New Times, March 9, 2023

Editor’s note

At the end of February, SLO County said that it would be closing the Oklahoma Avenue safe parking site at some point in the future, calling it a failed venture. Shortly after, county officials walked back their statements, saying they were planning to continue operating the site without accepting any new participants. Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal spoke with county officials and nonprofits about the issue, the parking site’s problems, and how they plan to fix things moving forward [8]

This week, you can also read about SLO moving forward with the North Chorro bike path plan [4], what local school districts are doing to mitigate the teacher shortage [9], a former professional soccer player’s new show at SLOMA [28], and the facility and tasting room Timbre Winery is opening in SLO [34]

Camillia Lanham editor

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SLO moves forward on North Chorro bikeway

Adoubled price tag didn’t stop the San Luis Obispo City Council from approving a $6.1 million construction contract for the long-planned and hotly debated North Chorro Neighborhood Greenway project.

In a 4-0 vote, with Vice Mayor Jan Marx absent, the council took the final step to approve the new bike boulevard that will connect downtown and Foothill Boulevard with various bike facilities— including a two-way “cycletrack” on Chorro Street that removes more than 50 on-street parking spaces.

Agendized on March 7 as a routine consent calendar item, the greenway contract drew more than 100 public comment letters, with some residents demanding that the city go back to the drawing board and others urging it to move the project over the finish line.

“It seems like everybody is just as passionate about this greenway, one way or another, as they have been over the past 10 years,” SLO City Councilmember Michelle Shoresman said at the meeting. “I realize this isn’t the plan that everybody likes, and people would like to continue to tweak it, but this is what we’ve decided as a community. We’re here today to approve the construction contract.”

The final construction bids came in at nearly $3 million more than what the city budgeted last year—and nearly $4 million more than 2021 estimates. In 2021, the city received a $1.7 million state grant for the greenway, which, at the time, was expected to cover 70 percent of its cost. The City Council approved the project’s final design in 2018.

“Inflation has been horrible,” Shoresman said.

To make up the funding gap, the council is pulling monies from 13 different city accounts, which SLO resident Anne Hodges lambasted as being like “shaking the city couch” for coins.

“It’s like college students looking for pizza money,” Hodges said.

Proponents of the greenway reminded the council about the years of outreach and engagement that led to the project’s design, and the substantial bike and pedestrian safety improvements that will result from it. The greenway includes a mix of protected and shared-use bike paths on Chorro, Mission, Broad, Ramona, and Ferrini streets, as well as accessible curb upgrades and new pedestrian crossings.

“The first time I stood at this podium ... I was among over 100 people who signed a letter because we were all concerned about the children in our

Paso school board candidate alleges the district, county conspired against him

As a special election for the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District (PRJUSD) draws closer, one candidate has accused the district and the San Luis Obispo County Department of Education of colluding against him.

“Being a retired career Marine colonel, I believe in the rule of law,” school board candidate Kenney Enney told New Times. “They have to follow it, and you cannot allow a situation to occur where potentially you have government resources being used to target political foes.”

Enney’s accusations against the district stem from a petition started by community members late last year, which quickly gained enough signatures to kick him out of his appointed seat on the dais and warrant a special election that will take place on April 18. Enney, who’s running against Angela Hollander to reclaim his seat, filed a complaint with

neighborhood being able to get to the elementary school safely outside a car,” resident Kim Bisheff said at the meeting. “Those kids are all in high school now. And there’ve been tremendous improvements in bike infrastructure around town … but the gap through North Chorro still exists.”

Project opponents, on the other hands, decried the bikeway as unnecessary, expensive, dangerous, and detrimental to the neighborhood.

“It really represents a very expensive want, rather than a documented need,” resident Keith Gurnee said. “It will diminish the livability and functionality

alternative that saves street parking and uses a shared-street design instead of a protected cycletrack.

“The two-way cycletrack—with 16 driveways, drivers coming out of their proprieties, crossing two lanes of bicycle paths to get into the travel lanes—is an accident waiting to happen,” Gurnee said. While acknowledging that she had concerns about the project, Mayor Erica Stewart said that she trusted transportation experts and the research showing that such bike facilities are safe and effective.

“They do work,” Stewart said. “We are looking at how can we make this safe for pedestrians, bikers, strollers, scooters, everyone involved. That’s my goal for the long run.”

Councilmember Emily Francis invoked her personal experience living in Germany, where bikeways and cycletracks are common.

of a great neighborhood. It will take away funds from other necessary projects. It doesn’t address the real problem: the documented dangers to cyclists on Foothill, Santa Rosa, Los Osos Valley Road, and Higuera—streets that have experienced fatalities.”

Gurnee and others suggested that the city consider a less expensive and impactful project

the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) on Feb. 27, in which he accused County Superintendent of Schools James Brescia, Paso Robles Superintendent Curt Dubost, and petition organizer Carey Alvord of unlawfully using government funds to target Enney.

“Dubost aided the rapid qualification of the petition and has conducted an ongoing effort using district resources attempting to suppress complainant Kenneth Enney’s use of campaign materials containing a public logo of the school district,” Enney’s FPPC complaint states.

In February, the district threatened legal action against Enney if he didn’t take down his campaign signs, which illegally featured the school district’s logo.

“The district did not authorize using its logo for these purposes and does not support or endorse any candidate for elective office,” the district stated in a Feb. 27 press release.

While the district didn’t specify the candidate in

“They were pretty much everywhere, and it was just part of the fabric. … All these different types were integrated into society and used fairly seamlessly,” Francis said. “I know it’s an incredibly challenging thing to adapt to, and it will take a little while, but I trust we can get there together.” ∆ —Peter

Johnson

question, Enney told New Times that Dubost had “complained” about Enney’s use of the district’s oak tree logo on his original campaign signs. Dubost didn’t return requests for comment before press time.

In his FPPC complaint, Enney alleged that the county and district illegally used public funds to oust him from the board of trustees and failed to report these expenditures as political contributions. Petition organizer Alvord told New Times that no district resources were used in the petition process. Although Enney referred to a series of public records requests for email correspondence between Dubost, County Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano, Alvord, and County Superintendent Brescia to prove there was a misuse of government funds, the FPPC dismissed Enney’s complaint. The March 2 dismissal states that Enney’s complaint doesn’t fall under the commission’s purview.

The FPPC’s dismissal hasn’t deterred Enney, who

FINAL GREEN LIGHT On March 7, the San Luis Obispo City Council approved a construction contract for the controversial North Chorro Neighborhood Greenway project.

told New Times that he is working with his lawyers to revise and resubmit the complaint.

Enney, who was originally appointed to fill the remainder of Chris Bausch’s term, was ousted from his school board seat in December after Enney posted controversial statements about LGBTQ-plus and transgender youth on the conservative PRotect Paso Facebook page. His recent claims against the district have driven away some supporters, like former school board President Chris Arend, who recently lost his reelection bid.

Arend served on the board of trustees when Enney was appointed and encouraged him to apply for the job. In an open letter to voters, Arend explained his change of heart was partly due to Enney’s “hostile attitude” toward Paso’s superintendent.

“I saw absolutely no improper use of school district resources or bias on the part of either the PRJUSD or the county,” Arend wrote in the letter. “Both Superintendent Dubost as well as Superintendent Brescia took legal advice throughout the process, maintained strict neutrality, and played it by the book.”

Hollander lauded Arend’s change of heart and told New Times that it was “refreshing” to see someone realize an error in judgment.

“I am of the belief that people should sit down and discuss issues,” Hollander said. “You may not agree, but then we can agree to disagree as opposed to shouting at one another.”

Supervisors could consider Nipomo sheriff’s substation in budget

The dormant possibility of Nipomo receiving a sheriff’s substation came alive again during a San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors’ discussion about capital improvement.

On March 7, Sheriff Ian Parkinson stressed the need for a substation in the unincorporated town. His comments, coupled with 4th District Supervisor Jimmy Paulding’s support for increased investment in Nipomo, resulted in a unanimous decision to add a local substation to the upcoming budget considerations.

With a population of 18,600 people across 15,000 square miles, Nipomo is comparable to its nearest city of Arroyo Grande, according to Parkinson.

“It’s 100 less in population now but three times bigger in geography, which equates to response times and services,” he told supervisors.

Currently, sheriff’s deputies are dispatched to Nipomo from the Oceano substation during emergencies. Those deputies then use a report writing room near Tefft Street so that they can remain in Nipomo. Parkinson said that it’s completely different from having a substation.

“You have a response time issue from beginning of shift to end of shift to get from Oceano to Nipomo,” he said. “A substation would also include a community room, like in North County … that allows the public to meet and for you to meet with constituents.”

Further, some Nipomo residents hit roadblocks when they try to contact law enforcement. Susie Davison, 61, was born and raised in Nipomo. She now lives in Santa Maria but told New Times that community members desperately want a substation with patrolling officers because of increased crime.

“Our tax dollars are paying for their

paychecks,” she said. “It’s disheartening when our calls fall on deaf ears. We don’t get the same respect and protection as the rest of the county.”

In 2020, Davison’s cousin Debra Glenn was found dead in her home on Tefft Street in a much-publicized case where her family members allege murder and still want answers from the Sheriff’s Office. Davison and Glenn’s granddaughter Hope Goodall told New Times that Glenn reported multiple break-ins to the Sheriff’s Office in the year leading up to her death. A sheriff’s substation in Nipomo could have resulted in a different outcome, they said.

“Someone could have helped her,” Goodall said. “She would call 911, they would never come to house or if they did, the intruder would have escaped by then.”

Jason Sweet, another Nipomo resident, told New Times that despite multiple bikes being stolen from his yard, he stopped calling the Sheriff’s Office because “they aren’t going to do much about it.”

Five years ago, aggressive knocks on his door woke him up at 2 a.m. Sweet found people searching his front yard with flashlights. Someone had broken through his fence and neighbors were looking for the culprit. Sweet said that sheriff’s deputies took roughly 30 minutes to get to his house.

“Imagine what would have happened if someone was trying to break in,” Sweet said.

Nipomo was poised to get a substation sooner because of a condition included in an agreement with Trilogy at Monarch Dunes—a large mixed-use project that contains residential homes, golf courses, and a business park. First approved in 2002, the Trilogy developer was required to provide 3,000 square feet of office space for a sheriff’s substation. But that agreement changed in 2017 when the developer shrunk the space to a minimum 200-square-foot facility and wanted to pay less than $600,000 of the estimated $1 million cost for its construction, with taxpayers funding the remainder. Then 3rd District Supervisor Adam Hill and 2nd District Supervisor Bruce Gibson opposed the deal and engaged in a public spat with then 4th District Supervisor Lynn Compton, who favored it. The new agreement was sealed in a 3-2 vote.

At the March 7 meeting, Parkinson revealed that the amended deal fell through.

“Unfortunately, the language that was crafted back when Trilogy began was ambiguous,” he said. “We believed that they had to build a substation. They believed they didn’t have to, and we had to pay for the substation.”

The Sheriff’s Office and county counsel negotiated another deal with Trilogy as an alternative to litigation. He said the developer agreed to give the county $300,000 for a future substation and pay for and build a report writing room in Trilogy.

Gibson highlighted the need to explore all the grants available to the county to fund a new substation and stepped in to “correct the record” on March 7.

“Not everybody did agree that the deal cut with Trilogy was appropriate. We suffered a significant loss of funding in that deal,” he said. “I, and at least one other supervisor, opposed it. It has put us in a hole, but those are actions of previous boards that I don’t think should color the future.”

