OB Rag

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.

By David Garrick / San Diego Union-Tribune / Dec. 7, 2023

Plans to transform much of northeast Mission Bay into climate-friendly marshland took a key step forward Thursday, December 7, when the San Diego Planning Commission approved a comprehensive proposal to redevelop the area.

AOL / Dec. 6, 2023

Geneviéve Jones-Wright, a former San Diego public defender and proclaimed advocate for justice and social equality, has officially launched her bid for the 2024 mayoral seat against incumbent Todd Gloria.

Today, December 7th, we commemorate Pearl Harbor Day, 82 years ago – the day the US entered World War II and fought against the Empire of Japan and the German fascists.

While my mother lived in San Diego during World War II, both her husband – my father – and her brother were in the US military fighting Japan, along with millions of other Americans fighting the Hitler Nazis and the Fascists of Italy. My uncle never made it back – having been wounded during the Battle of Corregidor and captured as a POW but dying on a Japanese transport ship.

By Paul Coogan

The Flawed Housing Action Package 2.0

The City of San Diego, like many U.S. cities, is attempting to build its way out of homelessness and spiraling rents. This simple supply and demand approach to real estate economics is an oversimplification that does not take into account the market manipulations of large corporate interests.

The builders want “free dirt” and there are two ways to drive down the cost of land, depreciation of the parcel or increasing the revenue potential of what is built.

By Kristina Houck / Patch San Diego / Dec. 5, 2023

After the New Year, employment discrimination for off-duty cannabis use will be illegal in California. Assembly Bill 2188 and Senate Bill 700 amend the California Fair Employment and Housing Act to protect employment rights for people who use marijuana.

Beginning Jan. 1, it will be against the law under AB 2188, with certain exceptions, for California employers with five or more employees to discriminate against current or potential workers for cannabis use off the job and outside of the workplace.

By Ava Bailey-Klugh / The Point – LomaBeat.com / Dec. 6, 2023

An article from Campus Pride released on Oct. 2, 2023 named Point Loma Nazarene University once again an unsafe school for LGBTQ+ students.

Campus Pride, a website dedicated to making college campuses more safe for LGBTQ+ students, created a list called The Worst List in 2001.

Beginning Dec. 9, fireworks will return to the sky over SeaWorld.

Dubbed “A Christmas Wish Fireworks Show” it will return every Friday, Saturday and Sunday in December. And beginning Dec. 22, the show will take place daily through Dec. 31.

The loud explosions will begin 10 minutes prior to the park closing at 10:30 pm. Special fireworks displays will be held at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 9 to kick off the Mission Bay Boat Parade, as well as at 9 p.m. Dec. 31 to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Local residents have been complaining about the fireworks for years

Times of San Diego has announced the opening of the first “Roman” eatery in Ocean Beach: Elvira in the former  Bo-Beau’s at 4996 West Pt Loma Blvd.

The restaurant, which opened Nov. 19, is meant to carry on the Roman legacy of Niccolò Angius’s great-grandmother, Elvira Lippi. Angius is one of the trio of restaurateurs behind Point Loma Heights’ Cesarina Ristorante and Elvira. The other two are chef Cesarina Mezzoni and Giuseppe Capasso.

By Geoffrey Hueter and Danna Givot / Op-Ed San Diego U-T / Dec. 5, 2023

Following the San Diego City Council’s postponement of the Housing Action Package 2.0 on Nov. 13, Mayor Todd Gloria launched a public relations campaign instead of providing thoughtful responses to the valid concerns of the City Council and community members.

The mayor is being disingenuous when he says that critics are opposing needed new housing.

After a little over a decade of hosting more than 30 productions of Broadway musicals, OB Playhouse will soon close following a hefty rent increase at its space at 4944 Newport Ave in Ocean Beach. And the current and last show at OB Playhouse is “Rent.”

The current tenants, Bill and Jennie Connard, own and manage OB eBikes in front of the theater, were given a commercial eviction action against them in March 2022 by Lyle and Linda Cocking, who own the playhouse property. However, the case was dismissed back then.

By Colleen O’Connor

Former Rep. Liz Cheney’s new book, Oath and Honor, is just being released, garnering more press and more serious attention since her disciplined, singularly scholarly co-chairmanship of the January 6th Committee.

She has appeared in extensive primetime interviews on the major networks, in dozens of op/eds in the world’s press, and drummed up enough attention to make Taylor Swift envious.