OB Rag

San Diego County’s Department of Environmental Health and Quality today, Wednesday, March 25th, announced the closure of the San Diego River where it meets Dog Beach in Ocean Beach after a large volume of sewage was released.

According to the DEHQ, 18,000 gallons of sewage was discharged, with an estimated 9,000 gallons reaching the San Diego River near the intersection of Friars Road and Sea World Drive.

Beachgoers were advised that the ocean water contains sewage and may cause illness. The water contact closure will remain in place until sampling and field observations confirm these areas are safe for water contact, according to a county statement.

Tens of Thousands Expected Across San Diego County for No Kings March 28 

Organizers anticipate largest San Diego turnout yet after 80,000+ joined October mobilization

Tens of thousands of San Diego County residents are expected at 22 rallies, marches and family-friendly events on Saturday, March 28, building on the 80,000+ who mobilized countywide in October 2025. Participants say they are mobilizing in defense of democratic institutions, civil liberties, and social programs affecting San Diego families. Events are scheduled across San Diego County, including Downtown San Diego, Ocean Beach, La Jolla, Carmel Valley, Mira Mesa, Carlsbad, Oceanside,Vista, San Marcos, Escondido, Fallbrook, Temecula, Valley Center, Rancho Bernardo, Ramona, La Mesa, El Cajon, Chula Vista, Otay Mesa and Borrego Springs.

Here’s the updated list of No Kings events within San Diego County, March 28

MAIN SAN DIEGO RALLY & MARCH
Waterfront Park
10:00 a.m.–noon | 1600 Pacific Hwy, San Diego, CA 92101

Schedule:
10:00–10:45 a.m. — Main program & speakers
10:45 a.m.–noon  — March; return to Waterfront Park

By Kate Callen

The people of San Diego are the real stakeholders of Balboa Park, and they are ready to take back their “crown jewel” from a city government that has neglected and exploited it.

A grassroots drive to create a public-private Park conservancy will launch Saturday, March 28, at a San Diego Community Coalition town hall at 9:30 a.m. at the Mission Valley Library, 2123 Fenton Parkway. The forum is co-hosted by Neighbors for a Better San Diego.

Send Email to Rag if You Can Cover Event(s) Here in SD County

Over 3,000 events are planned this Saturday, March 28 for the No Kings nation-wide protests. 19 are planned just in San Diego County. (See below for more context.)

Meanwhile, the Rag is searching for volunteers to take photos at the different event sites. We’ll be doing a livestream of the day’s protests and will be posting the photos up on the Rag. So far we have half a dozen people who have committed to taking photos at some of the sites — and we need more volunteers.

If you are attending one of the San Diego County events and can take and send us several photos, please email Editordude at obragblog@gmail.com and let us know which event or events you can cover.

Compiled by Lisa Mortensen

by Frank Sabatini Jr./ Uptown News / March 22, 2026

The brouhaha over paid parking in and around Balboa Park became exceptionally clear to me after making two visits by car to our gorgeous public land in recent weeks.

My first visit under the new revenue- generating program was on a balmy weekday in February. It was 50 days after the initiative was implemented in early January — the plan was championed by Mayor Todd Gloria and approved by the San Diego City Council — seemingly enough time for city officials to acquaint us with a cohesive payment system.

I was there to briefly meet a friend at the Timken Museum of Art. I drove into the park at its northwestern section off of Sixth Avenue. That put me onto tree-lined Balboa Drive before hanging left to cross the Laurel Street Bridge. It’s the route I always take to my favorite parking lot located behind the Organ Pavilion, which sits in proximity to the park’s cultural heart, the El Prado.

The sight of pay stations and heavy signage pertaining to the new reality of paid parking was saddening. The materials are aesthetically cold and gawky against the park’s backdrop of lush foliage and historical architecture. It’s as through somebody walked into a large, airy room with good feng shui and cluttered it.

Bigger disappointments followed.

by Thomas Murphy / Beach & Bay Press / March 23, 2026

A 75-year-old waterfront restaurant in Mission Bay could be forced out by the city of San Diego’s redevelopment plan, putting Joe Busalacchi’s family business and one of the bay’s oldest tenants at risk.

Sportsmen’s Seafood was the first lease signed in Mission Bay, operating even before the area’s first bridges were built.

Busalacchi has run the restaurant for 36 years, continuing a three-generation family business after his father passed away.

“The city is supposed to serve and protect the citizens of San Diego. They want to kick out all of these people who have to pay rent and pay for their children,” said Busalacchi. “How is that serving and protecting? They ain’t serving me, any of my employees, or anyone on the docks.”

by Brooke Binkowski and Tessa Balc / Times of San Diego / March 22, 2026

A group of surfers held a paddle out Sunday morning, March 22,— an action typically reserved for mourning the death of a beloved community member — to protest the Trump administration’s weaponization of immigration agencies.

Dozens of surfers gathered at La Jolla Shores on Sunday for the event, “Let’s Get Salty – Time to Melt the ICE,” which was organized by a collective called San Diego Salty, with the stated goal of bringing awareness to arrests, deportations, forced disappearances, and deaths at the hands of Immigration Customs and Enforcement and other border agencies.

“This is about showing up together, sparking conversation, and building clear bridges to action – while reminding one another that we are not alone and that solidarity is stronger when we move as ONE,” their Instagram page said.

This Is a Challenge to City’s Passage of “Package A”

Today, March 24, Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) will file a lawsuit against the City of San Diego which challenges the City’s approval of profound changes to its historic preservation program without the required environmental review by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). This is about “Package A” which many OBceans are now familiar with.

SOHO’s suit in San Diego Superior Court “seeks an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) process to address adverse environmental impacts to historic resources posed by the City’s proposed Preservation and Progress project,” as SOHO stated in an announcement today.

Here’s the balance of SOHO’s announcement:

The City approved “Package A” of the project without analyzing the potential environmental impacts of weakening protections for historic resources across San Diego by modifications to the Municipal Code and General Plan.

Please help me understand the following:

There’s extremely long lines at major airports right now. They’re costing travelers hours upon hours of waiting.

There’s several factors causing these long lines … the weather, spring break … but the main one is that TSA agents have not been paid for over a month, and many of them have quit or are calling in sick — hundreds of them.

Now, the main reason the TSA agents have not been paid is because we’re currently in a partial federal government shut-down.

The main reason we’re in a partial government shut-down is because Republican and Democratic congressional members cannot agree to a budget (continual resolution).

The reason the two parties cannot agree is because Democrats refuse to fund ICE and the Department of Homeland Security — without reform —  due to the killings of people, mass arrests and abuse by ICE this year of immigrants and American citizens. TSA agents and ICE are part of the same government department, DHS.

By Nicole Gomez / 7SanDiego / March 20, 2026

A group of off-duty San Diego lifeguards is being credited with saving the life of a 57-year-old man who went into cardiac arrest at a restaurant in Ocean Beach.

The incident happened on March 1, around 7:30 p.m. at Blue Water Seafood, where three lifeguards — including Noah Herrera — had just sat down to eat when they noticed a man who appeared to be in distress.

Herrera said the situation quickly escalated.

“We rolled him, checking his pulse, and I didn’t feel anything after about 10 seconds, and I told Mitch, ‘I don’t feel a pulse, start compressions,’ and he just started on his chest right away,” Herrera said.

At the same time, another off-duty lifeguard, Griffin Houldin, was dining nearby with his girlfriend when they noticed the commotion.