OB Rag

Concerns Also Expressed About Threats to OB’s Cottage Emerging Historical District

By San Diego Monitor News Staff / San Diego Monitor / November 4, 2025

The Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) has voiced strong opposition to elements of the City of San Diego’s proposed Preservation and Progress Initiative, urging the Planning Commission to delay approval of “Package A” until further public review and documentation are provided.

In a formal letter addressed to Planning Commission Chair Kelly Modén and the commissioners, SOHO commended the City’s stated intent to make the preservation process “clearer, more equitable, and more accessible.” However, the nonprofit argued that several of the proposed revisions would instead “introduce new procedural obstacles, restrict public participation, and reinforce existing inequities.”

One of SOHO’s key objections centers on new appeal procedures outlined in Sections 123.0203(a) and (b) of the Municipal Code. The organization contends that the amendments create unequal appeal rights, allowing property owners to challenge non-designations of historic resources, but limiting others—such as community members or preservation advocates—from doing so. “…

The group also expressed concern over a proposed amendment applying the Complete Communities Housing Solutions Regulations to the Ocean Beach Cottage Emerging Historical District. SOHO argues that the area’s historic cottages serve as a form of “naturally occurring affordable housing” (NOAH) and that the City should instead designate the neighborhood as a traditional historic district.

By Joey Reams / What Now San Diego / Oct. 31, 2025

Sourdough & Moore, a locally founded bakery specializing in naturally leavened breads and pastries, is getting ready to officially open in Ocean Beach at 4853 Newport Avenue.

The company’s first brick-and-mortar is set to move into the former home of Ocean Beach Meat Company, with doors officially opening on Friday, November 14, according to San Diego Magazine.

Before the grand opening, Sourdough & Moore hosted a one-day pop-up pre-order event on Sunday, November 2, in collaboration with An’s Electronics Repair. …

Founded by longtime Ocean Beach resident David Moore and co-owner Emma Gibb, Sourdough & Moore began as a farmers market vendor about five years ago. Moore, who has lived in Ocean Beach for 25 years, previously worked for two decades at the Omni San Diego Hotel before pursuing baking as a full-time career. Gibb transitioned from the corporate world to pastry production after meeting Moore at the Mission Valley Farmers Market, where they began collaborating on the bakery concept.

Chin’s Szechwan
Point Loma
3373 Rosecrans St.
San Diego, CA 92110
www.govisitchin.com

By LK Bruce

Healthy, tasty, affordable and close by. These are the criteria against which all dining or take-out decisions were made in our busy family of four. Even long after the birds left the nest, these figure prominently in meals not made at home.

We got around to Chin’s Szechwan a little later than hoped after their opening in Point Loma but they hit on all cylinders of the old fam criteria. And oh my, do we need good Chinese on the Peninsula.

To start, they’re very popular. If you show up without a reservation, prepare to wait a while on the sidewalk. If you make a reservation, prepare to guarantee it with a credit card for $10/per person in your reservation. Of course, many restaurants do this but you don’t expect it from a Chinese place in a strip mall. That tells you something. And, if you’re like many in and around the ‘hood, you’ll grab some take-out, a booming side of the business.

The OB Planning Board meets tonight, Tuesday, November 4, and their Action Item #1 is to review San Diego City Staff’s efforts to change the code around the OB Historic District. They will evaluate the language proposed by staff and make their recommendation(s). This issue has been percolating around OB of late because of the city’s machinations to undercut the district’s impact.

Here is what the Rag reported on Monday:

Formerly entitled the Ocean Beach Cottage Emerging Historical District — which has been around since 1999 — it was on the chopping block as a city staff recommendation because a little over a year ago, the San Diego Planning Commission voted to spare OB from a horrendous development project of 24 ADUs on Point Loma Avenue precisely because of the existence of OB’s historic district. And at the end of the hearing on August 29, 2024, one of the commissioners turned to staff and urged them to change the city’s Municipal Code to get rid of the district as a basis for exempting OB from some of the worse housing policies of Todd Gloria’s administration, called “Complete Communities.”

President Donald Trump hosted a “Great Gatsby”-themed Halloween party just hours before millions of Americans lost their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

This party was hosted by the president in the midst of and during the longest shutdown of the federal government.

The Friday night fête at Mar-a-Lago was themed “A little party never killed nobody,” according to the White House, referencing the song from the 2013 film adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel.

At the September 2025 meeting of the City of San Diego Historical Resources Board, the members designated five houses and approved a sixth as a Heritage Structure.

One of the houses is in Point Loma. (See photo above)

3030 Alcott Street in the Peninsula Community is named the Laura and Harold Conklin House, for the couple who built it as their residence in 1937, and is designated under HRB Criterion C for its Spanish Colonial Revival style architecture.

