Category: Homelessness

Editor: Jack Hamlin wrote this a year ago. Jack led efforts back in 2009 and 2010 to bring all sides together in a series of community forums about homelessness. Now we repost it as the attitudes he focused on have arisen once again in the seaside village.

By Jack Hamlin

It is happening again. Three years ago we were able to come together as a community to try and begin to resolve the issues surrounding homelessness and the poor in Ocean Beach. I am not so naïve as to look back on that time as “Halcyon Days of Kumbaya,” in O.B. Rather it was a time during which we began to look for solutions, instead of blame and division. But we all have become complacent and are returning to the awful time of “Please Don’t Feed Our Bums.”

By Giovanni Ingolia

Beside the turmoil that has been happening at city hall (A subject I would much prefer to discuss as its implications are much greater), Ocean Beach has a controversy of its own- the marshmallow fight after the fireworks.

I want to remind everyone this is not an event sponsored by the OB Town Council, OB Planning Board, OB CDC, OB Historic Society or OB Main Street Association. I personally sit as a board member on two of the groups and follow every one of them. They all do great jobs. (Remember this is my opinion and not that of the boards I sit on.)

The marshmallow fight event has its supporters and its detractors. Both sides make good points that are hard to disagree with. One thing all groups have in common is this event shouldn’t be harmful to others and the mess should be cleaned up immediately due to the problems it creates to the environment. We need to all work together.

Problems with a Ban

When I first started to see calls for the ban of the marshmallow fight there were also calls to end the fireworks.

Banning the 4th of July fireworks, a tradition that honors our country’s birth, should never be stopped in OB.

The OB Rag has heard from two independent sources that an Ocean Beach gang attacked several homeless men Sunday night, July 14th, causing at least one serious injury, and then also attacked some locals. This occurred at approximately 2 a.m. on OB’s main street, Newport Avenue.

A group calling itself “OB Rats” assaulted and beat a couple of homeless guys, with one of the victims having his nose seriously injured from a kick in the face. He reportedly had his backpack stolen by the gang of young males that contained food for his dog. This attack occurred in the 4900 block of Newport Avenue.

The attackers then tipped over a trash container on the sidewalk along Newport Avenue. A local – a young man – who was sitting near the OB International Hostel, yelled at them to stop and have respect for OB.

The group then crossed the street and began assaulting him and at least one other male in front of the hostel. One of the attackers was thrown on the ground, and his buddies picked him up and left.

City Council to Take Up Faulconer’s Ordinance on July 8th

By JEC

The City of San Diego is about to ban a host of vehicles from parking on city streets. This coming Monday, July 8th, the City Council will consider a new ordinance sponsored by 2nd District Council member Kevin Faulconer that prohibits city residents from parking oversized, non-motorized or recreational vehicles on any street within the city limits.

There are exceptions, of course. Vehicles performing service to the property or loading/unloading; government or public utility vehicles; buses used to transport youths or the disabled (party buses get no free pass); and, any vehicle displaying a valid permit.

To issue permits involves creating a new bureaucracy.

A permit will be good for only 24 hours

By Michelle Hope

I am a California Native and lived many years in Ocean Beach – my People’s card starts with a 1 4. My family owns property on West Point Loma and I still have family here.

For 7 years I traveled the country on my motorcycle working at Rallies to support myself and living in a tent. I dig the nomadic lifestyle and you could read some of my work on the internet of adventure stories of living gypsy. I came home last year and decided to stay to complete a dream of being a Holistic Health Practitioner at a school. So I enrolled and got myself an RV to live in while I am here in school. It is my pursuit of happiness. Everything I owned fit on my motorcycle for 7 years – always close, I am accustomed to it.

Amy’s Take ……On life in OB

By Amy Hall

About two weeks ago, I did it.

