OB Rag

OCEAN BEACH, CA. Last week it was announced that the North Beach public restrooms would be closed for 18 months for reconstruction, as the roof was falling apart.

Any talk about public restrooms in OB would be incomplete without a discussion of the restrooms in the main lifeguard tower at the foot of Santa Monica Avenue. These facilities have been wanting for years.

OCEAN BEACH, CA. News and views, community events, thoughts, musings – it’s all here.

This is OB Flashes – the OB Rag’s weekly Community Bulletin and Discussion Board. Discuss anything that is bugging you, or exciting you, or of interest. Or just something you want to share with the rest of us. Do it in the comments section.

by Jim Bell

Many experts are projecting doom and gloom, scenarios of decreasing water supplies and increasing cost, yet the San Diego/Tijuana Region can easily become renewable water self-sufficient and even become a net water exporter.

Even if we assume the worst case scenario of zero precipitation and the complete cutoff of all imported water, the San Diego/Tijuana Region could completely replace all the freshwater it currently uses by ….

by GrokSurf

In Sunday’s Union-Tribune (9/13/09), Mike Lee wrote that “water districts might have to keep boosting prices” because consumers reduced their water consumption due to the shortage. The article generated plenty of interest (169 comments, many angry, when I last checked).

As far as the San Diego Water Department is concerned, …

Restrooms near Dog Beach need to be demolished and it will take 18 months to replace – meanwhile 10 portable toilets set up. The city is leasing them for $1,341 per month.
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OCEAN BEACH — For the second time in 18 months, San Diego’s history of putting off maintenance to save money has caught up with it, resulting in the sudden closure of a public building due to safety concerns.

OCEAN BEACH, CA. It turns out that despite all the whining about and dissing of tourists, beach residents are actually tolerant of them and even welcome them.

The OB Rag ran a poll recently on this very subject, and the results are somewhat surprising. From September 4th through the 14th (I know, it’s more than a week – sorry!) our poll asked:

Do you think the tourists that visit Ocean Beach are a positive or negative influence on the community?

by Emily Alpert / Voice of San Diego
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Parents are weighing the idea of splitting Correia Middle and other Point Loma schools from San Diego Unified as independent charter schools, which would free them to handle their own budgets, staffing and curriculum. The idea was tossed around at a parent foundation meeting in Point Loma, where parents and principals said they were weary of the nonstop turnover at the school district.

All but one speaker at the La Mesa Spring Valley School Board meeting last night criticized the Board for its 3-2 vote to ban the live broadcast of President Obama’s speech to school kids.

These were ordinary parents of kids in the district – ordinary people –

Editor: When the La Mesa Spring Valley School Board voted to ban President Obama’s speech to school kids, two board members opposed the motion. One of them was Bill Baber, who as a Republican, voted his conscience. This helps demonstrate that extremist views are not held by all or even most Republicans.
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by Bill Baber / September 16, 2009
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As a La Mesa Spring Valley School Board Member, I voted to show the President’s live address Tuesday. I believe the Office of the President of the United States deserves respect, regardless of the person or party occupying that office. If the President’s speech inspired one student to greatness it was worth all this angst.

by Frank Gormlie
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LA MESA, CA. I felt exhilarated tonight. I had just witnessed dozens and dozens of parents of the La Mesa Spring Valley School District chant “Resign! Resign! Resign!” to Trustee Rick Winet – the right-wing instigator who had caused the Board to vote to prohibit the showing of President Obama’s speech to school kids. At a special Labor Day meeting, the East County board had voted 3-2 to ban the live showing of the speech. Then, in emails and publicly, Winet had declared that the speech was an assault on the Constitution.

Tonight, Winet’s partisan extremism indeed felt the backlash. It was the backlash of ordinary parents, of ordinary people, of ordinary Americans.

by Miriam Raftery / East County Magazine
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San Diego) – “Long-range acoustic devices [LRADs] for crowd control can be extremely dangerous. These are used in Iraq to control insurgents. They can cause serious and lasting harm to humans…We want to know WHY our Sheriff Dept has this weapon,” Sal Magallanez of San Diego-based Liberty One Radio said in an e-mail sent to East County Magazine, prompting a joint investigation.

Have you noticed our new “look”? If you scroll down far enough, it appears that we have four columns, two of which are side-bars. So, two side-bars. This is new – this is big. This will allow us to take on ads. We need ads to sustain this community webpage.

After many hours of testing and prep, Saturday night, September 12th, Patty Jones clicked the icon with her mouse – and “poof” the new changes were established – our blog transcended its former self, with upgraded software and a more robust platform. We have not ironed out all the bugs yet – so if you see something that appears out of whack, let us know in a comment to this post.

(Click on the headline to see the rest of this post.)