OB Rag

The annual Christmas Tree Recycling Program begins the day after Christmas, Dec. 26, 2024 and runs through Jan. 16, 2025 and features 16 drop-off locations available to City residents.

The program turns recycled Christmas trees into useful products. Trees are given a second life by converting them into high-quality compost, wood chips and mulch products for residents and business owners to purchase year-round.

City residents may load up to two cubic yards of compost and mulch for free at the Miramar Greenery.

Drop-off Locations

Carmel Valley – Carmel Valley Recreation Center, 3777 Townsgate Drive (lower parking lot)
Colina Del Sol – Colina Del Sol Park, 52nd Street and 52nd Place (south parking lot)
Encanto – Cielo Drive at Woodman Street
Golden Hill – Golden Hill Recreation Center, 2600 Golf Course Drive
Logan Heights – Memorial Recreation Center, 2902 Marcy Ave.
Mission Bay – SeaWorld Drive at Pacific Highway
Mountain View – Ocean View Boulevard at 40th Street (north side)
Oak Park – Chollas Lake, 6350 College Grove Drive (Gloria Mesa parking lot) Location is unavailable for tree drop off this year.
Ocean Beach – Robb Field Recreation Center, 2525 Bacon St.

By Trudy Grundland

YIMBY, NIMBY, RIMBY. The name calling started when the City of San Diego (YIMBY, yes in my backyard) eliminated single family home zoning in an attempt to create affordable housing.

AB1287 (YIMBY) made it possible for developers to buy lots in residential neighborhoods and build ADU apartment complexes, 91-units on a residential street of historical homes and get plans quickly approved for massive apartment buildings in Pacific Beach and a 100+ year-old Mission Hills neighborhood. If this rapid and intense building makes you break out in a cold sweat, you could be a NIMBY, no in my backyard.

Now there’s the grassroots effort by Neighbors For A Better California.org, to tell our mayor and governor, we need responsible zoning and planning to prevent overdevelopment (that ruins a person’s ability to enjoy the sanctuary of their home). If you like this, call yourself a RIMBY, responsible in my backyard. You want to preserve the charm of California communities.

By Chas Smith / Beach Grit / December 30, 2024

Pier pressure to become a thing of the past?

Everyone knows, I think, that California’s coolest surfers generally congregate around the Golden State’s many piers. Bobbing below the fisherpeople in Pismo, shooting the pilings in Huntington, getting all rad in Ocean Beach etc. Pier Rats, as they are reverentially called, thrive off the high stakes of visibility. One thing to bog a top turn whilst out at a local beachbreak. Quite another thing to do whilst under the discerning eyes of tens, if not hundreds, of inland tourists.

by Ernie McCray

I called for a Lyft ride
for a trip to see a doctor
who had performed cataract surgery
on my eyes,
a bit shaky
because I was dealing with a degree
of brightness
unlike I had ever seen,
like I was staring at the sun.

And when my ride arrived
I got the feeling everything was going to be all right
because, as I fiddled around
with my aging hands
trying to strap myself in,
I found myself, simultaneously,
singing along
with the Spinners
on my driver’s radio,

By Kate Callen

In response to “Pure Water construction snafu that cost the city millions is creating a ‘pure nightmare’ on one major road” — SDUT on Dec. 23:

City Hall’s record of stunning ineptitude now includes the botched construction of the Pure Water system. San Diegans expect millions in cost overruns for municipal projects. But major road closures slated for a year that stretch into three years? A timeline that’s now “indefinite”? That’s a new low.

By Colleen O’Connor

It is not “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Another ill-advised MEGA-construction project is about to invade Point Loma.

In numerous columns in the Rag and elsewhere, the obvious has been stated. More neighborhoods under assault from venture capitalists and outside developers with but one architectural design—LEGOLAND-like high-rise boxes. Visit Park Boulevard. Mission Hills. Clairemont. Ocean Beach. Mission Valley. Downtown. La Jolla. Anywhere with space remaining in once desirable neighborhoods, there are now unimaginative high-rises and overstuffed “granny flats,” now dubbed ADUs.

In June of this year, I wrote:

“Point Loma is not just a tourist mecca, a powerful fishing industry, a substantial military presence, home to a national park dream, ship repair and maintenance facilities, but is also an invaluable contributor to San Diego’s economic health. Often unnoticed and until recently happily so.

By Miranda Ceja / Patch / Dec 24 — 26, 2024

Heads up, Golden State drivers: a handful of new laws come into effect starting Jan. 1, 2025 that will impact the way you drive your vehicle.

From insurance claims to car break-ins — to parking restrictions and license requirements, here’s the run-down on new driving laws impacting Californians for the New Year.

Locked Door Loophole Gets Squashed

This year, a loophole in California criminal code — which defined burglary to include “entering a vehicle when the doors are locked with the intent to commit grand or petit larceny or a felony.”

By Chris Lindahl / San Diego Patch / Dec.26, 2024

Here are over 17 new laws taking effect in 2025:

Property Crime and Retail Theft Package

A package of ten laws signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom amount to what the governor’s office called “the most significant legislation to crack down on property crime in modern California history.”

The laws kicking in on Jan. 1 will create stricter penalties for retail and property theft, mandate sentencing enhancements for large-scale operations, make it easier for people to be charged with felonies if they stole items in multiple counties, and allow police officers to arrest someone for shoplifting with probable cause even if the officer did not witness the act themselves.

From Mexico News Daily / Dec. 24, 2024

After U.S. President-elect Donald Trump declared he would designate Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations on his first day in office, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters Mexico would never accept any interventionist actions.

“We will collaborate with and coordinate with the United States,” Sheinbaum said in response, “but we will never subordinate ourselves.”

During a Sunday speech to conservative supporters, Trump — who takes office on Jan. 20, 2025 — said he would address illegal drugs on his first day in office, according to the newspaper El País.

Early on the morning of Christmas Eve 2024 the Ocean Beach Municipal Pier suffered another piling lost. Close to a year ago the first piling was lost on December 29th 2023. This very short video by Charles Landon shows both losses.

On Friday, Dec. 20, the city of San Diego announced a partial closure along Sunset Cliffs Natural Park due to a damaged seawall. The closure is in place between Adair and Osprey streets, the city said.