Category: Life Events

2. “Cases for a Child” – $350, the group of local sewers make pillow cases for cancer kids at Rady’s hospital; Nancy McHenry accepted the award.

3. Sunset Cliffs Surfing Association – $500 – goes to support the organization, which is holding a kids’ surfing contest at the OB Pier on August 27th.

By Jean Spengel , FIDO Boardmember

I would just like to reply to Ms. Swink’s editorial, ‘Improvements Needed to Expand Access’

She obviously thinks that people enjoying the beach with their off-leash dogs do not matter,- they should be replaced by other users she wants to bring into the area.

This is in spite of the fact that the 90 acre fenced off-leash area is the most heavily used space in all of Mission Bay Park.

Every day, 365 days a year, hundreds to thousands of tax paying citizens use this area to exercise with their dogs.

While there are over 40,000 acres of parkland in San Diego only about 40 of those acres (not including Fiesta Island) are available for off-leash use. That is about 1% of the public parkland.

By Ernie McCray

Maria and I just spent 38 days in Europe with a stop in Philly on the way home, a vacation that had a combination of both joy and misery and ended with notions of hope.

It began with a man driving us from the Madrid-Barajas Airport to our hotel, talking about politics all the while. He wanted us to know that Spaniards, as we Americans do, have a few Donald Trumps around town. He had a lot to say about our president, a man he admired “for how he stepped up and got the U.S. out of the recession.”
All that made us feel very welcomed and eager to explore the city. Then came Orlando, news that weakened our knees. Our tragedies, kind of, I think, seem even more dismal when you see them from far away, in another culture. You kind of feel that it reflects on you in some way.

By Averi Melcher / San Diego UrbDeZine /June 29, 2016

Last month, I accepted the challenge to camp out for a total of 31 nights between May and September. It’s not for any big campaign or some sort of a contest – just a gentle nudge in the rear to remind you that you don’t have to sail away on a month-long sabbatical to reconnect with nature.

I really think that’s the best way to do it – a night here, a weekend there. Getting out when and wherever you can.

A Good Samaritan by the name of Sean Hanrahan saved a woman after she fell off Sunset Cliffs into the ocean, Tuesday night, July 19th.

Around 8:15 pm at the end of Del Monte Avenue, the woman, with friends, somehow fell from the cliffs into the ocean and was immediately pulled out further by the rip current.

Sean Hanrahan, who lives nearby, saw that the woman apparently having trouble in the waves, and saw her hit her head against rocks. Hanrahan jumped in and kept her afloat until lifeguards arrived.
appeared to be struggling in the water and her head was hitting against the rocks. He jumped in to try and help her before lifeguards arrived to the scene.

* PB Skateboarder Not Expected to Survive After Being Struck Monday Night
* Woman says she was roofied, left paralyzed after drinking at Ocean Beach bar
* How to Protect Yourself From Date Rape Drug
* Pregnant Woman and Baby Injured in Car Crash
* Naked Man Arrested
* Navy pipeline project progressing to completion in 2017
* Kevin Gormly Loses Battle to Cancer
* Chichiuaua Dies at Dog Beach – Victim’s Owner Wants Changes

By Jim Miller

Where we live is who we are. Surely, the country, state, city, and neighborhoods we occupy profoundly shape us, but does not the house craft our being in the most intimate of ways?

Gaston Bachelard observes in The Poetics of Space:

“For our house is our corner of the world. As has often been said, it is our first universe, a real cosmos in every sense of the word.”

Hence, the kind of space we choose to live in has a particularly profound impact on our identity. Bachelard again notes,

“Thus the dream house must possess every virtue. However spacious, it must also be a cottage, a dove-cote, a nest, a chrysalis. Intimacy needs the heart of a nest.”

By Frank Gormlie

Perhaps you’ve been too busy with summer to notice, but there’s been a ‘quiet’ debate going on recently in certain circles – including the op-ed pages of the San Diego Union-Tribune – over the future of Fiesta Island.

Fiesta Island – you know that flat and sandy piece of land that juts out into Mission Bay – it’s not really an island as it’s connected with the rest of San Diego by a narrow land bridge with an asphalt road – where people bike, do day-camps on the sand, water or jet-ski, or take their horses, have fires in the firepits, – oh, and who take their dogs to the great off-leash area on the Island.

The land of Island Fiesta itself is what’s left from all the sludge dredged up during the 1950’s development of Mission Bay Park.

There’s been for years an ongoing debate between dog owners who have formed a group Fiesta Island Dog Owners (FIDO) and others who want to see Fiesta Island developed with “improvements”. And the now the debate is ramping up ….

When 10,000 people camp out together at the Rainbow Gathering, staying groovy can be a challenge.

by Livia Gershon / Atlas Obscura / July 11, 2016

When I wandered into an internet forum for members of the Rainbow Family of Living Light and started asking about going to their long-running national gathering, the responses were friendly, but a little unnerving. In the midst of a series of messages about Rainbow etiquette, one person briefly noted that “some bad things have a potential 2 happen. If ya ever have trouble just yell ‘shanti sena’, & some help will be on the way.”

Suspect Imprisoned 6 Years Ago for Lighting Homeless Man on Fire

The suspect in the serial attacks on homeless men was arrested Thursday, July 7th, and the Ocean Beach victim of one of his fatal attacks has been identified.

Anthony Alexander Padgett, 36, was arrested by San Diego Police in Chula Vista about 10 a.m. Thursday. The arrest occurred near H Street and Broadway. He was booked on 5 felony counts altogether, two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder and one count of arson.

San Diego homicide Capt. David Nisleit told the media :

“At this time, we have probable cause to arrest Mr. Padgett for these heinous crimes.”

The other victims of the vicious attacks on homeless men have now been identified.

In the Midway District of the 4th of July, the killer assaulted his second victim who has been identified as Manuel Mason, 61, who was stabbed and found at Greenwood and Kurtz streets at about 4:50 a.m. The good news is that he is expected to survive, but is still in in critical condition.

An hour or so later near tennis courts at Robb Athletic Field in Ocean Beach, Shawn Longley, 41, was found dead with wounds to the upper torso.

Man Falls to His Death from Sunset Cliffs

An unidentified man fell to his death, Tuesday, July 5th, off Sunset Cliffs, near Ladera Street. …

Is Reader Article on “Aggressive Homeless” Inappropriate Right Now?

There is a new SD Reader article out, published online on July 6th, about how OB is on edge – not because of the killer of homeless on the loose, but because of “aggressive transients”. Badtaste? …

Poke Hotspot Heading to OB

Poke is currently blowing up in San Diego, and the latest hotspot will be take-out hub It’s Raw Poke Shop, heading to Ocean Beach by early August.