OB Rag

Here is the agenda for tonight’s monthly meeting of the Peninsula Community Planning Board. They meet at the Point Loma Library, 3701 Voltaire, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Two interesting items on their agenda are these:

• Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan for San Diego International Airport – presentation by Angie Jamison, Airport Planning Manager

• Dana Middle School Joint Use Amendment- presentation by Randy White, San Diego Unified School District, and Robin Shifflet, Park Planner , City of San Diego

Conservationist David Helvarg – a former OBcean and writer on the original OB Rag – talks about his book, “The Golden Shore,” a tribute to California’s beautiful and iconic coastline, and the Navy’s and San Diego’s roles in shaping it.

By Serge Dedina / Wildcoast

No one has done more to educate the public on ways to preserve our coast and ocean than David Helvarg. Author of six books and the founder and Executive Director of the Blue Frontier Campaign, Helvarg will be speaking about his newest book, The Golden Shore: California’s Love Affair with the Sea at the Birch Aquarium on Tuesday Feb. 26 from 6:30-8 p.m.

Humphreys Backstage Lounge
2241 Shelter Island Drive
San Diego, CA 92101
619·224·3577

A friend, Jim, and I decided we would go out on Valentine’s Day for appetizers and a drink or two. (Yes, I do drink and yes, I did meet him on-line.) We wanted to celebrate Obama’s win and this was our first opportunity together.

I called my daughter for – one who knows nice places to go out for celebrations, and she suggested “Humphreys Backstage Lounge.” I have been to Humphreys many times. My youngest daughter was married at Humphreys, but I had never been to the Backstage Lounge nor had Jim, so that was where we went.

“Living Room Coffeehouse”
1018 Rosecrans Street
San Diego, CA 92106
(619) 222-6852

Within the small support group of widows that I am part of, three of our husband’s are buried at Ft. Rosecrans. So two of us thought we would start the day by a trip to “see” them. Even though one of our members was ill and not with us, she “talked” to her buried hubby via my cell phone and made her feel better for the day.

Then Candy and I went to the “Living Room Coffeehouse” on Rosecrans. We had never been there and we thought by going there we would avoid a crowd at the more popular Sunday breakfast restaurants. We were right. In the Living Room there are many small rooms available, couches, an outdoors, etc. so even if it was crowded it would not have been apparent to us.

Introduction: This is the second part of my series on the 30 foot height limit. This would have been published earlier except for a medical issue, so I offer my apology.

At the risk of encouraging the critics of the height limit by continuing the discussion of the effects and value of the 1972 citizens’ initiative, this is meant then to demonstrate to those same critics the tunnels that have already been dug in and around and under the 30 foot standard, as well as informing the fairly new generations of citizenry and those uninitiated observers of San Diego development.

In Part One, I discussed how some of these tunnels have been dug underneath the height limit on San Diego’s coastal areas over the decades,

Point Loma Grocery Outlet
3948 W. Point Loma Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92110
619-704-1440

You know a place is successful when you cannot find a parking space at 1:30 in the afternoon. I am one of the patrons that missed LONGS DRUG STORE when it closed and became CVS. I still miss LONGS and seldom shop CVS. I still go to that shopping center because there are several stores that I like to patronize, but with the opening of the “Point Loma Grocery Outlet” I think I will be there often.

What an exciting store. There is an array of merchandise, from fresh meat to fresh produce, to fresh flowers, wine, beer, health foods, to almost every canned item a person would want. And, contrary to what someone told me when the word went out that the Grocery Outlet was opening, I found no out-dated food; no dented cans.

500 San Diegans are reportedly to have rallied and marched in Mission Bay yesterday, Sunday, Feb. 17th, in protest of the Keystone XL Pipeline project. They joined with protesters in twenty other cities in North American yesterday, calling upon President Obama to block it and for leaders at all levels to take action in the fight against global warming.

Here is the official press statement on the event by organizers from SanDiego350:

Speaking at the San Diego rally, Mayor Bob Filner expressed his concerns about Keystone, climate change and what he wants to do in San Diego.

“If we’re going to save our beaches in San Diego, we need to take our heads out of the sand, especially the tar sands,” he said, imploring the Mission Bay crowd to push President Obama to deny permits for the Canadian pipeline that is part of a massive proposed tar sand mining and pipeline project intended to deliver bitumen slurry to Texas coastal refineries.

Soon our national political discourse will be dominated by the nightmarish sequester debate with the Republicans’ doomsday austerity strategy being countered by the Democrats’ austerity-lite program that draws from the eternal verity of Simpson-Bowles. God help us.

Standing in stark contrast to the reigning austerity-lite crowd inside the Democratic Party is perhaps the brightest progressive hope in the country, Senator Elizabeth Warren. Rather than playing the populist note to bash Republicans and then retreating to safe, chamber of commerce approved positions that put Social Security and Medicare “on the table” like many of her colleagues in the Democratic Party, Warren is consistently taking it to the 1% whenever she can, and she really means it.

A water main pipe broke late Saturday evening – early Sunday morning – in the 2700 block of Nimitz Boulevard near Shafter Street, flooding nearly apartments and residences. For a second day, residents of the Point Loma neighborhood were without water. The pipe burst around 1 a.m.

“We’re looking at two blocks of Nimitz and some side street without water at this point,” a city worker said.

The City Public Utilities Department reported it as a rupture of a 16-inch cast iron water main – one of the largest in recent memory. The City is supposedly working with residents who were flooded out, trying to find them hotels in the area, and it was reported that some folks had trouble finding places to stay.

Former OBcean Happy to Hear that 35 Years After Fight With Developers and City Hall, Planning Board Still Operating

Editor: We liked the comment to a recent post about Jane and Tom Gawronski so much that we decided to post it – So, here it is, by Doug Card, a former OBcean who was instrumental in the early days organizing for the first OB Planning Board back in the mid-1970’s..

By Doug Card

It was refreshing to hear the old Red House has been saved and revitalized, for we have many a memory of happy days there organizing to save the community or just hanging out with Frank Gormlie, Tom Kozden, and the rest of those incredible folks who made OB the dynamic community that it was.

Hornblower Cruise Captain Claims He Saw 100,000 Dolphins Last Thursday, Feb. 14th

By Sarah Grieco / NBCSanDiego.com / February 16, 2013

Thousands of dolphins spanning across 7 miles of ocean were sighted off the coast of San Diego on Thursday, a boat captain told NBC 7 San Diego.

Capt. Joe Dutra of Hornblower Cruises said he saw a “super mega-pod” of common dolphins Thursday around noon while he was on his daily tour. He said the pod was more than 7 miles long and 5 miles wide.

Dutra said the boat tour followed the pod for more than an hour and said he’s never seen anything like it.

“When you see something that is honestly truly beyond belief,” the captain said.

A brand new grocery store is moving into the Midway area of Ocean Beach and having its Grand Opening today, Saturday, Fe. 16th. It’s Grocery Outlet at 3948 W. Point Loma Blvd. From 8 am to 3pm.

Attendees will enjoy free coffee and treats, free eco-frugal reusable bags for the first 500 customers, fun games with prize giveaways and activities for the whole family to enjoy, as well as the chance to win an Old School Fish Board, a pair of “His” and “Hers” Beach Cruiser Bikes, a Panasonic Viera 42” 3-D TV or free groceries for a year!

Independent Store Operators

Mark and Stephanie Baldwin are the owners of ther new Point Loma Grocery Outlet.

The following is from their website:

After years of pursuing someone else’s dream, it’s time to pursue their own as owners and operators of their own Grocery Outlet!