OB Rag

By Fran Zimmerman

Greenlighting Prop C in November will blow open hyper-development and densification of the Sports Arena/ Midway/ Pacific Highway areas to unimaginably negative consequences.

Prop C promoters also count on voter shortsightedness and impatience: people dislike the area’s seedy status and will settle for anything bright and shiny.

By Brenda McFarlane

(Here’s Part 1)

Taking Ownership of our own Burning Man Experience

My husband and I quickly learned that you don’t just visit this place called Burning Man, you take ownership. For our first two years, we camped at Anonymous Village, a large group of more than 200 people that provides a place to support a sober burn. We felt comfortable joining them as my husband stopped drinking within the AA support system and I had been the secretary for my Nicotine Anonymous meeting for several years.
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Streets Designed for Flooding; Houses Built for Storms

By Rachel Ramirez/ CNN/ Oct. 2, 2022

Only 12 miles northeast of Fort Myers, yet seemingly light years away, Babcock Ranch calls itself “America’s first solar-powered town.” Its nearby solar array — made up of 700,000 individual panels — generates more electricity than the 2,000-home neighborhood uses, in a state where most electricity is generated by burning natural gas, a planet-warming fossil fuel.

The streets in this meticulously planned neighborhood were designed to flood so houses don’t.

By Mike Shinzaki

I got into pickleball seven years ago at the suggestion of some close pals. To be honest I didn’t take to it much at first, it seemed like a silly pastime. A month later I realized I was playing everyday. As time went on I started competing, instructing, and advocating for pickleball’s growth here in town. Pickleball quietly became the fulcrum of my entire life. It has been a beautiful surprise. I’ve gotten to know great people along the way, many of you included. Stefan Boyland as well.

In 2020, Stefan and I embarked on a coordinated, full-time undertaking to help pickleball secure its rightful place in the City of San Diego

The following is a letter to the editor at the Beacon — and proves that there are indeed good people in OB, contrary to some who muse they’re only in other places.

Editor:

My son, his wife, and my new granddaughter live in Ocean Beach. I’ve been flying down to Ocean Beach from Sacramento once a month since the first of the year.

On Aug. 27, my friend and I went to OB Surf Lodge for brunch. After eating, we walked across the street to take a stroll on the beach…

By Brenda McFarlane

“Sounds like a cult to me” accused my husband on our fourth or fifth argument about going to Burning Man. This was sometime back when we were living in Ocean Beach, probably in 2007. I didn’t care if it turned out to be a cult, I wanted to check it out for myself.

I’d just attended an official San Diego Regional Burn somewhere near the Anza Borrego Desert. I’d felt awkward and out-of-place yet something about it tugged at a suppressed longing.  Maybe it was just being dressed in loose flowing clothes with the desert wind through my hair but I felt freer and more hopeful than I had in a long time. 

by Ernie McCray

The devastation and human pain
Hurricane Ian
has left in its wake,
is so depressing
and disheartening
especially since we’re to blame
for its overwhelming intensity,
as we’ve essentially
turned our backs
to more life sustaining sources of energy
like the wind and the sun,
insisting on feeding Mother Nature
fossil-fuel-fed
greenhouse gas emissions

The Ocean Beach Planning Board meets Wednesday night at 6pm — and they’re back at the OB Rec Center, 4726 Santa Monica.

The Board will review a “granny flat” application for 4733 Saratoga Ave, hear a city presentation on organic waste recycling and discuss next year’s city budget priorities for OB.

Here’s the official agenda:

By Neighbors for a Better San Diego

After waiting 7 months to see the Planning Department’s revisions for the College Area Community Plan Update, many of you were locked out of last night’s long-awaited meeting on September 28th, 2022. The meeting materials have been posted to the City’s website and we are providing this summary for our members.

Limited Public Participation

First, City staff failed to properly accommodate the number of pre-registered attendees.

Over 70 environmental and conservation groups in the ReWild Coalition called upon the San Diego City Council to fund Mission Bay wetlands restoration in next year’s budget. The groups rallied on Sept. 20 outside City Hall to request that the City Council earmark $250,000.

At the rally, Andrew Meyer, director of conservation at San Diego Audubon Society stated:

“After almost 30 years of inaction on the master plan, the City must show leadership, vision, and decisive action to restore the lungs of the bay, reconnecting us and protecting our communities from the climate crisis. It’s time to ReWild Mission Bay.”

Back in the mid to late 1990s, during the Mayor Susan Golding administration, the grandiose idea of creating a canal between the two bays, San Diego Bay and Mission Bay, was alive. With the then recent closure of the Naval Training Center — now Liberty Station — there was interest in a canal. It seemed more than a dream at the time.

It won support from public workshops on the future of the Midway area. And from Mayor Golding. (For a while at least, the canal plan was dubbed “Golding’s Locks.”) But — now over twenty years later, we can see that the canal plan never drew water. It faded away, like the fog of Point Loma. Yet — now, the dream is back! Maybe.

Rachel Laing, director of communications for the City of San Diego and Mayor Gloria’s top PR person, took a swipe yesterday at Editordude of the OB Rag, Frank Gormlie.

In a discussion of local journalists on her tweeter account, Laing took a shot at Gormlie — for some reason.