OB Rag

Here are numerous photos of Saturday’s massive “Hands Off” protest in downtown San Diego. They’re from Byron Morton and Igor Goldkind in no particular order. There were so many great original signs brought by San Diegans that many of the photos focus on them.

Thousands of San Diegans rallied today, Saturday, April 5th, in downtown at the Civil Center Plaza. The massive crowd of perhaps 10,000 marched through downtown to the US Federal Building.

Cool heads have, for the moment at least, prevailed on the Mission Bay Park Committee. A majority of the city-backed committee has rejected spending $600,000 on an analysis of how best to divvy up the land known as South Shores between different recreational activities.

When the Committee met earlier this week on Tuesday, they voted 5 to 3 against spending “$600,000 creating a proposed map of amenities — called a general development plan by city officials — before studying which parts of South Shores are too toxic for the public to use,” as David Garrick at the San Diego U-T reported today. Garrick continued:

Committee members strongly support transforming the 100 acres of underutilized land into public amenities — but they said the city must first analyze the land’s history as a dumping site for trash and industrial waste in the 1950s. They said it makes no sense to spend $600,000 creating a proposed map of amenities — called a general development plan by city officials — before studying which parts of South Shores are too toxic for the public to use.

“People are walking around with knowledge there is toxic waste somewhere under the ground in South Shores,” said Jeff Johnson, the committee’s chair. “Before we do a GDP, we should spend money to do an objective study to find out where it is, what it is and how bad it is.”

by Ernie McCray

As I read it,
the 25^th Amendment of the Constitution
says, to put it in a layman’s term,
that if the president,
when it comes to
discharging
the powers and duties
that the job requires of him,
is lacking,
then that president can be sent packing,
which should get us to asking
why we haven’t let our president go
on his non-merry way
since there is no one on earth
who could be more inefficient
at leading a nation
than the one we’ve got,

From Becca – Neighbors of Encanto

Hello Neighbors,

I hope everyone is doing well! I wanted to send along some action items of things we all should be doing as the planning department is looking at amending the bonus ADU program. They need to hear from each and every one of you as to what you would like changed.

This is the time to be filling everyone’s inboxing with what we have been asking for the past few months. I have included the emails to send to at the bottom of this email. You can write one email to Heidi and the planning department and cc everyone else.

Here are some bullet points or items [from Encanto and San Diego generally] that you may like to include in your email to the planning department:

• I want a city park at the radio towers, as was described in the 2015 Community Plan for our district.  I want 20 acres allocated from Mission Gorge to our district in exchange.  I do NOT want 130 houses built there.
• I want the Bonus ADU program rescinded as ministerial projects. ONLY approve the state mandated adu and jr adu projects first, the projects over the state mandate should be under approval of the community planning groups.

Actual New Owners Also Plan to Build the Controversial 56-Unit Complex at 1004 Rosecrans

Back a week and half ago, the Rag ran a story about what company had bought the Cañon Street Marina Center for $8.2 million. Well, we screwed up and reported that an outfit named “NorthStar Homes, ” a family-owned and run company from Colorado purchased the properties. But actually a local company called North Star Homes had made the purchases. See the difference? One name joins the first 2 words in its name and the other doesn’t.

We got our configuration of the words in the company’s name from an online business platform, ReBusiness Online, as “NorthStar Homes” — which we then looked up — to find NorthStar Homes of Colorado. Opps. We apologize for the error and any confusion.

We were corrected by Robert Vardon at the Point Loma-OB Monthly, a publication of the Union-Tribune today with his report that “the Cañon Street Marina Center, a retail and office complex in Point Loma’s Village area, has been sold for $8.2 million to North Star Homes,” a limited partnership, that “plans to hold the property as a long-term investment and maintain below-market-rate leases ….” The retail and office complex “is expected to remain a commercial center.”

Vardon also confirmed that North Star “has generated controversy in Point Loma over its plans for a 56-unit apartment development at 1004 Rosecrans St., at Talbot Street.”

By Richard Schulte / Cool San Diego Sights

By Jenna Gordon

Dear Neighbors,

We’re the team behind Daylight Coffee – Jenna, Spencer, and Justin. We’re excited for the opportunity to share our vision for the neighborhood cafe we are planning at 1404 Sunset Cliffs Blvd.

