OB Rag

(Originally p0sted Dec 6, 2010 as part of a series, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to OB”)

By Citizen Cane

The Incredible Shrinking Park can still be observed in Ocean Beach at the intersection of Green and Soto Streets. It’s officially known as Collier Park, and consists of approximately 6.7 dedicated acres if you include the Point Loma Native Plant Reserve. That might sound large, but it’s barely a fraction of the original size of the park before it began shrinking.

Travel back in time with the aid of the Fall 1957 Thomas Brothers Map, and you can see the park was bounded by Soto, Green, Valeta, and almost to Wolcott (about two blocks from the present day Stumps Market.)

A new construction project coming to the shores of Famosa Slough promises to be a challenge to one of the last natural vestiges of Mission Bay.

The “Villa Famosa” project is slated for a remodel of one already existing 2-story apartment building at the site on Camulos Drive, the 90 degree “turning” of the other already-existing 2-story, and the construction of a brand new third 2-story building that will hold 6 units.

The existing lot is on the edge of Famosa Slough at 2727 Camulos Dr.within the perimeters of the Peninsula Community Planning Board (ed. we don’t know when the project is scheduled for their meeting review). It’s on a .38 acre site. The applicant is Alex Miller, and the project manager at the City of San Diego is Derick Johnson.

The owner/ contractor of the controversial Ebers and Greene project has had his contractor’s license suspended.

Curtis Nelson of Nelco Contracting of Vista, California, had his license recently suspended “for failure to comply with an Arbitration Award. The suspension occurred on March 23, 2017.

By Jim Miller

Over the more than two decades I have spent teaching at the college level, the vast majority of that time at San Diego City College, I have seen a little bit of everything. From the homeless student sleeping in Balboa Park who ended up at USC to the single mother living in her car with her kids who still got every assignment in on time before transferring to SDSU, there have been far too many stories of triumphs against all odds for me to recount.

Along with those stories come sadder tales like the cab driver supporting his family who almost finished but got knocked out of the game by an unexpected financial challenge

Restaurant Review

Buona Forchetta
2816 Sims Road
(Liberty Station)
San Diego, CA
619-548-5770

After months of waiting for this South Park restaurant Buona Forchetta to open in Liberty Station, the wait has come to an end. And even though I don’t like to do a review only a few days after opening, I couldn’t resist having lunch there with two widows on this day.

I felt that if it was adequate I just would not send in the review. As you can tell, if you are reading this, the meal must have been good because here is the review.

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See “A Note to My Readers” INSIDE

By Will Falk / San Diego Free Press

At the south end of Brown’s Canyon, about 6 miles northeast of Park City, Utah, there’s always an engine running. Usually, there are more than I can count.

If it’s not commuting car engines coughing to life in cold, winter air, it’s snowblowers blasting snow from driveways. If it’s not cars or snowblowers, its excavators flattening the next hill over, clawing out one bucketful of earth at a time. If it’s none of these, it’s diesel generators compressing air for nail guns popping boards together.

From Save San Diego Neighborhoods:

Panel advances home-sharing proposal, declines on whole-home rental plans

MARCH 24, 2017 – In a victory for opponents of short-term vacation rentals, San Diego’s Smart Growth and Land Use Committee today agreed that only a proposal regulating home-sharing should go before the entire City Council with its recommendation. At the same time, the panel declined to push for any of three options brought by the Development Services Department (DSD) dealing with whole-home rentals.

The Ocean Beach Town Council held their monthly public meeting Wednesday night, March 22nd, at the Masonic Center – and more than 60 people filled the large hall.

The high point of the evening was something called “Engage OB” where chair Gretchen Newsom allowed representatives from different groups to address the crowd, each asking attendees to join their group or project. And 8 to 9 individuals made their pitches, including this reporter asking for people to be involved with the OB Rag.

According to an annual list of best and worst cities for renters by Forbes real estate research company, San Diego ranks the second worst city in the nation. Just behind Miami as the worst.

Marcus & Millichap calculated their results based on data collected from monthly rental costs in 2016, rent changes, and vacancies. Importantly the percentage of shared income that goes into paying for rent is a big factor.

Editor: OBceans may find this article about security cameras going up in Carlsbad of interest as Ocean Beach has its own controversial camera issue. This was also reposted at San Diego Free Press.

By Richard Riehl / The Riehl World

Fifty-one stationary cameras, in 14 locations, together with six mobile devices added to the ones already installed on two police cars, will soon capture the license plate numbers of all cars passing through the Carlsbad. They’ll be submitted to a national database that tracks stolen vehicles and those involved in crimes.

At its March 14 meeting, on a 4 to 1 vote, the Carlsbad City Council approved the $802,000 plan to conduct surveillance of residents and non-residents alike.

Back in June of 2014, a Yahoo account that I used for personal matters as well as for OB Rag business and communications was hacked. I lost thousands (at least 2300) of email address that I had gathered over the years as my contact list. I wrote about the hack and the loss. Here is part of what I said then:

Yes, it is true, and at first, I sort of laughed it off, as I went ahead and changed my password to the email account that was hacked on Thursday, June 19.

But then I realized all 2300 of my email contacts were gone ! – stolen by the hacker. Hundreds of those were my OB Rag email accounts. (It was my personal yahoo email account that was hacked – not the OB Rag gmail account.)

‘The Democratic leadership in the House and Senate,’ says filmmaker Michael Moore, ‘needs to bring a halt to all business being done in the name of this potential felony suspect, Donald J. Trump.’

By Jon Queally / Common Dreams

Documentary filmmaker and political activist Michael Moore on Wednesday said it’s time for the Democratic Party in Congress to “declare a National Emergency” and put a stop to all legislative activity—including the confirmation process of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch