Category: Ocean Beach

Ken Abbott, 61, started his cross-country trip from Ocean Beach Wednesday ten years after receiving a heart transplant.

By Shannon Handy / CBS8 / March 4, 2026  

A man who received a heart transplant a decade ago is embarking on a 3,000-mile bicycle journey from San Diego to St. Augustine, Florida, to raise awareness about the critical need for organ donors.
Ken Abbott, 61, started his cross-country trip from Ocean Beach on Wednesday after recovering from a life-threatening cardiac condition that nearly killed him in 2016. The journey commemorates ten years since his transplant and aims to educate people about the importance of organ donation and transplantation.

Abbott was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition years before his heart began to fail. In 2016, he walked into Mount Sinai’s emergency room, where doctors gave him only a 5% chance of survival.

From UC San Diego Today Now / March 5, 2026

The growth form of giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) is composed of shoots known as stipes instead of branches. From one parent holding fast to the hard bottom might come as many as 150 stipes.

Typically the tips of the biggest kelp bob at the ocean surface and calm the waters, appearing as patches of gold visible from land — a sign of the good health of the ecosystem that it anchors.

But the kelp as San Diego knows it is in trouble.

In January, a team led by UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography released an unmatched history of kelp forests off La Jolla and Point Loma. Together spanning nearly 19 square kilometers (7.3 square miles), they are the largest on the United States West Coast. Amassed over more than 40 years, their story reveals a progression of steady decline that transcends typical cycles of crash and recovery.

Now, say the researchers, competing organisms usually cast in shadow by the kelp are emerging as winners. The giant kelp are losing, but so might be myriad other organisms – fishes and humans included – as another natural order is disrupted by climate change and other new circumstances.

The downsides range from a decrease in the catch available to recreational fishers in San Diego to the loss of the nurseries that sea stars and open ocean fishes use to protect their larvae. Even the beach wrack – the large piles of decaying kelp that wash up after storms – is diminishing. Though the absence of the pungent kelp will be a relief to some beachgoers, those piles attract the kelp flies that are an important source of food for seabirds.

The first District 2 candidate forum organized by the League of Women Voters San Diego is tonight, Thursday, March 5  –    5:30-7:30 PM  at the Cathy Hopper Clairemont Friendship Center, located at  4425 Bannock Ave, San Diego 92117   This Forum is also hosted by the Clairemont Town Council.

Seven candidates have confirmed their attendance, and several more may come.

Attorney Represents Point Loma Residents Increasingly Alarmed at Coming Gridlock

By Jennifer van Grove / San Diego Union-Tribune / March 3, 2026

A letter sent last week to San Diego leaders asserts that the environmental analysis for the Midway Rising project is legally flawed, and will, if approved, not only lead to additional gridlock in the area but force taxpayers to bear the brunt of infrastructure needs because of the limited scope of study.

The legal letter, addressed to Mayor Todd Gloria and San Diego City Council members, identifies six areas where the project’s state-mandated environmental impact report is described as substantially deficient. The most severe omission is said to be the report’s failure to evaluate the cumulative impacts of the anticipated redevelopment of the Navy’s nearby NAVWAR property.

The letter comes in the weeks leading up to the report’s presumed certification by the council members, which would pave the way for the city’s sports arena real estate in the Midway District to be remade with thousands of apartments and a new entertainment venue.

The letter was written by Kathryn Pettit, an attorney with Chatten-Brown Law Group, on behalf of her clients, J. Keith Behner and Catherine Stiefel of Point Loma. The couple hired the law firm, as well as a traffic engineer, during the environmental review process to study the documents as they became increasingly alarmed about the project’s long-term implications for congestion, Behner told the Union-Tribune.

From SOHO / March-April 2026 Newsletter

San Diego’s historic districts and individually designated resources are not abstract planning concepts. They are neighborhoods, cultural landscapes, and places that tell the story of our region and its people. Once protections are weakened or removed, the impacts are often permanent. That is why careful environmental review and adherence to adopted community plans are essential.

On February 24, 2026, the San Diego City Council voted to approve the so-called “Preservation and Progress Package A,” following extensive public testimony in opposition, and repeated warnings regarding the measure’s violations of law. Environmental review and preservation safeguards exist to prevent irreversible harm to historic neighborhoods. The Council chose to ignore those safeguards.

Many San Diegans left City Hall that day disheartened, not because preservation lost a political fight, but because the Council chose to advance destructive changes to our historic preservation ordinance without the environmental review and public accountability the law requires.

