OB Rag

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).

It’s fairly unmitigated rubbish to think the City of San Diego is planning a workshop on their significant proposals to mitigate sea level rise in Ocean Beach and Point Loma not in those communities, but in Pacific Beach.

With the Coastal Resilience Master Plan, significant changes are being proposed for OB’s waterfront and for four blocks of Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. And the city is holding a community workshop specifically on the project sites at Sunset Cliffs and Ocean Beach for Monday, June 24, in Pacific Beach! — at the Pacific Beach/Taylor Library, at 4275 Cass Street, from 5 to 7 pm.

In contrast, the city is holding a workshop specifically on the La Jolla Shores, Tourmaline and Mission Beach project sites in … La Jolla, at the La Jolla Riford Library Community Room, 7555 Draper Ave, on June 25, 2024.

It’s almost as if the city doesn’t want any feedback or community input from those pesky, noisy residents of OB and Point Loma.

As part of the city of San Diego’s Coastal Resilience Master Plan intended to mitigate the effects of expected sea-level rise, the city wants to turn Sunset Cliffs Boulevard  into a one-way street southbound roughly between Guizot and Ladera streets, with the addition of a multi-use path protected by new fencing.

Native plants would be established as possible habitat enhancement as invasive vegetation is removed.

According to the city, this  so-called “lane diet” with a linear park would “improve public safety, enhance mobility options and access and implement drainage elements to better reduce erosion forces from the top of the bluff.”

Sunset Cliffs was selected because of impacts of coastal erosion.

It’s no secret that ground squirrels have overrun the grounds at Liberty Station. The growing population of ground squirrels have been seen running around and also taking over the San Diego waterfront over the last few weeks.

A spokesperson for the city’s Parks and Recreation Department said staff are keeping “an eye on all areas of Liberty Station park space that fall under the City of San Diego’s jurisdiction” for population growth of the ground squirrels.

Yet, Mayor Gloria’s team — with an eye on the upcoming election — has recommended that the squirrels be trapped and placed in a warehouse near the airport. Rachel Laing, Gloria’s PR person, claims a 1,000 squirrels could be housed in a warehouse Team Gloria has identified near freeways and away from residential areas.

It is an important acknowledgement — but it didn’t go far enough, however. On Monday, June 10, the San Diego City Council formally recognized that the city sits on unceded Kumeyaay land and it passed a resolution honoring the tribe — but without ceding them any land.

The land acknowledgement statement reads:

“We respectfully acknowledge that the Kumeyaay Nation are the original inhabitants of the unceded land now known as San Diego. Despite enduring the horrors of genocide and colonization, the Kumeyaay spirit remains unbroken. We honor the resilience of their ancestors who fought to protect their culture and land. Today, they carry their legacy forward, ensuring that their traditions continue to thrive in gratitude and strength. We stand with the Kumeyaay Nation, connected to our past and committed to a thriving future.”

The San Diego Land Use & Housing Committee will hold a public hearing on three major land use proposals all on the same day — Thursday, June 13 at 1:00 pm.

• San Diego BluePrint,
• University Community Plan Update and
• Hillcrest Focused Plan Amendment.

From that point, the Planning Commission will recommend approval, conditional approval, or denial to the San Diego City Council for adoption of those proposals, including the University Community Plan Update.

Dear Council members:

You have conducted three closed-session meetings on the Kettner and Vine mega shelter that have been preceded by several hours of public comment prior to each closed session.  Throughout each public comment period, there have been speakers from all communities of our city, from all walks of life, from all professions, and some who have had the ‘lived experience’ of being homeless so your flipped remark of Nimby-ism is a false flag to defend this upside-down project. 

The Callen Report

By Kate Callen

What happens when local government plunges into an ethical vortex, public coffers empty out, news organizations hit the skids, greed turns neighbors against neighbors, and people who used to be calm become very angry?

You get citizen watchdogs like Nice Neighbors San Diego.

Founded by Jay Goldberg, who works for Google and calls himself a “volunteer short-term rental compliance watchdog,” Nice Neighbors has an interactive website that is stunning in its sophistication.

The homepage features a map of short-term rental (STR) licenses that looks like a disease outbreak zone in a pandemic. Browsers can click a button to report a possible STR. The “Tools” webpage allows searches for valid STR licenses and Airbnb listings.

“Bike and Walking Path,” Permanent Dunes, One-Way Street for Section of Sunset Cliffs Proposed — Plans Workshop in Pacific Beach

Under the guise of something called “San Diego’s Coastal Resilience Master Plan,” the City of San Diego is bringing back the idea of a “boardwalk” across the beachfront of Ocean Beach.

It’s purpose is worthy and is to help mitigate sea-level rise and loss of beaches due to the climate crisis.

But just the mention of a “boardwalk” across OB raises old wounds that many thought had been dealt with. It’s called a “multi-use path for walking and biking” — nowhere near the title of something the city wanted to build decades ago and met with a tsunami of opposition when proposed.

There’s such a “stir on social media” about the latest renditions of maps that show the locations of short-term vacation rentals in San Diego that the private site that posts them, niceneighbor.org , is on the verge of crashing.

Jay Goldberg has been analyzing the city of San Diego’s short-term rental locations for a year and a half. He posts maps on his website: niceneighbors.org.

“The concentration is surprising,” said Goldberg. “You’re talking about 6.2 percent of all dwelling units in Ocean Beach currently licensed as short-term rentals.”