Resignation of Labor Leader Brigette Browning Demanded by Coalition of Latino Groups

May 16, 2024 by Staff

It’s getting intense, this controversial confrontation between supporters of County Supervisor Nora Vargas and those who back Brigette Browning, the leader of the San Diego Labor Council. Even today’s U-T op-ed page was devoted to the controversy, with both sides sharing their view.

Now, we at the Rag and at the beach have our own problems with Brigette Browning — more on that at another time.

Part of the current flare-up is over the fact that Cindy Chavez has been passed over for the top job in the County, and the Labor Council supports her.

Read the full article → 2 comments

Resistance is Not Futile, San Diego

May 16, 2024 by Source

By Colleen O’Connor

More resistance to the Mayor’s mega plans for neighborhoods is afoot.  Not just North Park’s frustration over the high-rise, no parking, increased bicycle lanes and tone deaf  “push on” responses from the Council and Mayor, but repeats in Point Loma, Ocean Beach, Mission Hills, Clairemont, etc.

Always the rush. The closed session meetings, the insistence on a major development will “improve” the obvious problems.

The latest “solution” to homelessness is a proposed 1,000 bed facility on Kettner & Vine.  This in addition to the Tent City dwellings along near Balboa Park on Pershing Drive, the Barracks near the airport and now this.

Read the full article → 7 comments

New Surveillance Technology to Replace Cameras at OB Pier and Around Mission Bay Approved for Fire Department

May 16, 2024 by Source

Tuesday, May 14, the San Diego City Council approved the fire department lifeguard services division to buy upgraded surveillance technology to replace existing cameras around Mission Bay and the Ocean Beach Pier.

The fire department wants to upgrade its existing cameras for “situational awareness,” according to James Gartland, Chief of the Lifeguard Division for the City of San Diego. Gartland said the upgrades will help them better monitor the activity on the bay or when a boat is in trouble.

San Diego City Council on Tuesday approved the fire department’s lifeguard services division to continue the use of the Mission Bay and Ocean Beach

Read the full article → 0 comments

‘Why People Have Stopped Buying Vacation Rentals in San Diego’

May 16, 2024 by Staff

A very interesting article by Phillip Molner at the Union-Tribune yesterday described why so many people have stopped buying vacation rental homes in San Diego. (It’s only for subscribers, so there’s no link.)

Here’s Molner’s main points:

Overall, interest rates and home prices are so high in San Diego that even vacation rental buyers have fled.

Read the full article → 25 comments

Pizza Port Ocean Beach Celebrates 14 Years — Saturday, May 18

May 16, 2024 by Frank Gormlie

Pizza Port Ocean Beach is celebrating its 14th anniversary this Saturday, May 18.

Their ad says it’s “an epic celebration of 14 delicious years,” and that “It’s not just an anniversary party—it’s a day to enjoy some of the brewery’s best flavors and fun activities!”

They’re transforming their parking lot into a beer garden,

Read the full article → 0 comments

Update on ‘Power San Diego’: Not Enough Sigs for Ballot But Enough for Plan B at City Council

May 15, 2024 by Source

By Rob Nikolewski / San Diego Union-Tribune / May 14, 2024

Power San Diego, the initiative that wants to oust San Diego Gas & Electric by creating a municipal electric utility within the city limits of San Diego, has fallen short of its goal of collecting 80,000 verified signatures to put the proposition on the ballot this fall.

But the group turned in about 31,000 signatures to the County Registrar of Voters on Tuesday, which it says would be enough to put the question before the San Diego City Council instead.

Read the full article → 1 comment

City Council Passes Compromise Plan for Northeast Mission Bay – and Nobody’s Happy

May 15, 2024 by Frank Gormlie

After 7 to 8 years of at-times contentious community debates and discussions, of this group and that group vigorously lobbying the San Diego City Council, the council on Tuesday finally made a decision in how to transform much of northeastern Mission Bay. Supporters call the decision a win for a “climate-friendly marshland that can fight sea-level rise and pull carbon from the air.”

It’s a compromise! supporters yell, and it’s a fair one. A back-and-forth between environmentalists, city staffers and camping and recreation sports advocates has been going on so long, a certain fatigue has set in – and many are just happy to have a final decision, even if it’s a compromise.

