OB Rag

David Garrick wrote a great summary of who’s supporting the different candidates in San Diego’s city council races on Sept. 26. Here, I’ve tried to summarize his findings in a more brief format (with the assumption that readers generally know who the candidates are — which means I don’t need to explain them).

Garrick’s accounting is based on contributions to candidates reflected in new campaign finance disclosures filed this week. “The new disclosures cover not just fundraising and spending by independent committees but also individual contributions directly to candidates’ campaigns.”

First, to remind readers of the rules. When supporters contribute directly to candidates instead of to political action committees, they can’t contribute more than the city’s $800 maximum. Independent expenditure committees — which must raise and spend money independently from the candidate they support — also make it possible for corporations, labor unions and merchant groups to participate at all. City campaign rules bar those types of organizations from contributing directly to candidates, but they can contribute to committees that either support or oppose individual candidates.

District 2

In the District 2 battle between Democrat Nicole Crosby and Republican-turned-independent Richard Bailey

• Crosby leads in independent committee money $203,000 to Bailey’s $165,000 since July 1. During the primary, committees supporting Bailey drew by far the most cash.
• Bailey raised by far the most money of any candidate in the city during the period — $51,000.

by Dave Schwab / Times of San Diego / Sept. 29, 2026

It’s sunrise for a brand-new Ocean Beach business: Sunset Marketplace.

Sunset’s owner-operator Monique “Mo” Sapia, a San Diego native who operated businesses in Riverside County, is no longer retired. She’s moved to Ocean Beach and opened a new vintage resale and oddities business at 4979 Newport Ave.

The space previously housed Sunshine Daydreams, a hippie, tie-dye, and boho clothing boutique which operated there for many years.

The changeover is a perfect fit for both Sapia and the beach community, which she is already winning over. “We made our floors a tagging project,” noted Sapia while kneeling on her concrete floor flagrantly scrawled with numerous public well wishes. “We would love it if the community would come down and see our community art project.”

Of her avant-garde art project, Sapia noted, “everybody from little 6-year-olds to 80-year-olds from all parts of the world” left their marks on her floors. She pointed to her favorite message proclaiming, “Some heroes wear capes, mine wear vintage clothes.”

Sapia chose Ocean Beach because it was, as she describes it, “the most iconic beach, groovy hippie town in the United States. Where else do we have this type of eclectic ‘60s mindset still?

Latest UC Berkeley survey: Democratic candidate has 58% support among likely voters, while Republican Steve Hilton receives 33%.

Por SanDiegoRed / September 26, 2026 

Xavier Becerra, the Democratic candidate for California governor with roots in Tijuana, is holding a wider lead over Steve Hilton in the race, according to the latest survey from UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies.

The poll puts Becerra at 58% among likely voters, compared with 33% for Hilton. That gives the Democratic candidate a 25-point margin and marks a seven-point increase from the difference recorded in Berkeley’s August survey.

The new numbers also come as another California poll released in September showed a similar gap between the two candidates.

by Dorian Hargrove / Peninsula Beacon / Sept. 29, 2026

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 344 into law on Tuesday, clearing Midway Rising’s path to begin construction on a massive redevelopment of the former San Diego Sports Arena.

The plan, to convert the land around the arena into a project with 4,250 housing units, 130,000 square feet of retail, a new 16,000-seat arena and 14.5 acres of park space, has long been challenged by residents citing coastal height limits.

The bill, proposed by State Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, declares the environmental reports studying the impacts of the redevelopment as sufficient, allowing city officials to grant approval of the project.

The bill states that because the Midway Rising project includes 2,000 affordable units, the environmental review approved by the city is enough and should not be held up by any further litigation.

With the bill now law, the Midway Rising project will soon go before the San Diego City Council for final approval. It also likely ends all legal challenges which thus far have thwarted progress on the redevelopment of the site around Pechanga Arena, as it is now known.

The project, proposed by local developer Brad Termini and his company Zephyr, is mostly owned by billionaire Stan Kroenke, who owns the Los Angeles Rams, the Los Angeles Angels, Arsenal F.C., Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets sports teams.

Kroenke is said to be the largest private landholder in the country.

The Alternative: Bring Housing and Business Back to El Cajon Boulevard.

By Laura L. Henson

San Diego is once again considering dramatic increases in residential density throughout Mid-City as the primary focus of the Mid-City Communities Plan Update. Before assuming that greater zoning capacity automatically produces better neighborhoods, we should examine our own history.

Because San Diego has tried this before, with decidedly mixed results.

In 1965, the City adopted the Mid-City Development Plan during an era of increasing multifamily development. Over the following decades, portions of Mid-City originally developed with modest single-family homes changed parcel by parcel to make room for apartments and condominiums.

The transformation did not occur in isolation.

Freeway construction divided neighborhoods, while Mission Valley and Fashion Valley emerged as regional shopping destinations.

by Tessa Balc / Times of San Diego / Sept. 29, 2026

The two Candidates vying to represent San Diego’s District 2 — which covers Point Loma, Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach and Clairemont — faced off Monday over how to address city spending and homelessness, two reliable parts of any city debate.

But at the evening candidate forum they also  jumped in  on the recently re-ignited debate over automated license plate readers.

