OB Rag

Flags throughout San Diego and the rest of country have been half-staff this week to honor the victims of the attack in Orlando, Florida.

The Ocean Beach Recreation Center has had flags at half-staff this week. And the OB Elementary also had flags half-staff all week.

Flags were half-staff until sunset Thurs. June 16. Per President Obama’s proclamation. Flags were half-staff until sunset Thursday, June 16, per President Obama’s proclamation.

Here’s a sad story about canine cruelty in Ocean Beach but it has a happy ending .

Somebody abandoned 2 dogs in a crate in an OB alley near Voltaire and Lotus – and they sat there in the heat for hours apparently. The dogs were poodle-mixes.

Fortunately for the dogs, OBcean Cynthia Salgado noticed them and kept an eye on them to see if anyone was coming for them. When no one did, Salgado got on one of OB’s facebook pages and sent out a call for help.

Within minutes, a neighbor came over to help. Channel 10 News reported that “Samantha Caan lived a few blocks away and ran over to help.” Salgado told the news:

“She came in two minutes. I just told her ‘hey, you know what, like, I need help’ and she’s just like ‘I’ll be there in two minutes.’”

Other community folks joined in and assisted the women load the dog crate into a jeep owned by Caan, that she drove over to the Animal Services on Gaines Street.

By Joe Flynn

“Planning? We don’t need no stinking planning!” No, I am not talking about The Treasure of Sierra Madre, I’m talking about the treasure of our old Central Library. One would think after decades of working to build a new central library, some thought would have been given to a new use for the old library.

And it is not just another old building; this one has a lot or treasured memories for many San Diegans, especially those who spent hours there doing school projects and term papers or just for the pure enjoyment of literature.

Many of us look back with nostalgia on digging through the card catalogues using the Dewey Decimal system, and going to the stacks for a needed reference.

The National Weather Service – San Diego – is keeping in effect a “Beach Hazard” warning for San Diego County beaches, and it will remain in effect through 10 pm today, Thursday evening, June 16th.

Elevated surf and dangerous rip currents are expected through today. Surf is expected to gradually lower on Friday, although, the weather service warns, rip currents will remain strong.

The warning states:

“Strong longshore currents will accompany the surf at all area beaches.”

By John Lawrence

On Wednesday, June 15, 2016, there was a well-attended meeting of the Rules Committee of the San Diego City Council.

Many diverse topics were covered, some at exhaustive lengths. The meeting lasted over three hours with a dozen or more speakers pleading their causes.

Most were asking the Rules Committee to take issues to the full City Council for consideration on the November ballot.

There was a discussion of the nature of the voting system.

The way it is right now someone running for office who gets 50% of the vote plus one in the June primary is considered elected.

What Are the Community’s Thoughts – 2 Plus Years After the CVS Debates

By South OB Girl

Following up on Judi Curry’s recent article, some issues were brought to the table by community members concerning the community’s abundance of bars and restaurants.

I have done a preliminary search in the Ocean Beach Planning Board Bylaws and the Community Plan on the terms liquor, alcohol, and license. (If I am missing reference to any say the OBPB has in liquor license approval, I would greatly appreciate being informed about that.)

My interest in this goes back to the heated CVS debates.

By Reid Corley

In response to an article that was written about possible crosswalks at certain intersections in Ocean Beach, which encouraged residents to contact the City of San Diego about them – I did.

As a surfer and someone who takes my daughter down to the OB Pier/seawall regularly, I see people try to cross at Abbott and Newport frequently and almost get hit by cars!

Editor:

Most of the following is a repost of an article published on September 8, 2015, in celebration of the OB Rag’s 45th anniversary.

It was September 1970 when the very first issue of the OB People’s Rag hit the streets of Ocean Beach.
With the banner date of September 17 1970, Volume 1 No. 1 was published on a mimeograph machine, it included 4 pages, back and front, stapled together.

By John Lawrence

I have been writing about my friend Dr. Luis Garcia for almost 10 years. That’s how long he has been doing my dental work in Tijuana at the Baja Oral Center.

Over the course of those years, Dr. Garcia has become much more than my dentist; he has become my friend. Way back in 2007 I had broken my front tooth off by biting into an English muffin that was hard as a rock.

Carbon emissions and extreme weather events poised to push CO2 levels past symbolic threshold for good.

By Nadia Prupis / Common Dreams

Record carbon dioxide levels are set to surpass the symbolic threshold of 400 parts per million (PPM) this year and will likely never fall below that line again in our lifetimes, according to a new study published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Scientists at the UK Met Office used emissions data, sea surface temperature figures, and a climate model from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii to track the trajectory of CO2 levels and found that carbon dioxide “will for the first time remain above 400 ppm all year and hence for our lifetimes.”

Emissions have increased over the past 12 months due to the continued burning of fossil fuels, but the impact has also been exacerbated by an unbridled El Niño event.

By Frank Gormlie

The San Diego Union-Tribune had veteran reporter Lori Weisberg write an extended piece on short term vacation rentals in Sunday’s “SD In Depth” entitled “Opportunity or Nuisance” (June 12, 2016). Weisberg looked at the impact of short term rentals on San Diego’s housing market and wrote based on her research into who exactly was profiting “from the rise of the home sharing.”

Two of the immediate take-aways from her article are that more and more commercial rental agencies are dominating the short term market and that the available housing stock in San Diego is being affected.

Yet, she still has not focused on one of the key effects of the short term vacation rental industry: the loss of community.

Weisberg’s piece showcases Ryan Scott, who – as Weisberg explained – owns or sublets a dozen STVR dwellings and manages another 10 – many in the beach area and including Ocean Beach.

“The reality is,” he told Weisberg, “you’re leaving money on the table if you’re renting to a long-term tenant.”

By Raul Grijalva / Daily Kos

This week marks the 110^th anniversary of the Antiquities Act, a landmark law allowing presidents to designate national monuments on land owned by the federal government. Its signing by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 began the modern era of conservation, allowing Roosevelt to designate nearly twenty national monuments and protect natural and cultural resources that have come to define our country.

Many of the monuments he established, including the Grand Canyon in 1908, are now among our most popular national parks. The Antiquities Act, by any measure, has been a tremendous and popular success.

Despite that, the law is under constant attack by Congressional Republicans who mischaracterize the authority granted by the Act as a “land grab.”