Category: Ocean Beach

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.

The OB Town Council is holding a meeting tonight at the Masonic Temple,which includes a candidate forum for candidates of the OB Planning Board, plus a public forum on homeless.

Two of our bloggers, Cindi and Lane, are texting us and we will be sharing with you what they report:

7:23 pm LANE: handful of PB candidates that sit on TC as well –

7:16 – there is a woman speaking … she says she handles homeless issues like vandalism, drunk in public, … insinuating that only homeless do these things.

7:11 – they are allowing the homeless youth to submit speaker requests! they are going to hear our voice!

7:10 pm – talking about housing workshop, student loan workshop, but my thought is what about the homeless shelter workshop?

7:08 pm – The meeting just started !

The TV cop show, Terriers, is currently filming in OB. And they are looking for local extras. They are filming a pilot plus a second episode. This all according to Ted, the owner of Old Town Restaurant on Newport.

Originally posted February 22, 2009

OCEAN BEACH, CA. Exactly 36 38 years ago today, on February 22, 1974 – all hell broke loose in Ocean Beach – and for many of the seventies generation, this day will always live on in their memory as a day of infamy – the day the world came crashing down on our little seaside community. It was the day that Pete Mahone, a politicized ex-convict and member of OB’s anti-Vietnam war community, tried to commit suicide by cop. It was also the breaking point in police-community relations, relations that had been simmering for years.

We must be crazy…. but we’re going to give this a shot!

We’re not looking to be another Craig’s List so we’re going to start small with just a few categories:

* Jobs – Help Wanted and Jobs Wanted
* Housing – For Rent and Roommates
* Services – legit services offered by individuals
* Stuff – for sale, for trade, for free!

It’s very simple to post a listing, just post a comment under the section where you want to place an ad. As always, type your name & email address in the appropriate boxes, then type your listing in the comment box. Make sure you include some kind of contact information in the big comment box, the email address you put in the small box IS NOT VISIBLE to the public.

Editor: The following was originally two comments left by Camper, a young, dread-locked traveler. We decided to post it – with some editing – as one article. This, in the midst of some local OB hate mongering – as we have been told that someone is passing out fliers that say “Trolls go home.” Here, then, in his own words, ….

by Camper

So my name is Camper. My side of the story might strike your interest as I may be the first traveler to take the time and let you know where I’m coming from.

I’m from Detroit, Michigan and have been traveling for quite sometime. How long does not matter. Long enough to go from being that kid that every OB local can’t really stand, the kid in patchwork clothes panhandling for nothing but booze money, to someone who simply cares for his freedom, and wants a lifestyle not created by small group of narrow minded men.

by Seth Connolly

As someone who serves on the Ocean Beach Planning Board and who may or may not run again, I will answer some common questions about planning as a private citizen right now.

First, a quick clarification about our role in the process. We are not charged with writing code or determining funding and certainly not whether large-scale transportation projects take place.

Our role is to give a voice to the community on land use and development issues and to make recommendations in an advisory capacity to the City on specific projects or land use issues. We operate according to our own Precise Plan, first and foremost, which is in the process of being updated. We are not there to enforce zoning so much as we are another set of eyes on it.

With the upcoming OB Planning Board election on March 9th, and the Town Council’s planning board candidate forum on Feb 24th, we thought it would be swell if we got to know the current Board members and the candidates.

The problem is that there is not a whole lot of information out there (Planning Board website and Google) on some folks – which I indicate below. (As more info on certain individuals becomes known, I’ll add it to this post via the comments. )

The Ocean Beach Planning Board covers, of course, the OB Planning area, which is broken down into 7 districts, and each district has two seats on the Board.

The Ocean Beach Town Council will be hosting a Candidate Forum for OB Planning Board candidates and then during the same meeting, the Council will sponsor a public discussion on the homeless.

This logistically challenging event will be on February 24th, at the Town Council’s monthly meeting. It will be held at the Masonic Temple, located at 1711 Sunset Cliffs Boulevard.

GO INSIDE FOR ALL THE JUICY DETAILS

* Peace Rocker’s Peace Sign Taken Down for High Winds

* Point Loma High’s Baseball Field to Be Named for Pitching Champion and Local David Wells

* Point Loman Walt Bailey Remembered for His Volunteerism

* City to Repair Six Coastal Stairways – Three in Ocean Beach

* Stimulus Money Used to Hire Seattle Company to Dredge Mission Bay

by Jordan Barnes

I could not have anticipated what I was to see, or the affect that our experience in Haiti would have on me.

My fiance Christene and I left from Ocean Beach to join ten others and 1,200 lbs of medicine and supplies that had been donated. This is only a fraction of the donations that “Children’s Hope” has received since the catastrophic quake, but such was our weight allotment, the rest will go down in subsequent trips.

My mother Leisa Faulkner began Children’s Hope, a non-profit/non-religious organization, in 2004 to help the desperate situation of the children of the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Along with humanitarian aid, my mother has become very involved in the political situation there.

Who is The Naked Swimmer?

On January 30th, a community at the brink found cause to boil over in protest to the increasing population of street kids. On this day in Ocean Beach, a very intoxicated man swam naked near the pier. He resisted arrest next to the seawall on Newport and Abbott, which is just about as public of a spot as OB offers.

However, the intoxicated man, who I have referred to as The Swimmer in a previous post, was not a street kid.

Stephen Morse is a clean-shaven, 6 foot 200 pound college student. The 19-year-old has a role in the student government at San Diego State. He is a recent transplant from the state of Washington, where he went to high school, and was on the local school football team.

Morse was charged with resisting arrest (penal code 148) and public intoxication (HS 11550). He was bailed out of jail straight away, and is awaiting his court date.