OB Rag

Campillo Is Lone Vote Against Approval

By Maura Fox / San Diego Union-Tribune / November 24, 2025

A development blueprint that plans for tripling the population of the College Area over the next 30 years is one step closer to being adopted, after a San Diego City Council committee voted to approve the update.

The community plan, which hasn’t seen an update since 1989, will guide land use and development for the neighborhood for the next two to three decades. It will now head to the full City Council for review.

It projects ambitious population growth in the College Area and expects more opportunities for cycling and public transit, green spaces along busy streets and a campus town center near San Diego State University.

“I’m excited to see how, outside this plan update, we can work to make those recommendations a reality for the community,” Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, whose District 9 includes the area, said at Friday’s meeting of the Land Use and Housing Committee.

The plan update passed 3-1, with Councilmember Raul Campillo, who represents nearby District 7, voting no.

From CBS8 / Nov. 25, 2025

Brandon Valdez and Alexis Barcellos held their 5-year-old black lab mix a little tighter after a harrowing rescue Sunday at Dog Beach in Ocean Beach. “You don’t want to overwhelm her, but you just want to hug her, squeeze her,” Valdez said.

Sadie is still recovering after she bolted from the couple’s Point Loma Airbnb near the Barnes Tennis Center on Sunday afternoon. An AirTag on her collar led the family straight to Dog Beach.

“Her sister ran out the door too. Remy came right back. Sadie just kept going. She was on a mission,” Barcellos said. By the time they arrived, Sadie had been swept into the channel where the current was strong.

“I just had a surfer run up to the truck. He’s saying there’s a dog on the jetty,” a lifeguard said over the radio. San Diego lifeguards and the Coast Guard swarmed the area. Lifeguards Garrett Smerdon and Jack Alldredge searched by jet ski in difficult conditions.

“There was a little bit of swell, and the sun was at our backs, so we faced east to have the best chance of spotting something,” Smerdon said.

From Fox5 San Diego / November 25, 2025

A class action lawsuit filed on Tuesday alleges Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of violating due process by targeting people after court proceedings in San Diego County.

Represented by the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at UCLA’s School of Law and the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CHRCL), three detained immigrants filed the lawsuit.

“Entrapping and imprisoning people who are complying with their immigration requirements isn’t just cowardly, it’s unconstitutional,” CHRCL Legal Director Bardis Vakili said via a press release. “Due process requires that, before taking away our freedom, the government must prove at a hearing that detention is justified.”

Throughout the summer, ICE targeted people leaving court hearings at 880 Front Street, according to the lawsuit.

San Diego City Council Committees Disrespect the Public

By Paul Krueger

Twice in one week, City Council Committees demonstrated blatant disregard for public interest and input on important issues.

At the November 19 Council Rules Committee meeting, Kent Lee was absent, and Vivian Moreno and Sean Elo-Rivera abruptly walked out — with no explanation — before the meeting ended.

Their absence deprived the Committee of a quorum, ending discussion and a committee decision on a proposed ballot measure calling for free Sunday parking in Balboa Park.

That proposal by Shane Harris was endorsed by several members of the public, who testified in person and by phone.

The Committee’s failure to finish its work could jeopardize Harris’ proposal, because there is a strict timeline for the council to review citizen-proposed ballot measures, and the Rules Committee isn’t scheduled to meet again until January.

By Donna Frye

On November 13, I sent an email to the city requesting information about how high the buildings could be in Clairemont if the Community Plan Update is approved, taking into account the State Density Bonus Law and Senate Bill 79 (SB79).

On November 21, the OB Rag published this as part of my ongoing requests to the city for some answers.

This is Part 2 which is my progress to date. In case you’re wondering why this even matters, it’s because we have the right to know what’s going on in our communities. And even though my question is about a specific community, the height limits and many other development issues, are not unique to Clairemont.

On November 21, I received the following email response to my question from the city:

“Under SB79, development would be allowed at 65 feet in height if within 1/4 mile of a trolley stop, and up to 55 feet in height if within 1/2 mile of a trolley stop, which is generally consistent with the 65-foot height limits in the overlay zone. Regarding other development incentive programs, both at the state and local level, projects that include affordable housing may also be eligible to receive development incentives and waivers that could allow a project to further exceed these height limits.”

By Paul Krueger

Before City Councilmembers adjourned to Closed Session on November 17 to discuss and vote on the controversial 30-foot height limit in the Midway/Pacific Highway area, I asked them to disclose after that meeting why they voted as they did.

I told our representatives they owed the public an on-the-record explanation on this very important land use and housing density issue.

I didn’t ask — or expect them — to reveal any “privileged” information discussed in Closed Session, including legal strategies, the odds of winning or losing an appeal to the State Supreme Court, or the possible cost of that litigation.

