OB Rag

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:

A recent opinion piece by a state agency bureaucrat on the coastal 30-foot height limit has developers and San Diego’s establishment licking their chops.

Shannon West, head of housing accountability for California’s Department of Housing and Community Development, wrote “a technical assistance letter” which declared the 30-foot height limit conflicted with state law and thus was “void.” The letter was for San Diego’s development services department

Heidi Von-blum, director of San Diego’s planning department, immediately leaped for joy and repeated the claim that state law supersedes “local voter initiative.”

Why this all came about now is because a local developer, the San Diego Community Housing Corporation, wants to build a 60-unit, 60-foot-high residential building, called Rose Creek Apartments, on a 0.4-acre site at 2662 Garnet Avenue in Pacific Beach.

Check out Charles Landon’s brief video, shot Monday morning, of the city power-washing the OB / San Diego Pier.

Obviously, the city is preparing the pier for some kind of re-opening. Is it just coincidence that the city will reopen the iconic structure just in time for the famous Ocean Beach Street Fair happening this weekend?

Will there be a ceremony for the reopening? Will there be another ribbon-cutting? Will officials be too afraid to even go on the pier?

The head of the controversial group, Circulate San Diego, is Colin Parent. Parent also sits on the La Mesa City Council.

He and his group have often been subjected to criticism in the pages of the Rag over the last months, mainly because, as we see it, they masquerade as bicycling environment-friendly, housing advocates who are actually enabling developers and their friends in city government.

One quick piece of evidence: Circulate San Diego came out in support of the very worse, most dense, most high-rise model that the Navy recently offered to the public for their redevelopment of Old Town – and then withdrew after the withering community response. … Back to Parent. And La Mesa.