Category: History

Does the “Green OB” still have meaning in the OB of the 21st century? With only T-shirts bearing the “Green OB” nowadays, the verdant graphic with the letters “O” and “B” with the peace symbol being held up by a fist is more of a concept than a thing in Ocean Beach. But back in the 1970’s it had real meaning, and OBcians placed it in the windows of their homes.

What did it mean? What did it stand for?

The story of the “Green OB” goes back to the inception of the original OB People’s Rag, the hard copy predecessor from the seventies to this website.

(Author’s note – while this is a brief write-up on Ruth Varney Held’s Beach Town: Early Days in Ocean Beach, – originally published in 1975 and updated in 1984 and 1990 – a history that gracefully glosses over any social improprieties, this article’s title has been slightly modified in order to shamelessly trick you into clicking through to the full post…)

Having been itching to read a book recommended to me several weeks ago at a Rag-sponsored picnic commemorating the Collier Park Riots, I finally headed into the library last week to pick up a copy of Beach Town…delayed by at least two weeks’ searching for and fretting over my lost library card that ended up costing me only $2 to replace. The book is out of print and used copies are retailing for as much as $35 at Amazon, but the OB branch library has at least three copies on hand.

By Dave Maass / San Diego CityBeat

Today’s labor unions stand on the shoulders of giants. And those giants stood upon soapboxes at the corner of Fifth Avenue and E Street, Downtown, in 1912, braving arrests and violence in one of the most turbulent clashes over free speech in American history.

Jan. 8, 2012, will mark the 100th anniversary of the San Diego City Council’s passage of an ordinance banning public speeches in a six-block area, including the Downtown area …

Wealthy but benevolent leader of “geraniums” well-known for “City Beautiful” concept and for gifts of parks to San Diego

Originally posted June 1, 2011

Late last week, Patty and I took a guided tour of the Marston House and its surrounding gardens, sited on the north end of Balboa Park. Tours are available 10 to 5, Friday through Sunday for $8 apiece. (Hours and prices have changed for the summer season, see the information below)

We took the tour of the over-one-hundred-year house and then walked the gardens – as all visitors do – on our own. The house tour took nearly an hour and it was worth it to get a glimpse into the lifestyle of one of San Diego’s early and more benevolent oligarchs – George Marston, his spouse Anna, and their children – four daughters and one son.

George Marston – you should know – was one of San Diego’s “leading” businessmen in the early 1900s. His opulent downtown department store at 5th and C streets was legendary, …

This is the second in a series, and here’s Part 1.

The Wilson Era Begins With Police Reform

A few years later, during the early seventies, a new “centrist” Republican mayor – Pete Wilson, still wearing the mantle of an advocate for “controlled growth” -, made efforts to reform the police department. But he was up against old Chief Ray Hoobler, a veteran of the old school of hard knocks – literally. Hoobler, while not media or PR savvy, was notorious for using his brown-suits to clamp down on minorities, gays, Navy sailors, young people in general, and the growing population of hippies.

In 1975, Chief Hoobler was forced to retire because he was caught lying to the City Council. This worked for Pete Wilson as it then allowed him to appoint a community-policing “reformer” as chief – Bill Kolender.

It’s been a week now since San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne went before the TV cameras and other reporters last Wednesday, May 9th, and stated:

“I want to personally apologize to every citizen of the city of San Diego, as this behavior is not expected, nor condoned, by me or anyone in the San Diego Police Department.”

He was referring, of course, to the recent spate of allegations – he called it a “unprecedented spike” – of officer misconduct involving nine individuals from his police force, just within the last several months. Eye brows were raising all over town each time the media reported another cop arrested. There had been arrests for DUI, domestic violence, rape, excessive force, ….

May 4, 1970: Four students murdered, nine wounded by National Guardsmen, on the campus of Kent State in Kent, Ohio.

Allison Krause, William Schroeder, Jefferey Miller and Sandra Scheuer were killed in the 13 second fusillade of 67 shots fired by the Guardsmen, after an order to fire was given.

(Originally posted May 4, 2010)
I was sitting on my porch this afternoon pondering the meaning of Kent State. I had more tears last year when I wrote a post about it. Yet – here it is – the 40th anniversary. Kent State, hmmm, OB, hmmmm. Something was there.

And then I figured it out! I figured out how Ocean Beach is connected to the Kent State massacre of May 4th, 1970. Or vice versa.

I was in college when it happened. I was attending UCSD and in my senior-year when it all came down. I had been involved in the campus anti-Vietnam movement and was deeply affected by Kent State,

Jim Miller is a professor who practices what he teaches.

Each semester, Miller guides dozens of students through his English and Labor Studies classes at San Diego City College. He has played key roles in literary projects such as the school’s International Book Fair as well as the San Diego Writers Collective. He serves as a political action vice president and does community outreach for the American Federation of Teachers Local #1931.

And as if he wasn’t busy enough already, Miller also finds the time to crank out the occasional book.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl—and now Fukushima.

This latest and hopefully last nuclear disaster ironically has struck the very land first devastated by two US atomic bombs.

Unlike those first two horrors, however, those of late in Japan were never supposed to happen.

The six nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, like all others around the planet, were deemed safe and robust.

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the end of the March for California’s Future, a 48 day, 352-mile march through the Central Valley to the State Capitol. There, on a rainy day in Sacramento, I was one of many union folks, students, and religious and community leaders who spoke to a crowd of thousands gathered to protest the ever-more draconian cuts to education and social services.

All the way from Los Angeles to Sacramento we carried the message that California needs a government and economy that works for everyone, not just the rich.

The Ocean Beach Historical Society Presents:

Author Linda Pequegnat’s “This Day in San Diego History”

At the PL United Methodist Church – 1984 Sunset Cliffs Blvd. (O.B.)