OB Rag

by Drew Sitton / Times of San Diego  / Aug. 24, 2025

A controversial 453-unit housing development has been unanimously approved by the San Diego County Planning Commission in Harmony Grove, an unincorporated rural residential area in North County sandwiched between Escondido and San Marcos.

Several neighbors spoke out at the meeting over the controversial proposal because it does not include a secondary access road to escape wildfires.

They fear entrapment if a wildfire came from the direction of the single dead-end road.

Winding approval
The project, Harmony Grove Village South, had been before the commission in 2018 and later approved by the Board of Supervisors.

However, CEQA litigation from the Sierra Club, residents and other parties had delayed construction.

The board rescinded approval in 2022 after a trial court sided with residents. However, a state appellate court then found all but one aspect of the project complied with CEQA.

The same project as in 2018 is now headed back before the board for the third time,

Soi OB Thai Street Food
1916 Cable St.
Ocean Beach, CA 92107
619-230-5885

By Judi Curry

There are two Thai restaurants in Ocean Beach that I am aware of. Both of them are very good; very tasty; and have a very extensive menu.  Last night Steve and I decided to go to the Soi OB Thai Street Food restaurant dinner because although we have taken food home from there (and I did two earlier reviews of the takeout food), we had never actually had a meal in the establishment.  And we were so glad that we did.

Parking is easy because we parked in the lot that also houses CVS on Santa Monica.  (The same lot where there is parking for the laundromat.)  We walked a very short distance from the lot to the restaurant and walked in to a relatively small facility with approximately 12-15 tables and a welcoming counter.  We were greeted with smiles and handed two very large menu’s.  (I won’t go into the menu, per se, but there were 17 appetizers, 8 salads, 5 side orders, 3 soups, 5 curry dishes, 3 Pan Fried noodle offerings, 3 noodle soups, 7 Rice dishes, 9 special meals, 2 desserts and 7 extra items.) There was a separate menu for drinks which included wine, beer and other drinks!  Got the idea of the definition of “extensive?”

by Kyle Krahel / Times of San Diego / Aug. 22, 2025

I don’t like the game Trump Republicans are forcing us to play, but I refuse to let them play it unopposed. The path to protecting democracy runs right through San Diego County.

Redrawing congressional districts mid-decade feels uncomfortable. But what’s worse would be watching Democrats roll over while Republicans change the rules of the game, calling foul to referees who do nothing.

Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom launched the Election Rigging Response Act, setting a special election for Nov. 4. Triggered only if Texas or another GOP-run state enacts partisan map changes, the measure allows California’s Legislature to draw temporary congressional maps through 2030.

After that, power reverts to the Citizens Redistricting Commission. So this isn’t a unilateral power grab; it’s a transparent proposal going directly to the people for their vote of approval.

Contrast that with Texas, where Republican lawmakers are redrawing maps mid-decade behind closed doors, without voter approval, without oversight, without an independent commission. California’s path is fundamentally different: conditional, subject to a vote, and designed to reset the playing field, not entrench power.

Trump allegedly told the Texas governor to “find me five seats,” and Texas capitulated. California’s answer is very different: put the question to voters, debate it in public, and let the people decide. That’s not a power grab. That’s democracy in action.

By Ray Huard/ San Diego Business Journal / August 26, 2025

As Point Loma Nazarene University looks toward its future, the university is working with Studio E Architects to map out a way to best accommodate the physical changes that come with a changing education program.

“Like all institutions of higher learning, they are evolving. They’ve been adding all kinds of programs and they’re transitioning programs,” said Eric Naslund, Studio E principal.

Jeff Bolster, vice president for university services, said that it’s been at least 20 years since the university took a strategic look at how the university might grow.

“We just felt like it was time for the professional kind of help of kind of looking into what are our strengths and opportunities are on the campus,” Bolster said.

Limited Footprint to Build On
The challenge is that the university’s 90-acre main campus on Point Loma has no extra land on which to expand.

“We can’t grow up or out. We have to grow within the footprint that we have,” Bolster said. “We certainly are planning for growth and looking for growth, but that kind of growth can’t happen on the Point Loma campus.”

ALL DETAILS ARE INSIDE

Come Labor Day in San Diego County, September 1, there are 6 planned protests against the Trump regime, titled “Workers Over Billionaires.”

They’re in downtown San Diego, Chula Vista, La Jolla, Mira Mesa, Carlsbad and Escondido. (All details are herein.)

