OB Rag

The big news is that despite Gov. Newsom’s appeal for Californians to cut water use, water use in San Diego County actually went up.

According to new data, water use rose 1.3 percent in San Diego. … On average, Californians reduced water use by just 1.8 percent statewide during July as compared to the same month last year.

Yet is it any surprise that San Diegans haven’t adhered to Newsom’s appeal? We were told by our local water authority back in June ‘Not to worry, we have enough water through 2045.’

By Geoff Page

On Thursday, September 16, Macy’s, Inc. generously donated lots of plants and volunteers to plant them at one of the hidden jewels of the Peninsula: the Point Loma Native Plant Garden. This significant effort by Macy’s deserves kudos from the community.

For those unfamiliar with the Native Plant Garden, it has a gate at Mendocino Blvd. and Greene Street. There is another gate behind the apartment building on the west side of the property. It is just east of the eucalyptus grove on the north side of the apartment building. The Reserve is bordered on the east by Nimitz Blvd.

Opinion by Uma Thurman / Washington Post / September 21, 2021

I have followed the course of Texas’s radical antiabortion law with great sadness, and something akin to horror. Now, in the hope of drawing the flames of controversy away from the vulnerable women on whom this law will have an immediate effect, I am sharing my own experience. You might not be interested in the opinions of an actress, but given this new outrage, I feel it is my responsibility to stand up in their shoes.

I started my acting career at 15, working in an environment where I was often the only kid in the room.

Our friends at the Point Loma Association, urged on by complaints from local residents about two left-turn lanes from northbound Rosecrans into a single lane on westbound Nimitz, looked into the matter and wrote to the City of San Diego Traffic Department.

Here’s the gist of their letter:

Two years ago, over many months, the City modified the intersection of Nimitz and Rosecrans to accommodate double left-turn lanes NW and SE on Nimitz. Apparently it was mandated by the NTC-to-Liberty Station transformation many years earlier.

By Judi Curry

Over the past few months I have received several calls asking me if Prince’s Recycling Center at 5096 Voltaire right next to Pat’s Liquor is open or closed. This center is not to be confused with the one that was adjacent to Stumps Market, also on Voltaire. Each time I received a call I investigated to see the situation and sometimes I found it open while other times I found it closed.

Recently, however, there has been a sign on the door that stated that the City had closed them down and after receiving a call from Basil at Pat’s Liquor, I decided it was time to do a full investigation. On August 10th, a notice was send to Mr. Prince, telling him that the recycling center was in violation of the San Diego Municipal Code.

It’s official. The OB Town Council has five new members of the Board of Directors, all elected in the recent Special Election held after the mass resignations of four board members.

Their names and photos are up at the OBTC website.

And here they are (in alphabetical order of first names):

A Response to U-T Opinion: “California housing crisis finally gets bold response it needed. Thanks to Newsom, Atkins.”

By Danna Givot

The September 17 UT Editorial Board thank you to Newsom and Atkins is shallow and uninformed. Foremost, it fails to recognize that California has an affordable housing crisis, not an overall housing crisis. The real gaps in California housing are at the lowest end. The free market is providing sufficient housing for higher income households.

The editorial failed to recognize that there are no provisions in either SB9 or SB10 for the production of any “affordable” housing. It is fair to assume that the market will do what it does without government incentives – produce more market-rate housing, which will not meet the needs

This is satire

Roughly nine out of 10 members of the San Diego Police Officers Association who responded to a recent survey say they would rather be fired than fired upon.

733 current officers took the poll, conducted by the Police Officers Association, and 45% responded that they cannot comply with the Department’s requirements that they conduct patrols and risk being killed or wounded by gunfire. And roughly 65% said they would consider resigning from their jobs if the city and the department forced them to go out on patrol.

In fact, they say, 35 San Diego police officers have died in the line of duty since the force was created, and they do not intend to add their names to the hallowed list. The SDPD was first formed in 1889.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography is a leader in climate change research, yet it has a relationship with a utility that produces dangerous fossil fuels.

By Luke Stroth, Adam Cooper, Taylor Mckie / Op-Ed San Diego Union-Tribune / Sept. 20, 2021

Scripps Institution of Oceanography has long prided itself as a national leader in climate change research, yet it is pursuing a relationship with a utility owned by a regressive corporation that produces dangerous fossil fuels.

By Jennifer Van Grove / San Diego Union-Tribune / Sept. 21, 2021

The city of San Diego will soon alert a state-vetted list of affordable housing builders — and the larger development community — that it intends to lease the 48 acres it owns near Pechanga Arena in the Midway District for redevelopment.

By Geoff Page

The once jubilant mood at the Midway-Pacific Highway Planning Group, resulting from having the 30-foot height limit removed and a chosen developer for the Sports Arena, has evaporated due to recent events. The Sports Arena development went down in flames thanks to the previous administration under Faulconer. The new process will bring affordable housing to the site, a homeless shelter has been sited there with no notice, and a refugee shelter, also with no notice, has opened.

The planning group is angry and it appears they have a right to be.

The Lost City on a Hill

For those unfamiliar with what happened to the redevelopment, state law put an end to the process that had gone so far as to chose a developer.