OB Rag

Popular Voltaire Eatery Had Faced Stiff Rent Increase

A popular restaurant on the 4900 block of Voltaire Street in Ocean Beach, O’Bistro’s, has closed and is moving – probably over to the bay side of the Peninsula.

It was quite a shock when I heard about it. Their Euro-beach cuisine was a favorite of good friends and north OB will certainly lose one of its more high-end eateries.

I caught John – one of the owners – on a lunch break while packing up in the interior of the now-closed establishment at 4934 Voltaire. Chairs stood on tables, boxes were taking over the floors, and the moving truck stood close by. After expressing my condolences, he reassured me they will be opening up again probably close to Rosecrans, over the hill from OB.

The rumor that O’Bistro had been hit with a rent increase was true, it turned out. John explained the background.

By John Lawrence

Part 1: 110 Pages of Gobbledygook
Part 2: Lipstick on a Pig

Section 35.0109 Additional Tax Imposed

The Chargers want the City to create a separate Fund, the Convention Center Expansion and Stadium Fund, which will borrow money from Wall Street in the form of Bonds and be firewalled off from the City’s General Fund. So it’s like a separate entity for which the City is not responsible at all, but the City has to create it.

The BIG question is, “Will Wall Street go along with this?” The monies flowing into this fund come solely from an increase in the Tax On Transiency (TOT) of 4% (or is it 6% as stated in the proposal?).

If these monies aren’t sufficient to make the payments on the $1.15 billion in bonds that this “entity” (not the City, mind you) is responsible for, then what happens? Who’s left holding the bag?

By Frank Gormlie

Perhaps you’ve been too busy with summer to notice, but there’s been a ‘quiet’ debate going on recently in certain circles – including the op-ed pages of the San Diego Union-Tribune – over the future of Fiesta Island.

Fiesta Island – you know that flat and sandy piece of land that juts out into Mission Bay – it’s not really an island as it’s connected with the rest of San Diego by a narrow land bridge with an asphalt road – where people bike, do day-camps on the sand, water or jet-ski, or take their horses, have fires in the firepits, – oh, and who take their dogs to the great off-leash area on the Island.

The land of Island Fiesta itself is what’s left from all the sludge dredged up during the 1950’s development of Mission Bay Park.

There’s been for years an ongoing debate between dog owners who have formed a group Fiesta Island Dog Owners (FIDO) and others who want to see Fiesta Island developed with “improvements”. And the now the debate is ramping up ….

A homeless man was brazenly attacked with a hammer Wednesday morning, July 13th, around 6 a.m. in downtown San Diego.

The victim was walking on the sidewalk when a stranger ran up to him and hit him on the head with a hammer and then took off. This happened at 10th Ave. and G Street in the East Village.

When 10,000 people camp out together at the Rainbow Gathering, staying groovy can be a challenge.

by Livia Gershon / Atlas Obscura / July 11, 2016

When I wandered into an internet forum for members of the Rainbow Family of Living Light and started asking about going to their long-running national gathering, the responses were friendly, but a little unnerving. In the midst of a series of messages about Rainbow etiquette, one person briefly noted that “some bad things have a potential 2 happen. If ya ever have trouble just yell ‘shanti sena’, & some help will be on the way.”

Hey, did you receive your big invite to the really big Donald Trump “Victory” fundraiser? No?

It’s only $25,000 a seat.

It’s over in Rancho Santa Fe – Wednesday, July 13th – at some private homes, and it’s being chaired by Jenny Craig, Geniya and Papa Doug Manchester and other bigwigs apparently in the Trump column.

“Hillary Clinton understands that our diversity is one of our greatest strengths.” – Sen. Bernie Sanders

Today, Tuesday July 12th, Sen. Bernie Sanders has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.

At a rally in New Hampshire, Sanders said:

“Secretary Clinton has won the Democratic nominating process, and I congratulate her for that.

She will be the Democratic nominee for president and I intend to do everything I can to make certain she will be the next president of the United States.”

Some parents at Silver Gate Elementary School in Point Loma are leading an uphill battle against artificial turf that is supposed to be installed on the school’s playing field next Fall. And other beach area activists have been fighting the artificial turf wars for a few years now.

Writer Ashly McGlone, in a fairly exhaustive piece in Voice of San Diego published June 27th, captured the highlights of one of those battles in describing efforts of some parents at Silver Gate.

McGlone focused on Point Loma resident Erika Lundeen, who became concerned to hear that the school her kids attend, Silver Gate, was getting a new artificial turf field called “crumb rubber”.

OB Local Emery Renner Wins Praise for his Culinary Delights

By South OB Girl

In June at the First Responders Appreciation BBQ an ambitious young college student by the name of Emery Renner was handing out his resume looking for a summer job.

I was sitting at the table of attendees that he handed his resume to and we began to ask him some questions — What was he studying? Where was he going to school? What year in school was he? What sort of job was he looking for? What were his interests?

His answers were impressive – he is majoring in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance at San Francisco State University. He likes to play music, read, write, swim, camp, and walk his dogs.
And bake biscuits.

By Brent Beltran

On Friday, July 15 from 11:30am to 1pm the San Diego Chargers will be bringing their pro-East Village stadium campaign to Barrio Logan for the Family Health Center’s Spirit of the Barrio luncheon.

B.A.STA!, Barrios Against STAdiums!, will be outside the event holding a silent protest with signs and banners opposing the Chargers efforts to build a stadium one block from Barrio Logan. A press conference will also take place.

Barrio Logan is undergoing a transition due to land speculators buying properties ,,,

How Republicans Celebrate the National Park Service’s 100th Anniversary

By Susan Grigsby / Daily Kos

In 2015, the two million annual visitors to California’s Joshua Tree National Park spent almost $97 million in the surrounding communities.

Those same visitors created 1,341 job,s which had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $128 million, according to an April 21, 2016 statement from the National Park Service.

And still, knowing how much his constituents rely on the existence of a National Park within his congressional district, Republican Rep. Paul Cook has done everything within his power to hinder any growth of the Park Service, which will be celebrating its 100th anniversary in August.

In a stunning turnaround, the man police had arrested as the suspect in the killings of 3 homeless men and the attack on a 4th, has been released from custody and has had no charges filed against him.

At a 3 pm news conference today – Monday – police explained that they did not feel confident in the evidence they had against Anthony Padgett, the man police had arrested last Thursday, July 7th on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and arson.