Ocean Beach

ReWild Coalition Says Gloria’s De Anza Plan a Positive Step, But City Needs to Take Many More

January 21, 2022 by Source

Here is the ReWild Coalition’s statement:

The City of San Diego released an updated Notice Of Preparation for its ongoing De Anza Revitalization Planning process this morning. The information can be accessed at the City’s De Anza Cove Amendment website.

This comes 14 months after the ReWild Coalition supported the City’s proposal at the Regional Water Quality Control Board to access funds to create a new, wetland-rich land use plan for the northeast corner of Mission Bay that must deliver at least 80 acres of restored wetland in 2100 using sea level rise projections. Today’s plan shows that the ReWild Coalition advocacy has paid off, but is not over.

Over 25 years ago, the Mission Bay Park Master Plan called for restoring wetlands at the mouth of Rose Creek. Decades of dredging and filling the bay has left us with Kendall-Frost Marsh as the last of our Mission Bay marshes, the last 1% of the original habitats.

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Will $8.4 Million in Repairs Open Up the West End of the Ocean Beach Pier for Good?

January 21, 2022 by Frank Gormlie

By Thursday, January 20, city contractors had begun to set up scaffolding near the end of the Ocean Beach Pier. The plan is to spend $8.4 million to repair two damaged piles.

A city spokesperson told media that the scaffolding might take upwards of two weeks to construct, and depending on the weather, repairs should take about eight weeks. He added the entire OB Pier should reopen once those repairs are completed. By the beginning of summer.

We’re all hoping that the city spokesguy is right, that this money will result in sufficient repairs that the end section can reopen.

Our concerns and fears are that this will be just a bandaid that will enable the pier to open the “T” section for just a limited period of time.

The city and the press keep repeating the mantra that the pier was badly damaged just last winter and these repairs will suffice. In the next breath, everyone says that, sure the Pier needs more but this is all funds that are available.

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Eat for a Good Cause: OB Elementary at Mad Munch

January 21, 2022 by Source

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OB History: The In-Between – a Place Where Young People Could Hang Out

January 20, 2022 by Source

A look back at The In-Between in Ocean Beach, a place on Newport Avenue where young people could hang out or find support.

By Eric DuVall / Point Loma – OB Monthly / Jan. 19, 2022

The 1960s were a time of societal upheaval. Popular social and elected leaders were shot down in broad daylight. The only thing about the the U.S. involvement in another war in the Far East that could be deduced with any clarity was that we did not seem to be winning. (Feel free to insert your favorite Country Joe and the Fish lyric here.) An air-raid siren went off every Monday at noon as a not-so-subtle reminder that nuclear annihilation was a very real possibility that might well go down in the middle of any balmy San Diego afternoon.

In the second half of the decade, a groundswell of disaffected young people decided to try something different. They wanted to give peace a chance. That, or hang out and get stoned, whichever came first.

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‘What to Do When You Catch Your Partner in the Act of … Um, You Know’

January 20, 2022 by Source

Dear Straight Up with a Twist,

What do you do when you find your partner masturbating? I caught my girl in the act, which wasn’t a big deal except for the fact that she gave me a hard time when she caught me a few weeks earlier. She claimed my masturbating meant that I wasn’t sexually satisfied by her but for some reason she doesn’t think the reverse is true. I said it was hypocritical. Any advice on how to approach this issue?

Sexually Deprived in SD

Dear SDSD, the first part of your query – what to do when you catch your partner fapping – is the easiest question I’ve had to answer since a Jehovah’s Witness knocked on my door and asked if he could come inside and talk about my salvation. My answer to him was, “Not right now. Beelzebub is about to give me a transfusion.”

The answer, SDSD, to your question – what to do if you find your partner masturbating – is just as simple: Offer a helping hand, duh.

As for the second part, how to handle the double standard, it’s a bit tougher. Given that your significant other does not recognize, or will not cop to, this blatant double standard, I can only assume she has sustained damage to her frontal lobe and has lost her faculties of logic and fairness.

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Hugo’s Cocina in Ocean Beach to Close

January 20, 2022 by Judi Curry

A Sad Day in OB

By Judi Curry

Several years ago – December, 2016 to be exact, I wrote an article for the OB Rag about one of my favorite restaurants closing – but opening up with the same name and same menu as the original one. That restaurant was Rancho’s– and it would be reopening as Hugo’s Cocina.

Many of you remember Hugo – he had been a waiter at Rancho’s for many years, and he was delightful.

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Two Pedestrians Killed by Speeding Driver in Point Loma

January 20, 2022 by Source

A man and woman who were walking across a street Wednesday evening near the San Diego Bay between Liberty Station and Point Loma were killed by a speeding driver, police said.

