Category: San Diego

by Ernie McCray

My heart weakens
when I see my city
seeking to make catastrophic reductions
in arts funding,
as I feel,
in my very being
that the arts
should be at the center
of all things
since from humankind’s beginning
the arts have been essential
to a human being’s
wellbeing,
a means of communicating emotions,

OB’s Robb Field plus a number of beach restrooms could close due to the latest proposed budget by Mayor Gloria. The budget process is not over as City Council members must submit their own final budget proposals by Wednesday, May 20, and the council is scheduled to adopt a budget on Tuesday, June 9. It must be adopted by Tuesday, June 30.

Yet, it’s unmistakable.

The Robb Field Recreation Center in Ocean Beach remains a target for potential closure,” reports the Point Loma -OB Monthly (a U-T publication).

“Gloria’s initial proposal last month included a scenario in which 16 rec centers around the city, including Robb Field’s, could be shuttered. Under the new plan, nine recreation centers would fully close, and the Robb Field center remains on the list.”

In addition, Voice of San Diego reports:

At least 33 public restrooms in downtown, Balboa Park and Mission Bay would close under the current plan, according to an Independent Budget Analyst report. These areas, which are heavily trafficked by tourists and locals alike, currently house 66 public restrooms – which means the number would be cut by half. This does not account for additional reductions to restroom access that would result from proposed cuts to libraries and recreation centers.

By Doug Poole

A vacant lot sits at the corner of Fort Stockton Drive and Goldfinch Street in Mission Hills. It has been empty since October 2023, when the previous buildings were
demolished by Affordable Development 820 LLC. They had plans then too. Those plans fell through. Now they’re back — with something much bigger.

What they’re proposing is a 12-story, 120-unit tower made of 288-square-foot micro-units manufactured in Mexico, with zero parking, zero setback, and only 5 affordable units out of 120. The building would be taller than anything in the neighborhood, casting shadows over adjacent properties and fundamentally altering the character of one of San Diego's most beloved historic communities.

The City of San Diego is processing this permit ministerially — meaning automatically, with no community input, no design review, and no public hearing. Under the Complete Communities Housing Solutions program, if a project checks the right boxes, it goes through. Period. Your opinion doesn’t matter. The shadows don’t matter. The parking doesn’9;t matter. The fit with the neighborhood doesn’t matter.

Here’s what is wrong with that.

By David Hogan / East County Magazine / May 13, 2026

Conservation groups have sent a letter to officials at the Cleveland National Forest opposing the proposed Laguna Mountains Forest Restoration Project.

The groups condemn the Forest Service’s so-called “restoration” plan to log trees, bulldoze and burn natural chaparral shrublands, and spray herbicide across more than 13,000 acres of scenic mountains near San Diego.

This project is pure Orwellian doublespeak.

It’s not forest “restoration” if you use bulldozers, masticators, chainsaws, herbicides, and fire to beat the environment into conditions that never existed in the first place. National Forest land belongs to everyone and shouldn’t be sacrificed to private companies that stand to massively profit from destroying delicate mountain environments.

By City News Service – KPBS / May 13, 2026

Trial began Tuesday, May 12, in the lawsuit brought by a collection of homeowners who are challenging San Diego’s trash collection fee.

The homeowners sued the city following the passage of Measure B, which ended free trash pickup services for single-family homes. The plaintiffs allege the fees violate Proposition 218, a state ballot measure that holds utility fees cannot exceed the costs of providing those services.

Former San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre, one of the attorneys representing the homeowners, said in his opening statements on Tuesday afternoon that while voters approved a monthly fee of between $23 and $29, the San Diego City Council approved imposing a nearly $44 monthly fee.

Aguirre also said the city used an incorrect estimate for the number of customers that would be paying the fee, resulting in higher monthly costs than expected for homeowners.

By Lynne Miller

San Diego City Hosted a meeting at Point Loma/Hervey Library.  The room was packed.  Compliments to Dalton Consultation, the company presenting their plans to the community. I have attended a few meetings in the past 5 years, and this presentation was well designed and presented.  Fielding the 30+ questions concluded the meeting.

I agree that the ‘cliffs are falling into the sea’ and plans to slow the erosion are delinquent. Past plans may have increased the erosion, it depends on who is compiling and presenting information and why.

Compliments to everyone who attended, including the presenter and the city official who was MC at the event. There was a wealth of information and it appeared that the private consultation company and the city official listened to us.

Will that listening transform into action?  Will the serious suggestions and concerns voiced by an educated audience improve the design plans and ultimately work to slow erosion?

By Virginia Wilson — Special to the OB Rag

Do the people of San Diego need or want a new seawall at Sunset Cliffs Natural Park? Should we spend $32.59 million on such a project while city services are minimized or eliminated?