—Bulbul Rajagopal

State approves Paso Robles basin plan

After more than three years of review, the California Department of Water Resources

(DWR) announced that it plans to approve the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin sustainability plan—an important milestone that keeps the North County aquifer under local management.

“It’s a clear green light,” said Blaine Reely, the groundwater sustainability director for San Luis Obispo County. “We now know we can maintain local control and get a whole lot more aggressive in achieving a pathway toward sustainability.”

SLO County and other local agencies, including the city of Paso Robles, submitted the 20-year sustainability plan in late 2019 to comply with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.

After it found some deficiencies in the first draft of the plan in 2021, DWR concluded on March 2 that the agencies adequately addressed its concerns—which were that the plan did not properly consider shallow residential wells or the interconnectivity of ground and surface water.

“We spent a lot of effort trying to understand how much risk there is to rural residential wells,” Reely said, “and identified strategies moving forward to provide some relief and protection for those.”

Reely called the state’s decision “a relief.” In the same March 2 announcement, DWR deemed six other basin plans in the state “inadequate,” including Kern County’s. That means the state will intervene in those basins and take over their management.

Now that it’s approved, basin stakeholders can focus on implementation, he said. The urgency level is high: a 2022 basin report showed that groundwater storage in the aquifer declined by 117,100 acre-feet last year (the average annual deficit has historically been 13,700 acre-feet, according to the sustainability plan).

Since 2019, the Paso basin has lost nearly 250,000 acre-feet of storage, according to annual reports.

“We continue to see, in almost all of our key reference monitoring wells, a decline in groundwater levels,” Reely said.

Those declining levels caused more than 20 basin wells to go dry in 2022, according to DWR data. Reely suspects that the number is actually higher, since not every landowner reports their dry wells to the state.

But Reely added that there’s reason for optimism. The above average rains this winter should help recharge the basin.

Local agencies and farmers are also making progress on supplemental water projects, like the city of Paso’s plan to pipe and sell recycled wastewater to local grape growers to use in lieu of groundwater.

“[The city of Paso] is moving toward awarding a construction contract for that first phase [of the pipeline],” Reely said.

SLO County also recently finished a process with Monterey County to revise its contract for Lake Nacimiento water to allow the reservoir to be used for agriculture. Local municipalities that rely on Nacimiento for drinking water never fully use their allocations, Reely said.

“So there’s always surplus in that system,” he said.

Ultimately, though, farmers over the basin will have to cut back on pumping to balance the basin. According to the 2022 report, agriculture accounts for 92 percent of the basin demand, and thanks to the recent drought, the amount of pumping in 2022 was 44 percent higher than it was three years ago.

“We’ve got to reduce agricultural groundwater pumping,” Reely said. “There’s just no way around it.”

—Peter Johnson

Pismo receives pushback on effort to disqualify construction company

Pismo Beach’s attempt to disqualify a contracted construction company faced legal scrutiny during a recent City Council meeting.

“You can’t debar the contractor if you’re happy with the end product because allegedly you’re unhappy with what happened in between, unless they breached the contract or violated wage laws, and that didn’t happen here,” attorney John Darling said at the March 7 hearing.

Darling represents V. Lopez Jr. & Sons, a Santa Maria-based construction company hired by Pismo Beach in late 2017 to replace the Five Cities Lift Station, perform maintenance on six lift stations, and repair elements of the wastewater collection system. Lopez worked on the project in conjunction with Water Systems Consulting (WSC), the project designer appointed by the city.

Now, city staff wants to disqualify Lopez from working on city projects for five years. They alleged that Lopez caused delays to the project with poor planning, and the company lacked an understanding of municipal sewage pump station practices and the public works process.

“The issue is not about finished product but the road getting to the end goal … about their work, their knowledge, and their competency, which was not in line with the project or scope of work,” Assistant City Manager Jorge Garcia said at the meeting.

Darling said that the focus on the “road” to the finished project instead of the quality of the end product itself isn’t grounds for debarment.

“Debarment is reserved for egregious behavior. It’s not appropriate for when there’s delays; it’s not for punishment or for leverage,” Darling told City Council.

Lopez started construction in February 2018 and had until April 2019 to finish the project. However, because of numerous change orders to the design plan, the deadline was extended to March 2020. Despite that, Lopez only finished a substantial amount of work by June 2020. In his presentation to City Council, Public Works Director Ben Fine said that the delays resulted in a loss of almost $324,000. That sum doesn’t include equipment costs and compensation for staff’s time.

Darling shot back with a 130-slide presentation, which detailed that the blame was unfairly placed on Lopez and that city staff neglected to study the actions of project designer WSC. He added that there were no complaints about safety issues or quality.

The attorney mentioned that holdups happened because Pismo Beach also didn’t hire a “SCADA consultant”—a supervisory control and data acquisition software expert.

Neither city staff nor Darling’s law firm responded to New Times’ requests for comment by press time. Pismo Beach staff provided no rebuttal to Darling’s argument during the March 7 meeting.

The City Council unanimously voted to finish deliberating the issue at its March 21 meeting due to the length of Darling’s presentation. City Attorney David Fleishman informed council members that their decision will be intuitive.

“Mr. Darling, I would agree with him, that debarment is a serious undertaking,” he said. “It’s a somewhat subjective judgement for the council to determine what constitutes a responsible bidder.”

—Bulbul Rajagopal

—Shwetha Sundarrajan

SLO County braces for another atmospheric river

It’s been two months since SLO County was battered by a deluge of rain that broke levees, eroded river embankments, and downed trees. As repairs from the Jan. 9 and 10 floods continue, local officials brace for another 2 to 4 inches of rain expected from March 9 through 11.

According to the National Weather Service, SLO city is expected to receive 3.33 inches of rain, Atascadero 2.21 inches, Paso Robles 1.47, and Cambria is expected to get 4. Cities and community services districts are prepping for what could be a repeat of January’s storms by coordinating storm preparation efforts with the SLO County Office of Emergency Services. According to Rachel Monte Dion, SLO County emergency services coordinator, officials are concerned about the ground being saturated with water from this winter’s storms, leaving not many places for the water to go.

Dion said that the county is closely monitoring residents living south of the Arroyo Grande creek levee, which failed in January, and those living in low-lying areas like Santa Margarita.

“All of those areas that have issues, we’ve gone back and done what we can to ensure that that doesn’t happen. A lot of the measures are temporary, because there hasn’t

been enough time to go back and do some of the permanent work that takes a long time,” Dion said.

Cambria Fire Chief Justin Vincent said that the town’s biggest concern right now is monitoring the status of the Windsor Bridge area, which is the only point of access to the Park Hill neighborhood.

“Every vehicle that goes across that road damages that road a little more,” he said. “If it gets to a point [where] that road is too damaged, we’re not able to get emergency vehicles in, which is a safety concern.”

Vincent said the Jan. 9 and 10 storms helped the Cambria Community Services District identify which areas would be hit the hardest in the next bout of big rain.

“This last storm taught us a lot of lessons when it came to the equipment that we have, staffing,” Vincent said.

Johnathan Stornetta, chief of Paso Robles Fire and Emergency Services, said the city has worked tirelessly to evacuate homeless people out of the Salinas Riverbed, sending out warnings to residents, and clearing out debris to prevent further flooding. He said the city expects the Salinas River to rise to the monitoring stage during the first storm from March 9 to 11.

“If that second storm materializes, we could, worst-case scenario, see us hit flood stage again,” Stornetta said. “We’re very concerned with just over 2 inches.” ∆

—Shwetha Sundarrajan

Breaking old habits

County continues fixing problems at Oklahoma Avenue safe parking site ahead of overhaul

Bungled public notice joined the list of confused and stilted services provided at San Luis Obispo County’s safe parking site on Oklahoma Avenue.

“The messaging was not as clear as it should have been. … It was garbled, frankly,” 2nd District Supervisor Bruce Gibson said.

“We don’t just close [Oklahoma] Avenue— that site provides a safe place for people to park and gives them the ability to access permanent housing.”

In late February interviews with The Tribune and KSBY, county Administrative Officer Wade Horton and Homeless Services Division Manager Joe Dzvonik said that the site is slated to shutter and admitted that the program failed to meet its goal of being a temporary solution for its unhoused participants. Dzvonik and Gibson told New Times that the parking site isn’t

off from resources like grocery stores and medical facilities and pinpointed gaps in onsite food provision and trash management— all of which homeless advocates said they were concerned about when the parking site was established.

Previous New Times reporting found that several unhoused residents were dissatisfied with the level of mental health care and case management they received from groups like Community Action Partnership of SLO (CAPSLO) and Transitions-Mental Health Association (TMHA). A handful of participants felt so sidelined that they started a homeless union to advocate for themselves.

County officials and CAPSLO met concerns about overcrowding by spacing out the parked RVs in January 2022. But tragedy struck the site soon after when a fire broke out and killed a woman who was parked and sleeping there.

When participants complained about a lack of robust safety protocols, then site manager Jeff Al-Mashat oversaw a contract last September with Good Guard Security Inc. to hire three round-the-clock security guards. Since then, site leadership has changed hands, with Dzvonik replacing Al-Mashat.

“People have very different ideas of what ‘safe parking’ is and should be,” she said. “When I was told about safe parking, I envisioned people coming in, parking at night, and leaving. That isn’t what was created, whether intentionally or unintentionally.”

Ensuring the program has a clear intent is a top priority, according to Nichols. She added that service providers can be more effective at leveraging each other’s services for site participants. Nichols hasn’t had indepth conversations with the county or with the unhoused participants yet, but she wants to start with a list of client names to figure out unique rehousing plans for each of them.

“You work each name, and we all do it together, … including the clients,” Nichols said.

Jack Lahey, CAPSLO’s homeless services director, told New Times that the Oklahoma Avenue program doesn’t fit the phrase “safe parking site.”

“It’s closer to a sanctioned encampment, and there’s no sanctioned encampment that I know of that’s [got] vehicles,” he said.

For him, the biggest stumbling block to providing services to parking site participants was a lack of enforcement of site rules, including the contract participants sign stating that it’s a 90-day program. People stay parked well past that deadline.

“There’s no pressure for someone to engage with service providers on a housing plan, and there’s no emphasis that this is a temporary site,” Lahey said.

Looking ahead

CAPSLO’s data shows that they’ve established case management for 97 households since the parking site opened. But a petition signed by 33 participants on Feb. 1 detailed that some of them weren’t happy with the nonprofit. It alleged that there was no proactive case management, and CAPSLO employees were “insulting and hostile.”

Lahey said that more than half the people currently on-site still want to work with CAPSLO.

“After talking with the participants, we found out that some didn’t know they were signing a petition,” he said. “Some thought they were signing up for food.”

actually closing but is stopping new intakes of homeless people. County officials say they will now focus more on providing the existing participants with service.

“Many press reports have called it a failure. I don’t see it as a failure, but it’s not a complete solution,” Gibson said.

Gibson, the supervisor representing Los Osos, pushed to clear unused county-owned land to set up the parking site as a pilot project in August 2021. It was a response to increasing unrest from some disgruntled Los Osos residents who complained about the homeless community on Palisades Avenue.

Nearly 18 months ago, Gibson told New Times that the Oklahoma Avenue site was a “learning curve” for the county—a statement that still holds true this March, while the program prepares for a reboot of services.

“[Oklahoma] Avenue was initially planned to have physical parking spaces established first and then services,” Gibson said. “We need to do it at the same time. This is a learning curve.”

