OB Rag

Experts are confident that the numbers of deaths from COVID-19 are higher than reported; death rate 10% higher than average

By Mari Payton, Dorian Hargrove, Tom Jones and Jay Yoo / 7SanDiego / May 19, 2020

Data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) indicates the death rate since COVID-19 arrived in San Diego County is far higher than in previous years. The data provides a hint that the deaths for COVID-19 are likely far higher than the 209 confirmed COVID-19 deaths in San Diego County. And while the numbers from the CDC do not reveal the cause of death,

Here’s the recent poll the Ocean Beach Town Council conducted on time-limit restrictions on OB beach parking lots. They received 407 responses with nearly half (47%) wanting to see a 4 hour time limit (no cost) to the lots.

By Judi Curry

Dear Mayor Kevin Faulconer and Councilmember Jen Campbell:

I have been a resident of the Sunset Cliffs area since 1966. I have never felt as concerned about living in this area as I do now. I feel that my safety is in jeopardy, along with all of my neighbors living south of Pt. Loma Avenue. Let me tell you why.

Since the pandemic the parking lots along the Cliffs are blocked off. At each lot there are many police officers and cadets asking people to “move on”.

By Colleen O’Connor

Who are these people? And where do they come from?

What is it about newcomers to San Diego that get in positions of power and proceed to try and re-make the city in the image of New York? Overcrowded, densely population and dwarfed by sunless high-rises and wind tunnels – are a recipe for disasters in the future.

Has the COVID-19 pandemic taught us nothing about such urban nightmares?

If not listening to New York’s Governor, Andrew Cuomo, repeat day after tragic day that “density” is what overwhelmed his city, then consider Dutch architect, Rem Koolhaas, the Pritzker prize–winning author and academic, with a new exhibition at the Guggenheim.

Several people in the beach area took videos of a large group of unruly and rude bicyclists who rolled through Ocean Beach and Pacific Beach on Sunday, May 17. Most – if not all – the riders did not have masks on and didn’t practice social distancing. They were also ignoring stop signs, red lights, pedestrians and motorists in their massive jaunt around the beaches, flipping people off who raised concerns of their behavior.

At one point in Mission Beach, several of the bicyclists punched and kicked a woman motorist who had gotten out of her car to scold some of them for running a red light.

10News collected the different videos and interviewed a man who shot some instagram video. Pacific Beach resident Steve Paen told the station:

“We were at a stoplight and then this massive bike brigade [started] rolling down Garnet, heading east, and it looked like there were maybe a 100 or 200 of them just rolling down the street.”

by Ernie McCray

Oh, these hair-raising
misguided
shortsighted
folks
waving their
red, white, and blue flags
and wearing their red, white, and blue
caps and hats,
and red, white and blue
tennis shoes,
on the news,
unmasked and
confused and unglued,
packing heat,
singing the blues
because they can’t
do whatever
they want to do,

By Thomas Ultican / Tultican / May 14, 2020

The Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) started releasing the results of its new Cities Study Project in mid-2019. It is not a coincidence that the cities chosen for the study have long been targeted for public school privatization.

The ten cities selected are: Indianapolis; Baton Rouge; Camden; Kansas City; Memphis; New Orleans; Oakland; St. Louis; San Antonio; and Washington DC. This CREDO study is even more opaque and biased than its previous efforts.

Who is CREDO?

The Rules for San Diego parks, as of May 1, 2020:

Here’s the latest list of what parks are open in Ocean Beach and Point Loma.

Bill Cleator Community Park – Open
Bob Kenny Field (also known as Ocean Beach Elementary Joint Use) – Closed
Cabrillo Elementary Joint Use – Closed
Cabrillo Recreation Center – Closed
Cabrillo Tennis (SUP Holder) – Closed
Collier Neighborhood Park – Open

By Geoff Page

No one who knows me would ever describe me as an eternal optimist. And, the supply of optimism a person comes into this world with dwindles with the passing of many years. Yet, I can say, a flicker survives and is fanned occasionally by events. Mine was when a Democrat was finally elected mayor of this city and by some of what he began to do before the establishment destroyed him, with some help of his own. But, he never stood a chance.

Then, another event fanned my flame when a Democrat defeated the incumbent Republican for the District 2 city council seat. Yes, the city council is supposed to be non-partisan, but it ain’t. While I did not vote for Dr. Jennifer Campbell, enough people did and she was elected to the seat, ousting Lorie Zapf. This was good for two reasons: anyone else would have been an improvement over Zapf, and, a Democrat replaced a Republican. Or so we thought.

By Jim Miller

Very hard times are here for our schools and colleges. As expected, the California budget is a train wreck and social services and education will be losing billions of dollars for the coming year at least. To make matters worse, the Republicans in Congress want to starve the states in the midst of the building COVID-19 depression, but that’s just fine with the lords of the tech world. They’ll be turning lemons into extremely profitable lemonade in short order if they have their way.

In fact, NYU Business Professor Scott Galloway predicts in a New York Magazine interview that “the coming disruption” in higher education will enable a handful of elite cyborg universities to monopolize education as the top tier universities prosper and grow by offering vastly expanded online options under their brand, while “second tier colleges” slowly perish.

The above SDU-T chart is from today, Friday, May 15, 2020, with the data good through Thursday, May 14. Compared with last week’s chart published Friday, May 8, with data good through the 7th, we can see the increases in total deaths, total cases and new positive cases. With increased testing, the numbers are bound to go up. Yet, in one week in San Diego County, there were 962 new cases of COVID-19 and 35 additional deaths.