OB Rag

By Dorian Hargrove and Brian White / CBS8 / August 10, 2023

Michael Garvey rakes the dirt path at the Point Loma Native Garden in Ocean Beach. He cleans the area, removes leaves and weeds, wipes the wooden benches, and supplies treats to the dogs who go for walks in the garden. But soon, Garvey will not work at the small garden any longer.

Garvey is not a city employee who has been transferred to another job, he is a homeless senior who has been unhoused for nearly 40 years and has lived in the park for most of the past two years.

A reader sent us this photo and the announcement that a new street parking patio deck was going in on Newport Ave., this morning, Friday, Aug. 11.

It’s going up in front of the double-businesses of Harry’s Taco Club and Cass St. Cocktails & Burgers.

Is this progress, forward motion, or is it going backwards?

From Times of San Diego

A group of experts brought together by World Heritage USA, and its western chapter, along with the San Diego History Center, will gather to discuss challenges surrounding the sometimes controversial structures – such as the Cabrillo National Monument in Point Loma – at an upcoming free panel.

The program, part of a bi-coastal series entitled “Monuments Summer: A Season of Dialogue,” will be held at 1 p.m. on Aug. 18 at the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park.

By Katie Hyson / KPBS / August 8, 2023

Megain McCall tried hard to forget the day her life changed forever. It was around 2009, she said, when she was 28 years old. She was driving from San Diego with her aunt and mother to see her dying brother in Texas. At a Texas checkpoint, a patrol dog signaled the car. “I remember being super confident because I know I didn’t have anything,” McCall said.

By Thom Hartman / Daily Kos and Economy for All/ August 4, 2023

Although it’s generally only mentioned in passing in the mainstream media, there are two particularly chilling passages in Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump.

Both, to my mind, invoke Kent State, but on a much larger scale.

From Neighbors for a Better San Diego

Should you take your “No on SB10” yard sign down? Not so soon…

As reported in our previous email, following last Thursday’s — the 3rd — rejection of SB 10 by the Planning Commission, the Mayor’s office released

By Geoff Page

On Monday, August 7, The Rag requested a tour of the city’s “hot lot” camping site at the City Operations facility as a follow up on The Rag’s two previous stories about the site. Some of the media had previously requested a site visit but had been rebuffed on privacy grounds. The Rag decided to try anyway.

Three hours after the email requesting the tour, the city responded informing The Rag about a media event scheduled for the next day, Tuesday, August 8. A link was provided that brought up an invitation for the media to tour the site. It was dated the same day as The Rag’s email, Monday, August 7.

By Zayna Syed / Popular Science / Aug 7, 2023

While most people think of the beach as a place to relax, it has always served a more purposeful role: a buffer against storms. It’s a role that will become even more important as climate change continues to disrupt nature’s delicate balance, inciting sea level rise and stronger, more frequent storms on the coasts.

But those living right along the shore may soon find themselves without as much of a cushion, as coastal erosion diminishes or displaces major beaches.

The city of San Diego’s ordinance allows property owners to list entire buildings as vacation rentals

By Alexis Rivas, Mike Dorfman, Meredith Royster and Jay Yoo / 7SanDiego / August 8, 2023

In the thick of a housing and homelessness crisis, hundreds of San Diego apartments are off the market – off limits to San Diegans and set aside for tourists.

Those units are listed on short-term vacation rental sites, and allowed under the city’s Short Term Residential Occupancy ordinance.

by Ernie McCray

There’s an unsound
idea going around
that slavery
benefited those held in bondage
by giving them the opportunity
to learn trades
like blacksmithing
and carpentry
and whatnot.
And in some places
there are intentions to teach this sham
about slavery being a “Job Skills Program”

On Monday, August 7, the Union-Tribune published writer Lyndsay Winkley’s ‘question and answer’ piece about the new high-tech smart street lights and license plate readers that will be installed soon in San Diego.

It was entitled, “Much of San Diego will soon be surveilled by a network of police cameras. Here’s what you should know.” (It’s a subscriber-only piece and we cannot link to it.) We’ll attempt a summary of the “some answers to those queries and others” Winkley writes.

Where will the cameras go?

The official line is that “the cameras are slated to be placed across the city — from Rancho Bernardo to San Ysidro,” in every council district, and “many” will be “located along freeways and main thoroughfares.”