The unidentified couple, described as being between 55 and 65 years old, were trying to cross from north to south around 6:05 p.m. on North Harbor Drive west of Nimitz Boulevard, according to Port of San Diego Harbor Police Department spokesperson Sgt. T.D. De La Peña.

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San Diego During World War II – Life on the Home Front – OB Historical Society Presents – Thurs., Jan.20

January 19, 2022 by Source

Jan. 20, 2022- San Diego During World War II – Life on the Home Front

On January 20, 2022 at 7 pm, Join the Ocean Beach Historical Society as they present: San Diego During World War II – Life on the Home Front presentation by Linda Canada.

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Missing Woman from New York Found in OB

January 19, 2022 by Staff

Her face was on flyers wrapped around signs and palm trees in Ocean Beach yesterday, January 18.

Serena Stevens, a 19-year-old woman reportedly missing after traveling to San Diego from New York late last week has been located in Ocean Beach.

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Biden’s Reboot: ‘But, Wait for It.’

January 19, 2022 by Source

By Colleen O’Connor

President Biden’s first year anniversary numbers look bleak.

According to the Morning Consult-Politico poll, 68 percent of respondents said that the country is going down the wrong path, while only 32 percent said the U.S. is heading in the right direction.

Once holding positive approval ratings in the 60 percent range, this collapse is significant.

Chief among the concerns are inflation (seen at the gas pump daily); and COVID (seen in the news and neighborhoods daily) and still climbing.

Add to that, Israeli health authorities have found that even the third “booster” shot is insufficient to beat Omicron and any fourth shot is near worthless.

However, the original Omicron huge wave that quickly overwhelmed South Africa, Europe and New York has begun to recede just as quickly, offering some hope. However, most of the U.S. is still weeks away from that reversal, with breakout cases increasing and some states (read: Florida) have ceasing to even track the numbers.

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Teacher Complaints, Burn-Out and Turn-Over Roil High Tech Charter School in Point Loma

January 18, 2022 by Source

We’d heard things weren’t going well at High Tech High charter school and network in Point Loma for the teachers or students. And today’s San Diego Union-Tribune article by Kristen Taketa confirmed it.

6th grade teacher Ryan Luz spoke with Taketa and explained the teachers’ view. Here, in brief, are those complaints and issues:

  • High Tech’s ideals have been overshadowed by chronic issues of under-staffing and teacher burnout that were only exacerbated by the pandemic.
  • Until last fall High Tech High did not provide substitutes for teachers who were absent, so teachers had to cover for them — having to teach as many as 60 kids at once or to use their planning time to cover a class.
  • High Tech Middle didn’t have enough special education staff, so some students whose disabilities required the use of a one-on-one educational aide were not getting one, or they had to share one with other students.
  • Teachers feel exhausted and some have resigned; four teachers and the school principal left the middle of December.
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The Joy of Buying a New Mattress

January 17, 2022 by Judi Curry

The Widder Curry wonders whether a good night’s sleep in the offing?

By Judi Curry

Every now and then you go to a merchant in your neighborhood and you are treated like royalty. That doesn’t happen too often but when it does you almost would like to shout about it from the roof top of the closest building. I had one of those experiences today and want to share it with you.

For the past ten plus years I have been sleeping on a mattress that sags in the middle. As a single person sleeping on only one side of the bed accounts for some of the sag; being overweight does not help either, and when I bought the mattress I weighed well over 200 pounds (down considerably now I am happy to say). That extra weight also was a factor in the middle sag. So…I decided it was time to purchase a new one.

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Pandemic Lowers Deaths and Injuries at Sunset Cliffs for Second Year in 2021: 4 Injuries, 1 Death

January 17, 2022 by Frank Gormlie

It appears that the pandemic has lowered deaths and serious injuries at Sunset Cliffs for the second year. There was one death and 4 injuries due to human interaction with the beautifully stunning but treacherous cliffs during 2021, the second year of COVID-19.

The OB Rag has maintained a survey of deaths and serious injuries at the cliffs since 2005 and we have found an average of 5 deaths / serious injuries per year over that period of time. (Here is a link to last year’s report.)

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How to Identify and Survive a Rip Current – Video

January 14, 2022 by Source

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OB’s Christmas Tree Has an ‘Afterlife’

January 14, 2022 by Source

By Tyler Faurot / Pt Loma-OB Monthly /

For 41 consecutive years, the shores of Ocean Beach have been the backdrop to a gargantuan pine tree, decorated and lighted to commemorate the holiday season. Historically, once the holidays came to an end, many of the trees were carried away to landfills for an unceremonious demise. In recent years, however, the holiday trees have been given new life as sought-after crafting material for local woodworkers.

The tree for the 2021 holiday season was a star pine donated from the yard of Ocean Beach resident Catrina Russel.

