OB Rag

Wisteria Garden Goes Online!

By Kathy Blavatt

One of the best things about living in Southern California is that you can have a usable yard. Many locals in Ocean Beach and Point Loma are very proud of their yards. They use it as outdoor living space, edible gardens, socializing, working-out, sunbathing or relaxing in the shade, planting, playing with pets, and hundreds of other uses.

In addition, as COVID has proven, a garden can improve your health and mental state. Many gardeners these days are looking to personalize their gardens to their specific needs and wants.

Ocean Beach’s best-know garden is the historic Wisteria Garden on Niagara Avenue just up the block from Sunset Cliffs Blvd. on the southside.

By Geoff Page

The project is underway to rebuild what used to be referred to as the handicap ramp at Dog Beach. This is the wide zigzag concrete walkway from the parking lot up to the bike path and down to the sand on the Dog Beach side. The actual work of building the new walkway has been a bumbling continuation of a bad idea.

This is the story of poor design executed poorly. It is about the city of San Diego, not the contractor.

The Project

The new walkway is being placed in the same location as the old one. This design was seen by everyone but the city of San Diego as ridiculously expensive and a wasted opportunity to really improve beach access for the disabled.

by Joaquin Antique

In years past, the OB Rag‘s Walkabout series has tried to provide humorous and enlightening photo essays that capture the beauty and weirdness of Ocean Beach. On occasion it’s even been successful.

During the past week this reporter has walked the mean streets of Ocean Beach in search of elusive necessities such as hand sanitizer, rice, and prescription meds. In the process, a few photos have been taken that show some of our town’s varied responses to this horrible situation that has impacted every aspect of life in our community.

When I See Stacey

by Ernie McCray

When I see Stacey
I feel pride
for my people’s history,
for how we
journeyed across the sea,
packed like spoons,
between the holds
and decks of slave ships,
shackled,
starving,
suffocating
in our very misery,
snatched from Mother Africa,
our homeland,
like the cotton
we would pick
in the Americas,
on the first leg
of a rocky path
to an as yet still undisclosed
destiny.

Our friends at the Point Loma Association have discovered something fishy in the latest noise study by the San Diego Airport. They found a “hole” in it, as in Jackson Hole. And our friends at PLA who publish their email newsletter were pretty disgusted with it all.

Let them explain.

From Point Loma Association:

The San Diego International Airport Draft Part 150 Report.

It is now available for review.

For people following the future of our airport, it’s a big deal. Part 150 is a noise study. (Yes. Yet another.) It’s been in the works for about three years.

Join the the Ocean Beach Town Council at 7 pm tonight, Wednesday, March 24 for a facebook live video public meeting. They will have a presentation from PATH , an organization that has new homelessness outreach services in Ocean Beach starting up with new funding from the city.

By Colleen O’Connor

How can anyone justify needing an assault rifle for personal use?

How can anyone justify the horrific killings of people just shopping, going about their business, about their day, about their job in Colorado or any place else?

How can anyone justify cowardly silence and inaction in a moment of another mass killing?

No one can or should ever even try.

And no one can possibly find the words, the emotions, even the thoughts to describe what happened in Boulder, Colorado yesterday; or any of the other multiple mass murders of innocents. We, as a nation, have almost become numb.

So, I stand up and applaud the President of the United States, Joe Biden who has shown no hesitancy, whatsoever, on doing the right thing.

And I quote him:

San Diego officials – including Mayor Todd Gloria – are encouraging city residents to apply for an $83 million rental relief program that launched last week.

The City of San Diego COVID-19 Housing Stability Assistance Program can pay up to 80 percent of past-due rent and utility bills for families with household incomes at or below 80 percent of the area median income — which is about $92,400 a year for a family of four or $64,700 for an individual.

To qualify, renters must show that at least one member of the household lost wages due to COVID-19. The program will pay 80 percent of unpaid rent from April 1, 2020, through March 31, 2021 — if the landlord agrees to waive the remaining 20 percent.

If the landlord declines, the program pays 25 percent of the past-due rent.

Last Friday, March 19, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria opened up the bidding process for the city’s utility franchise agreements- the exclusive right to provide gas and electricity services to city residents and businesses.

Included among the terms for the invitations to bid is a 10-year period, plus an additional 10 years if the franchisee has been a good partner. Any new agreement would allow the franchisee to use the public right-of-way to install and maintain utility infrastructure, such as pipes, poles and wires.

Bids will be opened on April 16, after which the city may initiate negotiations with the responsive bidders, and tentatively, the franchises will be awarded in May.

Restaurant Review

StarFish Filipino Eatery
1830 Sunset Cliffs Blvd., Suite E
San Diego, CA 92107

By Judi Curry

I am always intrigued when a new ethnic restaurant opens nearby. I have long felt that Ocean Beach has enough Mexican, Pizza and Asian – read Japanese – restaurants and not enough “other” kinds. I was thrilled to hear that a Filipino restaurant has now opened right on Sunset Cliffs.

When I was working at Job Corps in Imperial Beach, I had several instructors and secretaries that were Filipino. When they brought in food for different occasions it was usually the first to go. They could never make enough Lumpia to satisfy the staff – you have to know that I had over 130 staff members! – and the Pancit was the best I had ever tasted. I “borrowed” Alicia’s recipe for Lumpia, and would spend hours cutting up the vegetables the way she taught me to but it never tasted as good as hers.

The pancit was interesting, because Alicia would put a layer of raw oysters on the top, and that stopped many of the staff from devouring the tasty dish. Other staff members did not put any topping on theirs at all and they were the first to be finished!

Now we have a Filipino restaurant in Ocean Beach. They have very limited hours – close their doors by 6:00 – which I am hoping will change as the pandemic decreases.

By Geoff Page

The Peninsula Community Planning Board held its first election in two years Thursday, March 18. Last year’s election was cancelled due to COVID. This election was also clearly affected by COVID and not in a good way.

Every year, five of the 15 seats on the PCPB are up for election. Because there was no election last year, 10 seats were up for election. Because a board member resigned last year without completing the term, there were 11 open seats. This was a large number of seats to fill but the election attracted 16 candidates.

There were 644 total ballots, which surprised the Board. In fact, that was the largest election turn out in many years. Is it possible that the complete relaxation of all voting rules was the reason?

A Comparison of How Local Planning Boards Handled Their 2021 Elections

The pandemic threw planning board operations and elections into a turmoil.

by Ernie McCray

Someone, unknown, once wrote “When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life that you have a thousand reasons to smile.“

I can’t help but say amen to that just from having, the other day, read my journal about the past year and noticing how in between my comments about the enormous loss of human lives and a dangerous looney-ass president’.’ string of improvised lies, and wide political divides, and the like, there were so many entries that literally made me smile.

Especially one about me swatting a pesky fly just to see him die, borrowing from a Johnny Cash line.

And I sure smiled a lot at what I wrote about visiting Maria’s family and friends in San Antonio, home of the Alamo, and in Jalapa, Cuernavaca, Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo in the beautiful country of Mexico.

I couldn’t help but smile as my words made me recall how I, after being such a recluse, finally dared to go out during the pandemic and wined and dined and laughed outdoors with dear friends, wearing masks and keeping a distance.