OB Rag

Coastal Resiliency Master Plan
SEPTEMBER 9TH AGENDA ITEM
SAN DIEGO CITY COUNCIL

Pop Quiz?  “What do you do if the City plans a big change in your neighborhood?”
Answer: Follow the instructions below

While we have been researching, learning, teaching, and agonizing over the changing landscape in our beach community, our city has been planning! Many of us attended the CRMP meetings, one in person, one virtual. Many times the Coastal Resiliency Master Plan, CRMP, has been served up as an item on the City Council agenda, only to be cancelled without explanation.  On Sept 9th the San Diego City Council lists it as the last item on a heavy agenda day.  Just try to talk to someone about the plan, and your concerns.  Good Luck.

I encourage you all to write and submit your concerns.  You could read the 91 page plan that was released recently. It is long and tedious, like all of the plans.  Are there 50 citywide plans?  I heard there are!  The committee that put together this plan has convinced organizations to support it, partially because it is a real issue that needs a good action plan. I am going to submit a letter to voice my concerns and I will try to attend the meeting.

by Geoffrey Hueter / Times of San Diego / Sept. 6, 2025

Despite recent revisions, Senate Bill 79 should not be approved without further meaningful changes.

SB 79 is a solution in search of a problem. Its goal is supposedly to enable transit-oriented development, but most California cities — especially those with significant transit investments — have already zoned for this.

In addition to adding housing capacity through general plan and community plan updates, regional transportation planning agencies and municipalities, including SANDAG and cities throughout the San Diego region, have maximized their transit investments by creating and funding specific plans for transit-oriented development — by increasing densities, eliminating parking, and streamlining permitting.

That these cities have housing plans that have been certified by the California Department of Housing and Community Development is proof that cities have already “made it legal to build housing near transit” as proponents of the bill are fond of saying.

SB 79 is too expansive to be transit-oriented. The bill’s one-half and one-quarter mile tiers should be defined by walking distance, not straight line (“as the crow flies”) distance,

By David Garrick / San Diego Union-Tribune / September 7, 2025

A new growth blueprint for Clairemont — the oldest and largest of San Diego’s suburban neighborhoods — calls for 17,000 new homes, mostly in new mixed-use villages or along a trolley line.

The blueprint, which is slated for City Council approval before the end of the year, aims mostly to preserve Clairemont’s suburban character by concentrating the new housing in existing commercial areas.

Clairemont’s sprawling shopping plazas would be transformed into densely built mixed-use villages with high-rise housing above the shops. The area’s neighborhoods of single-family homes would remain mostly untouched.

One of the most important networks of San Diego residents to emerge over the last 6 months is holding its general public monthly meeting tomorrow, Saturday, September 6. It’s the San Diego Community Coalition – a network of over two dozen communities and their leaders and activists.

As they state on their facebook page:

A network of San Diego community activists and leaders from 25 neighborhoods riled up about over-development and its consequences plus the disrespect shown to residents by City Hall.

The Coalition is having its meeting in Clairemont, at the Northminister Presbyterian Church at 4324 Clairemont Mesa Blvd (92117) and it starts at 10am and runs to noon.

Cutting its teeth on pushing the City Council to enact reforms to the disastrous so-called Bonus ADU program, the Coalition works to share knowledge, give support to and help to coordinate all the myriad different neighborhood groups that have formed recently explicitly to push back on City Hall’s housing policies.

There is so much going on right now across the city’s neighborhoods, that one needs a program to keep track of everything.

For example, check all these out:

Here’s the very latest from Washington, DC, the nation’s capital — your capital. There’s a brand new lawsuit from DC officials that challenges Trump’s use of the National Guard as a “military occupation.” A Federal Judge in D.C. said U.S. Atty. Jeanine Pirro’s office have tarnished its reputation with how they are handling the deluge of hundreds of cases. And leaders in the House and Senate are not planning to hold votes to extend President Donald Trump’s temporary control of D.C. police before it expires next week. Here’s details ….

DC lawsuit challenges Trump’s National Guard deployment as a forced ‘military occupation’

The District of Columbia on Thursday [Sept.4] challenged President Donald Trump’s use of the National Guard in Washington, asking a federal court to intervene even as he plans to send troops to other cities in the name of driving down crime. Brian Schwalb, the district’s elected attorney general, said in a lawsuit that the deployment, which now involves more than 1,000 troops, is an illegal use of the military for domestic law enforcement.

“No American jurisdiction should be involuntarily subjected to military occupation,” Schwalb wrote.

The White House said deploying the Guard to protect federal assets and assist law enforcement is within Trump’s authority as president. “This lawsuit is nothing more than another attempt — at the detriment of D.C. residents and visitors — to undermine the President’s highly successful operations to stop violent crime in D.C.,” spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said.

By Richard Santini on behalf of Preserve Greater Golden Hill

Greater Golden Hill is one of San Diego’s most historically rich and culturally diverse neighborhoods. Nestled just southeast of Balboa Park, it has long stood at the intersection of San Diego’s past and future. From its earliest days, Golden Hill attracted artists, working families, civic leaders, and immigrants drawn to its proximity to downtown, its walkable streets, affordable housing, and sweeping views of the bay and Coronado. Two areas of its graceful 19th- and early 20th-century homes are city designated historic districts, but the character of the neighborhood extends far beyond the district’s’ boundaries. What defines Golden Hill is the coexistence of history, architecture, and cultural diversity that gives the community its unique soul.

