OB Rag

City Council to Vote on December 17 on Changes to State Surplus Land Act to Exempt Mission Bay Park

Mission Bay Park Overlooking Fiesta Island, October 29, Sunrise

By Donna Frye

On July 9, the OB Rag published an article by Geoff Page that alerted us to a city staff report requesting that the city council declare three city-leased properties in Mission Bay Park as “Surplus Land”.

The reason cited by the city for declaring the properties “surplus” was the State Surplus Land Act (SLA). The city wanted to issue three new leases for a period longer than 15 years which, according to the city’s understanding of the SLA, would first require the properties be offered to housing developers. The developers could force the city into negotiations to build housing in Mission Bay Park on dedicated public parkland because of the SLA.

The city claimed they had no intention of building housing in Mission Bay Park yet failed to disclose to the public that they had already received an “unsolicited proposal” on July 17  from the current tenant, Southern California Pipe Trades Retirement Fund through their entity SCPT Marina Village, LLC, and was joined by Suntex Marina Investors LLC and Monarch Investment Fund Management Co.,LLC (Suntex-Monarch) to do just that.

by Ernie McCray

As I look at a picture taken a few years ago
of me with my children
I find myself thinking
of how
all I ever wanted for them
and their children
and their children’s children
on and on
in future times,
was for them,
and all of the nation’s citizenry,
to live in a country
where their life’s dreams
could be fulfilled
in an atmosphere
where love and human respect

Sean McKaveney Wins Men’s Division

by: Julian Del Gaudio / Fox5 San Diego / Dec. 10, 2025 

24 hours. Below freezing temperatures. The adventure of a lifetime.

Sean McKaveney’s vacations are unlike any other. He’s a lawyer by day with a lust for life’s ultimate adventures.

One of his recent adventures was the Antarctic Ice Ultra 50k, a total of 31 miles and the ultimate test.

“The wind was howling, it was minus 2 degrees Fahrenheit,” said McKaveney, “We started just about 15 runners. You’re looking through the start gate and all you see is white in every direction, the wind is just pounding your face.”

By Staff and wire reports / Times of San Diego / December 10, 2025

Members of the San Diego City Council voted unanimously Tuesday, December 9 to pay $30 million to the family of a 16-year-old boy who was shot and killed by a police officer.

Wilson’s parents sued the city and San Diego Police Department Officer Daniel Gold following Konoa Wilson’s death the night of Jan. 28.

The boy was fleeing from the downtown Santa Fe Depot after another person fired gunshots at him on a transit platform when he encountered Gold, who was running toward the station. They crossed paths and the officer shot the boy twice in the back “instantly, without any warning,” according to the family’s lawsuit.

Doctors pronounced Konoa dead at a hospital less than an hour later.

His family’s attorneys believe the settlement may be the largest amount paid in a case stemming from a police killing in U.S. history. It surpasses the $27 million paid by Minneapolis to the family of George Floyd.

By Chase Wilson / Op-Ed San Diego U-T / December 11, 2025 

If you want to understand San Diego’s housing crisis, forget the jargon for a moment. Forget the zoning charts, the staff reports, the alphabet soup of agencies. Start with something simple anyone can picture: a house. Now imagine it being knocked down. Imagine a demolition. Now imagine that happening 10,600 times.

That’s the number of San Diego homes now functioning as short-term rentals — Airbnbs, VRBOs, vacation bungalows dressed up as houses. Charming little demolitions, each one. They stand upright, freshly painted, Instagram-ready, but in housing terms they might as well be a pile of rubble. Some are empty second homes, rented only occasionally. Many are investments, rented constantly. But however often they’re booked, the effect is the same. Once a home becomes a short-term rental, it undergoes a quiet demolition — not with a wrecking ball, but with a booking link.

Once demolished, a family cannot live in it, a nurse cannot rent it, a young couple cannot begin their lives in it. That unit vanishes from the fragile ecosystem of available housing stock, and the disappearance doesn’t happen in isolation. A would-be renter stays where they are. Their home doesn’t open up for someone else. The chain reaction continues — down the market, across neighborhoods, through generations.

by: Rhea Caoile / Fox5 San Diego / Dec 8, 2025 

The parent company of SeaWorld San Diego and Sesame Place in Chula Vista has been faced with a class action complaint, accusing the theme parks of misleading customers about ticket prices.

Johnny Ngo, an Orange County resident, filed the complaint in the Superior Court of the State of California for San Diego County against United Parks & Resorts, Inc., also known as SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, Inc.

The complaint alleges that consumers have to navigate through multiple screens when buying tickets online for all of the company’s theme parks but do not learn the “true” cost of those tickets until they reach the final checkout screen.

The multiple screens include requiring a customer to select the number of tickets at a certain price for a specific date and then being presented with additional experience they may choose to add to their cart.