Downtown San Diego

It begins at 10am and runs to 12 noon at the Waterfront Park at 1600 Pacific Hwy. (That’s San Diego CA 92101)

About this event (Each event — except Escondido — starts at the same time, 10am, has the same demands and script, so we’re running just the downtown San Diego details, but with more info about each of the events.)

There are actually two events, one sponsored by the coalition that organized the No Kings event at Waterfront Park. The other, at the same place and time, is sponsored by San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council, No Kings and a host of other groups we list below.

Here’s their script:

This Labor Day we will continue to stand strong, fighting for public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, shared prosperity over corporate politics.

Working people built this nation and we know how to take care of each other. We won’t back down—we will never stop fighting for our families and the rights and freedoms that ensure access to opportunity and a better life for all Americans. The billionaire’s time is up.

On September 1st we will continue the movement we launched together on May 1st, standing in solidarity with all our communities under attack and fighting for real wins for all our people.

By Abbie Black / CBS8 / August 15, 2025

What appears to be pristine water in San Diego Bay is hiding a disturbing secret beneath the surface.

University of San Diego graduate students working with a local company have discovered alarming levels of heavy metals, microplastics and invasive species in Mission Bay and San Diego Bay using innovative cleanup booms made from recycled materials.

The partnership, called 24/7 Blue, pairs USD students with San Diego-based Earthwise Sorbents to test sustainable cleanup technology that could serve as a model for ports and marinas nationwide.

“It’s unbelievable the amount of material that we are picking up,” said Dr. Michel Boudrias, who chairs USD’s sustainability task force. “We’re picking up 30 times the amount of heavy metals that are typically out there.”

The 5-pound, 10-foot booms are placed in local waters for two to three months before being replaced. When flipped over, the seemingly clean-looking devices reveal the extent of contamination lurking in San Diego’s waterways.

By Lu Rehling

Question for our elected representatives US Congressman Scott Peters and CA Senator Akilah Weber: Who does this sound like to you when it comes to advocating for changes to housing policy?

• Bypass environmental and safety protections.
• Blame regulations [not developer/corporate greed].
• Apply trickle-down economics [newly applied to the housing market].
• Promote gentrification [driving mid- to lower-income resident out of their homes].
• Encourage short-term rentals [discouraging starter home ownership].
• Off-site affordable housing [so only the entitled enjoy exclusive perks and only with each other].
• Disenfranchise community groups [by waiving reviews and defunding appeals].
• Ignore the needs of disabled and families [prioritizing transport options for the fit and unencumbered].

If your answer is “progressives,” then read your Orwell, because progressive policy instead asks government to tackle inequality and promote social justice. And yet you align with so-called progressive YIMBY Dems.

In fact, Congressman Peters, you co-sponsored and continue to smugly tout the “Build More Housing Near Transit Act” legislation that would enable all of the policies stated above, allowing “by-right” density development: the “right” being to waive height, parking, and safety review requirements.

Of course, being a politician, you also say that you favor “community input,” but that’s NOT in the law that you’ve proposed. And its affordability and building reuse inclusions are minimalist-to-toothless: options, not mandates that developers, laser-focused as usual on their own self-interested goals, can freely ignore.

And, in fact, Senator Weber, you approved passage from committee of SB 79 (“Housing Development: Transit Oriented Development”) that would do the much of the same as Peters’ proposal, similarly without urgently needed and appropriate safeguards.

By Rob Campbell

On August 12, local leaders including SANDAG, San Diego City Councilmembers Henry Foster (District 4) and Sean Elo-Rivera (District 9), and State Senator Akilah Weber Pierson (39th District), held a joint press conference to announce a new Micro Transit pilot program for Southeastern San Diego.

Councilmember Elo-Rivera hailed the program, saying, “This new connection will allow people to get around Southeastern communities in a more convenient way, providing low-cost access to essential places like supermarkets, hospitals, educational institutions, employment centers and our transit network.”

But while the promise sounds ambitious, a closer look at the reality of this pilot and the real needs of the communities it claims to serve raises important questions about priorities, environmental justice, and equity.

Overlooked: The Environmental and Infrastructure Crises

The neighborhoods included in the pilot are Mountain View, Mount Hope, Chollas View, Lincoln Park, Valencia Park, Emerald Hills, and parts of Encanto. All are overwhelmingly communities of color with some of the highest rates of concentrated poverty in the City of San Diego. These areas are historically underserved and bear the brunt of environmental and infrastructure neglect: heat islands worsened by a lack of tree canopy, crumbling roads, broken or incomplete sidewalks lacking ADA compliance, minimal street sweeping, poor lighting, and bus stops with no shelter from the elements.

