Category: Ocean Beach

William Stephens, 66, of Point Loma was sentenced June 8 to 12 years in state prison after he had  pleaded guilty to attempted murder for striking a San Diego police officer with his vehicle in 2025.

Stephens had admitted to driving his Jeep toward Officer Matthew Salisbury on Jan. 23, 2025, when several officers responded to his home  after receiving a report of domestic violence.

From our report in May this year:

Prosecutors allege that as Officer Matthew Salisbury approached the home’s driveway, Stephens sped toward the officer, who attempted to evade the vehicle by moving behind a bush located near the driveway’s entrance. Stephens then turned his Jeep toward the bush, striking Salisbury, then crashed into a mailbox and another vehicle parked on the street, as 10News reported.

Eric Law, the chair of the Peninsula Community Planning Board, has just announced that Navy representatives will provide a briefing to the community on Navy plans for the redevelopment of the NAVWAR Old Town Campus.

The update will be at the Peninsula Community Planning Board monthly meeting on Thursday, June 18th, 2026 — 6PM at the Point Loma Hervey Library Community Room, 3701 Voltaire St, San Diego, CA 92107.

Law stated,  “The NAVWAR Old Town Campus (OTC) Revitalization program manager and the Navy Region Southwest Public Affairs Officer have confirmed that they will provide a briefing to the community on the OTC program ….”

SDBeerNews / June 8, 2026

There are hundreds of talented brewing professionals giving their all to help maintain the San Diego beer industry’s storied reputation. While these industrious practitioners share numerous similarities, each is their own unique person with individual likes, dislikes, methodologies, techniques, inspirations, interests and philosophies. The goal of San Diego Beer News’ Portrait of a Brewer series is to not only introduce readers to local brewers, but dig in to help them gain a deeper appreciation for the people making their beer and how they have contributed to the county’s standout craft-brewing culture.

Today’s featured brewer is…Jim Millea of OB Brewery

What is your current title?
Head Brewer

Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Beverly, Massachusetts, a small-ish but not tiny coastal town about 25 miles north of Boston.

What brought you to San Diego?
I first visited San Diego in the summer of 1998 on my way back to Massachusetts from a semester abroad in Australia. My cousin Lisa was living in Ocean Beach on Cape May Avenue just a couple blocks from the beach. After parking in front of her apartment, I’ll never forget stepping out of her car wide-eyed and beholding the view of the sand and the ocean beyond. I thought, “Oh yeah, I could do this.” A couple years later, after working in and around Boston, a great buddy and I decided to make the move. We quit our jobs, packed up my truck with camping gear, kayaks, bikes and all the other belongings we could fit, and hit the road. We spent six weeks exploring the country with San Diego being the end goal.

Patch San Diego /June 5, 2026

A woman who drove drunk, then struck and seriously injured a 5-year-old girl riding a scooter at Liberty Station, was sentenced Thursday to eight years and four months in state prison.

Savannah Monique Taylor, 22, drove onto a pedestrian path on Sept. 6, 2025, striking the girl, along with a bench and plants near the USS Recruit, according to prosecutors.

By Debbie Sklar / Times of San Diego / June 5, 2026

Back in the day, the sounds in Ocean Beach carried a little differently.

You might have been walking near the shoreline and heard it before you saw it — music drifting from wooden pavilions set directly on the sand, where people gathered to dance within sight and sound of the Pacific.

Surviving photographs from the early 20th century show more than one pavilion-style structure associated with beachfront recreation in the Ocean Beach area, including buildings identified as dancing pavilions and bathhouse facilities positioned near the shoreline.

These were not informal gatherings on open sand. They were designated structures built for recreation and public leisure at a time that Ocean Beach was emerging as one of San Diego’s growing coastal destinations.

Historical planning references and community records suggest the “New Ocean Beach Dancing Pavilion and Bath House” stood near the foot of Newport Avenue during the late 1910s. In addition to the primary pavilion structure, the beachfront area included related bathhouse and recreation buildings that formed part of an organized system of coastal leisure facilities.

Over time, the main pavilion was repurposed as a skating rink before eventually disappearing as shoreline development and land use patterns changed.

By Margot Sheehan / San Diego Reader Archives / Republished June 6, 2026

The Frontier Homes Housing Project — 3500 “temporary” dwellings constructed in the first nine months of 1944. One of the largest developments of its kind ever built in the USA — Designed to last for two years and enduring (parts of it, at least) for 20. Was there ever such a project, so grand, so ghastly, and so successfully erased from civic memory?

