OB Rag

By Anne S. Fege / SOHO Newsletter March – April 2023

Considering the history of shade and ornamental trees in San Diego neighborhoods, it’s clear the numbers are going down—just as we need thousands more in every part of the city.

In older “privileged” neighborhoods (Kensington, Pacific Beach, and La Jolla, for example) that were developed in the 1920s and 1930s, there were large lots for trees. Some developers planted street trees, which were likely watered by tree roots reaching soil water in irrigated front lawns.

In older “redlined” and lower-income neighborhoods (south of the 94 freeway, now the Promise Zone) that were developed in those same decades, the lots were small, the streets were unpaved, and there were no sidewalks or street trees. Today, there are few places to plant trees, as paved parking areas cover many front yards and business districts.

Know Your District?

[Slightly edited from Peninsula News]

If you live in Point Loma or Ocean Beach, you probably know which City Council District you’re in. (2)

You might know what County District we’re in. But that’s been tricky.

For a long time the northern part of Point Loma and OB was in District 4, and the southern Peninsula was in District 1.

At its January 2023 meeting, the City of San Diego Historical Resources Board designated six historic buildings — five houses and one commercial building — including one two-story house in Point Loma.

This was highlighted in the March/ April newsletter of Save Our Heritage Organization and here is what they reported about the Point Loma house:

3425 Xenophon Street in the Peninsula Community is a two-story home built in 1937 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style with a Monterey style cantilevered second-floor balcony covered by the primary roof.

By Lance Murphy/ Peninsula Newsletter / March 9, 2023

Dear City Officials,

I am writing to express my concerns about the rapid deployment of Smart Streetlight Surveillance Systems in the City of San Diego. I request that appropriate safeguards and protections be put in place to ensure the privacy and civil liberties of all San Diego residents.

While I understand and support the benefits of these systems to improve public safety, reduce crime and improve the productivity of law enforcement officers, I also strongly believe that the risks associated with the use of this technology must be carefully considered and sufficiently managed.

By Mexico News Daily Staff / March 13, 2023

Mexico is safer than the United States, President López Obrador said Monday [March 13] without citing any hard data to back up his claim.

His assertion came in response to a question from a United States-based reporter at his morning press conference.

“Is traveling to Mexico safe at the moment with everything we’re seeing, with all these [travel] alerts and these very regrettable events?” asked Octavio Valdez of Los Angeles-based television station Univisión 34.

“Mexico is safer than the United States,” López Obrador responded.

By CBS8 Staff / March 9, 2023

It took less than two days for the jury to come to a decision in the civil trial of former news anchor Sandra Maas against KUSI.

The jury was split on the claims but did award Sandra Maas more than $1.5 million for the difference in pay attributed to gender, past and future lost wages, and past and future emotional distress.

by Ernie McCray

How silly are we,
as a society,
to talk about
getting rid of
drag queen performances
to shield the productions
from the view of our children
as though our kids
sneak out at night
going to drag venues
and strip clubs
and the like.

Yikes.
Are homo sapiens’
brains on strike?

Come inside for details

Dueling rallies were staged in University City on Saturday, March 11, over the future of the community.

One group of dozens took over the four street corners at Genesee Avenue and Governor Drive to protest Mayor Todd Gloria and Councilman Kent Lee’s support for a proposal to add thousands of housing units to a small, 7.35-square-mile community.

Around the same time, a different group held a rally at the Nobel Trolley Stop Platform in favor of density and more housing.

By Colleen O’Connor

If your attention has shifted fatigue mode with an inability to comprehend the Silicon Valley Bank financial crisis, the reality of California flooding, global terrorism, climate change, environmental disasters, poverty, homelessness, crime and a litany of other maladies, amid government paralysis — here is a better idea.

Indeed, you may be channeling Dante’s Vestibule of Hell, which bears the inscription: “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”

Rather than despair or abandoning any chance of comprehending a world that is moving faster than the slower evolutionary brain can comprehend, here is a suggestion.
Start Reading any one of these three books. Each very well written. One like a mystery novel. Other two as simple primers into what ails the planet in 2023 and beyond.

Each worth a rainy-day reading binge.

A well-known Point Loma doctor succumbed to injuries days after a fall during a pickleball game. In early March during a game, Dr. Ned Chambers fell against a pole, but suffered what he perceived as only a minor cut.

His wife, Annie told NBC10 News that her husband “came back from a pickleball game with a cut on his head. “He said, ‘I have these new shoes. I tripped, fell backwards, and I launched into this pole,’” said Annie.