OB Rag

From Jen Campbell’s Office:

On Thursday, January 30th, Councilmember Jennifer Campbell will be hosting her first “State of the District” event.

This community celebration will honor the “Neighbor of the Year” and “Small Business of the Year” for District 2’s seven communities with the winners nominated by their neighbors.

This event will be hosted in partnership with Point Loma Nazarene University and will feature remarks by Councilmember Campbell, tabling by local non-profits, and performances by local students.

One Homeless Victim Asked Him ‘Why?’ Guerrero Replied, “Because You’re a Bum.”

Jon David Guerrero, 42, pleaded guilty Monday, Jan. 27, to murdering four homeless men during a grisly serial killing spree in 2016 – including the horrific murder of an Ocean Beach man, Shawn Mitchell Longley. Four of the sleeping, homeless men were stabbed to death with rail spikes and two of those were set on fire.

Guerrero also pleaded guilty to five counts of assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of arson. He agreed to be sentenced to four consecutive life terms in prison without the possibility of parole and an additional 143 years to life in prison. This will occur on May 1. The charges stem from his attacks on 12 men and one woman over six months between February and July 2016.

Every year the Ocean Beach Town Council has elections for its board of directors members. There are 15 seats on the Board and OBTC members elect Directors for two-year terms. Half of the Board stands for election every year. This year, 7 seats on the OBTC Board of Directors are up for election.

There are 6 candidates seeking election or reelection to the Board of Directors. Members of the OBTC are the only ones allowed to vote – and they can select up to 6 candidates whom they wish to represent them on the OBTC Board of Directors.

Candidate letters and statements can be viewed below. In order to vote, a member needs an OBTC online account. Voting will close at 11:59 PM on February 7th. After the results have been certified, they will be announced on social media. For more info, go here for the OBTC website.

Candidate Statements (in alphabetical order):

***Jon Carr
***Arlene Fink
***Grace Quigley
***Cameron Reid
***Christie Romano
***Mark J Winkie

By Judi Curry

I have received a fair number of calls, emails, etc. asking me why I haven’t been writing lately. There are several reasons that I will briefly mention: One is that I have been ill. Not the flu; not a cold, but something in-between. As a cancer survivor that went through many sessions of radiation, my bronchial tubes are weaker than normal, and illnesses just seem to fester there for awhile. After 3 weeks of feeling like I was dead – and sometimes wishing that I was – I am 98% better.

Another reason for not writing is that my book Liar, Liar came out in early December and I have been doing some promotions on that – at least until I became ill!

Another reason, and some of you will understand this, is that I have become obsessed with the horrific situation that is in the White House. Hours and minutes are spent shaking my head in disbelief as everyday unfolds new lies; new restrictions on our rights; dirty air and dirtier water.

By Colleen O’Connor

Old things are often new again. Not just in fashion, but in film as well. Two such great movies debuted this last year on their 2019 anniversaries.

Little Women — on the 150th anniversary of its publication and 1917 — on the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War I.

Both movies are Oscar nominees. Both are box office hits—1917 with a world-wide take of $155 million; and Little Women with a comparable $134 million. And both ranked high on Rotten Tomatoes. Little Women with a 95% rating and 1917 at 90%.

Most importantly, both these old era stories are new and consequential again.

I taught History through Film courses because I found them to often be the best instructors

It’s “Primavera Falsa” time – the False Spring that comes to Ocean Beach and Southern California every year in mid to late January. And it’s happening again. Check out the temperatures coming up this week – the low 70’s to the low 80’s.

Every year around this time SoCal enjoys a week or two of “unseasonably” warm weather. Surfers grab their boards and head for the waves in droves. People flock to the beaches in swimsuits and actually go into the ocean.

Winter sweaters and jackets are stashed – at least temporarily -, and the BBQ grills are rolled back out from their winter hibernation. Yet, alas … it’s only for a short while. For a decade now, we’ve been calling it Primavera Falsa and it happens every January.

By Geoff Page

The parking lot was full, people had parked in the alley, there was no street parking, and there was a good-sized crowd inside the Masonic Lodge for the first meeting of 2020 for the Ocean Beach Town Council on Wednesday, January 22. The reason was quickly apparent as the council was giving out its annual awards for floats in the Ocean Beach Christmas Parade.

Holiday Parade Winners

Before the awards were announced, the council explained that there were 112 entries in the parade. That number was surprising; the parade has grown a lot over the years. When the judging was over, they handed out the following awards for the best floats:

Use of Lights – OB Elementary

By Jim Miller

If you’ve been paying attention to the news about labor over the last year or so, you’d think we were in an era of a resurgent union movement. We’ve seen a wave of inspiring, militant teachers’ strikes from West Virginia to Los Angeles along with a successful autoworkers’ strike against General Motors and lots of other signs of life from grocery workers’ actions to pushes for minimum wage increases across America. Unfortunately, the latest numbers on union membership paint a more disappointing picture.

As the Washington Post reported last week:

Union membership in the American workforce was down to 10.3 percent from 10.5 percent in 2018, according to statistics released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The continued slide shows how energy and momentum around the labor movement is not translating into equivalent growth for unions, whose memberships have fallen sharply as a percentage of the U.S. workforce over the past roughly 40 years. In 1983, unions represented about 1 out of 5 workers; now it’s 1 in 10 workers.

Dirty Birds to Donate 20% of Sales to Help Filipino Volcano Victims

Mid-Length Surf Boards Are Going Mainstream

OB Cops Pay for Sweater and Socks for Barefoot Homeless Man

Surf Rider Pizza Up for Sale

Missing Inmate Found in Midway District

Data Release: 22 Pedestrians, 5 Bicyclists Killed in 2019 in City of San Diego – W.Pt Loma & Rosecrans On List

Pets owned by homeless people get veterinarian care once a month in Ocean Beach

Man on Trial Tells Jury He Didn’t Kill Ocean Beach Resident

Mayor Faulconer, Navy and SANDAG Agree to Transfer Property for Midway Area Transit Center

Mayor Kevin Faulconer and representatives from SANDAG and the Navy signed off on a agreement to transfer the Navy property known as NAVWAR over to SANDAG so it can pave the way for the development of a major transit center.

Whether it’s in the Midway District or in Old Town, this is a big deal, which will allow for the redevelopment of the 72-acre property along Interstate 5.

Faulconer and SANDAG reps signed the agreement at the Pentagon with the Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas B. Modly.

In return SANDAG has agreed to build a “new state of the art facilities” for the Navy for NAVWAR (Naval Information Warfare Systems Command – which used to be called SPAWARS).

The Chairperson of the Peninsula Community Planning Board, Robert Goldyn, has written a letter on behalf of the Board to Mayor Faulconer and other city officials calling the proposed “modifications” to the North Chapel at Liberty Station “fundamentally inconsistent with the historical use of the property.”

Goldyn was responding to a presentation by the property managers of North Chapel at the most recent meeting of the Board on January 16. (See OB Rag reporter Geoff Page’s report here.)

828 Venues representatives – the current sublessee – had described the proposed changes – as Goldyn noted – “that include, in particular, the removal of substantially all of the pews that are currently installed in the building and the removal of several stained glass windows, each of which have been specifically identified as historic resources in the Guidelines for Historic Properties at NTC.”

by Ernie McCray

I’ve been asked,

as we honor

Martin Luther King,

to speak of what I

have overcome in life.

In ten minutes.

And I’m thinking “Wow, really?”