OB Rag

By John Lawrence

It has finally dawned on the American consciousness that wealth is being concentrated among fewer and fewer people. In fact just 400 Americans own more wealth than the bottom 180 million taken together.

Thomas Piketty in his ground breaking book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, shows the dynamic behind this dramatic rise in wealth among the upper echelon of society while everyone else, in particular the middle class, is being left in the dust.

At their annual “OBie Awards” dinner, held last night, October 14th, at Shades, the Ocean Beach Town Council recognized key community volunteers – giving out the Council’s traditional awards during an event attended by a ‘who’s-who’ of village politicos.

Congressman Scott Peters and Councilman Ed Harris also addressed the crowd, and numerous reps of other politicians were recognized. Harris gave out a special certificate of recognition to OB Planning Board chair Pete Ruscitti.

Town Council president Gretchen Newsom guided the event swimmingly through the evening,

Join the Ocean Beach Historical Society for their monthly presentation on Thursday, October 16th. This month’s program is “Reading Between the Lampposts: the Literary Giants of Loma Portal” – a book about street names.

This program will feature a unique book that is about a special neighborhood project coordinated by friends Elaine Fotinos Burrell and Karla Lapic.

The neighborhood of Loma Portal, has the curious distinction …

At the annual “OBie Awards” dinner last night hosted by the Ocean Beach Town Council, the OB Rag was presented with the yearly “Community Partner” award given out by the Council.

Frank Gormlie, editor, accepted the certificate on behalf of the OB Rag. Gormlie immediately thanked Patty Jones, his partner, “for making it all happen,” praised the new generation of the OB Town Council and the OB Planning Board, and spoke of the OB tradition of “doing it the OB way.”

In her prepared remarks, OB Town Council president Gretchen Newsom stated …

Compromise Means Barrio Logan to Host this Year But Not in 2016

By Brent E. Beltrán /

With his back against the wall, and a community within his district upset with the continued siting of the winter shelter in their neighborhood and the negative impact it brings, Councilmember David Alvarez stepped up and brokered a compromise.

Though the shelter will return this coming winter the City Council voted unanimously (with Councilmember Marti Emerald absent due to health reasons) with Mr. Alvarez’s motion to not have the location at Newton Avenue and 16^th Street in Barrio Logan considered by the Housing Commission in 2016.

2nd Demolition Slated for 4700 Block of Del Mar Ave

The Project Review Committee – a sub-committee of the OB Planning Board – has two projects to review when it meets Wednesday night at the OB Rec Center, October 15th. The Rec Center is at 4726 Santa Monica Ave, and the meeting begins at 6pm.

Both projects are applications to demolish existing housing and to then construct new condominiums or single-family residences.

The first on deck is a proposal to demolish an over one-hundred year old house at 4677 Niagara Avenue by its new owners, who just purchased it for $690,000 on September 25, 2014 . It was built in 1913.

The Nerd, the Negotiator, the Pretender and its Protégé

By Linda Perine / Democratic Woman’s Club

This week’s article is a little more complex than some of our previous looks at Who Runs San Diego?. When David (Cory Briggs) slays Goliath (Hoteliers Financing District) – that’s a good story!

When some (Sea World and certain electeds) tell us it’s OK to imprison and mistreat our sweet Shamu, LOTS of folk get mad. When our CD2/lifeguard good guy (Ed Harris) takes on tenants (Belmont Park) that seem a little moochy, you can pump your fist.

A severe head injury to a bicyclist occurred early Sunday in Ocean Beach in a hit-and-run. A woman bicyclist was hit by a white pick-up truck at the intersection of West Point Loma Avenue and Sunset Cliffs.

The pickup truck had a camper shell and was northbound. She was eastbound – they crashed around 1:20 a.m. –

A sea cave in Sunset Cliffs provided refuge for three struggling swimmers on Sunday October 12th. The three people were part of a larger group of cliff jumpers at a popular local spot known as The Arch.

The waves and backwash prevented the trio from using the usual route back up the cliff. Fortunately they found safe haven in a nearby sea cave, and then waited for the lifeguards to finish the rescue.

And they were rescued, although one had been injured. They felt trapped around 2:15 pm and got into the sea cave. Using ropes in their rescue rig lifeguards lifted the two up over onto the street side of the cliffs and had to use a stretcher for the third one. After being evaluated by paramedics, all three were let go, after being questioned by police.

Editor: The following is taken from a talk given by Professor Peter Bohmer at the Radical Ecology Conference, in Portland, Oregon on September 6, 2014. Bohmer currently is a faculty member in Political Economy at the Evergreen State College in Washington state. He lived in Ocean Beach in the Seventies and taught at SDSU. Many of the lessons Bohmer learned were from experiences here in San Diego and OB during the heady days of the 1970s.

By Peter Bohmer

I have been asked to share my experiences and knowledge of government repression with you not to scare you but so that we can deal with it and build stronger and more effective movements today for social, environmental and economic justice, locally, nationally and globally.

First a few comments.

We live in a society that is very unequal and growing more so. 50 million are below the official poverty line, and 10 million are officially unemployed and another 10 million have given up looking or are working part-time and want to work fulltime.

By Matthew Wood

Ocean Beach got its “oom-pah” on this weekend at the 10th annual OB Oktoberfest. Festivities included the 5K Brat Trot on the beach, a stein holding contest, music on two stages and – of course – a whole lot of beer.

Here’s a look at the “partei” in some pics from the event.

The Rey Vinole Oktoberfest Band performed all day on the side stage by the seawall, playing traditional German polkas and other favorites. … Fans start to crowd the main stage as night falls on the fest. A dozen bands in all played the festival over the two days. …

By Jim Miller

After my column last week on the battle between Tom Torlakson and the corporate education reform machine backing Marshall Tuck, I was pleased to see The Nation magazine’s special issue on schools. The writers aptly note that the struggle in American education is not one of the “status quo” versus “reform,” but rather, it is between a kind of educational class war dressed up as reform and a more progressive vision that seeks to empower all kids equally.