VOTE FOR PB BUSINESS AWARD NOMINEES Cast a vote for who you think should win the Business Awards for Best New Business, Design and Improvement and Heart of PB at pacificbeach.org. The nominees are in and anyone can vote until polls close on March 15 (one vote per person). Winners will be announced at the annual Awards and Casino Night on March 28.
Best New Business: Freshii, The Facility Dance Studio, Bad Axe Throwing, Bishops Cut/Color.
Design and Improvement: Tourmaline Properties, Mavericks Beach Club, Waterbar, TapShack Kombucha & Cold Brew.
Heart of PB: Noah’s Natural Pet Market, Tangelz, Green Gardens Nursery, Crown Point Coffee. GOFUNDME STARTED?TO HELP FIND BELOVED CAT Pacific Beach resident Tay Swope recently started a GoFundMe campaign to raise $1,300 to help her pay for a pet detective to find her missing cat. The feline in question, Bella, escaped on the night of Jan. 29 in the Crown Point area.
Swope said she was visiting with family when Bella ran through a front door left opened by one of her roommates who didn’t tell her the cat was missing until two days later. “Two neighbors have told me they spotted her fighting and being tormented by a raccoon so I believe she may be scared and/or hurt,” Swope wrote in the campaign’s description. “I have hired Annalisa Berns, a pet detective with 3 K9 dogs, to help search for her on Thursday after all the rain is done. I ask for any donations you can help me with as she is very expensive but I will go as far and spend as much as I need to, to ensure my baby is safe and back home with me.”
The campaign is titled “Bring Bella Home,” and at the time of this writing has raised $120. For more information or to donate, visit gofundme.com/ca462-bring-bella-home. PB PLANNERS TROLLEY RECOMMENDATIONS In January, after considerable vetting, Pacific Beach Planning Group overwhelmingly opted to concur with a list of recommendations presented to the City by Clairemont’s planning group on the new Balboa Avenue trolley stop, adding a couple of suggestions of their own. PB’s new list of recommendations includes: identifying funding sources to build a new pedestrian bridge, implementing the medium-density alternative in the project’s EIR, prioritizing infrastructure improvements, establishing a cap of 2,000 new dwelling units and providing traffic mitigation measures in Clairemont.
Added by PB planners to the list of recommendations was a call for Rose Creek to be dedicated as parkland, and mandating that improvements to the underpass at Balboa Avenue be done prior to the trolley stop being completed.
The Balboa Avenue Trolley Stop is one of nine planned for the Mid-Coast Trolley under development to extend trolley service from Sante Fe Depot downtown to University City. The extension will end at UTC and serve major activity centers including Old Town and UC San Diego. PUSH TO BAN ADULTS WITHOUT CHILDREN AT PLAYGROUNDS Sandy Gade Algra’s child got cut playing with a discarded needle found at a local playground. Ever since, she’s been on a mission lobbying in favor of new legislation that would make it unlawful for adults without children to be at playgrounds.
Gade Algra came to Pacific Beach Planning Group’s January meeting to make her pitch for such new legislation.
“Playgrounds were created for children, and intended for children, not adults,” she told PB planners adding swing sets and play areas are also increasingly becoming homeless haunts.
Planners pointed out one major problem: How do you distinguish between those legitimately at a playground, (someone having lunch), from people not there for a legitimate purpose? Gade Algra replied she was just starting out with her lobbying effort, adding wording on a proposed bill would come later. AGENT JOINS COLDWELL BANKER PB OFFICE The Pacific Beach office of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage recently announced that Sharon Diane Oyer has associated with the office as an affiliate agent. “I bring to the table 20 years of experience working with contracts and homeowner documents thanks to the attorneys for whom I worked,” said Oyer. Prior to affiliating with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, she was an agent with a top team at Keller Williams. She majored in social ecology at the University of California, Irvine. SAN?DIEGO SOFTBALL HAS OPENINGS FOR NEW TEAMS San Diego Softball has openings for coed and mens teams for the spring softball season, which begins on Feb. 11. Games are played in various leagues at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center, McEvoy Mission Bay Youth Fields in Pacific Beach, and at Serra Mesa Recreation Center. Fees include field rental and field preparation, game balls, game and umpire scheduling, postseason play and post season awards (if teams qualify). For information or to sign up a new team, call San?Diego Softball at 619-549-2644 or [email protected]. H1N1 FLU VIRUS CIRCULATING SAN DIEGO The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that Pandemic H1N1 is the main influenza virus making people sick both locally and across the nation. Last month, a 26-year-old reporter visiting San Diego from Washington, D.C. died, possibly due to Pandemic H1N1 complications. It is unknown whether the woman had underlying medical conditions and whether she had received a flu shot. A 49-year-old local man with underlying medical conditions and unknown vaccination status was confirmed as a H1N1 death. The total influenza deaths to date this season are nine, compared to 44 deaths this time last season.  
“The recently reported deaths are a reminder that, regardless of your age, the best protection against any known strain of flu is getting vaccinated,” said Sayone Thihalolipavan, M.D., M.P.H., County deputy public health officer. “The current flu vaccine offers protection against Pandemic H1N1, influenza H3N2 and two strains of influenza B.”
Local and national flu reports show that adolescents and young to middle-aged adults are more affected than other age groups because of their weaker immune systems. In 2009, the CDC concluded that adults older than 60 years of age had a level of immunity that was not present in children and younger adults when the H1N1 pandemic hit that year.
In order to prevent the flu, the CDC recommends that everyone 6 months and older get a flu shot every year. The vaccine is safe and effective. It takes two weeks for immunity to develop. The flu vaccine is available at doctors’ offices, community clinics, and retail pharmacies. If you don’t have medical insurance, you can go to a County public health center to get vaccinated. For a list of locations, visit sdiz.org or call 2-1-1. 2018 TOP BABY NAMES According to County Health and Human Services Agency, a total of 41,555 babies were born in San Diego County in 2018. Of those babies, 21,313 boys and 20,242 girls. Here are the top baby names parents chose for boys in 2018: Liam (242), Noah (202), Sebastian (200), Mateo (196), Benjamin (185), Daniel (185), Ethan (172), Oliver (164), Alexander (162), and Logan (156).
Here are the top baby names parents chose for girls in 2018:
Emma (264), Olivia (235), Mia (223), Isabella (191), Camila (173), Sophia (159), Sofia (151), Victoria (147), Mila (138), and Charlotte (137). 10TH ANNUAL ISLANDS RACE The San Diego Yacht Club and Newport Harbor Yacht Club will host the 10th-annual Island Race from Feb. 15-16. Starting from Long Beach Harbor, the expected 25-plus boats will make the 134-mile route around Santa Catalina and San Clemente Island and finish in Point Loma. Competitors will head offshore in west to northwest trade-winds that flow southward down the coast and are better in the evening as boats get further down into the trades and around the islands. Once they pass windward of these islands, however, competitors will expose themselves to larger swells and wind waves.