OB Rag

From Port of San Diego / October 18, 2024

The Port of San Diego is making significant progress on repairs needed for the west side of the Shelter Island Boat Launch Ramp. Work is anticipated to begin in December or January with completion in early spring. The Port recognizes the impacts on the boating community. We apologize for the inconvenience, and we appreciate continued patience.

In June 2023, the west floating dock sustained significant damage due to sand accumulation underneath it, which caused the dock to bottom out at low tide. For public safety, the Port closed the dock, with the east side floating docks remaining open and accessible to boaters.

By Eric Duvall / P0int Loma-OB Monthly (SDUT) / October 16, 2024

Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman, he thought. But that was the thing that I was born for.”
—– Ernest Hemingway, “The Old Man and the Sea”

On the day before Halloween in 1936, the front page of The Ocean Beach News carried the following headline: “Fishing pier question again to the front.”

Over 100 people had turned out to hear a representative of the Works Progress Administration discuss a plan to build a fishing pier at the foot of Point Loma Avenue as part of work proposed for Sunset Cliffs Park. The proposal called for the city and county of San Diego to come up with only 25 percent of a $211,000 project.  Plenty of free loot from Uncle Sam!

Did the city jump on that potential windfall? No. Did that deter persistent pier proponent Carl Schroder? No again.

Schroder had first come to Ocean Beach “when the old Cliff House [Hotel] was the only building on the beach.” That was not even in the last century.

By David Badash / AlterNet / October 11, 2024

General Mark Milley, one of then-President Donald Trump’s top generals who served as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the Republican presidential nominee is “fascist to the core” and there is no one in America who has ever posed more of a threat to the nation.

Milley, appointed by Trump in 2019, served as the highest-ranking officer in the U.S. Armed Forces until his retirement last year. His remarks appear in Watergate journalist Bob Woodward’s latest book, “War,” The Independent reports.

After the January 6, 2021 insurrection, Gen. Milley requested a meeting with incoming Attorney General Merrick Garland, “to urge him to investigate domestic violent extremism and far-right militia movements.”

By Christian Martinez / San Diego Union-Tribune / October 17, 2024

A settlement agreement finalized this month, borne out of a class-action lawsuit against the city of San Diego for ordinances that targeted unhoused people living in their vehicles, will see thousands of dollars in citations be forgiven, changes to enforcement of the ordinances and improvements to the city’s safe parking program.

The 2017 lawsuit alleged that two policies, the Oversized Vehicle Ordinance, which prevented RV or large vehicle parking on city streets between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., and the Vehicle Habitation Ordinance, which prohibited people from living in their vehicles, violated the constitutional rights of otherwise law-abiding people with no other means of shelter.

By David S.

In the Bay Ho area, the installation of the trolley line required a certain amount of ridership. Knowing full well the current residential community would not meet that requirement the Bay Ho neighborhood had a change in allowance of building development zoning which will allow the smaller homes to be leveled, and then built up with increased heights and high density. Leading to the rash approval and apparently blind eye to building codes and as many ADU’s and multi-units as possible.

So, if you are wondering what the future holds for Bay Ho, this is what it will be, higher building, high density and more ADU madness, with of course the loss of the current neighborhood culture.

by Delaney White / Fox5 / October 15, 2024

Whether it’s sunglasses, a water bottle, or a TV remote, almost everything is made out of plastic. But how is most plastic assembled?

“It’s easier to ship a lot of something very small instead of big pieces, so they’re made into these little nurdles,” said Mark O’Connor, Surfrider Foundation’s “Rise Above Plastics” program co-lead.

They are transported around the world by trains and boats and then melted into their final form. But many nurdles do not make it to their intended destination. Instead, they end up on San Diego’s beaches.

By Geoff Page

Usually, people judge politicians by the big picture stuff like convention centers and ball parks that they claim to have delivered. But, it is the little things that tell the real story. While they are dazzling everyone with the “big” accomplishments, they are quietly picking our pockets. Like $155,000 to count bicycles.

Former Assemblymember Lori Saldaña alerted this writer to the existence of a bike counter at the intersection of Pacific Highway and Beech Street. After having written about the bike counter disaster on 30th in some detail, the existence of another one was a surprise.

A visit to the site confirmed that a new counter was in place. It was a smaller, less impressive version of the one on 30th. The new one is so unobtrusive that Saldaña at first thought it was one of the new downtown digital advertising signs. It is doubtful that anyone has noticed the device because there is no obvious signage saying what it is.

By Alex Nieves / Politico / October 16, 2024

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is suing a California agency that rejected his company’s plan to increase rocket launches from an Air Force base in Santa Barbara County, arguing that commissioners engaged in political bias while making the decision. Attorneys from Los Angeles-based law firm Venable LLP filed the complaint against the California Coastal Commission in Los Angeles federal court on Tuesday, days after Musk threatened in a weekend post on X to take legal action against the agency.

The lawsuit argues that the agency’s 12-member commission “engaged in naked political discrimination” during last week’s debate on a Department of Defense proposal to expand the number of SpaceX rocket launches at Vandenberg Space Force Base from 36 to 50.

Shawn Christopher Clark, age 46, of Cave City, KY died on September 21, 2024 while riding his beloved Harley Davidson.

Shawn was born on August 17th, 1978 to his mother, Carol (Dodson) Davis and his father, the late Danny Clark Sr. in San Diego, CA. He spent his childhood in Ocean Beach, where he and his friends spent time on surfboards and skateboards, before going on to attend Point Loma High School.

By Scott Case

There has been significant publicity concerning community push-back against developers who are seeking to take advantage of local and state building policy changes to erect high-rise apartments and destroy our neighborhood character.

The opposition is not rooted in NIMBY perspectives as most San Diegans appreciate the need for additional residential units in their neighborhoods. …

I would like to call your attention to additional high-rise developments in the planning stages with the City’s Developmental Services Department. Specifically, the 3600 block of Columbia St behind India Street’s “restaurant row”. A developer is advocating to erect a 8-10 story apartment building on two lots, in the midst of this hillside community.

by Jennifer Vigil/ Times of San Diego / October 15, 2024

Five breweries, representing San Diego County from Oceanside to Imperial Beach, won gold medals at the 2024 Great American Beer Festival in Denver.

The local gold medalists are:

• San Marcos’ Craft Coast Beer & Tacos for its Chillzner in the “International-Style Pilsner” category
• Solana Beach’s Culture Brewing Co. for its 3 Citrus Gose in the “Contemporary Gose” category
• Oceanside’s Green Cheek Beer Co. for its Jeff’s Baltic Porter in the “Strong Porter” category
• Imperial Beach’s Pizza Port for its Indie Roo in the “Imperial Stout” category
• Mission Valley’s Puesto Cerveceria for its Puesto Negra in the “International Dark Lager” category.

Gold medals are awarded for a “world-class beer that accurately exemplifies the specified style, displaying the proper balance of taste, aroma and appearance,” according to the festival.

Pizza Port and Athletic Brewing Co. are the only San Diego brewers to win multiple medals. Pizza Port, in addition to its two golds (one was for its San Clemente location), also took home a bronze for its Ocean Beach brewery. Athletic Brewing Co. won a pair of silvers.