OB Rag

by Anna Daniels

The third community input meeting on the upcoming budget was held this Saturday, February 21, at Hoover High School in City Heights. The auditorium was packed to overflowing! Fifty seven citizens provided public testimony about what services they considered essential and non-essential as well as ideas on how to save money and generate more general fund revenue. Fifty of those citizens said libraries and park and recreation services are essential because they provide kids with safe meaningful alternatives to the streets and opportunities for their future.

Through my work alongside social service and mental health professionals, I am occasionally presented the opportunity to do more than provide direct services. Today I came across a call to action for all San Diego community leaders, and in my opinion that includes anyone who takes part in the OB Rag – either as a contributor, a reader, or both.

As a result of the slumping economy and the California Legislature’s longstanding inability to agree on a viable budget, there will be a number of far-reaching consequences. One of those consequences is in direct relation to the well-being of San Diego’s poor, namely those receiving cash aid or food stamps.

We’ve learned that the popular crafts store Rock Paper Scissors, which shut its doors suddenly a couple weeks ago, had a very rocky closure, indeed. The store’s closure was so rocky, that many of the store’s vendors feel ripped-off and say the store’s owner, Jeff Fagan, owes them thousands of dollars. Some of the vendors are talking about suing Fagan.

Accusations are flying, anger is rising. When he closed the store, Fagan gave the vendors insufficient notice; he hasn’t paid back February rents, or even for some vendors January rents, or for some monies from December, or the original deposits. He owes his vendors thousands, tens of thousands; one estimate is a quarter million.

At a time when jobless rates are hovering around 8%, one in ten homeowners can’t afford their mortgage payments, and the average cost of staple foods have risen astronomically, we should all be proud to know that those of us living in San Diego County reside in a region with the lowest accessibility to food stamps in the ENTIRE COUNTRY.

According to the Food Research and Action Center, only 29% of eligible recipients receive Food Stamp benefits, good for last among the 24 largest metropolitan areas in the country.

by Frank Gormlie

Residents in this County, when asked what San Diego County government does, are often hard-pressed I have found, to list more than a couple of things. Uh, collect taxes they’ll respond, … uh, run the sheriffs office, uh, … and then there will be a long, thoughtful pause. And maybe they’ll add one or two other services.

Well, the County does collect property and other taxes, and it does finance the Sheriff’s Office – although the Sheriff is elected separately. But the County does so much more.

by Patty Jones

So, like Frank said earlier, a lot of rain fell in a short time here today. And checking OB Joe’s math got me sidetracked (I’m supposed to be figuring my taxes) and I left a response to his comment and that set the wheels in my head spinning.

Okay Joe, here’s my take on the whole acre foot deal….. The OB Planning Board says OB is 742 acres, if it rained 12″ (1 foot), that would be 742 acre feet (a volume measurement), so 1″ of rain is 1/12 of 742 acre feet, or 61.83 acre feet of water. Almost 62 acres would be covered by a foot of water. 62 acres is about the same amount of land that would be encompassed by starting at the corner of Newport and Abbott, walking up Newport, left on Cable, then left on Muir, left on Abbott and back to Newport.

By Paul Krugman

By now everyone knows the sad tale of Bernard Madoff’s duped investors. They looked at their statements and thought they were rich. But then, one day, they discovered to their horror that their supposed wealth was a figment of someone else’s imagination.

Unfortunately, that’s a pretty good metaphor for what happened to America as a whole in the first decade of the 21st century.

Last week the Federal Reserve released the results of the latest Survey of Consumer Finances, a triennial report on the assets and liabilities of American households. The bottom line is that there has been basically no wealth creation at all since the turn of the millennium …

Some of us active in the community of Ocean Beach have been wondering why there is no “Community Budget Input Meeting” scheduled for our District – District 2?

The San Diego City Council has just begun its process on approving a budget for FY2010, and Councilmember Tony Young and Mayor Sanders organized a series of community-input hearings in different City Council Districts, beginning Feb. 4th and ending on Feb. 26th. But not all the Districts – only Districts 3, 4, 5, and 7. None for Districts 1, 2 – the District here, 6 and 8. Half the Districts have their own meetings, and half don’t. Does this make sense?

Using my trusty rain gauge, attached to my backyard fence, I just measured .95 inches of rain since 9 am this morning.

That’s an inch in just a four hours. Ocean Beach is one mile square. If this rainwater had been captured, how much would that be? None of it was captured, sadly, except for what fell into the few buckets and plastic containers in my yard. Did you have your buckets and barrels ready for today’s predicted rain?

Blackwater Worldwide is abandoning its tarnished brand name as it tries to shake a reputation battered by oft-criticised work in Iraq, renaming its family of two dozen businesses under the name Xe. The parent company’s new name is pronounced like the letter z.

Blackwater Lodge & Training Centre – the subsidiary that conducts much of the company’s overseas operations and domestic training – has been renamed US Training Centre Inc., the company said today.

by Gregg Robinson

These are going to be tough times for the anti-war movement. With a popular Democrat in the White House and depression economics on the front pages, it is going to be hard to turn out people for anti-war demonstrations. Most people’s attention is going to be on their pocket books and their sympathy for Obama is going to mean they are unlikely to demonstrate against a war that he is making attempts to “carefully” end. For these reasons the anti-war movement cannot afford to be easily distracted.

On February 10, 2009 San Diego Unified, located in the middle of one of the largest military complexes in the world, took the uncharacteristic step of banning rifle training conducted under the military’s high school JROTC program. Eleven schools with rifle ranges were affected in the nation’s eighth largest urban district.

Before the board meeting began, speakers representing local high schools and colleges addressed an outside crowd of 200 students, parents, teachers and community supporters. Some high schools sent so many students that two charter buses, courtesy of the AFSC, were used for transportation.