OB Rag

Last night, Thursday, June 14, about 80 Point Lomans crowded into the meeting room at the local library and gave representatives from the San Diego Housing Commission a piece of their collective mind about the proposed 78 units on the table to be built.

It was a special meeting of the Peninsula Community Planning Board on the open space land at Famosa and Voltaire – and although the Board failed to manage a quorum – they really didn’t need one as it wasn’t a voting meeting for them. What it the meeting represented was another chance for the Housing Commission to explain their project and get feedback.

Apparently, the discussion became testy – as different sides were being heard

A San Diego Father’s Day weekend tradition

From website:

A San Diego Father’s Day weekend tradition, the San Diego Wooden Boat festival – held at Shelter Island – is the premier annual event for Southern California wooden boat enthusiasts and provides a rare opportunity for the general public to view some of the most beautiful and well maintained wooden crafts up close.

While this event features mostly well preserved vintage vessels there are also plenty of new crafts that have been hand crafted with skill and meticulous detail.

A young man had to be airlifted off the rocks at the bottom of Sunset Cliffs as he was so badly injured – on Thursday morning, June 14. The as-yet-to-be identified man was reportedly bleeding from his head from a 30 foot fall.

A woman collecting shells saw him around 6:15 a.m. and called 911. She told the press the man was breathing and moved a little when sirens were heard arriving.

Lifeguards, police and firefighters responded and he was eventually airlifted off the rocks near the foot of Hill Street in Point Loma

The OB Rag received the following message today from Marina, the OB Mermaid:

To the humans of Ocean Beach and all of San Diego

I want to thank you for the warm and wonderful reception you gave me upon my arrival. I came to OB upon the tides of the full moon in hopes of catching a glimpse of those who might still believe in the ancient legends.

A Point Loma man, Peter Bentz, went missing just before Thanksgiving last year. His family went to the police and reported that he didn’t show up for a planned family outing out of town, and it was unlike him to not contact friends and family members. Bentz, 68, was last seen at Dog Beach in Ocean Beach on November 19. Missing posters went up.

Somewhere along the line – and for as yet undisclosed reasons – developments in the case caused police investigators to believe they had a murder case on their hands and it was turned over to homicide detectives.

This reporter’s cousin, Mindy Elliot, reports on facebook that the OB Mermaid has been blown off “Bird Shit Rock”.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer has finally released his proposals for regulating short term vacation rentals in the city of San Diego – he is due to publicly release them Thursday, June 14.

According to today’s San Diego Union-Tribune, Faulconer’s proposal restricts short term rental units to only two per individual owner, with the huge exception of the entire Mission Beach community would have no restrictions.

Short term rental hosts would be allowed,

OB Street Fair & Chili Cook-Off

From OBMA:

Mark your calendar for the 39th Annual Ocean Beach Street Fair & Chili Cook-Off Festival on Saturday, June 23, 2018!

Have you ever wondered about some of the demographic and political differences between Ocean Beach and Point Loma – two neighboring communities that make up most of the Peninsula?

If you have, then the Community Almanac published in last Sunday’s San Diego Union-Tribune has many answers for you.

The Ocean Beach Green Center is honored to host author, historian, and activist, Kathy Blavatt who will present her new book “Ocean Beach Where Land and Water Meet”.

The new book event is at the Ocean Beach Green Center, 4843 B Voltaire in OB, on Thursday June 14 at 7 p.m.

Kathy will focus on the importance of what makes Ocean Beach special

The City Is Posed to Begin a Massive Redevelopment of the Midway District

By Michael Winn

We are told there are 550,000 homeless people in America. We’re also told of a crisis, called, “housing affordability” in urban coastal California cities. Statements of politicians of every stripe: Brown to Cox, Beane to Zapf, Faulconer to Fletcher, all assume we will address housing affordability by developing more housing. This assumption is politically motivated by a desire for endorsements from local governments and for campaign contributions from a development industry that financially benefits from development.

To mortgage lenders and property managers, “affordable” means that a household’s mortgage payment or rent amounts to no more than 28% of gross income.

Every year in San Diego, the numbers of homeless people are accessed in the annual point-in-time count. Those numbers – collected by volunteers working for the Regional Task Force on the Homeless – are then used as a measure for the area’s progress in ending homelessness and – importantly – the funds and other resources required and received from the State and Feds.

So, this year the count was on January 26 – and volunteers spread out all over the region with their census sheets. And as it turned out, fortunately for them, Mayor Kevin Faulconer, County Supervisor Ron Roberts and City Councilman Chris Ward all held their pressers and got to announce a 6% drop in homelessness, compared to last year. There was just one problem. The numbers were wrong.