OB Rag

By Kate Callen

It’s no surprise Mayor Todd Gloria will not give up on his proposed 1,000-bed homeless shelter, not even after the idea was denounced at Monday’s long and contentious City Council meeting. He seems vexed that the Council has grown a collective spine. He is giving councilmembers one month to come to their senses.

In council chambers Monday, Gloria was defiant.

Ocean Beach Slumlord Micky Mills Able to Obtain 115 Licenses Due to Loop Holes

Some have thought that Councilmember Jen Campbell had reformed and sanded off some of her rough edges, but after Thursday’s Community and Neighborhood Services Committee, which she chairs, those thoughts crashed and burned.

Because it’s been a little over a year since the requirements imposed by the City to license short-term rentals went into effect, it was time for the committee to review the results of the STRO and pass on any recommendations for improving the ordinance to the full Council.

Another “We’re Just a Platform” Excuse

By Trudy Grundland

Here’s my take on the story about the class action filed against Airbnb in Nevada, June 2024, in Giller v. Airbnb, Inc. using the Nevada Deceptive Trade Practices Act. There must be someone in California who wants to do the same.

Nevada state and local laws require Airbnb to investigate its new host applicants to confirm the person is authorized to rent the property on a short-term basis. Airbnb is aware that a person may be in violation of a lease homeowner or condo association rules, and city zoning laws that restrict short-term rentals.

Today, Thursday, July 25, the City Council’s Community & Neighborhood Services (CNS) Committee will be discussing the STRO ordinance.

This will be the first city discussion since the ordinance went into effect May 1, 2023. San Diego residents have a chance to share our experiences and offer suggestions. We need to make our voices heard.

There’s lots of problems with the current ordinance and how it’s enforced. For starters,

By Adam Behar / San Diego Reader / July 24, 2024

Community planning group considerations are supposed to be boring. Infrastructure, environmental impact reports, traffic studies, zoning…important stuff, but also dull enough to make most people zone out. But not this year. This year, University City and Hillcrest are updating their community plans, plans that will serve as a road map for developers in the coming years. The question those plans seek to answer: what should the community look and feel like from now until 2050? Arriving at that answer has been anything but boring.

By Kevin Hastings, Vice-Chair, OB Planning Board

Last night, July 23, the Community Planners Committee (CPC) unanimously approved a citizen-led proposal for changes to the short-term vacation rental ordinance.

The CPC consists of the chairs of all 40+ planning groups across the city. And at least 6 of the community groups have also signed on to the proposal.

Council President Sean Elo-Rivera is proposing to eliminate all virtual public comments from City Council meetings today at the Rules Committee.

This comes after repeated statements by members of the public who are concerned about not being heard because they cannot attend in person due to work, school, or other circumstances.

This is happening at the Rules Committee, today at 2 PM.

True crime author Peter Houlahan has written a comprehensive history taking readers back to the 1985 case of a young Black man in San Diego who went on trial for the murder of one San Diego police officer, shooting and running over another officer, and shooting and wounding a civilian during a police ride-along.

It’s called Reap the Whirlwind: Violence, Race, Justice, and the True Story of Sagon Penn. The book is described by Publishers Weekly as “a colorful narrative populated with well-drawn characters” in which “Houlahan explains how the case laid bare the city’s long-simmering tensions” while providing “deep insight into Southern California policing history.”

The trial of Sagon Penn would be a defining moment in San Diego’s history.

George Varga at the San Diego Union-Tribune just published a piece about the new inductees to the San Diego Music Hall of Fame this year, and they include two musicians with strong ties to Ocean Beach.

One is being honored posthumously — and that is San Diego blues godfather Tomcat Courtney, who died in January 2020 at the age of 91. Tomcat used to play regularly at a bar on Voltaire Street in OB during the seventies. Also being inducted is the well-known Grateful Dead tribute group the Electric Waste Band,

By Geoff Page

As related in The Rag’s July 19 article, the Ocean Beach Planning Board Transportation subcommittee met Monday, July 23 to discuss a couple of radical traffic ideas – a Parking District and a new road through Robb Field.

The Rag story generated, to date, 28 comments. Many were not favorable but there was also a good discussion of alternative ideas. The subcommittee meeting did not generate a similar response, only four people attended, not counting this writer.

The meeting began by electing a new chair for the four-person subcommittee.

by Ernie McCray

I can’t help but wonder why
we’re making it possible
for Donald J. Trump
to become our president again
when he once failed at the job miserably,
nodding off in the oval office,
waiting for a ride, from time to time,
so, he wouldn’t miss his tee time.