OB Rag

This article was originally posted on the OB Rag on October 3, 2012

by Jill Richardson

With my big front yard swale project out of the way, I’m getting started on the backyard. The backyard intimidates me. It’s huge, full of bermudagrass, and parts of it are covered in chips of paint from the construction that’s gone on here over the past year or so. I’ve been having conversations in bad Spanglish with Jorge the painter about why we don’t want paint in our soil.

By AnnaMaria Stephens / San Diego Magazine / June 8, 2022

San Diego artist Miki Iwasaki knew he wanted to move his family as close to the coast as possible.

He and his wife, both surfers, had fond memories of growing up in beach towns. Their two young kids already seemed to share their love of the ocean, but beach visits meant a drive from their Sherman Heights home, a place they admit they’d already started to outgrow.

Then an Ocean Beach property right by a favorite surf spot went on the market. “It’s a block from where we got married at Sunset Cliffs,” says Iwasaki.

by Ernie McCray

I’ve lived a life
trying to keep the spirit
of the Harlem Renaissance,
the Golden Age
of Black intellectual
and ethnic revival,
alive,motivated by parents who were infused
with the likes of Richard Wright
and Langston Hughes
and their world views,
growing up in a home
in tune with Black culture,

By Dryw Keltz / San Diego Reader / June 6, 2022

The County of San Diego Department of Parks and Recreation is working to construct a seamless network of trails that will follow the route of the San Diego River from the mountains down to the coast. The project is still in the planning stages and has been in progress for decades now. It seems to have new momentum after the county board of supervisors recently prioritized it. The project is being referred to as the San Diego River Park Trail.

By Thomas Ultican / Tultican

California Assemblywomen Delaine Eastin wrote legislation creating the Financial Crisis Management and Assistance Team (FCMAT) in 1991. Her legislation was in response to the bankruptcy of the Richmond School District and requests for financial help from four other districts.

In 1992, Governor Pete Wilson signed the legislation into law and located FCMAT (pronounced Fick-Mat) under the auspices of the Kern County Superintendent of Schools. Since then, its power has grown and portfolio expanded with little oversight. Today, there is a burgeoning chorus of critics calling for reform or even termination.

by Candice Woo / Eater San Diego / June 8, 2022

San Diego native and fourth generation commercial fisherman Tommy Gomes is, without a doubt, the most famous of all local fishmongers.

A passionate advocate of sustainable seafood, Gomes developed a large following of chefs and community members during the 17 years he spent working for seafood wholesaler Catalina Offshore Products and parlayed his expertise into his own television show, The Fishmonger, on the Outdoor Channel, which is currently gearing up to film its third season.

Public Service Announcement

After weeks of warnings about the worsening California drought, San Diego will adopt new statewide restrictions on water use for residents on Friday, June 10.

California’s State Water Resources Control Board ordered the new rules late last month. The emergency water conservation regulation carries the following changes for residents in the city of San Diego:

A Public Service Announcement

With never-seen video, new audio and a mass of evidence, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol will attempt to show the “harrowing story” of the deadly violence that erupted that day and also a chilling backstory as the defeated president, Donald Trump, tried to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory.

Thursday’s prime-time hearing will open with eyewitness testimony from the first police officer pummeled in the mob riot and from a documentary filmmaker tracking the extremist Proud Boys, who prepared to fight for Trump immediately after the election and led the storming of the Capitol.

Despite U-T reporter David Garrick’s claims that Tuesday’s primary in District 2 became “an old-fashioned Democrat-versus-Republican battle,” — it didn’t — we now have an admittance by the Jen Campbell campaign that a mailer they paid for that attacked Democrat Lori Saldaña while promoting Republican Linda Lukacs worked.

“The mailer promoting Lukacs was pivotal,” said Dan Rottenstreich, Campbell’s campaign consultant and main attack-dog.

“On her own, Lukacs wouldn’t have been able to consolidate Republicans.”

Thanks to the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, a group of 11 leftist counter-protesters were just indicted by a county grand jury for their role during a January 2021 Pacific Beach “Patriot March” organized by Trump supporters. The indictment does not add any charges beyond what they were initially charged with in December in San Diego Superior Court.

But incredibly, the 11 charged individuals are facing more serious sentences than defendants in the January 6 insurrectionist cases.

More trees have been cut down in Point Loma. First the palm trees on upper Newport Avenue – and now eucalyptus trees at Liberty Station. And some Point Loma residents are upset.

Point Loman Alex Loker spoke to 10News last week and said on Wednesday, June 2m two large eucalyptus trees near the entrance of Liberty Station were taken down:

“These trees have been here easily for 100 years. They’re about 150 feet tall, and there’s no replacing that as kind of our gate guards into the entrance of Liberty Station.”