OB Rag

One of our bloggers, Jon Carr, has just written a new song for OBceans about his experiences picking up trash and painting out tagging the past couple week.

Here it is – sung to the tune of “The Twelfth Day of Christmas”:

On the 22nd of July the homeless left for me
A twelve pack of cheap beer …

by Jill Richardson / Daily Kos / July 21, 2009

Trying to fix our rising health care costs without fixing our food system is like trying to fix our defense budget without ending our two wars in the Middle East. In fact, it would be like trying to get a grip on defense spending while invading Pakistan. Or something like that.

Editor: World Oil’s Sunset Plaza is coming back to the OB Planning Board on August 5, 2009. We thought it would be worthwhile to re-post this article, originally posted December 3, 2008.

ORIGINALLY POSTED DEC 3, 2008
Will Ocean Beach be left with an ugly and empty office building at Voltaire and Sunset Cliffs? On Dec. 3rd, in a 9 to 4 vote, the Ocean Beach Planning Board approved the “concept” of World Oil’s Sunset Plaza, a two-story 6600 square foot building, designed to provide medical and dental offices at the controversial corner.

For a week, we ran a poll asking the reader whether Ocean Beach is becoming gentrified. 63% of the respondents said ‘yes.’ Most of those – 2/3rds – believed it was a very slow process. 33% of the respondents asked us back – in answer number 4 – “What does gentrified mean?”

So, here it is: GENTRIFICATION:

– the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents. …

by Mary E Mann

“All this shit – the benches, the trail, the signs – none of it matters if we don’t stop the erosion of the cliffs.”

This is Richard Aguirre’s main message, filtered through a long discussion of erosion, geology, politics, surf culture, and safety hazards.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law Sen. Christine Kehoe’s bill giving the city of San Diego full authority over the La Jolla Children’s Pool.

The move comes just hours after a local judge ordered the City Council to begin the dispersal of the seals within 72 hours.

UPDATE: SEN. KEHOE MAKES STATEMENT – see inside…

The tennis match over the seals at a La Jolla beach ping-pongs again. This time, Superior Court Judge Yuri Hofman, ordered the City of San Diego to remove the seals within 72 hours.

This improbable scenario has been playing back and forth for a couple of years as each side of the warring factions gets a favorable court ruling.

by Jon Carr

UPDATE: NEXT CLEAN-UP: SAT AT 10 AM
Hey Ragsters, Jim Grant and I were down at the Veteran’s Memorial yesterday to clean. Here’s the results…
Only two people showed up to help clean the marshmallow mess off the veterans memorial. In the heat of day, we worked for one full hour before calling it quits. The task is simply too large for two people to complete in a reasonable amount of time. However, in just one hour, the two of us were able to make quite a noticeable difference in about 20 square feet. And we learned some good stuff along the way.

First of all, the goop, which now resembles tar, comes up rather easily with just warm water (NO SOAP) a bristle brush, and a scraping tool such as a putty knife.

By OB Rag Staffer

Saturday, July 18 marked the 35th Annual San Diego Gay Pride Parade and Festival. The parade is an annual event that draws about 160,000 spectators and 152 floats and contingents. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered people are joined by family, friends and supporters to celebrate gay life and have some fun. It started at University Avenue at Normal Street and worked its way through Hillcrest, down 6th Avenue to the northwest corner of Balboa Park.

When I arrived shortly before 11:00, the sidewalks along 6th Avenue were packed with anxious spectators. The weather was the usual perfect day in San Diego. The crowd included infants in strollers, seniors on scooters, and everything in between. There were a lot of families with children. The majority of people were young to middle-aged men and women, and many same-sex couples.

by Frank Gormlie

There is an insurgent reform movement within the union that represents most of the County of San Diego’s employees. The candidate for president on the reform slate is Monty Kroopkin, an old friend of ours.

SAN DIEGO, CA. Monty Kroopkin appears to be an unlikely candidate for president of SEIU Local 221. With his salt and pepper beard and pony-tail, and glasses tipping off his nose, he appears to be more suited for some intellectual post at a local university, or perhaps polishing and working on his Harley.

Yet he and his fellow reformers are running against the status quo in Local 221 …

Editor: OB Rag blogger Jon Carr and local photographer Jim Grant are heading up a clean-up of the Veteran’s Memorial at the foot of Newport Ave this Saturday morning. The Memorial was grossly soiled by marshmallows thrown two weeks ago on July 4th.

The clean-up is at 1:00 pm and volunteers are asked to bring appropriate cleaning implements.

Jeff Stone, our local OB photographer and contributor to this blog, is in the hospital. He was admitted Wednesday night with severe intestinal pain, and has been diagnosed with a type of colitis.

He is feeling much better today, as his spouse Carole has reported. Jeff has inspired us with his images, so we thought we’d run a few of his best shots. Whether it’s parrots, fireworks, surfers, graffiti, or random pics of OB, you can readily see his love for our beach community.