OB Rag

By Bonnie Kutch 

Dear Councilman Kent Lee:

On behalf of UC PEEPS, I want to thank you for meeting with us last Wednesday morning to address our questions and concerns. We appreciate your honest responses, but still disagree with many of your statements.

The Callen Report

By Kate Callen

In recent weeks, hundreds of double-bottom dump trucks carting thousands of tons of rubble have driven in caravans down North Park residential streets, rattling windows and setting off car alarms.

Their destination: Balboa Park.

Rag reporter Geoff Page is alerting us to a dangerous and large crack at Sunset Cliffs. He was alerted to this extremely dangerous condition at the south end of the pocket beach called Garbage Beach by a person flying a drone who originally spotted it.

Page visited the beach and confirmed it. He wrote, ” While this one spot is by far the most dangerous, there were a half dozen other spots that were also very dangerous to varying degrees.”

It’s official! The city has changed the location for the community workshop on the proposed changes for Ocean Beach and Sunset Cliffs.

It now will be located at the Ocean Beach Recreation Center — same date and time — June 24 from 5 to 7 pm.

at 4726 Santa Cruz, 92107

by Ernie McCray

Jerry West’s passing
is very much on my mind.
The reason being he was a
true contemporary of mine
as we were born a month apart in 1938,
and our names, a couple of times,
were mentioned among
the top scorers
in the 1959-60
college basketball season,
both of us
basketball legends
at our respective universities
but my being in the spotlight in hoops
came to an abrupt end
while “Zeke from Cabin Creek”
took greatness to another level,
becoming the logo
that symbolizes the NBA.

By Ashley Mackin Solomon / San Diego Union-Tribune / June 17, 2024

After her proposed legislation intended to promote safer use of electric bicycles was amended in the state Legislature — with some elements removed — Assemblywoman Tasha Boerner is planning a pilot program that would prohibit children younger than 12 from riding e-bikes in areas that opt into it.

Earlier this year, Boerner (D-Encinitas), whose 77th District includes Point Loma and Ocean Beach, introduced a bill that would require many would-be riders ages 12-16 to complete a written test and receive a “license” to operate an e-bike.

On Friday, June 14, Food 4 Less workers across California, announced an overwhelming membership vote in favor of authorizing their bargaining committee to call for an unfair labor practice strike should one become necessary. They’re represented by United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Locals 8GS, 135, 324, 770, 1167, 1428 and 1442, together representing more than 6,000 Food 4 Less/Foods Co.

Bargaining resumes today, Monday, June 17.

by Tigist Layne / Voice of San Diego / June 14, 2024

On Aug. 15, 2023, DeMaio, who is running for the 75th Assembly District seat, announced he was going to put a California voter ID initiative on the November 2024 ballot. The initiative would have amended the California Constitution to restrict voting to people with a valid, current driver’s license or other government ID.

It needed 874,641 signatures by April 16, 2024 to qualify for the ballot. DeMaio didn’t submit a single signature, according to records provided by the California Secretary of State’s office.

This isn’t the first time DeMaio promoted a statewide voter ID initiative. The conservative activist and former San Diego City Council member has promoted but failed to deliver any signatures on five ballot measures, including the most recent one, since 2015.

Today, there’s a good number of depressed residents from two of San Diego’s neighborhoods, Hillcrest and University City. It was yesterday, June 13, that the key City Council Land Use & Housing Committee bulldozed over their concerns and unanimously approved plans that would literally double the number of residents within their communities.

Now that the committee approved the plans — without any changes — they will go before the City Council and likely be okayed by the full nine-member council in July.

Under the plans approved yesterday, University City would see more than an additional 64,200 residents, nearly doubling the neighborhood’s

The issue that San Diegans should have the right to vote on creating a municipal utility — even if the idea is not good — is reverberating around our fair city. And reporter Paul Krueger is promoting this view.

Just yesterday, June 13, Krueger’s letter to the editor in the San Diego U-T was published. He had written it in response to their article, entitled,”San Diego City Council shoots down effort to put municipal utility on the November ballot” published on the 11th.

Here’s his letter, followed by a statement from Power San Diego, the group that wants to fire SDG&E.

I don’t trust our mayor and city council to oversee a municipal utility, and would vote “no ” on a ballot measure to oust SDG&E and establish a government utility.

By Marjorie Cohn / TruthOut / June 13, 2024

On June 4, a coalition of active-duty service members, veterans and G.I. rights groups launched a campaign called Appeal for Redress V2 to encourage military personnel to tell Congress to stop funding genocide in Gaza. Israel’s genocidal operation, now in its ninth month, has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians and wounded nearly 85,000.

The campaign is sponsored by Veterans For Peace (VFP), the Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild, About Face: Veterans Against the War and the Center on Conscience & War. It is modeled after the 2006 Appeal for Redress issued during the occupation of Iraq. During that campaign, almost 3,000 active-duty, Reserve and Guard personnel sent protected communications to their members of Congress urging an end to the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In some great satirical news, UC San Diego is offering space for on-campus housing during Comic-Con International, held in San Diego this year from July 25 through July 28.

Colleen Kollar Smith, the executive director of UCSD’s Campus Performances and Events Office, announced that the university will make available dozens of tents — slightly used — that it has for use during the event in downtown San Diego.

The tents were collected during an episode on campus about a month ago. Some tents have slight tear and some have a slight smell of teargas (these are from UCLA).