OB Rag

Editordude: Since the issue of “middle managers” employed by the City of San Diego has again emerged during the most recent debates over the city’s budget, we thought it appropriate to re-publish U-T reporter David Garrick’s piece on the subject from last July. And just to remind, Garrick, will be speaking on Saturday, December 13 on “This Just In: Covering the City Hall Beat.” See here for more.

By David Garrick / San Diego Union-Tribune / July 14, 2025

The recent fight at San Diego City Hall over how many middle managers the city employs could signal the start of a shift away from such jobs in the future, after years of their ranks quickly growing.

The battle over middle managers, which emerged during controversial budget negotiations this spring, pitted Mayor Todd Gloria against city labor leaders — and eventually most of the City Council.

Labor leaders lobbied for sharp cuts to middle management positions so the city could lay off fewer front-line workers like librarians and parks maintenance staff in its effort to close a $350 million deficit.

The Municipal Employees Association stressed that there are more than five times as many high-paid middle managers known as “program coordinators” and “program managers” at the city as there were a decade ago.

By Michael J. Stepner & Mary Lydon / The Daily Transcript / Dec. 10, 2025

The city of San Diego is going through a process to update their heritage preservation program called “Preservation and Progress.” The initiative is a comprehensive update that will streamline processes for new homes and other uses while protecting places of historic, architectural and cultural importance, and encouraging their adaptive reuse.

Historic preservation has gotten tied into the controversy that every perceived obstacle to more housing needs to be eliminated. This is incorrect, but it has become part of the YIMBY versus NIMBY debates, which have become counterproductive.

By Francine Maxwell

San Diego, how many zeroes do we need to add up before this city finally admits what the community has been screaming for years? The San Diego Police Department is operating without real accountability, without effective training, and without consequences — and the cost keeps going up.

We just hit $50 million in payouts in one week. Thirty million dollars for the police killing of a 16-year-old. Another major payout for a foster youth whose trauma was so egregious it had to be discussed in closed session.

This isn’t bad luck. This isn’t “unfortunate.” This is a pattern — a pattern we keep paying for.

Let’s talk about that $30 million settlement for the killing of a child. Because yes, he was a child. Sixteen.

By Paul Krueger

Before the City Council on Tuesday, Dec. 9, approved a $30 million settlement to the family of a teen fatally shot by a San Diego Police officer, Councilmembers Henry Foster III and Sean Elo-Rivera offered their perspective on the shooting and the payment.

The preventable death of 16 year-old Konoa Wilson and subsequent lawsuit against the city and officer Daniel Gold has drawn national attention, including a New York Times story that highlighted the $30 million settlement as one of the largest — if not the largest —  payout to date by a local government for a wrongful death caused by law enforcement negligence or abuse.

But there have been no organized, public demands for answers about how and why the January 28th shooting happened, what discipline — if any — was imposed by SDPD on Officer Gold, and what changes — if any — have been made in officer training as a result of that fatal interaction.

Konoa Wilson was half-black, and Council Member Foster  — who is the city’s only black council member — spent considerable time addressing issues of race and the minority community’s history of mistrust and strained relations with law enforcement.

But Foster’s deeply emotional statements were highly personal.

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.