The city presented its plan for The Sunset Cliffs Seawall Improvement project to the public on Tuesday, May 12th at the Point Loma Library. The amount of information and detail provided was enough for a basic understanding of the project. Dozens of people attended, and at least as many questions were asked and answered.

The proposed seawall would fill the gap between two existing portions of seawall and is meant to protect a short stretch of Sunset Cliffs Boulevard between Adair and Osprey Streets.

The project would consist of a 205 foot length tie back wall and 130 feet of secant wall, for a total of 335 lineal feet. The current estimate of $32.59 million equates to a cost of nearly $100,000 per foot.

But rest assured, that figure does include a fresh coat of asphalt on the roadway between Adair and Osprey, plus our choice of cliff edge barrier – post and rail or post and chain.

Aside from the issue of money, there is a conflict on a deeper level.

by Debbie L. Sklar / Times of San Diego / April 30, 2026

Mission Valley has never stayed still — and neither has the river that shaped it.

A river that shaped the valley
Before roads and retail defined the corridor, the San Diego River flowed freely through this inland Mission Valley basin, widening across the valley floor in wet years and retreating in dry ones. The result was a shifting floodplain that supported plant life, wildlife, and seasonal movement by the Kumeyaay people, who lived throughout the region long before Spanish settlement.

View of Mission Valley in about 1890. The view appears to be looking northeast. (Photo courtesy of the San Diego History Center)

With the arrival of Mission San Diego de Alcalá in 1769, land use in the surrounding area began to change. Spanish and later Mexican-era records describe the valley in agricultural terms — fertile ground for grazing and cultivation — reflecting a shift in how land and water were managed.

A seasonal ecosystem increasingly became structured around permanent settlement and production.

By JP Theberge

The Harmony Grove Village South saga has a new chapter, and this one is playing out in Sacramento, behind closed doors.

A Colorado billionaire is using the California state legislature to get what he’s been unable to get in court.

SB 1256, authored by San Diego-based Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones (R), would kill a pending wildfire safety lawsuit against the Harmony Grove Village South (HGVS) project near Escondido, and the bill’s sole listed supporter is RCS Harmony Partners, the entity owned by Marcel Arsenault, the Colorado-based developer behind the project.

by Michael J. Stepner and Mary Lydon / Times of San Diego / May 12, 2026

Theaster Gates is an urban planner, artist and a professor at the University of Chicago in visual arts. In 2019 he received the prestigious Urban Land Institute’s J.C. Nichols Prize for Urban Development.

“Many cities are looking to reinvent themselves, and Theaster’s work represents art and culture as important elements of reinvention,” said Michael Spies, the Nichols Prize jury chairman. Recognition by this respected international real estate organization becomes a powerful justification for art being at the core of community and economic development.

Meanwhile, Mayor Todd Gloria is proposing to cut $11.8 million from the arts and culture grant program to help shore up the overall $118 million city budget deficit in the next fiscal year. The majority of the San Diego Union-Tribune’s “Econometer” expert panelists stated that the arts are a nice to have amenity, but the city needs to make difficult budget decisions.

We beg to differ. The impact of the arts cannot be commodified on a spreadsheet.

From SOHO

On Saturday, May 9, nearly 100 attendees joined us via Zoom for a truly outstanding program featuring a presentation by Donovan Rypkema, principal and founder of PlaceEconomics, on San Diego’s landmark study, The Urban Vitality Blueprint: A Data-Driven Analysis of Equity, Affordability, and Vitality in San Diego’s Historic Districts.

Rypkema’s presentation was followed by a robust 30-minute Q&A, which deepened the discussion and offered additional insight into the findings, implications, and broader importance of the work. Those in attendance left with a clearer understanding of how historic preservation in San Diego functions not only as cultural stewardship, but as a measurable driver of economic and community vitality.

This study gives us exactly what is so often needed in public conversations about preservation: a strong factual foundation. When preservation is questioned or misunderstood, we are now able to respond not only with lived experience and professional expertise, but with rigorous, independent research. As Donovan made clear, we now have data.

Editordude: Below is an unsolicited rebuttal to Kate Callen’s post on “Framing the news about bicycling” from Paul LeBlanc, a resident of PB.

By Paul LeBlanc

I read with interest Kate Callen’s recent opinion piece on bicycling and media coverage, entitled, “Framing the News About Bicycling? Let’s Try ‘Safety First,” but I respectfully disagree with its central premise.

The author contends that, rather than “lecturing reporters on how to do our jobs,” attention should be directed toward instructing cyclists to safeguard their own lives. That framing invites a more fundamental question: are journalists not themselves subject to critique? Thoughtful scrutiny of language and framing is not an affront to journalism; it is one of its necessary companions. Reporting, particularly on matters of public safety, carries an obligation to be precise, neutral, and grounded in evidence. To question how incidents are described is not to lecture, but to engage.