Category: Ocean Beach

By Anonymous OBcean

Dear representatives of Councilmember Campbell and Mayor Gloria,

I am writing to express my outrage after receiving a citation under San Diego’s “daylighting” parking enforcement near an unmarked crosswalk.

This law, as currently enforced, functions as a trap. There are no signs, no painted curbs, and no visible warnings to alert drivers that parking is prohibited. Residents and visitors are expected to somehow know they must remain 20 feet from an invisible, unmarked crosswalk. That is not reasonable governance — it is punitive and predatory.

Public safety should never be implemented through gotcha enforcement.

Earlier today, Friday, Feb. 20, the Rag re-posted an article from the Times of San Diego about Richard Bailey, the former mayor of Coronado, who has just announced he is in the running for the District 2 San Diego City Council seat.

In Times reporter Tessa Balc’s Feb. 19 article, she says this:

“As mayor of Coronado he [Bailey] was affiliated with the Republican Party. He has since re-registered as an independent.”

Now to be clear, Bailey is not quoted as saying this — Balc the reporter says it. Where did she get it, if not from Bailey? (We have a call into her at the Times.)

By Jillian Butler

Within the Peninsula Community and San Diego as a whole, homelessness continues to be a pervasive topic brought up in social media discourse, political campaigns, and community meetings.

It is equally divisive as it is pervasive. Some argue for strict crackdowns while others worry about over-policing. Regardless of individual feelings, the homelessness crisis of San Diego is a problem that requires concrete solutions. Ocean Beach has always prided itself on compassion. But compassion alone hasn’t resolved the growing tension around homelessness in 92107.

The San Diego Regional Homeless Task Force estimated that there were no less than 9,905 homeless residing within San Diego County in 2025. At least 221 of those individuals are in the 92107 area code. The average age of those experiencing homelessness is 43 years old. The gender demographics are closely split with 51% being female and 49% being male. Racially, Black people of color make up 48% of the homeless population. Both senior (age 55+) and youth (age 12-24) homeless rates are consistently increasing.

by Tessa Balc / Times of San Diego / Feb. 19, 2026,

To little surprise, Richard Bailey has announced that he’s running for the District 2 seat on the San Diego City Council. All that’s left to do is file the forms.

After sending out campaign-style mailers, announcing a ballot measure to remove trash and parking fees — which has yet to materialize — and relocating to Point Loma, the former mayor of Coronado said on Wednesday that he’s planning to seek the council seat.

In his Instagram announcement, Bailey asked for support for what he described as a “non-partisan, policy-focused, back-to-basics” campaign. As mayor of Coronado he was affiliated with the Republican Party. He has since re-registered as an independent.

Over the last year Bailey has positioned himself to move the needle in San Diego politics through viral Instagram videos which focus on quality-of-life issues that don’t follow stringent party lines.

OB’s Historical District Needs to Be Protected

As it stands now, on Tuesday, the 24th of February in the afternoon, the San Diego City Council will get to decide on a good deal of the future of Ocean Beach.

There is an animal out there ready to devour our sedate coastal village and it’s called “Preservation and Progress Package A.” It’s a set of policy proposals affecting how the city preserves and designates historical properties — or neighborhoods. These “reforms” specifically call out the historic district that Ocean Beach enjoys, called the “Ocean Beach Cottage Emerging Historical District”.

Why? What’s going on?

OBceans aware of the neighborhood know there’s many small cottages scattered throughout the blocks that make up Ocean Beach, but may not be aware that these old cottages add besides the obvious an historic character to the community — plus add certain protections.

The original application for an Ocean Beach historical district designation was filed with the state Department of Parks and Recreation on June 2, 1999, by the now-late OB Planning Board member Priscilla McCoy.

The district is termed “emerging” because there never has been a complete survey of all the buildings that potentially qualify to be historic. Usually a full historic district designation protects surrounding buildings, even ones not considered historic, in order to preserve community character. And lately, the city has been arguing that OB’s historical designation applies only to the 72 cottages, built between 1887 and 1931. And nothing else. Yet, several local OB historians estimate the total number of potentially historic cottages at more than 300.