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Table Talk: OB’s Max Goransson of Golden Mushroom Co. In His Own Words

January 14, 2022 by Source

by Sal Mineo (@snackdiego)

Hello again, OB. As faithful readers of Table Talk, I’m sure you all remember what we are about here – getting personal with those in our community keeping us well-fed and quenched. Our local food celebrities but before they get huge and have a publicist. Sometimes it’s the restaurant owner; but sometimes it’s the guy, behind the guy, behind the guy.

This is my neighbor, Max. I first met him one average OB day as I rode up the alley to the back entrance of our place, and came upon Max and his friend Talia taking some glamour shots using our fence as a backdrop (it has a cool viney thing growing on it – influencers, come check it out).

The subjects of the photographs were these utterly stunning mushrooms, which even in OB you just don’t see every day. Naturally, I said something brilliant like “what’s that?”, we got to chitter chatter and that’s when I learned I have a neighbor that cultivates these absolute specimens in his grow room right across the alley.

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Injured Wild Animal? Project Wildlife to the Rescue

January 13, 2022 by Staff

By Geoff Page

This post is a pitch for a really great organization called Project Wildlife. For those who don’t know about them, here is what they do, based on an actual experience I had Tuesday morning.

My wife and I were walking our dogs at Dog Beach. She noticed a bird at the waterline she called a coot. It’s a black bird, sort of medium size. This one was by itself, we didn’t see any others nearby. My wife remarked that she had seen these birds along the river but had never seen one in the surf at Dog Beach. I had to agree.

Just as we were looking at the bird, a dog went after it in the surf.

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PL Nazarene’s Annual Writer’s Symposium by the Sea with Nadia Bolz-Weber, Cornel West, and David Brooks – Feb.22-25

January 13, 2022 by Source

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Much of Northeast Mission Bay Will Return to Marshland Under Mayor Gloria’s New Proposal

January 12, 2022 by Frank Gormlie

On the eve of his State-of-the-City Address, Mayor Todd Gloria unveiled a stunning turnabout on a major environmental issue – the future of northeast Mission Bay. And it’s sure to win him accolades within San Diego’s environmental community.

On Tuesday, Gloria released his proposal to transform much of northeast Mission Bay into marshland – which has been demanded by environmentalists for years. It is a needed change in Mission Bay which will help fight sea level rise and restore animal habitats destroyed when beginning in the fifties, the huge shallow marshland and lagoon that we now know as Mission Bay, was aggressively dredged to make way for the largest aquatic park on the West Coast (some say it’s the largest in the world!).

For years, environmentalist – led by the Audubon’s ReWild Mission Bay project – have been pushing for more acreage as marshland; t

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How Big Oil Lies to You

January 12, 2022 by Source

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The Dinner Menu at Cocina de Barrio in the Midway

January 12, 2022 by Judi Curry

Restaurant Review

Cocina de Barrio
3924 West Point Loma Blvd
San Diego, CA 92110
760-840-1129

By Judi Curry

Back in mid-December around the time of my friend Steve’s birthday, the restaurant I wanted to take him to had no tables available for the time we needed. I had been to Cocina de Barrio with three others a couple months earlier, but it was for lunch, and because that menu was very different than most Mexican restaurants, I was curious as to what their dinner menu might be like. There was no problem getting reservations and I did call the restaurant directly.

If I thought that the lunch menu was different, I should have been prepared for the dinner menu. It definitely is not for the “gringo,”

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OB Planners on ADUs, Midway Redevelopment, Rogue Project on Santa Cruz

January 11, 2022 by Staff

By Geoff Page

The two highlights of the Ocean Beach Planning Board’s first monthly meeting in 2022 were clearly a detailed presentation of a Sports Arena redevelopment proposal and drastic changes involving Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADUs.

The regular monthly meeting, that takes place the first Wednesday of every month at 6:00 p.m., was held on-line. The OBPB and most planning boards have not gone back to live meetings yet. The meeting may be viewed on YouTube here.

Land Use Code Changes

The city is planning on implementing the requirements mandated in Senate Bill 9, the bill that calls for relaxing building codes to help allegedly solve the housing shortage in California.

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San Diego: ‘So Little Goes Right, So Little Gets Fixed and So Much Disarray’

January 10, 2022 by Source

What’s Up with the Mayor’s App? Problems: “Around Every Corner”

By Colleen O’Connor

Every day, in every way, San Diegans are witnessing the crumbling of their once stable neighborhoods; in their once enviable designation, “Camelot by the Bay.”

Omnipresent homeless camps; vacant store fronts; trash overflowing onto unsafe, often filthy streets; decaying parks, pools, libraries and public spaces; spikes in inflation; a buckling health care system amid a pandemic all exacerbated by new tax 17% tax hikes for water/sewer, and new bond initiatives in the pipeline.

