OB Rag

by Ernie McCray

I came across a picture of me
rehearsing a scene
from August Wilson’s
“Joe Turner’s Come and Gone”
with two other actors,
back in the late 80’s,
if I remember correctly.

We were portraying characters
in a boarding house
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
in the early 1900’s,
grappling with their pasts
and who they are,
reaching for love
and promising futures,
up against a world

By Dana Williams / 7SanDiego / July 16, 2025

For the past several months, there has been little movement on a 23-story tower proposed for Turquoise Street in Pacific Beach, but that doesn’t mean the project isn’t moving forward, according to the developer, Kalonymus.

Marcella Bothwell, the chair of the Pacific Beach Planning Group and Neighbors for a Better California, talked to NBC 7 about the tower.

“It’s very easy for a community to get all riled up and think, ‘We’re gonna fight this,’ and then the developer goes quiet and there’s nothing to do,” Bothwell said. “Then, because we don’t get notice on stuff because everything is ‘ministerial,’ all of a sudden, construction is going to start.”

In December 2024, NBC 7 reported that the project quickly gained the attention of community members, like Bothwell, with its intent to burst the nearby 30-foot Coastal Height Limit in the area. It also stoked curiosity among San Diego City Council representatives to understand the limits to their power when it came to the State Density Bonus Law.

“The initial reaction was a little bit of disbelief,” San Diego Council President Joe LaCava told NBC 7 in December. “I just found it so unbelievable that somebody would propose something like this [in Pacific Beach].”

By JW August

It took some doing, but a bill that would increase penalties for people who buy sex from a minor has cleared its last hurdle in Sacramento and is now awaiting the signature of Gov. Gavin Newsom. The new law would make it a felony for older adults to buy 16-17 year olds for sex. And it would make it a crime again to loiter with the intent to purchase anyone for sex.

Newsom supported the bill early as it began a long and torturous journey to Senate approval.The governor is joined by numerous advocacy groups who oppose selling humans for sex — they collectively pushed long and hard on Assembly Bill 379 through a field of political landmines.

Dr.Stephany Powell, a retired LAPD Sergeant who ran the vice unit for the department, shared a message with hundreds of activists who were part of the effort to support the bill.

“I have tears of joy as I write this, AB 379 just passed 33 to 2. Huge applause for the warriors who stayed in the fight.”

One such warrior is Marjorie Saylor, with the California Survivor Coalition. A San Diego resident, she is a survivor of trafficking and a leader in the anit-trafficking movement locally and across the state and is an advocate for survivors.

by: Brooke Miller, Barbara Machado of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP / National Law Review / July 1, 2025

On June 16, 2025, the San Diego City Council voted 5-4 to cap the number of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) that can be built on single-family lots. The decision reverses the City’s 2020 implementation of a program allowing developers to build a nearly unlimited number of ADUs—a robust incentive previously heralded as a solution to the City’s burgeoning housing affordability crisis. This program rollback reflects local jurisdiction’s struggles in addressing the lack of affordable housing supply and meeting Housing Element requirements while facing stark community opposition to high-density development.

Background
On October 30, 2020, the San Diego City Council unanimously approved amendments to the San Diego Municipal Code regarding ADU and Junior Accessory Dwelling Unit (JADU) development.[1] Several key provisions were included in the amendments, including allowing the construction of one bonus ADU for every deed-restricted affordable ADU, with no limit on the number of bonus ADUs in a transit priority area (within a half-mile radius of a transit station);[2] no minimum ADU/JADU lot size;[3] no ADU/JADU density limitations;[4] and no parking requirements for ADUs in a transit priority area.[5]

By Lisa Mortensen

Hello Mr. Gloria and Councilmembers:

After my post yesterday, Who’s minding the store, San Diego? I didn’t think I’d be writing a Part 2 today — but so it goes.

Two more issues to bring to your attention.