Today, that soul is under threat. In the rush to meet housing targets, developers are forcing through projects that are out of scale, out of character, and out of touch with neighborhood realities. These are not the “gentle density” promised in planning documents. They are large, profit-driven complexes shoehorned into spaces meant for smaller-scale housing. This unchecked growth poses risks to safety, affordability, and livability—placing profit above people.

Compromised Public Safety

Mayor Gloria’s Complete Communities Executive Order 2024-1 allows expedited approvals only if “expedited service maintains protections for public health and safety.” Yet projects are being advanced without those protections.

by Scott Hopkins / Pen. Beacon – Times of San Diego / Sept. 2, 2025

It was a time of rapid growth in San Diego. The little seaside community was home to 74,683 people in 1920, and that total would double to 147,897 by the end of the decade. The city was already home to a pair of high schools. Russ School, later named San Diego High School, opened in 1892, and La Jolla High School opened to the north in 1922.

HASTINGS’ FOLLY

Edgar F. Hastings, a member of the Board of Education, believed that a new high school was needed in a slowly developing community situated between San Diego Bay and the Pacific Ocean. Fellow board members strongly disagreed with Hastings, saying the proposed location was too far from town.

But Hastings persisted, even after his fellow board members termed the proposed new school “Hastings’ Folly.”

And, on Sept. 8, 1925, Point Loma Junior-Senior High School opened.

Pete Ross was named as the school’s first principal, and the school’s stadium bears his name today.

Ross oversaw a staff of 30 teachers who drove their Model Ts to the campus that had no homes around it. They parked their cars in a staff parking lot along Zola Street before walking onto the new campus built in Spanish Revival architecture with three-story buildings featuring curved archways and wrought iron.

Those teachers were expected to deliver a rich and challenging curriculum to each of the 386 students in grades 7 through 12 who arrived on the first day of school. After all, those teachers were making $90 per month, according to federal records.

By Spike Steffenhagen / San Diego Reader / Sept. 4, 2025

“Brian [Thoryk] had this smirk on his face and told me he needed to talk to me after a Skullbusters practice,” Victim drummer Junior Solis tells me. “Then he says, ‘We’re doing the Victim reunion.’ I was like, ‘Why now? I’ve been asking for years.’ He just said, ‘It’s time.’” The September 5 reunion show at The Holding Company in Ocean Beach marks the first time the metal band has appeared live since 1986. They made their vinyl debut in 1984 with Power Hungry. The follow-up Dirty Mean and Nasty was released in 1986 with a final offering, By the Neck, surfacing in 2014 from old recordings thought lost.

The internet has kept out-of-print bands accessible, allowing generations of fans to discover things that otherwise would have faded into obscurity. Even Victim’s long-lost 1983 appearance on local public access TV’s Club 33 recently turned up on Youtube, and featured a performance of the track that landed them on a KGB Homegrown album, “Victim.”

Of course, attention is currency on YouTube, and so an appearance there runs the risk of inspiring  “reaction” videos conducted by self-appointed edgelords who are as likely as not to strike a dismissive and snarky pose in a failed attempt to show how cool they are. But cold hard cash speaks louder

SUNDAY, SEP. 7, 2025, 11:30 A.M. – 1:30 P.M.
28th STREET PLAYGROUND, SAN DIEGO, CA
Preserve Greater Golden Hill to Host “March & Roll” in South Park
Family-Friendly Event Aims to Spark Conversation About Housing Policies

On Sunday, September 7 at 11:30 a.m. at the 28th Street Playground in South Park, neighbors from the South Park and Golden Hill communities will gather for a “March & Roll”—an inclusive, lively, family-friendly walk-ride-and-roll event designed to bring neighbors together, raise awareness, and start conversations about how current state and local housing legislation is affecting the safety, affordability, livability, and future of San Diego’s neighborhoods.

The event will begin in South Park, where participants can meet, mingle, and decorate their walking shoes, strollers, scooters, bicycles, and wagons. At noon, the group will follow a set route through the neighborhood, showcasing community spirit and solidarity while enjoying South Park’s tree-lined streets and historic charm.

By Samantha Mason

This is my third of a series of exploring new or interesting businesses in Ocean Beach and this time it’s all about my impressions of Voltaire Street. I spent my Tuesday morning traversing this avenue, meeting new people and seeing cool things. You know the drill!

Dog Lodge (4844 Voltaire St)

I kicked off my adventure at Dog Lodge, a dog daycare and puppy heaven. Open since January, Dog Lodge offers a variety of services for furry friends, like grooming and overnight boarding. I got the chance to speak to the owner and founder, Donovan, who opened the lodge after getting a dog of his own. He’s been in the animal care industry for seven years, and is truthfully living my dream life as a fellow dog lover.

He said there’s nothing better than spending time with the dogs, and that being in OB is the cherry on top. “It’s such a small community, and it feels like it gets smaller by the day,” he expresses, “I love seeing all of the familiar faces.”