OB Rag

The Daily Transcipt * is reporting that a 4-unit apartment on Del Monte Avenue in south Ocean Beach has sold for $857,500 – cash.

The apartment complex located at 5010-5014 Del Monte Ave is actually a group of smaller cottages – most joined together, one block from Sunset Cliffs and the ocean. They consist of a two-bedroom, one-bath unit, and three one-bedroom units. It is a one-story, three building complex built in 1951 on a 5319 square foot lot.

On January 18, 2012, Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) sued Caltrans in the County of Sacramento where the state agency is headquartered. The suit alleges that Caltrans failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) when it decided to sell its District Office in Old Town San Diego, despite acknowledged significant impacts. The environmental impact report (EIR) prepared by Caltrans failed to analyze even one alternative to public sale, such as transfer to State Parks or restrictive covenants that protect its historic status and use.

The Caltrans District 11 Office Complex meets criteria for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and the California Register of Historical Resources. There is wise public interest in transferring the site to California State Parks to add its 2.5 acres to the 13-acre Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.

“Every EIR is required to contain a range of reasonable alternatives to a proposed project. Caltrans admits that its proposed sale of its historic District Office in Old Town would have significant environmental impacts, and yet its EIR fails to include analysis of even one alternative, much less a range,” stated SOHO Executive Director Bruce Coons.

Thousands Strike State-Wide (see more below)

By Lauren Steussy / NBC San Diego / January 31, 2012

Workers at Kaiser Permanente are lining up in front of facilities across California to bring awareness to contract disputes with Kaiser’s mental health and optical employees.

Statewide, 4,000 National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) employees will strike for 24-hours Tuesday. It is expected to be one of the biggest strikes in Kaiser’s history, since two other unions will also walk out. The disputes center around proposed cuts to retirement and health care benefits.

By Miriam Raftery / East County Magazine / Jan. 30, 2012

January 30, 2011 (San Diego) – State Senator Juan Vargas, a former insurance industry executive who has taken massive donations from the insurance industry, may cast the deciding vote Tuesday on whether or not millions of Californians will receive guaranteed universal healthcare and dental care coverage.

Senate Bill 810 passed committee, but fell two votes short in the Senate. A new vote is sought before tomorrow’s deadline for passing all Senate bills and sending them on to the Assembly.

by Jennifer Epps / Calitics / Jan. 31, 2012

In Canada, the only way to see a doctor is to call one up and make an appointment. Or walk in to their office. In Britain, the only way you’ll get surgery is if you actually need it. And yet State Senator Mark Leno and 44 co-sponsors want to bring this kind of healthcare system to everyone in California! Imagine.

In fact, the California legislature twice approved such a system, in which private providers carry on as independently as always but the public pays their bills directly (rather than indirectly as it does now, through a patchwork quilt of emergency care, programs to bring healthcare to the poorest and the elderly, and subsidies for insurance premiums.) Both times Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill. But Senator Leno, a longtime campaigner for single-payer — a.k.a. “Medicare-for-All” — has brought the bill back again as SB 810. Last week, the bill fell just two votes shy of passage with a tally of 19-15 in favor. (It needs 21 to pass because it requires more than a simple majority.) Sen. Leno plans to push for another vote under Reconsideration, because several Democratic state senators abstained, but the deadline to win their support is today.

Our very own Congressman Darrel Issa is currently in a snit, a tift, a rift – over – among other things damaged sod – with the National Park Service in DC. It seems he doesn’t like the Service’s attitude toward the encampments of the Occupy Washington movement. Issa doesn’t support the Occupy movement and he feels the Park Service has been too liberal with them – and he’s using the power of his panel to do some snooping around. And the Park Service has pushed back.

In the meantime, there is a waiting game going on in DC between the Park Police and the Occupy protesters. There have not been any large-scale arrests such as has gone down at other Occupy campsites around the country. The U.S. Park Police began enforcing a ban on Monday, Jan. 30th, on anyone camping at two parks. Dozens of Occupy protesters took refuge at one park under a huge blue tarp. This all according to CNN .

SFGate / January 31, 2012

A reactor at the San Onofre nuclear power plant was shut down Tuesday because of a possible leak, but there is no imminent danger, utility operators said.

Sensors at the plant detected a possible leak in one of Unit 3’s steam generator tubes, Southern California Edison spokesman Gil Alexander said. Even if a leak is confirmed, it would pose no danger to the public or plant workers, he said.

No release has been made into the atmosphere, he added.

“It is not a major leak. It has not risen to the level where it would cause the unit to automatically shut down,” Alexander told U-T San Diego. “But as a precaution we’re shutting the unit down to go in and inspect.”

