OB Rag

Wednesday’s meeting of the OB Town Council – the 24th – will feature City representatives on preventing future flooding and repairing broken streetlights. Five hundred sandbags have been promised to be handed out as well by Lorie Zapf’s office. Plus the “Annual Pie with the President” will conclude the meeting – held at the Masonic Center, Sunset Cliffs and Santa Cruz.

The Town Council has invited the San Diego Department of Transportation & Storm Water to debrief our community on current and upcoming measures to prevent future flooding and repair broken streetlights. This part of the meeting is intended to be an interactive session whereby community members are invited to bring photos of the OB Flood to be plotted on a giant map, along with locations of broken street lights. The Council promises prizes for the best photos.

OCEAN BEACH, CA. Exactly 42 years ago today, on February 22, 1974 – all hell broke loose in Ocean Beach – and for many of the seventies generation, this day will always live on in their memory as a day of infamy – the day the world came crashing down on our little seaside community.

It was the day that Pete Mahone, a politicized ex-convict and member of OB’s anti-Vietnam war community, tried to commit suicide by cop. It was also the breaking point in police-community relations, relations that had been simmering for years.

By Byron Morton

Although primarily known as a music venue, Winston’s Beach Resort and Bar – at 1921 Bacon Street in the heart of Ocean Beach-, has for the past ten years been a showcase for some of San Diego’s finest comedy talent. And last Friday, the 19th, I went to see the Ocean Beach Comedy 10th Anniversary show, right in the heart of OB’s business district.

There was so much talent performing their bits that I can’t review them all, as comedians from across the country came to celebrate and perform.

Winston’s large open window and emerald tiled entrance transports you into an old school hipster joint, complete with brick wall interior, reminiscent of New York’s East Village.

By Jim Miller

With the death of Antonin Scalia on February 13th, public sector unions in America were given a reprieve from what was sure to be a bad ruling in the Friedrichs v CTA case before the Supreme Court.

As Michael Hiltzik explained in the Los Angeles Times:

The target of the Friedrichs lawsuit, and several others just like it, is the “agency” or “fair share” fee. Under the law and according to a 1977 Supreme Court decision known as the Abood case, unionized public employees can be assessed nonmember fees to cover solely the cost of negotiations and contract enforcement, without being compelled to join the union and support its political activities by paying full union dues. That’s the arrangement in California.

Ocean Beach Comedy (OBC) was created 10 years ago, almost by accident.

The show started with Andrew Deans and Steven Kendrick needing an outlet to continue their stand up desires after moving from Texas.

Soon Jesse Egan and Bob Hansen were brought on.

The team added spontaneity to the show by creating topics, sticking them in a hat, randomly drawing, and creating jokes on the spot with what was written on the paper. The show blossomed from there as the original crew started finding other local comedians and giving them a stage to work on material.

Throughout the years, OBC saw some of the best comedians in the business like Doug Stanhope, Joey Diaz, and Jeff Richards.

By Sunny Rey

Has the new EP, Shooting star, lit your sound waves yet?!

When the manager of one of San Diego’s top music venues, The Irenic, starts a music venture of his own, the city takes notice!

The Funkyheads of North Park had found their dancing shoes sleepy and uninspired for some time until the Major Minus came with all the tricks and edge that the cool kids had been craving!

Like a history bloated with great things that come about unplanned, the music of the Major Minus formed and swelled into the great solid sound it hits hard on in their breakout EP, Shooting Star, with as much surprise to the music fans as it was to the musical men themselves.

The band started as just a breezy idea off the cuff from Brit, the lead singer, to go in and lay some vocals down since he had some booked studio time to claim.

Call for Federal Investigation Echos Earlier Cries for Reform After Shootings of OBceans Danny the Walker and Tony Tumminia

Every now and then, San Diegans get so outraged by police shootings of civilians who are usually unarmed, that they do something about it, whether through protest, or art – or by calls for the Department of Justice to come to town and investigate excess shootings by San Diego Police.

Just yesterday, February 17th, the ACLU and 26 San Diego groups and law firms called on the US Justice Department for an investigation into the SDPD’s use of force when encountering people living with mental illness. We certainly applaud this effort to bring a spotlight to an ugly underside of San Diego.

Sadly, this is not the first time that San Diegans have been upset by police shootings of other San Diegans – most which tragically end up in death.

The ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties, along with 26 civil rights, social service organizations, and law firms on February 17th asked the Federal government for an investigation into the SDPD’s use of force when encountering people living with mental illness.

An inquiry by the ACLU, following the police shooting of a mentally ill man holding a pen, and the district attorney’s decision not to press charges against the officer, revealed what they believe was a disturbing pattern and practice of improperly handling incidents with people with mental illness or who are experiencing a mental health crisis by SDPD personnel.

Thursday, February 18, 7 pm, Ocean Beach Historical Society Presents:

“Centennial of the Devastating 1916 Flood and the Rainmaker” at St. Peter’s by the Sea Lutheran Church 1371 Sunset Cliffs Blvd, Ocean Beach;

In words and pictures this presentation will re-visit the famed Rainmaker Flood and look at the strange story of an itinerant sewing machine salesman-turned rainmaker, who claimed the historic rainfall as “an act of Hatfield.” Rick Crawford is the supervisor of Special Collections at the San Diego Public Library and former archives director at the San Diego Historical Society.

‘It’s not what the community wants’

By Tony de Garate

“It’s not a bad plan — it’s just not OB quality.”

That was the summary from John Ambert, chairman of the Ocean Beach Planning Board (OBPB), after reviewing a proposal to tear down a century-old-but-dilapidated cottage and replace it with two detached, two-story, 30-foot-tall condos with underground parking at 1764 Bacon Street.

While OBPB members said they were sympathetic to the young couple that wants to sell one unit and use the income to live in the other, they made it clear the project faced almost certain rejection in the form that was presented February 3rd at the board’s monthly meeting.

The reason?

Editor’s Note: The Board of Directors of Civic San Diego is set to approve an economic development work plan at their February 24th meeting.

In short, this is their grand vision for San Diego. Sadly, this vision doesn’t include the living wage provisions required of large local development projects over the past decade.Board member Murtaza Baxamusa was the sole opposing vote at a recent committee meeting.

By Murtaza Baxamusa

For low-income communities, the promise of “economic development” is often held as the basis for taxpayer-subsidized projects. However, developer-driven focus on projects, rather than people, has the theory of local economic development upside-down. This is what happens when a downtown development corporation starts working on a plan for economic development for other neighborhoods.

By Dan Bacher / Indybay.org

Legislators, members of commercial fishing families, fishing group representatives and Brown administration officials testified about the dire situation that the salmon and crab fishery is in at a recent forum at the State Capitol on February 11th.

It was during the 43rd Annual Zeke Grader Fisheries Forum of the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture held in Sacramento.

“This forum works, but the fishermen are not,” said Senator Mike McGuire, Chair of the Committee, in his opening comments. “The salmon and crab fisheries are threatened by a historic crisis. We’re facing a fishery disaster that will impact many families.”

“We’ve gone from abundance to scarcity. The crab fishing fleet is sitting at the docks right now,” said McGuire.