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The Story of How Community Planning Came to Be in Ocean Beach – How Ocean Beach Was “Saved”

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By Frank Gormlie / OB Rag

I have a story, and it’s a story about urban planning in Ocean Beach during the mid-1970’s – and how community planning came to be here in OB. It is a story about how a crisis of over-development encrusted the village of OB – and then it’s a story about how OBceans responded to that crisis –  a crisis that affected much of coastal of San Diego and of the rest of the Southern California.

It is a great and wonderful story about how a small village rebelled against a top-down blueprint for OB, a blueprint that would have benefited the elite who drew it up. It’s a story how the small village blocked a plan that would have literally paved the way for the community to be redeveloped into a San Diego version of Miami Beach.

It’s the story of  how Ocean Beach saved itself, and how the small, seaside community led the way within the great city of San Diego and in the great state of California in actually forming the very first neighborhood planning committee that was democratically-elected.

And finally, it is a story about how the successes of grassroots activists in Ocean Beach revolutionized urban planning for the citizens and residents of not only Ocean Beach, but throughout San Diego and the state.   [Read more…]

Profiteers Cashing In on Nation’s Catastrophic Water Crisis

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In face of historic drought, nation’s largest aquifers and reservoirs drying up.

By Lauren McCauley / Common Dreams

America’s food growing regions face a crisis of “catastrophic” proportions as historic drought continues to drive the nation’s largest water reserves to record lows. Amidst the shortages, private landowners are facing harsh criticism for seeking profits from this dwindling public resource.

“We’re headed for a brick wall at 100 miles per hour,” said James Mahan, a scientist at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service lab in Lubbock, Texas. “And, really, the effects of climate change are branches hitting the windshield along the way.”   [Read more…]

Tell SeaWorld: Stop the Nightly Fireworks

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There’s now an online petition to get SeaWorld to put a halt to their nightly fireworks explosions.  As of Thursday morning (July 10), it had almost 2000 signatures.

Here is what the website states:

 STOP the Nightly Fireworks at SeaWorld 

SeaWorld is damaging the quality of life of hundreds of thousands of San Diegans on a nightly basis, 90 days straight during the summer season alone. They are causing hearing damage and overall the physical well-being of the citizens of San Diego who live within a 20 mile radius or larger.

  [Read more…]

The 150th Anniversary of the Idea of National Parks

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By elfling / Daily Kos

One hundred and fifty years ago, the United States was in the midst of the Civil War. And yet, a group of men dared to press a curious idea. A magnificent valley and a grove of immense sequoia trees had been discovered in California. What if this land were to be preserved and protected from exploitation and development for all time?

Sen. John Conness was persuaded to introduce legislation for the Yosemite Grant. Conness sold the bill by describing the land as:

… for all public purposes worthless, but which constitute perhaps some of the greatest wonders of the world. It is a matter involving no appropriation whatever. The property is of no value to the government.

  [Read more…]

SeaWorld: Stop the Fireworks, We Want to Get Off

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By Doug Porter

It seems appropriate to report today –the day before July 4th– on a petition making the rounds calling on SeaWorld to end their nightly pyrotechnics.

Activist Alicia Coons and others are petitioning the City Council, asking them to tell SeaWorld they can only use fireworks alternatives for their nightly summer shows, including environmentally friendly laser light shows and electronic fireworks simulations.

In the past, those of us living inland hardly notice bada bing, bada-boom at about 9:50 each night during the summer months. This year, according to a report on CBS8/KFMB, the theme park is using a new vendor, “who may be using a higher degree of fire power.” The station played a video this week shot 20 miles away in Scripps Ranch, demonstrating just how far inland the sound travels…

NOTE: Unless there’s something REALLY BIG going on, I’m taking a day off from the column on Friday, July 4th. See you on Monday.

  [Read more…]

California Cap and Trade Funds for Low income Communities: Real or Imagined?

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By Jim Bliesner

California is leading the world in its pursuit of reducing carbon emissions, the identified culprit in causing global warming. California has not only established benchmarks for major industries for their reduction of carbon but has legislated a fining system for those who do not comply with the benchmarks.

If a major polluter, say Sempra Energy cannot meet its goal of reduced emissions, it has the option to pay the state for the excess. The payment goes into a statewide Cap and Trade fund (Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund). Those funds in turn are to be allocated to activities that reduce carbon emissions.   [Read more…]

Reactions to Supreme Court Hobby Lobby Decision Range From Real Disappointment to Really Dumb

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By Doug Porter

The Supreme Court saved its most controversial decisions for last for this session, announcing twin 5-4 votes yesterday in cases limiting public sector unions and extending the concept of corporations as persons to include the right to opt out of contraceptive coverage based on the religious beliefs of the owners.

