It’s a Battle of Eras Over Modernizing Plans for Ocean Beach ‘Cosmic’ Mural

In a world gone to mini-malls and double-coupon supermarkets, the Ocean Beach People’s Natural Foods Market is from a time of tie-dye and body paint.

Where else can you join an erudite discussion of cilantro? Or get a good deal on a jumbo-size box of colon cleanser?

Or see a bulletin-board advertisement for an “alternative vegetarian preschool” or a lecture entitled “When God Was a Woman”?

But now part of the market on Voltaire Street is being considered for radical redevelopment: the 1978 “starburst/cosmic crystal” mural that adorns the outside wall next to the parking lot.

The market’s board of directors is considering replacing the mural--by O.B. artist Peter Everly--with something newer, less psychedelic, more in sync with contemporary concerns: organic farming, endangered species, animal rights, etc.

The matter is being put to an advisory vote of the market cooperative’s 6,000-plus members. Stand by for clashing views about art & commerce and spending $15,000 for a new mural.

Board member Pat Denley says he’s got nothing against the mural but he figures it’s time for something new. Three artists have supplied drawings of possible replacement murals.

“People have used the word ‘hippie’ to describe the old mural, it looks like the ‘60s, even though it was done later,” Denley said. “It recalls an earlier, simpler time in O.B., and maybe that’s the reason people are attached to it.”

Damn straight, said O.B. attorney Bob Burns. He and his wife, O.B. artist Carol Wright, are urging a “No” vote on the replacement mural.

“It offends me,” Burns said. “They can’t give a good reason for destroying a perfectly good mural. If it’s to make money, they should come out of their yuppie closet and say so.”

Ballots are due Tuesday. After that, the board will decide at its May meeting.

Burns says he’s already researching recall procedures for any board members who tinker with “starburst/cosmic crystal.”

First La Jolla, Now the World

Here and there.

* Terry Cole-Whittaker, whose feel-good ministry in La Jolla collapsed six years ago amid money problems, is now a headliner on the New Age circuit.

She comes to the San Diego Convention Center next month as part of the Whole World Expo: “Manifesting the Lifestyle You Desire.”

* A bill by Assemblywoman Dede Alpert (D-Solana Beach) to require that all used cars be retrofitted with back-seat harness belts before they can be sold has its first hearing today in Sacramento.

Set to testify in favor: James and Patricia Miller of La Costa, who won a record $6-million settlement against Ford Motor Co. after one son was killed and another was severely injured in a 1988 crash.

* A researcher from UC Berkeley called the San Diego Police Department to casually inquire about how many brothels there are in San Ysidro.

* Among those attending district attorney’s annual $25-a-plate luncheon last Friday honoring heroic crime victims: Bosses of Waste Management Inc., the trash hauling firm being probed by the D.A. for mob ties.

* The last tattoo parlor/adult bookstore on the once-infamous strip of West Broadway, known to decades of sailors, was demolished on the weekend to make way for a 24-story office tower.

Skin-illustration fans don’t despair: the parlor just moved to East Broadway.

Liegler’s Three-Step Plan

Tom Liegler wanted badly to return to his job as general manager of the San Diego Convention Center, stay a few months, and then leave to pursue “other options.”

That would have allowed him to restore his reputation and to assert that he was not leaving under fire because of allegations that he used the center as a private rumpus room.

Morgan Dene Oliver, chairman of the center corporation’s board, after initially defending Liegler, finally told him that his “three-step” proposal wouldn’t fly. He’d have to leave immediately.

Forty-eight hours later, Liegler submitted his resignation.