OB Rag

In U2’s Pride (In the Name of Love) Bono sings:

Early morning, April four
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride

These lines are about the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4th, 1968 – 50 years ago. King was in Memphis where he had gone to provide support and encouragement to 1300 African-American sanitation workers who had walked off their jobs in that city.

By Craig Rose / Op-Ed San Diego Union-Tribune / Jan. 12, 2023

It’s easy to get lost in the explanations for the soaring natural gas prices causing enormous hardships for so many people in our region. Even before this surge, nearly 25 percent of us couldn’t pay our utility bills on time.

Most explanations for high retail natural gas prices focus on the soaring wholesale cost of the commodity caused by “market factors,” but a key factor is often omitted.

By a vote of 3 to 1, the City Council’s Land Use and Housing Committee on Thursday, Jan. 12, approved the controversial proposal to allow high-rise housing and backyard apartments on many more properties in San Diego. The full City Council is expected to vote on the proposal in February.

Committee members Vivian Moreno, newly-elected Kent Lee, and Steven Whitburn voted for the proposal and Councilmember Joe LaCava cast the lone “no” vote.

The proposal would “soften” city rules that allow taller apartment buildings and more backyard units when a property is “near” mass transit

According to researchers at UCSD, 12,167 California elders — people over the of 65 — made trips to emergency rooms in 2019 for cannabis-related issues.

Reporter Eric Page at 7SanDiego cited the study conducted by the University of California San Diego School of Medicine that “just 366 Californians over the age of 65 visited ERs in 2005 for cannabis-related concerns. By 2019, that figure had skyrocketed nearly 3200%, when 12,167 seniors made trips to emergency rooms for that reason.”

The Sidewalk Vendor Ordinance goes into effect in Ocean Beach and other beach and shoreline neighborhoods today, Friday the 13th.

Beginning today, Jan. 13, 2023, vendor permits are required throughout San Diego. There will be about a two-week grace period as permit enforcement will not begin until February 1.

Details on Voting and Being a Candidate for Planning Board

Next week the Ocean Beach Planning Board’s Election Committee will be holding a Zoom meeting to decide the rules of their upcoming board election held from February 22, 2023 through March 1, 2023 at 9:00 pm. (See details below.) The meeting is on Monday, January 16th at 5 pm. You can register for the meeting here.

Anyone interested in running is encouraged to attend this meeting or the next regular meeting of the board on February 1st (Attendance however is not required).

For some of those who’ve recently walked or driven by Wild Things Pizza & Beer at 2163 Abbott Street have noticed that the business has vacated the property. Commenters to the Rag noted in early December that the pizza place had been closed since December 1 (without giving the employees — many of whom were local OBceans — any notice).

SanDiegoVille in a Jan. 10 article has confirmed that Wild Things “has suddenly ended its short run in San Diego’s Ocean Beach neighborhood …”

The online local eatery guide also announced that a specialty dessert shop named SugaLab has already taken over the space with plans to open in February.

La Playa Trail Association Lecture Series is presenting “Further Expeditions of Scripps Oceanography & U.S. Navy – Homeport: Point Loma, Part 2.”

By Judi Curry

For those of you that read my columns on the OB Rag, you are aware that I had to put my wonderful Golden Retriever down a few months ago because he developed cancer and there was no cure for him. “Shadow” lived up to his name to the nth degree.

I got him just a few months after my husband died, and he became my companion; he seemed to be able to know when I was sad, when I was happy; when I needed a hug, etc. There was no way I could find a “replacement” for him but I did not want to be without the doggie companion that Shadow was for me.  So I began looking for another Golden,

By Colleen O’Connor

Once you have witnessed a comet streak across the sky or a double rainbow stretch across a mountaintop, you never forget the sight.

Once, you have seen Rep. Katie Porter deliver a takedown of corporate and political bigwigs during Congressional hearings, using just a small white board and some numbers, you never forget that moment. And now, after just being sworn in for her third term, Porter has just delivered another memorable moment by stealing the march on multiple competitors and announcing her run for Senator Diane Feinstein’s seat.

by Ernie McCray

America today is a bit
whacky
and almost
out of control,
when we should be reaching
down deep in our souls
to make our nation
at least not a country
where one turns on his TV
to CNN or MSBNC
to a scene
where one US Congressman
is being restrained by a fellow Congressman
to prevent him
from going upside the head
of another Congressman