OB Rag

By John Lawrence

I met Suzie at Panera Bread in Liberty Station. She is homeless but not vehicle-less. She used to have a nice home in Point Loma, had lived in the Point Loma – Ocean Beach area for years.

She has been homeless since last April when her boyfriend kicked her out of his apartment. When that happened, she got on Craigslist and bought an RV.

There are many levels and degrees of homelessness, and Suzie is on one of the better off levels. Some homeless persons live on boats in the harbor. So for some, homelessness verges on an alternative lifestyle, the key being whether or not they are forced into the situation or whether their situation is freely chosen.

The Ocean Beach Planning Board’s sub-committee, the Project Review Committee, has 2 projects on its agenda to consider at its meeting Wednesday night, Feb. 17th. The review committee – chaired by Blake Herrschaft – usually makes recommendations to the full Board, which also meets monthly – on the first Wednesday.

The 2 projects under review include one at 4620 Del Mar Avenue and the other at 1764 Bacon Street. The committee meets at the OB Rec Center – 4726 Santa Monica Ave. – and begins at 6pm.

Your Green Canopies We Will Miss –
In memory of the two lost Saratoga Torrey Pines 1930-2016

By Kathy Blavatt

The sign said “trimming”
Like when you trim your hair and it grows back healthier.
Not chop up your body and spit out the pieces.

No tree-huggers could save this community elder.

By Murtaza Baxamusa / Rooflines

The contrast between prosperity and poverty is most dramatic in the harshness of inclement weather. In San Diego, while the recent storms resulting from El Niño lashed at the city, I drove through East Village, a neighborhood that contains one of the largest concentrations of homeless in the region.

It is also the epicenter of Downtown’s new construction boom.

Amidst the broken tree branches and debris, scattered and soaked in the storm water were large black trash bags that homeless people had used to protect themselves.

“Free universal health care, free university, free day care, taxing and policing hedge fund millionaires—have already happened in nearly every other industrialized country in the world! And I have the evidence—and the film—to prove it!” — Michael Moore

CommonDreams

Filmmaker Michael Moore on Friday is launching the national release of his new documentary Where to Invade Next, which is said to be both his happiest and “most subversive” movie yet.

Grey Whale Spotted Near Shelter Island
Prop 15 Celebration Party – Feb. 15th

Flood at Green Store

Searches for Missing Swimmer Off OB Come Up Empty

Vacationing Soldiers Rescue Passengers of Car that Went into Mission Bay
Navy, Water Department Wary of Massive Fish Farm Project Off Point Loma
Well Known Mission Beach Activist Struck by Car While Painting Over Graffiti

OB Pier Closed Over Weekend

Body of Man Found Floating Off OB Identified as Martin Paul McDermott

Thursday, February 18, 7 pm, Ocean Beach Historical Society Presents: “Centennial of the Devastating 1916 Flood and the Rainmaker”

Drunk Kid Rams Several Cars, Ends at Van

AND MORE ….

America Was Great at One Time?

by Ernie McCray

Making America great again
sure sounds like something worth doing.
But the word “again,”
implies that America must have been
great somewhere along the line –
and when I run the feasibility of that
through my long-active mind,
having not been deaf or blind
in my time,
a couple of questions come to mind,
on the fly.
Like:
“When was the country ever great?”
And “Where in the hell was I?”
Really.
Oh, there is greatness all over the place
in the USA.
Great things: art, music, science, who’s going to argue with that?
Great human beings: who can beat Lincoln, Cesar, Fannie Lou and folks like that?
Great opportunities: in this country you can reach for the moon and places like that.
But, just speaking for me,
I have had to sit at the back of the bus,
…

The public is left out of the decision making, the City Council is not fully engaged

By Jay Powell

On Wednesday February 10, the City Council Smart Growth and Land Use (SG&LU) Committee was asked to recommend approval to the full City Council of the marketing for sale of six City-owned properties that the Real Estate Asset Department (READ) has declared surplus and excess to the needs of the City.

At the meeting, the committee basically took extensive public testimony and then moved the items onto the full City Council. They appeared un-concerned about the Portfolio Management Plan issue.

There was a lot of testimony about preserving the Truax House and giving the community and other stakeholders time to put together a proposal to restore the house and make it a resource for meetings and organizations such as Lambda Archives, San Diego CanyonLands, a possible Seniors center and other community-serving organizations and evaluating a potential trail connection to Maple Canyon.

Plurality Wants The Joint’s Encroachment Removed Despite Permit

A clear plurality of respondents to our week long poll on encroachment into public space by an Ocean Beach restaurant agreed that it was “encroachment into the public space” – and agreed that it “must be removed.

42% of those who took the survey of readers are against The Joint’s newly installed gated outside sitting area.

There were a total of 93 participants in the non-scientific poll, posted on our sidebar.

Only 12.9% of respondents like the new sitting section.

By Jim Miller

Last week, in a New York Times editorial, Mark Schmitt joined the chorus of clear-eyed “realists” chiming in against Bernie Sanders’ bold agenda in “Is the Era of Big-Program Liberalism Over?”

While acknowledging the political appeal and strategic advantages of universal programs, Schmitt argued that, given the presumably inevitable constraints of the present, the future belongs to an incrementalism that is “most interesting and novel for the absence of big, universal programs that require legislative action.”

Mission Beach Residents Upset With Loss of Park, Size of Proposed Buildings and Loss of Alleys

By Mike Meyers

There is a current proposal to build 63 three bedroom condos and a park on the former school property by the developers McKeller/McGowan from La Jolla. The property was acquired by auction in May 2013 from the San Diego School District for $18.5 million. The property located in Mission Beach is 2.23 acres. (see attachment A)

Voting by San Diego Planning Commission and City Council will be within the next two months. The elementary school closed in 1973 to students. It has been used by the school district as instructional coaching to teachers and as administrative office until 2011.