Category: Ocean Beach

Yesterday the 11th of March, we heard from Ted Caplaneris, the owner of The Old Town House Restaurant on Newport Ave, that the television production “Terriers” is coming back to film at his restaurant.

Ted wanted us to know and to help spread the word that:

The Old Town House Restaurant will be closed on Tuesday March 16th to facilitate this production. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Last time the production crew was in OB, they used Ted’s restaurant.

David Wells is arguably one of the most famous (living) Ocean Beach residents and locals. Class of 1982 at Point Loma High, Wells became a major league baseball pitcher, amassing amazing awards such as a record of 239-157 during his twenty year league career that included a perfect game (1998) and two stints with the San Diego Padres.

Recently, he has received numerous accolades, having the high school’s baseball facilities named after him, as well as having the Dana Middle School baseball field renamed the David Wells Field. He also was just inducted into the San Diego Hall of Champions Hall of Fame.

Today, Friday, March 12, there is a fundraiser for Pointers baseball and Wells is planning on attending.

The votes are in and here’s the results of the OB Planning Board election, held yesterday.

The results are:

District 1 – Landry Watson –

District 2 – Barbara Schmidtknecht

District 3 – no candidates

District 4 – Seth Connolly –

District 5 – Giovanni Ingolia –

District 6 – Catherine Cappellucci –

District 7 – Ronson Shamoun –

COME INSIDE FOR ACTUAL VOTE TOTALS….

250 Yards of OB Pier Damaged – Will Be Closed Another Week and Half

61st Annual OB Kite Festival – March 6th

OB Planning Board Election March 9th At Rec Center

The Reader broke a story today about a scandal that involves the firing of a whistle-blower by Mayor Jerry Sanders’ office because the whistle-blower was cooperating with a law enforcement investigation into the business dealings of a friend of Sanders’ with the City of San Diego.

The whistle-blower, deputy director of the City’s Economic Development Division, Scott Kessler, was fired in the Fall of 2008. He has since filed an unlawful termination suit against the City and he and his lawyer are currently involved in settlement negotiations with City lawyers.

This is great. Scott Kessler is a very good friend of mine,

Number 9 – OB’s missing fire pit has been “found.”

Actually, the City knew all along where it was. It was destroyed when all of OB’s fire pits were moved to safer ground behind the berm late last year. OB had nine fire pits at the end of the summer and now we’re down to only eight.

So, according to Park and Recreation Department Director Stacey LoMedico, OB will not receive another one. We’ve got all we’re gonna get. And we may lose them as well.

Local OB historian Pat James took these shots of the old Plunge or OB’s first salt water pool on February 28th.

Turns out Mother Nature wanted to re-establish the old pool herself. So, here ya go, all you OB history buffs – the salt water pool re-birth.

Originally posted March 3, 2010 – reposted by popular demand

Carlos Dominguez and Antonio Santillano came to Ocean Beach Tuesday morning to replace a damaged fence. The fence, which surrounds the now-defunct saltwater pool, was knocked down last month during a day of large waves and high tides. Carlos and Antonio work for South Bay Fence of Chula Vista, the company in charge of the project.

The saltwater pool is also known as ‘the Sandbox’ (because it’s currently filled with sand) or ‘the Plunge’ (as it was originally dubbed in 1917). What remains of this once-glamorous attraction appears to have been hit by a bomb. Concrete rubble coexists with splintered wood and public supervision is sparse at best: it’s the kind of place you might witness a fistfight or step on a shard of glass. But I love the pool, despite the fact that the fences are washed-out regularly. The Plunge is a treasure, a relic of bygone era when Ocean Beach yearned to become a ritzy waterfront wonderland.

Local OB Rag staffer Nate Hipple captured these shots this morning…

Ocean Beach, Sunday 8:00 am.

Moments after this photo was taken, this bicyclist was knocked to the pavement by rushing water and dragged several meters along Newport Ave. After the water receded, he brushed himself off and made jokes about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Meandering west along Voltaire Street I begin to notice of how truly “walkable” this area of our community is. The towering trees provide much needed fresh air and shade; the sidewalks clean and lit at night by brightly painted light poles; there are virtually no traces of doggie doo anywhere; many shops have their doors open with business in full swing. From all appearances, Voltaire Street is alive and well in this current economy.

As I approach Mindy Pellissier’s shop, Dog Beach Dog Wash, at 4933 Voltaire, I notice large coolers of fresh water perched atop custom made semi-circular wooden benches out front. They hover directly above clean dog water bowls that rest on green outdoor turf. It’s only a matter of moments before the first of many passing pooches stops for a refreshing drink of cool water.

by OB Cindi

For those of you who need to be brought up to speed, last night from 7pm to 9pm there was an OB Town Council Meeting.

Earlier yesterday (Wed 2/24) I walked around Ocean Beach and handed out a flier to a handful of people under the pier. My flier had a map giving directions to the Masonic Temple, the time of the meeting, and a request for those the OBRag Ad Hoc Committee were representing to add their voices to the Town Council’s issue on homeless.

I asked about a dozen youth to come to the meeting to talk about their experience and to help push for a local shelter/camp city and more restrooms.

As the meeting started, I took a seat amongst the youth as I had promised–I practice and preach tolerance and coexistence.

The meeting kicked off with people running for various districts pushing their platforms.

This year, the city of San Diego was obliged to trim 3.8 million dollars from the library budget. 3.8 million dollars. To put that in perspective, that’s roughly 760,000 used books off of Amazon. That’s one library, right there.

The Ocean Beach library seemed particularly vulnerable to these cuts, given its proximity to the larger but less centrally located Point Loma Library. Throughout the past few years of budget cuts and closing scares, the Ocean Beach community has spoken quite loudly and clearly against the closing of the small Ocean Beach branch on the corner of Santa Monica and Sunset Cliffs.