Category: History

Belmont Park in Mission Beach is unveiling a multimillion-dollar revamp just in time for the busy summer season, featuring upgrades to its historic Giant Dipper roller coaster and new attractions for visitors.

The nearly century-old amusement park expects about 150,000 visitors during peak summer months as families return to enjoy the updated rides, beachfront views and classic attractions.

One of the park’s most iconic features, the Giant Dipper, recently underwent a $1.6 million rehabilitation project focused on improving the ride experience.

“So the Giant Dipper, which just turned 100 years old last year, it’s going into a 101st birthday in July, just went under a six-week rehab this past February,” said Sarah Abelsohn, marketing director for Belmont Park.

The work primarily focused on smoothing out the wooden track to enhance comfort for riders while preserving the coaster’s historic charm.

In addition to the coaster upgrades, Belmont Park has introduced new attractions, including a free-access play structure near Shipwreck Cove designed for younger visitors and families.

The new owner of The Black has been finally revealed!

He’s Peter Yaldo, a local businessman from Chula Vista, but with strong family ties to Ocean Beach.

His uncle is the landlord of the building where The Black rents and that’s where he met up with Kurt Dornbusch, the now former owner. Dornbusch did still had a lease obligation on the space. Yaldo assumed Dornbusch’s lease and acquired The Black.

Yaldo had a “soft opening” on April 6th and plans a grand opening later in the month.

Here’s the details from Steve Anderson’s great piece at Times of San Diego

In early February, The Black announced it was closing its doors for good.

Owner Kurt Dornbusch announced his retirement after 45 years at the helm, ending The Black’s 57-year run as a defining countercultural landmark on Newport Avenue.

Today, we’re having fun and games with Richard Bailey, a candidate for District 2 of the San Diego City Council.

First, a new PAC for Bailey has just been announced. This is serious stuff. But it’s also a game. Steven Richter, a semi-retired tax attorney, is the principal officer for ‘SD Policy over Politics’, the new PAC.

Here’s Arturo Castañares’ write up about the new PAC, published April 13. Castañares is the editor at large of La Prensa.

A longtime Point Loma resident has launched a new political action committee (PAC) to support a candidate in the upcoming election for San Diego City Council, according to documents filed with the California Secretary of State last week.

By Mandy Havlik, Candidate for San Diego City Council District 2

I didn’t decide to run for City Council sitting behind a desk or at a political event. I decided to run after years of standing and advocating with neighbors asking, why is this still not fixed?

After watching people I care about feeling ignored by a system that’s supposed to serve them. And one of those moments that really stayed with me happened at my kids’ school. As a new parent and the elementary school garden coordinator at Ocean Beach Elementary, I started noticing traffic safety issues along Santa Monica and Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. Cars moving too fast. Lack of signage. No designated pick and drop off area. Kids walking and biking through an area that didn’t feel designed to protect them and keep them safe.

It wasn’t something difficult. It was about protecting my kids and other children in the neighborhood. So I did what I’ve always done, I spoke up. I went to the school administration, thinking this would be something we could work on together. Protecting children shouldn’t be complicated or controversial. But instead of support, I was met with hesitation. Questions about liability. Deflection. A sense that this wasn’t really the school’s responsibility, that it belonged somewhere else.

The daily news can’t adequately convey the administration’s sabotaging of our government, economy, alliances and environment

By Rebecca Solnit / The Guardian / April 12, 2026

The United States is being murdered, and it’s an inside job. Every department, every branch, every bureau and function of the federal government is being fatally corrupted or altogether dismantled or disabled. All this is common knowledge, but because it dribbles out in news stories about this specific incident or department, the reports never adequately describe an administration sabotaging the functioning of the federal government and also trashing the global economy, international alliances and relationships, and the national and global environment in ways that will have downstream consequences for decades and perhaps, especially when it comes to climate, centuries.

Across the branches of government, the services that are supposed to protect us – nuclear stockpile monitoring, cybersecurity, counter-terrorism – are being undermined, understaffed or trashed. A different kind of protection that consists of public health, vaccination programs, food safety, clean air and water, social services, civil rights and the rule of law is also under attack. The federal government that serves us is being starved while the federal government that serves the Trump agenda and the oligarchy is glutting itself on taxpayer money, including the grotesque sums dumped on the Department of Homeland Security and the US military now being warped into Pete Hegseth’s twisted vision of a ruthless mercenary force. Hegseth has reportedly stood in the way of promotions for more than a dozen Black and female officers.

