Category: Ocean Beach

By OB Rag Staffer

Can you picture yourself being homeless and living in a tent city? That’s a frightening thought, but it is a looming possibility for more and more San Diegans as the economy gets worse for ordinary people.

Ocean Beach has a large homeless population. We see these people, chat with them and help them out with a buck here and there. But …

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Our neighbor, Hannah Creighton, invited us to share the sunny day with some local artists and art patrons. It was a small show and I’m sorry I didn’t get to talk to everyone, but all the artists had beautiful things to show and sell, were very friendly and the atmosphere was wonderful!

The fact that a group of college students from Point Loma Nazarene University has set up their own ‘shanty town’ to learn about Third World poverty – is a good first step. And it would be good for the City if San Diego politicians would follow in their foot steps – to learn about Southern California poverty.

by Lane Tobias

One year in OB, and I couldn’t be happier

Today, April 1st, marks the one year anniversary of my girlfriend and I moving to San Diego. It really has gone fast, and I have to say that it has been a year of learning and self realization – I owe most of it to the beauty of living in a community as tight knit and open-minded as Ocean Beach.

When the city eliminated supervision at skate parks this year to save money, the parks filled with gleeful skaters who no longer had to pay $5 and be under the watchful eye of a supervisor.

Problems followed. The skate park at Robb Field at Ocean Beach was repeatedly tagged with graffiti, forcing city employees to make regular trips to clean it up. Reports surfaced of people drinking and smoking at the skate parks. Parks employees and police officers started checking in on the parks regularly.

38 years ago – check out our account of the riot – reposted here, what led up to it, the causes, the reporting, and the aftermath.

the Battle for Collier Park

Spring 1971. One of the first major issues the OB Rag jumped into wholeheartedly was to join up with a new OB environmental group, OB Ecology Action, and lead a fight to save Collier Park, an urban patch of land in northeastern OB.

BREAKING NEWS:

Fox News will air a story on Rock Paper Scissors this evening, Friday March 27th between 10-10:30pm

Channel 6 San Diego

by Frank Gormlie

It was a nice spring day in the month of May. The 21st to be exact. It was in the year 1974. A generation ago. It was show-time for us as we were going up against the Chief of Police.

Four of us had traveled to City Hall to have a “get-down” meeting with Chief Ray Hoobler and our Councilman. The situation in OB had become intolerable. We had come to talk because police – community relations there had broken down.

by Frank Gormlie

Tony Manolatos, of Councilmember Kevin Faulconer’s office just got back to me. We had heard that the City was borrowing money to replace the roof of the Ocean Beach branch library, and was planning to spend $150,000 to do the job.

by Anna Daniels

DON’T BREAK OUT THE CHAMPAGNE YET!

The Mayor said he would not propose closing libraries nor reducing hours. What he did NOT say is that he would not cut staff. This is a significant issue, because the City is currently balancing the general fund budget almost entirely on $9.8 million dollars worth of salary savings.

Mayor Jerry Sanders today told the Voice of San Diego that he has no plans to cut libraries in his new budget. And that includes no reduced hours as well.

The Union-Tribune reported today that the Ciy of San Diego is borrowing $103 million for a slew of repair projects, which include a sum of $150,000 to replace the roof of the Ocean Beach branch library. If the City is about to replace the 80 year old building’s roof, that probably means we don’t have to worry about its closure during the next round of budget crisis maneuvering. Doesn’t it?