Old and new dilemmas

Gibson acknowledged that the physical location of Oklahoma Avenue cuts residents

Service cracks

Now, the site isn’t taking in any new participants, according to Dzvonik, and is capping capacity at the existing 65 to 75 people. He told New Times that while CAPSLO used to be the primary service provider, the new iteration of the site will include other groups like the 5 Cities Homeless Coalition, El Camino Homeless Organization (ECHO), and TMHA.

“Nobody is going to be evicted. It’s not a closure; we’re just starting to draw down,” Dzvonik said. “We did an honest assessment, and it was a difficult decision. I would be disingenuous if I didn’t say that what we’re doing out there isn’t working.”

He echoed Supervisor Gibson’s issue with the program not having local resource groups working in tandem with the county from the beginning.

“We just started it ourselves, and then we expected service providers to show up and start running it,” Dzvonik said.

To 5 Cities Homeless Coalition Executive Director Janna Nichols, supportive services at the site were an “afterthought.” She told New Times that she applied the lessons she learned from observing the county’s process to the Cabins for Change initiative in Grover Beach.

Presented to the Board of Supervisors, the petition also demanded not renewing the contract with CAPSLO as the primary service provider. With $350,000 of American Rescue Plan Act funds in its pot, CAPSLO will engage in deeper talks with county officials, but service management from them is off the table now, Lahey said.

At the Feb. 28 Board of Supervisors meeting, homelessness was ranked first on the 2023-24 budget priority list—something Gibson pushed for.

As the 1st Vice President of the California State Association of Counties, he has been working with a homelessness policy solution group and elected supervisors to devise a network at the state level that can address the issue of homelessness in a way that’s unique to each of California’s 58 counties.

In SLO County, Gibson is waiting for budget proposals as the county faces a future deficit. He said he’s preparing to potentially trim funding from other departments as he advocates to fund homeless services.

“Everyone says the system [of homelessness] needs to be reformed, but we don’t have a system in the first place,” he said. “We need to set it up.” ∆

Reach Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal at brajagopal@newtimesslo.com.

REBOOT After almost 18 months of fielding complaints from its participants and homeless advocates, the Oklahoma Avenue safe parking site stopped accepting new members and will focus on rehousing the existing 65 to 75 residents.

PHOTO BY JAYSON MELLOM

Underqualified to teach

have the appropriate credential.

SLO County Office of Education

Superintendent James Brescia told New Times via email that the county works closely with school districts to monitor anything amiss.

Rising student debt. Not enough compensation. A lack of qualifications and training.

These are some of the reasons why school districts across the country are scrambling to find qualified teachers, according to Jim Lynett, executive director of the Paso Robles Public Educators. The issues have been exacerbated over time, due to what Lynett describes as a lack of respect for the teaching profession.

“There’s kind of like a lot of things operating at once to make teaching a difficult recruitment goal because the goal is in line with what you want to do and your schools, and so we do have teachers who are not qualified,” Lynett said of the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District.

Data from the California Department of Education for the 2020-21 school year shows that 2.5 percent of teachers in the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District are either not authorized to teach in California, are teaching without a credential, or are teaching in subjects they don’t have credentials for.

To help the district bring in more qualified, credentialed teachers, Lynett said that in the past two years, the union has negotiated a 50 percent raise for teachers and stipends and bonuses for teaching positions that require specialized training, such as special education.

“Administration is really listening. They’ve been very cooperative and collaborative because they know that it’s hard to recruit people,” Lynett said. “There’s a lot of other jobs out there. And we know that there’s people hiring a lot and the unemployment rate is very low.”

A California Commission on Teacher Credentialing report from 2020-21 shows that 30,958 teachers in California were lacking the appropriate credential for the course they were teaching—54 of those misassigned teachers were in SLO County. This is because school districts like Paso have assigned teachers to teach subjects that they aren’t qualified for in order to fill certain vacancies. Approximately 5.4 percent of Atascadero Unified School District teachers lacked the appropriate credential, according to 2020-21 data from the California Department of Education. In the San Luis Coastal Unified School District, 2.4 percent of teachers didn’t

“Each county office of education monitors credentials, reports findings to local agencies, and works with the local agencies on corrective action plans,” Brescia wrote.

They compile that information on local school districts in quarterly reports.

According to the most recent quarterly report, from October to December 2022, Paso Robles Joint Unified had seven teachers without the proper credential teaching English language learners and 12 teachers without the appropriate credentials teaching general education subjects like math, history, and English.

“Teachers must have a multiple-subject, single-subject, or special education credential. The statewide teacher shortage has forced some districts to rely on nonfully credentialed teachers,” Brescia said. “Teachers not fully credentialed are working on various emergency-style permits or waivers that are monitored and reported on by each county office of education.”

But these emergency permits aren’t a cureall, Brescia said. The emergency permits are only valid for a year or less, oftentimes with no options for renewal.

“The goal is for those educators to move toward earning a preliminary credential or entering an intern credential program,” Brescia said.

According to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, new teachers have to first earn a preliminary teaching credential, which lasts for five years and requires applicants to hold a bachelor’s degree. Teachers can then apply for either a specific subject area credential or a clear credential, which indicates that all education and program requirements for the credential have been met.

Most bachelor’s programs nowadays have a teaching credential course embedded in the curriculum, Lynett from the Paso teachers union said. On average, it could take anywhere from a year or more for someone to receive a credential in their subject area.

For Rylee Birdsall, who currently teaches math at San Luis Obispo High School, the process of getting a credential involved a combination of taking classes and student teaching before taking a series of exams known as the California Subject Examinations for Teachers (CSET).

In 2017, Birdsall was working toward getting credentialed in physics. Birdsall explained that each CSET exam attempt costs $100, and she had to take the test six times due to questions pertaining to quantum physics, which isn’t part of the current AP physics curriculum.

“Why are we getting assessed on quantum physics if we’re not even expected to teach it?” she asked. “It would be nice [if] the CSET was more aligned with the subjects that we’re about to teach, not the whole general knowledge of it.”

Each attempt at passing the CSET takes a mental and financial toll on teachers,

Birdsall said. The exams are so stressful that she’s had friends call her crying. To ease the financial burden credentialing puts on new teachers, Brescia said that the County Office of Education sets aside around $500,000 annually to upskill employees.

Paso Robles Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Shauna Ames said the district often hires teachers who are in the middle of getting a credential.

“If we are short-staffed or there’s not a big candidacy pool for some teachers, including special education and some secondary like math … there are ways where sometimes you can hire someone that’s in the process of getting their credential,” Ames said.

That’s what happened to Birdsall, who already had her general science credential but was working toward passing her physics CSET while she was teaching physics at San Luis Obispo High School.

Sometimes administrators can fill vacancies for certain electives, like yearbook or theater, Ames said, by having existing teachers apply for another secondary credential.

“We work with the county on every single employee and make sure they’re properly credentialed for their area,” Ames said.

“And if there is something they need to have in order to teach that subject, then we will work with the county to get the proper waiver to get them in the proper course to get that finished.”

If there aren’t any teachers to fill a position, Birdsall said that some teachers are asked to teach a subject they haven’t taught in a while because they are already credentialed to teach it.

“When push comes to shove and they don’t have someone to teach a PE section, they’re going to try to pull that [teacher],” Birdsall said. “At the site that I was at, that kind of happened where people were teaching subjects that they hadn’t taught in years, just because there wasn’t anybody to fill that.”

Despite the long hours, the exam fees, and the mental stress brought on by the CSET, Birdsall said that her love for teaching makes the entire process worthwhile.

“I love the kids. I love what I do. I love teaching,” Birdsall said. “I’m so happy where I’m at, but it was a rough two years. There were a lot of things to do, a lot of money spent.” ∆

Contact Staff Writer Shwetha Sundarrajan at shwetha@newtimesslo.com.

TEACHER SHORTAGE School districts across SLO County are struggling to hire credentialed teachers, which has posed a problem at schools like Paso Robles High School.

PHOTO BY JAYSON MELLOM

BY PETER JOHNSON

Equitable solutions

For all the hard work that organizations like the Diversity Coalition of SLO County have put in in recent years to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) locally, Executive Director Rita Casaverde said that climate justice is one issue that’s somewhat fallen through the cracks.

That subject came up recently during a climate-focused roundtable attended by several local DEI leaders, including Casaverde.

“We didn’t have any project going on that had to do with climate equity,” she said. “We started talking about climate, and we realized that a lot of the current messaging being used was just not getting through our communities, and the communities we serve and work with.”

Too often, the marketing and messaging around climate action isn’t targeted and doesn’t speak to communities of color, she said. Whether it’s information about buying an electric car or guidance on how to switch to all-electric appliances, the language isn’t inclusive to typically underserved groups.

“The people featured in commercials around electric vehicles, for example—we’ve never seen people who had indigenous features,” Casaverde noted. “The person who mentioned it [during the roundtable] had Mexican indigenous heritage and she said, ‘None of the ads include people who look like me.’ That alone made us see that the messages don’t relate.”

That casual roundtable conversation inspired the Diversity Coalition, R.A.C.E. Matters, the Central Coast Coalition for Undocumented Student Success, and a Brooklyn-based tech company, BlocPower, to apply for a grant centered on improving the equity of messaging around climate action.

Last month, the groups received $340,000 from TECH Clean California, a state program funded by California gas ratepayers. The project’s stated goal is to develop “targeted and inclusive marketing and educational materials for equitable electrification.”

Promote!

go directly into underserved communities of SLO County to test out different types of messaging about climate action.

“Really the strategy behind the grant is not necessarily to explore this at climate-related events, but to go where the community is already going—to meet people where they are and use language that relates to them,” she said. “We want to go to Juneteenth in Paso Robles and events in Shandon and Nipomo. We want to blend in with other events that bring value to the same population, and that don’t usually get access or interest.”

Climate topics at the outreach events will range from simple tips to lowering utility bills to why heat pumps and inductive stoves are more economical and environmentally friendly.

The grant partners want to cut through the jargon that’s often part of climate activism and find a message that connects with the people.

“The language used a lot of times includes words that are very specific to the industry and don’t bring it down to common terms that people can relate to,” Casaverde said. “We’re going to try out different things and find out what really resonates with the community.”

Fast facts

• Locals can now spend their CalFresh/ SNAP benefits at the Saturday Farmers’ Market in San Luis Obispo, which is held in the parking lot of World Market on Madonna Road, from 8 to 10:45 a.m. According to a press release, the Saturday market now has 35 vendors whose goods are available to purchase with CalFresh benefits. The market is the ninth in SLO County to accept CalFresh, and those customers have spent more than $345,000 at them since 2017, according to the press release.

Send

“For many low-income, communities of color, electrification and climate are concepts in the abstract,” the project’s website reads. “This pilot will address knowledge and education gaps by funding trusted stakeholders to conduct education and awareness events for underserved populations.”

Casaverde said that the grant partners will

• The El Camino Homeless Organization (ECHO)’s newest campus in Paso Robles recently got a makeover thanks to A-1 Glass. “A call went out to A-1 Glass to see what they could do to help us improve our space,” an ECHO press release read. “Not only did A-1 Glass answer that call for service, they made the decision to support the local nonprofit, and donated the work.” The Paso-based company installed “architectural window film” in ECHO’s offices and rooms, which “combine glare control with heat rejection to increase thermal comfort,” according to ECHO. “We decided to partner with ECHO because we are just so grateful for this community,” A-1 Glass owner Bryan Carroll said in a statement. “We just want to give back to what’s been given to us.” ∆

Assistant Editor Peter Johnson wrote this week’s Strokes. Reach him at pjohnson@ newtimesslo.com.