Both Nicole Crosby, a deputy city attorney, and Richard Bailey, the former mayor of Coronado, rehashed their respective positions on topics like the proposed Midway Rising development and Liberty Station leasing at the forum, hosted by the Point Loma Association and League of Women Voters at Liberty Station Conference Center. This time around, though, as the two candidates who survived the primary, they had more opportunities to take direct shots at one another ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.

The first question of the night, about where the budget should be cut, provided Bailey the opportunity to repeat a mantra from his campaign: The city has a spending problem not a revenue problem. The solution, he says, does not necessitate cuts to programs, but significant trims to personnel  – as in back to 2015 staffing levels.

“We have to restructure City Hall, starting with cutting back personnel across most departments, so that we can actually do more with less instead of doing less with more.”

For Crosby, this line of reasoning was an opportunity to question if it is effective to compare two different decades in city government, whether based on nationwide inflation or the city’s specific circumstances.

“If we’re looking at a 2015 baseline number that Mr. Bailey would like you to look at, we need to remember that we were operating with a shoestring budget,” she said.

“Proposition B and the pension decimation and salary freezes in that era destroyed (the) city infrastructure we had, and I mean human capital as opposed to the longstanding infrastructure we have.”

By Paul Krueger

In their recent, pay-wall protected analysis of City Council District 4 candidate Martha Abraham’s campaign, Voice of San Diego editors opined that “conservatives” constitute a significant base of Abraham’s support.

I responded by email to VOSD editor Scott Lewis and assistant editor Will Huntsberry, and acknowledged that some “conservatives” do in fact support Abraham’s campaign.
But that one-word description overstates their influence, ignores important political differences among those supporters, and understates the non-partisan nature of the support for Abraham’s challenge to incumbent Henry Foster.

It’s true that Abraham’s supporters include some political activists who skew to the political “right.” Some of them are outspoken — even vitriolic — critics of some Democratic officeholders, including Todd Gloria and Gavin Newsom. And, yes, some also support Republican candidates.

They also helped organize “San Diego United Communities,” and have prominent — if not outsized-roles — in that group’s actions.

(For the record, while I share their posts and respect their opposition to the Mayor’s hyper-development policies, I’m not a member of San Diego United Communities. That group was formed by activists who were disillusioned with the apolitical, non-partisan and non-confrontative stance taken by the San Diego Community Coalition, which Kate Callen, Frank Gormlie, and I organized.)

I support Martha’s campaign. I’ve known her since she made her first public comments during council meetings opposing the controversial “Footnote 7” policy that enabled developers

‘I Should Know — I’ve Been Trying to Find Out for Over a Year’

Originally published in the San Diego Union-Tribune on June 26, 2026

By Danna Givot

If San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and the City Council care — or even just wonder — why they’ve lost the public’s trust, they need look no further than their so-called “Technical Working Group” for Neighborhood Homes for All of Us.

What is the Technical Working Group? A secret group of “experts” hand-picked to develop site plans and four building designs (with up to 10 units each) for “single-family” zoned lots in San Diego’s neighborhoods.

[Please go to the original for any links here.]

Three years ago, the planning commissioners rejected San Diego’s Senate Bill 10 (SB 10) proposal, which would have allowed single-family homes to be replaced by 10-unit apartment buildings. To their credit, the commissioners recommended that community stakeholders have seats at the working group table when crafting the next iteration of infill housing in our single-family neighborhoods. I asked the Planning Department to give Neighbors For A Better San Diego a seat at that table but received no response. This was after two members of the Technical Working Group told me they were in the group, although the city’s deputy planning director told me days later that it had “not been formed.”

Shawn Styles / CBS8 / Sept.22, 2026

The Ocean Beach Pier has been closed for nearly three years, leaving many residents frustrated and saddened by the loss of one of the community’s most recognizable landmarks.
For local graphic designer Brad Fernbaugh, the closure is personal.

“The pier holds a special place in my heart,” Fernbaugh said. “My wife’s grandmother is the one that put on the contest, and it’s been closed for three years. I look at it every day and it bums me out.”

Fernbaugh is behind the “’66 Poster Project,” a fundraising campaign built around Ocean Beach’s connection to the 1966 World Surfing Championships. The competition, held near the Ocean Beach Pier, is remembered as a pivotal event in surf culture.

A tribute to 1966 surf history
Fernbaugh recreated the style of the original poster used to promote the 1966 contest.

“The original that looks like this was done for the 1966 contest, so I replicated something similar,” he said.

By JW August / Times of San Diego / Sept.18, 2026

Attorneys are racing against the clock to speed the processing of certain green card applications, months after President Donald Trump’s shutdown of a long-running visa program.

The Diversity Visa (DV) program, also known as the Green Card Lottery, was halted in December when federal officials ordered a comprehensive “hold and review” of the program’s screening and vetting procedures.

The processing of lottery applicants reopened this week following an intense legal fight – one that is set to extend to San Diego. Doubts remain, however, as to whether there’s enough time – or willingness from the government – to handle thousands of remaining applications before Sept. 30.

Because of federal law, State Department embassies have to stop processing this year’s applicants by the end of September, the conclusion of the federal fiscal year.  Many cases are on hold because of slower processing times and the ordered shutdown of the DV program.

The program makes immigrant visas available to natives of countries with low immigration rates.