Item #1:   First off, the subject of Mr. Gloria’s obsession with hiring high-paid middle managers.  As stated in the OB Rag article “there are five times as many high-paid middle managers at the city as there were a decade ago.”   Which begs the question “how will this alleviate our deficit?”

I was pleasantly surprised that the majority of the city council pushed back on this and overrode the mayor’s veto to their revisions of his 2026 budget where he kept all these 393 positions intact.  But what was really shocking even after their override, was that the mayor has chosen to ignore this limited legislative power that the city council possesses and did not terminate any positions recommended by council

A 73-year-old bicyclist sustained an open leg fracture in a collision in north-eastern OB Thursday, July 17. (Some call it “Point Loma Heights”)

San Diego Police Department officers responded at approximately 1:47 p.m. to the 4500 block of Voltaire Street when the driver came to a complete stop in the roadway before backing into the driveway of his residence.

The victim, who was traveling east on Voltaire Street in the bicycle lane, failed to slow down and struck the side of the 67-year-old man’s vehicle

It took crews about 20 minutes to extinguish a fire that erupted Wednesday, July 16, below the decks of a commercial fishing boat moored at a Point Loma marina, authorities reported.

The non-injuiy blaze erupted shortly after 11 a.m. at a dock in the 2800 block of Garrison Street, near North Harbor Drive and Rosecrans Street, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

The occupants of the 60-foot vessel were able to self-evacuate shortly after the fire broke out

A fight between two men in Ocean Beach escalated Wednesday, July 16, into a stabbing that left one of them injured.

The fracas in the area of Cable Street and Santa Monica Avenue broke out at about 6 p.m. Wednesday, according to the San Diego Police Department.

Paramedics took the victim to a hospital for treatment of a laceration to his abdomen, SDPD Officer Joe Perales said. The severity of the wound was not immediately clear.

“Which of the 393 Middle Managers Was Responsible for Oversight of DIF Accounting?”

By Lisa Mortensen

Greetings to our elected officials at city hall:

The article below regarding the $178 million in unspent development impact fees is eye-popping on the total dysfunction and lack of accountability by our elected officials at city hall.

We have a $6.5 billion infrastructure deficit and a $300 million budget shortfall and nearly $200 million sitting around in unused DIFs?  How can you even consider a salary increase in September ( totaling a salary increase of 61% since 2020) when you have failed in your job duties of protecting the health, safety and welfare of our city and its citizens?

by: Kasia Gregorczyk / Fox5 San Diego / Jul 15, 2025 

— The city of San Diego may be on the hook to refund nearly $200 million in development impact fees due to not following state guidelines on how to spend and track that money properly, according to a recently published San Diego grand jury report.

“It’s a year of our lives that we pour into these reports and we hope they make a difference,” said jury foreperson James Tuck.

The grand jury is calling into question the city’s collection of development impact fees meant to go toward things like new parks, fire stations, libraries, and roads to offset the impact of new development.

Tuck explains why so much money is at stake.

“Because the city has not reported out and met its reporting requirement since 2021, it could be at risk of having to return this $178 million that’s been languishing in DIF accounts for more than five years back to current property owners.”

by Macy Meinhardt / San Diego Voice & Viewpoint / July 16, 2025

If you’ve been following our housing coverage over the past year, you’ve likely come across several mentions of a convoluted zoning policy known as Footnote 7.

Approved in 2019 without community input, Footnote 7 changed the minimum lot size in certain Southeastern San Diego planning areas—from 20,000 square feet per lot to just 5,000. This change was made to allow for more housing developments, but community backlash led to the footnote’s removal in April.

It was considered a partial win for a community that felt the zone change was discriminatory and discreet, as it only applied to Southeastern San Diego, a region known for concentrated poverty and minority populations.

Although the footnote was removed for future projects, it still applies to developments that were already in the approval process when the rule was in place.

Which takes us to where we are today: the Klauber Development debate.