I finally shot myself out of the LA cannon sailing straight for San Diego. Ten long years was spent clawing and scratching my way through to my goals in the Music Industry. I had a nervous breakdown just to end up taking a good long hard look at who Amy was becoming, in the mirror, in my room, at Motel 6.

My two dogs and I were through with rat race and struggle.

It is Christmas, 2012, and I sit in the sunlight of the early morning and welcome the day. For many years I have been alone on Christmas morning; my children, parents, sister and I celebrate Christmas on its eve. My children spend the day with her mother and later in the day, my parents, sister and I have dinner at my cousin’s home. As a result, the gift I receive Christmas morning is time. Time to sit and reflect, time to meditate, time to just be.

As a Catholic Christian of the Franciscan brand, and a student of Buddhism and the Tao, I spend much of my time thinking about the concept of compassion; what it means and how to let flow from me and perhaps by example, to others. I know in my imperfection, I fall short on many occasions, but I try.

Former Homeless Man Thanks OB for Teaching Him Love and Patience

Editor: The following post was originally published as a Letter on December 22nd. We thought it was so poignant, that we decided to post it as an article and “Reader Rant”.

My name is Mic D. I was homeless in OB from about 1989 to 1991. I “lived” near dog beach at a fire pit for about a year, and then in a dugout in Robb Field for another year. It was a most difficult time of life for me.

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.

Here are some short articles recently published about Ocean Beach and its denizens.

Ron – the Rock Stacker

Dave Rice, at the San Diego Reader tells us about Ron, the OBcean who stacks rocks in his “spare” time. …

Two Women Seriously Injured in Fall from Sunset Cliffs

Two women were seriously injured Saturday when they fell off Sunset Cliffs near Ladera Street in South OB (haha – Point Loma).

Raccoons Give OB Tenant and Property Manager Headache – Was it the Cat?

The raccoon noise at the Maggards’ Narragansett Avenue apartment in Ocean Beach began in early May. They were often awakened around three in the morning to a racket above their bedroom.

We’re Reminded Why OB Has Lifeguards – OB’s Deadliest Day at the Beach

The Voice of San Diego reminds us in an older post of theirs why we have lifeguards at all.

Having just gotten off the phone with Richard Dhu, program manager at the San Diego River Park Foundation, I found I had to totally re-orient the article I was writing about on whether his clean river program rousts the homeless from the San Diego River area. It does not do that, he said.

I had called him because of a U-T San Diego article written by Mike Lee about the Foundation’s latest river clean-up. In his article, posted July 27th, Lee – it appears – misrepresented what the Foundation is doing. In his opening sentence, Lee spells out his perspective:

“The San Diego River Park Foundation is launching a yearlong cleanup initiative in the Mission Valley Preserve to reduce homeless camps and garbage that gathers along the river’s lower stretch.” (My emphasis.)

“That’s not what we’re doing,” Richard told me this morning when I asked him about Lee’s article. Richard told me that is not what he told Lee. There is nothing about dealing with the homeless in his group’s mission statement, plus, Richard said, they receive grant monies and not any for rousting homeless people.

Editor: This rant is from John M Williams, our good friend, former OBcean, former writer for the original OB Rag, who now sits in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, and works as an English instructor. He has, on occasion, even written his column, “Riyadh Calling”. Here is his rant – America from outside.

From Stitt-on-Schink, Republic of FarVonna

Do you not ponder how things came to this?

By “this,” I mean:

1. Corporations are people.

2. Habeus corpus is no more.

3. Once labeled a “terrorist,” one, regardless of any thing else, can legally be killed anywhere on the planet. The “right” and “might” of the Federal Government of the United States of America (FGUSA) to “defend freedom, democracy, and the American way” knows, respects, acknowledges no boundaries. In fact, the FGUSA routinely shrugs off the death of innocents while in pursuit of its own safety and targets. Oh yeah, they do sometimes (for the cameras) say, “Sorry.” and send a check. Check any news service virtually any week if you dispute this claim. My advice here is: Don’t be a target.