OB Rag

By Mark Powell / Op-Ed San Diego Union-Tribune / July 30, 2024

[Please see original for the many links]

To effectively support our city’s climate action goals, San Diego needs more electric vehicle charging stations, not bike lanes. The funds currently allocated to converting traffic lanes into bike lanes would be better spent on installing these stations.

San Diego’s “Better by Bike” initiative has proven to be a failed climate action experiment, and city government should start converting underutilized bike lanes back into traffic lanes and halt any further conversions to make roads more accessible. You don’t need a doctorate in urban planning to realize that replacing traffic lanes with underutilized bike lanes is impacting traffic flow and commuting time.

By Andrew Dyer / KPBS / August 1, 2024 a

Rents are down slightly from this point last year, according to Rent.com, but that doesn’t mean they’re affordable. Average rent for a studio apartment in San Diego is more than $2,300. For a two bedroom the average raises to $3,700.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors is trying to tackle the issue with a new initiative looking at the impact private equity is having on housing costs. The board approved a series of actions at a meeting July 16. The county wants to know exactly how many condos, townhouses and single-family homes are owned by commercial entities and in what part of the county they’re in.

Editordude: Check out this view from San Francisco media about the La Jolla battle between humans and sea  lions.

By Olivia Harden / SFGate / Aug 1, 2024

A coastal California community is at odds over one of its biggest tourist attractions as residents draw a line in the sand for what’s more important: allowing sea lions to thrive or keeping the beach accessible to humans.

Multiple community groups in San Diego are clashing with city officials over how to mitigate the thousands of tourists who flock to La Jolla Cove to see the sea lions and their pups on the rocky shore.

Environmentalists argue that the city’s failure to develop a more effective management plan has put the animals in danger, as several sea lion pups have died this summer potentially due to human interaction at La Jolla Cove.

Every Saturday 10 am – 12 pm Peace Vigil for Palestine — on the plaza corner of Sunset Cliffs Blvd. and W. Point Loma Blvd:

August 2nd Friday and August 3rd Saturday Don’t miss “Guac,” a powerful one-man show by Manuel Oliver, honoring his son, Parkland shooting victim Joaquin Oliver.

August 3rd – 8am, Sunset Cliffs Natural Park in Point Loma, CA is the  Kick off cleanup and whale “launching” event for DesBorder Project, 

August 3rd   Saturday 9:30 am – 1 pm Mutual Aid Community  Event by Sunrise Movement San Diego

August 4th and 18th Sunday Ramona Wildlife Center Tour 9:30 am – 10:30 am

Vets for Peace has several events for August: August 5th Hiroshima Memorial

From Press statement

Join Us for the Kick-off of the Cans4Books DesBorder Project

Cans4Books is thrilled to announce the launch of the Cans4Books DesBorder Project, a unique initiative that combines recycling, education, and art to tackle coastal waterways pollution and support the children of our communities. The project will kick off with a cleanup and whale launching event at 8 AM on August 3rd at Sunset Cliffs Natural Park in Point Loma, CA.

The San Diego Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on an application to convert 21 apartment units within three existing buildings into condominium units located at 2916 through 2996 Worden Street.

The hearing will be August 8, 2024, at 9 am in Council Chambers, 12th floor of the City Administration Building at 202 C Street. If the conversion project is approved, then all the tenants who currently live n the 21 apartments would be required to move out, to vacate the premises.

Those same tenants will have the right to contract for the purchase of their unit — for a limited period of time, however — 90 days from the issuance of a building report (see official notice below). The 1.2 acre project site is within the Peninsula Community Plan area.

The applicant for the conversion is Hunsaker & Associates, who describe themselves

By Piper French / Nation Magazine / August 1, 2024

California’s two most marginalized constituencies, its homeless and its imprisoned, each represent about half a percentage of the state’s 39 million residents. Both groups are vulnerable to abuse and untimely death, suffer from the deprivation of vital resources, and have little say in political discussions about their future. Black people are notably overrepresented in each category.

There is a reason the latter population passes basically unremarked upon and why the former is considered the marquee problem of the state, synonymous with the supposed crisis of California itself,

A majority of the San Diego City Council on Tuesday, July 30, voted to approve a controversial 5-story housing development in Pacific Beach despite the project’s breech of the sacrosanct 30-foot height limit and incorrect numbers given by the developer to city staff and local planning group members.

The approval was over strong objections from Councilmembers Joe LaCava and Raul Campillo, who urged the council not to reward developers who actively mislead community planning groups and violate the voter approved 30-foot height limit.

LaCava stated:

“This is most egregious bait and switch I have ever heard of in my long career (on development and housing issues). I cannot and will not vote to fund a project that is dishonest with the voters.”

By Christine Haslet

Life on the streets of San Diego for our orphaned, friendly cats is neither ethical nor legal~ Not when San Diego taxpayers are paying SD Humane Society over $20,000,000 a year and collecting countless donations to care for our homeless animals.

There is a world of difference between a feral cat and a friendly cat. Sadly,our SD Humane Society treats them the same and has been busy blurring the lines to confuse us.

A “Community Cat Program,” is basically dumping friendly, lost cats back out on our streets.

By Lisa Mortensen

We’ve heard this rallying cry from city hall and the development industry before — the need for housing.  The problem is their supply and demand argument leading to affordability just doesn’t wash but leaves the stain of unaffordability.   The city built more housing in 2023 than it has in decades.  This year there are many more units under construction.  So why are prices at all-time highs with this increase in inventory?

What’s missing from discussion of housing is NOAH which is the acronym for Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing.  This means to preserve existing housing stock, say multi-family apartment houses and converting them to condominiums, or vacant office buildings reimagined into for purchase or for rent housing.  When using existing buildings, it is more environmentally sound because you are not tearing down and disposing of a large amount of building waste.

By Geoff Page

There is a scene in the movie, “Blazing Saddles,” a Mel Brooks classic, (see above) where a preacher tries to stop the crowd from shooting the new – Black – sheriff. The preacher holds the Bible up and someone shoots it, whereupon he says, “Son, yer on yer own” and walks away. Seems this is the City of San Diego’s slogan.

This is what the city says. It is from an email city mayoral representative Randy Reyes sent to a long list of people:

Thank you for your email. I wanted to address your comments about the City’s decisions as it relates to the current status of the OB Pier. Public life and safety is and will remain the top priority. …

“Public life and safety is and will remain the top priority.” This is what the city actually does.

By Lisa Mortensen

Dear Councilmember Rivera et al councilmembers:

I attended the 9-hour city council meeting last Monday, July 22nd at 2pm to hear item S400 regarding the Kettner Mega Shelter lease.  After sitting through close to 5 hours of filibustering by the city council on the three prior items, all the while the council was able to come and go from the dais to refresh themselves.  But sadly, we lost 30% of those who had wished to cede their time to the speakers in opposition to the Kettner lease.

The public hearing rules only allowed 1 minute of speaking time so even though I was present 7 of the 9 hours, I was only able to cede my 1-minute of time in exchange for my voice.  I remember when we had two minutes of time and wonder when the council reduced this time allotment?