OB Rag

By South OB Girl

Two photos are shown below and show the care and concern the businesses one block from Sunset Cliffs Natural Park have shown for the Ocean Beach and Point Loma communities. The photos show murals painted in this area of OB.  One mural is on the wall of Trinidad Motors and the second mural is on the wall of the Little Lion.

Art Historian training inspires me to analyze the images and stories painted in these murals, but in short, locals have enjoyed these murals and the murals have contributed a pleasant aesthetic to the neighborhood. The mural at Trinidad shows four musicians walking along the beach with instruments, with a bright blue sky and bright blue ocean. The mural at the Little Lion represents part of the family’s history and individuals in the boat represent family members.

Angel Gonzalez, the owner of Trinidad Motors, has worked very hard to build his business. From the first day he moved in, he was cleaning and making repairs to the site with his family and friends and he had the whole building painted with new colors.  His mother and father were there helping in what ways they could, and Angel did the heavy lifting. The building looked (and still looks) very nice with its crisp, fresh gray paint.

By Lynne Miller

“Oh Auntie Em, There’s No Place Like Home!”

Well Dorothy, we local types who live in Ocean Beach, Point Loma, and Sunset Cliffs love your sentiment.  We are working pretty hard to keep our small beach village simple and pristine.  We aren’t worried about a tornado taking us away to Oz, where witches and munchkins live.  In fact, we live in this place now, that has its own kind of magic.  Not too long ago our village by the sea was scattered with beach cottages, and a sunny life style.  There used to be a theater in town, several small retail stores, restaurants and beach bars.  Its magic is slowly being replaced by ideas that see our old-school magic as a threat.

It sounds crazy but we are fighting ideas. Remember when our ideas into laws about safe traffic flow,  land use that resulted in specific zoning, like R1, R2, commercial and residential zones.  Many here fought to preserve our history, our environment, and our coastal zone. OBceans have always been willing to fight for things like clean air and water,  bike lanes, Dog Beach. and against takeover by Big Corporations.

Originally posted March 31, 2009

César Chávez is one of the greatest labor leaders and human rights activists in the United States history and the world. He fought for a better life for migrant farm workers, and founded the first successful farm workers’ union. César was the president of the United Farm Workers, AFL-CIO.

César Estrada Chávez was able to accomplish his goals through the philosophy of non-violence that he inherited and followed from leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King.

On Monday, March 31, the City of San Diego’s administrative offices and other services will be closed in observance of César Chávez Day. The following is a guide to which services will be impacted by the holiday closure next week and which will still operate on a normal schedule.

 WHAT’S CLOSED

•  All City of San Diego administrative offices.
• All?City libraries?will be closed Monday, March 31, and will reopen at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, April 1.

Due to an all-day medical procedure tomorrow, Thursday, March 27, I will not be able to administer the Rag during the day and the site will be dark. That means there will not be any new posts and I will not be able to okay comments.

The following is from a report by Ann Jarmusch in her San Diego Historical Resources: Designations and Board Reports in the March-April newsletter from SOHO.

During their January 2025 meeting, the City of San Diego Historical Resources Board considered a 1912 Point Loma house on Fernando Street. It is currently boarded up and the owner has a 90-day permit for demolition. The Board expects to rehear the case at its April meeting.

Regarding designations, an interesting case of history and change over time occupied the board with three lengthy reports and public comment on the nomination of a 1912 Prairie style house at 310 San Fernando Street. An early and rare example of the style in San Diego, historic photos depict the two-story, square home as an outpost seven miles from the city and rising from Point Loma’s nearly vacant La Playa area. Neighbors noted that it is one of La Playa’s oldest remaining house and an important touchstone for the community.

Pro-democracy critics warn the presidential directive “represents a significant overreach of executive power and poses a direct threat to the fundamental right to vote.”

