OB Rag

by Ernie McCray

As I surveyed a picture
taken at
my sister-in-law, Becky’s, 80th birthday party,
I couldn’t help but notice
how joyful she looked
all dressed in pink
and I began to think
that the way to survive the mess
our country is in
is by simply
enjoying to the fullest
the joyful moments we find ourselves in,
no matter how fleeting they might be
because these little breaks
will certainly be short-lived
in our reality
as a country,

From 7SanDiego

Thousands of patient care and service workers at UC San Diego Medical Center and other University of California campuses across the state will stage a two-day strike starting Wednesday, alleging unfair bargaining tactics, allegations the UC system denies.

According to the AFSCME Local 3299 union, the strike will include roughly 37,000 UC workers “at every UC campus and medical facility across the state.” The strike began at midnight Wednesday and continues until midnight Thursday. Picketing both days will be from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.

By Grace Chaves / The Point / Oct 23, 2024

Tucked away on the corner of Rosecrans Street is La Playa Books, a locally owned independent bookstore that sells new and used books, located only a mile and a half away from Point Loma Nazarene University. It’s not as big as Warwicks in La Jolla or as flashy as Bookstar in Loma Portal, but it’s a haven for writers, bibliophiles and college students.

After undergoing a major renovation in the spring, La Playa Books is back with a modern look. Before the renovation, the bookstore had hardly seen any updates since its opening in 1990.

By Judi Curry

Since I lost my eyesight in one eye, I have not been able to drive or go to the places I have always frequented before.  It goes without saying that I feel like I am missing a lot, and every now and then I venture to the telephone and call a restaurant (or delivery service) to have a meal delivered.

That was the case the other day, when I was craving Mexican food and decided to order from one of my favorite restaurants, HUGO’S COCINA.  It’s been months since I have had anything from there, but I did enjoy the new owners’ menu and food after Hugo left. I have ordered from other restaurants over the period of blindness, and have not had any trouble doing so.  When I went to the HUGO’S internet page, it gave me the opportunity to order from their menu and have delivery made. 

According to the latest numbers from the Registrar of Voters, Measure E has definitely failed. As of November 15, the ballot measure to raise the city’s sales tax to support infrastructure funding has been turned down by city voters.

Measure E, known as the San Diego Transaction and Use Tax, would have increased the tax on transactions in the city by 1%, bringing the total sales tax to 8.75%. The current rate in the city is 7.75%. It was very close with only 9,000 votes between the “no” vote and the “yes” vote.

By Dana Williams and Eric Page /7SanDiego / November 18, 2024

A completely renovated apartment building called the Shores at North Beach, just steps from the sand at Ocean Beach, opened in mid-November, featuring 13 newly refurbished units for people experiencing homelessness.

The $6,830,005 project is being funded in part through the California’s Homekey organization, a “statewide effort to sustain and rapidly expand housing for persons experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.”

Each unit has gotten a coat of paint and new electrical, and features an efficiency kitchen and new bathroom fixtures. They also each come with a couch, table, lamp, a few kitchen items, laundry items, bath towels and toiletries, as well as a bed with bedding and two nightstands.

Thursday, November 21, at 7 PM, Ocean Beach Historical Society Presents “When Death Was a Hitchhiker: El Cajon’s Mass Murder” by Author Richard Carrico, at Waters Edge Community Center, 1984 Sunset Cliffs Blvd., O.B.

In 1958, an El Cajon man picked up a sixteen-year-old runaway off of old Highway 80 near Alpine. The young man lived with the Pendergast family for several weeks. Two weeks before Christmas, the troubled young man killed Lois Pendergast and her four children.

Come along with local historian and true crime author Richard Carrico as he takes us back to the event that was then described as the “largest mass murder in San Diego history.”

By JW August

Fore!! The city of San Diego has received a lot of unwanted attention in recent years for some of its questionable real estate deals, but when it comes to its three municipal golf courses, it has a lot to crow about, based on a newly released revenue report.

The three courses — Balboa, Torrey Pines and Mission Bay — generated $40 million in sales, and after costs, cleared a $14 million profit for the 2024 fiscal year ending June 30, thanks to a record-breaking 420,000 rounds of golf played. Torrey Pines North  the most–94,000 rounds.That’s according to a report presented by the city’s golf division to the San Diego City Council’s Environment Committee.

By Alberto Garcia / La Prensa / November 12, 2024

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria benefited from five times more direct campaign funding than his opponent during a hotly contested re-election campaign that ended up being the closest outcome among high-profile competitive races in the county.

Gloria is currently ahead of his opponent, Larry Turner, by 55.3% to 44.6%, although about 140,000 votes still need to be counted throughout the County, with some yet-unknown portion of those expected to be from within the City of San Diego.

By Geoff Page

The Dog Beach fencing project, described here in The Rag four years ago, is finally underway. The work of drilling holes in the sand and placing 4×4 wood posts is almost complete.

The posts are four feet high and close together, perhaps ten feet apart. The existing “fence” was much shorter but ran along the same paths. The word “fence” is a bit confusing. There is an existing east/west path, on the south side of the Dog Beach dunes, that borders the wetland area.