OB Rag

Celebrating 45 Years of Ocean Beach Christmas Parade Magic

By Mike James

This Saturday marks my 45th year as an announcer at the Ocean Beach Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting—a tradition started by my brothers and that’s grown into an important part of my life.

It all began in 1980 when my brother Rich and a few friends strolled down Newport Avenue to the very first OB Xmas Tree playing Christmas carols on kazoos. That year, I officially MC’d the OB Tree Lighting, so I’m counting it as the start!

Private Company that Holds Substantial Leases in Liberty Station Argues in Court San Diego Must Sell It

It is true. The City of San Diego may very well lose ownership of Liberty Station, the former military base turned market-cafe-artsy rich that also holds historic, cultural, park and recreational resources for the public. And it may lose ownership to a large, private management company that already holds mucho leases at the site.

The company, Seligman Properties, has taken the city to court and argues San Diego must offer to sell the 20-year-old Liberty Station development to the highest bidder because the city has no plans to further develop it, which the company contends state law requires for the city to continue ownership. And Seligman is in a great position to be that highest bidder, by implication.

As you may recall, Liberty Station, formerly the Naval Training Center, was acquired by the city in 2000. And immediately mixed-use development began under a city deal with the McMillin Cos for housing, retail and an arts district. Critics called the deal one of the greatest public land give-aways in modern San Diego history.

Here are some disturbing issues about current La Mesa City Councilmember Colin Parent who just lost the Nov. 5 race for the 79th Assembly District to LaShae Sharp-Collins, by U-T reporter Jeff McDonald on December 2.

For starters, McDonald reported that throughout the year-plus that Parent ran for the Assembly, he was also soliciting donations to the nonprofit that employs him — Circulate San Diego. (To addictive Rag readers, this is not news, of course, and the name Circulate San Diego should be familiar to many.) McDonald reported:

According to records at the La Mesa City Clerk’s Office, Parent disclosed hundreds of thousands of dollars in what are called behested payments — donations that individuals and companies make to charities at the request, or behest, of elected officials.

Every Saturday at 10:30 am. San Diego Climate Mobilization Coalition Meetings December 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th. 
Every Saturday 10 am – 12 pm Peace Vigil for Palestine

December 2nd. Monday 3:30 pm – 7 pm Second Annual Regional Climate Recap Event by San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative
December 2nd. Monday 6:30 pm Film The Palestine Exception Event by UCSD Divest

December 5th Thursday 6 pm – 8 pm 13th Annual Fannie Lou Hamer Legacy Celebration Event by Project New Village Park
December 5th Thursday 4:30 pm – 8:45 pm Joy Ride & Golden Gear Awards 2024 Event by San Diego County Bicycle Coalition

December 6th Friday 5 pm – December 7th Saturday 2 pm  Positioning for Progress. CCL’s Fall Virtual Conference Event by Citizens’ Climate Lobby

December 6th Friday 7 pm – 9 pm Resisting Reagan: Global and Local Solidarities In Reactionary Times Event by Jewish Voice for Peace
December 7th Saturday 10 am – 12 pm Donation Drive Event by Black Panther Party of San Diego

See this chart for mid-December

By Gary Wonacutt

San Diego International Airport (SDIA) is in a convenient downtown location largely because the tourism industry, including the downtown convention bureau and hoteliers, pushed hard to keep it there in a city-wide vote. However, these groups have overlooked the eventuality of SDIA reaching capacity. Over the decades, the number of operations has approached capacity, only to drop off due to global events like the 2008 economic crash and the 2021 pandemic. Once again in 2024, operations are nearing capacity.

Initially beginning at about 85 percent of capacity, the airport becomes constrained. Besides irate passengers waiting on the taxiways, there are significant consequences. The airport is surrounded by hills to the east and west and has a parking structure that decreases arrivals runway length. Coastal weather also leads to one of the highest number of missed approaches per operation in the US. Recently, an incident occurred when an aircraft was cleared to cross the runway at the same time another was cleared for takeoff. Fortunately, the aircraft was able to stop by hitting the brakes hard.   Such incidents might increase as the airport becomes constrained. The Airport Authority, supported by the FAA, may maximize operations or may decide to limit the number of operations before there are too many issues.

By Kate Callen

A development project in Bankers Hill using San Diego’s Complete Communities would demolish a historic building to build a six-story medical complex on the rim of iconic Maple Canyon — yet the building isn’t really historic and the medical complex may end up being residential, and the canyon rim is not actually a steep slope.

The canyon rim property at 2660 1st Avenue property was bought by the San Diego American Indian Health Center (SDAIHC) for $6 million in 2017. Earlier this year, SDAIHC applied for a permit to build a bigger medical complex. The proposal was submitted as part of Complete Communities because housing might be included.

San Diego’s Development Services Department (DSD) is ready to grant ministerial approval for the project. But SDAIHC just listed the property for sale at $20 million, more than triple the 2017 price. The project is branded “1st and Maple.” Global real estate giant Jones Lang LaSalle is shepherding it.

By Geoff Page

The City of San Diego held its ribbon cutting ceremony for the Cañon Street Pocket Park Wednesday, November 27 at 10:00 a.m. The event was originally to take place 11:00 a.m. the previous Wednesday, November 20, but the city cancelled it at the last moment with little explanation.

Without a doubt, all the stories that have appeared, or will appear, about this park opening will be positive to a fault and will probably consist of the city’s announcement word for word. This account will not be one of those.

For starters, the time for this ceremony was a head scratcher. Most of the public would ordinarily be working at ten or eleven on a Wednesday morning. The re-scheduling was equally puzzling, holding the ceremony on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving when most of the public was busy with the holiday.

But, after much experience with the City of San Diego, looking for common sense is a fool’s pursuit.

There was a small crowd of people at the opening. A good number of those people, however, were either city people, news media, Peninsula Community Planning Board members, and others not necessarily the “public.”

For the next few days, the OB Rag will be “under construction” as our tech desk, staffed by Patty Jones, works out a new theme for the website as wordpress is discontinuing the one we’ve had for the last 15 years.

The following is from the city’s Coastal Resilience Plan for the Sunset Cliffs. (Yesterday’s post — the proposals for OB and Dog Park.)

Sunset Cliffs

Sunset Cliffs Boulevard is a two-way, two-lane roadway that runs north-south adjacent to the Sunset Cliffs Linear Park and along an actively eroding cliff to the west. Sunset Cliffs Linear Park runs between Adair Street to the north and Ladera Street to the south including an approximately .2-mile-long stretch of open space shoreline and coastal trail adjacent to the Pacific Ocean to the west and Sunset Cliffs Boulevard to the east.

One option for the Sunset Cliffs project includes a road reconfiguration on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard which would create a new separated multi-use path for pedestrians and bicyclists with a one-lane, one-way southbound vehicular travel lane. This concept is in early stages of development, analysis and community engagement to inform the concept.

There’s been some very recent wins by unions both within the giant Rite Aid and in the local cannabis industry.

First, and most significant, members of United Food and Commercial Workers voted to ratify a new three-year contract with Rite Aid. The agreement was reached after months of negotiations and active participation from thousands of pharmacists, pharmacy clerks, and technicians in Southern California. The contract provides the largest monetary increases ever for over 3,500 workers at Rite Aid, and includes UFCW Locals 8GS, 135, 324, 770, 1167, 1428 and 1442.