It retains integrity and embodies design elements of the style, including a low-pitched hipped roof with single barrel clay tile, wide eaves with exposed rafter tails, sand stucco siding with belt courses, wood-framed multi-light casement and fixed windows, wood-framed multi-light French doors, diamond pane casement windows, stucco grilles, an open second-story porch with wood posts and beams, battered wing walls, decorative corbels, and a stucco chimney.

Here are the others from around the city:

By Ian Rodney Lazarus / SFGate / Nov 3, 2025 

Few structures evoke such varied emotions as the sight of a weathered lighthouse standing firm against an incoming tide. Without these tall, circular towers set along the shore, California wouldn’t be what it is today.

But these iconic coastal features have lost almost all their original function, replaced by modern technology, and simultaneously face threats from age and environmental degradation. They’re some of the oldest structures still standing, largely due to their sentimental value, even as they come under increasing financial strain. For all the pride and pleasure we get from seeing these monuments up close, many visitors remain unaware of the challenges they face today.

Part of California’s history

As a staff officer for the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary in San Diego, I’ve been lucky enough to explore California’s lighthouses in ways others aren’t able to. Walking on grounds that retain original structures approaching two centuries old, it feels like walking right out of a time machine. Very little has changed, even inside the homes that were occupied by the original keepers and officers more than 150 years ago.

On Friday, Oct. 31, a dozen of us crowded around a long table at NewBreak Cafe on Abbott Street in OB to discuss and learn how to support OB’s historical district, which is on the City of San Diego’s chopping block. All our eyes were on the presenters, Bruce and Alana Coons from SOHO (Save Our Heritage Organization) who had traveled all the way from Point Loma to teach us the basics and guide us through the process.

Formerly entitled the Ocean Beach Cottage Emerging Historical District — which has been around since 1999 — it was on the chopping block as a city staff recommendation because a little over a year ago, the San Diego Planning Commission voted to spare OB from a horrendous development project of 24 ADUs on Point Loma Avenue precisely because of the existence of OB’s historic district. And at the end of the hearing on August 29, 2024, one of the commissioners turned to staff and urged them to change the city’s Municipal Code to get rid of the district as a basis for exempting OB from some of the worse housing policies of Todd Gloria’s administration, called “Complete Communities.”

And a year later, the staff did just that: they came up a “fix”

Every Saturday at 10:30 am. San Diego Climate Mobilization Coalition Meetings
Every Saturday 10 am – 12 pm Peace Vigil for Palestine:

The San Diego River Park Foundation has volunteer opportunities in Ocean Beach: Point Loma Native Plant Garden Club on the 2nd and 4th Sundays

November 3rd Monday 12 pm – 1 pm Interfaith Vigil for Earth Justice

November 4th Tuesday Vote for Prop 50 and fight fire with fire, resist Republicans’ efforts at rigging 2026 electiion.

November 4th Tuesday Reject USDG Protest
November 5th Wednesday 7:20 am – 8:30 am 5pm Resist Trump Flash Banner Action Normal Heights
November 6th Thursday 9 a.m. Testify and / or support the OB Emerging Cottage Historic District at San Diego Housing Commission hearing,
November 6th Thursday 7 pm – 8:30 pm Oceans of Bach – A Science Music Experience  

By South OB Girl

Dear San Diego Planning Commission and City’s Development Services Department:

I would like to know how many of the new apartment buildings along highway 8 are full and have no vacancies.  I am curious if construction is complete for all of the buildings being built to replace what was formerly the golf course in Mission Valley.

Is construction of those buildings complete and are all of the dwelling units now occupied?  How many of those units are expected to facilitate solving the housing crisis?  I recently saw some new apartment buildings off Clairemont Drive.  Are they full to capacity?  How many of all these new structures throughout the city – in Mission Valley, Clairemont, and elsewhere – qualify as affordable housing?

The City’s answer in response to most new plans for construction and ADUs these days is that there is a housing crisis.  The City and developers believe they are creating housing solutions and promote the mission that their plans are providing housing solutions in response to the housing crisis.  So in support of that mission, is there a status report somewhere? Some quantitative data?

Like any federal, state, or city project, there should be a status report or something that resembles a status report detailing how far along we are as a city

By Donna Frye

An update to the 2025-2026 City of San Diego’s Legislative Platform will be heard Wednesday, November 5, 2025 at the  Economic Development and Intergovernmental Relations Committee meeting. It is Item-5 on the agenda.

According to the city, “The 2025-2026 State and Federal Legislative Platform defines the City of San Diego’s Guiding Principles and Policy Priorities and provides a means to advance and protect the City’s interests on issues at the federal and state levels.”

The legislative platform has three guiding principles and seven policy priorities. The policy priorities include over 290 state policies and 270 federal policies dealing with issues such as homelessness, housing affordability and community services and sustainability, environmental quality and infrastructure.

The issues in the legislative platform are all important, however, the  “preserve local control” principle and the state surplus land housing policy stand out due to recent experiences over housing development issues.