OB Rag

By Jim Miller

It’s the first week of classes in the San Diego Community College District where I teach, and, as has become almost an annual ritual, the new year comes with a number of suspect education reforms from Sacramento.

Jerry Brown released his budget proposal recently, and unfortunately, there are two big, bad ideas that the Governor would like to be part of his higher education legacy: a new fully online college and performance-based funding. What unites these initiatives is that they are both driven more by corporate education reform ideology than sound pedagogy or evidence that they will be effective in reaching their stated aim.

I’ll start with the online college.

Three Council members and Environmental Groups to Demand Trump Administration to Stand Down on San Diego Offshore Oil Drilling While Candidate for District 2 to Protest Republican’s Involvement

Councilmembers David Alvarez, Barbara Bry and Lorie Zapf join together with environmental leaders will rally in a protest today, Monday, January 29th and make the case for San Diego to be removed from the Administration’s list of potential oil drilling sites released by the Department of the Interior on January 4.

The protest and news conference will be at Spanish Landing Park – East, at 3900 N. Harbor Drive, across from the airport at Noon.

By Geoff Page

Two of the projects that came before the Peninsula Community Planning Board, or PCPB, at its regular monthly meeting January 18 at the Pt. Loma Library engendered opposite reactions. One was very popular, although it had a major flaw, and the other was very unpopular.

Replacing the Dolphin Motel on Rosecrans

The popular project was an attractive new hotel that would replace the Dolphin Motel on Rosecrans, a collection of four old buildings on the corner of Rosecrans and Garrison that will be demolished. The address are 1453-1463 Rosecrans Street and 2912 and 2930 Garrison Street. Everyone on the board believed this would be a big improvement over what is there now.

The 49,150 square foot hotel will be three stories tall with 92 rooms, about double the number of rooms in the old motel.

The Ocean Beach Town Council is having its annual election to its Board of Directors, and this year there are 7 open seats. And there are a staggering number of 13 candidates for those seats. Four of the candidates are incumbents. The top 7 vote-getters become Board members – there is no run-off.

The election takes place online from Monday, January 29th to Friday, February 9th, only by the several hundred members of the OB Town Council. (Voting members are paid up for the $20 annual fee.)

The Ocean Beach Town Council is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization dedicated to the care and improvement of our beautiful coastal community. Membership costs $20 per year, and all money raised goes right back to helping our community. If you’re interested in being a member, go here.

At the monthly meeting of the OBTC Wednesday, Jan. 24th, the 13 candidates appeared and all of them gave very brief speeches.

INSIDE is a list of the candidates with a very, very brief description, in the order of their presentations the other night:

It was like a love fest during the Summer of Love at the Ocean Beach Town Council meeting Wednesday night, January 24th. It was all good vibes as the Board bid a cherry and teary farewell to Gretchen Newsom, president for the last 4 years, and to other members who are stepping down from the Council. It was merry times as well during all the various governmental reports.

It was very celebratory as the Board presented the awards to the OB Holiday Parade winners – including members of the Mermaid float who came dressed in costume. And it was all very friendly as more than a dozen candidates for the open chairs on the Town Council gave their brief spiels (see separate article).

In direct contrast to last week’s ominous OB Town Hall meeting on the dreary subjects of arson and vandalism, this gathering of OB folk and kids was more akin to a circus, where ringmaster Marcus Turner, OBTC vice-president, directed the various performances and shows in a delightful couple hours of entertainment.

In the January 25th edition of the San Diego Reader, Delinda Lombardo, breaks the sad news that the days are numbered for one of the most iconic restaurants in Ocean Beach – Nati’s Mexican Restaurant.

In a piece of excellent investigative work, Lombardo reports the –

“Pop Pie Co. will occupy the restaurant space, pending the signing of a lease.”

Nati’s, the famous eatery – located at Bacon and Niagara – has been a mainstay in the Peninsula since the early 1960s – and even though some express disdain for the old-school Mexican food served – for many others, it’s their favorite place for Mexican. It was voted “best restaurant” for many years.

It was originally thought the recent sale of Nati’s would only result in remodeling and the restaurant would be re-opened. But now it appears any innovations will be going further.

10 News reports an Ocean Beach couple had their vehicles vandalized when someone threw paint-thinner over them sometime Tuesday or Wednesday of this past week. The damage to the cars’ exteriors is in the thousands of dollars. The station reports:

Terisa Harju says someone threw paint thinner or a solvent of some kind all over her and her fiancé’s vehicles. Both were parked in their driveway along West Point Loma Boulevard.

Tragedy struck the 5100 block of West Point Loma Boulevard Wednesday, Jan. 24th, when a motorcyclist lost control of his Harley-Davidson and collided with an oncoming Ford Escape; the unidentified man died from his injuries.

It’s reported “The 53-year-old man was riding to the east on a curving stretch of roadway in the 5100 block of West Point Loma Boulevard shortly before 2 p.m.” when the collision occurred, according to San Diego police. He ended up slamming onto the concrete and sliding into a parked vehicle.

The popular bar, THC, is undergoing a huge change – like, a total rehab, dude.

The old building has been scraped off the face of the earth. And in it’s place will be owner Steve Yeng’s dream restaurant bar combo. But looking at what’s left and realizing how narrow the interior of the structure was, it’s amazing to think anything and all those people had fit into that space.

In previous posts, such as this June 2016 report, we stated:

Midway Homeless Veterans’ Tent Not Being Filled

By Geoff Page

Environmental Impact Report for the Midway Community Plan Update

The big gorilla in the room at the Midway Community Planning Board’s regular monthly meeting was a thing called an EIR or Environmental Impact Report. Anyone who has ever seen one of these documents can attest to the actual weight and complexity of an EIR such that characterizing it as a gorilla is understandable.

The OB Resister Sisters have hit again with another freeway banner.

A project to dredge sections of Mission Bay began last week by the City of San Diego. A large crane mounted on a barge has begun to excavate about a total of 64 acres of the bay as part of the plan.

Why is the Bay being dredged?

It’s all about the boats. Apparently over the last 50 years storms and currents – as well as boats themselves – have moved the floor of the Bay around and now it’s uneven and unsafe for boating. The dredging will make it easier and safer for boats to navigate around the Bay, the largest aquatic park on the West Coast.