Category: History

Height Limit Critic Sparks Debate But Important Exemptions Need to Be Acknowledged

This is the first part in a two-part series on the latest debate about the 30 foot height limit.

New Year’s confetti and the champagne glasses used celebrating the end of 2012 – a year that marked the 40th anniversary of the 30 foot height limit in San Diego – had barely been cleaned up when the assault on that height limit began. It all started in a January 3rd Voice of San Diego article questioning any positive attributes of the 30 foot limit.

Not exactly like a “D-Day” type assault, but more like a tunnel being dug – a tunnel designed to undermine the coastal height limit of 1972, writer Andrew Keatts questions the basic character of the height limit, declares that its essential rigidity will be necessarily and periodically questioned by a city yearning to break free, and gives voice to its critics. The critics believe that because of the 30 foot height limits, all kinds of problems plague San Diego, with rents and property values at the coast being too high.

In 2011 OB Woman’s apartment damaged by neighbor’s fire, legal pot found, she’s arrested and son taken from her

Editor: There’s been some renewed interest in a November 2011 incident that occurred in Ocean Beach, resulting in the arrest of Larissa Nearing – aka Larissa Danielli- aWe repost it here.
By Toni Samanie / Salem-News.com

Larissa Nearing’s story is a poignant illustration of what can happen when you are busy living your life.

On November 3, 2011, Larissa began what seemed like a routine day. She had taken her baby to daycare in the morning and then went to work.

In a recent OB Rag poll, nearly three out of 4 respondents indicated their support for the thirty foot height limit – with a good portion wanting to see the limit extend throughout the City of San Diego.

58% supported it and agreed that it was “passed in the public interest by the public”; another 15% want to see it “expanded throughout much of the rest of” San Diego, and obviously support it, for a supportive total of nearly 73%.

The Ocean Beach Town Council has been sponsoring a contest for a new OB Entry Way sign, with allegations that the current one is falling apart due to termites and weather, etc. The Town Council board – a private organization – has decided on five finalists for a new sign to grace the entry way to Ocean Beach.

Only Town Council members will be allowed to vote – on the sign that represents the entire community. The Council is asking folks to go to their website and then make constructive comments on their facebook page. You can also make comments here to this article, and you can vote for the finalists in our poll – started today, Jan. 24th.

Come inside to see the finalists. Here is the OBTC statement on the finalists – this is from their website: …

By sub-committee

The corral for easy police DUI checkpoints, and multi-other crime/infractions, from public urination and vandalism, to armed robberies and violence, due to the alcohol party ambiance that been the sustained reputation of Pacific Beach for the past 20+ years , has become the focus for a grassroots citizen protest in the form of, yes, a good old PUBLIC PETITION …

Every year around this time, San Diego and Southern California enjoy a week or two of “unseasonably” warm weather. Temperatures reach into the 70’s and like this week, even the lower 80’s. Surfers grab their boards and head for the waves in droves. People flock to the beaches in swimsuits and actually go into the ocean.

We call it Primavera Falsa – False Spring – and it happens every January.

As we celebrate the rich legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I am drawn back to my favorite speech of his, “Where Do We Go From Here?”. This was Dr. King’s last address as President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, given toward to end of his life in 1967. It outlines two core principles of King’s unfulfilled legacy that united the questions of racial injustice with those of economic inequality and rampant militarism.

Late last week I had called Officer David Surweilo, the Community Relations Officer for Ocean Beach, for any updates on the San Diego police investigations into the various assaults and violence, including some sexual assaults, that had occurred in OB since August. I had emailed him a list of the violent and sexual assaults. Surweilo promised a report this week – now, that’s no easy feat, as Surweilo is the community relations officer for all of Western Division.

There’s only a giant mound of dirt there now, but that old blue building at the intersection of Santa Monica Avenue and Ebers Street – recently demolished – is being replaced by four single-story and single family residences – each with a garage.

By John Lawrence / San Diego Free Press

The average temperature for 2012 was 55.3 degrees Fahrenheit, 3.2 degrees above normal and a full degree higher than the previous warmest year recorded — 1998 — NOAA said in a recent report. All 48 states in the contiguous U.S. had above-average annual temperatures last year, including 19 that broke annual records, from Connecticut through Utah.

It was also a historic year for “extreme” weather, scientists with the federal agency said.

The Ocean Beach Historical Society Presents:

Photographer Joe Ewing

ALL SURF!!

DOES O.B. GET GOOD SURF?

JOE HAS THE PHOTOS TO PROVE IT!

Thursday, January 17th, 7 PM

P.L. United Methodist Church,
1984 Sunset Cliffs Blvd., O.B.

It doesn’t come as a shock to know that OBceans are divided over the future of the Police Trailer in the OB Pier parking lot.

The OB Rag just ran our weekly poll and with a fairly good number of responses, and our readers tell us that about one-third – 32% – want to keep the trailer where it currently is and want the Police/ City to proceed with the Coastal Development permit.

Just under a third – 31% – want to move the trailer, but about one-sixth of that one-third (or 5% overall) are okay with it in its current location on a temporary basis.