San Diego chapter of Direct Action Everywhere wants to end cruelty in the name of entertainment in San Diego

A local group is calling on concerned San Diego residents to gather to call for an end to what they term “the barbaric Padres Rodeo at Petco Park” because of the deaths of a pregnant horse and her baby in January of 2025. This will be on Saturday, Dec. 13 at Waterfront Park. The event is organized by the San Diego chapter of Direct Action Everywhere.

They hope to be heard by the San Diego Padres, the city of San Diego, and the C5 Rodeo Company Inc., all of which organizers claim profit from the animal cruelty at the Padres Rodeo. This peaceful event will include speeches, live music, interactive art from local artists, and a collective call to action.

By Kate Callen

The first time I saw Richard Nixon, I was five years old, and I thought he was creepy.

We were watching the first 1960 Presidential debate. Nixon looked cold-blooded. My parents didn’t trust him. Over the next 13 years, the more I saw of him, the more he creeped me out.

Then, on August 9, 1973, when he tearfully bid farewell to his staff before flying into the void, my heart ached for him. Yes, he was atrocious. But I didn’t want to see him publicly disgraced.

Nixon’s fall came back to me when I heard reports that Mayor Todd Gloria was loudly booed at public holiday festivities last weekend.

These included tree lightings in La Jolla and at December Nights in Balboa Park (where Gloria has instituted paid parking). When Council President Joe La Cava introduced Gloria at the La Jolla ceremony by praising his work ethic, the crowd erupted in jeers.

This would not be unusual in East Coast cities like New York and my hometown of Philadelphia, where Eagles fans once booed a man dressed as Santa Claus. In San Diego, this is unheard of.

By Teri Figueroa / San Diego Union-Tribune / December 9, 2025 

A split San Diego City Council voted Tuesday to approve policies regarding several police technology tools, including its controversial network of automated license plate readers.

The vote came as the council reviewed 54 surveillance technologies that police use, which also include cameras officers wear on their uniforms, SWAT robots and other tactical equipment, and cameras on streetlight poles.

By City News Service – 7SanDiego / Dec. 10, 2025

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution Tuesday opposing oil drilling off the coast of Southern California, following the Trump administration’s plans to expand the practice.

Put forward in a board letter by Supervisors Paloma Aguirre and Terra Lawson-Remer, the resolution states that the board “opposes any new or expanded offshore oil and gas drilling, and deep seabed mining, and urges federal and state decision-makers to permanently prohibit offshore drilling and deep seabed mining in all U.S. waters, including the Pacific Ocean off California.”

The proposal also calls for Chief Administrative Officer Ebony Shelton “to express the county’s support for (United States) House of Representatives Bill 2862, the Southern California Coast and Ocean Protection Act,” according to a board letter.

Shelton would coordinate with Gov. Gavin Newsom, state Attorney General Rob Bonta and Southern California counties on a “unified, regional response needed to keep new oil drilling out of our coastal waters and protect our San Diego communities and local economy.”

The board voted 4-1 in favor of the resolution, with Supervisor Joel Anderson opposing.

Clairemont and College Area Community Plan Updates to Be Considered by City Council Dec. 16

By Donna Frye

Significant, unmitigated, unavoidable but acceptable may soon become the city’s new mantra for describing and addressing environmental impacts when it comes to updating community plans.

And Hillcrest and University may soon be the last two communities to have had an environmental impact report prepared for their community plan updates.

That’s because the city has decided that the July 2024 Programmatic Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) for the Blueprint SD, Hillcrest Focused Plan Amendment and University Community Plan Update (2024 PEIR) is the appropriate environmental document for analyzing the Clairemont and College Area Community plan updates and most likely any future community plan updates.

Instead of each community having an environmental analysis of its own, the city has issued an addendum to the 2024 PEIR for Clairemont and the College Area community plan updates.

Some of the impacts identified as being “significant and unavoidable” in the 2024 PEIR include air quality, biological resources, cultural resources, public services such as fire protection, police protection, schools and libraries, deterioration of parks and recreational facilities, and construction or expansion of recreational facilities.

By Teri Figueroa / San Diego Union-Tribune / December 8, 2025

Two years after a split San Diego City Council agreed to install 500 automated license plate recognition cameras throughout town, the technology is up for review — and it’s still controversial.

On Tuesday, the council is slated to look at the plate readers as part of a review of 54 surveillance technologies that police use, which also includes cameras officers wear on their uniforms and SWAT robots and tactical equipment.

San Diego police hail the readers as a force multiplier that helps solve crimes. In 2024, San Diego had 36 homicides in San Diego. Information gleaned from the license plate readers aided in nearly a third of the investigations and helped lead to six apprehensions, police said. Without the technology, a spokesperson said, four of those cases would not have been solved.

Police also note that since the system was launched, they have recovered $6 million in stolen property, including more than 400 vehicles.

Critics argue that the automated license plate readers create a mass surveillance network and intrude on civil rights. And as communities reel from the Trump administration’s immigration crackdowns, many fear the federal government could muscle access to local surveillance systems despite laws barring such. An Associated Press investigation published last month said the U.S. Border Patrol is using a license plate reader program that flags vehicles deemed suspicious based on travel routes and locations.