OB Rag

By David Garrick / San Diego Union-Tribune /March 1, 2022

San Diego cracked down Tuesday on thousands of street vendors who have dramatically changed the look and feel of many popular city locations, including Balboa Park, Ocean Beach and areas near the Convention Center.

The City Council voted 8-1 to approve legislation that partially bans street vendors in parks and such pedestrian-heavy areas as Little Italy and the Gaslamp Quarter. It also requires vendors to obtain city permits and institutes fines and possible impoundment for rules violations.

Supporters call it a balance between fostering vendors as a new class of entrepreneurs and preventing them from damaging the character of parks, beach areas and business districts. Merchant groups mostly praised the new law, which takes effect June 1. But some lobbied unsuccessfully for more restrictions, such as banning vendors in more areas and requiring them to have insurance.

Check out this brand new video by Charles Landon.

This is a story about a local man doing his part to uplift and improve the Ocean Beach community. His name is Francis and he is a homeless man cleaning up and maintaining parks all across Ocean Beach
Come inside to view the video

by Ernie McCray

When I see various “banned books” lists
I can only sigh
a “My, my, my”
because

I see,
for one,
Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye”
and I remember
the journey of Pecola, the mysterious protagonist
in this brilliantly crafted spin,
who suffers the deep stabbing pains of “less-than-ness”
due to the color of her skin.
Everyone should know that such as this
can exist

I see
Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”

By Colleen O’Connor

Who knew this was a veritable dust storm?

Two sports fighting for space in a City renowned for its athletics and for its champions.

Yet, here we are. Pickleball enthusiasts (a growing sport among those capable with playing without years of rigid rules and practice) moving to takeover former Muni tennis courts (or, at least) paint the ionic tennis courts with different lines.

Tonight at 6 pm, the OB Planning Board meets and will take up the Pickleball push to take over tennis courts.

All events are online and free unless stated otherwise.

EarthFair is coming Sunday April 24th Our annual EarthFair in Balboa Park is the largest free annual environmental fair in the world. Each year, the EarthFair draws around 50,000 visitors looking for ways to live a more sustainable life and support a clean, healthy, prosperous environment – and have a great day in the park!

*** Every Saturday 10:30 am. Climate Mobilization Coalition Zoom Meeting. March 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th.
*** March 3rd Thursday 3 pm The State of Biodiversity 2022
*** March 4th Friday 4:30 pm – 6 pm Join the movement to push UCSD to address the climate crisis
*** March 4th Friday 7 pm – 8 pm Sierra Talks – Strength From Nature Event by Sierra Club
*** March 5th Saturday 10 am – 11:30 pm Community Mobility Roadmap Southeastern San Diego

It’s becoming all the more apparent to critical observers in San Diego, that here in our town, the homeless don’t count. The numbers of the houseless are surging and local government seems just to sweep their encampments from place to place, never really dipping into the real crisis or affecting the real numbers of our fellow humans who don’t have a shelter over their heads.

Lisa Halverstadt at Voice of San Diego peered into the abyss and wrote:

Street homelessness and the misery tied to it appear to be surging to new highs across San Diego.

By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press

Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the nuclear power industry, in the US and beyond, and highlights the efforts of those working to create a nuclear free world.

On February 26 the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that “Russian forces have taken control of” the Chernobyl nuclear plant site of the 1986 nuclear catastrophe, when the now former Soviet Union owned and operated the facility.

Come inside for more details about your local CPG and how to participate.

Cornel West Inspires at PL Nazarene’s Writer’s Symposium

By Mat Wahlstrom

Last Friday, I had the great fortune to hear Cornel West speak at Point Loma Nazarene University’s 27th Writer’s Symposium by the Sea. He resigned from teaching the public practice of philosophy at Harvard last year in protest over its dismal response to the Black Lives Matter movement because he lives what he teaches.

For Dr. West, the values of dignity, integrity, honesty, and generosity are as scientific constants:

The Planning Board for Ocean Beach meets this Wednesday, March 2, and the meeting will continue to be held virtually via Zoom. (See below for registration.)

Planning Board Elections

The OBPB will also be ending its annual elections during the March 2nd meeting. Information can be found at this Rag article or on the board’s website . Results will be announced Thursday, March 3, 2022 via OBPB email and social media.

The only project up for review is a proposed parcel divide and construction of a new 2,400 square foot house on the second parcel on Santa Cruz.

On Friday, Feb. 25, SDG&E’s parent company, Sempra Energy, reported $2.6 billion in adjusted earnings for 2021.

It’s not a stretch to say that San Diegans – with the highest electrical rates in the country – have been generously helping the energy giant make its profits.

Sempra’s adjusted earnings of $2.6 billion for 2021 include income from all its companies. SDG&E’s earnings for 2021 were reported as $819 million.

The local CBS affiliate asked Alan Gin, a professor of economics at the University of San Diego, to take a look at Sempra’s recent earnings report. His response:

“Well, I think consumers are probably going to be unhappy because they’re paying these increased rates, the highest in the nation actually. And, yet, the company is taking that and then giving it out as dividends to their shareholders, and they’re also using it to repurchase stock, which is benefiting the shareholders as opposed to the customers.”