Category: Ocean Beach

By Jillian Butler

Citing environmental preservation, public safety, and concerns about commercialization, the City of San Diego has increased legislation and enforcement against pop-up events at Sunset Cliffs. However, some businesses are using loopholes to continue their operations in the letter, rather than the spirit of the law.

Once a sacred Kumeyaay site, Sunset Cliffs Natural Park is an area of immense beauty. The quintessential section of the San Diego coastline brings in over 1.7 million pedestrians, surfers, birdwatchers, tidepoolers, site seers, and artists per year.

In our current digital era, many people prioritize the social media share-ability of an experience as much as the experience itself. Businesses have taken note of this trend and picked up on Sunset Cliffs as the perfect place to fill a gap in the market. Using this stretch of coast between Ocean Beach and Point Loma, entrepreneurially minded individuals have capitalized off of Instagram-worthy picnics, yoga classes, concerts, and raves.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many restaurants, nightlife venues, and fitness classes closed down. Many organizations adapted by moving gatherings outdoors. This is when the rise of pop-ups began. However, decades long codes and licensure requirements regarding gatherings were not applied to these new businesses.

Editordude: The following is an unsolicited manuscript involving a personalized account of locals and our history, and especially that of the famous “Osprey Mansion.”

By Steven Franklin

Margaret McIntosh, the flamboyant, beautiful and emotionally demonstrative mother of a close friend and a woman who was very kind to me when I was a child while living in difficult circumstance, died last week at 85.

Margaret´s death sent me searching nostalgically into our common past, where I found this photo of the historical Osprey Mansion taken from where Sunset Cliffs meets the Pacific in Point Loma, California, a place where Margaret´s family once lived.

Despite the great distance between us, I was able to remain close with Margaret on-line these last few years, and we communicated often. Just before she passed away Margaret shared a post about her favorite musician. I commented, recounting the day her fourteen year-old son saved that musician´s life after he had suffered a long fall from Sunset Cliffs onto the rocks and into the tidal pools below and was seriously hurt and drowning during a daring rescue in front of the old mansion, and how that musician recovered from the fall and went on to become a member of one the greatest rock and roll bands in history.

My recalling to Margaret what I had largely witnessed pleased her immensely, and she responded to me how proud it would make her if I wrote down what happened that day and shared it with our many mutual friends, which I promised Margaret I would do. Margaret died, however, just a few days later. I am fulfilling the promise that I made to her here.

The year was 1973. The unexpected hero´s name is David, but I understand that these days he goes by his middle name “Granger.” I´ve called him plenty of other names also, over the years, as young boys and men are often fond of doing. But back then we knew him mostly as David…David Granger Faulk.

I spent thousands of hours of my youth at David´s house, as his mother Margaret had generously given me a safe harbor in her home while escaping my own alcoholic and broken family circumstance.

By Debbie L. Sklar

Rose Creek is one of San Diego’s quieter but most ecologically important urban waterways, flowing from inland canyons through residential neighborhoods before emptying into Mission Bay. Often overlooked by commuters on nearby freeways, it remains a rare continuous green corridor in a heavily developed coastal city.

The creek begins far inland on MCAS Miramar east of I-15, a detail that still surprises many who know only its lower stretches. From there, it flows west through Rose Canyon to I-5, then turns south toward Mission Bay, forming the main freshwater tributary feeding the bay’s ecosystem. Along the way, it passes through a patchwork of neighborhoods, including University City, Clairemont, and Pacific Beach, linking upland canyon habitat to coastal wetlands.

Long before Mission Beach developed into a resort and residential community, Rose Creek carried seasonal flows from inland canyons into the marshes and tidal flats that once dominated the northern end of Mission Bay. As the bay was dredged and reshaped during the 20th century, the creek remained one of the few natural waterways still feeding the system.

Much of the upper watershed is protected as part of Rose Canyon Open Space Park, where native sycamores and willows still line sections of the creek.

Chula Tacos is heading to Ocean Beach. It’s bringing its Tijuana-style street tacos to the heart of Ocean Beach, and announced it has plans to open a new location at 4994 Newport Avenue, taking over the space most recently occupied by Doughboy’s Grill, at 4994 Newport Avenue.

Founded by Rigo Muñoz Jr., Chula Tacos began as a food truck before evolving into its brick-and-mortar location at 1719 Palm Avenue in National City. Reportedly, fans delight on its signature

By Sonia Fernandez / The Current – UC Santa Barbara / June 22, 2026

A study conducted by UC Santa Barbara researchers and collaborators has found that California has lost more than half of its coastal dune systems. The researchers’ assessment — the first of its kind for the California coast — estimates that 60% of dune systems that existed from 1850 have been lost, due to a combination of urban development, land-use changes and erosion.

“There are major implications of this loss for the California coast, including reduced habitats for plants, insects and other invertebrates, birds and small mammals,” said the paper’s lead author, postdoctoral researcher and physical geographer Tim Baxter. “Importantly, we also lose coastal protections against storms and sea level rise.”

