Category: Health

By Regina Elling / Point Loma – OB Monthly SD Union-Tribune / April 10, 2025

Whether by providing child care, youth and family services, resources for food and housing assistance and more, the T. Claude and Gladys B. Ryan Family YMCA in Point Loma has served a lot of people in its 55 years, “and we want to continue to serve for … generations to come,” according to Executive Director Jonathon Collopy.

That’s why the Ryan Family YMCA — previously known as the Peninsula Family YMCA — hopes for a new building to replace its current one at 4390 Valeta St., near Correia Middle School and Bill Cleator Park.

Cool heads have, for the moment at least, prevailed on the Mission Bay Park Committee. A majority of the city-backed committee has rejected spending $600,000 on an analysis of how best to divvy up the land known as South Shores between different recreational activities.

When the Committee met earlier this week on Tuesday, they voted 5 to 3 against spending “$600,000 creating a proposed map of amenities — called a general development plan by city officials — before studying which parts of South Shores are too toxic for the public to use,” as David Garrick at the San Diego U-T reported today. Garrick continued:

Committee members strongly support transforming the 100 acres of underutilized land into public amenities — but they said the city must first analyze the land’s history as a dumping site for trash and industrial waste in the 1950s. They said it makes no sense to spend $600,000 creating a proposed map of amenities — called a general development plan by city officials — before studying which parts of South Shores are too toxic for the public to use.

“People are walking around with knowledge there is toxic waste somewhere under the ground in South Shores,” said Jeff Johnson, the committee’s chair. “Before we do a GDP, we should spend money to do an objective study to find out where it is, what it is and how bad it is.”

By Tammy Murga / The San Diego Union-Tribune / March 27, 2025

A large South County development in a fire-prone area, stalled in a yearslong legal battle, will be allowed to move forward with changes aimed at boosting the housing stock while mitigating wildfire risk.

On Wednesday, March 26, state Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that he and several environmental groups, such as the Sierra Club, Endangered Habitats League and the Center for Biological Diversity, reached a settlement in their lawsuit against developer Baldwin & Sons over the Otay Ranch Village 13 project, proposed for a site that has repeatedly burned.

In November 2020, the county Board of Supervisors approved the development despite objections that it threatened wildlife and would put too many people at risk of wildfires.

Environmental activists sued the county over claims it violated the California Environmental Quality Act. The Attorney General’s office later joined the lawsuit.

Due to an all-day medical procedure tomorrow, Thursday, March 27, I will not be able to administer the Rag during the day and the site will be dark. That means there will not be any new posts and I will not be able to okay comments.

By Karen Pearlman / East County Magazine / March 20, 2025

Photos by Karen Pearlman

More than 100 residents who would be most affected by the proposed Cottonwood Sand Mine gathered in force Tuesday, March 18 at the Rancho San Diego Library to let the Valle de Oro Community Planning Group know they don’t want it in their neighborhood.

After listening to more than two dozen people share their concerns, the community planning group voted 11-0 to recommend opposing the project that would see 214 acres of the former 280-acre Cottonwood Golf Course along Willow Glen Drive in Rancho San Diego turned into a digging site for sand mining for at least 10 years.

The group also voted 10-1, with one abstention, to not agree with a design exception review to waive the undergrounding overhead utilities along Willow Glen Road.

Next step: County Planning Commission hearing April 18

A second fire in three days broke out in Ocean Beach this week. This one was sparked by a kitchen appliance and heavily damaged an Ocean Beach apartment in the 4900 block of Del Monte Avenue on Thursday. The first fire was late Monday night on the 4700 block of Muir.

Two residents, not at home, were displaced but the family cat was unable to be saved by first responders.

A funny thing just happened about local lifeguard stations. Not funny funny, but odd funny and something that disparages Ocean Beach — again.

All of a sudden, the San Diego Fire-Rescue department — the city department in charge of the lifeguards and their stations — is insisting on an emergency $1 million in repairs to the Mission Beach Lifeguard Tower. And a city council committee, the Active Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will be having Fire-Rescue make its case for the necessary repairs at the at 1:00 p.m. Thursday City Hall meeting. And Jen Campbell, who also of course represents Mission Beach is on board for the emergency monies — despite the city’s funding crisis.