While the rulings were narrower than they could have been, they triggered reactions filled with hyperbole and misinformation. For purposes of today’s column, we’ll take a look at responses to Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, the ruling holding closely held corporations (90% of all companies) are “persons” as defined by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993.

Make no mistake about it, the creeping person-hood of corporations combined with a ruling favorable to the theocracy set is serious business. But the headlines at places like the Huffington Post were beyond the pale.   [Read more…]

Extreme Weather Watch: June 2014 – Torrential Rains, Baseball Sized Hail, Massive Midwest Flooding

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Another Month, Another Couple of Towns Wiped Out by Tornadoes

By John Lawrence

June 2014 was one of the worst months on record for extreme weather. Tuesday June 3 saw baseball size hail, 100 mph wind gusts and 11 tornadoes in South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri. In Omaha and Des Moines there were hundreds of reports of hail. Trees toppled on autos. Wind damage was mostly from derecchio winds. Derecchio winds are straight line winds which can be as damaging as tornadoes.

In Blair, Nebraska, officials said nearly every home, as well as any car that was parked outdoors, was damaged. The courthouse alone sustained more than $1.2 million in damage because, after hail shattered windows and skylights, rain penetrated inside. The insurance price tag in Nebraska and western Iowa will soar into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Although a handful of tornadoes were reported, baseball-sized hail and flooding rains left the biggest mark.   [Read more…]

Endless Summer: On the Verge of the Sixth Extinction

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“The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson

We’ve seen a lot of bad news lately from the dismaying results of our last local election and a slew of reactionary court decisions at the state and national level to the re-emergence of the chaos in Iraq and the seemingly daily news reports of growing evidence that our widening level of economic inequality is becoming an entrenched and sadly taken-for-granted part of our new normal.

Even as we head into the heedless days of summer, we are greeted by yet more studies showing that the climate change fostered by our unsustainable way of life is causing huge chunks of the antarctic to break off which will result in rising sea levels and more severe damage to our ecosystem and consequent human suffering.

If you are paying attention, it’s hard not to be angry.  But, of course, there is already a virtual industry in place designed to turn people’s anger in the wrong direction, to deny basic facts about history, the economy, political power, and the actual state of the natural world.  Thus, just when we need to be turning the car dramatically to avoid the crash, there’s no one at the wheel.   [Read more…]

Lessons from Unist’ot’en Camp: Is Your Integrity Intact?

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By Will Falk

Resistance is often lonely.

I learn about loneliness waking up on a cold, hard storage room floor at 3 AM in a new friend’s house after a nightmare involving confronting all my old co-workers in the Kenosha, Wisconsin State Public Defender’s Office, hanging my head again in defeat and shame as I explain that I will never come back to work there. I stare at the ceiling asking myself just how in the hell I ended up in Victoria, British Columbia to stop the spread of fossil fuels in Canada.

I learn about loneliness watching the supply of my daily anti-depressants dwindle in the bottom of the orange pill bottle. I’m too embarrassed to ask how I would go about refilling my prescription. I’m confused about whether I even want to re-fill it after forgetting to take my medications for a few days and feeling the welcome return of swift, spontaneous emotions welling up to heat my body like a touch of whiskey on a winter day.   [Read more…]

San Diego City Council: Pass the Plastic Bag Ban Now

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By John Lawrence

The San Diego Climate Action Plan calls for an action item to be passed by the City Council in 2014: the plastic bag ban. More than 110 other California Cities and Counties have already passed one.

Los Angeles City and County both have bans on plastic bags. San Francisco became the first city in the nation to adopt a ban on plastic shopping bags in April 2007. In February of 2012, the Board of Supervisors voted to expand the ordinance to more stores. Since San Jose’s ban took effect in 2012, plastic-bag litter in storm drains, which can contribute to flooding, has fallen by 89 percent.

You know the way, San Jose. Since you raised the minimum wage, unemployment has actually diminished. Take that, job creators. In San Diego County Solana Beach is the only city to enact the ban.   [Read more…]

Free to Eat Whatever You Want

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There are clear reasons that food is safer in Europe than the United States.

By”Jill Richardson / OtherWords>

My neighbor just left to spend the entire summer in Europe.

He’s the guy with a highly restrictive diet I recently wrote about, with countless food intolerances that his “nutritionist” detected using dubious testing methods. I haven’t had the heart to tell him she’s a total quack. I think on some level, he wanted to hear that he couldn’t eat half the foods on the planet.

But I also feel for him. He’s going on the trip of a lifetime to a place with incredible food. What if he won’t eat it?

The day before he left, I asked him what he’ll do on the trip. He told me he plans to eat everything. He and his “nutritionist” agreed that food is better over there. Safer. More pure.   [Read more…]

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