This assessment, one of the largest and most detailed inventories of coastal sand dunes ever produced, is published in the journal Earth’s Future.

By Colleen O’Connor

Wonder of Wonders.  A real treasure exhibited itself Saturday, June 20 at the Peninsula Community Senior Center’s “Summer Celebration.”

Hard to ignore the chaos, fear and tragedies that surround us now.

But, fabulous to watch senior citizens and their friends, family and neighbors converge on a triumph of grace, humor, and support for not just those present, but all of Point Loma and environs.

Lisa Nokes, the Executive Director, and her staff, volunteers, neighbors, and friends, delivered a celebration of what “Neighboring” is— that great coming together to protect and aid those in need of their services.

On Thursday, June 18, a woman’s body was found near the Ocean Beach Pier. Now, authorities have publicly identified her as Summer Nash, 34.

Nash was seen in the water near the western end of Newport Avenue that day, according to the San Diego County medical examiner’s office. Lifeguards pulled her to shore, where she was pronounced dead shortly before 3:30 p.m., the office reported.

A ruling on the cause of Nash’s death was pending completion of postmortem examinations.

A couple of days after the Rag posted about her unidentified body being found, someone named Avery left this comment to the article:

This woman was my daughter, Summer. She was beautiful, deeply empathetic, and an accomplished athlete. Over the past couple of years, she’s spent much of her time surfing beaches from Tourmaline to Mission. The loss is insurmountable.

Here is some commentary about her time at San Diego State U by GoAztec (2010–2012):
PERSONAL
Summer Montana Nash was born May 18, 1992, in Bozeman, Mont. … Daughter of Avery Ash … Interests include philosophy, nutrition and the outdoors … Enjoys arts and crafts, longboarding and activities with friends … Favorite athlete is Swedish track and field athlete Carolina Kluft … Majoring in environmental studies. …

What’s New on Newport Avenue?

By Michael A. Hernandez

“Pop Punk Never Dies”. That’s the message written on the outside of the building at 5049 Newport Ave in Ocean Beach. Once home to OB’s first Japanese sushi and sake joint, Sapporo Restaurant, then later housing an outpost of Pacific Beach’s beloved dive bar and eatery, Cass Street Bar and Grill, 5049 Newport Ave is currently under new ownership, and what’s coming may be of interest to those who are anti-establishment… but pro-drinking establishment.

On February 13 of this year, a Public Notice of Application For Ownership Change was posted on the front door of the building.

The applicant’s name: “Drink 182 OB, LLC”. Marketing itself as San Diego’s Original Pop Punk Bar, Drink 182 promises to bring “a new kind of hospitality experience to Ocean Beach – built around the music, culture, and nostalgia that defined a generation”.

One of the owners of the pop-punk bar is creative director Jay NightRide. According to his profile on Linkedin, NightRide has collaborated with big names such as internationally renowned DJ and music executive Steve Aoki, motorcycle manufacturer and global lifestyle brand Harley Davidson, and legendary pop-punk band Blink-182, whose name served as the main inspiration for the name of the bar.

For more info please go to the OB Mainstreet Association here.

An’s Gelato Named No.2 in America; Free Scoops Offered on July 1 at Ocean Beach Shop

San Diego’s An’s Gelato company has been named the No. 2 independently owned ice cream shop in America in USA Today’s 10Best Reader’s Choice Awards, which were announced Wednesday. It’s the fourth year the local company has been ranked in the USA Today contest. An’s ranked No. 1 in 2025 and 2024, and No. 2 in 2023.

An’s operates four shops in San Diego County, including Ocean Beach where in 2025, they opened An’s Electronic Repair in a former phone repair shop. A fifth is set to open soon in Oceanside’s iconic Top Gun House. The judges praised An’s for its scratch-made gelato and unique flavors, like brown butter, brookies (brownies and cookies), watermelon and mint sorbet. The judges also noted An’s  generous sampling policy, where employees encourage visitors to taste all seven flavors of the day before they buy.

To celebrate the latest 10Best honor, An’s scoop shops in OB, Normal Heights, and Del Mar will give away one free small gelato cup or cone per customer from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 1, while supplies last. Then the shops will close for the rest of that day to give employees the evening off.

by Debbie L. Sklar / Times of San Diego / June 18, 2026

Sand dunes, mussel beds, picnics.

Ocean Beach’s shoreline has been described in different ways over time, long before it became the coastal community known today.

Ocean Beach today is probably best known for its surf culture, its long concrete pier [that is permanently closed], and a tightly-knit neighborhood identity. But its earlier history is rooted less in formal place names and more in how people described the landscape: a broad stretch of sand shaped by wind, shifting dunes, and the former course of the San Diego River as it reached the Pacific.

That began to change in 1887, when developers William “Billy” Carlson and Frank Higgins subdivided the land and began marketing it as a seaside residential community under the name Ocean Beach.