OB Rag

The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members and the San Diego general public informed about important Council and Planning Commission hearings and other city public meetings.

Editor’s note: Last Wednesday’s Economic Development and Intergovernmental Relations Committee agenda included an item on the impact of paid parking on Balboa Park. The item was pulled before the meeting at the request of city staff.

Monday, May 18: City Council, 2:00 p.m.

Agenda:

Item 200: FY2026 Third Quarter Budget Monitoring Report

Why it matters: FY2026 revenues are expected to be down $10.5 million versus the budget. Fortunately, expenditures will likely be $1.7 million less than the decreased $2.1 billion revenue. But here’s the fine print: If revenues don’t exceed expenditures, “authority is requested, as a contingency, to draw from the General Fund Stability Reserve as needed to ensure the General Fund ends the fiscal year balanced.”

Monday, May 18: City Council, 6:00 p.m.

Agenda:

Item 202: May Revision to the FY2027 Draft Budget and Public Hearing on the 2027 Draft Budget

Come celebrate the 50th anniversary of the very first election to the OB Planning Board! We’re having a party!

On May 4th, 1976, thousands of OB residents, tenants, property owners and business owners voted in the first democratic election of a neighborhood volunteer panel. And it’s still here — and so are over 40 other planning boards across the City of San Diego. But Ocean Beach was the first.

The celebration party will be Tuesday night, May 26th from 6 to 8 pm at Dirty Birds Ocean Beach, 1927 Cable Street.

The OB Rag, as well as other community groups, are hosting the celebration — the OB Historical Society, the current OB Planning Board, and we’re hoping others will jump on the bandwagon, such as the OB Mainstreet Assoc., the OB Community Development Corp., The OB Woman’s Club, the OB Community Foundation.

Dirty Birds is opening up their lower dining area for the party and because the event is community-oriented, is giving us a huge break on the price for finger-foods. (There will be a no-host bar.) Guests will be asked for a small donation.

by Ernie McCray

My heart weakens
when I see my city
seeking to make catastrophic reductions
in arts funding,
as I feel,
in my very being
that the arts
should be at the center
of all things
since from humankind’s beginning
the arts have been essential
to a human being’s
wellbeing,
a means of communicating emotions,

OB’s Robb Field plus a number of beach restrooms could close due to the latest proposed budget by Mayor Gloria. The budget process is not over as City Council members must submit their own final budget proposals by Wednesday, May 20, and the council is scheduled to adopt a budget on Tuesday, June 9. It must be adopted by Tuesday, June 30.

Yet, it’s unmistakable.

The Robb Field Recreation Center in Ocean Beach remains a target for potential closure,” reports the Point Loma -OB Monthly (a U-T publication).

“Gloria’s initial proposal last month included a scenario in which 16 rec centers around the city, including Robb Field’s, could be shuttered. Under the new plan, nine recreation centers would fully close, and the Robb Field center remains on the list.”

In addition, Voice of San Diego reports:

At least 33 public restrooms in downtown, Balboa Park and Mission Bay would close under the current plan, according to an Independent Budget Analyst report. These areas, which are heavily trafficked by tourists and locals alike, currently house 66 public restrooms – which means the number would be cut by half. This does not account for additional reductions to restroom access that would result from proposed cuts to libraries and recreation centers.

By Doug Poole

A vacant lot sits at the corner of Fort Stockton Drive and Goldfinch Street in Mission Hills. It has been empty since October 2023, when the previous buildings were
demolished by Affordable Development 820 LLC. They had plans then too. Those plans fell through. Now they’re back — with something much bigger.

What they’re proposing is a 12-story, 120-unit tower made of 288-square-foot micro-units manufactured in Mexico, with zero parking, zero setback, and only 5 affordable units out of 120. The building would be taller than anything in the neighborhood, casting shadows over adjacent properties and fundamentally altering the character of one of San Diego's most beloved historic communities.

