Ocean Beach Stories

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Ocean Beach VFW to Move Down the Street?

All that is left of the old Veterans of Foreign War post #1392 Canteen in Ocean Beach is a slew of memories and a room painted blue and red with white stars on the trim. ...

Bust at the Cove

Undercover DEA agents slipped into the Mariner's Cove apartments on West Point Loma Boulevard on Tuesday, January 25, and arrested an alleged drug dealer. An unmarked silver van with seven DEA agents wearing bulletproof vests ...

Hodad’s Too to Open Next Month...Really?

Hodad's, the Ocean Beach burger joint that is famous for its long lines of people waiting to dine among the surf memorabilia and license plates, is having trouble translating that O.B. vibe downtown. The slow ...

Ocean Beach Torrey Pine Tree Spared

A January 5 Ocean Beach Planning Board meeting left a gathering of about 15 community members relieved and one couple disappointed, as the City agreed to changed its plan to cut down a Torrey Pine ...

Dream Street Is Finished

“Korn got signed out of that club,” recalls Tim Hall about the days he booked bands at Dream Street. “We had them play there, like, 13 times. A bidding war over who got to sign ...

San Diego Emergency Response Takes 7 Minutes

A customer waiting in line at the Rite Aid store on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard fell backward onto the ground and lost consciousness on the afternoon of December 30. According to a witness, after someone called ...

Robbery Suspects Chased from Ocean Beach to Point Loma

Early Thursday morning, December 16th, a home-invasion robbery took place in the 4900 block of Santa Cruz Avenue in Ocean Beach. According to the San Diego Police Department, several armed men entered the Ocean Beach ...

Park to Greet Those Entering Ocean Beach

City councilman Kevin Faulconer joined city employees and representatives from the Ocean Beach Community Development Corporation on Tuesday morning to celebrate the groundbreaking for Phase 1 of a 2 phase project to improve the first ...

Intervention at People’s Co-Op Meeting

During a People’s Co-Op board of directors meeting in November, minutes show that the co-op faced an "intervention — in the form of a motion made by members" to face the co-op's reliance on plastic. ...

San Diego Chief Lifeguard Rick Wurts Outlines Staff Cuts

The safety of city waterways and coastline and the need to patrol them was laid out at the Ocean Beach Town Council meeting on October 27. "We have done everything we could to minimize the ...

Redesign of Thee Bungalow Near Complete, Bo-Beau to Debut

Bo-Beau Kitchen & Bar is the name given to the restaurant once occupied by Thee Bungalow. The rear exterior has been remodeled to resemble a French chateau patio with a large outdoor pizza oven. A ...

Who Made the Scene in Ocean Beach?

The O.B. Music and Arts Festival emerged from its economically influenced hiatus on September 11, more ambitious than ever with 7 venues and 27 acts. Difficult to pick standouts, but the performance of the Geoffrey ...

O.B.’s Jazz Festival Draws Maceo Parker and Ticket-Price Criticism

After a yearlong hiatus, numerous O.B. residents and visitors welcomed the Jazz 88 Ocean Beach Music & Art Festival (formerly the O.B. Jazz Fest) back to Newport Avenue on Saturday, September 11. One aspect of ...

Car Crasher Pleads for Leniency from Ocean Beach Residents

At 2:45 a.m. on September 6, a loud crash woke up residents of the 5000 block of Long Branch Avenue. Many rushed onto the street to find a light-colored SUV speeding west. A resident with ...

Ocean Beach Man Found Alive Under Car

On Monday, August 30, at around 5:00 p.m., a Navy man attempted to back his jeep out of its parking spot in the 4700 block of Niagara Avenue alley. The serviceman was startled to notice ...

Sessions Public, a New Brave-Heart Gastropub in Ocean Beach

My posse-mate Lynne, queen of the food-blog scouts, discovered Sessions Public via a detailed, positive review on Chowhound, one of the most honest and sophisticated local food boards. (Oddly enough, the blogger was reporting on ...

Obecians Get New Pipes

The Sunset Cliffs Trunk Sewer project is slated to begin in September, stated a city representative at the Ocean Beach Town Council meeting on August 25. The extensive sewer repair and replacement project — which ...

Application Denied

The Ocean Beach Town Council denied Frank Gormlie — a lawyer and cofounder of the OB Rag — a candidacy to the council’s board of directors on Wednesday, August 25. A contentious argument took place ...

Miscellaneous Heathens

My wife and I arrived at Ocean Beach's Dusty Rhodes Park at about 6 p.m. on July 24. A couple hours earlier, an open-to-the-public, free-of-charge dance party had gotten under way. A DJ spun energetic ...

(Bad) Luck of the Irish

After 3:00 a.m. in front of the O.B. International Hostel on July 22, a trio of female holiday-makers from Dublin, Ireland, were robbed at gunpoint. The women, all in their 20s, said they were talking ...

Pretty Poopers

On July 7, the Ocean Beach Planning Board unanimously voted to approve designs for a new “comfort station” in northern Ocean Beach, near the corner of Brighton Avenue and Spray Street. Point Loma architect Kevin ...

Census

In the spirit of this census year, we offer this unofficial, informal, and unscientific census of daily life in San Diego. (No census workers were lynched or faked their own lynchings while gathering the following ...

So Much Things to Say

On the afternoon of June 23, protestors clashed on Newport Avenue, attracting several news crews and police. The demonstration, originally intended as a peaceful picketing/petitioning event organized by Frank Gormlie of the OB Rag community ...

Corporate Cut

At 10:00 a.m. on June 15, at the entrance into Ocean Beach, a ten-man crew with a heavy-duty generator and a hovercraft-looking device began to cordon off a tall Mexican fan palm tree with yellow ...

Two Fires...Hmmm...

