OB Rag

By Michael Smolens / San Diego Union-Tribune / Dec. 17, 2023

Mayor Todd Gloria’s re-election bid may have become more complex with a challenge from social justice advocate and former district attorney candidate Geneviéve Jones-Wright.

So far, the former public defender mostly has kept a low profile as a mayoral candidate, with no formal announcement speech or extensive media interviews to talk about running for the region’s most powerful local government office.

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By Brooke Binkowski / Times of San Diego / Dec. 16, 2023

A judge rejected a final legal challenge to Measure C Friday, clearing the way for the Midway Rising redevelopment project in the Sports Arena area.

The voter-approved measure removed the 30-foot coastal height limit for the Midway District, including the 48.5-acre Midway-Pacific Highway Community Plan area.

A 19-year-old man has been charged in connection with the death of 12-year-old girl who was struck by a personal watercraft as she was paddle boarding in Mission Bay last summer.

Arsanyous Refat Ghaly, 19, was arrested in Los Angeles on Nov. 8 on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, San Diego police spokesman Lt. Adam Sharki confirmed Thursday. Fox 5 was first to report the arrest Thursday. Ghaly, who was 18 at the time of the crash, was arraigned in San Diego Superior Court on Nov. 16. His bail was set at $20,000.

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Fox5SanDiego – AP / Dec. 14, 2023

California energy regulators voted Thursday to allow the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant to operate for an additional five years, despite calls from environmental groups to shut it down. The California Public Utilities Commission agreed to extend the shutdown date for the state’s last functioning nuclear power facility through 2030 instead of closing it in 2025 as previously agreed.

By The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board / Dec. 13, 2023

If you have tuned out the many crazy things that Donald Trump has said since he left the White House, it’s time to start paying attention.

The twice-impeached insurrectionist holds more than a 40-point polling lead over his closest rival in the Republican primary, and many Americans remain in denial about how close we are to returning an aggrieved and emboldened authoritarian to power. As former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) warned recently, the U.S. “is sort of sleepwalking into dictatorship.”

By Noah Perkins / Pt Loma – OB Monthly / Dec. 11, 2023

The Sea Lions defeated Washburn University 1-0 in the championship game at the Sportsplex in Matthews, N.C. The title is the first national championship in any sport for PLNU.

By Scott Lewis/ Voice of San Diego / Dec. 9, 2034

This week, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer endorsed Sunbreak Ranch, the plan to move all homeless San Diegans into a camp somewhere out in the desert. It would be a vast campus of shelters and services. It is Pedro from Napolean Dynamite: Vote for Sunbreak Ranch and all your wildest dreams will come true.

“The successful implementation of Sunbreak Ranch will save hundreds of thousands of lives, alleviate widespread suffering, unlock unfathomable human potential, and clean up America’s cities for all of us,” wrote George Mullen, who came up with the idea, and basketball legend Bill Walton.

By Ava Bailey-Klugh / The Point – LomaBeat.com / Dec. 10, 2023

MEChA was founded in 1960 by college students across the United States to advocate for more representation of Hispanic and Latino students on college campuses.

Currently, the student-led organization, in San Diego some of the largest colleges such as University of California San Diego and San Diego State University have rapidly growing MEChA clubs. MEChA stands for “Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan” in Spanish, which translates to “Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan.”

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By Natalie Raschke / Op-Ed SD Union-Tribune /Dec. 13, 2023

There’s no place like home for the holidays. This is especially true for families like mine, who’ve experienced homelessness. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, both my husband and I could no longer work as bartenders and, with many restaurants closing their doors, job opportunities in our industry were scarce. At first, we lived off our savings and unemployment, but after a while we were unable to afford the rent in our two-bedroom apartment in Ocean Beach where we lived with our four children. To cut costs, we moved into an RV for 24 months, then spent another six months living in a van.

By Sara Blanche Hayes
Jennie Gray Connard is a passionate and fierce woman. She’s a wife, a mother, a new grandmother, a business owner, a director, a choreographer. She’s a certified powerhouse in the San Diego community theater scene. And, after seven incredible years of running The OB Theater Company, she and her husband Bill have no choice but to shut down for good.

“The thing I loved and will miss the most was Bill and I sitting together in the back of the theater on opening night, after tech week and feeling that beautiful, intense, loving energy spilling out from all of those wonderful people.”

Here’s San Diego Magazine’s Neighborhood Guide to Ocean Beach – “Where to shop, eat, and play in the bohemian beach town,” (unedited) by Lili Kim.

Ocean Beach is the quintessential laid-back, free-spirited California beach town. While much of its retro culture has persisted through the decades, OB has also welcomed many modern restaurants, bars, and shops, attracting a new generation of food lovers and sandy surfers.

Here’s where to chow down, hang out, and gear up next time you’re wandering Newport Avenue and its nearby streets.