Editordude: This is an expanded version of Paul Krueger’s letter to the U-T Editor we posted last week.

By Paul Krueger / Times of San Diego / August 24, 2025

New laws often have unintended consequences, and those impacts are almost always negative.

In San Diego, predatory developers and their investors gamed the “Bonus ADU” program by cramming a dozen (or more) apartments on single-family lots, often in high-fire zones, with no off-street parking and no infrastructure improvements. Despite promises of reduced rents, the program has failed to produce a single unit of very-low or low-income housing.

In Pacific Beach, a proposed 23-story residential tower is the unwelcome result of state legislation intended to increase the supply of low-income rental units. But a majority of the 213 units would be hotel-type rentals. Only five units would be set aside for very-low-income tenants.

The latest and arguably most egregious example of unintended negative consequences is “surge pricing” at hundreds of downtown parking meters for Padres’ games and so-called “special events.”

Over 100 San Diego residents from all over the city rallied in Clairemont on Saturday, August 23, against Senate Bill 79 – a bill sponsored by State Senator Scott Wiener that targets the state’s neighborhoods. Opponents claim that the bill is worse than SB 9 and SB 10.

Its sponsors claim the bill is aimed at increasing housing density near train and rapid bus lines across California by mandating up-zoning within a quarter to half-mile of transit hubs, and allow developers to build large-scale apartment complexes near these transit stops.

Yet opponents like Neighbors for a Better California, the prime sponsor of Saturday’s protest, argue that SB 79’s language is vague around bus stops, and that the lack of precision could allow developers to exploit ambiguities, undermining the bill’s intent.

Marcella Bothwell, the chair of the sponsoring group, clarified to the demonstrators, many of whom lined Genessee Boulevard with signs for passing motorists:

“And that bus stop can be anything from just 15-minute frequency in the height of morning and evening. That will qualify as a bus stop. That 500 homes or a half a mile around that area, the height now can go up to six, to eight, even nine stories. These homes, there’s no affordability requirement. They’re not concerned about fire safety.”

There were also other anti-SB79 rallies up and down the state.

By Dustin Gardiner and Blake Jones / Politico / August 18, 2025 

MUNGER GAMES — Charles Munger Jr., the megadonor backing Republicans’ effort to block Democrats from redrawing California’s congressional map, has primarily been known to the public as the bow-tie-wearing champion of good-government causes like independent redistricting and legislative transparency.

But there’s a lesser-known aspect of Munger’s financial giving that Democrats are preparing to torch him on.

Munger, a Palo Alto physicist, has contributed more than $158,000 to socially conservative causes over the last 25 years, according to federal tax filings — including to organizations that oppose abortion rights and promote so-called crisis pregnancy centers, and to Christian groups whose leaders have opposed LGBTQ+ rights.

Munger’s spending, via his charitable nonprofit, is providing fodder to abortion-rights advocates and LGBTQ+ leaders in their effort to build support for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s push to gerrymander California’s congressional districts in favor of Democrats — a gambit that Newsom says will neutralize President Donald Trump’s effort to nab five new Republican House seats in Texas.

By Steven Harper / Common Dreams / Aug 19, 2025

US President Donald Trump and Republicans face a daunting challenge: How to preserve power in the wake of their wildly unpopular policies?

Their strategy is to intensify the GOP’s decades-long quest to limit voter participation. Selecting the voters likely to cast ballots for them is far better than letting all voters select their leaders.

Trump has taken the strategy to a whole new level. And he’s doing it out of fear and desperation.

Fighting History

During midterm elections, the president’s party loses seats in Congress. In Trump’s first term, Republicans lost 40 seats in the House in 2018. In 2010, President Barack Obama’s Democrats lost 63.

The exceptions are few and far between. In the aftermath of 9/11, President George W. Bush’s GOP gained eight House seats in 2002, but then lost 30 in 2006. In 1998, President Bill Clinton’s Democrats gained five seats, but that didn’t offset the 52 seats that they had lost in 1994. In all but three midterm elections from 1934 to 1994—from Franklin Roosevelt to Bill Clinton—the president’s party lost House seats. It did a little better in the Senate, gaining seats in only 6 of 23 midterm elections since 1934.