ADVACING EQUITY Eric Vieum, of the SLO Climate Coalition, gives a heat pump tour to Rita Casaverde of the Diversity Coalition, Courtney Haile of R.A.C.E. Matters, and Zach Rizk from BlocPower (right to left). The latter three organizations received a grant to work on ways to improve climate messaging equity.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SLO DIVERSITY COALITION

ANDERSON, ANTOINETTE MARIE, 91, of Atascadero passed away 2/25/2023 arrangements with Chapel of the Roses

ATWOOD, JUDITH KAY, 80, of Arroyo Grande passed away 2/22/2023 arrangements with Marshall-Spoo Sunset Funeral Chapel

BEZERRA, FREDERICK J., 81, of Santa Maria passed away 3/01/2023 arrangements with Dudley-Hoffman Mortuary, Crematory & Memory Gardens

BUCKHOLZ, DOLORES, 94, of Los Osos passed away 2/25/2023 arrangements with Blue Sky Cremation Service

CARDECCIA, DOREEN FERN WOLFE, 84, of Santa Maria passed away 2/20/2023 arrangements with Dudley-Hoffman Mortuary, Crematory & Memory Gardens

CHAIT, EDGARDO, 66, of Santa Maria passed away 3/01/2023 arrangements with MagnerMaloney Funeral Home & Crematory

COSCA, CARMEN Y., 79, of Santa Maria passed away 2/24/2023 arrangements with Dudley-Hoffman Mortuary, Crematory & Memory Gardens

DEASER, DYLAN VALENTINE, 27, of Grover Beach passed away 2/17/2023 arrangements with Chapel of the Roses

DESMOND, SHIRLEY ANN, 90, of Arroyo Grande, passed away 2/26/2023 arrangements with Marshall-Spoo Sunset Funeral Chapel

DIAZ, MICHAEL L., 58, of Santa Maria passed away 2/16/2023 arrangements with MagnerMaloney Funeral Home & Crematory

FURUKAWA, TETSUO, 95, of Santa Maria passed away 2/20/2023 arrangements with Dudley-Hoffman Mortuary, Crematory & Memory Gardens

GUERRA, REYNALDA, 90, of Santa Maria passed away 2/25/2023 arrangements with Dudley-Hoffman Mortuary, Crematory & Memory Gardens

HAAKE, JOAN CLAIRE, 89, of Orcutt passed away 2/28/2023 arrangements with Dudley-Hoffman Mortuary, Crematory & Memory Gardens

HOLLUM, PATRICIA LOUISE, 80, of Santa Maria passed away 2/18/2023 arrangements with Dudley-Hoffman Mortuary, Crematory & Memory Gardens

KERSEY, CARMEN PATRICIA, 92, of Paso Robles passed away 2/05/2023 arrangements with Chapel of the Roses

LEINE, PATRICIA MAE, 91, of Santa Maria passed away 2/26/2023 arrangements with Magner-Maloney Funeral Home & Crematory

LOGUERCIO, MARILYN, 89, of Santa Maria passed away 2/18/2023 arrangements with Dudley-Hoffman Mortuary, Crematory & Memory Gardens

LOPEZ, JUDITH CAROLINE, 82, of Santa Maria passed away 2/25/2023 arrangements with Dudley-Hoffman Mortuary, Crematory & Memory Gardens

LOPEZ, AGNES, 94, of Santa Maria passed away 2/28/2023 arrangements with Dudley-Hoffman Mortuary, Crematory & Memory Gardens

MACK, RANDELL LEWIS, 76, of Atascadero passed away 2/18/2023 arrangements with Chapel of the Roses

MCENTIRE, JAMES PAUL

Atascadero passed away 2/18/2023 arrangements with Chapel of the Roses

MCMILLAN, CHRISTOPHER SEAN

Santa Maria passed away 2/19/2023 arrange ments with Dudley-Hoffman Mortuary, Crema tory & Memory Gardens

MEDEIROS, NANCY, 79, of Paso Robles passed away 2/27/2023 arrangements with Blue Sky Cremation Service

MOORE, WILLIAM HERBERT JR.

Paso Robles passed away 2/25/2023 arrange ments with Chapel of the Roses

NORTON, MARY, 59, of Templeton passed away 2/26/2023 arrangements with Blue Sky Crema tion Service

OSTINI, SALLY CAROL, 67, of Santa Maria passed away 2/25/2023 arrangements with Dudley-Hoffman Mortuary, Crematory & Memory Gardens

PEEK, HOWARD ALAN, 72, of San Luis Obispo passed away 1/05/2023 arrangements with Reis Family Mortuary

PETERSEN, EDWARD DAVID

Atascadero passed away 2/14/2023 arrangements with Chapel of the Roses

RICHARDSON, RONALD, 67, of Paso Robles passed away 1/31/2023 arrangements with Chapel of the Roses

ROCHESTER, PHILLIP, 72, of Santa Maria passed away 2/27/2023 arrangements with Dudley-Hoffman Mortuary, Crematory & Memory Gardens

SANFORD, ROBERT EMORY, 92, of Atascadero passed away 2/20/2023 arrangements with Chapel of the Roses

SECOR, BARRY K., 94, of Santa Maria passed away 2/28/2023 arrangements with MagnerMaloney Funeral Home & Crematory

SILVERIA, SUSAN “SUSIE”, 72, of Santa Maria passed away 2/28/2023 arrangements with Magner-Maloney Funeral Home & Crematory

SINGH, PAUL KARM, 66, of Santa Maria passed away 2/23/2023 arrangements with Magner-Maloney Funeral Home & Crematory

STATOM, LEE, 97, of Arroyo Grande passed away 2/18/2023 arrangements with Marshall-Spoo Sunset Funeral Chapel

SULLIVAN, RILEY HANS, 21, of Creston passed away 1/29/2023 arrangements with Chapel of the Roses

TESTERMAN, CLARISS, 100, of Paso Robles, passed away 2/27/2023 arrangements with Blue Sky Cremation Service

WEEKS, BETTY A., 93, of Santa Maria passed away 3/02/2023 arrangements with Dudley-Hoffman Mortuary, Crematory & Memory Gardens

WOMACK, MARLY EMILY, 93, of Nipomo passed away 2/23/2023 arrangements with Dudley-Hoffman Mortuary, Crematory & Memory Gardens

WOOD, SUSAN VERONIKA, 73, of Santa Maria passed away 2/24/2023 arrangements with Magner-Maloney Funeral Home & Crematory

Happy Heavenly Birthday Connie. Everything beautiful reminds

Forever Love, Your Twin Cindy with Mary Trice, John Trice, Tom Hackett and Kitty Hackett

BY LESLIE HALLS

Shelve it

future, so let’s go into more debt now, while interest rates are at their highest peak in 40 years, to build it and save some money in the future when we may need it!

The city has been technically insolvent for years, owing more than $160 million to CalPERS for employees’ retirements and millions more in outstanding bonds. The last thing the city needs to do is take on more debt for any reason.

spaces occupied and generating sales tax revenue?

Thank you for your recent story about the proposed art district downtown and the $50 million parking structure to accommodate it (“Pay up: Parking costs are about to double for downtown SLO visitors,” March 2). The Shredder was right on the money (“Parking paradise,” March 2)!

Why would anyone even consider giving away/trading valuable city property and taking on another $50 million in bonded indebtedness to meet alleged future parking needs that the city’s own consultants see no need for? The council’s logic is, we don’t have the money now, but it will cost more in the

An open letter to landlords and apartment managers

With homelessness in America spiraling out of control and homeowners and apartment managers able to rent out properties at obscenely high rates, you are in effect causing the homeless crisis. Nobody can criticize any of you individually, because supply and demand is the main reason for the crisis. There simply isn’t enough affordable housing to go around for those in need.

Most homeowners or apartment managers either don’t know about the government program created by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Section 8 voucher program, or they don’t trust it simply because it’s a government program. That program assists low-income Americans to pay rents they otherwise could not afford, sometimes paying as much as 70 percent of a tenant’s rent. I know that because I am a member of that program, and if it were not for that voucher, I would not be able to live almost anywhere in the state of California on my income.

The issue we voucher-holders have is that there are not enough homeowners or apartment managers who are part of the program and that the few who are have waiting lists that are years long, so we end up with vouchers in our hands and nowhere to use them. Recently, while scrolling through rentals in the Santa Barbara area where I want to live, not a single one of the 960 properties listed stated that they accept the vouchers.

Before receiving said voucher, applicants must prove they are American citizens, and they are thoroughly vetted by the government through the local Housing Authority. You cannot be a convicted felon and be part of the program or they cancel your voucher. Being a government program, it ensures you are low-income qualified. With the Housing Authority’s thorough vetting process, landlords can rest assured that all Section 8 voucher holders are

Perhaps the council members have not been downtown recently to see the all the vacant retail spaces, many of which have been sitting empty for years now. Wouldn’t it be more prudent to find ways to get those

worthy of consideration for a rental. Any homeowner/apartment manager in America can participate in the program. An owner’s obligations include only the paperwork involved and making sure their property can pass a simple once-a-year inspection for things like running water, sealed windows, heating, smoke alarms, etc. Just like the Social Security Administration deposits all Supplemental Security Income program payments electronically each month, that’s how HUD pays its portion of the rent, and the tenant sends their portion to the landlord.

If more homeowners/apartment managers opted to rent their properties out in collaboration with HUD, they would be aiding low-income Americans find muchneeded housing and keep many of them from becoming another homeless statistic.

Joseph Cortez Santa Maria

‘Who’s zooming who?’

I never understood the exact meaning of that Aretha Franklin song title, but the lyrics imply a lack of trust.

I just finished reading an investor newsletter explaining why some of my investments are not living up to my expectations. I have holdings in some natural gas companies, expecting a cold winter would boost demand. Au contraire mon frère. Warmer winter, said they. My response: “Didn’t we just have a couple of arctic cyclones clobber the Midwest?” Their assumed counter: “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”

Bottom line: January natural gas prices fell, while my gas bill doubled. Talk about getting it from both ends at the same time.

Is the Public Utilities Commission on top of this? I doubt they would respond to a common consumer. Wish I had a press badge. Hello!?

Anyone looking into this?

[Are we] without an active press, our last line of consumer protection, because I’m sure our resident congressman is busy carbon stamping bills to put up

SLO Rep claims it will draw 50,000 people downtown every year. With 206 seats, this means they plan to have 246 soldout performances every year, or five sold-out performances every week. Is this realistic? Will theater patrons really park in a parking structure by the theater, walk around past the homeless to a restaurant, eat out, then walk back in the dark to go to the play?

If they are just going to a performance and then going home, they are not benefitting downtown businesses.

I chaired the Promotional Coordinating Committee In the 1980s, when building a performing arts center was originally proposed. The reasons the PAC was ultimately put at Cal Poly and not downtown are still valid reasons today: The building would not be in use most of the time, the city would bear the brunt of

windmills for the delusional greenies instead of protecting price gouging by utilities.

So tell me, anyone, who’s zooming who?

Jan Lipski Vandenberg Village

Religion, government don’t mix with end-of-life matters

While there is very little that I agree on with Rhetoric & Reason opinion writer John Donegan, I do wish to expand on his Feb. 16 column concerning assisted suicide (“Government intervention in end-of-life care is not a good thing”). I agree with him that religion and government should have no role on decisions of personal choice/end-of-life matters. But I will take this one step further.