But I told councilmembers that their constituents deserve to know if they agree with Mayor Todd Gloria and City Attorney Heather Ferber’s harsh criticism of the recent appellate court decision that reinstated the 30-foot height limit. And if so, did they support the Mayor and City Attorney’s strategy of asking the State Supreme Court to reverse the appeals court and allow high-rise construction without a more thorough review of the negative environmental impact of that density?

Two women were seriously injured when their vehicle crashed into a concrete wall in Point Loma, Thursday night, November 20.

San Diego Police Officers responded around 10:10 p.m. that night where apparently a 39-year-old woman traveling west in a 2025 Mercedes GLC SUV drove into the wall at Womble Road and Rosecrans Street.

By Rob Nikolewski / San Diego Union-Tribune / November 20, 2025

The pathway for robotaxis in San Diego may have hit a pothole.

[Please see original for all the great links.]

Just weeks after officials at the autonomous vehicle company Waymo announced early steps to bring its ride-hailing services to San Diego in 2026, the Taxi Advisory Committee at the Metropolitan Transit System came out in opposition to driverless vehicles.

“My chief concern is what this means for people who are keeping a roof over their head and feeding their families by being drivers,” said San Diego City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, who is also chair of the Taxi Advisory Committee.

By San Diego Business Journal / Nov. 2025

A former Point Loma hotel that closed in 2019 and has been vacant ever since is being redeveloped into apartments in a $23 million project by Ambient Communities and C2 Building Group.

“It struggled as a hotel in Point Loma because there are thousands of hotel rooms in Point Loma right along the water,” according to Robert Horner of Ambient Communities.

Built in 1971, the 110-room Consulate Hotel at 2901 Nimitz Blvd. is about two blocks from the waterfront and couldn’t compete, Horner said.

Ambient communities bought the hotel in February and renamed it Celeste.

Since it closed, the hotel had been used as a training ground for police to practice breaking down doors and a crash pad for vagrants, according to Horner.

Owner’s Son Leaving for Navy boot camp next month

by Tony Shin / KUSI / Nov 20, 2025 

The owner of a popular Mexican restaurant in Mission Beach is being held by federal immigration authorities and faces possible deportation, prompting family members and loyal customers to call for his release.

Victor Rodriguez Sr., 54, owner of La Playa Taco Shop, is currently detained at the Otay Mesa Detention Center, according to his family. He was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents outside his National City home on Halloween morning.

Family members said Rodriguez is in the country without legal status but has spent decades attempting to obtain lawful residency or citizenship through legal channels.

“He helped me a lot. It’s too difficult now because I have to do things I’m not used to,” said his wife, Gabriela Rodriguez, who continues to run the restaurant in his absence.

Rodriguez and his wife have owned La Playa Taco Shop for nearly 30 years. Their son, Victor Rodriguez Jr., said his father was taken into custody after several vehicles surrounded him.

by Sharisse Cohee / Fox5 SanDiego / Nov 18-19, 2025 

A woman in Point Loma pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday, Nov. 13, admitting she embezzled more than $8.5 million from her employer and spent a portion of the stolen funds on luxuries and high-end fashion.

According to a press release from the Department of Justice, Ping “Jenny” Gao, 55, embezzled the funds from her employer by draining four bank accounts belonging to his U.S. companies.

In her plea agreement, Goa admitted to funneling company funds into fraudulent accounts she created. She reportedly used the stolen funds on lavish shopping sprees at high-end fashion retailers and also purchased a $160,000 Porsche and a $2.9 million home overlooking San Diego Bay.

When the employer discovered the stolen funds, he attempted to sue Gao in San Diego Superior Court, during which she falsely claimed that the person suing her was an imposter and that the real owner of the company in China authorized her actions.

By Ralph Teyssier, S.E.

I wanted to respond to Geoff Page’s November 19 Rag article about bringing the city’s neglect of our Ocean Beach Fishing Pier to the forefront.

What should concern all of us is that this iconic public treasure — our beloved OB Pier — has effectively become a forgotten park resource under the Todd Gloria administration. What began as a promising effort in May 2021, when Mayor Gloria, less than six months into his first term, expressed strong enthusiasm for jump-starting a new pier, has now seemingly stalled.

For context, it’s important to remember that the initial momentum, via community urging, arrived when Mayor Todd Gloria, with help from Senate President pro Tem Toni Atkins, secured an $8.4 million state grant to begin design work. Details of that effort can be found on the city’s OB Pier Renewal Project page, including the recently posted Task Force White Paper:

This document — made public only after multiple requests — makes it clear that real progress is slipping away. The contrast between the 1½-year construction timeline in the September 2024 White Paper and the protracted 3½-year timeline currently shown on the city’s website speaks volumes about the administration’s waning interest. And just as the project loses momentum, the pier itself is literally disappearing, piece by piece. I doubt this level of prolonged neglect of a historically recognized coastal icon sits well with the California Coastal Commission.

Geoff’s reporting makes the demolition-by-neglect painfully obvious: copper and iron piping stolen, gates breached, lighting stripped, and the structure left unsecured and unlit