OB Rag

From Women’s March San Diego

Happy Women’s Herstory Month! It’s been a long road, we know. On behalf of the entire Women’s March San Diego team, we truly hope you and your loved ones are doing okay. We invite you to some upcoming events that honor those who’ve made a path before us, and are helping us navigate the path forward:

Millions of us, longtime activists, new activists, sisters side by side, marched through streets everywhere to guide and inspire a new generation. We broke barriers, we got the vote out, we got more women elected than ever before and you created US, the Women’s March. Despite a global pandemic and an insurrection, we continue onward, fighting for equity — we are not equal, yet.
A woman’s work is never done.

The Ocean Beach Planning Board meets virtually this Wednesday, March 3, at 6pm. To participate, one needs to register (see below).

“quality of life metrics”

The first main item on their agenda includes a possible endorsement of “quality of life metrics” in response to the City Council recently passing a new ordinance on short-term vacation rentals. The council passed 8 to 1 Jen Campbell’s proposal – and it will need a second council vote probably in October before it becomes law in 2022. The metrics are to “ensure a level of efficacy once this ordinance is implemented.”

Campbell’s push on STVRs is one of the chief reasons there’s a recall campaign against her. And it should be noted that the OB Planning Board has taken a leading role in attempting to mitigate the worst of Campbell’s proposal

Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the nuclear power industry in the US and beyond and highlights the efforts of those working to create a nuclear free world.

By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press

Deep Freeze Shuts Down Texas Nuke

On February 15 the South Texas Project nuclear plant shut down after arctic weather descended on the region, Arctic Insights reported. A spokesperson for the plant said 1350 Megawatt reactor #1 shut down at 5:37 a.m.. The shutdown “resulted from a loss of feedwater attributed to cold-weather related failure of pressure sensing lines to feedwater pumps causing a false signal, which in turn caused the feedwater pump to trip (shut down).”

According to a February 16 Nuclear Regulatory Commission report, the shutdown was due to “low steam generator levels. The low levels in turn were due to loss of Feedwater pumps 11 and 13 (cause unknown).”

By Collen O’Connor

Women’s History Month (March) usually features the deeds of great women; mostly ahead of their times and by now familiar names.

Their gains (since women’s right to vote) often came from progressive or “left leaning” quarters. Yet, even now, they have been unable to secure the Equal Rights Amendment; the White House; or even a woman’s face on a dollar bill. The attempt to get Harriet Tubman’ face on the $20 bill remains stuck in legislative limbo.

<Originally posted Feb. 26, 2021
By Savvy Sammy

I love fried chicken and when I heard OB was going to get a fried chicken place right on Newport, my jaw dropped and my mouth watered at the same time. Oh my god!

OB hasn’t had good fried chicken on the avenue since Zeke’s closed – and that was a long time ago (where Bravos is now at the corner of Newport and Bacon). Zeke’s had a take-out window right there on Bacon. …

Maybe it’s about to change. Martin Robles and Bruno Elias are opening – or already have opened – ChickenHeadz – a fried chicken place right where Livingston’s used to be, 5026 Newport. Both used to work at Hodad’s (Elias for 17 years, Robles 10), so they know Newport, OB and restaurants well.

By Geoff Page

The campaign to recall District 2 council member Jennifer Campbell is in full swing. Signature gathering to call for the special election to remove Campbell kicks off Saturday, February 27, at Ski Beach in Mission Bay. This is at the intersection of Ingraham Street and Vacation Road, the island on Mission Bay that Ingraham crosses.

The event kicks off at 10:00 a.m. and runs to 2:00. There will be some short speeches but the reason for the gathering is to get started. Organizers are asking folks to bring, masks, gloves, sanitizer, and sunscreen.

“Agenda: 1. Gather 2. Rally with speakers 3. Go get some signatures!”

