OB Rag

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.

OK Everyone! It’s time to rise out of our despair! It’s been 24 days of mourning since the debate debacle sunk all of us into believing this election was over, that we were going to be abused by Trump for another four years. A sick, sick feeling.

But in one shining moment, at 1:46pm Sunday afternoon, President Biden, in a true profile in courage, a selfless act for which he will be honored and remembered for years to come, put his country ahead of himself. May I ask you, Mr. President, for one more brave and bold action? Kamala Harris will be in a much stronger position to win if she can run as the President of the United States.

Ethan “Duce” Gourson, a former infielder from Point Loma High School, has been selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates after his junior season at UCLA.

The Pirates selected the 6-foot tall, 200-pounder in the ninth round of the recent MLB draft, a result of the second baseman’s performance after three seasons in a Bruins jersey.

Gourson has batted .300 from the left side during his Bruins career, covering 168 games with 49 doubles, 21 home runs, 119 RBIs, and 117 walks. He was named a freshman All-American in 2022 and to the All-Pac-12 team in 2023 after a career-high .319 batting average and .515 slugging percentage.

The coastal height limit is a reflection of San Diego’s identity  — The City Council should not support the state’s push to break the rule

By Joe LaCava / San Diego U-T Op-Ed / July 22, 2024

The will of the voters in the city of San Diego is absolute. In 1972, residents took to the ballot box to limit the height of new buildings in the coastal area west of Interstate 5 to 30 feet. The measure passed citywide, withstood legal challenges, and has been recognized by the city and its residents ever since. No city, state or developer has the authority to reverse the will of San Diego voters without seeking a vote by the public.