Category: History

“Sanders said another savings in the works will come from using managed competition to lower the cost of city employees performing jobs that private companies can do for less. One such job is residential trash services. San Diego city employees are paid to collect trash. Most other California cities contract with a private company and residents pay for their own trash services.

“We don’t have to have government employees mow the laws in our parks. We don’t have to have government employees pick up trash,” Sanders said. Mayor Jerry Sanders reviews his legacy at La Jolla luncheon La Jolla Light 9/11/12

Three months to go in the last term of our first strong mayor — Jerry Sanders, and the legacy polishing tour has begun.

This is a continuation of my series, examining the timely issues dear to OBceans of “What’s OB’s True Birthday?” and “Who Is It’s True Founder?”

In Part One, a discussion was begun on the different theories on the birth dates for Ocean Beach – with the main one being that OB’s birthday stems from a land rush celebration hosted by developer William Carlson and his partner Frank J Higgins in 1887.

The Deafness Before the Storm

By Kurt Eichenwald / New York Times/ September 10, 2012

On Aug. 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a classified review of the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda. That morning’s “presidential daily brief” — the top-secret document prepared by America’s intelligence agencies — featured the now-infamous heading: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” A few weeks later, on 9/11, Al Qaeda accomplished that goal.

By Kali Kat / Special to the OB Rag

With the one year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street just around the corner on September 17, and many other cities’ occupy anniversaries falling in the weeks just after, like Occupy San Diego’s one year anniversary on October 7, the question being begged is:

“What is the current state of the Occupy movement?” If you go down to the Civic Center or your local City Hall, are people still living there?

The Occupy movement, including Occupy San Diego (OSD), is still alive and well, but no, there are not people still living there – well not people flying the Occupy flag anyways.

ACLU Opens up Office to Educate and Mobilize Latino Voters

This Friday, September 7th, up in northern San Diego County in the City of Escondido, there will be a ribbon-cutting celebration of the opening of a pedestrian plaza.

On the City’s official website, the new Plaza is advertised as:

“a destination for people of all ages to sit and relax, visit local businesses or engage with members of the community in a vibrant public space.”

It’s interesting that city officials are pushing the plaza as a “vibrant public space” because the whole issue of public space – and free speech – …

The Ocean Beach Planning Board has been challenging the City of San Diego of late for granting variances to property owners along the 5100 block of West Point Loma Boulevard – which allow the owners to bypass the Ocean Beach Precise Plan – which is OB’s development guidebook.

Here are a series of articles we published on the issue – come inside.

Editor: The following hilarious article is lifted word for word right out of the July 1968 issue of the San Diego Free Press, and it is not satire nor tongue-in-cheek.

O. B. “Citizens” Aroused

The solid citizenry of Ocean Beach are aroused. For some time now, there has been a virtual state of war existing between businessmen and merchants, on the one hand, and hippies on the other. The growing hippie community in OB has been met with growing alarm on the part of the established citizenry.

By Duane Roberts / the Orange Juice Blog / Originally published August 12, 2012

CONTAINING A REBELLION: According to a highly confidential Anaheim Police Department “Incident Action Report” dated Friday, July 27, 2012, the working-class Mexican neighborhood of Leatrice/Wakefield, located about a mile away from the Disneyland and California Adventure theme parks, was considered by top brass to be a “hot zone” where officers were to use “civil unrest protocols” at all times.

In praise of the American worker

by Lorena Gonzalez

As a single mom, on my busiest mornings I struggle to ensure that everyone’s teeth are brushed, breakfast is eaten, lunches are made, the kids get to school on time and I get into work. On those mornings, it’s the barista at the local coffee shop who quickly passes me a hot cup of coffee with plenty of room for milk that makes things a little more bearable. She is my daily reminder that no matter what we do, work connects us all; we depend on one another’s work.

How is climate changing?

Warming of the climate system now is unequivocal, according to many different kinds of evidence. Observations show increases in globally averaged air and ocean temperatures, as well as widespread melting of snow and ice and rising globally averaged sea level. Surface temperature data for Earth as a whole, including readings over both land and ocean, show an increase of about 0.8°C (1.4°F) over the period 1901-2010 and about 0.5°C (0.9°F) over the period 1979–2010 (the era for which satellite-based temperature data are routinely available).

This is the next section in my continuing series of early Ocean Beach history, as we investigate the “true” birthday of OB and review the contenders for Ocean Beach’s “founder”.

In Part One, I discussed the different possible birthdates of Ocean Beach and highlighted the different theories, the main one being that OB’s birthday stems from a …

Arctic sea-ice extent has fallen to its lowest level on record, according to the US National Snow and Ice Data Center. Scientists say that the loss of the reflective ice could result in even warmer surface temperatures on Earth.

By Wynne Parry / Christian Science Monitor / August 27, 2012

Arctic sea ice, the white cap that covers the watery northern edge of the planet, has melted back to a record low level.