OB Rag

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.

By Marjorie Cohn / TruthOut / May 14, 2020

Donald Trump claims that while he is president, his pre-presidency financial records can’t be subpoenaed and he can’t even be investigated for criminal conduct. The Supreme Court will decide by the end of June whether Trump is indeed beyond the reach of the law.

On May 12, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments about whether Trump can block subpoenas for his tax and other financial records that predate his presidency. Although prior presidents made their tax returns public, Trump has steadfastly refused to reveal his. In 2016, he promised to release them when the purported “audit” is complete. But they remain under wraps.

In April 2019, three committees of the House of Representatives and the New York district attorney issued subpoenas to banks and financial institutions to obtain Trump’s records. Trump sued to prevent the disclosures. Even though all four lower courts that considered the issue ruled that the records must be produced, Trump continues to stonewall, claiming in essence he is above the law.

The San Diego City Council Rules Committee voted yesterday 3 to 1 – with Councilmember Barbara Bry the only ‘nay’ vote – to push Jen Campbell’s measure to rescind the 30-foot height limit in the Midway area towards the November ballot.

The entire Council still needs to vote on it sometime this summer. Councilmember Chris Cate has joined Campbell in recent months pushing the initiative to “open up” the Midway District to more large-scale development.

As KPBS reported, “Councilwoman Barbara Bry, in the midst of a mayoral campaign, voted against putting the measure on the ballot, arguing it was not an urgent need for the city,….” Bry’s opponent for mayor is Assemblymember Todd Gloria, who supports the measure. Again, from KPBS:

by Ernie McCray

Oh, I want so
to be out and about again,
to just grab a hold
of my children and grandchildren
and great-grandchildren
and friends
and hug them
for eternity,
or at least
until my arms fall limp.

Who does have access to the beach and the coast? What’s with the protests to reopen our sandy parks?

Here are some recent commentaries from local San Diego media.

You couldn’t go to the beach? People of color have had access issues for centuries.

By Anela Akiona & Kayla Wilson / San Diego Union-Tribune / May 14, 2020

As Southern California beaches have opened and closed at various points in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, there have been widespread protests by members of predominantly white,

Reopened Beaches Remain Out of Reach for San Diego’s Poor

By MacKenzie Elmer / Voice of San Diego / May 12, 2020

Early in the pandemic, officials debated when and how to close beaches.

Coverage of anti-lockdown protests in San Diego is ignoring one glaring fact

By Andrew Matschiner / San Diego Union-Tribune / May 13, 2020
To put it plainly, these protests attract predominately white San Diegans.