Read the full article → 0 comments

Student Movements and Solidarity With Gaza: A Vision for Equal Rights for Palestinians and Jews

May 15, 2024 by Source

The following was a talk given at a May 4, 2024 march in solidarity with Palestine in Olympia, Washington, and updated May  14.

By Peter Bohmer

Student movements have played a major role in radical history and revolutionary struggles.  For example, France in May 1968 began with a student strike and then spread to worker occupation of many factories. They didn’t win their demands although they gained substantial increases in student rights and wages.

On May 4, 1970, 54 years ago from the day of this demonstration, four students were killed at Kent State University for protesting the US invasion of Cambodia by the Ohio National Guard. 

Read the full article → 1 comment

Modern Horror Show: Developers Podcast Plan to Target 92107 for Profitable ADU Projects

May 15, 2024 by Source

By Geoff Page

Those of us raised in the television generation grew up with images for stories. The generation before TV listened to radio programs with as much enthusiasm, it seems, as the TV generation did to TV. We have images that are inseparable from horror stories we know. It was a wonder to us how the radio generation could be as scared as we were, without pictures.

This writer does not wonder any more after listening to a podcast by two developers, Shawn DiMartile and Mike Tighe, talking about their ADU project in Ocean Beach. It is possible to horrify a person with only words.

Read the full article → 56 comments

OB Kite Festival — Saturday, May 18 — at Robb Field

May 15, 2024 by Staff

This Saturday, May 18, is the 77th Ocean Beach Kiwanis and OB Woman’s Club Children’s Kite Festival!

It’s all happening from 10 AM to 3 PM at Robb Field – and it’s for all ages and is free!

Officially Robb Field is located at 2525 Bacon Street, San Diego, CA 92107.

It’s all family oriented, you can make and decorate your own kite, cuz there’s free materials, and instructions, and help with kite making. Get instruction from some of the best kite fliers around.

Read the full article → 0 comments

Historic Mission Hills Library to Be Back in Circulation as ‘Library Shop’

May 14, 2024 by Source

The city of San Diego is bringing the old and historic Mission Hills library building back into circulation — this time as a “library shop,” much like the one in the downtown library. Used books and tchotchkes would be sold, and the building would also host community events.

City crews have been at the site to address a series of the structure’s problems: broken brickwork, shattered windows, and graffiti — and bring it back from being a neighborhood eyesore.

Read the full article → 0 comments

Over 30,000 Signatures Gathered by Volunteers to Place ‘Power San Diego’ on Ballot

May 14, 2024 by Source

Needs City Clerk’s Certification

The Power San Diego ballot measure campaign has delivered tens of thousands of signatures from their volunteer effort to replace SDGE with a non-profit public electric utility. Designed to conform to San Diego’s City Charter, the initiative would  establish a lower-cost electric utility, retain the current union workforce, and be overseen by a qualified board of directors with citizen oversight.

Read the full article → 4 comments

How the San Diego Sports Arena Is Historic

May 14, 2024 by Source

From Save Our Heritage Organization

3500 Sports Arena Boulevard in the Midway area is well known to generations as the San Diego International Sports Arena.

This venue for sports, concerts, and other events is designated under Historic Resources Board Criteria A and B, with a period of significance of 1966-1974, and under Criterion C, architecture for the year it was built, 1966.

Read the full article → 6 comments

Reader Rant: ‘OB and PL Are Targeted by Developers – Time to Fight the Billionaire Buyers’

May 14, 2024 by Source

By Lynne Miller

Hey Friends! Some of you know that we have been opposing a 20-unit building in our Ocean Beach neighborhood. The good news is that OBPB voted to deny the project. The bad news is that the City of San Diego does not have to accept the recommendation, so we will likely have a long appeal process ahead.

I attended Peninsula Planning Board (subcommittee) meeting and found out something disturbing.

Read the full article → 16 comments

OB Community Foundation Ready to ‘Share Details’ — Wednesday, May 15 at Pt Loma Library

May 14, 2024 by Staff

The Board of the Ocean Beach Community Foundation says it’s “ready to share some details with the OB community” from their attorney and CPA.

