OB Rag

The Point Loma – Ocean Beach Democrats did not endorse any candidate for their San Diego City Council District 2 endorsement last Sunday and ended up choosing both Lori Saldaña and Joel Day as “Acceptable.”

From their newsletter:

By Sheila Pell /’ San Diego Reader / Feb. 22, 2022

Street life is coming back, and with it, scooter critics.

Motorized scooters are often touted as a first or last mile link in the transit chain, and the city counts them among its mobility choices – but some say they’re making it harder for others to get around.

Last month, 561 complaints about scooters were lodged with the city’s Get It Done app for sidewalk blocking and other misuse. The previous January, mid-pandemic, there were only 263 reports.

by Ernie McCray

Dorothy Smith,
a friend
and hero of mine
passed away the other day,
leaving me wishing,
in my sadness,
that she could have seen
“Still, We Rise,”
a poetry and jazz show
featuring Yolanda Franklin
a brilliant local thespian,
and I
reading our poems
and those of
Amanda Gorman
who mesmerized a nation

By Norma Damashek / NumbersRunner / Feb. 22, 2022

Did you know that San Diego has a dance fetish? Our obsessive routine goes something like this: We take one step forward, then two steps back… one step forward, two steps back… one forward, two back….

Year in and year out, the city makes a bit of progress toward the common good and then pulls back– undermining and diminishing the quality of life in our communities. To jog your memory, here are some random past examples of how we step on our own toes:

Once (circa 1980s), the city had a deal with SDG&E: we permitted them to exact surcharges on customer bills. In exchange, they were to bury the overhead power lines that crisscross our city.

By Geoff Page

The Midway-Pacific Highway Community Planning Group’s discussion about its own yearly elections was the most serious topic by far during the February monthly meeting. A group that should consist of 12 people will have 9 or 10 seats up for election. The problem is – and it is chronic – trying to find enough people to volunteer just to fill all 12 seats.

Elections

After attending these meetings for several years, this writer can attest to the challenge the group has always faced sitting 12 people. The board previously was to be made up of 15 people, they reduced it to 12 because of the difficulty getting volunteers. There always seem to be a few empty seats.

This year, COVID complicated things because they did not have an election last year and sort of agreed to just postpone until 2022. It created problems for all planning boards.

By Craig Jones

Both things are true: The US military empire invaded and occupied Iraq in 2003, attempting to justify it with lies; and now the Russian military empire is invading and will occupy Ukraine, attempting to justify it with lies. In fact, both these atrocities are purely the outcomes of military-industrial-state complexes.

Military empires can be depended upon to perpetrate atrocities.

There is historic context to what is going on.

It has been clearly documented that the “West” with the US in the lead made promises via Glasnost that NATO would NOT expand further towards Russia; but those promises were demolished precisely by NATO expansion, with military forces, year after year moving ever on, right up to Russian borders.

By Colleen O’Connor

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine dominates the headlines; with good cause. Diplomacy is failing. Inflation is raging. Europe is reliving the nightmare possibilities of more Russian tanks, troops and trenches on its borders.

The current carefully scripted takeover of the two Ukrainian “state-lets” is a repeat of Putin’s takeover of the former Soviet state of Georgia, and more recently, the seizure of Crimea.

“August 7th, 2008, Russia launched a full-scale land, air and sea attack against its tiny neighbor, across an internationally recognized border.

The conflict pitted 70,000 Russian troops against Georgia’s army of about 10,000 soldiers and another 10,000 reservists. Needless to say, the “war” did not last long—it was over by August 12.”

That invasion lasted 5 days.

By Joni Halpern

Today there is a raging controversy, especially on the part of White Americans, about “critical race theory.” There seems to be a belief commonly held among White Americans that critical race theory is being taught in K-12 schools, or that teachers who might have learned about it in the course of their academic education are going to use it to make White children feel guilty about their race and culture.

People who believe this do not know what critical race theory is. They are wrapped in rage without understanding the theory. In the process, they are making school boards and teachers afraid to engage in any legitimate teaching about the racial history of this country. The unfortunate truth is, most people who oppose critical race theory don’t even know what it is or how it came about.

By Geoff Page

The regular monthly meeting of the Peninsula Community Planning Board, Thursday, February 17, was a basically routine affair. What was probably of most interest to Point Loma residents was a letter that contained traffic recommendations for the length of Sunset Cliffs Blvd. from Adair Street at the north end to Ladera Street at the southern end.

Sunset Cliffs parking regulations

Residents along this stretch of Sunset Cliffs have been complaining for at least two years or more about noise, trash, and basic lawlessness by visitors. The sunsets at the cliffs apparently made it to social media some time ago and crowds flock to the cliffs from outside the area. The traffic jams leaving after sunset are well known by everyone.

Brenna Olsen of Whomp Burger & Brew in Her Own Words

Table Talk by Sal Mineo (@snackdiego)

Welcome back to Table Talk,fellow OBceans – where we get friendly with those in our community keeping the peace by slaking our appetites. This is a hangry-free zone.

Cruising around on my bike a couple of weeks ago, I saw a neon banner hanging off of the old Sundara spot (R.I.P), that says “Whomp Burger & Brew” – I’m sure you must have seen it by now. I know, I know; some of you are thinking ‘another burger?’ and some of you are thinking ‘another burger!’ I say, the more the merrier and judging by the lines outside some of our existing establishments, there’s no shortage of burger enthusiasts in our little hamlet (see what I did there).

Let’s get into some table talk with Brenna Olsen of the soon-to-be-open-in-early-March Whomp Burger & Brew, who with her business partner Brian Freye hopes to bring us another joint to kick back at after the beach.

Are Cannabis Retailers Weaponizing Drug Prevention to Prevent Equity?

By Terrie Best – San Diego Chapter Americans for Safe Access

The San Diego chapter of Americans for Safe Access (SDASA), the nation’s largest cannabis patient advocacy group, has been working to advance access to medical cannabis since 2002. We are not surprised at the length drug and alcohol prevention contractors will go to keep medical cannabis over-regulated. One of their strategies is to push policy making it nearly impossible to enter the industry.

In San Diego County, preventionist contractors were instrumental in pushing onerous land use restrictions on commercial cannabis. This placed retailers in the far flung rural areas as if they were radioactive. Placing medicine out-of-reach created large cannabis access deserts and an undue burden on patients throughout the county.

But the coordination between cannabis retailers and the drug prevention community to keep it that way is new.

By Judi Curry

As another birthday year comes to an end, I look into the crystal ball and wonder what the next year will bring.

I don’t remember ever seeing the ball as dark as it is tonight – very few shining lights peek through the fog. Will we be at war in the next few weeks? Will the former President of the United States be held accountable for his actions – and his lack of actions?

Will he have to answer questions about his part of the January 6th resurrection? Will he have to answer why he took to Florida 15 boxes of classified information? Will he have to answer to the New York Attorney General his business dealings? Will he run for office again in 2024? And if he does will the American people reelect him?

What does the future hold for my children and grandchildren?