OB Rag

In the early morning hours of Wednesday, the front exterior of the City Heights home of San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher and former Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez home was engulfed in flames. Fletcher and Gonzalez were awoken by their smoke alarms after 4 am, and were able to safely evacuate with their family. No one was injured.

San Diego police officials said investigators believe the fire was suspicious due in part to the early hours of the blaze and that it began on the outside of the home.

By Tyler Faurot / Pt Loma-OB Monthly /Jan. 13, 2022

For 41 consecutive years, the shores of Ocean Beach have been the backdrop to a gargantuan pine tree, decorated and lighted to commemorate the holiday season. Historically, once the holidays came to an end, many of the trees were carried away to landfills for an unceremonious demise. In recent years, however, the holiday trees have been given new life as sought-after crafting material for local woodworkers.

The tree for the 2021 holiday season was a star pine donated from the yard of Ocean Beach resident Catrina Russel.

The Sierra Club’s Conservation Committee has unanimously endorsed sensible, environmentally-friendly revisions to the city’s Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) code and urges the city council to maintain shade trees and other greenery on properties slated for multi-unit ADU construction.

Committee chair Peter Anderson stated:

“The Sierra Club supports housing, especially affordable housing. But we must preserve the trees that provide shade, absorb greenhouse gas and cool our city.”

The local chapter’s endorsement adds to a long list of support for changes to the ADU code championed by Neighbors For A Better San Diego (NFABSD). The City Council’s Land Use and Housing Committee debated the issue Thursday (no news from that debate is available).

(Originally posted here on Jan 15, 2018)

The day before Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968, he gave his final speech, known as ‘I’ve Been to the Mountaintop’ speech. Here’s the full text.

By The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., MEMPHIS, Tenn./ April 3, 1968

Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. It’s always good to have your closest friend and associate to say something good about you. And Ralph Abernathy is the best friend that I have in the world. I’m delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning. You reveal that you are determined to go on anyhow.

by Sal Mineo (@snackdiego)

Hello again, OB. As faithful readers of Table Talk, I’m sure you all remember what we are about here – getting personal with those in our community keeping us well-fed and quenched. Our local food celebrities but before they get huge and have a publicist. Sometimes it’s the restaurant owner; but sometimes it’s the guy, behind the guy, behind the guy.

This is my neighbor, Max. I first met him one average OB day as I rode up the alley to the back entrance of our place, and came upon Max and his friend Talia taking some glamour shots using our fence as a backdrop (it has a cool viney thing growing on it – influencers, come check it out).

The subjects of the photographs were these utterly stunning mushrooms, which even in OB you just don’t see every day. Naturally, I said something brilliant like “what’s that?”, we got to chitter chatter and that’s when I learned I have a neighbor that cultivates these absolute specimens in his grow room right across the alley.

By Geoff Page

This post is a pitch for a really great organization called Project Wildlife. For those who don’t know about them, here is what they do, based on an actual experience I had Tuesday morning.

My wife and I were walking our dogs at Dog Beach. She noticed a bird at the waterline she called a coot. It’s a black bird, sort of medium size. This one was by itself, we didn’t see any others nearby. My wife remarked that she had seen these birds along the river but had never seen one in the surf at Dog Beach. I had to agree.

Just as we were looking at the bird, a dog went after it in the surf.

A Public Service Announcement

By A.J. Herrington / Forbes / Jan.11, 2022

Compounds in cannabis can prevent infection from the virus that causes Covid-19 by blocking its entry into cells, according to a study published this week by researchers affiliated with Oregon State University. A report on the research, “Cannabinoids Block Cellular Entry of SARS-CoV-2 and the Emerging Variants,” was published online on Monday by the Journal of Natural Products.

The Ocean Beach Town Council is holding its elections for the Board of Directors, beginning the latter part of January and is now accepting Candidate Statements. The statements must be submitted by Monday, January 24. Voting by members takes place over the course of the week, from Thursday, January 27th to Friday, February 4th, 2022 .

From the OBTC website on the 2022 election:

There are 15 seats on the Ocean Beach Town Council Board of Directors and OBTC members elect Board Directors for two-year terms. Half of the Board stands for election every year. This year, 7 seats are up for election. If you would like to be considered for candidacy, please submit your Candidate Statement by [going here] by Monday January 24th.

On the eve of his State-of-the-City Address, Mayor Todd Gloria unveiled a stunning turnabout on a major environmental issue – the future of northeast Mission Bay. And it’s sure to win him accolades within San Diego’s environmental community.

On Tuesday, Gloria released his proposal to transform much of northeast Mission Bay into marshland – which has been demanded by environmentalists for years. It is a needed change in Mission Bay which will help fight sea level rise and restore animal habitats destroyed when beginning in the fifties, the huge shallow marshland and lagoon that we now know as Mission Bay, was aggressively dredged to make way for the largest aquatic park on the West Coast (some say it’s the largest in the world!).

For years, environmentalist – led by the Audubon’s ReWild Mission Bay project – have been pushing for more acreage as marshland; t