They’re hosting a meeting (they call it a “Community Town Hall”) this Wednesday, May 15 at the Point Loma Library — at 7 pm.

In their monthly newsletter, the board writes, “We appreciate your patience as we are diving in to past year financials back through 2018….”

They’re also getting ready to hold elections and have a candidate forum planned for Wednesday, June 26.

Read the full article → 0 comments

Local TV Station Questions Why City Is Keeping Dirt Parking Lot Near Robb Field Closed

May 14, 2024 by Source

By Eric S. Page / NBC7 /May 13, 2024

Four months after it was abruptly padlocked, a free city public parking lot near the shore in Ocean Beach remains off-limits to cars, a pair of sun-bleached printed signs hanging from the gates telling people that the lot would “be locked indefinitely due to safety issues.”

Read the full article → 4 comments

Environmental Activists Lobby San Diego Council to ‘ReWild’ Mission Bay — Tuesday, May 14

May 14, 2024 by Source

ReWild Holds Rally for Vital Environmental Protections in the Mission Bay Park Master Plan Amendment

A coalition of 89+ member organizations, known collectively as the ReWild Coalition, are hosting a rally at San Diego City Hall on Tuesday at 1PM, before delivering comments at the City Council meeting to adopt critical amendments to the Mission Bay Park Master Plan.

Read the full article → 0 comments

UC San Diego Faculty and Graduate Student Statements on Resignation of Chancellor and Condemnations of Police Action

May 10, 2024 by Source

Here are two statements made this week by UCSD faculty and graduate students in response to the use of law enforcement to make arrests and break down a tent encampment in solidarity with the people of Gaza. The faculty call for Chancellor Pradeep Khosla’s immediate resignation.

UCSD Faculty Call for Chancellor’s Resignation

Faculty of the Ethnic Studies department at UC San Diego are outraged at the vicious suppression of students by our administration under the leadership of Chancellor Pradeep Khosla. This morning, May 6, 2024, Chancellor Khosla called on the UCPD, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, and California Highway Patrol in military riot gear to raid an encampment of peaceful demonstrators exercising their free speech

Read the full article → 4 comments

Man Who Grabbed Boy on Newport Avenue Sentenced to 2 Years in County Jail

May 10, 2024 by Source

Christopher Higginbotham was the man who was captured in widely circulated footage grabbing a young boy on Newport Ave., outside an Ocean Beach business and trying to take the child with him was sentenced Wednesday, May 8, to two years in county jail.

Higginbotham, 39, pleaded guilty to a felony false imprisonment count for picking an 8-year-old boy up on March 22 along Newport Avenue.

Read the full article → 0 comments

Now, County Board of Supes Wants to Jump In and Help Finance ‘Midway Rising’ Promises in Sports Arena Redevelopment

May 10, 2024 by Frank Gormlie

At the beginning of the month, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors decided it wanted to jump in and help with the financing of projects pledged by Midway Rising in the Sports Arena redevelopment.

It came in the form of an agreement on Wednesday, May 1, by the Board “to explore a partnership with the city of San Diego on an enhanced infrastructure financing district at the Midway Rising/Sports Arena site,” reports 7SanDiego.

Read the full article → 3 comments

New Online Petition: ‘Stop Big Development in OB’ and ‘Keep Ocean Beach Historical!’

May 10, 2024 by Source

There’s a new online petition to “Stop Big Development in OB” and it’s aiming for 500 signatures. Begun by Sara Hickman to keep OB historic, the text to the petition is a slap at Mayor Gloria’s “Complete Communities.” (The Rag has a media inquiry to Sara Hickmann.)

Here’s the link to the petition.

Here’s the text:

We are raising our voices in the hope of stopping development unprecedented in OB, unprecedented waivers,

Read the full article → 1 comment

Demand Ceasefire in Gaza — OB Entrance on Saturday, May 11 at Noon

May 10, 2024 by Source

Come out This Saturday, May 11th, 2024 at Noon in Ocean Beach !!

