OB Rag

Surfrider to Hold Ocean Friendly Garden Workshops

By San Diego Surfrider

Point Loma residents are invited to attend a series of workshops to learn how to curb erosion caused by storm water runoff along the scenic Sunset Cliffs Natural Park by modifying their landscaping to absorb more rain water.

The workshops are fun and engaging, and when the lessons are put into practice, will help preserve the beautiful blufftop park and public open space that make the Sunset Cliffs a uniquely beautiful asset for San Diego.

Last year the park at Sunset Cliffs was named one of the top five disappearing places alongside Florida’s Everglades by Wanderlust . The San Diego Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation has been working diligently to preserve this local treasure. The cornerstone of those efforts is the foundation’s Ocean Friendly Gardens program aimed at educating residents on what they can do to protect the bluffs from devastating erosion.

Hillcrest Banners Favor Prop 37 On Robinson Street Overpass

By Nadin Abbott and Frank Gormlie

It was close to 4pm on the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street – Monday, September 17th – and the mood at the Canvas for a Cause headquarters in Hillcrest was expectant. As people started to arrive for the programed rally in favor of Proposition 37, Nadine Abbott had a chance to talk to Doctor Norrie Robbins of Women Occupy San Diego and a member of the singers Occapellas. Robbins is also Adjunct Professor at the SDSU Dept of Geological Sciences, and is retired from the United States Geological Service, DC office.

Robbins said: “I am worried about my food. I’m beginning to get weird allergies that do not run in my family.”

After nearly twenty years of ‘reform’, the schools of Chicago remain among the lowest performing in the nation.

A funny thing happened on the way to labor’s extinction: the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) staged one of the most daring and important strikes in recent memory. As Chris Hedges put it during his Democracy Now interview last week “the teachers’ strike in Chicago is arguably one of the most important labor actions in probably decades.” And in the midst of this struggle, most of the corporate media around the country have decried the horrible greedy teachers from their editorial pages and assured readers that they were on the side of the children rather than the teachers.

The California shoreline is one of the most beautiful in the country, yet each year thousands of tons of garbage end up on the beaches and in the ocean. Tomorrow, (Saturday) September 15th , thousands of volunteers will be meeting up at locations throughout the county starting at 9am to give our shoreline and coast areas a god scrubbing. Last year 7,600 volunteers removed 146,000 pounds of trash and recyclables from 201 miles of shoreline. Plus, an additional 2,000 people in Baja California collected 42,000 pounds in Tijuana, Tecate, Rosarito and Ensenada.

I shakily tried to take a picture with my AT&T 3G cell phone of a cactus painted by Mario Chacon. I acquired it from him a while back in Chicano Park. I had to shade the painting from the glare of a blue sky with the sun shining high and bright and far and wide and finally I got about as good a picture as I was going to get no matter how hard I had tried.

Trite as it may seem my persistence in getting this snapshot was based on Mario telling me that the protrusions reaching out from the cactus spoke to the persistence of the indigenous people.

Unmanned predator drones are now used for surveillance here in the U.S. and abroad

By Dave Patterson / East County Magazine / September 12, 2012

September 12, 2012 (Poway)–Every Thursday afternoon one can see a demonstration at the General Atomics plant in Poway, home of the Predator drone. The demonstrators are from the San Diego Veterans For Peace and their supporters, with the goal of enlightening the public on the desperate need for oversight regarding drone technology.

By Kimberley Beatty / Special to San Diego Free Press

There is an openly secret war between Prop 38 and Prop 30 and it’s important to understand how this unnecessary conflict happened. Both propositions increase taxes and that’s where the problem begins. Any revenue increase requires a 2/3 vote of both the state senate and assembly. All but two Republican legislators have signed the Grover Norquist Anti-Tax Pledge, vowing to never, under any circumstances raise taxes or even allow the citizens to be able to vote on the issue.

“Walk on Water” (“WOW”)
Ocean Beach Pier
5091 Niagara Avenue,
Ocean Beach, CA

Oh my, oh my, oh my. It has been many years since I had a meal at “WOW”. They were famous for their macadamia nut pancakes that last time I was there, and I tried many times to duplicate the taste in my own kitchen.

This time, when I asked if they had any macadamia pancakes, the chef was not even sure what I was talking about; didn’t “think we have any”, but if we did could make them for me. (After placing my order for something else she said that she had found some nuts and could make them for me. I declined.)

Unfortunately, I think that “Walk on Water” tried walking on water one too many times, for I do not remember having a worse meal than I was served today.

“Sanders said another savings in the works will come from using managed competition to lower the cost of city employees performing jobs that private companies can do for less. One such job is residential trash services. San Diego city employees are paid to collect trash. Most other California cities contract with a private company and residents pay for their own trash services.

“We don’t have to have government employees mow the laws in our parks. We don’t have to have government employees pick up trash,” Sanders said. Mayor Jerry Sanders reviews his legacy at La Jolla luncheon La Jolla Light 9/11/12

Three months to go in the last term of our first strong mayor — Jerry Sanders, and the legacy polishing tour has begun.

Ruling Backed By Civil Liberties Groups Who Urge Obama to Give Up Defending Indefinite Detention

By Michael McAuliff / Huffington Post / September 13, 2012
Civil liberties groups are asking the Obama administration to stand down and give up defending America’s law allowing the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects after a judge Wednesday issued a permanent injunction against it. The indefinite detention law — contained in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 —

This is a continuation of my series, examining the timely issues dear to OBceans of “What’s OB’s True Birthday?” and “Who Is It’s True Founder?”

In Part One, a discussion was begun on the different theories on the birth dates for Ocean Beach – with the main one being that OB’s birthday stems from a land rush celebration hosted by developer William Carlson and his partner Frank J Higgins in 1887.

In the middle of the 4700 block of Point Loma Avenue there are eight connected units in a single-story complex. They just sold for $1.85 million. They are located at 4746-4756 Point Loma Ave.

This represents $232,500 per unit, with the price per-square-foot of $265. They are at assessor’s parcel 448-351-06.