OB Rag

In the end at Tuesday’s City Council hearing on Mayor Gloria’s Housing Package, it was 7 to 1 “yay” to one “nay”. The long, contentious debate over the controversies of the plan that’s lasted weeks if not months came to a conclusion – the last time the council voted on the package, it was 5 to 3 against – but with one “hold-out” this time around – who had her own reasons for denying Gloria a full, unanimous endorsement.

The most important controversy being Gloria’s proposal to allow affordable housing developers to build the units “off-site” — that is not on the property where all the other units are being built, units allowed under the city’s current law. And that was the controversy the last time this package appeared, only to be closely voted down. The Rag called it a “give-away to developers.”

What’s happened in the interim is

New life has been breathed into plans for a multi-pool aquatic complex at Liberty Station’s NTC Park. The plans have been around for years but after multiple delays, funding and interest dried up.

But now after the city of San Diego has completed a feasibility study, the project is experiencing the most momentum it has had in years, says Stephen Rodi, chairman of the Peninsula Aquatic Complex Council and president of Point Loma High School’s aquatic boosters program, as quoted recently by Pt Loma-OB Monthly.

Details of the feasibility study are expected after the holiday season, Rodi said.

The lead residential activist organization, Neighbors For A Better San Diego, is requesting that the San Diego City Council delay any discussion about — or vote on — the proposed amendments to the city’s “Complete Communities Housing Solutions”.

It’s their position that the Council must not act on these proposals until the Planning Department presents it with a thorough analysis of the impact of its proposed modifications.

The following email was sent by Geoffrey Hueter, chair of the group, to San Diego City Council Members on Monday, Dec. 11:

From Campaign website:

Who is Geneviéve Jones-Wright?

Geneviéve is a native San Diegan born and raised by her single mother Mae, who retired from UCSD Hospital after working 25 years as a custodian, instilling in her the importance of community service, commitment to family, faith, and helping others to succeed.

While in the fourth grade, Jones-Wright decided to pursue the law after she was inspired by the achievements of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Geneviéve graduated from San Diego’s Patrick Henry High School, received a bachelor’s degree from the University of San Francisco, her law degree from Howard University School of Law, and her Master of Laws from California Western School of Law in San Diego.

by Ernie McCray 

I’m remembering
walking up a stairway
in Amsterdam
through narrow doorways
looking into nooks and crannies
in Anne Frank’s hiding place,
an annex attached to a home
where she chronicled
in a diary
that stands as a gift to humanity,
the trials and tribulations
of her people,
Jews,

Here is a chart of the King Tides for December 2023, with tidal predictions from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography reporting station at the Scripps Pier in La Jolla:

By Mat Wahlstrom

On Tuesday, December 12, the City Council will be pressured to approve the same “Housing Action Plan 2.0” amendments to the “Complete Communities Housing Solutions,” without changes, that the council rejected less than a month ago amid community uproar, due in part to lack of any data presented to demonstrate what it has accomplished so far.

And all for no better reason than that our current “strong-arm mayor” form of government enables authoritarian refusal to take “no” for answers rendered in democratic process.

This is reason enough for the council to reject them, and I encourage you to tell councilmembers that. (It’s Item #335 on the agenda.)

But in case you want to know more:

By Michael Chen/ 10News / Dec. 7, 2023

Some grateful students in Point Loma are reflecting on a rollercoaster journey after money from a fundraiser was stolen.

For much of October, the fifth grade classes at High Tech Elementary led a school-wide fundraiser, ‘Pennies for Pets,’ as students and families filled jars with spare change and cash to benefit the San Diego Humane Society.

Unelected CAO’s Powerful Role in the County’s Future Demands a Hiring Process Consistent with Our Shared Values as a Democracy

By Norma Chávez-Peterson, Executive Director, ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties

On December 5, I joined with several of our ISDF coalition partners to testify before the San Diego County Board of Supervisors regarding the process of hiring the county’s next chief administrative officer (CAO).

The nonprofit, nonpartisan American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has a 103-year legacy of protecting and expanding civil rights and ensuring full and equal access to education, jobs, housing, voting and more. The ACLU fights to guarantee that “We the People” means all of us.