You might assume that the large stained glass peace symbol just erected atop the OB International Hostel on Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach simply reflects the spirit of the place. Hostelling, after all, attracts a sandal-clad, backpack-toting, internationally spirited crowd, and many OBecians continue to cherish the vibe (or memories) lingering from the days when the beach community was known as San Diego’s version of Haight-Ashbury.
But this particular peace symbol 
has its own distinctive back story. It’s a successor to a similar structure that adorned what came to be known as Peace Rock — the rocky upthrust located about 40 feet off Sunset Cliffs. The rock had long attracted sporadic guerilla art installations, and when storms in the winter of 2006 destroyed the most recent of these (a giant pterodactyl), a “small group of long-time Ocean Beach residents decided to erect a new artwork, one that evoked the magnificence of the setting and…inspired a positive reflection for Peace on Earth,” according to the website subsequently created by the Peace Rockers. They fabricated the 60-pound sculpture and at 2 in the morning of May 29, 2006, they scaled the rock and mounted their creation with the intention of it surviving the ages. That night the symbol even blazed with mysterious light for an hour, slowing car traffic and attracting a crowd of pedestrians. But concerns about safety on the cliffs after dark prompted the Peace Rock engineers to scale the rock again and disconnect the sculpture’s solar power cell. Still the sculpture itself remained intact — until it disappeared one night in January of 2008.
Heated discussion erupted on the Peace Rocks! discussion board, with some contributors protesting that a storm must have brought the sculpture down. The artists responded that inside information had convinced them it had been stolen and destroyed. Indeed, for all the adulation it inspired, one online commentator declared that the sculpture was “a sign of traitors.” Others carped that it had spoiled the pristine ocean views.
Although supporters urged the artists to install a replacement for the rock’s missing peace sign, evidence for the likely futility of this had accumulated. A Peace Rock installed in Santa Cruz in April of 2007 had been swept away by an unexpectedly big spring swell, and park rangers had removed a third sign mounted on a rocky promontory in Carmel in the summer of 2008.
The hostel management, in contrast, welcomed the peace symbol’s installation, which took place on New Year’s Eve of 2008. The current symbol even glows at night, without imperiling either pedestrians or traffic flow.
