OB Rag

January Public Meeting – January 26, 2022 @ 7pm

Join the Ocean Beach Town Council for their monthly Public Meeting tonight, Wednesday, during which a Candidate Forum will be held. Candidates are running to fill the empty seats on the Board of Directors. Also, there will be updates from elected officials and local organizations.

In light of the current status of the pandemic, the OBTC will be back online for their January meeting.

COME INSIDE FOR LINKS TO ACCESS MEETING, TO REGISTER AND FOR THE AGENDA

As the trial begins for three former Minneapolis Police officers who helped Derek Chauvin restrain George Floyd in May 2020, San Diegans can use the trial as a mirror to hold up and examine our own city’s legacy in police stops of African-Americans. And that legacy ain’t pretty – but we knew that because of all the reports and studies that have been made on racial disparities in San Diego police stops.

There have been many recent studies, and here’s a report on them by local media. A report of the studies, the many studies. The many, many studies.

In fact, how many studies do we need?

Recently, the San Diego Union-Tribune published a report based on a statistical analysis of reported crimes and San Diego Police stops officers made from 2019 through June 2021. It found:

Overall, police conducted more traffic and pedestrian stops per reported crime in areas where non-Whites make up the majority of the population.

by Kathy Blavatt

On a January morning, I happily to awoke to greet the rain that had soaked my thirsty yard. The Twisted Juniper outside my bedroom window literally looked like it was dancing with joy among sparkling jeweled droplets.

2021 was a drought year. Sunset Cliffs Natural Park was primarily full of dried brown plants.

Now as 2022 rolled in so did the storm clouds. The darkened sky dumped several weeks of rain on top of long awaiting seeds. New life pushed up through the rain-drenched soil sprouting green.

Fraud by Former Owner of Surf Rider Pizza, Which Started in Ocean Beach, Makes National News

By Chris Pomorski / Bloomberg Business / January 21, 2022

In late 2012, Kim Peterson, a San Diego real estate developer and lawyer, got a call from a friend and colleague named Gina Champion-Cain. Peterson was in his 60s; in 1982 he left behind a high-profile criminal defense practice in Chicago to build shopping centers, pharmacies, and luxury homes. With his wife, Laurie, he lived in a stylish Mediterranean villa with views of the Pacific and traveled on his own plane.

By Geoff Page

The regular monthly meeting of the Midway-Pacific Highway Planning Group on Wednesday 19 was dominated by the homeless problem in the Midway area that is badly out of hand. There was also a stealthy visit by a couple of cycling advocates who argued in support of the city’s plans to gut planning groups because they believe the groups stand in the way of their cycling agenda.

Homeless

The mess on Sports Arena Blvd., by the Goodwill facility, kicked off a major discussion about the homeless problem in the Midway area. That large encampment is only the worst face of the problem, the problem with the homeless is everywhere in the Midway area.

This piece of Sports Arena Blvd. may not be familiar to everyone. It is on the south side of Rosecrans at the big Rosecrans-Sports Arena Blvd. intersection.

“Shoeshine Willie” – Willie Washington — passed on Saturday, January 22. Known for his iconic shoeshine shack on Newport Avenue in OB, Willie had become one of several unofficial mayors of Ocean Beach. He maintained his shoeshine business for over four decades.

At his own request, there will not be a funeral service, but some community members are still collecting donations that will be given to local veteran charities in his honor.

Willie was a legend and officially closed his business this past November.

Check out Charles Landon’s latest OB Rag video: an interview with Andrea Schlageter, Chair of the Ocean Beach Planning Board.

By Colleen O’Connor

The best medicine for whatever ails us in politics, sports, business or any unsettling news, is to get outside.

Somehow, some way, either drive, walk, or stare outside. Let the air circulate and breathe. Seriously, the maladies confronting the planet, from extreme weather

by Ernie McCray

Dear Fannie Lou.

You don’t know me.
But I know you.
You’ve been a hero of mine
for a mighty-long time.

I couldn’t help but think of you the other day, after a clown in the Senate tried to make it sound like voting was easy in the USA, that Blacks voted as much as “Americans.”

He laid that nonsense down, knowing full well, being from Kentucky, that voting in America for Black folks and other dark folks has been hell ever since the 15th Amendment gave us the right to vote.

Here is the ReWild Coalition’s statement:

The City of San Diego released an updated Notice Of Preparation for its ongoing De Anza Revitalization Planning process this morning. The information can be accessed at the City’s De Anza Cove Amendment website.

This comes 14 months after the ReWild Coalition supported the City’s proposal at the Regional Water Quality Control Board

By Thursday, January 20, city contractors had begun to set up scaffolding near the end of the Ocean Beach Pier. The plan is to spend $8.4 million to repair two damaged piles.

A city spokesperson told media that the scaffolding might take upwards of two weeks to construct, and depending on the weather, repairs should take about eight weeks. He added the entire OB Pier should reopen once those repairs are completed. By the beginning of summer.

We’re all hoping that the city spokesguy is right, that this money will result in sufficient repairs that the end section can reopen. Our concerns and fears are

By Thomas Ultican / Tultican

San Francisco Mayor London Breed is leading a recall effort to replace three of the city’s seven school board members. Her neoliberal supporters would prefer to replace all seven but the four board members elected in the last election cannot be recalled. If they are successful, Mayor Breed will appoint the replacements. Along with board member Jenny Lam who Breed appointed previously, these new appointments would make four of the seven school board members Breed appointments rather than elected representatives.