pushing back at plans by AT&T to install a 30-foot “faux eucalyptus” cell tower with 12 antennas, 9 radio units and a large ground equipment box.

Those opposed to the proposal, at 2315 Soto St. on public land in Collier Park, have requested that the city deny a conditional use permit for it in its fenced-off area. They’re arguing that public land is inappropriate to build a new cell tower on, disguised or not, contending it should be used for another purpose.

Disguising cell towers as trees, often eucalyptus or other types, helps them blend into the landscape, making them less noticeable and reducing the feeling of visual clutter. Faux trees are primarily used to address public concerns about visual pollution and to make towers more acceptable in residential areas.

These disguises help mitigate the aesthetic impact of cell towers, which can be perceived as eyesores, especially in areas where they might clash with the surrounding environment.

Eric Law, chair of the Peninsula Community Planning Board, speaking for himself, said residents oppose the cell tower project for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that some view Collier Park as a sacrosanct recreational community resource.

Law noted AT&T, a publicly traded company, not a public utility, is seeking to upgrade its 5G telecommunications system in the area.

The controversial Harmony Grove Village South (HGVS) project is front and center again, because the San Diego County Planning Commission is scheduled to consider the project during their August 22nd monthly hearing, starting at 9:00a.m.

Opposition to the project has only grown in recent months, stemming mainly from its lack of a secondary wildfire evacuation route. The housing development, as currently designed, would only have one viable evacuation route for 453 new homes and 70 legacy homes, in violation of current state fire code. The previous Board of Supervisors allowed the developer to bypass this crucial fire code requirement by identifying an unimproved dirt path that might serve as a backup evacuation if the main exit were blocked. That vegetation-choked path, which winds through numerous properties, is impassable by passenger vehicles and cannot reasonably be used for evacuation in an emergency.

Petition Against Tower Has Nearly 400 Over 500 Signatures

By Tyler Faurot / Point Loma – OB Monthly SDU-T / July 29, 2025 

A project that seeks to install a 30-foot cell tower in Point Loma’s Collier Park is drawing community opposition as it goes through the city of San Diego’s review process.

The city Development Services Department sent a notice of application dated July 2 to nearby tenants and homeowners.

According to the notice, the project proposed by AT&T would install a 30-foot-tall “faux mono-eucalyptus” tree that would house 12 antennas and nine remote radio units, or transceivers. The plan also calls for a 395-square-foot ground-mounted equipment enclosure surrounded by landscaping and screening, as well as a 30-kilowatt generator, cables and protective fencing.

Scott McCaskill, chairman of the Advocacy Committee for the Ocean Beach Community Foundation, said community consensus seems to be against the project, largely because of its proposed site in Collier Park at 2351 Soto St., near the eastern boundary of Ocean Beach. The park’s neighbors include the Ocean Beach Community Garden, Greencliff Apartments and dozens of other homes.

by Salvador Rivera / Fox5 / Aug 7, 2025 

During the last whale season along the Pacific and down into Baja California, 92 gray whales died as a result of climate change, according to Fey Crevoshay, communications director for Wild Coast, an international environmental group based in San Diego.

Crevoshay admitted the exact cause of death for the whales has not been identified, but said many whales were observed to be very malnourished and thin during the last whale-watching season.