The City of San Diego is processing this permit ministerially — meaning automatically, with no community input, no design review, and no public hearing. Under the Complete Communities Housing Solutions program, if a project checks the right boxes, it goes through. Period. Your opinion doesn’t matter. The shadows don’t matter. The parking doesn’9;t matter. The fit with the neighborhood doesn’t matter.

Here’s what is wrong with that.

A Point Loma man pleaded guilty earlier this week to attempted murder and domestic violence charges. When police responded to the residence of William Stephens, 66, after his wife had called 911, on Jan. 23, 2025, Stephens intentionally drove his Jeep at an officer and struck him, seriously injuring him.

Stephens is expected to be sentenced to 12 years to state prison in June.

Prosecutors allege that as Officer Matthew Salisbury approached the home’s driveway, Stephens sped toward the officer, who attempted to evade the vehicle by moving behind a bush located near the driveway’s entrance.

On a stretch of coastline where surfers now line up for morning waves, Ocean Beach once hosted an amusement park at the edge of the Pacific.

Few traces of Wonderland Amusement Park remain, but it reflects early Ocean Beach as a developing coastal community, part of a broader era when seaside amusement parks— including attractions such as Belmont Park in Mission Beach— were part of a trend of seaside amusement development along San Diego’s coastline.

Big changes
In the early 20th century, San Diego’s coastline was changing rapidly.

Streetcar expansion opened access to previously remote shoreline areas, triggering a wave of development aimed at turning the coast into a center for leisure and recreation. Ocean Beach was part of that shift.

By David Hogan / East County Magazine / May 13, 2026

Conservation groups have sent a letter to officials at the Cleveland National Forest opposing the proposed Laguna Mountains Forest Restoration Project.

The groups condemn the Forest Service’s so-called “restoration” plan to log trees, bulldoze and burn natural chaparral shrublands, and spray herbicide across more than 13,000 acres of scenic mountains near San Diego.

This project is pure Orwellian doublespeak.

It’s not forest “restoration” if you use bulldozers, masticators, chainsaws, herbicides, and fire to beat the environment into conditions that never existed in the first place. National Forest land belongs to everyone and shouldn’t be sacrificed to private companies that stand to massively profit from destroying delicate mountain environments.

By City News Service – KPBS / May 13, 2026

Trial began Tuesday, May 12, in the lawsuit brought by a collection of homeowners who are challenging San Diego’s trash collection fee.

The homeowners sued the city following the passage of Measure B, which ended free trash pickup services for single-family homes. The plaintiffs allege the fees violate Proposition 218, a state ballot measure that holds utility fees cannot exceed the costs of providing those services.

Former San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre, one of the attorneys representing the homeowners, said in his opening statements on Tuesday afternoon that while voters approved a monthly fee of between $23 and $29, the San Diego City Council approved imposing a nearly $44 monthly fee.

Aguirre also said the city used an incorrect estimate for the number of customers that would be paying the fee, resulting in higher monthly costs than expected for homeowners.

From OB Mainstreet Association website

The City of San Diego is pushing to build a seawall between Adair and a few blocks south, and it’s planned within the Sunset Cliffs Natural Park, which explicitly prohibits seawalls. Here’s a report from Times of San Diego by Dave Schwab (The Rag’s Kathy Blavatt is quoted at the end):

During a May 12 meeting, Point Loma residents gathered for a city project update to learn more about an effort to build a new seawall along Sunset Cliffs.

The Seawall Improvement Project in Sunset Cliffs is estimated to cost approximately $32 million and will help curb coastal erosion along the coastal bluffs.

In addition to a new seawall, project engineers look to protect access to the coastline, update public infrastructure for the area near the bluff and for the surrounding Sunset Cliffs residential community.

However, a slideshow presentation on seawall improvements by officials during the May 12 meeting at Point Loma/Hervey Branch library drew mixed reactions from residents.

Residents in attendance questioned the improvement project’s projected cost, its timing, possible environmental damage and its potential impacts to public safety and traffic disruption along Sunset Cliffs Boulevard.