OB Rag

The San Diego chapter of the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit challenging the County of San Diego’s approval of the Greenhills Ranch sprawl project — a proposed development located in fire-prone rural Lakeside. The suit was filed on July 3.

The East County area is designated by CalFire as a Very High Fire Severity zone, far away from public transit and facilities, which would threaten residents and wildlife.

By Shelby Huffaker, MPH / Co-Chair, San Diego Chapter of Americans for Safe Access/ July 8, 2024

For years, the City of San Diego was prepared to implement a comprehensive cannabis social equity program. This initiative was shaped by extensive community feedback and careful consideration of the shortcomings seen in earlier cannabis social equity programs. But, like a joint canoeing after a couple of tokes, the program was ashed before it ever had a chance to succeed.

By Steve Smith / 10News / July 9, 2024

The United States will send 12 athletes to the Paris Olympics as part of the team skateboarding team, and four of the skaters are from San Diego. Among those competing for the red, white, and blue is Point Loma High School graduate Tate Carew.

Like many kids, Carew grew up on a skateboard and knew at a young age that he was talented on four wheels.

By Miriam Raftery / East County Magazine / July 4, 2024

On July 4th, we celebrated our nation’s declaration of independence from Britain’s king in 1776. But ironically, America’s democracy is at risk, along with the liberties we cherish.  Constitutional experts warn that like several failed democracies, most notably Germany in the 1930s, the United States now faces the very real threat of becoming an autocracy,  or dictatorship.

by Ernie McCray

So many voters
want Biden to drop out of the race
due to
how he imploded
in the first presidential debate,
showing his age,
they say,
and that’s easy to understand.

But the contest between him and Trump
still stands,

By Terrie Best

While SDASA is not involved, After 10 years as Chapter Chair and a lot of court support, I am aware there are many on our list who might qualify for the program. So, if you are ready to create a cannabis business, please visit equity.projectCannabis.org today and discover if you qualify as an applicant.

From City of San Diego website:

Fiesta Island is the best dog park in the nation according to a USA Today poll. The park received its 2024 Readers’ Choice Award for Best Dog Park.

By Terry Hoskins, Candidate for District 9

The recent memo titled “Tools to Address San Diego’s Shelter Crisis,” dated June 28, 2024, by Council President Sean Elo Rivera, reveals a dangerous attitude in city leadership where elected officials believe they know what is best for San Diego and appears to aggrandize his status on the San Diego political front.

The memo references four underutilized tools in San Diego’s shelter crisis, which, in his words, must be employed quickly.

Public Service Announcement

San Diego’s Mission Trails Regional Park is about to get a little bit bigger.

Late in June, the San Diego City Council voted unanimously to approve a donation of dozens of acres of undeveloped, privately-owned land within the park’s boundaries to bolster its conservation efforts in the area.

It’s with sadness we have to report the passing of Tom Gawronski. Tom was literally a fixture on the OB Planning Board as he was a member of its board for years and even decades. (See my delightful interview with him and Jane here back in 2013.)

This is the official obituary:

Thomas Henry (Tom) Gawronski was born September 22, 1940, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and died June 29, 2024, in San Diego, California.

After the Rag posted the amounts of trash collected this year the day after July 4th from OB beaches, a couple of readers questioned the amounts collected from Dog Beach. San Diego Surfrider sponsored this year’s “Morning After Mess” clean-up and provided the numbers of trash in pounds.

I did a quick review of some of the trash totals from the last few years and constructed the following chart:

2024

• 120 pounds from around the OB Pier,
• 1,575 pounds of trash at Dog Beach.

By Marjorie Cohn/ TruthOut / July 4, 2024

[On Thursday, July 4th], Americans celebrate[d] Independence Day, commemorating the Declaration of Independence when the colonists threw off the yoke of King George III. When they crafted it, the framers of the Constitution established three co-equal branches of government to check and balance each other.

But the Supreme Court’s shocking decision in Trump v. United States takes us back to the bad old days of the monarchy. The reactionary supermajority held that presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for core official acts, and presumptive immunity for all other official acts.