They’re all saying that the Mission Beach Lifeguard Tower is facing serious structural issues that demand immediate attention, and is showing significant signs of wear and tear, prompting concerns about its ability to withstand further deterioration. San Diego Fire-Rescue is calling for these emergency repairs to address the building’s failing condition, with the possibility of falling debris becoming a serious hazard. Channel 8 reports, “According to an inspection by the City’s Development Services in November, the situation is so severe that without immediate action, the structure could become unsafe for lifeguards and the general public.”

This could all be accurate and good.

But, hey, what about the Ocean Beach lifeguard station? It’s been falling apart for years and the community has been requesting for repairs or a replacement. For years.

Now, comparisons are rough. The Mission Beach station is one of the busiest in the city. Mission Beach also has a town council that speaks up for the community’s needs and wants.

It’s been totally underplayed by local media, but last week on Friday, March 14, the United States Geological Survey sent out an alert for a magnitude 4.6 earthquake in the Salton Sea area.

The USGS report included details about the epicenter, the depth and how widespread the impact was.

The problem is that it never happened and the earthquake report was pulled down from the agency’s website.

USGS Public Affairs Specialist Paul Laustsen conceded the earthquake never occurred. He said:

“The message was sent in error during a system testing. There was no earthquake of that magnitude at that time or at that depth. We are still looking into what happened. This is definitely a rare occurrence.”

By David Helvarg / Los Angeles Times Guest Opinion / March 11, 2025

Last month, close to 1,000 National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration workers, including weather forecasters, were fired. The Trump administration has now told agency leaders to fire another 1,000 people. Along with 300 resignations to date this will approach 20% of its workforce.

The White House’s Department of Government Efficiency also informed NOAA that its lease on the Center for Weather and Climate Prediction in College Park, Md., will soon be canceled. The center is essential in creating accurate computer models for everything from the next severe weather front to hit farmers in the Midwest to the long-term costs of extreme weather events linked to climate change.

From San Diego Americans for Safe Access

Dear Esteemed Members of the City Council,

As the San Diego Chapter of Americans for Safe Access, a national non-profit dedicated to advancing safe access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research, we are writing to express our strong opposition to the proposed increase in San Diego’s cannabis business tax.

Within the City of San Diego, consumers already pay over 30% in taxes at the final point of sale—including an 8% cannabis business tax, a 15% cannabis excise tax, and a 7.75% sales tax. In addition, the cannabis excise tax is currently set to increase another four percentage points this summer. If both tax increases are adopted, San Diego consumers could soon be required to pay up to 6 percentage points more for legally acquired cannabis products—almost 40% in total taxes. This increase will impact all cannabis consumers but will place a particular strain on both patients and small and mid-sized cannabis businesses, threatening equity in access and cannabis business ownership while undermining public health goals and sustainable revenue generation.

By Lori Weisberg / The San Diego Union-Tribune / March 7, 2025

Two environmental groups sued SeaWorld last week accusing the San Diego marine park of illegally discharging pollutants into Mission Bay during the dozens of fireworks shows it puts on each year.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court by San Diego Coastkeeper and the Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation (CERF), cites multiple violations of the federal Clean Water Act and the parks’ own permit that allows it to conduct up to 150 fireworks shows a year.

The 39-page complaint documents not only instances of paper, plastic and metal fireworks debris in the bay following SeaWorld shows, but it also claims to have found concentrations of metal pollutants such as aluminum, antimony and copper that far exceeded normal levels elsewhere in the bay.

San Diego’s airport is dealing with a significant shortage of air traffic controllers, Axios San Diego reports.

This news comes as the Trump administration fired about 400 recently hired support staff employees at the Federal Aviation Administration over the weekend as part of the the mass terminations of federal workers.

Axios:

San Diego International Airport is fending with a 17.9% vacancy rate among air traffic controllers, per the most recent FAA data. … By the numbers: San Diego’s airport tower is five short of its FAA target of 28 air-traffic controllers.