Some of you may remember me being a wet blanket to Doug Porter’s request for ideas on how to get arrested for free speech. I very school marm-ily suggested it constituted conspiracy, a felony in California. Be careful and don’t run with scissors.

Then about a week later, several members of Occupy San Diego disrupted the Mayor’s State of the City Address. They did so with the now familiar “Sound Check!” and their follow-up chorus until they were arrested for an anti-free speech law at council meetings and…..conspiracy. And along with the misdemeanor disruption charges, they were charged with felony conspiracy charges as well. Chicken shit, yes…but arrested and charged with a felony nonetheless. [Editor: DA Dumanis has decided not to charge them with felonies and has kicked their case back to the City Attorney.]

Well today, groggily over coffee I read about a Deputy DA and a Cop who conspired to destroy a traffic ticket. A Court Summons! A Court Document! A complete circumvention of the judicial process by those very people who are tasked with “protecting” us. A nose thumbing at those of us who are preyed upon daily at their discretion. Those who have sworn to uphold the constitution and wield authority in an even handed way….deep breath….

The regular monthly meeting of the OB Planning Board is this Wednesday, February 1st. The Board begins its meetings sharply at 6pm at the Ocean Beach Rec Center, located at 4726 Santa Monica Avenue.

The big ticket item on their agenda this month is whether the OB Board should approach the city-wide organization of recognized community planners, called the Community Planners Committee of (CPC), about the fight the Board is having with the City of San Diego over the City’s granting of improper variances.

The fight centers over the 5100 block of West Point Loma Boulevard and how the City is allowing property owners to circumvent the Ocean Beach Precise Plan with these multiple variances.

In a nutshell, the City has of late been granting multiple variances to property owners on that block which allow them to bypass the requirements of the Precise Plan – which since the mid-Seventies has governed building and construction in Ocean Beach. The Board maintains that these variances are improper – even illegal some say – because the City is using them to get around the zoning in that area, a zoning that was established years ago.

Editor: While repairs are going on, Ragster Anna Daniels looks into the funding for the new roof on the OB Library. About two weeks behind schedule, the re-opening of the Ocean Beach branch will now be around the first of March.

It all started with a forwarded email which expressed shock that the OB Library’s Spanish barrel tile roof had recently been replaced with crappy looking shingles. I sat here in City Heights and conjured up the image of the Ocean Beach library where supporters have protested potential budgets far too many times in the past four years. What a crime to sacrifice the architectural integrity of the building to a badly needed new roof done on the cheap!

I immediately called library administration to get the story on this. According to the spokesperson, the old wood shake roof has been replaced by custom composite tile. I had “mis-remembered” a Spanish barrel tile roof and so did others! This custom tile maintains the same “look” but provides fire retardant capabilities that the shake roof didn’t.

End of story? Not quite. I asked about the funding source for the new roof and was surprised to learn that there were multiple sources, which included building maintenance funds, a donation from the OB Friends of the Library and a

In a clear sign that grassroot activists on the left and on the right are joining together to fight the National Defense Act that President Obama signed into law on the last day of 2011, San Diego progressives and tea party groups are mobilizing starting this week in joint actions against local Congressional representatives.

Activists and organizers at both of the ideological ends of the political spectrum are extremely upset and concerned with provisions of the NDAA that will allow the government to pick up and detain American citizens indefinitely without charges and without trials.

A group in San Diego has formed the Save the Bill of Rights; they meet weekly, have a website and facebook, and are planning at least two actions in the upcoming weeks.

On Friday, February 3rd, protesters will simultaneously mobilize at both Duncan Hunter, Jr’s office in El Cajon and at Susan Davis’ office in Normal Heights. Hunter is a Republican and Davis is a Democrat. Both voted for the bill when it was before the House of Representatives. Not too long after that vote late last year, local San Diegans staged a brief sit-in at Davis’ office on Adams Avenue.

Hormuz-Mania

By Michael T. Klare / TomDispatch.com / January 31, 2012

Ever since December 27th, war clouds have been gathering over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow body of water connecting the Persian Gulf with the Indian Ocean and the seas beyond. On that day, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi warned that Tehran would block the strait and create havoc in international oil markets if the West placed new economic sanctions on his country.

“If they impose sanctions on Iran’s oil exports,” Rahimi declared, “then even one drop of oil cannot flow from the Strait of Hormuz.” Claiming that such a move would constitute an assault on America’s vital interests, President Obama reportedly informed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Washington would use force to keep the strait open. To back up their threats, both sides have been bolstering their forces in the area and each has conducted a series of provocative military exercises.