OB Rag

As several friends have reminded me, I’m getting older. And that means I should’ve gotten that flu shot.

Now I regret not getting one, as the flu hit me like a ton of bricks about ten days ago. I’m still not well – although I am functioning. That’s why posting on the OB Rag these last couple of weeks has been light.

Nati’s Changes Owners and Will Re-Model

Julie Stalmer wrote in a Dec. 14th San Diego Reader piece about how Nati’s is getting new owners and will close to re-model. The restaurant will stay, Stalmer reported:

This Is 4th Fatal Shooting for Police Officer Who Shot Point Loma Suspect

Th San Diego police officer who killed an armed burglar inside a Point Loma home on Sunday Dec. 10th, has fatally shot three other men in the past four years.

COME INSIDE FOR THESE AND MORE NEWS

By Joaquin Antique

If you just can’t bring yourself to give up on the sordid consumer frenzy and go all in for a Buy Nothing Christmas, then perhaps getting your loved ones a few good books to help them navigate our dark times is the next best thing.

Here is my list of a handful of some of the best books of the last awful year:

• Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLean

As I noted in my first column on this fine book, “Nancy MacLean’s Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America is the single most important new book for progressives to read this year if they want to understand how we got to the dark moment of the present . . .

The mini-construction empire of Curtis Nelson – the owner/ developer of the failed project at Ebers and Greene Streets in Ocean Beach – has been taken over by a San Francisco firm, Downkicker Investments Inc.

Downkicker took over $7 Million in projects from Nelco, Nelson’s company, including a project at 2006 Catalina Boulevard. Downkicker CEO, Tracy Smith, told the OB Rag that they have not taken over Nelson’s most controversial project at Ebers and Greene. Ebers will most likely be sold at foreclosure, he told us.

Smith also stated to us:

I had to spend 6 hours doing hard negotiations at the boardroom table with him [Curtis Nelson] to get him to sign them over. .

Shanghai Bun – Chinese Tapas Bar
1029 Rosecrans St.
San Diego, CA 92106
619-795-1700
www.shanghaibunsd.com

I have visited the Shanghai Bun four times now. Each time I have gone with someone else and the past three times was less than thrilled with the results. One of the people I went with several months ago was Susi, and we agreed that a lot of work needed to be done before we would go back. (Editor: see Judi’s review from May 2017.)

Several weeks ago Susi contacted me and told me that she had gone again with her mother, and the menu had changed and was much better. Because I have wanted to have an authentic Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood I decided to go back and try it again.

Direct from the Ocean Beach Town Council

The 38th Annual OB Holiday Parade winners

Here are the winners of the Parade – there were 5 categories and there were ties in two of them.

Donald Trump is publicly considering firing special counsel Robert Mueller, the person leading the Department of Justice investigation of possible illegal actions by Donald Trump and members of his presidential campaign, and the efforts to conceal those activities.

This would be a constitutional crisis for our country. It would demand an immediate and unequivocal response to show that we will not tolerate abuse of power from Donald Trump.

That’s why we’re preparing to hold emergency “Nobody is Above the Law” rallies around the country in the event they are needed.

Dr. Jennifer Campbell is running to unseat Lori Zapf for the District 2 City Council seat. And although she’s fairly unknown in the beach communities of the large, spreading District that includes Ocean Beach and Point Loma, Campbell has amassed an impressive list of endorsements.

Those endorsements include many of the local Democratic Party Congressional and State representatives, most recently, Congressman Juan Vargas but the list also includes State Senator Toni Atkins, Assemblymember Todd Gloria, Nathan Fletcher – himself a candidate for County Supervisor, former State Senator Christine Kehoe, and Congressman Scott Peters. Active in the Clairemont neighborhood of the district,

Bruce Brown, the director and producer of the surf icon “The Endless Summer”, passed this week.

I saw the film before it even had a sound track, and while hundreds of us young surfer dudes sat entranced inside the auditorium of a Pacific Beach public school, Bruce Brown himself did the narration with a microphone. It was about 1964 – ’65.

Phil Hoad, of The Guardian, took one of the last interviews Brown gave before his death, and in it he talks about chasing summer and surf around the globe, turning a $50,000 gamble into a $33m cult classic.

In a nutshell, after about 5 hours of public testimony, Council members turned and tried to fashion a 5-vote majority on one of the two major proposals before them or some kind of compromise. But in the end, in a dramatic turn-about by Councilmember David Alvarez, no majority was found and Council President Myrtle Cole gaveled the hearing to a close without a decision and without a future date to revisit the issue.

Here are observations from OBceans:

The meeting started at 10 a.m. Tuesday inside Golden Hall at the Civic Center and there were quick presentations of two proposed ordinances .