OB Rag

Here is the U-T Editorial Board criticizing San Diego Mayor Gloria, again:

The never-ending stories coming out of City Hall that make San Diegans incredulous, angry or both continued this week when details of a 50-page report by City Auditor Andy Hanau went public. It documented how often Mayor Todd Gloria and his staff violated contracting rules by increasing spending limits without City Council approval. The audit found that contract changes totaling $155 million were sent to the council for review later than required, after the funds were spent or not at all.

From SanDiegoVille / August 12, 2024

Erin Brockovich, the renowned environmental activist portrayed by Julia Roberts in the film about her life, recently took to social media to criticize California Governor Gavin Newsom for what she sees as his lack of attention to the ongoing Tijuana/San Diego sewage crisis.

In a Facebook post shared to her profile on Monday, Brockovich highlighted the escalating Tijuana/San Diego sewage crisis, calling out Governor Newsom

By Kelly Hessedal / CBS8 / August 13, 2024

A plan to develop 3,000 homes on land in the northern part of Santee will not go forward after a judge ruled against it Friday.

The Fanita Ranch development project has been in and out of the court system for years.

“There are places where development does not belong, an extreme fire hazard zone is one of them,” said Van Collinsworth, Director for Preserve Wild Santee, one of the environmental groups that sued to stop the project.

Fanita Ranch is 2,600 acres, and the plan was to build 3,000 homes there. The City of Santee approved it in 2022.

by Marisa Kendall /Cal-Matters / August 12, 2024

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s message on homelessness in recent weeks has been clear: The state will no longer tolerate encampments, and cities shouldn’t either.

Californians who live on the streets, as well as the outreach workers who support them, say they’re already feeling the difference. Places where someone used to be able to pitch a tent and sleep in peace have suddenly become inhospitable. Police seem to be clearing camps more often and more aggressively, and are less likely to give advance notice before they come in with bulldozers and trash compactors, according to anecdotal reports in some cities. Even in cities where officials said publicly nothing would change, unhoused people and activists say it’s become harder to be homeless.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Bemie Sanders (l-Vt.) on Tuesday released the following statement on former President Donald Trump’s efforts to lay the groundwork to deny the results of the 2024 election:

Donald Trump may be crazy, but he’s not stupid.

When he claims that “nobody” showed up at a 10,000 person Harris-Walz rally in Michigan that was live-streamed and widely covered by the media, that it was all Al, and that Democrats cheat all of the time, there is a method to his madness.

Here is an update on the fundraising efforts by local San Diego candidates vying for success in the November election.

Mayor’s Race: Todd Gloria vs. Larry Turner

During the first half of 2024
Gloria

• Mayor Todd Gloria’s campaign raised $131,000 including $113,000 during the reporting period.
• an independent committee supporting Gloria called Big City San Diego raised $141,000 during the first half of 2024, including $88,000 during the reporting period, but only has $2,000 left to spend.
• Gloria’s campaign has a $377,000 war chest for the runoff

Turner

• Turner’s campaign raised $54,000 during the first half of 2024, including $49,000 during the reporting period.
• Turner has $26,000 war chest for the runoff.

Editordude: Back in the mid-Seventies, San Diego Magazine — known today as a slick mag beset with stories of the flashy high-living pleasures of San Diego’s rich and near-rich — was a local hard-hitting and muck racking journal in a GOP-controlled city with a monopoly press (the San Diego Union). Now, all of a sudden with the following article about Ocean Beach and its distaste for ADUs, the media project appears like it want to take up its former mantle.

We applaud that and we applaud SDM writer Maya Srikrishnan’s attempt to do just that – be relevant again. This metropolis needs all the help it can get.

Back in the mid-Seventies, one writer for the magazine created its reputation of muck-raking: long-time San Diego newscaster and journalist Harold Keen.

By Colleen O’Connor

If you didn’t watch the Olympics, you missed awesome talent, fierce competition, spontaneous joy and a history of new world records writ large. Not just excellence that dwarfed the past, but a whole new future.

A future I predicted in an April OB Rag column, titled, “It’s the Women, Stupid,” (a play on James Carville’s’ “it’s the economy stupid”) that will determine the outcome of the 2024 election.

That future was on full display in the Paris Olympics. Or as the NBC news headlines announced in bold print: “World beaters: Women athletes ruled the Olympics.”

Especially American women.

Who knew a contest to select the city’s most egregious accessory dwelling unit (ADU) would get people so stirred up?

In the four days since we announced the OB Rag’s “Worst ADU in San Diego” competition, the response has been, well, unexpected.

No one seems neutral about this. Feedback has come from two camps. Some people are delighted that we want to put a spotlight on overwhelming projects that tower above nearby homes and siphon off available street parking.

And some think we’re just plain awful. “What an insulting and tone-deaf idea,” said one of the 74 comments posted so far. “You should be ashamed.”

Some clarification seems to be in order. First, to those who are enthusiastic about the contest — A lot of you want to submit entries, but some have asked if they can do so anonymously. That’s understandable. Extreme ADUs have pitted neighbor against neighbor in nearly every San Diego community. No one wants to escalate what have become personal conflicts.

If you want to remain anonymous, just email the address of the ADU to obragblog@gmail.com. We’ll confirm that it’s an ADU via an online search, and will not publish your name or email — then we’ll hand the entry over to our judges.

Note: On June 3, Circulate San Diego moved its offices to an upscale high rise that, unlike their previous location, has reserved parking. The following document was purportedly found among the empty Starbucks cups and Postmates debris at their prior address.

Herewith are the common terms with their insider meanings that every YIMBY must know. They are not just received wisdom, but also rote rhetorical devices to denude meaning and nuance from any debate and appear more knowledgeable than our opponents.

ABUNDANCE, ABUNDANT: A state in human history that has only ever been achieved in short bursts as a result of social cooperation and environmental grace; the promise offered by every developer.

ACCESSORY DWELLING UNIT (ADU): A granny flat, with four stories and seven other units having zero setbacks or parking.

ADAPTIVE REUSE: The ecologically superior repurposing of existing structures that are less suited for their original use than as alternatives, such as converting shopping malls and offices to housing. Not as enriching for every segment of the construction industrial complex as new development, and so never to be recommended beyond boutique renovations of quaint Victorian homes for law offices.

ALL HOUSING MATTERS: An appropriation of the racist “All lives matter” retort to the Black Lives Matter movement. (Since a lot of people started realizing that, we try not to use it in public much anymore.)

BICYCLING, BIKING: The most virtuous form of transportation, far more honored in breach than in practice; only used by YIMBYs in the context of performative or physical exercise. The Ivermectin offered to solve every lack of actually affordable housing.