OB Rag

“With this decision, the Supreme Court’s extreme right-wing supermajority has struck a tremendous blow to our fundamental freedoms.”

The right-wing majority of the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade on Friday, ending the constitutional right to abortion and imperiling access to reproductive healthcare nationwide.

“A right-wing Supreme Court has stripped women and people seeking abortions of their long-held rights to control their bodies.” The 6-3 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was issued along ideological lines, with all three liberal justices in opposition.

“With sorrow—for this court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection—we dissent,” wrote Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Stephen Breyer in their dissent.

Here’s the latest newsletter, dated June 21, from the OB Friends of the Library.

By Kathy Blavatt

All photos by Kathy

“We didn’t mean to make it a bare garden!” Similar words I had heard before. A nice new couple who recently moved to Ocean Beach, removed almost every tree and many of the plants from their new front yard and the walkway. Gone were the bright red native berries I used on my Christmas wreath decoration. Gone were the low-water plants and edibles and most of the trees.

So now I am doing what I frequently do, offering the new neighbors starter plants to fill in the plot of naked earth in front of their house.

The previous owners put a couple of decades of work and love into their garden. Some of the plants pulled from the yard were starter plants that I had given them.

Similar stories are happening all around O.B.

By Mat Wahlstrom

June is Pride Month, commemorating the Stonewall riots in June 1969, when lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual and gender nonconforming (LGBTQ+) persons fought back against police violence and state oppression.

Considered the formal beginning of the ‘gay rights’ movement, Pride is first and foremost about visibility — which is why the main event of every Pride celebration is a parade.

But since everything gets co-opted under capitalism, June is also the month when corporations post rainbow versions of their logos, in the hopes that this gesture will get them noticed, and hopefully translate into more sales or favorable brand awareness.

By Paul Krueger

I responded to last week’s Union-Tribune story about the state’s approval of a 60-foot tall apartment building [at 2662 Garnet] in San Diego’s coastal area in a letter-to-the-editor which was published in today’s SDU-T (and posted below).

My response outlines what I assume are shared concerns about the precedent that would be set by this new construction of a 4 to 5 story building.

Should the state succeed in overriding coastal area protections enshrined into municipal law 50 years ago by San Diego voters, local coastal area protections throughout the state could be similarly jeopardized.

By Geoff Page

The regularly monthly meeting of the Peninsula Community Planning Board on June was pretty routine. There was only one project to review, but it was said that the July meeting would be crowded with projects.

Government Reports

The Government Reports portion of the meeting provided the most interest. Council District 2 representative, Linus Smith, had several things to report starting with the vehicle habitation ordinance.

By Colleen O’Connor

President Biden called for a three-month gas tax holiday from federal fees at the pump.

It not only landed with a thud, it couldn’t even pass muster with Speaker Pelosi. A puny 18-cent savings per gallon for a three-months comes to less than a $10-a-month savings (unless you are a diesel trucker).

And whatever happened to the $400 dollar gas cards for California residents that Governor Newsom proposed in his budget?

At least, it had some sense to it.

Restaurant Review

Country Waffles
2323 Midway Drive
San Diego, CA 92110
619-223-2225

By Judi Curry

It is difficult to find a time that is convenient for a restaurant owner and myself to have breakfast but Ibrahim (Al) and I seem to enjoy our time together so much that we try to meet at least once a month to discuss his new book, or his new painting, or his new poetry, etc. Yes, I am talking about the owner of Fairouz restaurant.

Our original plan was to go to Perry’s for breakfast, but when we arrived about 9:30 on Saturday morning there was not a parking place to be found. We decided not to wait and would go to the Country Waffles restaurant, a place we had gone to before, but not with each other.

By Ernie McCray

As an educator,
I can’t imagine
a more hateful idea
than banning the use of the word gay
in schools,
as there can be no better world
if children don’t have a basic understanding
of the world they’re presently in,
what it’s like
and how it became what it is.

By Geoff Page

Homeless in the Midway

The main topic of discussion at the Midway-Pacific Highway Community Planning Group’s regular monthly meeting, June 15, was the homeless problem in the Midway area. The amount of frustration and barely repressed anger was palpable.

One speaker, a businessperson in the area, spoke up passionately and angrily about the mess on Hancock and Kurtz Streets from a homeless encampment along the Caltrans fence. It includes vehicle habitations and other things like tents.

Due to demands from the California Coastal Commission, the City of San Diego was forced to backtrack on its new accessory dwelling unit rules regarding parking requirements — none.

And on Monday the City Council voted unanimously to require new ADUs near the beach to have parking spots if they aren’t close to a trolley stop or a bus line with frequent service. The council was forced to trash its earlier blanket parking exemption for those who build new ADUs (“granny flats”).

The Commission’s logic: