OB Rag

By Ken Stone / Times of San Diego / April 7, 2024

After a rally and brief march Thursday, a group of labor-union advocates at the University of San Diego entered the Hughes Administration Center and made their way to Room 222.

The office of James T. Harris III, USD’s president. They buzzed for entrance. No answer. “The door was locked,” Meghan Donnelly told fellow nontenure-track faculty and supporters after emerging from the campus HQ facing the stately Immaculata Church. She reported that an election plan had been slid under the door, so Harris would see it when he returns.

From Informed Infrastructure / April 8, 2024

Yesterday, Civitas, an award winning global landscape architecture and urban design firm, as a subconsultant to Moffatt and Nichol, a premier waterfront engineering practice, presented the latest design concepts for the replacement of the Ocean Beach Pier based on extensive community outreach and engagement over the past year. The presentation event provided community members with an exclusive look at the latest concept that the City of San Diego has selected based on the public’s preferences.

A bunch of condo complex owners at the foot of Bermuda Avenue in Ocean Beach want the city to help them pay for dealing with Sunset Cliff erosion problems on their property.

These Ocean Beach residents say they’re worried coastal erosion could seriously impact their condo complex, Oceanus. Russ Rasmussen, a resident of Oceanus told SanDiego7 News that he moved into his unit 13 years ago. “When I moved in, the bluff was eroding right in front of our complex.”

By Ken Stone | Times of San Diego – SDMetro / April 9, 2024

Using new concrete techniques may be key to a new Ocean Beach Pier that can last 50-75 years, design experts said Saturday at a presentation on replacing the iconic structure.

Following more than a year of community engagement, the City of San Diego at a Liberty Station presentation revealed the preferred design concept that captures the features San Diegans expressed they would like to see in a new pier.

By Judi Curry

Once again I want to thank all of the readers from the OB Rag that have contacted me and asked why I haven’t been writing recently.  Your missing me has helped in the recovery process from a TIA (transient ischemic attack), which left me blinded in the left eye.  Gradually my sight is coming back…. It is most disconcerting to not see my dogs…

And, talking about my dogs – this is a problem that I hoping one of you can help me with. … I had a tenant – we will call him “Painful” that was with me for over six months.  He had a delightful German Shepherd female, about 7 years old, that was pretty well trained. 

by Ernie McCray

Well, it seems
that my friend, Lallia Allali,
a renowned leader in the Muslim community,
is no longer
welcome
to tend to the learning needs
of Arab students in San Diego City Schools
ever again,
in spite of the district’s supposed
restorative justice practices wherein it claims
to be about cultivating relationships that help build and sustain
school cultures
that are positive and welcoming
for students, staff, and families.

By Colleen O’Connor

If you missed the excitement of the Eclipse or passed on the Carlsbad flowers this season. Or if you didn’t catch the Women’s National basketball semi-finals, with Caitlin Clark awing the country with record-breaking 3-point shots, don’t despair.

There is still a bit of wonder. Butterflies.

By Sandi Masori / San Diego Jewish World / April 7, 2024

One of the fun things about having friends come in from out of town is that they take you out of your normal travel patterns.  This is exactly how I found myself in Ocean Beach recently, a part of San Diego I have to admit I don’t get to enough.  Since I was there for the company I wasn’t really worried about where we would eat, and agreed that we could meet up and walk around and find something open.  I figured that we would be brunching on mediocre overpriced beach food, but I was oh so wrong.

We chose OB Surf Lodge for the location, It’s right across from the beach and has a great view.  We were there pretty early so we’re quickly seated.

Price Tag Probably Not Based on Standard ‘Design-Build’ Contracting Method

By Geoff Page

The City of San Diego held its fourth OB Pier Renewal Community Workshop, Saturday April 6, during which the public got a look at the design for the new pier. The event was very well attended — perhaps as many as 200 people came to the Liberty Station Conference Center for the workshop.

The public also got a look at the new estimate to build the new pier based on the current design. $175 – $200 million.

My first reaction was that it took less than that to build two highway bridges over the San Diego River. That price tag was $150 million, for two bridges, a far more complicated project. This estimate to build the pier makes it more or less, impractical. Unless the design is changed.

Locals are bearing the cost of increasing rates, with many spending more than half of their income on rent

By Sasha Abramsky / San Diego Magazine – The Nation / April 4, 2024

Teresa, a 52-year-old with a solidly middle-class job in the healthcare industry, recently separated from her husband. At the time, the couple lived in Encinitas, in a large home they bought in 2010 for $450,000. When interest rates plummeted, they refinanced at less than 2.5 percent with only 13 years of payments left. Each month, the mortgage, the insurance, and the money they set aside for real estate taxes came to $2,900 between them.

But now, the market has shattered Teresa’s financial calculus. Even after she and her husband sold their house and split the profits, affording to buy again seems impossible.

The Biden administration should be preparing for the worst.

By Juliette Kayyem  / The Atlantic -RSN / April 8, 2024

No one in law enforcement should be caught off guard if trouble breaks out before, during, or after the November presidential election, because Donald Trump keeps talking as if addressing differences through violence is a normal part of the American political process. The presumptive Republican nominee recently promised forgiveness for the January 6 insurrectionists, posted a video involving a fake image of President Joe Biden hog-tied in the back of a truck, and riled up his supporters by claiming that “if we don’t win this election, I don’t think you’re going to have another election in this country.”

La Prensa Offers Time Line to Latest Scandal Affecting Midway Rising and Sports Arena Redevelopment

By Arturo Castañares / La Prensa / April 8, 2024

Sometimes it takes time and distance to see more clearly how relationships and interests help explain the actions of others.

We learned that lesson with the 101 Ash building debacle that was exposed by the media more than three years after insiders had worked together to fleece taxpayers and left a $200 million hole in the City’s budget with only a toxic, empty building to show for it.