I firmly believe that if one’s individually determined quality of life has deteriorated

maintenance, and it would eat up a large section of potentially more valuable (read: revenue-generating) space. Part of the funding agreement for the PAC was that local organizations would have the opportunity to use the PAC. If this is not happening frequently enough, that agreement should be revisited. The parking is right there, and Cal Poly built the parking structure—not the SLO taxpayers. Also, there is usually no charge to park there.

Lastly, many new venues have come on board in the past 30 years since the recession in 1990—the PAC, the Clark Center in Arroyo Grande, and numerous wineries that cater to local performers. This project has outlived its time and should be shelved along with the cassette tapes and landlines that were in use when it was first conceived. ∆ Leslie Halls is the president of the San Luis Obispo Property and Business Owners Association. Send a response for publication to letters@newtimesslo.com.

to the point that he/she no longer wishes to remain alive, he/she should have legal options at their disposal, and should not have to meet the threshold of needing to be diagnosed with six months or less to live as a deterrent. Not all persons feel the same about hanging onto one’s last breath at all costs. The pain, suffering, loss of dignity, strain on family and finances are all too common for those coming down the home stretch. Why should I not be able to decide “enough is enough” and go out on my terms?

There looms down the road a tsunami— that being a severe lack of resources and facilities to handle the aging/dying baby boomer generation. I have no reason to believe the government or church is prepared to deal what is coming. Let my people go!

Rick Cohen Avila Beach

The ill-conceived plan for a new parking structure and arts district needs to get the boot

The city has been technically insolvent for years. … The last thing the city needs to do is take on more debt for any reason.

Good plan. Let’s fund it.

California’s 30x30 initiative was launched three years ago when Gov. Gavin Newsom issued Executive Order N-8220, which called for a plan to protect 30 percent of California’s lands and coastal waters by 2030. The goal aligns with a science-driven global 30x30 campaign to protect nature worldwide and head off the twin crises of extinction and climate disruption.

On Feb. 21, 2020, California state Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San Jose) introduced Assembly Bill 3030, declaring “the goal of the state to conserve at least 30 percent of the land and 30 percent of the ocean within the state by 2030.”

That’s why the Sierra Club is part of the Power in Nature Coalition—community groups, conservation organizations, land trusts, and Native American tribes in every part of California, working to protect

that the Legislature fulfill its commitment to conservation by funding the 30x30 initiative. Those who spoke noted that the 30x30 goal is the bare minimum needed to save nature and reduce biodiversity loss. Preserving the integrity of existing ecosystems means more climate resilience. The climate-driven threats to California’s ecosystems should no longer need to be recited as we are now being forced to cope with increased wildfire, extreme heat, drought, and sea level rise, years sooner than anticipated.

The key document of 30x30 is the Pathways Strategy, which sets a target of conserving an additional 6 million acres of California’s land and half a million acres of coastal waters by 2030 to meet the target expressed by the name of the program.

The California Natural Resources Agency has done a great job in putting together

funding is proposed to be cut by two-thirds. Water Conservation Board funding is proposed to be cut by $239 million. Critical capacity building programs such as the Climate Smart Lands Program are slated for a 30 percent reduction.

If the Legislature and the Newsom administration are going to fulfill their commitment, they need to fund the programs essential to achieving the goal. Otherwise, 30x30 will only be a broken promise and not the action we need to survive the worst impacts of climate change.

A big part of that would consist of taking advantage of opportunities to increase conservation designations and management on public lands. The state should be supporting efforts to create new national monuments, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas. The state should also be looking at new state parks, ecological areas, wildlife areas, and improved conservation management of state demonstration forests.

Closer to home, the state should, for instance, make sure that the 12,000 acres of undeveloped coastal land around the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant—otherwise up for grabs when the plant shuts down—is placed in conservation.

We’ve been here before. The California plan, in concert with the Biden administration’s potential large-scale conservation on a scale not seen in 60 years. The 1964 Wilderness Act was created to preserve and protect certain lands “in their natural condition” and thus “secure for present and future generations the benefits of wilderness.” It started out with 9.1 million acres conserved as wilderness, and 40 years later had brought wilderness protections

to 43 million acres in the national parks system and 21 million acres of the national wildlife refuge system.

By comparison, 30x30 does not exclusively focus on wilderness, including both private and public lands and seeking also to enhance working agricultural lands, prioritizing support of tribally led conservation and restoration priorities, and measuring success by how well conservation efforts support the objectives of protecting biodiversity, increasing access to nature, and mitigating and building resilience to climate change.

Then as now, all we need is the will and the money.

To help encourage the state on both of those fronts, go to powerinnature.org. ∆

Andrew Christie is the director of the Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club. Respond with a letter to the editor emailed to letters@ newtimesslo.com.

Would you sign up for any of the relief plans for natural gas bills?

36% Yes, the California Climate Credit helped me a lot.

28% When are we going all-electric?

24% No, these $50 to $100 relief plans are hardly cost-effective.

12% Someone else pays my gas bills. 25 Votes

Another one bites the dusty parking lot

Looks like the Oklahoma Avenue Safe Parking Site’s days are numbered. The county’s pilot program, which began in August of 2021, isn’t accepting new participants and the 70 or so current “residents” are eventually going to have to find somewhere else to be homeless.

To be fair, the program was initially designed to offer participants 90 days of “temporary” parking on their pathway to permanent housing, except permanent housing has proved elusive. Some have parked there since the program’s inception with no plan to budge.

The program itself has been riddled with problems such as a lack of services, infrastructure, and security. The idea now is to find somewhere for the 70 people to go, many of whom have complained about the case management they’ve received from Community Action Partnership of SLO (CAPSLO) and Transitions-Mental Health Association (TMHA)—two groups that have been trying to help with mental health and long-term housing.

“Many press reports have called it a failure,” 2nd District Supervisor Bruce Gibson told New Times. “I don’t see it as a failure, but it’s not a complete solution.”

Not a “complete solution”? It doesn’t seem to have been a solution at all. Are all these programs, all this money we spend, simply a Band-Aid on a gaping wound? Is homelessness in SLO County unsolvable?

The county’s facing a budget deficit; are we prepared to throw good money after bad?

Speaking of bad—hey, Kenney Enney, read the room, bro. Shortly after being appointed to the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District (PRJUSD) board of trustees, he/him was booted off the dais via petition signatures in December after some of his anti-they/them transgender-ain’t-real social media posts prompted Paso parents to gather signatures to dump him. They needed 455 but collected nearly 800, setting up a special April 18 election for a new board member, which pits never-gonna-give-you-up angry Enney against angel Angela Hollander

On the way to this special election, Enney’s campaign has been marred by improprieties and litigiousness. His campaign materials used the PRJUSD logo to, you know, make it seem like he was still on the board or endorsed by it or something. The district issued a press release and made clear the logo’s appearance “should not be misinterpreted as any kind of district endorsement whatsoever.”

In apparent response, Enney filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), arguing that SLO County Superintendent of Schools James Brescia and the district violated the California Political Reform Act by “counseling, aiding, assisting, and preparing a citizen petition … to remove complainant Kenneth Enney.”

Dude, the residents of Paso don’t like you. They really don’t.

The FPPC summarily dismissed Enney’s complaint, so now we’re headed into the special election with ballots mailing on March 20 and voting due April 18. Judging from his behavior so far, Enney’s not backing down, so get ready for a rumble.

In one corner in the black-and-white-withno-shades-of-gray trunks, we have Enney, cattle rancher, transgender denier, and former Marine Corps officer: “You can’t be something you’re not because you say so and have surgery,” he claimed on social media.

In the other corner in rainbow trunks is Hollander, former neonatal nurse, mother of two former Paso area school kids, and tireless education volunteer: “I’m strongly committed to respectful and collaborative civil discourse between our school employees, community members, and the board,” she announced on her candidate website.

If they were competing in a steel cage death match, my money would be on the rhymin’ trans-slimer, but they’re running to sit on the perpetually troubled Paso school board where maybe a kindler, gentler, more inclusive approach to district management might be, I don’t know, a good thing?

transgenderism is “an attempt to recruit and convert children,” as Enney claimed, vote for he/him.

And speaking of contentious votes, it looks like the Broad Street Bicycle Boulevard of broken dreams later called the Anholm Bikeway Plan and now dubbed the North Chorro Neighborhood Greenway is a go after the SLO City Council voted 4-0 to approve the controversial project initially proposed a decade ago and first approved in 2018 when it was merely expensive. It’s now a $6 million-and-counting boon to the community or a total boondoggle, depending on who you ask.

The Anholm neighborhood, which the project bisects, is filled with notoriously vocal NIMBYs, so that opposition was expected, but now that costs have ballooned like an overinflated beach cruiser tire, a lot of citizens have voiced their complaints. The thing is, it’s hard to stop a moving train, and this project improves pedestrian and bike safety and includes cool lighting and public art. It’s going to be bitchin’, dig?

Speak up!

Send

If you think kids struggling with gender dysphoria should be able to work it out in collaboration with their families and physicians, and that they/them should be afforded the respect of being addressed by the names and pronouns of their choice, Hollander is your she/her. If you believe

Here’s the thing, the city ostensibly delayed the project to get everyone’s input, which it mostly ignored. Maybe the lesson is if you’re going to ram through a controversial project, do it when it’s cheaper. Now they’re sticking taxpayers with a $6 million bill. ∆

The Shredder was promised hovercrafts and monorails. Send your complaints to shredder@newtimesslo.com.

Beautifully Handcrafted Furniture Made Nearby on the South Coast.

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The Aspen Dining Table hand-crafted entirely of solid American Black Walnut. 38x72x29”H. Available in custom sizes and woods.

Hot Dates

CASH ME IF YOU CAN

The San Luis Repertory Theatre presents its production of Ring of Fire, a theatrical tribute to Johnny Cash, through Sunday, March 12. The show’s remaining performances will be held Thursday through Saturday, at 7 p.m. each evening, and at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. For tickets and more info, visit slorep.org. The San Luis Obispo Repertory Theatre is located at 888 Morro St., San Luis Obispo.

—Caleb Wiseblood

ARTS

NORTH COAST SLO COUNTY

AQUARIUS 2023 CALIFORNIA OPEN WATERMEDIA EXHIBITION Annual juried exhibition presented by Central Coast Watercolor Society, featuring varied watermedia styles and techniques by California artists. Through April 3, 12-4 p.m. Free. 805-772-2504. ccwsart. com. Art Center Morro Bay, 835 Main St., Morro Bay.

COASTAL WINE AND PAINT PARTY

Listen to music while enjoying an afternoon of creativity, sipping, and mingling. Event lasts up to 2 hours. The party includes a complimentary glass of wine and canvas with materials. Saturdays, 12:30-2:30 p.m. $50. 805394-5560. coastalwineandpaint.com. Harmony Cafe at the Pewter Plough, 824 Main St., Cambria.

COLLAGES AND PHOTOGRAPHS OF LOS OSOS Collages and photographs featuring Sweet Springs Nature Preserve and the Elfin Forest by Los Osos photographer Kelly Hayes are for sale online and on display at Los Osos Pop-up Gallery (1056 Los Osos Valley Road). Photo prints on metal, paper, acrylic, and greeting cards. ongoing Free. centralcoasty.com. Los Osos, Townwide, Los Osos.

COSTA GALLERY SHOWCASES Features works by Ellen Jewett as well as 20 other local artists, and artists from southern and northern California. Jewett’s work is also on display at Nautical Bean in Laguna shopping center during February. Thursdays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. and Sundays, 12-4 p.m. 559-7999632. costagallery.com. Costa Gallery,

2087 10th St., Los Osos.