We live in this community and are deeply invested in making Daylight Coffee a positive and welcoming space for everyone. This is a passion project for us, and we are committed to respecting the unique character and quiet nature of our neighborhood.

We envision Daylight Coffee as a welcoming neighborhood cafe; an all-ages space that reflects the laid-back vibe of Sunset Cliffs/Ocean Beach. We will serve high-quality coffee and espresso, fresh-baked baguette sandwiches and pizza, as well as beer and wine. The style will be counter-service, seat yourself. Ultimately, we see ourselves as a coffee shop first and eatery second. We believe this area needs a place where you can get a coffee and a bite to go, or spend hours connecting with friends or doing computer work.

Our plans are to renovate the existing building. The building will stay in its current spot, and remain one story. We will create an outdoor patio space, including a zone for kids. Because it’s the right thing for the neighborhood and the patrons, we will also be keeping the parking lot intact, though it will be a parking lot for the cafe, not a paid lot.

City leaders and politicians have been hearing a lot from San Diego residents recently about how much the City should charge for trash pickup.

In 2022, city voters said they were OK with being charged for trash pickup, agreeing to a ballot measure that suggested San Diegans be charged between $20-$30 a month for trash collection services. But the word from the city has been a fee almost double that. Thus, the pushback from residents.

Yet, just this week, on Tuesday, April 1, Kirby Brady, the city of San Diego’s interim director of the Environmental Services Department, told the press that her department will be recommending a $53 a month fee to the San Diego City Council during an April 14 meeting, at which Environmental Services will request a public hearing for the council’s June docket.

She says the cost of doing business has skyrocketed in the last two years. “Inflation has hit nearly everything we talk about in today’s economy,” Brady said.

By Bruce Coons / SOHO March-April 2025

San Diego’s shift away from downtown as the focal point for high-density development and investment is deeply misguided. Downtown San Diego is uniquely suited to support high-density housing and mixed-use projects, thanks to its existing infrastructure, central location, and vibrant cultural and economic hubs, like the main library, the Ballpark District, and the Gaslamp Quarter District. Additionally, it holds a wealth of historic buildings that, through adaptive reuse, could play a key role in revitalizing the urban core while maintaining San Diego’s unique identity.

Instead, we’re seeing millions of square feet of prime real estate downtown go underutilized. These spaces could and should be transformed into a thriving, dynamic blend of housing, diverse businesses, restaurants, schools, and museums and other cultural institutions. These buildings could and should be transformed into a thriving urban core, including a dynamic blend of high-end and affordable housing. Such development would complement the area’s popular existing assets while driving economic growth and funding civic improvements, like a much-needed new city hall.

Moreover, the disastrous wildfires in Los Angeles highlight a critical issue: how we plan and build in areas prone to natural disasters. Downtown San Diego, with its dense urban core, paved streets, and minimal vegetation, is naturally more defensible against wildfires compared to neighborhoods like Hillcrest, North Park, and South Park, which are built along canyons and natural brush zones. Prioritizing high-density development downtown would not only take advantage of this safer environment, but, crucially, also reduce the number of lives and structures at risk in fire-prone areas.

by Ernie McCray

As if our country|
isn’t in enough of a mess already,
our issues are compounded
when we pause
and reflect on
the biggest problem
we human beings face:
the show
Mother Nature
is putting on
as though she’s in a race
to erase our species from
the Milky Way,
ripping and tearing
here and there and
every which way,
bashing us
with winds
that blow
at velocities
unheard of;

Around 4,000 new apartments are set to open throughout San Diego County this year, 2025, coming near or matching totals of the past few years. But many of the new complexes will be charging well above the average, with some hitting $3,000 a month.

So, they’re not really a solution to the affordable housing crisis.

A few weeks ago, the U-T ran this story and reported:

The largest complex will be in Convoy District, the 531-unit Alexan Camellia, expected to open late this year. Rents are not set yet but, like most new projects this year, prospective tenants might experience sticker shock.

“(Developers) need to charge high rents because of the high cost of construction,” said Nathan Moeder, principal with real estate analysts London Moeder Advisors.