Grassroots and Progressive views on local, national and world news

Public invited to Band & Brew Crawl where artists put on show of their careers in Ocean Beach

Springboard West Music Festival, dubbed the “music discovery festival”, is back in San Diego for its third year in a row. For three days, emerging artists from all over the world, industry professionals and locals will gather in Ocean Beach to celebrate the future of music.

You’ve seen the cranes and all the equipment parked next to the bridge over the San Diego River, undoubtedly.

The giant building hardware and all the workers are busy replacing the old, ’50’s 4-lane bridge, called the West Mission Bay Drive bridge which stretches across the river. It will be replaced with two new, 3-lane bridges, with protected bike paths on both spans.

It’s all part of the City plan to help improve traffic flow to SeaWorld and the beach communities.

The current West Mission Bay Drive bridge is one of the primary arteries funneling people and cars to the entrance of SeaWorld, just a couple thousand feet away from the end of the bridge, and into the city’s central beach neighborhoods.

Newly-installed San Diego Councilwoman Jen Campbell is calling on residents of District 2 to consider applying for vacancies on the City’s various boards and commissions. District 2 includes Ocean Beach, Point Loma and the Midway District, among other communities.

The City of San Diego currently has nearly 50 boards and commissions that focus on a diverse set of issues.

In a press statement, Campbell stated:

“With vacancies on our many boards and commissions, I’m asking the residents of District 2 to consider applying.

It’s the end of the year – a time when media and press pundits turn reflective and ponder the “best” or “most important” stories published over the last 12 months. After reviewing our archives from 2018, we’ve come up what we think are the “top stories” from OB and Point Loma for the year.

We mainly based the top stories on how significantly they impacted Ocean Beach and the rest of the Peninsula. And the stories include news, photos, analysis and opinions about real issues within these communities, a number of which have continued from last year. And a number will most certainly continue into the new year.

So, here they are, the top 15 stories –

Restaurant Review

Thai Time Bistro
1830 Sunset Cliffs Blvd.
Ocean Beach, CA 92107
619-223-5000

By Judi Curry

I’ve been eating at the Thai Time Bistro ever since it opened. I know that it has changed hands at least once, and it was also closed for a short time while being remodeled. More often than not I order take-out from there and have the food delivered.

On this particular weekend, however, my friend Hugh said that he would love to have a hot soup for dinner. It was a cold, foggy, wet night and I suggested that we try the Thai Time. He was game.

Got an old surfboard? Well, don’t throw it away.

Instead – donate it to art-related upcycling/ re-purposing efforts for end-of-life surfboards. And it doesn’t have to be ride-able.

Last night, Wed, Dec. 19, the Project Review Committee of the OB Planning Board gave a commercial project slated for Voltaire a green light to proceed to the next step. The next step is being reviewed by the full board at a future meeting.

The review panel also gave tentative approval to 2 other projects before it and asked the owners of another project to return to the drawing board.

The Project Review Committee is a sub-committee of the Board and gets first crack at reviewing projects that come before the Planning Board, and usually gives a recommendation of thumbs-up or thumbs-down to the full board which carries substantial weight.

The 7-year-old boy seriously injured by a car Tuesday night while looking at Christmas lights with his family in Ocean Beach has been released from the hospital.

Caleb De Leon is in a wheelchair with his leg in a cast now but as of Wednesday, he’s back with his relatives. But he has a metal bar and pins in his leg bone and faces a good period of physical therapy and recovery.

Caleb was visiting San Diego relatives with his family from Arkansas when he was hit by a car on the 4700 block of Newport Avenue just after he had stepped off the curb.

The Old Broad Writes …

Ft. Rosecrans Cemetery

Several years ago I wrote a number of articles about the deplorable condition of the Ft. Rosecrans Cemetery. (See here, here, and here.) At about the same time Michael Turko [ed: of the former “Turko Files”] also did a piece about the cemetery and between us the transformation of the grounds was amazing. Doug Ledbetter, the Director at the time of the articles, listened to us and within a year it was again a beautiful place to visit our loved ones.

Target – even a so-called “mini-Target” – moving into Ocean Beach has angered many residents and a few businessowners. But OB isn’t the only neighborhood pissed off by the retail giant. Now, they’ve done it to somebody else.

This time the corporate behemoth Target has angered another community – North Park.

Despite community protests, petitions and outcry, Target had a famous dinosaur mural on the corner of University Avenue and Ray Street painted over.

Crews hired by Target were seen on Monday, Dec. 17, spraying over the “Weenasaurus Rex” mural painted on an exterior wall.