OB Rag

We had to repost this announcement from the City of San Diego about the city being awarded for excellence in “Data-Driven Government” for “establishing exceptional data capabilities to inform policy, allocate funding, improve services, evaluate programs and engage residents.” The city received a Silver Certificate from Bloomberg Philanthropies as the award.

This award is so laughable and so sad at the same time. The OMG announcement claimed the city won the award “in recognition of its continued efforts to build a smart city, using data to increase transparency and improve residents’ lives,” plus the following:

Specifically, the City’s Performance and Analytics Department was recognized for its Open Data Portal, through which the public can access more than 109 datasets with information ranging from the location of parking meters to street repair plans. The Open Data Portal promotes civic engagement and, through predictive analytics, improves service delivery and increases opportunities for economic development.

Part of the award was for the infamous Get It Done app, that has been notoriously inept:

By JW August

From the trenches

“Federal agencies have been told they need to change their ‘reasonable accommodation’ policy for employees with disabilities who are now working at home”, according to “S,” a longtime source who works in a management position within the federal government.

The policy currently in place, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, was a precursor to the American With Disabilities Act. Telework and remote work were considered reasonable accommodations that could be offered to employees with disabilities. Trump wants to change this arrangement

By Justine McDaniel / Washington Post / Feb. 25, 2025

The Trump administration will determine which journalists participate in the White House press pool, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday, breaking with nearly a century of practice in which the independent White House Correspondents’ Association has overseen the rotating group of news outlets that cover the president in Washington and on travels.

It is an aggressive move by the government to control which news outlets have access to the president — one that is unprecedented in modern American politics and comes amid Trump’s long-standing efforts to erode Americans’ trust in fact-based reporting.

As journalists and media critics warned that White House control of the press pool threatens the foundations of a free press and could allow the administration to more easily block reporters from the White House, Trump boasted about the move.

“We’re going to be calling those shots,” he said from the Oval Office late Tuesday afternoon.

By Kimberli

A picture says a 1000 words.

There is/was no posted sign that our streets are going to be swept. Maybe the cars would not have parked at this location if there had been.

An activist network including the People’s Union USA is calling for a 24 hour economic blackout across America for Thursday, Feb. 27. Here’s their website. Other groups and networks have also joined in the call.

Here’s what Peoples Union USA says:

The 24 hour Economic Blackout
As our first initial act, we turn it off.

For one day we show them who really holds the power

WHEN:

Thursday February 27th from Midnight till Friday The 28th Midnight. (A full 24 hours of the 28th)

12:00 AM to 12:00 AM

San Diego International Airport published a statement earlier this month that marked “2024 as its busiest year ever with 25.24 million passengers recorded traveling through the airport’s terminals. This record-breaking year surpasses the previous busiest record of 25.18 million passengers served in 2019.” That was pre-Pandemic.

Said Kimberly Becker, President and CEO, San Diego County Regional Airport Authority: “Each year following the pandemic, the numbers of travelers recorded at our airport has increased.” She added this was a sure sign or recovery.

The airport says there are some main reasons for this growth.

One is the addition of two new airlines, Breeze and Porter Airlines who have service to nine new nonstop destinations.

From Public Power San Diego

If past form holds, Sempra Energy’s annual earnings announcement Tuesday, Fe. 25, won’t be highlighting the massive profits it records from SDGE, one of its largest subsidiaries.

Sempra will instead bury SDGE’s huge profits by including them with earnings from other businesses.

But SDGE’s profits can still be found in Sempra’s legally required filings. After reporting $670 million in profits through the first three-quarters last year, it’s likely SDGE will report annual earnings last year of about $900 million.

“It’s a simple formula,” said Bill Powers, a board member of Public Power San Diego. “SDGE charges the nation’s highest rates and that results in enormous profits. Every dollar of those profits came out of our pockets.”

By Kate Callen

If you’re a property owner, pay close attention to the mail you receive in April. A flyer resembling this water rate notice will ask you to vote on the City’s proposed trash collection fees.

If a majority of recipients send back a “No” vote, the trash fees will go the way of the sales tax hike – straight to the dumpster. And the Gloria administration will be dealt yet another setback.

By Steven Mihailovich / PB Monthly – SD Union-Tribune / Feb. 25, 2025

Opposition to accessory dwelling units continues to grow as Pacific Beach residents name multiple projects they say are wrong for their community.

Around 60 residents filled the Crown Point Junior Music Academy’s auditorium for the Feb. 19 Pacific Beach Town Council meeting to discuss recent building developments and efforts to block the construction of the proposed 22-story Vela project on Turquoise Street.

But that project is not the only large multi-unit housing project to which they object. They say developments on small lots are stretching the City of San Diego’s ADU bonus program beyond recognition.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Marcella Bothwell, a PB Town Council director who is also the PB Planning Group chair and also chairs the non-profit Neighbors for a Better California, an advocacy group for responsible planning.

“This ADU stuff is now starting to come into our neighborhood,” Bothwell said. “So we’re going to have to fight this.”

A six-story, 110-room 1970s hotel on Nimitz Boulevard in Point Loma — closed for 6 years — has been sold for $17.4 million. And the new owner has plans to turn it all into market-rate and student housing.

The 63,234-square-foot building at 2901 Nimitz Blvd., known over the decades by various names — currently the Consulate Hotel — was purchased by Encinitas-based Ambient Communities. Its previous owner was a La Jolla-based family trust called Nobel Legacy LLC.

Ambient Communities claims, reports the San Diego U-T, that the old hotel built in 1971 “has entitlements in place that facilitate an easy transition for rehabbing the structure.” Those entitlements include 48 parking spaces, space for meetings, an on-site bar, a restaurant and a pool. Ambient did not provide a timeline for when construction could be completed.

There will be nothing but talking trash at the City of San Diego’s 10 community forums to get feedback on the proposed monthly trash fees. They’ve actually begun and the first one was last night, Monday, Feb. 24th at the Otay Mesa Nestor Library.

Will the feedback help determine whether the city follows through on plans to add several new services and features to its trash and recycling program that would push the fee higher than it could otherwise be, or not? There’s been plenty of irate responses to the proposed fees in “letters to the editor” in local papers and at town hall budget forums held of late.

List of Forums

Employees of Yosemite National Park hung an upside-down flag on El Capitan to protest the Trump administration’s firing of about 1,000 park service employees.

The group of protesters said in a statement to the press that the “purpose of this exercise of free speech is to disrupt without violence and draw attention to the fact that public lands in the United States are under attack.”