OB Rag

by Ernie McCray

My mind wanders to my first home,
in Tucson,
the home in which
I spent the first twelve years of my life,
a duplex adobe apartment
I’m recollecting
through sounds,
the sounds of my granddaddy and I
harmonizing gospel songs,|
or the sounds of Arthur Godfrey
plunking a Ukulele on the radio
before I headed off to school,

By Geoff Page

For those curious about the twisted metal pieces standing up on the southwest corner of West Point Loma and Sunset Cliffs, amidst various concrete and metal debris, the Rag had a look. This project will probably not offend anyone because it is a rebuild of the same type of business.

The location was largely a smog station for many years. It was always a bit rundown in appearance, although the service was always very good. But, the last time this writer went there to smog a vehicle, their lift was broken. Now, it has all been demolished except for 50% of the existing walls.

Swimmers, surfers and other beachgoers at Dog Beach in OB are advised to stay out of the ocean and nearby San Diego River due to a sewage spill upriver.

A precautionary advisory has been issued for Dog Beach at the San Diego River Outlet in Ocean Beach, due to a sewage spill that happened earlier Tuesday, Aug. 30, upstream.

The advisory is expected to be in place for 72 hours until tests confirm the water is safe to swim in.

From Beach & Bay Water Quality Program:

The OB Rag has a brand new subscription service available to our readers. It’s up at the top of our homepage in a green box on a sidebar.

We invite any reader to create a subscription if you’d like to see the Rag automatically appear in your email.

If you were already one of our hundreds of subscribers, your email should be imported into the new service and you don’t need to re-subscribe.

By Colleen O’Connor

Look familiar?  Another National Weather Service warning for San Diego.

EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH

ISSUED: 3:00 AM AUG. 29, 2022 – NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
…EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM TUESDAY MORNING
THROUGH SUNDAY EVENING…
* WHAT…Dangerously hot conditions with temperatures up to 99 possible.
* WHERE…San Diego County Coastal Areas.
* WHEN…From Tuesday morning through Sunday evening.

It is undeniably hot out!

Why then are these San Diego’s Muni pools closed?

By Terrie Best

With both the county and the city making moves to ease restrictions on where cannabis retail outlets can exist through a cannabis social equity plan, we should look at high density areas.

Many urban neighborhoods have been left out of retail access mostly due to arbitrary “drug prevention” notions. These drug prevention tactics are not rooted in evidence, have the effect of personalizing the drug war to you in your home and to arbitrate how you make your medical choices.

By Kathy Blavatt

On a lovely Thursday evening on August 18, 2022, a group of locals came together for the Ocean Beach Historical Society picnic at Collier Park west, on Greene Street & Soto Street.

The picnickers were there to learn about and enjoy this unique parkland, which once included the former Door of Hope. Visionary D.C. Collier, known as the ‘Father of Ocean Beach,’ gifted us with this parkland and much more.

The group that met last week in search of options and alternatives to the OB Pier July 4 fireworks has posted a video and sign-up on Social OB.

Luminosity

What that event will look like will be up to you.

Come inside and take the survey

Measure “C” — which is on the November 2022 ballot for San Diego County — would eliminate the 30-foot height limit throughout the entire Midway District planning area, a total of 1,324 acres. If passed, the measure would not just apply to the Sports Arena area. There’s been some confusion about this (even here we admit).

The Midway area, officially called the Midway-Pacific Highway Community Plan Area, in its entirety will be immediately impacted if the measure is approved by city voters.

The approximate boundaries of the Community Plan area are Interstate 8 on the north, the San Diego International Airport on the south, Interstate 5 on the east, and Lytton Drive on the west. The Community Plan area includes the land surrounding Midway Drive and Sports Arena Boulevard, including the Pechanga Sports Arena.

Over this past weekend, enough donations came in to meet the OB Rag’s fundraising goal of $2,000. This is worth celebrating!

As of this writing, we’ve received $2,176 in donations and pledges.

Without advertising or a major benefactor, we need to rely on readers and supporters to get us through the year — and they — you — stepped up for our annual summer gig.

In today’s San Diego Union-Tribune, columnist Michael Smolens acknowledged the principled stand taken by the OB Rag on the issue of Trumpist Carl DeMaio aligning with those forces opposed to Measure C, the removal of the height limit in the Midway on November’s ballot.

In “DeMaio becomes wild card in fight to keep sports arena-area height limit,” Smolen discusses how “Opponents of lifting 30-foot restriction in Midway District see potential promise and peril in radio talk-show host’s involvement.”

Smolens wrote:

Carl DeMaio, the radio talk-show host and former San Diego City Council member, suddenly has become a leading opponent to Measure C. He has joined three community advocates in signing the ballot argument against lifting the 50-year-old height limit.