FINDING THE LIGHT FEATURING LIZ

HAMPTON-DERIVAN Cambria Center for the Arts features artist Liz HamptonDerivan, an accomplished photographer and internationally shown artist. Liz has begun experimenting with mixed media, hot and cold wax, paints, and pastels to create an exhibit of unexpected and delightful imagery.

Fridays-Sundays, 12-4 p.m. through April 30 Free. cambriaarts. org. Cambria Center for the Arts, 1350 Main St., Cambria.

FOREVER STOKED PAINT PARTY Join us at the gallery, for a few hours to travel on a creative paint journey. You will receive as much or as little instruction as you prefer. No artistic experience is necessary.

Saturdays, 7-9 p.m. $45. 805772-9095. Forever Stoked, 1164 Quintana Rd., Morro Bay.

LET’S STEP ON IT MOSAICS Learn mosaic basics to create a one-of-a-kind project. You have many projects, colors, baubles and beads to choose from. Preregistration required. March 19 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Various. 805-286-5993.

CreativeMeTime.com. Art Center Morro Bay, 835 Main St., Morro Bay.

MOSAIC MINIS Create a necklace, a wine stopper, or a keychain in this fun and super easy mosaic class. You’ll have many colors, baubles and beads to choose from to make unique, one-of-a-kind project. Preregistration required. No experience required. March 18 , 10 a.m.-noon Various. 805-286-5993.

CreativeMeTime.com. Art Center Morro Bay, 835 Main St., Morro Bay.

OPENING RECEPTION FOR LUBOV

PAVLUK, SANDRA SANDERS, AND MARJORIE ZLOTOWITZ Gallery at Marina

Square hosts an opening reception for its featured artists of March. Come meet the

artists, have a snack, and take some art home. March 11 , 3-5 p.m. Free. 805-7721068. galleryatmarinasquare.com. Gallery at Marina Square, 601 Embarcadero suite 10, Morro Bay.

PAINTING AT THE NURSERY Join Art

Social 805 at Cambria Nursery and Florist, where you will be guided through the “Basket of Flowers on the Blue Bike” painting. March 19, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. $50. 805-927-4747. cambrianursery.com.

Cambria Nursery and Florist, 2801 Eton Rd., Cambria.

PASTEL DEMO WITH GREG TROMBLY

Discover the magic of pastels with award-winning artist Greg Trombly. Art Center Morro Bay is happy to present a free pastel demonstration focusing on drawing with a variety of soft pastels. Focus will be on composition, observation skills, color and value, drawing techniques, and more. March 13 3-5 p.m. Free. 805-772-2504. artcentermorrobay.org. Art Center Morro Bay, 835 Main St., Morro Bay.

THE PSYCHIC A failed mystery writer soon finds himself embroiled in a string of bizarre and hilarious murders. FridaysSundays. through March 12 my805tix. com. By The Sea Productions, 545 Shasta Ave., Morro Bay.

SECOND SATURDAYS Come by and see the Featured Artists Shows, find gifts for your loved ones, surprises for yourself, and meet the artists featured in the incredible gallery. Second Saturday of every month, 5-7 p.m. Free. 805-772-1068. galleryatmarinasquare.com. Gallery at Marina Square, 601 Embarcadero suite 10, Morro Bay.

SUCCULENT WREATH BLOWOUT Enjoy a relaxing morning creating a gorgeous, lush succulent wreath. March 18 1-3 p.m. $50. 805-286-5993. CreativeMeTime.

New Times and the Sun now share their community listings for a complete Central Coast calendar running from SLO County through northern Santa Barbara County. Submit events online by logging in with your Google, Facebook, or Twitter account at newtimesslo.com. You may also email calendar@newtimesslo. com. Deadline is one week before the issue date on Thursdays. Submissions are subject to editing and approval. Contact Calendar Editor Caleb Wiseblood directly at cwiseblood@newtimesslo.com.

com. Art Center Morro Bay, 835 Main St., Morro Bay.

NORTH SLO COUNTY

CAMP AND PAINT Join Art Social 805 at SunOutdoors where you will paint a St. Patty’s Day-themed image while enjoying the camp site. BYOB and snacks. March 11 1-3 p.m. and March 18 3-5 p.m. $40. 805-242-4700. Cava Robles Resort, 3800 Golden Hill Rd., Paso Robles.

FUSED GLASS FLOWER STAKE

WORKSHOP Create your own unique fused glass flower using a variety of colorful pieces glass. Flowers can be hung or glued to a metal stake after firing. All materials included. 6 spaces available. March 19, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. $40. 805-464-2633. glassheadstudio.com. Glasshead Studio, 8793 Plata Lane, Suite H, Atascadero.

PAINT AND SIP Join Art Social 805 at Cass Winery, where you will paint the featured image while sipping on wine. First glass of liquid courage is included, as well as all your painting materials. March 10 7-9 p.m. $55. 805-239-1730. casswines.com. Cass Winery and Vineyard, 7350 Linne Rd., Paso Robles. Join Art Social 805 at San Antonio Winery where you will have the opportunity to paint the featured image while enjoying your favorite beverage. March 11 10-midnight $68. 805-226-2600. riboliwines.com. Riboli Family of San Antonio Winery, 2610 Buena Vista Drive, Paso Robles. Please join Art Social 805 at Broken Earth Winery, where you will paint the featured image while sipping on wine. With a $55 entry fee, your first glass of liquid courage is included, as well as all your painting materials. March 17, 6-8 p.m. $55. 805-239-2562. brokenearthwinery.com. Broken Earth Winery, 1650 Ramada Dr., Paso Robles.

SPIRIT DOLL MAKING WORKSHOP A small gathering of folks utilizing ritual and ceremony to help set intentions that will open up creativity in making and energizing Spirit Dolls; a personal journey within to express and manifest love and light in our lives. March 19 2-4 p.m. $88. 805-464-2838. oracleatascaderoca.com. Oracle, 6280 Palma Ave., Atascadero. YOUTH PAINTING Join Art Social 805 at Templeton Rec. Center where your child will have the opportunity to paint a St. Patty’s Day Image, while you enjoy a quick bite. March 16 , 4:30-6 p.m. $35. 805-434-4909. Templeton Recreation Center, 599 S. Main Street, Templeton.

SAN LUIS OBISPO

ALL LEVELS POTTERY CLASSES Anam Cre is a pottery studio in SLO that offers a variety of classes. This specific class is open to any level. Teachers are present for questions, but the class feels more like an open studio time for potters. Thursdays, 6-8 p.m. $40. Anam Cre Pottery Studio, 1243 Monterey St., San Luis Obispo, anamcre.com.

ART CENTRAL’S SIXTH ANNUAL “YART

SALE” Come and browse through gently used art supplies, generously donated by local artists. All proceeds go towards creating scholarships for graduating local high school students continuing their art studies in college. In partnership with MBAA. Cash only. March 13 -18, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. 805-747-4200. artcentralslo. com/blog/. Art Central, 1329 Monterey St., San Luis Obispo.

BEACON ART SHOW A juried show held annually. The community is invited to enter up to five pieces of art. The show’s opening night will be March 3. This year’s theme is Artistic Spectrum. Fridays-Sundays. through April 2 Free. 805-544-4608. San Luis Obispo United Methodist Church, 1515 Fredericks Street, San Luis Obispo.

CAMBRIA CENTER FOR THE ARTS:

JURIED PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT

Seeking art for Spring Juried Photography Exhibit. The exhibit will be juried by photographer, Kerry Drager, known for his constructive encouragement and solid advice, and author of three

nationally published photo how-to books. Online submissions welcome through April 21. Exhibit: May 5- July 2. Through April 21 $15 per entry for members. cambriaarts.org. Online, See website, San Luis Obispo.

COMEDY NIGHT Professional comedy show featuring local and touring comics. Hosted by Aidan Candelario. Third Thursday of every month, 7-9 p.m. $5. 805-540-8300. Bang the Drum Brewery, 1150 Laurel Lane, suite 130, San Luis Obispo, bangthedrumbrewery.com.

A CONVERSATION WITH RAIN PRYOR: INTERSECTING IDENTITIES Rain Pryor, comedian, actress and activist, explores racism and her bi-racial and bi-cultural identity with insight and humor. This event is a part of the SLO Jewish Film and Learning Festival. March 11 7-9 p.m. $25. slojflf.com. Palm Theatre, 817 Palm St, San Luis Obispo.

IMPROV COMEDY SHOW Celebrate your Thursday evening with some laughs, a drink, and some delicious food from our friends at Slo Wine and Beer Co. Our improv house team will host a live, improvised comedy show while you wine and dine. March 9 6-8 p.m. $10. centralcoastcomedytheater. com. SLO Wine and Beer Company, 3536 S. Higuera Street, Suite 250, San Luis Obispo, 805-544-9463. A night of improv comedy at SLO Public Market. Watch the ensemble perform high-speed, fun, interactive, and hilariously spontaneous improv comedy. March 10 6-8 p.m. $15. centralcoastcomedytheater.com. San Luis Obispo Public Market, 3845 S Higuera St, San Luis Obispo, 805-4394285.

NATURE NIGHTS

An immersive exhibition for the entire family featuring Bryn Forbes’ large format projections, Michael Reddell’s wire sculpture, and Kody Cava’s colorfully creative illumination of the garden areas. Food, wine, and beer available for purchase. Fridays, Saturdays, 6-8 p.m. through March 18 $14.75-$24.75. 805-541-1400. slobg.org. San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden, 3450 Dairy Creek Rd., San Luis Obispo.

FILE COURTESY PHOTO BY RYLO MEDIA DESIGN, RYAN C. LOYD

RING OF FIRE: THE MUSIC OF JOHNNY

CASH From the songbook of Johnny Cash comes this unique, original musical about love and faith, struggle and success, rowdiness and redemption, and the healing power of home and family. Through March 12 slorep.org. San Luis Obispo Repertory Theatre, 888 Morro St., San Luis Obispo, 805-786-2440.

SLO JEWISH FILM AND LEARNING

FESTIVAL The JCC-Federation of SLO and Hillel CalPoly are coordinating to present the SLO Jewish Film and Learning Festival. With in-person screenings at The Palm and Cal Poly. March 9 -11 Varying by events. slojflf.com/. Palm Theatre, 817 Palm St, San Luis Obispo.

SLO NIGHTWRITERS: A COMMUNITY OF WRITERS SLO NightWriters supports local writers with monthly presentations, critique groups, contests, and other events. Second Tuesday of every month, 6:30-8 p.m. Free. 805-703-3132. slonightwriters.org. Online, See website, San Luis Obispo.

SOUTH COAST SLO COUNTY

ABSTRACT ART EXHIBIT BY STEVE

ANDREWS Steve Andrews’ “Wow

Factor” works are on display at The Arroyo Grande Library. 10 percent of all sales help the Central Coast Parkinson Association continue their valuable work in the community’s fight against Parkinson’s Disease. Through March 25 Arroyo Grande Library, 800 W. Branch, Arroyo Grande, 473-7164, slolibrary.org.

BUBBLES AND BRUSHES Join Art Social 805 at Laetitia Vineyard and Winery, where you will be guided through a painting of the “Blue Shutters in the Afternoon Shade” image. Tickets include all painting materials and your first glass of liquid courage. March 19 10 a.m.-noon

$60. 805-481-1772. Laetitia Vineyard & Winery, 453 Laetitia Vineyard Drive, Arroyo Grande, laetiticiawine.com.