Editordude: We offer this update on the billionaires bidding on the San Diego Padres as a way to introduce the crazy idea that perhaps the San Diego public ought to have some say in the future of the team. It’s not an unworldly idea; just look at the Green Bay Packers, a football team described this way:

a publicly owned, non-profit franchise in the NFL, owned by over 539,000 stockholders rather than a single individual or private group. Organized as Green Bay Packers, Inc. since 1923, the team is governed by a board of directors and a seven-member executive committee.  

National Today – San Diego / April 11, 2026

The sale of the San Diego Padres baseball team has turned into a high-stakes bidding war among billionaire investors, with four groups still in the running to acquire the franchise. The final bids are expected in April, and the winning bid could shatter the MLB record of $2.42 billion set by Steve Cohen’s purchase of the New York Mets in 2020.

Why it matters
The Padres sale reflects a broader trend of sports teams becoming prized assets for global investors looking to diversify their portfolios and build media and real estate empires. This raises questions about the future of sports ownership and whether local communities will have a meaningful stake as teams become global commodities.

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.

Monday, April 13: City Council, 2:00 p.m.

Agenda:

Item 200: Performance Audit of the Mission Bay and San Diego Regional Parks Improvement Funds, FY2024.

Why it matters: City audits should be performed in a timely manner. This item was heard at the Audit Committee meeting on November 12, 2025, and the City Auditor reported they “could not confirm that all Mission Bay Lease Revenue payments in FY2024 have been applied appropriately and the correct amount of funds were transferred…” There does not appear to be any updated information since then.

Item 251: Propositions for the November 3, 2026 Ballot Forwarded for 2nd Committee Review

Mission Bay Park is Not Surplus Land

By Donna Frye

A little over nine months ago, the issue of whether three properties in Mission Bay Park would be declared “surplus land” was being discussed at the City Council’s Land Use and Housing Committee. The committee voted to support that declaration and within a week, the public was informed about it by Geoff Page in the OB Rag.The three properties were Marina Village banquet and conference center, Dana Landing Marina and Sportsmen’s Seafood restaurant.

The reason cited by the city for the surplus land declaration was the State Surplus Land Act which required the city council to declare the properties “surplus” in order to request proposals for leases for a period longer than 15 years.

By declaring the land as surplus, first priority would be given to housing developers who could force the city into negotiations to build housing in Mission Bay Park.

The problem is that Mission Bay Park is dedicated public park land and San Diego City Charter Section 55 prohibits housing development in Mission Bay Park.

The public opposition to declare Mission Bay Park “surplus land” was instantaneous and unanimous. When the proposal made its way to the full city council for a vote on July 29, the item was continued instead of being approved.

Please join Ocean Beach Historical Society, Thursday, April 16, 2026, at 7:00 pm, for “What Ever Became of Dutch Flats“- an eye-opening excursion into the hidden history of the boggy estuary that once stretched between Old Town and Loma Portal – Dutch Flats.

The Log Staff / April 9, 2026

The Port of San Diego is continuing to advance its efforts to balance coastal protection with environmental restoration, announcing two new habitat-focused shoreline projects following the success of an earlier pilot program in San Diego Bay. The Board of Port Commissioners approved a $2.9 million construction contract on March 10, 2026, awarding the work to Power Engineering Construction Co. for improvements at Harbor Island Park and along the Chula Vista side of the Sweetwater Channel.

Much of San Diego Bay’s shoreline has long been reinforced with traditional infrastructure such as seawalls and riprap, which account for roughly three-quarters of the waterfront. While these methods are effective at preventing erosion, they offer little benefit to marine ecosystems. In response, the Port has been working to introduce nature-based alternatives that enhance habitat while maintaining the structural integrity needed to protect the coastline.

By Deborah Boss

It was disappointing learning about Akilah Weber Pierson’s Senate Bill 958 focused on a workaround to eliminate CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) review for Midway Rising. It’s slated to be one of the largest developments of affordable housing for the State of California.

Do people understand why CEQA was formed and why developers can’t just go around these protections?  Stan Kroenke certainly doesn’t understand.  He finds ways to work around it when he creates his multi-million dollar stadiums.

Midway Rising is a different kind of development because most of it will be housing and when homes sink into the ground, they have sewage problems or floods someone has to pay.  But, should it be the citizens of San Diego?  How many times should Save Our Access have to go to court to force the City to accept CEQA review?  The California Appellate Court has ruled twice and the California Supreme Court has denied hearing which is why Akilah Weber Pierson’s Bill 978 is coming to fruition in the legislature.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) was established in 1970 to require state and local agencies to identify, disclose, and mitigate the environmental impacts of public and private development projects. It was enacted to promote transparency, public participation, and environmental protection in land-use decisions. It is the state’s most important environmental law.