OB Rag

Kudos are certainly due to the San Diego Unified School District and its leadership for naming a new elementary school opening in 2022 in Mission Valley after the Kumeyaay village that was located in the vicinity long before the arrival of the Spanish.

The new school will be named Nipaquay Elementary (Nipaquay is pronounced ni-puh-kwai) and will open within the Civita development. Construction is 75 percent complete for the school that will have 500 students and 23 classrooms.

By Geoff Page

The Newport palms got their day – or rather their 10 minutes – in court Tuesday, November 9, as reported here in The OB Rag. The main reason why the effort failed was that the plaintiffs in the legal complaint, John and Tracy Van De Walker, did not own the trees. It was stated that these trees are on “city owned” property.”

Think about that for a minute. What the law is saying is the city, separate from its citizens, owns property that it can do with as it pleases and the citizens have no say. It sounds as if the judge was saying these trees are on someone else’s property as if the city was a private property owner.

Restaurant Review

Point Loma Fish Shop
1110 Rosecrans Street, #100
San Diego, CA 92106
619-794-2449 (To-Go Line)

By Judi Curry

In order to celebrate Meredith’s new position, we decided to go to lunch at the Pt. Loma Fish Shop and both of us were happy that was our choice, for selections were tasty, hot, and good.

The restaurant is slightly different than most when it comes to ordering.

The iconic palm trees of Point Loma did not have a sympathetic judge in Federal Court yesterday. On the narrow issue of “property rights,” the judge ruled that the residents who have targeted palms in their right-of-way do not have have the property rights to deny the city and FAA the ability to chop down the trees.

According to KUSI and Marc Applbaum, the attorney hired by a Point Loma couple, no paperwork was required or issued by the city or airport in court to show why the palm trees needed to be chopped down for an “emergency.” Apparently, the judge did not require any documentation to prove the “emergency” – so the residents still do not know what the reasons are for the hurried state of affairs.

By Norma Damashek / NumbersRunner / Nov. 9, 2021

Take a long look at the outcome of San Diego’s 2010 Redistricting Commission process. You’ll be impressed by the success of that former Commission in drawing boundary lines for our City Council districts that have enabled San Diegans to elect a range of culturally diverse leaders in our nine council districts. We now have what is popularly designated as a Black District (D4), an Asian District (D6), a Gay District (D3), and two Latino Districts (D8, D9).

My weather app on my phone has been displaying daily totals of new COVID cases and deaths. Yesterday, the number of cases was 9,000 something. Today, it was 18,000 something.

In today’s LA Times, it’s reported that “COVID-19 hospitalizations have risen significantly in the Inland Empire and Central Valley,” and has raised the specter of a wider spike in California as the winter holidays approach.

Throughout California cases and hospitalizations hit a plateau after months of decline. In areas “with lower vaccination rates, such as Riverside, San Bernardino and Fresno counties, conditions are deteriorating, with hospitalizations up by more than 20% in recent weeks.

By Geoff Page

It’s not enough that city forester, Brian Widener, wants to cut down the historic palms on Newport Ave., using the excuse of public safety, and refusing to explain what the safety emergency is. His department removed four palms at the intersection of Cable and Niagara on October 28 and the city’s forester refuses to say why.

Widener was asked why in an October 29 email:

By Judi Curry

Many of you have said in the past that I am too negative; that I must be very unhappy to be able to find so many “wrong” things in the world. I wouldn’t want to disappoint you, so I have decided to add to my negativity to keep you happy.

For those of you that might share my unhappiness – I want to tell you that I am happier than I have been in a long time; people are remarking on how well I look which is nice to hear about this old lady since I just became a grandmother for the 19th time with the 20th due in a few weeks! So without further wait here it is:

I just spent a hilarious (albeit dangerous) ten minutes watching people try to navigate the new round-about in Ocean Beach.

By Mat Wahlstrom

A recent documentary series available online investigated LuLaRoe, a company that targeted women with the promise of gaining financial independence working from home, by selling quirkily patterned leggings and dresses, “creating freedom through fashion.”

In reality it was a pyramid scheme, wherein the real money was made by recruiting others into becoming sellers to recruit others to become sellers. The people at the top of a pyramid scheme get a cut of both that particular scheme’s actual product sales in addition to a cut of the buy-in fees new sellers pay to get in on it.

by Ernie McCray

When I look at this situation with Mark Zuckerberg hosting harmful bits of misinformation on his social media brands, Facebook and Tik Tok and Instagram, I think of the children who’re watching us, “We the People,” pretty much leave this problem up to him.

And, yeah, this non-caring billionaire should do something to alleviate this state of affairs but I don’t like the picture our children are seeing of us not doing much about these circumstances ourselves – since the PCs, through which we receive so much news that deceives, also allow us to get the skinny about things: the facts.

The G.O.A.T of All G.O.A.T.S.

By Colleen O’Connor

By way of explanation, the term G.O.A.T. was first coined by Heavyweight boxing Champion, Muhammed Ali’s wife. She borrowed his, “I am the greatest” taunts and converted them to shorthand, “G.O.A.T.”, aka the “Greatest Of All Time.”

G.O.A.T. has been applied to other “greats;” the Olympic gymnast champion, Simone Biles; basketball greats LeBron James and Michael Jordan; as well as tennis super star, Serena Williams. These greats and others are often referred to as the G.O.A.T. by fans and journalists.