EMBROIDERERS GUILD OF AMERICA

The Bishop’s Peak Chapter of the Embroiderer’s Guild of America invites you to attend its monthly meeting. For more information, follow on Facebook or visit the EGA website. Third Saturday of every month, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. through Nov. 18 Free. Grover Beach Community Center, 1230 Trouville Ave., Grover Beach, 805-773-4832.

MIXED MEDIA WORKSHOP (AGES

7-12) Come explore mixed media with an emphasis on the Elements of Art and the Principles of Design. Each week, students will have the opportunity to use various media. Tuesdays, 3:30-4:45 p.m. $25. 805668-2125. lila.community. LilA Creative Community, 1147 East Grand Ave. suite 101, Arroyo Grande.

SANTA MARIA VALLEY/LOS ALAMOS

ALMOST MAINE Some residents of Almost, Maine find themselves falling in and out of love in unexpected and hilarious ways. March 10 -26 my805tix. com. Santa Maria Civic Theatre, 1660 N. McClelland St., Santa Maria.

CULTURE & LIFESTYLE

NORTH COAST SLO COUNTY

BALLROOM DANCE AND LESSON Grab your dance shoes and get ready to waltz, swing, salsa, foxtrot, hustle, two-step, and more to a wide variety of pre-recorded music. Beginners welcome. March

10 6-9 p.m. Free. 805-709-2477. Morro Bay Community Center, 1001 Kennedy Way, Morro Bay, morro-bay.ca.us/345/ Community-Center.

MORRO BAY MIXED MARTIAL ARTS

Disciplines include advanced athletic performance fitness training, Thai kickboxing, and more. Beginners to advanced students welcome. Day and evening classes offered. MondaysSaturdays, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Call for more info. 805-701-7397. charvetmartialarts. com. Morro Bay Martial Arts, 850 Shasta, Morro Bay.

SHAKTI: EMBODYING THE GODDESS

This four-class series will explore the iconography, mythology, and devotional practices of 4 goddesses: Durga, Kali, Saraswati, and Laksmi. Guided by Dawn Feuerberg, certified classical ashtanga yoga teacher and tantra meditation instructor. March 9, 5:15-6:45 p.m. $44; $148 for series. 805-540-1762. my805tix. com. 9th Limb Yoga, 845 Napa Ave., Morro Bay.

SOCRATES: DISCUSSION GROUP Group members present interesting and thought provoking topics of all sorts. Topics are selected in advance and moderated by volunteers. Vaccinations are necessary. Enter through wooden gate to garden area. Wednesdays, 10 a.m. 805-528-7111.

Coalesce Bookstore, 845 Main St., Morro Bay, coalescebookstore.com/.

STAY YOUNG WITH QI GONG Qi gong offers great anti-aging benefits, providing a comprehensive system for improving physical, mental and emotional health. Its roots date back thousands of years in China. Learn with certified instructor Devin Wallace. Call first. Thursdays, 10-11 a.m. $10. 805-709-2227. Hardie Park, Ash Ave. and B St., Cayucos.

WEEKLY QIGONG PRACTICE AT FITNESSWORKS MORRO BAY Calm your mind and nourish your joints with a weekly Qigong practice led by Mike Raynor of Tai Chi Rejuvenation. The practice is rooted in Qigong fundamentals, and standing/moving meditations. Forms include: Eight Brocades, Five Elements, Shibashi 18, and Tai chi 24. Saturdays, 10:45-11:45 a.m. Members free; non-members $8-$10. 805-772-7466. fitnessworksmb.com. FitnessWorks, 500 Quintana Rd., Morro Bay.

ZEN IN MOTION Learn the Shaolin Water Style and other deep breathing and moving meditation techniques with the 2019 Taijiquan Instructor of the Year. Beginners Welcome.Instructor Certification Courses available. Mondays,

SUNRISE TO SUNSET

Acrylic paintings by Sandra Sanders (whose work is pictured) are currently on display at Gallery at Marina Square in Morro Bay. Sanders’ solo exhibit at the venue is scheduled to run through Wednesday, March 29. A joint reception for Sanders and two additional artists—Lubov Pavluk and Marjorie Zlotowitz—currently featured at the gallery will be held on Saturday, March 11, from 3 to 5 p.m. Visit galleryatmarinasqaure.com for more info. The gallery is located at 601 Embarcadero, suite 10, Morro Bay.

Wednesdays Call for details. 805-701-7397. charvetmartialarts.com. Grateful Body, 850 Shasta, Morro Bay.

NORTH SLO COUNTY

EARTH SHINE IN SHANDON Join the Earth Shine Volunteers as they work to pick up litter in communities across the Central Coast. Group provides grabbers, bags, safety vests, gloves, and disposes of all they collect. All ages welcome. March 11 10 a.m.-noon 805-591-4691. EarthShineOrg.com. CW Clarke Park, 101 W. Centre St., Shandon.

GUIDED BREATHWORK MEDITATION

For those looking to make a shift of any kind or seeking insight on the path ahead. Breathwork gets energy moving very quickly. The thinking mind shuts off allowing channels to open in a unique way. Second Thursday of every month, 6-7:30 p.m. $33. pasoyoga.com. Dharma Yoga Loft, 1329 Spring Street, Paso

one. Fridays, 12-1 p.m. Free. 805-4412164. North County Connection, 8600 Atascadero Ave., Atascadero.

SAN LUIS OBISPO

ACORN ADVENTURE HIKES A guided hike up the garden’s Discovery Trail. With fun activities along the way, this family-friendly hike for approximately an hour will pass by some special sites and plants, not only providing exercise but adventure for the whole family. March 12 10-11 a.m. $5-$10. 805-541-1400. slobg.org.

San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden, 3450 Dairy Creek Rd., San Luis Obispo.

AGILITY (PARKOUR) CLINIC In a world where the “cool” kids seem to rule, agility (aka parkour) offers a path to social confidence. No experience is necessary, so come transform from timid to triumphant and flip with flair at this Agility Clinic. For ages 5 to 17. March 11 1:15-3:15 p.m. $25; $10 per additional sibling. 805-547-1496. performanceathleticsslo.com/events.

Performance Athletics Gymnastics, 4484 Broad St., San Luis Obispo.

CHUMASH ETHNOBOTANY WITH JAN

TIMBROOK Dr. Timbrook’s informative, illustrated talk will provide a glimpse into the fascinating plant world of the Chumash. March 11 1-2 p.m. $15/$5. 805-541-1400. slobg.org. San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden, 3450 Dairy Creek Rd., San Luis Obispo.

DR. DAN KRIEGER TEACHES ON MISSION SLO AND EARLY CALIFORNIA

HISTORY Come learn the fascinating history of Mission SLO and early California from a Cal Poly professor. Held in Youth Center, Mission SLO. Presented by Mission Docents. All are welcome. March 18 , 9:30-11:30 a.m. Free admission. 805-234-4457. Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, 751 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo, missionsanluisobispo.org/.

Broad and Higuera, San Luis Obispo.

OPIOID/NARCAN TRAINING AND MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCE FAIR A community event addressing the mental health and opioid crisis. Resource booths by many of the county’s mental health, addiction treatment, social services, private practice, and non-profit agencies. A panel of local experts discussion. Features free Narcan training and distribution. March 18 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. 805-3295595. centralcoastcamft.org. Mission College Prep, 682 Palm St., San Luis Obispo.

PLUG-IN TO LOCAL CLIMATE ACTION

Get inspired by local action, connect with others, and discover more ways to get involved with the SLO Climate Coalition. Attend virtually or in-person. Sustainable snacks and childcare will be provided. Third Thursday of every month. through Dec. 31 sloclimatecoalition.org/events/. Ludwick Community Center, 864 Santa Rosa, San Luis Obispo.

QI GONG FOR MIND, BODY, AND SPIRIT

Learn and practice qi gong, a Chinese system for physical, mental and spiritual development. This class is conducted outdoors in a beautiful setting, which is the best place to do qi gong, as its inspiration is drawn from nature. Certified instructor: Devin Wallace. Tuesdays, 10-11 a.m. $10. 805-709-2227. Crows End Retreat Center, 6340 Squire Ct., San Luis Obispo.

RECKONING LIVE: AN EVENING OF CULTURE WORK IN COMMUNITY Join Kimberly Ann Johnson and Stephen Jenkinson, two authors and teachers from different countries and different generations – one known for his work on death, the other known for her work on birth – for this event. March 16 7-8:30 p.m. $25. orphanwisdom.com. King David’s Masonic Lodge, 859 Marsh St., San Luis Obispo, 805-545-5681.

SALLY, THOMAS, OPRAH, AND ME: A

Robles, 805-434-1924.

LIGHT, LOVE, INTUITION 101 The intention of these classes is to provide a beginning; a starting place on your path of connecting, listening, and trusting your own intuitive knowing, allowing you to become “a clearer channel for your own soul’s highest good.” Wednesdays, 6-7:30 p.m. through March 30 $33-$111. 805-4642838. oracleatascaderoca.com. Oracle, 6280 Palma Ave., Atascadero.

LUMINA NIGHTS 2023 The Lumina Nights gala will be an evening filled with music, wine, dining, and dancing at Rava Winery in Paso Robles. March 18 5-10 p.m. betterunite.com. Rava Wines + Events, 6785 Creston Rd., Paso Robles, 805-238-7282.

NAR-ANON: FRIDAY MEETINGS

A meeting for those who know or have known a feeling of desperation concerning the addiction of a loved

FREE FAMILY DAY A day of the month when admission to the garden is waived all day for all guests. This month, Raise Up SLO is bringing African drumming to the garden. March 12 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Free. 805-541-1400. slobg.org. San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden, 3450 Dairy Creek Rd., San Luis Obispo.

JUSTICE SUNDAY AT MOUNT CARMEL

LUTHERAN CHURCH: PROJECT SWEET

DREAMS Irene Kilstrom started Project Sweet Dreams 20 years ago to supply kits containing a pillow, blanket, and doll to children in foster care. Come and be inspired by one woman’s dedication to making life a little better for children in difficult circumstances. Refreshments provided. March 12 , 11 a.m.-noon Free. 805-544-2133. mtcarmelslo.org/. Mount Carmel Lutheran Church, 1701 Fredericks St., San Luis Obispo.

LEPRECHAUN LOST Join SLO Parks and Recreation staff for a St. Patrick’s Day-themed scavenger hunt beginning at the Downtown SLO Farmers’ Market. Participants will help find the missing leprechauns that will be hidden down Higuera Street and collect coins. March 16 6-8 p.m. Free. 805-781-7300. slocity. org. San Luis Obispo Farmers Market,

FAMILY STORY AAUW SLO is presenting member and local resident Mary Jefferson, a descendant of President Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, who will talk about an often ignored chapter of our history as well as sharing her personal journey uncovering her heritage. March 11 10-11:30 a.m. San Luis Obispo Library Community Room, 995 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo, 805-781-5991.

SLO LEZ B FRIENDS (VIRTUALLY VIA ZOOM) A good core group of friends who gather to discuss topics we love/ care about from movies, outings, music, or being new to the area. We come from all walks of life and most importantly support each other. Transgender and Nonbinary folks welcome. Third Friday of every month, 6:30-9 p.m. Free. sloqueer. groups.io/g/lezbfriends. Online, See website, San Luis Obispo.