By Jon Queally / Common Dreams / Mar 26, 2025

Voting rights groups and pro-democracy advocates responded with uproar after President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening issued what they warn amounts to a far-reaching “authoritarian power grab” in the form of an “unlawful” executive order that would restrict voter access nationwide and punish states that make it easier for citizens to have their political preferences registered at the ballot box.

The official executive order—under the Orwellian header “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections”—would do the very opposite, warn critics, by making it more difficult for tens of millions of eligible U.S. citizens to cast their ballots in state and national elections.

The order, said Brett Edkins, managing director for policy and political affairs with the progressive advocacy group Stand Up America, “is a blatant effort to usurp state and congressional authority over our elections and stop millions of American citizens from voting.”

“This is a blatant attack on democracy.” —Lisa Gilbert, Public Citizen

In 2023, the City of San Diego began a $13.2 million project to improve University Avenue and the surrounding roads while ostensibly increasing safety for pedestrians in City Heights.

And now we’re told the University Avenue Complete Street project is nearing its completion. This will bring much relief to local businesses along University Ave as many have had to chain their doors during the construction that seemed to have many delays, and for residents who’ve had difficulty finding parking. Fox5 San Diego is the latest local media to give voice to the frustrations among those business owners. (See this report by David Garrick of the San Diego U-T in early February 2025)

By Jennifer Van Grove / The San Diego Union-Tribune / March 25, 2025

The project picked to remake San Diego’s sports arena site is coming into focus with new details on how the addition of thousands of apartments and a replacement arena will change the landscape of the 49-acre site, shift traffic patterns in a congested part of town, and promote biking and walking in an area currently difficult to navigate.

On Monday, the city of San Diego published the draft subsequent environmental impact report and associated technical studies for the Midway Rising Specific Plan, as required by California’s Environmental Quality Act. The report details all of the ways the Midway Rising project will change existing conditions in the area and identifies measures to lessen some of the largest anticipated environmental impacts.

For San Diegans on a 9-to-5 work schedule, visiting a museum during their usual operating hours can make it seem like weekend trips are the only option. Most museums closed their doors at 5 p.m. and some as early as 3 or 4 p.m. Even the weekend operating hours at local museums can make it difficult to plan an evening date or other late-night outings. But this isn’t true for every place.

Here’s the latest in late-night hours from local museums.

Fleet Science Center

Hours: Fleet After Dark takes place every fourth Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m., except April when the museum will be preparing for a new exhibit.

A Plea for Locals to Take Action

by Lynne Miller

On a Summer Day, at the foot of Point Loma Avenue residents can hear the OB Lifeguards clearly, “Please put your feet on the ground and walk to shore.  You are in a rip current!”

If the wind is just right, or wrong, we can hear bands playing by the OB Pier.  Sound travels, and this proposed rooftop bar on the corner of Point Loma Ave and Sunset Cliffs Blvd (where Trinidad Motors sits) is going to have Live Music — they say so in their application.  So whether you like it or not, you will hear loud sounds of music, laughter, and drinking voices leaping into high octaves.  Our quiet afternoons and evenings, well, they will be a memory that young and old can share with the next generation.

We don’t know the details of the future building with the rooftop bar. We only know that the alcohol application states the building will be “mixed-use”, which means that the plans can include apartments or condos, and a rooftop bar.  We don’t know how ‘high’ it will rise into vertical real estate, or how high the future patrons will be when they drive home.

By JW August / Special to the OB Rag

From the trenches

Keeping up with the turmoil in Washington, D.C. is an insider who works for a large federal agency and is witnessing the confusion and missteps up close.

Identified only as “S,” given that this person is not authorized to speak publicly, this is what our source says are a number of different actions that are creating fear in D.C.

Trump is trying to block a ruling from a federal judge in California ordering the administration to rehire fired workers who had been on probationary status.  He is asking the Supreme Court to knock out lower court resistance to his actions.  Source “S” tells me President Trump’s staffers have instructed agencies to put the probationary workers on administrative leave to give his attorneys time to overturn the court’s injunction.