OB Rag

An estimated 500 people took part in the annual OB Pier Paddle Out for clean water on Sunday, October 3 — just days after one of the largest oil spills in recent California history erupted off the coast of Orange County.

Meanwhile, Southern California residents, business owners and environmentalists are raising questions on why it took authorities so long in reacting to contain the over 130,000 gallon spill, that spans nearly 6 nautical miles.

According to reports from people who live and work in the area, they noticed an oil sheen and a heavy petroleum smell Friday evening. Yet, it wasn’t until Saturday morning after 9 am that the Coast Guard first reported it. It wasn’t until Saturday afternoon that a unified command was established to respond. And it took until Saturday night for the company that operates the pipeline believed responsible for the leak to shut down operations.

It wasn’t until Sunday that booms were deployed on the ocean surface to try to contain the oil.

The public learned this week that a “brownout” closed the Point Loma fire station on Catalina Boulevard last weekend. On Wednesday, Fire Chief Colin Stowell said staffing shortages forced the department to close the fire engine and also three specialty firefighting units. The department hasn’t had to resort to “brownouts” in over a decade. Stowell said:

“Brownouts are totally our last resort and I can’t remember the last time this happened, so I would not expect this is going to be a regular occurrence. The many factors and complexities creating these challenges will slowly subside over time.”

Those other factors included the pandemic and Northern Cal wildfires.

There’s been a change in how the City of San Diego responds to encampments of the houseless. No longer will police officers respond to reports or complaints of camps, but instead they will be directed to a group partnered with the city, PATH (People Assisting the Homeless). PATH then will have up to four days to make contact with people in the camp to begin resolving problems.

All this was explained by writer Steven Mihailovich in the latest Point Loma Monthly magazine.

This is the current state of complaints of encampments through San Diego’s Get It Done app. Long-time Community Relations Officer David Surwilo

According to Interim Branch Manager of the OB Library, Kristen Mulvihill, and the monthly newsletter sent out by the Friends of the OB Library, the Ocean Beach branch will not reopen until the New Year — possibly in January 2022.

This frustrating news is buttressed, however, by the announcement that renderings and floorplans for an expanded OB Library will be presented to the community soon. The tentative date is Wednesday, November 3rd

By Geoff Page

The Peninsula Community Planning Board’s regular monthly meeting September 16 had basically two items of interest to the community as a whole, an eye-opening presentation about new state law concerning accessory dwelling units and a pocket park.

State Law and Accessory Dwelling Units – ADUs

One of several organizations that have formed to protest the new state and city laws about accessory dwelling units is Neighbors for a Better San Diego or NBS. Kathy McClelland, an adjunct instructor at Southwestern College and Bob James, a contractor, provided a presentation. Two California senate bills, SB 9 and SB 10,

Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera of San Diego’s 9th Council District has come up with a series of recommended revisions to the Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) or “granny flat” regulations.

In his Memorandum to the City Council, Elo-Rivera outlines his recommendations which he makes after listening “to the feedback of many community members, including ardent supporters and opponents of the current policy, and conducted a thorough analysis of the regulations put into place by the previous administration. Following months of conversations with stakeholders and analysis ….”

We invite anyone to respond to Elo-Rivera’s recommendations, as we note not everyone agrees. But at least he has helped the debate.

March for Reproductive Rights – San Diego
Saturday, October 2, 2021
10:00 AM 12:00 PM
Waterfront Park (map)

San Diego will join marchers across the nation on October 2nd, before the reconvening of the Supreme Court, taking to the streets in every state to demand our right to reproductive healthcare.

By Colleen O’Connor

On Friday, the United Kingdom’s retail industry warned the British government that the country only had “10 days to save Christmas.”

Seriously.

Ten days in which to find nearly 100,000 Lorry drivers to transport the needed pre-ordered holiday goods to market. So desperate is the government to save Christmas that it has fast-tracked emergency authorized visas for lorry drivers. They have even begun hiring women for the task.

Gas stations around London have already run short on fuel and long on lines. Food shortages are another new worry. COVID-19 and Brexit exacerbated an already existing bottleneck.

Cut to the United States where the debate over:

Tracy Dezenzo has some exciting news! The OBcean and member of the OB Planning Board is also a member of San Diego’s Commission for Arts and Culture and has informed the OB Rag that the City Council unanimously passed the Commission’s proposed changes to Transit Occupancy Tax policy 100-03 which dictates how the funding for the Commission is allocated.

Tracy lists some key changes that will be reflected in the FY23 funding application guidelines:

Edited from Surfrider

Surfrider San Diego is celebrating a 29 year tradition to raise awareness about our ongoing battle for clean water and a healthy coastline. This Sunday, October 3, at the OB Pier.

This is their signature awareness event, the Paddle for Clean Water, and is the largest non-competitive surf event in California.

By David Garrick / San Diego Union-Tribune / Sept. 26, 2021

Growing outcry over granny flat construction in some San Diego neighborhoods has prompted city officials to propose rolling back some recent policy changes that have made San Diego’s rules among the least restrictive in California. Critics who say the city’s granny flat rules are too lenient are calling the recently proposed rollback from Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera a good start, but they say it won’t prevent some property owners from destroying neighborhood character by building multiple granny flats in one back yard.

Ardent proponents say that granny flats — which city officials call accessory dwelling units or ADUs — are the cheapest and fastest way to solve San Diego’s housing crisis.