Category: Media

Recent closures and management changes highlight challenges facing local musicians and student communities

by Ashley Bueno Leon / The Daily Aztec -SDSU / October 20, 2026

Independent music venues across San Diego face uncertain futures as leasing issues, ownership changes and closures reshape spaces that act as community hubs for local musicians and showgoers.

In August and September alone, three independent music venues underwent major changes to their operations. The venues face ambiguous circumstances that have raised questions about the long-term stability of mid-size and smaller musical spaces as a whole.

Closures and lease changes
Brick by Brick, a heavy metal venue in the Bay Park neighborhood, closed its doors Aug. 13. Although the owners did not respond to repeated requests for additional comment from The Daily Aztec, the closure followed a lease dispute, according to a report by ABC 10 News.

The Bancroft Bar, a dive bar and live music venue located in Spring Valley, finalized its run in August. Its website, which once highlighted upcoming shows, now emphasizes the venue as the past home for live music and cold drinks, displaying a list of past shows from 2013 to 2026.

In Ocean Beach, Winstons Beach Club, though not completely out of the live music scene, held its final show under the Winstons name on Sept. 26 before reopening under new management, according to the venue’s Instagram.

Alex Gibney’s documentary “Musk” shows a man who has delivered important innovations for the public good, and who now holds a dangerous concentration of power over our data, our democracy and our idea of what it means to be human.

By Rev. Michael J. Christensen

My tech friend Michael Dotson and I watched Alex Gibney’s new documentary “Musk” at Fashion Valley last weekend, so you won’t have to. It runs nearly four hours. It is meticulously researched and theologically provocative. Musk did not cooperate, though his father and other family members did, so Gibney uses an AI-generated avatar to speak Musk’s own recorded words. The effect is eerie, dare I say, demonic, and fitting for a film about a man who wants to remake humanity through technology.

The film credits what Musk has built, with help from administrations of both parties. SpaceX’s reusable rockets slashed the cost of reaching orbit and now carry NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. Tesla pushed the auto industry toward electric vehicles. Starlink connects rural communities and disaster zones, and it has been a lifeline for Ukraine since 2022.

But the film also catalogs promises that never arrived: a crewed Mars mission by 2024, a million robotaxis by 2020, and fully self-driving cars that are still “next year.” And it shows a growing pattern of social and political control.

This morning, Tuesday, a Rag reader was leaving one of the local dog parks and saw these signs posted illegally on Nimitz by the dog park in the OB / Point Loma area.

The signs clearly state that “Nicole Crosby stands with MAYOR TODD GLORIA.” The small print says they’ve been paid for by the Lincoln Club Business League PAC.

Why would someone place them on the sides of local roads? Who benefits? It’s not Gloria’s supporters so it must be Crosby’s opponent in the campaign for the District 2 city council seat, Richard Bailey — or else his supporters, like the Lincoln Club. He can claim denial. They can claim they didn’t put them on the side of the road.

Check out this short video by OBcean Phil Rockhold of the “No Kings” event in Ocean Beach on Saturday, October 17th.

By Debbie L. Sklar / Special to the OB Rag

A December 1928 photograph captures the Strand Theatre on Newport Avenue when it was only about 3 years old, its Mission Revival architecture standing prominently along one of Ocean Beach’s emerging commercial streets.

The theater opened Nov. 6, 1925, replacing the earlier Ocean Theatre and giving the growing beach community a larger movie house. According to the city of San Diego’s Ocean Beach Community Plan, The Strand became an important neighborhood landmark and helped spur development along Newport Avenue. The building was designated Historic Resource Site No. 561 on Dec. 20, 2002.

The Strand arrived at an interesting moment in American entertainment. Movies were evolving rapidly, and theaters were becoming gathering places as well as destinations for the latest films. The Strand served children and adults, with Saturday serials for younger audiences and new movies for evening crowds. A plaque on the building recalls the weekly screenings and the black-and-white sundaes sold at the neighboring Strand Sweet Shop.

For generations of Ocean Beach residents, The Strand was much more than a neighborhood movie theater. By the late 1970s, it had developed a following for its eclectic programming, including Friday and Saturday night screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It also showed films such as Woodstock, The Endless Summer, Gimme Shelter and Rust Never Sleeps, according to OB Rag’s retrospective on the theater.

By Paul Krueger

When I tell friends that Nextdoor “temporarily suspended” my account for no good reason, they just roll their eyes and ask why I waste my time on that social media network.