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City Proposes Closing Coastal Parks and Parking Areas in Ocean Beach and Point Loma

January 7, 2022 by Frank Gormlie

The City of San Diego is seriously considering closing coastal parks and parking areas in OB and Point Loma – as well as in other beach communities. They say it’s all about the crime, gang activity, late-night parties, illegal bonfires and unauthorized camping.

David Garrick at the U-T reports:

The parks and parking lots, which span from La Jolla to Ocean Beach, would either be physically closed by installing new security gates or posted with signs announcing the overnight closures. They would be added to several coastal parks and lots that already have overnight restrictions in place, some for as long as 20 years.

The list of new areas proposed for overnight closure is

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OB’s Ranting ‘Whistler’ Back in the News – Makes Art Piece Commemorating Crazy QAnon Fascist Killed While Storming Capitol

January 7, 2022 by Frank Gormlie

He’s back in the news again. OB’s own “Whistler” Matt Baker who gained national attention and derision when videos of him at the County Board of Supervisor whistling and ranting went viral.

This time, Baker has made an art piece commemorating the OB woman who was killed trying to storm the Capitol on January 6. The woman, whose name the OB Rag will not repeat, was a QAnon supporter and harbored fascist views of Biden and trump. She lived in OB a very brief time and was mainly from the East County neighborhood of Spring Valley.

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Jan. 6 : An Orgy Without Restraints for a Large Number of Idiots Who Were Told by the White House that It Was Okay

January 6, 2022 by Staff

By Geoff Page

January 6, 2021, was the final act of everything that had occurred in the previous four years. It was an orgy more than anything else. It was a day when all internal restraint of any kind was ignored. It was a day when a large number of idiots believed they could have an orgy devoid of moral or legal obligations because the White House Idiot had told them, and shown them, this was OK.

We had a person in the White House who showed the world just how unaccountable a President could be when he never suffered any consequences for any of his many outrageous actions. Those of us who care were horrified. But, after four years of this, a huge number of Americans saw it as permission to do whatever they wanted to, regardless of the law or morality.

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The Widder Curry Looks Back at the Jan. 6 Riot at the Capitol

January 6, 2022 by Judi Curry

By Judi Curry

In beginning this blog I want to point out that this is MY opinion. There is too much going on to have to defend myself to those of you that will disagree with me. You already know that I am an “anti-trumpster” and January 6th, 2001 did nothing to change that; rather it only reinforced my beliefs about the evilness of this man. With that in mind……

I am not a television fanatic. With the exception of MSNBC, local news daily, and an occasional “Jeopardy” I seldom have the television on. After the Chargers left San Diego my interest in football stopped; I have never been a Padres fan, and I do not like to watch movies or sitcoms on the tube.

So when I began watching the news on January 6th, 2001, I wondered why a movie about the Civil War was being shown?

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Who’s Running Against Jen Campbell in the ‘New’ District 2

January 5, 2022 by Frank Gormlie

We don’t have all the facts yet, but we have names. Or at least the names that have been floated about of those maybe running against Jen Campbell for the newly-redrawn District 2. The primary is June 7.

The Point Loma & OB Democratic Club stated the following Democrats were candidates in the race against Campbell:

  • Joel Day
  • Mandy Havlik
  • Lori Saldaña

But wait, there’s more.

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Is Apple Pie Next?

January 5, 2022 by Source

By Joni Halpern

I was taking a little inventory of paramount American values that are still viable after the onslaught of the last few years of intractable divisiveness among our people. I thought my list would be long. It wasn’t.

I started out listing a value Americans have always cherished. We insist we are the architects of our own destiny, that the lowliest members of society can reach the stars if they work hard enough to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. However, if we look closely at this “bootstrap” value, we can see it appears to be crumbling at its foundations.

The “bootstrap value” has become something of a fiction for many people who have been trying to keep themselves and their families fed, housed and clothed, let alone managing whatever it takes to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Even in what remains of the middle class, there is great uncertainty about how to prepare children for economic stability.

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OB Planning Board: Review of One of the Sports Arena Redevelopment Teams Proposals, Recommendations on Granny Flats – Wed., Jan.5

January 3, 2022 by Staff

The Ocean Beach Planning Board meets this Wednesday, January 5. It will be held virtually via Zoom at 6 pm. Register for the meeting here.

Notable agenda items include a presentation by the Election Committee for the March 2 annual election of board members, and another presentation by the Monarch Group, one of the five redevelopment teams vying for the Midway Sports Arena contract with the city.

The board will also review and make recommendations to the city’s Draft Housing Action Package, including possible revisions to the City Code regulating Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) or so-called granny flats.

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