OB Rag

San Diego Councilwoman Lorie Zapf – incumbent for District 2 – has gone missing for at least 3 district town council candidate forums now.

Zapf failed to show at all three area forums; the Pacific Beach Town Council candidate forum, the Ocean Beach Town Council forum on April 25 and then most recently the Clairemont Town Council forum on May 3. (The Mission Beach Town Council calendar didn’t show any recent or upcoming candidate forum.)

Zapf – the only prominent Republican in the race for District 2 – has amassed more campaign funds than other candidate for city council throughout all the council races. So, perhaps she feels she’s safe or knows she’ll at least be in the November run-off.

OB Kite Festival has a new location!

The 70th annual Ocean Beach Kite Festival – that’s right, the 70th – is moving to a new and bigger venue this year. The traditional free event will now be held at Robb Field on Saturday, May 12, from 10 am to 4 pm.

The new Robb Field location will give everyone more room to fly their kites, as well as lots of free parking.

Children will learn how to make and fly a simple kite, with all materials and instruction included.

There’s also food, music (from OB’s own Beer Feat band), jumpies, and a craft fair. Prizes for the best decorated kites

Good Samaritan Julio Vazquez, Despite Loss of House and Job Due to Injuries, “Would Do It Again”

A suspect has been arrested for the April 9 hit and run of a good Samaritan who stopped to help a couple in their disabled vehicle – on the edge of Ocean Beach. Jaron Blake Hillyer, 27, was taken into custody by San Diego police and booked into Central Jail on charges of felony hit-and-run, driving with a suspended license and no valid insurance.

His station wagon had been found in the 4300 block of Orchard Avenue. Meanwhile, the good Samaritan, Julio Vazquez, 26, – still recovering from his serious injuries – told CBS8 he “would do it again,” and

Editordude: The OB Rag’s Joaquin Antique, the author of numerous “OB Walkabouts”, just returned from a trip to Italy.

By Joaquin Antique

The more I travel the more I’m surprised at how familiar things can feel in other places. One of the things I relish about travel is experiencing how different other places can be, but I often find that the commonalities and shared experiences between us are what’s most amazing.

Take the coastal eddy for example. It doesn’t matter if you’re in OB or on the Amalfi Coast, when the fog rolls in it can ruin your day. Or you can just groove on it until it burns off and then it’s glorious. Yellow and green bikes cluttering up your neighborhood or polluting your view?

One hundred years ago, on Monday, May 6, 1918, at least 13 men, including 11 servicemen, drowned in a single day in heavy rip currents off Ocean Beach. Over 60 people were rescued by lifeguards. The story was covered by the San Diego Union-Tribune, and we include the first few paragraphs of the story, below.

The tragedy forced San Diego and Ocean Beach to deal with the dangers of the surf and tides, and led to the formation of the first lifeguards.
2 DROWN, 11 MISSING, 60 ARE SAVED AT OCEAN BEACH
TERRIFIC TIDE-RIP TRAPS SWIMMERS WITHOUT WARNING

CAUGHT in a terrific tide-rip which swept upon them without warning yesterday afternoon at Ocean Beach, scores of bathers fought for their lives,

By Brett Warnke

When librarian Matt Beatty talks about his paddle-skating, he doesn’t smile–not in that broad proud way of the athlete, but in a tiny mischievous lift of his mustache.

“It’s an old person’s extreme sport,” he said.

His wit is dry but he gets wet every morning swimming in the chilly waters bubbling under the OB Pier and makes his way to the place where we have all seen him, the OB Library, the human face of our odd little corner of San Diego. Matt is a kind of sociologist of readers,

Today: US Senate, Local House of Representatives & Ballot Measures

The OB Rag and San Diego Free Press are pleased to present part four of our 2018 Primary Election Progressive Voter Guide. As usual, we tried not to let perfect be the enemy of good in our decision making. This year we’re breaking it into parts to make it more digestible.

Last week after I sent off my column about why I wrote Last Days in Ocean Beach, a novel about living on the border between dread and wonder in the Anthropocene, the news cycle was full of coincidental but eerie echoes. A Los Angeles Times story observed of the recent floods in Kauai, “A Hawaiian island got about 50 inches of rain in 24 hours.

Scientists warn it’s a sign of the future,” while the Washington Post reported, “’Fallen off a cliff’: Scientists have never observed so little ice in the Bering Sea in spring.”

Many of us are aware of the tragic and fatal events that came down 48 years ago at Kent State University in Ohio during protests against the Vietnam war and president Nixon’s expansion of it with his invasion into Cambodia. On May 4, four students were shot dead and eleven wounded by National Guardsmen who had been called in to quell the unruly protests. What many of us don’t know is what came before and what came afterwards.

On April 30, Nixon announced the invasion into Vietnam’s neighbor. In response, campuses nationwide exploded into a national student strike -. And certainly San Diego campuses were no exception.

From Lomabeat

When former Point Loma Nazarene University student Amy McClanahan went to her then PLNU professor and Mid City Church of the Nazarene pastor, John Wright, seeking help with issues that she said were related to childhood sexual trauma, she was following university protocol.

Wright also followed the appropriate steps when he went to PLNU’s Wellness Center and other faculty on campus, seeking assistance for McClanahan.

Neither Wright nor McClanahan found what they were looking for.

In an historic and unanimous vote, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday, May 2, decided on a package of proposed rules to regulate short term vacation rentals.

The proposals would allow city residents to rent out their own homes on a night-to-night basis, but not allow the renting out a house or apartment for short stays if it is not their primary residence.

Today: California Statewide Offices & Local Legislative Seats

The OB Rag and San Diego Free Press are pleased to present part three of our 2018 Primary Election Progressive Voter Guide. As usual, we tried not to let perfect be the enemy of good in our decision making. This year we’re breaking it into parts to make it more digestible.