They’re correct that Nextdoor has its share of trolls, extremists, and dim-wits, but those aggravations are no worse than what I encounter on “X.” (I post almost exclusively about news and politics, and find Facebook users to be the most engaging and civil of those three sites.)

Nextdoor’s neighborhood focus also has distinct advantages: I can post information about issues and problems in my Talmadge/ Kensington/ College Area, generate interest and attendance at meetings, answer other resident’s questions, and get new and helpful information from readers who share a common interest.

When one of my Nextdoor posts generates significant interest and discussion, it really can go “viral.” I’ve had seven thousand or more local views on an issue, and my local viewership routinely exceeds what I get on X or Facebook. If someone disputes a post, I respond politely with the facts as I see them. And if my attempts at a meaningful conversation go south, I just ignore it and move on.

By Kate Callen

An outspoken supporter of San Diego City Council District 2 candidate Richard Bailey has used her position as a Nextdoor moderator to sanction a Bailey political rival on the social media platform, according to documentation obtained by the Rag.

Margaret Virissimo, a founder of the pro-Bailey group San Diego United Communities, engaged in a tense Nextdoor interaction on March 20 with D2 primary candidate Mandy Havlik. What began as an argument escalated into an official Nextdoor reprimand.

In a screenshot of the exchange sent to the Rag, Virissimo said, “Mandy, you are proving to be exactly who you are, a disrespectful hot head.” Havlik responded, “You’re upset because you are being challenged with the truth.”

Virissimo then filed a formal complaint against Havlik for violating Nextdoor rules. And in her authority as a volunteer moderator on the platform, she voted with Matt Capron, another pro-Bailey moderator, to issue a warning to Havlik about using unsuitable language.

By JW August / The SD Monitor

The work of a dozen artists, Black, white, Latino, can now be seen on large murals painted on underpasses along Imperial Avenue in San Diego.

The paintings speak to the history and the culture of the neighborhoods that surround them.

The new artwork is visible to anyone driving on the Imperial Avenue underpass at Interstate 15, or on the same street at the 19th Street underpass at Interstate 5.

Some 280,000 vehicles a week pass these two sections of Imperial, according to the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Census Program.

A ribbon-cutting commemorating the murals was held Saturday at 37 20th Street and included live music and refreshments.

Four years in the making, the project was made possible when Caltrans approved $270,000 in funding that would go toward paying artists from the local community to create colorful and vibrant impressions of their communities.

Here is a short video by Charles Landon on the 2026 Oktoberfest held in Ocean Beach.
Come inside.

By Kate Callen

In the 24 hours since the Rag published “Bailey Backers Get Belligerent,” the story has received over 1,400 views and 13 comments.

That’s not unusual for a political article. What is unusual is that the Rag has been contacted by several readers with stories of being harassed because they posted on the Nextdoor forum.

On September 22, local news reported that there had been four rapes and one sexual assault at or near the campus of California State University San Marcos. Given the heightened awareness these days of how universities treat such sexual assaults like at Cornell, one would think that the local media would be on top of the most up-to-date news of the cases, their investigations, possible suspects.

Yet it’s been a full two weeks since the last news report of the scandal in San Marcos. And according to our take on the media, there hasn’t been anything.

The rapes and assault all occurred within a month — three on campus and one at an on-campus residency hall.

The only announcement coming out of the university administration is what they’re going to do to prevent future assaults.

The four incidents of rape reportedly occurred from Sept. 5 to 18, Cal State San Marcos representative Jerry McCormick said.

• Sept. 5 incident happened at The Quad Residence Hall
• Sept. 6 incident happened at the University Village Apartment
• Sept. 13 incident happened at Black Oak Hall
• Sept. 18 incident happened at The Quad Residence Hall
• Sept 21 sexual assault in Black Oak Hall.

All incidents are unrelated, and in each case, the people involved knew each other, except for the most recent incident.

By Kate Callen

The OB Rag has always gotten pushback on its endorsements of political candidates and ballot measures. But our choice of Nicole Crosby for the District 2 Council seat has triggered an unusual backlash from supporters of Richard Bailey.

We expected individuals to post negative comments on our Crosby story — that comes with the territory. But we never thought an advocacy group like San Diego United Communities (SDUC) would use its Instagram account to vilify us as “the worst and cringiest newspaper in San Diego.”

We respect the work of SDUC in fighting for sustainable growth in residential neighborhoods. But we are saddened by their scorched-earth tactics. They don’t just disagree — they attack, and often in personal terms.