OB Rag

Editor: We received this anonymous “Open Letter” addressed to “vandals” and referring to the recent spray painting of newly installed construction fencing on the corner of Abbott and Voltaire. The letter is signed “Ocean Beach community members”. We publish it in its entirety.

An open letter to the individuals who recently vandalized the security fence on the corner of Abbott and Voltaire.

Dear Vandals,

Neighbors in Ocean Beach that care about the health and welfare of our community do not support your message or your medium of choice.

Why do you feel entitled to additional voting privileges about how an owner handles their property? This is the function of San Diego city zoning and permitting, and public opinion is considered at that time.

OB’s famous ‘Squawk Squad’ of wild parrots is again under threat – 5 parrots have been shot and killed since last month.

At the OB Town Council meeting this Wednesday, March 23rd at 7pm, SoCal Parrot will educate the community on their work with wild, naturalized parrots. They try to provide a gap of care for them and to be a resource for parrot rehabilitation, education and protection.

SoCal Parrot will also bring a few of their living parrot ambassadors so Obceans can get a close-up look at these endangered birds. Additionally, the reward money being offered for information leading to the arrest of the OB Parrot Shooter will be described.

Following up on last month’s OBTC meeting, Bill Harris of the San Diego Department of Transportation and Storm Water will be presenting an update on OB Infrastructure needs to prevent future flooding.

SEE INSIDE FOR OFFICIAL AGENDA

City Council Committee to Hear Ballot Proposal, Recommendation to Charter Review Committee Urged

By Women Occupy San Diego

On Wednesday, March 23rd Women Occupy San Diego will present its community-backed Ballot Proposal to make the Citizens Review Board on Police Practices (CRB) more independent and transparent to the San Diego City Council’s Public Safety & Liveable Neighborhoods (PSLN) Committee.

We will do so on behalf of 25 civic organizations who have endorsed a Charter Amendment for the November 2016 ballot.

By Bob Dorn / San Diego Free Press

What the U.S. needs now is a good old-fashioned platform fight at the Democratic Party Convention, only 4 months distant in this nightmare year.

We need to see just who are these people we’re told are the party’s established leaders. What do they really believe?

A thoroughly open platform discussion would show us what the governors and Congress members believe should happen to Bernie Sanders’ pledge to pay the tuition of the children of the middle class. The party’s establishment at its convention this July ought to have to take a position on the Transpacific Partnership, a trade agreement that was negotiated out of sight by a commission mostly composed of international corporate executives and their sergeants.

Editor: This article is over 7 months old but still resonates today – one day before the election.

Okay, America – are we ready for fascism?

Is this a legit question these days? It happens that a lot of political commenters, pundits and journalists are asking the question: ‘is the good ol’ US of A ready for an American brand of fascism, in the form of the Donald Trump for president movement?’

As the presidential campaign season degenerated into racist and xenophobic diatribes by the Republican front runner, with those images of Trump supporters pledging their loyalty to him in Hitleresque salutes, after that scene in Chicago when the Trump rally was cancelled, triggering skirmishes between Trump supporters and demonstrators, it seems everybody is forming an opinion of whether Donald Trump is a fascist, comparing him to Hitler and Mussolini, and other dictators.

Those denouncing Trump as a fascist include who you’d expect – progressive and liberal journalists and commentators, like Bob Dreyfus on TomDispatch, who called Trump a “proto-fascist”, or like Robert Reich who called Trump out as a fascist. Also, moderate columnist Dana Milbank writing in the Washington Post sees Trump as flirting with fascism.

By Jim Miller

Sarah Saez is best known locally for her work on the heroic United Taxi Workers of San Diego (UTWSD) campaign. As labor leader Richard Barrera noted after their big win in 2014:

The victory by UTWSD comes five years after drivers, improperly classified as independent contractors and without NLRB recognition, came together and organized a strike to protest their wages, benefits, and working conditions.

