OB Rag

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.

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.

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,

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.