OB Rag

By Frances O’Neill Zimmerman

No question Senator Bernie Sanders did a national service by writing this piece for the Guardian. The American press and radio/TV are beating the drums of war with no explanation about past history, so Sanders goes to a British journal to lay out the risks we are taking.

I haven’t seen one word of explanation about NATO’s USA-backed expansion in recent years to the borders of Russia itself.

Instead we hear only that Putin is having a nostalgic fever dream about restoring Russian greatness by reconstituting the old Soviet union.

No mention of any tacit agreement between the USA and Russia in 1990-91 for Russia to accept the reunification of Germany in return for our keeping Ukraine out of NATO.

By Geoff Page
17 Condos and 1 Commercial Space to Be Built – Project Originally Called for 21 Apartments and 5 Commercial

A new project is coming to Voltaire Street and it isn’t going to make affordable housing advocates happy. The old House of Hui Chinese restaurant on the south side of Voltaire, west of San Clemente Street, has been demolished. Some folks may know it as where Coconut Pete’s used to be.

The adjacent lot to the west, where a beautiful old Crafstman style home once stood, is part of the project. This lot has been empty for many years and was once a community garden.

The new project will be 17 condominiums and one commercial space. It is called mixed-use and there must be some benefit to that designation, hence the token one commercial space. Here is the description on the permit application:

One of the reasons SDG&E says its bill are so high, is that the utility company had to take mitigation efforts to prevent their power system from igniting fires in San Diego’s back country.

SDG&E is spending $3.8 Billion on “hardening” their system in East San Diego County. They’ve replaced wood poles with steel and buried lines underground.

Yet, Bill Powers, an engineer with power system experience, interviewed by CBS8, called SDG&E’s $3-billion project – “a boondoggle.” Powers said:

“Poles don’t cause the fires. It’s the wires that hit each other and touch tree limbs and that type of thing.”

With heartburn coming to San Diegans in every bill from SDG&E, and with the confirmation that for some reason San Diegans pay the highest electricity rates in the country, numerous questions have been raised about all of this. For instance.

Which San Diego city council members voted for the SDG&E contract for 10 years, a contract pushed by Mayor Todd Gloria?

If the California Public Utilities Commission approves and sets rates, just who are they?

And just how much do the execs of SDG&E and its owner Sempra make?

The answer to the first is quick and easy; San Diego City Councilmembers who voted for the contract with SDG&E were:

The folks who run Cool San Diego Sights website have posted a number of murals from Ocean Beach. Here’s what one author said:

While I was walking along Bacon Street, I thought I saw what appeared to be colorful graffiti down an alley. So I checked it out.

This delightfully crazy mural depicting a fisherman off Sunset Cliffs, a guy eating a sandwich while riding a shark, and what appears to be a lobster mariachi, was spray painted on the north side of OB Quik Stop Liquor & Deli. You have to proceed down the alley behind the building to view it.

By Bernie Sanders / The Guardian UK / Feb. 8, 2022

I’m concerned when I hear familiar drumbeats in Washington demanding we ‘show strength’, when we’re faced with what could be the worst European war in 75 years

Wars have unintended consequences. They rarely turn out the way the experts tell us they will. Just ask the officials who provided rosy scenarios for the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, only to be proven horribly wrong. Just ask the mothers of the soldiers who were killed or wounded in action during those wars. Just ask the millions of civilians who became “collateral damage”.

That is why we must do everything possible to try and find a diplomatic solution to what could be an enormously destructive war in Ukraine.

By Geoff Page

Four organizations that want to see the community planning group system drastically reformed, gutted actually, held a public forum February 4 titled “What’s Next for CPGs & CPG Reform.” The word “reform” can be very ambiguous, one person’s idea of “reform” is, to another person, an assassination.

Circulate San Diego held the event together with the Downtown San Diego Partnership, the San Diego County Bike Coalition, and the San Diego County Regional Chamber of Commerce. According to the flyer, it was made possible with support from San Diego Gas & Electric.

All of them have one theme in common, they want to build, build, build and they think the planning groups are standing in the way of their future. But, they don’t say it that way.

By Mat Wahlstrom

Last Wednesday, February 2, the Fourth Appellate Court of California certified as precedent its judgment on appeal of the Bankers Hill 150 v. City of San Diego lawsuit. The result, if left unchallenged, effectively strikes down all community plans throughout the state, along with the ability of cities or citizens to challenge whatever developers want to build, if projects include token and time-delimited ‘affordable’ units.

Going beyond consideration of the actual plan-centered merits argued by both plaintiffs and the city regarding just the 20-story 6th & Olive project, the court leapfrogged over both to invoke the state’s Density Bonus Law as trumping these deliberations and — at the urging of the Building Industry Association and the developer, Greystar — to establish its interpretation as precedent.

George Barnes was an Ocean Beach photographer, father, and community figure. He would sit on the beach with his camera, and take photos of people surfing or just relaxing by the shore. He did this for decades and accumulated friends and fans from all across San Diego.

Enjoy this video by Charles Landon.

By Thomas Ultican / Tultican

Alameda County has designated Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) with a “lack of going concern” label. Translation: They are going broke and must follow orders to save their district. However, many Oakland citizens are not ready to genuflect; leaving school board members in a trap. Twenty years of billionaires financing attacks on Oakland’s public school system has created a toxic political environment.

In October 2021, the OUSD board voted to end its policy of permanently closing schools every year.

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By Geoff Page

While the regular monthly meeting of the Ocean Beach Planning Board February 2nd was short and relatively uneventful, some useful information was shared with the community. This function of the planning boards is as useful, if not more so, than the central task of reviewing projects.

Vendor Ordinance, city budget, and stairs

The vendor ordinance is a big one for OB and District 2 council representative, Teddy Martinez, provided an update. A draft of the proposed ordinance has been released for review by anyone who wishes to see it and provide comments. Just go here.