OB Rag

Public Service Announcement

Ridership is surging on a free airport shuttle from the Old Town Transit Center, showing growing local demand for the more direct airport-transit connection that regional planners have been studying for years.

Despite no marketing campaign and minimal promotion, annual ridership rose by 73 percent on the shuttle from 2022 to 2023 — 75,680 passenger trips in 2022 versus 130,912 passenger trips in 2023.

Last week, U-T writer Lori Weisberg did a lengthy piece about the new “overhaul” for Belmont Park that “could bring new rides and reinvented beachfront restaurant” to the hundred year old amusement park in Mission Beach. She recounted in glowing terms the new rides, new restaurants and attractions Belmont Park is –or will be getting once Coastal Com’ish authority is obtained.

It’s always been a challenge to lure those “sunbathers and passersby strolling the boardwalk to venture inside.” And every decade or so, owners of the park engage in a new overhaul with new upgrades, rides, bars and eateries.

Why it was just a decade ago — that Weisberg did another glowing report on the “new” Belmont Park back in September 2014

As pro-Palestinian protests have erupted on college campuses nationwide, protesters — including students and faculty — have been arrested. The protests grew after an encampment on the campus of Columbia University in New York City led to the arrest of more than 100 protesters on April 18.

There’s a new burger joint in OB — Wow! Really? Aren’t there too many in OB already?

Well, this one is called “Bar-Food” and it’s different. It is open seven days a week from noon to 2 a.m and can be found at 5026 Newport Ave.

Here’s more why it’s different: “When you walk through the doors of this Ocean Beach burger joint, you’ll be swept away by a punk rock 90s vibe.”

By Jennifer van Grove / San Diego Union-Tribune / April 24, 2024

San Diego International Sports Arena, the imposing concrete venue in the Midway District and the longtime home of the San Diego Gulls, is worthy of special recognition ahead of its expected demolition. On Thursday, San Diego’s Historical Resources Board voted unanimously, with Chair Tim Hutter recused, to designate the 58-year-old sports arena as a historic resource.

The San Diego City Council recently approved a nearly $3.2 million settlement in a federal lawsuit case, Michael Bloom, et al. v. City of San Diego, which challenged the existing Vehicle Habitation Ordinance. The settlement set new rules for how the City is allowed to enforce its ordinances against unhoused people who sleep in their vehicles or RVs during a three-year period.

VEHICLE HABITATION ORDINANCE

City Municipal Code Section 86.0137 prohibits the use of streets for storage, service, or sale of vehicles or for habitation stating: It is unlawful for any person to use a vehicle for human habitation on any street or public property, unless specifically authorized for such use by the city manager:

by Joaquin Antique

After years of planning and one year of construction, a new hiking trail has opened at Cabrillo National Monument. Named “the Oceanside Trail”, it is an approximately 0.7 mile (one way) dirt and gravel pathway that leads from the whale watching overlook near the Old Lighthouse down a series of switchbacks and stairs to the start of the Coastal Trail near the Monument’s tidepools.

By Brittany Hook / Scripps – UCSD / April 25, 2024

In the spring of 2020, a historic red tide event occurred in waters off Southern California. Driven by a bloom of the dinoflagellate Lingulodinium polyedra, this event brought nighttime displays of bioluminescence to beaches along the coast, from Baja California to Santa Barbara. While the bloom gained international attention for its stunning visual displays, it also had significant negative impacts, including mass mortality among fish and other marine organisms.

By Chas Smith / Beach Grit / April 24, 2024

A San Diego lifeguard is back home after nearly losing his life while surfing Nicaragua. Todd Rice, 23, was in the Central American country enjoying a fine pulse of swell when a panga ran him over deeply cutting his leg. The hit nearly caused Rice to lose consciousness but he mustered the internal fortitude to fashion a tourniquet from his leash and control the bleeding until help arrived.

by Ernie McCray

The war between Israelis and Palestinians is affecting Arab and Jewish students in our schools, requiring educators to tend to the learning and emotional needs of both groups of young people.

But many Arab students claim that they aren’t getting the amount of attention that their Jewish counterparts are receiving. These students took part in a focus group as part of a study conducted by a doctoral student who is from the local Arab American community.

Students say they’re feeling alone, unheard, extremely uncomfortable with the way the armed conflict in Gaza is discussed on their campuses.