OB Rag

A new group called Neighbors for a Better California has been rallying residents of local communities against high-rise projects and other over-development in San Diego. Here is their latest newsletter.

by Kasia Gregorczyk / Fox5SanDieog / Dec 12, 2024

A group of neighbors in Clairemont have taken their fight against a “bonus” ADU project up a notch. They’re suing the city and a group of developers over a project that includes a dozen units on one property.

“Transparency and the ability to know what’s going on in the neighborhood was virtually impossible for them,” said Craig Sherman, attorney at law.

Sherman says he had to file a lawsuit just to get proper records from the city of San Diego about the development at 4602 Shoshoni Ave. Neighbors are now suing the city and developers, including SDRE Homebuyers LLC, over several concerns.

By Noah Perkins /Pt Loma-OB Monthly San Diego Union-Tribune / December 11, 2024

It was a very good year for the Point Loma High School girls cross country team.

The Pointers’ second-place standing at the CIF Division III State Championships in Fresno on Nov. 30 was good for the best finish in school history.

“The team went into it very confident, but not overly confident,” head coach Keith DeLong said. “I was ecstatic with the finish. They were thrilled. Getting there and placing was a huge thing for us.”

By JW August 

While the OB pier stands abandoned, up the coast the Pacific Beach’s Crystal Pier is installing pilings to replace damaged ones … the crew told me they can do about one piling a day now. The job has three elements, moving massive steel girders and wood beams that provide support under the crane, lifting and placing the piling replacement, dropping it through a hole in the boardwalk down to the sand/surf below and lifting up a giant “hammer” over the piling replacement and letting it drop on the top of the pier to drive it into the earth.

By Renee Schmiedeberg, Christina Bravo and Danielle Smith / 7SanDiego / December 12, 2024

Higher-than-normal (and lower-than-normal tides) are headed back to San Diego’s coasts this weekend, according to NBC 7 meteorologists.

King tides — the phenomenon that describes what are typically some of the highest tides of the year — are happening Friday, Saturday and Sunday. These uniquely high tides are caused by a stronger-than-normal gravitational pull from the moon and sun. A full moon is expected to occur on Sunday.

NBC 7’s meteorologist Brooke Martell said high tides could peak around 7 feet Friday through Sunday, and there will be some stronger surf as we head into the weekend.

Between the higher-than-normal tide and elevated surf, minor coastal flooding is possible.

By Tom Fudge / KPBS / Dec. 12, 2024

San Diego County’s nuclear power plant, San Onofre, was closed more than 10 years ago. But the Diablo Canyon plant is still open and cranking out 18,000 gigawatts a year.

The contract for the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant was set to expire by the end of next year. But a bill passed two years ago by the legislature has kept it open an additional five years, closing one reactor in 2029 and the other in 2030. The plant, near San Luis Obispo, generates nearly 10% of California’s total energy. But critics say it’s actually giving the state too much energy, especially in the spring when hydropower production is at its highest.

There’s limited seating at the upcoming talk and book-signing by Frank Gormlie on his new history, The May 1970 Rebellion.

It’s at 1 pm on Saturday, December 14, and the casual event will be in a back yard in northeast Ocean Beach. Wine and chips will be on hand.

People planning on attending are asked to RSVP to the Rag – obragblog@gmail.com and the address will be sent via email.

Also, Gormlie is putting this on himself and will not be able to handle credit or debit cards, but will be accepting checks and cash.

Here’s the formal announcement:

Former San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders announced earlier in the month that he would be retiring at the end of the year as the head of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and, as he has been lauded, “capping a career of public service of more than 50 years.”

It’s true that Jerry Sanders has had quite a career — most of it, yes, in the public arena that began in 1973 when he joined the San Diego Police Department. Twenty years later he became Chief. He retired as Chief in 1999 and then headed the United Way of San Diego and then the local Red Cross in 2003. Sanders first ran for elected office in 2005 for San Diego Mayor — and won. He had two terms as Mayor and then went on to lead the Chamber where he’s been for the last 12 years.

The Chamber is and always has been quite a partisan (Republican) establishment network of powerful business and corporate interests — and Jerry became its face for over a decade — but it’s difficult to call that “public service.” But still ….

So, with his retirement from public service, Jerry has built quite a legacy.

Yet, from a progressive point of view, that legacy is a checkered one — and now stands as a warning to our current mayor, Todd Gloria. This appraisal will not follow the lavish praise Jerry Sanders has achieved from most media and press since his announcement — you may have guessed that by now.

But no, Sanders does have a checkered history with San Diego — and two events — stand out to cloud the shiny armor of a retiring public knight.

Local Union Calls It a Victory for Consumers and Workers

By Alina Selyukh / NPR KPBS / December 10, 2024

Kroger and Albertsons saw their $24.6 billion merger blocked on Tuesday by judges in two separate cases, one brought by federal regulators and the other by the Washington state attorney general.

What would be the biggest grocery merger in U.S. history is now in legal peril after over two years of delays. The companies could choose to continue their legal appeals or abandon the deal. They await another ruling in a third lawsuit in Colorado.

By Mahdi E Diab / Op-Ed San Diego U-T / December 11, 2024

As a family physician treating San Diego’s homeless population, I witness firsthand how the city’s increased reliance on street sweeps is undermining our efforts to end homelessness while creating a costly public health crisis.

In recent days, I watched a patient break down in tears after losing the only photograph he had of his son during a sweep. Another patient ended up in the emergency room after police discarded his insulin and heart failure medications — medicines that cannot be replaced due to Medi-Cal’s monthly refill restrictions. While a third relapsed into addiction due to an arrest and the stress caused by losing all of their personal possessions. These are not isolated incidents but daily occurrences that illustrate how street sweeps actively harm our most vulnerable neighbors.

On Saturday December 14th, San Diego Bird Alliance will be hosting its annual Wandering the King Tides event and welcoming the public to witness and participate in documenting this remarkable natural occurrence. The event will take place at Kendall-Frost Marsh Reserve, offering visitors a unique vantage point to observe these extreme tides and their impact on Mission Bay’s last remaining coastal wetlands.

Wandering the King Tides: view the last remaining acres of tidal marsh habitat disappear during the highest tides of the year, and paint this unique event! We’ll be photographing, sharing Kumeyaay ethnobotany, identifying birds and painting a time-lapse of the King Tides

Date: Saturday, 12/14/24
Time: 6:30am – 10am, speakers 8:30am – 9am
Location: Kendall-Frost Marsh, Pacific Beach Drive, San Diego, CA 92109, near Crown Point Drive

City Sued SeaWorld for more than $12 million in back rent and fees from Pandemic Days

By Lori Weisberg / The San Diego Union-Tribune / December 10, 2024

More than three years after SeaWorld was first told it owed millions of dollars in back rent that went unpaid during the pandemic, it has now reached a settlement to pay the city of San Diego $8.5 million.

That sum, while close to the $8.8 million that city officials originally said was unpaid, falls short of the more than $12 million San Diego was seeking in a lawsuit it filed last year alleging breach of the lease that governs rent for the park’s Mission Bay site.