OB Rag

“Perfectly Legal” by David Cay Johnston and “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” by Thomas Frank – great starting points on what’s f’ed up with our current tax system and why the wealthy have been able to sell a good chunk of the middle class on keeping things in their current atrocious state. I’ll lend either to anyone who’s interested, wouldn’t mind swinging by to pick them up, and promises to either return them or pass them on to someone else.

Class warfare isn’t about rich vs. poor, it’s about middle class vs. poor. The people who are truly rich don’t really care one way or another, they have enough for themselves and that’s all that matters. Look at Barron Hilton – he’s ran the hotel chain his family built into the ground but he’s got enough money that he’ll never run out and his kids don’t even have to bother trying to make anything of themselves ever. And if (shudder) they have kids, same deal.

As an alumnus of UCSD and veteran of the 1969 student strike over the University’s policies toward minority students, I found this week’s report of a UCSD fraternity off-campus party called the “Compton Cook-out” particularly disturbing. The party was a mock-down of ghetto culture – in the middle of Black History Month.

And then the report of the student group Koala’s campus video program promoting that event, with the use of derogatory racist language, plus a hand-written sign that was discovered with the words “Compton Lynching,” equally disturbing.

by Seth Connolly

As someone who serves on the Ocean Beach Planning Board and who may or may not run again, I will answer some common questions about planning as a private citizen right now.

First, a quick clarification about our role in the process. We are not charged with writing code or determining funding and certainly not whether large-scale transportation projects take place.

Our role is to give a voice to the community on land use and development issues and to make recommendations in an advisory capacity to the City on specific projects or land use issues. We operate according to our own Precise Plan, first and foremost, which is in the process of being updated. We are not there to enforce zoning so much as we are another set of eyes on it.

With the upcoming OB Planning Board election on March 9th, and the Town Council’s planning board candidate forum on Feb 24th, we thought it would be swell if we got to know the current Board members and the candidates.

The problem is that there is not a whole lot of information out there (Planning Board website and Google) on some folks – which I indicate below. (As more info on certain individuals becomes known, I’ll add it to this post via the comments. )

The Ocean Beach Planning Board covers, of course, the OB Planning area, which is broken down into 7 districts, and each district has two seats on the Board.

Should San Diego progressives hold a counter-demonstration at the up-coming Tea Party rally? This is the question for San Diegans with a conscience.

Local Tea Baggers will be staging an event on Saturday, February 27th. Local right-wing radio pundit, former felon and mayor, Roger Hedgecock will be the keynote speaker. The rally will be held from 11 am to 1 pm, just north of the Star of India along Harbor Drive.

The Ocean Beach Town Council will be hosting a Candidate Forum for OB Planning Board candidates and then during the same meeting, the Council will sponsor a public discussion on the homeless.

This logistically challenging event will be on February 24th, at the Town Council’s monthly meeting. It will be held at the Masonic Temple, located at 1711 Sunset Cliffs Boulevard.

GO INSIDE FOR ALL THE JUICY DETAILS

* Peace Rocker’s Peace Sign Taken Down for High Winds

* Point Loma High’s Baseball Field to Be Named for Pitching Champion and Local David Wells

* Point Loman Walt Bailey Remembered for His Volunteerism

* City to Repair Six Coastal Stairways – Three in Ocean Beach

* Stimulus Money Used to Hire Seattle Company to Dredge Mission Bay

By David DeGraw / AlterNet / February 17, 2010

The United States already had the highest inequality of wealth in the industrialized world prior to the financial crisis — and it’s gotten even worse since.

As a record amount of US citizens are struggling to get by, many of the largest corporations are experiencing record-breaking profits, and CEO’s are receiving record-breaking bonuses. How could this be happening, how did we get to this point?

by Patrick Finley / Arizona Daily Star / February 14, 2010

TUCSON – The crowd stood and cheered. Someone handed Ernie McCray the basketball.

When the Arizona Wildcats hosted Los Angeles State at Bear Down Gym on Feb. 6, 1960, there was no scoreboard to show how many points each player had scored. No public way to document the smashing of records and preconceptions and prejudice.

The 6-foot-6 senior from Tucson High School scored 46 points – a UA record to this day.

Afterward, his teammates went to a restaurant to celebrate. McCray didn’t join them – he knew he wouldn’t be served.

by Jordan Barnes

I could not have anticipated what I was to see, or the affect that our experience in Haiti would have on me.

My fiance Christene and I left from Ocean Beach to join ten others and 1,200 lbs of medicine and supplies that had been donated. This is only a fraction of the donations that “Children’s Hope” has received since the catastrophic quake, but such was our weight allotment, the rest will go down in subsequent trips.

My mother Leisa Faulkner began Children’s Hope, a non-profit/non-religious organization, in 2004 to help the desperate situation of the children of the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Along with humanitarian aid, my mother has become very involved in the political situation there.

Recently, we asked our readers what they thought about the major construction projects listed by Mayor Jerry Sanders in his State of the City address, and what their priorities would be.

In our poll, we gave respondents choices of “a new central library,” “convention center expansion”, “a new city hall”, “a Chargers football stadium downtown,” plus “none of the above,” and also allowed readers to write in their own ideas.

Someone wrote in that they wanted to see a permenant homeless shelter – and guess what? That won. A third of our respondents went for that. 32%

Who is The Naked Swimmer?

On January 30th, a community at the brink found cause to boil over in protest to the increasing population of street kids. On this day in Ocean Beach, a very intoxicated man swam naked near the pier. He resisted arrest next to the seawall on Newport and Abbott, which is just about as public of a spot as OB offers.

However, the intoxicated man, who I have referred to as The Swimmer in a previous post, was not a street kid.

Stephen Morse is a clean-shaven, 6 foot 200 pound college student. The 19-year-old has a role in the student government at San Diego State. He is a recent transplant from the state of Washington, where he went to high school, and was on the local school football team.

Morse was charged with resisting arrest (penal code 148) and public intoxication (HS 11550). He was bailed out of jail straight away, and is awaiting his court date.