OB Rag

The Rag was contacted by former OBcean, Davis Hayden, who had been involved in OB back in the 1970s, and informed that a piece he had written about the history of the OB People’s Food Store (People’s old name) was on Wikipedia. Davis had been instrumental in helping to form the store. We checked it out and here you go, from Wikipedia:

The Ocean Beach People’s Organic Food Market is a food cooperative located at 4765 Voltaire street in the Ocean Beach community of San Diego, California.

It was previously called the Ocean Beach People’s Food Store. People’s started as a retail store at 4859 Voltaire Street, selling natural foods and household products.

by Ernie McCray

A traitor
whines, and spins lies
about his “problems” with the FBI,
claiming they’re harassing him
when he had stolen from the government
boxes upon boxes of
classified information,
secrets about nuclear bombs, and shit,
serious gossip
about other governments,
and I just want to slap this fool
upside the head,
with all that complaining about harassment
when his real problem
should be arrestment,

By Colleen O’Connor

How did this all come together?  Hard to put in words.

First, the religion.  Then the politics.  Then the electorate.

House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has been unceremoniously denied communion in her own hometown, by an Archbishop no less.

San Francisco’s Archbishop, Salvatore Cordileone, declared publicly that he would no longer allow House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to receive Communion because of her support for abortion rights.

This denial of a Sacrament, even among Catholics, is as controversial as the repeal of Roe v. Wade.

Now, however, Pelosi just garnered a powerful champion—a San Diego Bishop—to be elevated this weekend, as San Diego’s first Cardinal.  His name, Bishop Robert McElroy.

By Thomas Ultican / Tulican

The infamous John Deasy resigned his post as Superintendent of Stockton Unified School District (SUSD) on June 15th, 2020. That made his tenure two weeks more than two years which further exacerbated the longtime administrative instability at SUSD.

He apparently steered the district budgets toward deficit spending and left a decimated finance department in his wake while other administrative positions multiplied. Concurrent with his two years in Stockton, money and leaders from organizations bent on privatizing public education were bolstered and became more active.

Ed Maestas, a 63-year-old Ocean Beach resident, was knocked unconscious a week ago while bicycling down Ladera Street near Sunset Cliffs when he smashed into a car that turned right in front of him without warning. The car slowed, but then took off as it roared off on Cordova Street.

Surveillance video shows the moment as a car collided with a bike at a Point Loma intersection, just before the car took off.

“I can’t even believe I’m alive,” said Ed Maestas. Last Thursday morning he was about a half hour into his regular ride — a few miles from wrapping up — and headed down Ladera Street, going west. Ladera has a good sloop towards the Cliffs.

Judi Curry’s views continue to be her own and do not necessarily reflect those of the OB Rag.

By Judi Curry

It is difficult for me to sit back and watch the deterioration of the area known as “District 2.”  We purchased our house in 1966 and loved the neighborhood.  We moved here from Berkeley where my husband and I were attending school and where we were active in the Free Speech Movement and Mario Savio was in one of the first classes I attended.

The hippies were just moving into Ocean Beach, and San Diego was so conservative there was talk of “outlawing left-hand turns because they were subversive.” 

Public Meeting Will Be Held at Water’s Edge Church

Join the Ocean Beach Town Council at their August Public Meeting – tonight, Wednesday, August 24 @ 7pm.

The OBTC will be LIVE at Water’s Edge Church -1984 Sunset Cliff’s Blvd – AND broadcasting/interactive on Facebook/Zoom: LINK

Councilmember Jennifer Campbell will be in attendance to chat with residents.

We’re in our second day of our annual summer fundraiser — and we’re actually over a quarter of the way to making our goal of $2,000.

As we don’t have ads that fund and guide us (those that are up are freebies), we rely on you, dear reader, to keep the OB Rag goin’. Here are some reminders why the Rag needs to survive and thrive:

The annual OB Rag summer fundraiser is in our third day and we can announce we’re over half way to our goal of $2,000!

Actually, as of this writing, we’re raised over $1,150 in donations and pledges.

Because we are independent and not saddled by advertisers, we need to look to our readers and supporters for a sustaining budget.

Here are some reminders why the Rag needs to survive and thrive:

By Geoff Page

There is a piece of land amounting to 0.67 of an acre along Cañon Street in Point Loma that some community members have been trying to turn into a “pocket” park for about seven years. This is a recent accounting of the money devoted to, and spent, on the unbuilt park to date. The information came from a public records request put to the city.

The future park is on the east side of Cañon Street as Cañon descends from upper Point Loma to the Point Loma village below. There is a dirt road the north end of the parcel that drops down to Cañon. This is just south of four or five custom homes along the east side of Cañon. At the south end of the parcel is the dead end of Avenida de Portugal.

By Mat Wahlstrom

We’ve been dealing with many attacks on our rights lately.

From above, the activist Supreme Court has gutted the right to privacy that underpinned the right to reproductive freedom as well as non-normative sexuality, allowed tax dollars to be transferred from secular public to private religious schools, and endorsed performative public prayer in the name of someone who specifically rejected making a show of praying in public (Matthew 6:5).

From Republicans, who almost universally support the January 6 insurrection, it’s the freedom to mass murder so long as it’s with bullets, and continued voter disenfranchisement.

But while these have been dominating headlines, we’ve lost sight of the single most dangerous one yet: the plan touted by state and local Democrats to create a separate legal system through what are perversely called “CARE Courts.”

(Opening Poem for the “Buses Are Coming” Exhibit)

by Ernie McCray

Back in 1961
the buses the Freedom Riders road
began to roll,
questioning America’s soul,
bringing to light the Southern United States’ role
in keeping Black folks
and White folks
segregated in bus terminals,
complete with “Whites Only”
cafeterias and restroom facilities,