Serving OB, the Peninsula and San Diego Beaches
See this great video of the early days of Point Loma High School – celebrating its 85th anniversary back in 2010. The school opened in 1925, and this video was made to commemorate it. Noah Trafolla narrates the vid. … Come inside to view video.
By Mercy Baron
Rocky’s Surf Shop on the corner of Abbott and Muir, in Ocean Beach, closed it’s doors September 15 after serving the surf community for an impressive 25 years. Owner, Doug Yates, was very forthcoming in my interview with him on the state of the surfing industry in Southern California today, and how it has affected his decision to close the doors to a surf shop destination.
Rocky’s was originally started in 1990 by original owner Robin Marion and was then bought by John Holly. Doug started as an employee about 12 years ago, and then bought it from John about 5 years ago in 2008.
Doug stated that in 2005, Clark Foam of Mission Viejo, the world’s largest supplier of surfboard blanks, went out of business, and they accounted for 80% of the blanks being made in the surf world. To fill that need, money poured into the industry with boards being made in China and Taiwan, which were made so cheaply, that it created a glut of boards.
This is the fourth and final part of my series on “What is the true birthday of OB and who is its true founder?” (Here are Parts One, Two, and Three.)
Besides J.M. DePuy and the partners Billy Carlson and Frank Higgins, there’s another historical character who walked across Ocean Beach’s stage, who had such an effect on the development of the community that some consider him the “true founder” of the village. And that is Col. David Charles Collier – who Collier Park up in northeast OB is named after.
Although Collier came later than our main contender for the title of the community’s “father” – William “Smiling Billy” Carlson, he had as much to do with what turned into our little town by the sea as anyone else. And perhaps more so.
“Charlie” Collier History
Ocean Beach and Col DC Collier first intersected in 1887, when young “Charlie” – then only 16 – bought one of Billy Carlson’s lots in Ocean Beach. The lot was close to the cliffs, over on Pacific – now Coronado Avenue – and Bacon Street. …
Some people go on and on about labor unions as if they’re some kind of STD, so un-hip to the reality that the Labor Movement is us, We the People.
Who else labors?
As far as my relations with unions is concerned, if it hadn’t been for the San Diego Teachers Union I wouldn’t have enjoyed the time of a lifetime, a period of three years where I put work aside and took a “Parental Leave,” the first such leave taken by a man in the school district.
I don’t know how that wonderful opportunity made it through all the stancing and dancing required to get a contract signed. I think it must have happened as kind of an after thought, something put on the table as part of a tooth fairy like wish to mess with management’s mind, and the district must have gone along with it in a “Whatever, if it sails your boat” frame of mind, knowing they weren’t going to give up much more. That’s how negotiations go in the labor movement sometimes.
Book Review: Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps
Author: Greg Palast / Introduction by: Robert F. Kennedy Jr
Seven Stories Press / Release Date: September 18, 2012
Ten elderly nuns get kicked out of an Indiana polling station for not having driver’s licenses or other state ID.
Electronic voting machines in Georgia report massive malfunctions – but only in Democratic-leaning low income districts, where the hot, humid conditions of polling stations aren’t conducive to electronics. The ones in wealthy, Republican-leaning districts are protected in well kept, air-conditioned buildings – and have no problems registering votes.
Thomas Brown, a black Floridian, has his name purged from voter rolls because a white man with the same name and birthday once committed a felony.
Foreclosure firm Trott & Trott shares an office building with John McCain’s Detroit campaign headquarters. Whenever Trott completes a foreclosure, the McCain campaign challenges the foreclosure victim’s voter registration to have it purged from Michigan’s voter rolls: if they’ve been kicked out of their home, the address they used to register must not be valid.
The Ocean Beach Historical Society Presents:
Author Richard L. Carrico’s
Thurs., Sept. 20th, at 7 PM
At P.L. United Methodist Church, 1984 Sunset Cliffs Blvd., O.B.
From 1934 to 1936 a ring of Japanese agents and spies enlisted the help of U.S. Navy Personnel to conduct espionage for the Japanese government.
The centers of the spy activities were Washington D. C., San Diego, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
I shakily tried to take a picture with my AT&T 3G cell phone of a cactus painted by Mario Chacon. I acquired it from him a while back in Chicano Park. I had to shade the painting from the glare of a blue sky with the sun shining high and bright and far and wide and finally I got about as good a picture as I was going to get no matter how hard I had tried.
Trite as it may seem my persistence in getting this snapshot was based on Mario telling me that the protrusions reaching out from the cactus spoke to the persistence of the indigenous people.
“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.
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.
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 – …
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