By Joni Halpern / Special to the OB Rag / Feb. 25, 2021

CEQA: The Last Guardian of the Communtiy

Two visions of the future have collided in a lawsuit set for trial April 9, 2021, challenging the Morena Corridor Specific Plan (MCSP). [The Morena area is just east of I-5 and just north of I-8 at the mouth of Mission Valley.]

Morena United, an informal association of residents and business owners in areas that will be affected by the MCSP, believe city officials have ignored their concerns about the harm the plan will cause.

They believe the City has aligned itself with development interests looking only to maximize profits through sales and rents to high-income residents, while producing only a minimal amount of affordable housing. Even that amount of affordable housing, they say, will be to exclude lower-income households, while at the same time failing to provide for those with middle income.

The MCSP map looks like a gerrymandered voting district, taking in chunks of land that were once part of two other community plans.

One section, for example, bordered roughly by I-5 on the west, Friars Road on the south, Tecolote Road on the north, and a strip along Morena Boulevard on the east, once was covered solely by the Linda Vista Community Plan, which called for additional housing in the center of Linda Vista, not on the periphery, as specified in the MCSP. That Linda Vista Community Plan envisioned growth, but with thousands fewer dwellings than proposed in the MCSP, which now overrides the Linda Vista plan.

By Geoff Page

The very next day after the Midway Pacific Highway Planning Group looked inward, the Peninsula Community Planning Board, looked outward and supported two positions on parks and STVRs intended to benefit the entire city of San Diego. The PCPB should be commended for both of these actions it took at its regular monthly meeting, Thursday, February 21st at 6:00.

The recorded meeting can be seen at the PCPB’s You Tube site titled the “Peninsula Community Planning Board” here. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdZqz44Fjy4NrbIbkw6d-EQ

Ocean Beach Planning Board Short Term Vacation Rental letter

by Ernie McCray

I just had
one of the nicest experiences
of my lifetime
via a dramatic piece,
“Day of Absence,”
a Douglas Turner Ward
masterpiece
of a play
on Zoom,
each actor
sitting
at their own place
in a room
facing a Mac
or a PC,
scrolling scripts
on a split screen
against a green screen,

Here are two Op-Ed pieces that ran in the San Diego Union-Tribune on Tuesday, Feb. 23, on the subject of recalling Jen Campbell.

Campbell Puts Special Interests Before Voters

By Wendy D. Gelernter

City Council President Jennifer Campbell has lost the trust of her constituents by ignoring their input, breaking campaign promises and siding with powerful special interests and corporations against the needs of her voters. This is why a diverse coalition of San Diegans this month announced a movement to recall Campbell from office.

As a small business owner and 34-year resident of Pacific Beach, I donated to and campaigned for Campbell when she ran for council. But I soon grew alarmed at her lack of responsiveness to community voices.

Well, so much for the Democratic majority on the City Council.

Yesterday, Tuesday, Feb. 23, after hours of “public” testimony, the Council voted 8 to 1 to approve Jen Campbell’s proposal on short-term vacation rentals. Councilmember Joe LaCava – representing District 1, the other coastal district – was the dissenting vote. The other Democrats voted along with the Republican to endorse the ordinance – which will need a second vote in October before becoming law in 2022. The ordinance will return to council for updates on the lottery and prioritization related to licensing.

LaCava proposed four amendments which would have been much stricter than the version which passed. None were accepted. He was concerned with equity in the ordinance and how to hold rental platforms accountable. According to the Beacon, said LaCava:

By Judi Curry

During the past month when in the throes of Covid, I have been overwhelmed by the responses I have received from my friends, relatives, neighbors, strangers, etc.

I received over 100 get well wishes; I even received over 75 “Happy Birthday” wishes.

People that I do not know have sent me cards; a neighbor that I still don’t know sent me a long note telling me that he would be glad to anything for me that needed to be done during this time. (He sent me his address so that when I am finally able to go out I can see where he lives with his family.)

Al Nashashibi from Faurouz left me a huge of amount of his restaurants’ “Lemon Grass” soup by my front door;