By South OB Girl

It is unfortunate for San Diegans that many wise words have fallen on deaf ears during the proceedings of the city’s “Preservation and Progress Package A,” which proposes amendments to existing policies for historic properties, historic communities, historic designation, de novo appeal, and San Diego’s historical resources.  As Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) described in their January 9, 2026 OB Rag article:

This fast-tracked proposal would weaken San Diego’s historic preservation program by allowing the City Council to override expert historic designations, thereby stripping protections from historic districts… while prioritizing new construction over true preservation.

Package A specifically targets Ocean Beach for the construction of high-density Complete Communities Housing Solutions and specifies Ocean Beach for the removal of historic protections.  This would pave the way for high-density housing developments with greatly reduced setback requirements and little to no on-site parking.  Such construction is currently not allowed in OB.

Package A paves the way to annihilate the small beach town as we know it while flooding our community with big box apartment buildings that could be mixed in with single family homes and historic beach cottages. Such development would have a myriad of repercussions including oversaturation of on street parking due to limited on-site parking and a strain on public utilities such as water, sewer, and power.

by Dave Schwab  / Times of San Diego / Feb. 17, 2026

Near Valentine’s Day 1964, a young, recently married couple, Johnny and Joyce Swindle, were killed by a lone sniper as they stood behind the Ocean Bean seawall watching the sunset.

This random double murder was never solved.

Nor were the homicides of four more young couples killed at isolated California locations near water, at dusk, and with the same .22-caliber bullets.

Those killings were attributed to the infamous Zodiac Killer, who taunted police, was never apprehended, and who went silent six years later. Some criminologists became convinced that the Ocean Beach Valentine’s Day murders were an early trial experiment of this serial killer.

by Debbie L. Sklar / Times of San Diego /  Feb. 13, 2026

For centuries, the waters off Point Loma have been both a gateway and a hazard. Guarding the entrance to San Diego Bay, the peninsula’s rocky shoreline, strong currents, and frequent fog made it one of Southern California’s most treacherous stretches of coast. Long before visitors hiked the bluffs, ships ran aground, illicit cargo moved ashore, and maritime stories took root — shaping local lore that still echoes today.

Navigation into the bay was especially tricky in the 19th century. Fog often concealed the narrow channel, and early nautical charts were incomplete. The Old Point Loma Lighthouse, first lit in 1855, was intended to guide ships safely to harbor. Instead, its high perch often placed the light above the fog, making it invisible to sailors below. Mariners complained, and shipping records indicate that vessels continued to run aground. In 1891, the lighthouse was abandoned and replaced by a new light positioned closer to the water.

Shipwrecks along the Point Loma coast were not uncommon. Many vessels were damaged rather than destroyed, but contemporary newspaper accounts describe ships stranded on shoals, cargo lost overboard, and crews rescued under dangerous conditions. These incidents reinforced the area’s reputation as a hazardous passage — a reputation that lingered even as navigation tools and harbor improvements advanced.

By: Marie Coronel / 10News / Feb 16, 2026

A growing trend in San Diego is helping address the housing shortage as companies convert vacant hotels into apartment complexes, offering residents new housing options at competitive rental rates.

Ambient Communities has been working for years to transform the former Consulate Hotel, which was built in the 1970s and sat vacant for years, into the Celeste Point Loma Apartments. The project will offer 127 units in an area that has seen limited new housing development.

Robert Honer, a principal for Ambient Communities, said the conversion provides an alternative housing option for young professionals and students in a desirable neighborhood.

“If you’re going to graduate school, if you get your first job this is a community that people like to live in. For me the only way we could afford it was we put a bunch of kids in a single family home and did it that way. So this is an alternative to that,” Honer said.

From Peninsula News

Please join the Ocean Beach Historical Society on Thursday, February 19, 2026, 7pm, at Water’s Edge Community, 1984 Sunset Cliffs Blvd. Local author Jill Hall discusses her recent novel “On a Sundown Sea”