OB Rag

By Paul Coogan / An Injustice

The City of San Diego is confronting a projected budget deficit of approximately $258 million for the upcoming 2025/2026 fiscal year. Is that the real number and how did this happen?

First off, the $258 million is the shortfall on the operating budget. The real price tag needs to include the deferred maintenance and upgrades to infrastructure totaling $11.87 billion — with a ‘B’. The city has less than half the money to pay for that work and comes up $6.51 billion short over the next five years. Assuming the operating budget is balanced for the next five years, the total need is $6,788,000,000.

Now that Mayor Todd Gloria is saddled with the financial disaster he promoted, he is initiating several measures aimed at mitigating the shortfall: Reassessing office space leases, a hiring freeze, higher parking meter fees, new trash collection fees, and eliminating the position of Chief Operating Officer. Removing the CCO of the city is consistent with the mayor eliminating the City Manager position thus concentrating more power in himself. Authoritarian rule has far less overhead and pesky oversight.

Our friends at Peninsula News have put together some history about the issue of “paid parking” in Balboa Park — now that the City of San Diego wants to balance its budget by installing paid parking in the “crown jewel” of the city (and other places like  Mission Bay). Links in the original do not work but see them at the end.

A 29-year-old man is in critical condition after losing control of his motorcycle on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard, on Sunday, March 16.

The unidentified biker sustained severe injuries, including multiple abrasions, a spinal fracture, a skull base fracture and a laceration to his leg. He was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police suspect alcohol to be a factor in this collision.

By Colleen O’Connor

One of the two fires, “still under investigation,” started at Liberty Station in one of the undeveloped buildings earmarked for an aquatic center. Close to High Tech High.

The proposed design (before the destructive design) included an expansive piece of outdoor space, one fifty-meter swimming pools and a smaller twenty-five meter one and a splash pool. Add to that a water slide.

From Barry Jantz

Following years of growing public opposition, the controversial Cottonwood Sand Mine proposal is now on its way to San Diego County Planning Commission. Because of this, the local planning group will be meeting as the community is again called to action. That’s the Valle do Oro CPG which will meet on March 18 at the Rancho San Diego Library, technically in El Cajon.

Following a more than six year process, including thousands of members of the public signing opposition petitions, expressing concerns at several public meetings, and sending hundreds of letters detailing the many significant safety, environmental, and community impacts, the proposal is now making its way to County Planning Commission.

While the Planning Commission is tentatively slated to consider the project application and EIR in April, the Valle de Oro Community Planning Group will meet Tuesday night, March 18, to finalize a recommendation to the County.

By Natallie Rocha / The San Diego Union-Tribune / March 13, 2025

The Port of San Diego signed off Tuesday on a prominent local restaurant group’s planned takeover of the waterfront lease held by the Fish Market Restaurant.

The Brigantine restaurant group — a family-owned business that has operated in San Diego County since 1969 — will assume the lease for the Fish Market’s location on North Harbor Drive. Brigantine’s private deal to acquire the Fish Market brand was announced late last year.

The sale marked a new era for the nearly 50-year old Fish Market restaurants, a family-owned seafood business. The Brigantine restaurant group intends to continue operating the downtown and Solana Beach eateries under the Fish Market brand.

Two US District Court judges have now ruled that thousands of fired federal employees must be reinstated within the next week. First, a district judge in San Francisco issued a blistering blast and now a Maryland district judge has ruled basically the same. Here is a report from NPR on the California ruling:

By Chris Arnold and Emily Feng / npr / March 13, 2025

Thousands of federal employees fired by the Trump administration must be offered job reinstatement within the next week, a U.S. district judge in San Francisco has ruled, because he said they were terminated unlawfully.

“It is a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that is a lie,” Judge William Alsup, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, said before issuing his ruling from the bench.

The Thursday decision marks a significant stand against President Trump’s sweeping efforts to remake the federal government. The White House has appealed the decision.

By Jesse Bedayn / Associated Press / March 12, 2025

The Trump administration is halting a $1 billion program that helps preserve affordable housing, threatening projects that keep tens of thousands of units livable for low-income Americans, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.

The action is part of a slew of cuts and funding freezes at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, largely at the direction of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, that have rattled the affordable-housing industry.

Preserving these units gets less attention than ribbon-cuttings, but it’s a centerpiece of efforts to address the nation’s housing crisis. Hundreds of thousands of low-rent apartments, many of them aging and in need of urgent repair, are at risk of being yanked out from under poor Americans.

The program has already awarded the money to projects that would upgrade at least 25,000 affordable units across the country, and details of how it will be wound down remain unclear.

By Janessa Goldbeck / Op-Ed San Diego U-T / March 13, 2025

I served nearly 7 years in the U.S. Marine Corps as a combat engineer officer, leading teams in challenging environments and ensuring operational success. My job required me to anticipate threats, protect our forces and secure critical infrastructure. Now, I see a different kind of threat — one that strikes at the heart of our national identity — a direct assault on our national parks, monuments and public lands.

The federal government is laying the groundwork to sell off America’s public lands — places that belong to all of us. This isn’t speculation; it’s happening in plain sight.

First, thousands of public land managers — including veterans — have been abruptly fired. These federal employees maintained national parks, monuments and public lands. They made reservations possible, kept trails open, cleaned restrooms and provided emergency services. They managed forests, fought wildfires, and ensured Americans could hunt and fish in these protected areas.

Neetika Walter / Interesting Engineering /  March 12, 2025

In what could be a fix to the world’s plastic problem, researchers have developed a simple new method of harnessing moisture from air to breaking down the waste.

The process begins with an inexpensive catalyst that breaks down the bonds in polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the most widely used plastic in the polyester family. Once broken, the material is simply exposed to ambient air to transfer PET into monomers—the essential building blocks of plastics.
Researchers believe these monomers could then be recycled or upcycled into more valuable materials.

The new technique, which is safer, cheaper, and more sustainable than current plastic recycling methods, offers a promising path toward creating a circular economy for plastics.

“What’s particularly exciting about our research is that we harnessed moisture from air to break down the plastics, achieving an exceptionally clean and selective process,” Yosi Kratish, who is also the co-corresponding author of the study, said in a press release.

By Kristina Davis and Caleb Lunetta / San Diego Union-Tribune/ March 13, 2025

A fire destroyed an abandoned building in Liberty Station Wednesday night, and investigators were working to determine the cause.

The blaze was reported around 8:35 p.m. on Cushing Road near Roosevelt Road in a 6,000-square-foot building that had previously been used as a recreation center, San Diego-Fire Rescue officials said.

When firefighters arrived, they saw flames as high as 40 feet coming from the structure, Battalion Chief Chris Babler told media at the scene. Firefighters made an initial push inside the building but were only able to search about 30% of it before the rain-heavy roof and extreme fire conditions prompted the building to show signs of collapse, Babler said.

By David Garrick / San Diego Union-Tribune / March 13, 2025

An Ocean Beach family is donating $3 million needed for a long-awaited expansion of the Ocean Beach library, one of the smallest and oldest branches in the city.

The donation from Duane and Phyllis Shinnick gives the city the $12.8 million needed to nearly double the library’s size and add community meeting space, reading rooms and dedicated areas for children and teens.

The expansion will retain the historic façade of the library, which was built in 1928 and expanded in 1962. Now 5,085 square feet, the library will grow by about 4,300 square feet.

The donation will allow the city to put the project out for bid and potentially break ground in summer 2026. On that timeline, the expanded library would open in summer 2028.