OB Rag

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.

Long Story Irish Pub
4204 Voltaire Street
Ocean Beach – Point Loma, CA 92107
(619) 269-0690

By Wally Robertson

Normally there’s nothing new to say about the Long Story Irish Pub that hasn’t been said already. A staple of the neighborhood since opening in 2020, with favorable reviews in the San Diego Reader and elsewhere, it’s an easy favorite of locals to unwind after work for a pint with friends.

Located at the northwest corner of Catalina and Voltaire, in a large, airy space that still feels cozy, it offers some of the best “pub grub” in town when you realize the time or don’t want to bother with trying to cook when you get home.

But for many who work in the area during the day and only know of it as a view on their commute or as they make their midday way to Pop Pie Shop at its catty-corner — or 7-11, Cesarina or Don Tommy’s, as one’s time and budget allows —

Johnny Manana’s
4888 Newport Ave
Ocean Beach, CA 92107
619-222-4205

By Judi Currry

I have wanted to try this restaurant ever since it opened. Ortega’s was one of my favorites of Ocean Beach, and I was very curious to try the restaurant that was taking over for them.  Tonight Steve and I gave it a try.

Let me start by saying that the food was, for the most part, very good. However, there were certain “happenings” that make me unsure if I will go there again.  But first for the review.

When we walked in there were two groups sitting at two separate tables and one lady waiting for her order.  She stopped me and told me I would be absolutely “delighted” with the food and to tell all my friends about it.

by Ernie McCray

I look at a picture of me at a mic
and my son, Guy,
playing the guitar at my right
and I think,
“Man, I’ve had a great life”
because that moment, in the photo,
captured me having the time of my life,
giving a graduation speech,
via a song,
to people I dearly loved
as sure as I was born,
students at Muir,
a K-12 alternative school,

By Bonnie Kutch

Imagine being awaken by the smell of smoke in the dead of night.  You look out your window and see flames coming toward your home.  You get up, quickly dress, herd your family members and pets to the car, and grab what few possessions you can on your way out.

You reach the only exit road, where you’re met with gridlock.  Cars aren’t moving, because hundreds of high-density housing units have been added to your neighborhood, without roads being added or even widened.  And because all these new rental units have been allowed to be built without on-premise resident parking, the streets are lined with parked cars,

By Geoff Page

The city held a ground-breaking ceremony on Friday, August 18, to kick off construction of the Cañon Street Pocket Park, on Cañon at the northern terminus of Avenida De Portugal. Actual construction was planned to start on Monday, August 21.

The OB Rag has published numerous stories about the effort to get this park built. It is a sorry saga indeed, right down to the current bloated budget of $3,350,315. All that money to build a park that is two-thirds of an acre and will have no bathrooms and no parking other than on the surrounding residential streets.

It all started with robbing the poorer section of Point Loma to benefit the better off Point Loma folks. Here is a refresher on the history that The Rag has reported on since 2014.

by Kasia Gregorczyk / Fox5 San Diego / Aug 21, 2023

Nearly five years after a controversial plan to build a new church in the Del Cerro community of San Diego was proposed, a local community planning group unanimously voted against recommending the project’s approval.

Discussion of a new All Peoples Church location kicked off Monday’s meeting of the local Navajo Community Planning Group, including a presentation of details relating to infrastructure improvements like a new sidewalk, traffic signal and a bike path. However, residents during the meeting criticized