Don’t look for Frontier in the Journal of San Diego History or in any of those big picture books that Neil Morgan used to crank out. The only people who really remember the project are the people who lived there. Old timers who didn’t live there, even folks who drove past Frontier every day, will give you all kinds of cockeyed answers when you ask about it. “Oh, yeah, you mean those military barracks.” “Frontier? That was Navy housing.” Someone might even offer that 1950s misconception that Lait and Mortimer provide in USA Confidential: “a low-income housing project for Mexicans and Negroes.”

By Katherine Clements / the Log / June 4, 2026

Tucked along the north end of San Diego Bay near Point Loma, Shelter Island continues to serve as one of the region’s most active centers for recreational boating, marine services, and waterfront culture. While longtime boaters still recognize the area for its marinas, sportfishing fleet, and working waterfront atmosphere, the harbor district continues evolving through new upgrades, changing boating trends, and increasing demand for marine services tied to modern boating lifestyles.

For many boaters, Shelter Island functions as far more than a place to dock a vessel. It has become a full-service boating ecosystem where owners can outfit, repair, provision, upgrade, launch, and maintain their boats within just a few blocks of one another.

That concentration of marine businesses continues making Shelter Island one of the busiest boating corridors in San Diego Bay.

Recent years have brought growing interest in electronics upgrades, stabilization systems, lithium battery conversions, modern navigation equipment, and comfort-oriented improvements designed to support longer stays aboard. Local marine businesses increasingly are seeing boaters invest not only in performance and reliability, but also in onboard livability.

As more owners use their vessels for extended cruising, overnight trips, and remote work flexibility, demand has expanded for upgraded interiors, refrigeration systems, air conditioning, solar integration, and connectivity improvements.

By Sam Halpern

In the Hebrew tradition, when a family member dies, first order relatives (husbands, wives, children, brothers, sisters etc.) mourn for seven days (Shiva means
seven) beginning with the day of the deceased’s death. This is the first part of a mourning process which extends to about a year.

I am a secular Jew, and the last of my generation died long ago. With so many gone, for whom would I sit Shiva? That brings me to my country, America. In a way, America is like a beloved family member for me. America took my young parents in, made them citizens, and I was born in this great land. She has given me a home, safety, freedom, a good life. I cannot believe how lucky I have been. My family has risen from sharecroppers to property owners, and in one generation, has allowed one of their children to become a professor at one of the great teaching institutions of the world.

Reporter David Garrick at the Union-Tribune today wrote an article entitled, “Public displeasure with San Diego City Hall boils over in early election results.”

He wrote that the primary results “show notable voter backlash against San Diego City Hall, with outsiders leading in three out of four council races as some well-funded insiders struggled and incumbents fared worse than usual.”

He’s right, of course, as ‘public displeasure’ with City Hall has been building dramatically over this last year or two. All one has to do to survey this building displeasure — or even rage — is to peruse the pages of the OB Rag. From the devastating San Diego extremist rules for bonus ADUs, the increased fees for paid parking, the trash fee debacle to the paid parking in Balboa Park quagmire, the budget crisis and threats to libraries and rec centers, the cuts to arts funding, to the general sense by the San Diego public that city hall is trying to “nickel and dime” them to death.

This “displeasure” with downtown San Diego political leaders has finally surfaced in results that the establishment can recognize — voting tabulations and results.

by Scott Hopkins / Times of San Diego / June 3, 2026 

The sun shone brightly as the 100th graduating class of Point Loma High School was presented with diplomas during a 5 p.m. ceremony on May 28.

But along with the solar glow came mischievous gusty winds that sent some caps flying off the heads of Class of 2026 members.

While it was the final event for the 383 students, it was also the end of a 34-year career for Principal David Jaffe who was applauded enthusiastically by his final class.

by: Amber Coakley / Fox5 San Diego / May 31, 2026 

A new report released by San Diego Coastkeeper is raising concerns about ongoing water quality issues in Mission Bay, finding that pollution levels remain persistently high in several creek systems that flow into one of the region’s most popular recreational waterways.

The nonprofit environmental agency group published its 2025 Mission Bay Water Quality Monitoring Report last week, detailing two years of monthly water quality testing at 10 locations throughout Mission Bay. The findings point to both storm-related pollution and year-round contamination sources affecting the bay, particularly at Rose Creek and Tecolote Creek.

According to the report, bacteria levels surged across all monitoring sites following rainstorms. However, researchers found that both of the creeks consistently recorded elevated bacteria counts even during dry weather conditions, exceeding state recreation safety standards at least half of the time.

Environmental advocates say those findings suggest chronic pollution sources may be contributing to water quality problems.