OB Rag

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.

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,

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.