Despite constant harassment, retaliation, and intimidation by permit holders and dispatch companies over the last five years, and despite obstruction by public agencies, these workers stuck together, fought back against injustice, and prevailed. It reminds and teaches all of us that a union is not formed by formal government recognition, it is formed by workers standing together to fight for justice and a brighter future for their families.

BERNIE IS COMING TO SAN DIEGO!

A Future to Believe In Rally with Bernie Sanders

Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Doors open at 5:00pm
(Get there early to assure you are among the 10,000 or so able to get in.)
San Diego Convention Center, Exhibition Halls D & E
111 W. Harbor Drive, San Diego CA

This event is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required, but RSVPs are strongly encouraged. Admission is first come, first served.

By John P. Anderson / John P. Anderson Blog

Plaza de Panama is the central plaza in Balboa Park and for many years was devoted to automobile parking. In June 2013 reviled former Mayor Bob Filner led a push that removed the parking spots from the Plaza de Panama and created a public space for strolling, sitting, and enjoying the surrounding museums and sunshine.

Here’s a photo of what the plaza looked like as a parking lot.

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Today our family had a small picnic lunch on the plaza and there were people everywhere – a newlywed couple taking photos on the steps of the Museum of Art, small children riding bikes and scooters, people of all ages sitting or taking photos. In short, it felt like an authentic plaza: “a public square, marketplace, or similar open space in a built-up area“.

A small Southern California market chain, Jensen’s Finest Foods, has bought the former Fresh & Easy grocery store off Catalina Boulevard in Point Loma. And it plans to open in up to 6 months, a Jensen’s vice president told the press.

This news should bring a sigh of relief to many Peninsula residents, who uttered a collective groan when Fresh & Easy closed last fall. But when CVS started making noise that they wanted to acquire it, the reaction among local residents was immediate: they were against it.

In fact, an online petition began. At last look, the petition had nearly 2900 signatures. So, CVS Corporate must have heard it.

Earlier this week, the good news was that Jensen’s bought the grocery store in bankruptcy court. It will be the first market in San Diego County for the San Bernardino County-based chain, which has eight other stores, 4 in Riverside County and another 4 in San Bernardino County.

By Terrie Best – San Diego Americans for Safe Access / March 17, 2016

San Diego, CA – The County Board of Supervisors met yesterday [March 16] and the patient community barely escaped a ban on medical cannabis.

The ban would have affected unincorporated areas of the county, such as Julian, Ramona and many other rural parcels where it would otherwise be safe and advantageous to cultivate cannabis.

The advantage would be a regulated and local supply of product to the growing number of licensed medical cannabis co-ops in the city of San Diego. The city is the only municipality in the county with a retail distribution ordinance on its books. But, the city’s law does not address the cultivation of cannabis at all. Many cannabis patients saw the need for cultivating a local supply of medicine and began to eye the dysfunctional county ordinance.

Editor: Now that SeaWorld has announced it will no longer maintain an Orca breeding program, we thought it would be timely to repost the following about “The San Diego 10 – the Captive Orcas of SeaWorld”, originally posted on May 28, 2014.

Originally published on May 28, 2014.

Author Cara Wilson-Granat explored and examined each orca’s personal history and helped to tell their story – the story of the longest-held captive orcas.

Plus human advocates – one for each orca – were also introduced. They ranged from Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez to Zach Affolter, a high-schooler who organized a petition drive against his high school having proms at SeaWorld.

Cara Wilson-Granat – who once wrote ads for SeaWorld years ago and who changed her perspective after watching the film “Blackfish” – allowed each advocate to tell why they were so passionate about saving the captive orcas.

So, once again, all together, here are “the San Diego Ten“:

Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt is widely believed to be the most consequential abortion rights case since Roe v. Wade

By Lauren McCauley / Common Dreams

The U.S. Supreme Court, with one vacant seat, heard oral arguments on Wednesday in what is widely believed to be the most consequential reproductive rights case since Roe v. Wade, one which observers warn could dramatically alter abortion access for women across the country.