“It was an accident,” said Rebecca, a representative of Ocean View Villas, following a dumpster fire outside the hotel’s offices on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. “We’re doing some internal investigating. It’s definitely some internal housekeeping issue. ...

Trouble at the Cove

In the early evening hours of Saturday, May 22, police and ambulance sirens shattered the silence at the Mariner's Cove Apartments. The entrance to the complex was surrounded by cops and a large fire truck. ...

Solarize It

Local artist Robert Guenther decided his old Ford camper van was a "gross-pollutant vehicle" (his words) and decided he wanted to install some type of solar-powered engine to run his car. Lacking funds or any ...

Penny Flickers

News from the Mariner's Cove apartments in Ocean Beach: Car gasoline siphon attacks are causing consternation among residents. A Navy man I know filled up his truck with gas on payday and the next morning, ...

The Pits

"If they're gone, we will regret it, I promise you," said community member Frank Gormlie, urging the Ocean Beach Town Council to fight for the 185 public fire pits across San Diego, including eight in ...

Rumbling Rain

What one foot pedaling into and around Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach on a Wednesday evening between 3pm and 8pm might incur is some local specialty cuisine, organic pastries, unique handcrafted jewelry, jamming music, street ...

Seagull Management

I feel this warmth in the palm of my hand. Oh, great. It-Bit “Washtub” Boots McGee has just peed into my hand. He’s a couple of months old, max. Golden Lab pup. Looks like a ...

Big Brother will be watching

The City of San Diego has cooked up a plan to build an elaborate video spying operation around Mission Bay and Ocean Beach. According to a request for proposal issued March 5, the City wants ...

Sea Rage

The closing of the Ocean Beach Pier was announced at the March 1 Sunset Cliffs Natural Park Council meeting. “We lost a good 200 yards of railing on the south side [of the pier],” said ...

White Bronco Seen

A car crash on West Point Loma Boulevard February 15 resulted in a car upside down but no one hurt. Joggers and dog-walkers stopped to gawk at about 9:00 a.m. Police blocked passage on the ...

Winter Swim and a Twist

On Saturday, January 30, as I walked to my worn-out Toyota pickup in the parking lot at the Ocean Beach Pier, I heard screaming, yelling, and swearing coming from the direction of the seawall. A ...

Big Jetty O.K.

Since repairs to the Mission Bay Channel jetties began (a 350-ton crane capacity derrick barge and at least one support vessel have been at work there off and on since October), the enormous mound of ...

OB to Fight for Fire Pits

If the city can't afford to maintain the fire pits on its beaches, can community members step in? Members of Ocean Beach's planning board pondered that question at its January 6 meeting, discussing City of ...

Bongtroversial

The most heated topic at the December 2 Ocean Beach Planning Board meeting was presented by Dave Martin, member of the Medical Marijuana Task Force, an 11-member organization established by the San Diego City Council ...

Coastal Commission Omission

City plans for the development of the parcel of land at Abbott Street and Saratoga Avenue have been approved by the California Coastal Commission, but one important consideration seems to have been given short shrift. ...

Fair Warning

Demolition of the buildings at 4868 Santa Cruz Avenue began November 1. Residents who had lived there for years were given notice at the end of June that work would begin the day after Halloween. ...

Canners' Crisis

Last Tuesday morning, November 3, 11 people were in line at the RB Recycling center behind the Rite Aid off Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. Seven of the people were either homeless or didn't have any transportation. ...

Poor Pauly

On Friday, October 23, Pauly Johnston came back to his campsite to find all his possessions gone. According to an area resident who lives in the apartments overlooking the area where Pauly sleeps, SDG&E hired ...

Jetty Fix or Foul-Up?

For the past week and a half, work on the Mission Bay channel entrance has been under way. Visitors and locals have watched a 350-ton crane capacity derrick barge with two support tugs labor at ...

Cove Cleanup

The Mariner's Cove Apartments, a complex located on West Point Loma Boulevard in the Point Loma/Ocean Beach area, lost its newest onsite property manager recently. A new management company took over and has done some ...

An Execution in the Hills

MISSION HILLS An Execution in the HillsBy Scafidi, March 24 “Hello, Zack. What’s up?” “Uh, hi, uh, Fred? It’s me, Zack.” “Yup.” “My cat’s got a gopher cornered over here. Can you come quick? And ...

Gypsies, Snacks, and “Steve”

I collect vintage radios, phonographs, and jukeboxes, so I go to O.B.’s antique stores a few times a year. A few weeks ago, in the early afternoon, I went down to Newport Avenue for an ...

Car Clipper

On Saturday, October 10, a motorcycle going east on West Point Loma Boulevard clipped a car that had pulled out of the underground parking lot of a condo complex on the north side of the ...

What Sewage Spill?

Dog Beach was crowded with beachgoers and their dogs playing in the hazy afternoon sun on Saturday, September 26. Just a couple days earlier, signs warning of sewage contamination in the water flanked the popular ...

Mega Romantic

For such a hot day, there were a disproportionate number of people dressed in black at the end of the Ocean Beach Pier on Saturday afternoon, July 11. The estimated 70 people who gathered on ...

Pitifully Doomed

San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders recently announced that the City has launched a new website at which people can make donations to support the fire-pit program. Despite a $259,500 donation, fire-pit funding has only been ...

Cops’ Lot

The Ocean Beach pier parking lot has traditionally been a coveted location for RV owners to park on the 4th of July. The lot is steps to the beach, amenities for children are close by, ...

Transformer Taken Down by Parrot

Residents in southern Ocean Beach began Wednesday, June 24, without power. At about 8:30 a.m. one of the many parrots inhabiting O.B. landed on a transformer in the alley between Santa Cruz Avenue and Del ...