This weekly demonstration, organized by the San Diego Veterans For Peace and the progressive women’s group, Code Pink, will mark the fifteen consecutive Saturdays at the same location, corner of West Point Loma Blvd and Sunset Cliffs Blvd

Read the full article → 0 comments

Is Money So Tight in San Diego, That Lights on Ocean Beach Pier Have to Be Turned Off at Night? Navigational Hazard Created by Dark Structure

May 9, 2024 by Frank Gormlie

Rag reporter Charles Landon has noticed something troubling at night in Ocean Beach.

The lights on the Ocean Beach Pier have been turned off at night during this last week. He says the lights on the pier have “been lit up every night for as long as I’ve lived here, 12 years — but now it is as dark as the dead structure it is.

Read the full article → 9 comments

Push Back Grows Against UC San Diego for Violent Crackdown, Calls Mount for Chancellor’s Resignation

May 8, 2024 by Staff

The push back is growing against the UC San Diego administration’s violent crackdown on the peaceful Palestine solidarity encampment on Monday, May 6.

65 people were arrested when UC police, Highway Patrol and County Deputies confronted students and supporters and tore down the tents, placing dozens in zipties.

Also, there are mounting calls for UCSD Chancellor Pradeep Khosla to resign for his role in bringing in law enforcement

Read the full article → 1 comment

San Diego Library Advocates Are Calling for Residents to Speak Out at City Council Tonight — Wed, May 8 at 6 pm

May 8, 2024 by Source

Patrick Stewart, the head of the San Diego Library Foundation, a non-profit advocate for the City’s libraries, is calling upon residents to attend tonight’s City Council meeting to show elected officials that libraries are essential to our communities. They deserve to be funded in our City budget, not neglected.

Directions for Wednesday, May 8 Budget Review Committee meeting at the City Administration Building, 202 “C” Street, 12th floor Council Chambers

The City Administration Building is a one block walk from the Civic Center trolley stop off the Orange or Blue lines and is served by several MTS bus lines.

Read the full article → 1 comment

San Diego’s Cannabis Equity Program at Risk in Mayor’s Proposed Budget

May 8, 2024 by Source

By Joey Safchik /7SanDiego /April 29, 2024

A city of San Diego cannabis social equity program has been in the works for years.

The program’s goal is to open doors for people and family members impacted by the criminalization of cannabis so that they can enter the now-legal industry. The city’s own study found people of color were disproportionately affected.

Megain McCall has a felony cannabis conviction for possession of a bag of cannabis-infused candy. McCall has spent half a decade advocating for the social equity program.

Read the full article → 0 comments

Mayor’s Office vs. OB’s Historical District

May 8, 2024 by Source

By Colleen O’Connor

Last night’s overflow crowd of concerned OB and Point Loma residents at the monthly meeting of the OB Planning Board demonstrates once again, the deafness of the Mayor, most of the Council and a slew of bureaucrats.

It was yet another serious event to stop the overdevelopment, the neighborhood destruction, the arrogance of Mayor Gloria

Read the full article → 9 comments

Ocean Beach Planning Board Rejects 20-Unit Complex on Point Loma Avenue

May 8, 2024 by Frank Gormlie

Before a packed community meeting room, the Ocean Beach Planning Board last night rejected a proposed development with 20 units on Point Loma Avenue. The vote was 7 to 1 – and immediately, applause broke out.

Board member Kevin Hastings made the successful motion to reject the project — an earlier motion to approve it failed for lack of a second — and Kevin based his motion on the loss of commercial space and for being out of compliance with the OB Community Plan.

Read the full article → 14 comments

OB’s ‘Volley Ball Wars’ Over Public Beach Leave the Public Out

May 8, 2024 by Staff

By Geoff Page

A volleyball company’s use of OB’s sands to make money has residents who live nearby upset. This was all detailed in The Rag’s February 22 piece. It appeared that this problem was solved recently when the city denied Volo Sports, the subject of the previous Rag story, a permit to use “pop-up” volleyball nets.

The immediate issue, the apparent reason why the city denied the permit, was a safety concern brought forward by the lifeguards. The official word from the lifeguards is not forthcoming, but it is known the objection had to do with “pop-up” volleyball nets.

Read the full article → 3 comments

The Real ‘Outside Agitators’ at UC San Diego

May 8, 2024 by Staff

Read the full article → 1 comment

← Older Articles

Newer Articles →