OB Rag

From Neighbors for a Better San Diego

Mayor Gloria and our City Council members clearly agree that parking in San Diego is scarce and expensive. Why else would they expect reserved and greatly discounted parking in the city-owned structure right next to City Hall?

San Diego Axios, a brand new online daily platform for the metro region, is reporting that ” developers taking advantage of recent city policy changes meant to spur accessory dwelling unit production could be part of the decline” in San Diego’s apartment construction this year.

Let’s grab a hold of this statement from Elyse Lowe, director of San Diego’s development services department, reported by Andrew Keatts — but this seems significant.

The whole point of the city’s push for ADUs was to increase development of in-fill small houses to alleviate San Diego’s crisis in housing. For the last several years, ADU construction has been given the green light by the development services department – and local community planning groups no longer have much discretion in reviewing them.

Yes, ten percent of the pilots who fly in air shows are killed in either shows or practices.

The San Diego Veterans For Peace, in collaboration with many other local pro-climate groups, are asking the US Marines to stop the Blue Angels from flying over our city. Their proposed September Air Show is an egregious waste of fossil fuel and is contributing to the climate crisis.

The Department of Defense and the US military has long ago identified the climate crisis as our biggest national threat, so we demand that the Marines get on board with that fact and cancel the show. Our 2023 demonstrations against the September Air Show will be on the Carroll Canyon overpass to Interstate 15 from 4 PM to 6 PM on the following days:

By Andrew Chamings / SFGate / Aug 29, 2023

A luxury four-star resort on San Diego’s Mission Bay shoreline has been accused of suppressing public access to a beautiful stretch of California sand.

A California Coastal Commission report reviewed by SFGATE accuses Paradise Point Resort of numerous violations that “impede public use of the area and reinforce the impression that the entire area was private.”

In a report just for subscribers, journalist Ana Ramirez at the San Diego Union-Tribune today asked, “San Diego’s marine preserves limit fishing to protect sea life. Could boundary changes be coming?” Here are some excerpts from her report:

The underwater park off Encinitas is one of 11 of San Diego County’s marine protected areas, which were established about 10 years ago in an effort to restore waters depleted from overfishing and to preserve marine ecosystems. A decade later, California Fish and Wildlife is examining if that effort is working. The results of a 10-year review released in January indicated it was,

By Geoffrey Hueter / San Diego U-T Op-Ed / August 28, 2023

Much of the commentary following the rejection and removal of the proposed Senate Bill 10 implementation from Mayor Todd Gloria’s Housing Action Package has focused on the imagined outcomes of SB 10 rather than looking at the specifics of the proposed regulations.

It is therefore important to clarify what the issues were and why San Diego residents were right to push back against SB 10. Fundamentally, the problem with the proposed SB 10 implementation was that San Diego did not heed the intended purpose and scale of the state law.

by Ernie McCray

Sha’Carri Richardson.
I just love that young woman.
Watching her win the hundred
in a World Track Championship
puts a smile on my face
like the one she planted there
when I first saw her race,

By Erik Anderson / KPBS / August 29, 2023

California is investing $3 million in an effort to allow researchers to predict when and where ocean waters near Imperial Beach may be contaminated.

The ocean off the coast of Imperial Beach has suffered decades of contamination which includes trash, toxic chemicals and untreated sewage runoff.

Last week, homes in Imperial Beach, Chula Vista, San Diego and on the Silver Strand were under a boil-water order because a test sample came back positive for E. coli contamination.

On Tuesday, August 29th, US Fish and Wildlife Service will release a batch of rusty-colored birds with long orange bills, called Ridgway’s Rail, at the UC San Diego Natural Reserve System’s Kendall-Frost Marsh.

Ridgway’s Rail are federally- and state-endangered, primarily due to the loss of its coastal habitat. They live in saltmarsh wetland with lush and tall vegetation often
composed of cordgrass and pickleweed. Once they are established in a tidal wetland, they spend their whole life there foraging, breeding and nesting.

The USFWS has a Ridgway’s Rail breeding program located at the San Diego Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

By Judi Curry and Gil Field

Has anyone noticed that the San Diego Veterans For Peace, a local veterans organization, has for the last six years been educating local citizens about the dangers and environmental damage inherent in the Miramar Air Show, an annual event at MCAS Miramar each September?

They have mentioned the dangers involved with having high speed jets flying all over our city for at least a week each year, given that 10% of Blue Angels pilots have been killed in practices or shows. They have mentioned the significant expenditures of US taxpayer monies this show requires every year, as we add $1.5 trillion to our mounting Federal debt each year.

They have attended the show themselves and found small children, often under five years old, being shown and admiring terrible weapons of war, as if they were toys. 

Reporter Neal Putnam at the Beacon– affiliated media network has outlined the ugly underside of Point Loma Nazarene College in a recent article about how a Nazarene pastor — Rev. Selden Kelly — lost “his credential to preach after a church jury convicted him of supporting same-sex marriage, which is contrary to the Church of the Nazarene manual about human sexuality.”

“Kelley, who is in his 60s, has been senior pastor of First Church of the Nazarene for 17 years at Point Loma Nazarene University and is popular on campus.”

A 7-man and 2-woman church jury voted unanimously “to convict” Rev. Selden Dee Kelley III (above), of being “out of harmony with the Church of the Nazarene’s doctrine, teaching, beliefs, and practices.”

By Luke Harold / Pt Loma – OB Monthly / Aug. 27, 2023

A group of elected leaders who represent cities in San Diego County’s coastal zone sent a letter this month to state lawmakers about their concerns over a bill that would streamline development along the coast.

Senate Bill 423, authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, chairman of the Senate Housing Committee, would remove a 2025 sunset provision for Senate Bill 35, which created a “builder’s remedy” that streamlines housing development in cities that are behind on their state-mandated housing goals.

More notably, SB 423 would extend the streamlining to cities in the coastal zone.