OB Rag

By Colleen O’Connor

More than 1,000 campuses were closed Tuesday and Wednesday, affecting about 420,000 students in the nation’s second largest school district, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).

Tuesday at 4:30 a.m., more than 60,000 LAUSD workers and teachers began walking picket lines in the rain.

To which I respond, good for them.  It is long overdue.

Yup. Snow has returned to our local San Diego mountains. Here’s the live cam from Mt. Laguna Lodge at 9:50 a.m. today, March 22, 2023. The Lodge is at 6000 feet elevation.

Snow also reached Lake Cuyamaca.

Editordue: The following is an open letter to Mayor Gloria and other San Diego officials. 

Dear Mayor Gloria, Ms. Vonblum, and Ms. Graham:

This letter is to provide collective comments from a large group of University City (UC) residents substantiating reasons why the City of San Diego needs to further reduce the proposed number of housing units in Land Use Scenarios A and B of the proposed University Community Plan Update.

Adding between 30,000 and 33,000 housing units,

From 7SanDiego

The San Diego Humane Society’s Project Wildlife team Monday assisted in the rescue of an osprey who was wrapped in fishing line, tethering her to her nest high on a light pole in Ocean Beach.

The bird had first been spotted stuck in the nest Sunday afternoon, according to a San Diego Humane Society statement. “The osprey made several desperate attempts to free herself so she could feed her three nestlings,” the statement read.

From the City of San Diego:

Ocean Beach Pier Background

The Ocean Beach (OB) Pier first opened in 1966. Conceived as a sportfishing pier, the facility enables the public to access and interact with the ocean. There is no fee for walking out onto the pier and fishing licenses are not required.

During the first 25 years of service, the structure received normal ongoing maintenance required by exposure to the harsh marine environment, where it is subjected to wind, waves and the salt-laden marine atmosphere. In 1991, the pier underwent major structural rehabilitation. Since the early 2000s, exposure to large waves and ongoing degradation has required structural repairs with increasing frequency. The pier is currently closed to the public after being damaged by storms and high surf in January, which has happened several times in recent years. 

Somebody was listening.

Late last week, we reported that the city was close to utilizing 12 or 13 of the trailers it had stored for 3 years, given to the city by the state for unhoused needy families. On Wednesday, March 15, the San Diego City Council‘s Rules Committee had voted unanimously to move forward a plan to open a safe parking lot in the Clairemont – Rose Canyon neighborhood for people who sleep overnight in campers or other vehicles.

We’ve been covering the “lost trailers” for the homeless for weeks in the hopes there would be some public and or media traction that would pressure the Gloria administration to get on the ball and put the trailers to the use that was intended.

Activists in downtown San Diego and around the country will demand that the world biggest banks stop funding fossil fuel projects on Tuesday, March 21.

The national day of action against banks over climate change comes ahead of investor resolutions at their annual general meetings next month to pressure them to stop funding climate chaos.

The top four fossil fuel financing banks are:

• JP Morgan Chase,
• Citi,
• Bank of America and
• Wells Fargo

These banks are pumping over one quarter of the $4.6 trillion total financing for fossil fuels by the top 60 global banks between 2016 and 2021.

By Terrie Best

The inhumane “lock ‘em up and throw away the key” philosophy is being reevaluated in the state of California and it sometimes has startling results. It’s the “throw away” part that has always been crushing to those who watched the harm of mass incarceration over the tough-on-crime decades. But lawmakers are offering hope and it’s working.

California plans to close a whole schedule of prison yards over the course of 3 years and there will be tears of joy and significant fear.  The effects are staggering to some. A lot of prison guards will be out of jobs. Clearly folks’ spirits are better off without a job warehousing others.

Prison cops who get laid off, if they even do, will land on their feet because the California Correctional and Peace Officers Association, a union that protects them, will do their job and the union is powerful.

Beginning in early April, the Ocean Beach Pier Taskforce and city will hold a series of workshops to find out from the public what they want to see and what having a pier in Ocean Beach means to them. The Taskforce will show the public what options they have to either repair, replace, or rebuild a new pier.

But by all accounts, from community leaders, Campbell’s office and city officials, the only real option is to rebuild a brand, new pier.

The OB Rag rarely toots our horn, but it was two years ago in April 2021 that the Rag determined that the iconic structure had to be replaced, not just patched up.  In his seminal April 13, 2021 post, Rag writer Geoff Page claimed, “Unless there’s a miracle, the Ocean Beach Pier is history.” No miracle is expected.

As early as February 2021 Page raised questions about the viability of the pier and its future.

This was after the city had consistently downplayed and even mislead the public about the crumbling status of the pier.

California is now home to more than 171,000 homeless individuals, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a 6.2% increase since 2020.

Roughly 67%, or more than 115,000 are unsheltered meaning that they’re living outside.

If all the state’s homeless individuals lived in one locale, they’d make up the 32nd largest city in California. This may not seem so much. But consider this.

St. Paddy’s O’Beach Party – Friday & Saturday, March 17-18, 2023 – 1 p.m. – 11 p.m.

Ocean Beach Pier Parking Lot, Newport Avenue

From St. Paddy’s O’Beach Party:

“The organizers behind the legendary OB Oktoberfest, announced their beachside event, ‘St. Paddy’s O’Beach Party’ is returning for its second year March 17-18.