OB Rag

Authorities reached out to the public Tuesday for help in identifying a motorist who fled the scene of a traffic crash that left a bicyclist badly hurt last week in Point Loma.

The 17-year-old victim was riding an electric bicycle and yielding for a left turn from Catalina Boulevard to eastbound Narragansett Avenue when a black Jeep Grand Cherokee hit him. This was shortly before 6:30 p.m. Friday, March 3.

Following the collision, the motorist continued driving and left the area. Paramedics took the bicyclist to a trauma center for treatment of serious injuries.

By Sonali Kolhatkar / Nation of Change / March 7, 2023

“Nobody’s telling the person who is trying to set up the lawn service business that he doesn’t have to pay his loan,” said U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts during oral arguments about President Joe Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan. Roberts continued his logic on behalf of this hypothetical lawn service operator, saying, “he still does, even though his tax dollars are going to support the forgiveness of the loan for… the college graduate, who’s now going to make a lot more than him over the course of his lifetime.”

It’s remarkable how concerned Roberts and other conservatives have been about the exploitation of the average American when it comes to loan forgiveness.

By Colleen O’Connor

The attempt to forgive student loans for over 20 million applicants (thus far) is either a brilliant Machiavellian twist or just another Year of Magical Thinking as Joan Didion would understand in hindsight.

Why?  Won’t it ever happen?  What is so Machiavellian (meaning diabolically clever, devious and deceitful) about the suggestion?

A Florentine philosopher and author of The Prince, Machiavelli argued:

“…that his experience and reading of history showed him that politics have always been played with deception, treachery, and crime. He also notably said that a ruler who is establishing a kingdom or a republic, and is criticized for his deeds, including violence, should be excused when the intention and the result are beneficial to him.”

by Ernie McCray

Oh, I so enjoyed
sharing my experiences
with you
bright young people
as an 84-year-old Black man
who has
sat at the back of the bus
and put up with
a whole lot of other stuff
and, somehow in all the
huffing and puffing
against such,
managed to
keep the love in me
untouched.

The Voice of San Diego has a report about the Midway District public meeting held March 6 by the city and the SDPD on the smart streetlight cameras and license plate readers police want. Here’s the first part of the report by Jesse Marx:

The city of San Diego kicked off a series of public meetings this week about a proposal to revive its streetlight cameras and merge the devices with license plate readers. Though police are promising to do essentially the same things they were in 2020, the technology is different.

By Mike Madriaga / San Diego Reader / March 7, 2023

San Diego lifeguards locked up the partly damaged Ocean Beach Pier due to safety concerns when the January waves destroyed its railing. Now, locals say, people keep cutting the locks and opening the gates leading into the pier.

“This is the fourth time this has happened,” local Jim Grant said. “Not exactly sure what the motive is or end game.” Grant, a renowned beach photographer, walked up to the cement pier’s opened wrought iron gate about 7 am on February 24 and noticed nearly a dozen people walking along the almost 2,000-foot pier.

On Wednesday, the San Diego Police Department said it wants access to 500 of its Smart Streetlights that need to be restored — and they want to add another crime-solving tool to the network: automated license plate readers.

Because the Smart Streetlight cameras had not been well maintained over the years, the city would need to install new cameras. Adding the license plate reader technology would mark the first time the city of San Diego would have the readers in fixed locations.

Latest Proposal Boosts Land for Active Recreation and Restoration of Marshland

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

Plans to transform northeast Mission Bay into a combination of marshland, campsites and recreation areas will take a key step Tuesday, March 7, with the release of a multiyear city analysis of how the changes could affect the environment.

The most recent annual election of the Ocean Beach Planning Board witnessed 8 incumbents re-elected and one new member elected to the community volunteer panel.

Chris Peregoy was the newly elected member and will represent District 4. And Christopher Chalupsky, a member since 2019, changed seats and was elected as an At-Large member.

Otherwise here is:

Your 2023 OB Planning Board as of March 2nd, 2023:

By Neighbors for a Better San Diego / March 5, 2023

As a result of our media turnout effort and supporters who were able to show up on short notice, we had excellent coverage by both CBS 8 and ABC 10. It’s rare that we get to frame the news, instead of the carefully crafted magical thinking that the City presents to the media.

As for inside the room: The gist of Tom Wolfe’s book “Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers” is that city governments use consultants as human shields when they want to promote something that they know will be incredibly unpopular.

SDG&E has made a request to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to allow them to increase rates.

The proposal asks for an $8.45 increase per month for electricity bills and a $9.16 increase in natural gas rates, with the new rates to start in 2024 and through 2027.

“It’s going to generate $3.6 billion over a four-year period, that’s almost a billion dollars that is going to come out of the pockets of San Diego consumers,” said Alan Gin, the University of San Diego Economic Professor at the Knanuss School of Business.

The request comes on the heels of a surge in natural gas prices, where customers reportedly saw skyrocketing bills a few months prior, and the announcement just last week that SDG&E posted profits of $915 million in 2022, an 11.7% increase over 2021, $819 million.

By Mat Wahlstrom / Times of San Diego/ March 4, 2023

Every March, the 42 community planning groups in the City of San Diego hold public elections for new board members. These unpaid volunteers are required to meet residence or business or property ownership qualification to hold office.

For over 50 years, they have served as the official advisers to the city on land use, development and project review in our neighborhoods

Every March, that is, until next year.