OB Rag

By Ernie McCray

All I can think of since the birth of my granddaughter, Marley Mandela, is how she and her brother, Lyric, personify my hopes for a better world being born someday.

But I’m just a hopeful kind of being any old way, even considering all I’ve seen since I arrived on the scene 77 years ago, what with Jim Crow and wars and all.

Hope is essential to our well-being, in my way of thinking. It’s how we’ve overcome wars and dust bowls and savagery and plagues and genocides and witchhunts and slavery and the like, how we’ve gotten to where we are.

The Ocean Beach Planning Board meets Wednesday night, June 3rd in the OB Rec Center, at 6pm sharp. (See inside for official agenda.)

Down and Up on Del Mar

The big issue of its agenda is the application for a permit to demolish 3 units and replace them with three new units and a subterranean garage at 4939-4941 Del Mar Avenue .

Apple Tree Market

Also on the Board’s agenda is the new Apple Tree Market going in at 4976 Newport Avenue. Specifically, it’s the owner’s conditional use permit application for a license to sell alcohol and a neighborhood development permit to resume its retail and commercial use.

Halt to Records Collection Probably Temporary As Senate Expected to Pass Reform Measure

By Frank Gormlie

As of today – June 1st – the National Security Agency is no longer legally allowed to collect Americans’ phone records in bulk. The NSA massive collection of telephone records ended at 11:59 p.m. EDT Sunday, right after the Senate failed to pass a measure to extend the controversial program, part of the Patriot Act.

And Americans can thank Edward Snowden for it. Snowden was the one who heroically revealed the massive surveillance program to the American public and is now sitting in Russia for his punishment.

The halt to the phone coverage, however, is probably only temporary, as the Senate is expected to okay a House-passed reform bill targeting the NSA’s surveillance program. Even if it passed, it would still take a couple of days for it to start up.

Editor: Just about every week, we publish an roundup of sorts of recent news from OB, Point Loma, the Peninsula, the Midway District, Mission Bay and, at times, other beach areas – along with updates on issues and notices of community events. Here’s the latest from over the last week or so:

Another Stabbing in OB

There was another stabbing in Ocean Beach, in the alley of the 4900 block of Newport Ave. It occurred Tuesday night, May 25th. Community Relations Officer David Surwilo reported the incident at the recent OB Town Council meeting. This time the stabbing came down when one of the workers of a business told a homeless guy he couldn’t stay on a couch that he had occupied. The guy stabbed the employee a couple of times and fled. The worker was taken to a hospital – and probably already released, Surwilo said on the 26th.

COME INSIDE FOR MORE ……….

By Jim Miller

A couple of weeks ago, Bill McKibben penned a very sharp editorial in the New York Times in response to the Obama administration’s choice to allow drilling in the Arctic noting that,

“The Obama administration’s decision to give Shell Oil the go-ahead to drill in the Arctic shows why we may never win the fight against climate change. Even in this most extreme circumstance, no one seems able to stand up to the power of the fossil fuel industry. No one ever says no.”

Channel 10News has broken the story that a claim against the City of San Diego has been made by the family of the man fatally shot by police in the Midway District at the end of April. The claim alleges that the police officer involved used excessive and unreasonable force, violating the civil rights of Fridoon Rawshan Nehad, the victim.

Nehad was shot by Officer Neal N. Browder in the alley outside an adult bookstore near Rosecrans Blvd. on April 30th.

The claim calls for the city to compensate Nehad’s estate and his parents for damages in an amount of $20 million. A claim such as this is the first step in a lawsuit.

The OB Town Council, led by its president Gretchen Newsom, sought to find a compromise at their meeting on Wednesday over the San Diego Union-Tribune‘s mass distribution of the newspaper’s ad circulars throughout the community. There’s been a small movement in OB of late to get the plastic-bagged circulars banned from Ocean Beach – due in large part to the willy-nilly way it which they’re distributed – where many end up in gutters, in streets and on sidewalks- and then in trash cans.

The badly decomposed body of a woman was pulled from the ocean about 100 yards west of the Ocean Beach Pier, near the end of Niagara Avenue on Thursday afternoon. The body was found inside the surf line, and brought it to shore,

Rescuers believe the body was in the water for at least a day and probably more. San Diego Fire-Rescue Departmen Capt. Joe Amador told the media that the body had been in the water “for quite some time,” and was beyond recognition.

By Will Falk / San Diego Free Press

I went to the Thirty Meter Telescope construction site near the summit of Mauna Kea for the first time, today. Four-wheel drive is recommended for the road that twists steeply with hairpin turns up the Mountain, so ten of us piled into a Kanaka uncle’s (older native Hawaiian man’s) pick-up truck to go see the summit.

Leaving from the visitor center parking lot at 9,200 feet the road ascends over 5,000 feet to an elevation close to 14,000. While my ears popped, my sense of wonder grew. Conversations around the truck bed stopped as the Mountain’s power over our senses intensified.

By Bill Adams/UrbDeZine

A nearby roadway may be putting your household’s health at risk. The same is true of workplaces, schools, and other places where people spend significant time. This health risk is from the elevated auto emissions near high traffic roadways. It’s a health risk separate and in addition to the regional air pollution from auto emissions.

We have come to draw a false sense of security from our collective sharing of regional air pollution and, perhaps, the belief that regulatory agencies protect us. However, research continues to show that air pollution, particularly from auto emissions, has profound effects on health.

Here are the winning photos from the 2015 “OB Exposed!” photo contest held every year by the Ocean Beach Historical Society. The photos are on display at the OB Business Center, 4876 Santa Monica Avenue.

(Taking photos of the winning photos hung up on display was kind of iffy to begin with, as the lights created a sheen on some of them and the gentle breeze prevented a still-life, so please excuse the

By Judi Curry

There is no questioning the beauty of the restaurant. Right on the water’s edge; quiet with subdued music playing so that you could hear everyone at the table without having to raise your voice, and a wait staff that was second to none. Friendly, knowledgeable, patient, and made suggestions that we listened to in selecting our entrees. There is also no question that the prices were high, but the food was excellent.