Citywide opposition was overwhelming. Since the City released the Preservation and Progress initiative, over 600 written comments were submitted, with roughly 12 to 1 opposed. Twenty-eight community planning groups voted no, along with 12 city wide historic organizations. The City’s own Historical Resources Board rejected it twice, in two separate votes. Preservation organizations representing thousands of residents across San Diego urged caution, transparency, and lawful process.

Yet Package A passed. Council President Joe LaCava acknowledged the breadth of public concern and voted against the measure. The remaining members present, who numbered only 5, as a third of the council was missing in action, voted in favor.

Historic District at Risk, Seawall Debate, and a Call for a “Seat at the Table”

By Jillian Butler

March 3rd, 2026–The Ocean Beach Planning Board met Tuesday night, March 3, at the Ocean Beach Recreation Center on Santa Monica Avenue. Only seven residents attended in person, with a handful more joining via Zoom — a modest turnout for discussions that could significantly impact OB’s historic character and coastline.

Notably absent were representatives from City Council District 2, State Senator Akila Weber, Assemblymember Tasha Boerner Horvath, and County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer. In a meeting centered on preservation, development, and public safety, their absence did not go unnoticed.

Mayor’s Rep Catches Flak Over “Package A” Passage

Randy Reyes, representing Mayor Todd Gloria’s office, informed the board that City Council had passed Preservation Package A. The new policy could affect OB’s  Emerging Cottage Historic District — potentially making it harder for the district to qualify for historic protection.

By Jeff McDonald / San Diego Union-Tribune / February 28, 2026

When San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria last year asked the City Council to declare three commercial properties within Mission Bay Park as surplus land in order to negotiate new leases, it did not go over well.

The recommendation, based on the requirements of state law, alarmed council members and environmentalists concerned the designation could pave the way for housing and other development on the cherished waterfront.

And it was resisted even after Gloria promised that a developer’s unsolicited effort to build 900 homes there would never be approved.

By the fall, city officials had dropped the surplus-land effort and decided instead to pursue exemptions with the help of state housing officials and lawmakers.

Now Assemblymember Chris Ward, a San Diego Democrat who previously served on the City Council, has introduced a bill that would exempt the city-owned Mission Bay Park from the state law that undergirded the recommendation, and that was designed to prioritize housing on unneeded public property.

Ward’s legislation, introduced as Assembly Bill 2525, would exempt from the Surplus Land Act all of the property included in the Mission Bay master plan — more than 4,200 acres all told.

By Alex Cheney / CBS8 / February 27, 2026

A Navy investigation has determined that human error caused an E/A-18G Growler military jet to crash into San Diego Bay during a training exercise on Feb. 12, 2025, according to information the Navy shared with reporters today. The two crew members safely ejected from the aircraft and sustained only minor injuries.

The investigation revealed that unfamiliar software triggered warnings during aerial refueling, complicating the crew’s approach to Naval Air Station North Island. Pilots contended with a wet runway and a tailwind while attempting to land, employing an aero brake in an effort to slow the aircraft. However, investigators determined the measures proved insufficient.

Gregory Feith, a former senior investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, said naval air traffic control should have directed the pilots to use a different runway. “In aviation we try to never land with a tailwind,” said Gregory Feith.

Planning Group Elections This Week in San Diego

San Diego’s Community Planning Groups (CPGs) hold annual elections every March. Here are dates, times, and locations for in-person voting at some of this week’s elections. Be sure to bring your driver’s license or another form of ID showing your home address.

Tuesday, March 3

Normal Heights will accept ballots from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Normal Heights Community Center at 4649 Hawley Boulevard.

https://normalheightscpg.org/notice-of-election/

Ocean Beach requires voters to download and print a registration form and ballot (available on website below). In-person voting takes place between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. at the Ocean Beach Recreation Center at 4726 Santa Monica Avenue.

Every Saturday at 10:30 am. San Diego Climate Mobilization Coalition Meetings March 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th

Every Saturday 10 am – 12 pm Peace Vigil for Palestine

The San Diego River Park Foundation has volunteer opportunities in Ocean Beach:

Every Sunday 1:30 pm – 4 pm Otay Mesa Vigil Otay Mesa Detention Center

March 2nd Monday 4 pm San Diego Townhall on Mental Health Programs in County Jails.

March 2nd Monday  12 pm – 1 pm Interfaith Vigil For Earth Justice

March 5th Thursday 2:30 pm and 6 pm Critical Incidents: Death At the Border Film Screening

March 6th Friday 5 pm – 8 pm Active Duty Social Event by Vets for Peace

March 7th Saturday 12 pm – 2 pm Election Volunteer Fair: Preparing for 2026 Elections

March 8th Sunday 10:30 am International Women’s Day Event by Women’s March Waterfront Park