SOCIAL BRIDGE PLAYERS: FREE LESSONS Reservations required, at BridgeSLO@gmail.com. Proof of vaccination required. No partner needed. March 13 10 a.m.-noon Free. slobridge. com/. San Luis Obispo Senior Center, 1445 Santa Rosa St., San Luis Obispo.

CULTURE & LIFESTYLE continued page 18

COURTESY IMAGE BY SANDRA SANDERS

AT HER TABLE: Celebrating Women Owned Food & Beverage Businesses MON–SUN, MARCH 6–12 Multiple venues across SLO County

SLOFunny Comedy Show 2023 Season Pass to Monthly Shows

10 SHOWS: MARCH 25–DEC 30 Morro Bay Veterans Hall

2023

CONCERT SERIES

“Live at the Lighthouse” 2023 Concert Series Season Pass

Shakti: Embodying the Goddess for Empowered Life Change

THURSDAYS, MARCH 9 & 23 9th Limb Yoga, Morro Bay

THRU JUNE 30

Begins/ends at CC Brewing, SLO

SELL TICKETS WITH

It’s

Almost, Maine

SAT, SUN, MARCH 10–26 Santa Maria Civic Theatre, Santa Maria

Nature Nights: Immersive Outdoor Holiday Light & Art Exhibition

Botanical Garden

805-546-8208 info@My805Tix.com

Point San Luis

By the Sea Productions: The Psychic FRI, SAT, SUN, MARCH 10, 11, 12 545 Shasta Ave, Morro Bay

Vocal Arts Ensemble: Folk Music of the World Trilogy at Monarch, Nipomo: MARCH 16

Cuesta CPAC, SLO: MARCH 19

Freak Out Friday: Psychedelic Rock Party with DJ Daisy Van Tassel

FRIDAY, MARCH 17

Flower City Ballroom, Lompoc

Live Stand-Up Comedy

Hosted by Justin Bournonville

SATURDAY, MARCH 18

Flower City Ballroom, Lompoc

Yoga/Kayak to the Lighthouse

SUNDAY, MARCH 19

Point San Luis Lighthouse, Avila Beach

Be Hoppy Tours: Crafty Women Tastings & Tour

SLO County Jazz Federation: Young Jazz Scholarship Concert

SUNDAY, MARCH 19

Mt. Carmel Lutheran Church, SLO

SUCCESSFULLY GROWING TOMATOES

Learn how correct planting methods can increase success growing tomatoes. Master Gardener, Joan Cloutier, will talk about pest control, irrigation, soil management, and fertilizer. Learn how to grow healthy and productive plants and how selecting the right variety will produce a good crop. March 16 6:45-8 p.m. Free. lovgardenclub.org. Online, See website, San Luis Obispo.

SUNDAY EVENING RAP LGBTQ+

AA

GROUP (VIRTUALLY VIA ZOOM)

Alcoholics Anonymous is a voluntary, worldwide fellowship of folks from all walks of life who together, attain and maintain sobriety. Requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. Email aarapgroup@gmail.com for password access. Sundays, 7-8 p.m.

No fee. galacc.org/events/. Online, See website, San Luis Obispo.

TRANS* YOUTH PEER SUPPORT GROUP

This group is a safe place for trans* and gender non-conforming people, as well as those questioning, from ages of 11 to 18. A facilitated emotional support group to be heard, share your story, and hear stories that may sound surprisingly like your own. Second Tuesday of every month, 6-8 p.m. Free. GALA Pride and Diversity Center, 1060 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo, 805-541-4252.

SOUTH COAST SLO COUNTY

SOCIAL GROUP FOR WIDOWS AND WIDOWERS Call for more details. Second Saturday of every month, 10 a.m. 805904-6615. Oak Park Christian Church, 386 N Oak Park Blvd., Grover Beach.

YOGA/KAYAK TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

Paddle a kayak out to the Point San Luis Lighthouse for a one of a kind yoga session by Ashley Sagariballa, Saunter Yoga and Wellness. March 19, 10 a.m.1:30 p.m. my805tix.com. Point San Luis Lighthouse, 1 Lighthouse Rd., Avila Beach.

FOOD & DRINK

NORTH COAST SLO COUNTY

MORRO BAY MAIN STREET FARMERS

MARKET Get fresh and veggies, fruit, baked goods, sweets, and handmade artisan crafts. Come have some fun with your local farmers and artisans and enjoy delicious eats while enjoying the fresh breeze of Morro Bay. Saturdays, 2:30-5:30 p.m. through May 31 Varies. 805-824-7383. morrobayfarmersmarket.com. Morro Bay Main Street Farmers Market, Main Street and Morro Bay Blvd., Morro Bay.

SPRING IS HERE: BLOOMS, BITES, AND WINE Enjoy a floral arranging class featuring fresh blooms, along with bites and wine. March 11 11 a.m.-1 p.m. $75. exploretock.com. Fulldraw Vineyard, 2660 Anderson Road, Paso Robles, 805-712-4412.

NORTH SLO COUNTY

3 BABES BRUNCH AND VINEYARD

TOUR This package, part of At Her Table, includes a tour of the Stay on the Vineyard and Estate along with a multiple course, highly curated brunch prepared by Alma Ayón La Chef with wines paired by Stilson Cellars. March 11 $90. 805-400-0098. stayonthevineyard.com. Stay on the Vineyards, 7110 Drake Road, Paso Robles. A fun, exciting, and relaxing day on the vineyard. This all-inclusive package includes tours of the Stay on the Vineyard estate and suites, a multiple course highly curated brunch prepared by Alma Ayón _La Chef with wines elegantly paired from Stilson Cellars. March 12 , 12:30 p.m. $90. Stilson Cellars, 1005 Railroad Street, Suite 2, Paso Robles, 661-609-2998, stilsoncellars.com.

3 BABES BRUNCH AND VINEYARD TOUR FEATURING CHEF CANDICE

Joining At Her Table in celebrating women owned businesses. Package includes a tour of the Stay on the Vineyard and Estate along with a multiple course, highly curated brunch prepared by Chef Candice with wines paired from Stilson Cellars. March 10 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. & 1-1:30 p.m. $90. 805-400-0098. stayonthevineyard.com. Stay on the Vineyards, 7110 Drake Road, Paso Robles.

AFTERNOON TEA AT THOMAS HILL

HAVEN Enjoy High Tea served at the house by Chef Alma Ayon. Included: an assortment of teas, assorted tea sandwiches, mini scones with jam and clotted cream, plus small pastries. March 9, midnight $245. athertable.com. Thomas Hill Haven, 608 Oak St., Paso Robles, TBA.

AT HER TABLE STREET FESTIVAL

Support local, women-owned food and beverage companies at a street festival in downtown Atascadero. Food and drinks will be available for purchase by individual vendors, and can be enjoyed with live music. March 12 , 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Free entry. athertable.com. Downtown Atascadero, Entrada Ave., Atascadero. BREWER’S DINNER A one-of-a-kind culinary experience as Monika from Colony Culture takes you on a culinary journey through her family history. Using only the freshest locally sourced ingredients, each dish will be expertly crafted and paired with the perfect beer or hard seltzer from Colony Mash Brewing. March 12 6 p.m. $155. colonyculture.com. Colony Mash Brewing, 3164 El Camino Real, Atascadero. BRUSHES AND BUBBLES Join Art Social 805 at 15 Degrees C, where the featured paining will be the “Desert Horse” image. Tickets include all your painting materials and your first glass of bubbly liquid courage. March 18 12-2 p.m. $47. 805-434-1554. 15cwine.com. 15 Degrees C Wine Shop and Bar, 624 S Main St., unit 101, Templeton.

COOL

CATS

OF

SLO COAST AVA WINE

TOUR Join Jill Tweedie of Breakaway Tours, and her “cool cat lady friends” on this VIP Wine Tour through SLO Coast Wine. March 12 10:45 a.m.-3:45 p.m. $169. fareharbor.com. Breakaway Tours, 800 6th St., suite 1526, Paso Robles, 805-783-2929.

EPICUREAN VEGAN CHEESE AND CHARCUTERIE EXPERIENCE Join Jennifer Golden, seasoned vegan cheesemaker and owner of The Vreamery, for an epic vegan tasting that will showcase the most distinguished vegan cheese and charcuterie currently being produced from all across the country. March 9, 4-5 p.m. $40. athertable.com. The Vreamery, 1815 Spring St., Paso Robles, 805-423-5835.

MOTHERS FOR PEACE BARBECUE FUNDRAISER Join for good food, including vegetarian/vegan options, a silent auction featuring works from local artists, and updates on Fukushima and the current legal efforts to foil Diablo Canyon’s license extension. March 11 11 a.m.-2 p.m. $25. 805-602-8342. Community Church of Atascadero, 5850 Rosario Ave., Atascadero, atascaderoucc. org.

TACO TUESDAYS La Parilla Taqueria will be in the courtyard serving up their delicious tacos and tostadas. Menu typically includes barbacoa, chicken, and pastor tacos, as well as shrimp ceviche tostadas. Tuesdays, 5-8 p.m. 805-4606042. ancientowlbeergarden.com.

Ancient Owl Beer Garden, 6090 El Camino Real, suite C, Atascadero.

TASTE AT HER TABLE: TIN CITY’S LEADING LADIES The second annual Taste At Her Table Tour in celebration of Women’s History Month. This year, hosts have created an exclusive walking tour highlighting and supporting some awesome local women and their businesses in the infamous Tin City. March 11 10:45 a.m.-4 p.m. $120.

toasttours.com/tour/taste-at-her-tablewalking-tour. Toast Tours, 1722 Stillwater Ct, Paso Robles, 805-400-3141.

WINE AROMA WORKSHOP Identifying aromas in wine is a skill that can enhance the tasting experience immensely.

Join Glenna of Symbiosis Wines for a training and practice session in the act of detecting smells. March 11 2, 4 & 6 p.m. $30. Symbiosis Wines, 612 12th St., suite 101, Paso Robles, 805-729-2000, symbiosiswines.com.

ZIN CITY SOCIAL ONX Wines is partnering up with BarrelHouse Brewing Co. for this Wine and Beer Dinner. Join winemaker Drew Nenow and brewer Patrick Wilson for a 4-course meal celebrating wine, beer, and Tin City. March 11 6 p.m. $110 per person. 805434-5607. onxwine.com. ONX Wines, 2910 Limestone Way, Paso Robles.

SAN LUIS OBISPO

BOOZY HIGH TEA PARTY Saints Barrel

Wine Bar is hosting a boozy tea party featuring Secret Garden Herb Shop Teas, Bramble Pie Company, and Breda SLO’s gourmet chocolates. March 12 12-2 & 2-4 p.m. $75. eventbrite.com. Saints Barrel Wine Bar, 1021 Higuera St., San Luis Obispo, 805-439-1929.

CRAFTY WOMEN TASTINGS AND TOUR

Hop on the Be Hoppy Bus for this At Her Table event and meet the women behind some of the best craft beverages in the San Luis Obispo area. Tour includes transportation, beer, wine and cider tastings, along with lunch, cheeses, and charcuteries. March 11 11 a.m.-4 p.m. $175. my805tix.com. Be Hoppy Tours, Call or visit site for address, San Luis Obispo, 866-234-6779.

DOWNTOWN SLO FARMERS MARKET

Thursdays, 6-9 p.m. Downtown SLO, Multiple locations, San Luis Obispo.

FEAST OF FLAVORS Enjoy a multi-course plated dinner by Shekamoo Grill, featuring

Middle Eastern cuisine and wine pairing at Saucelito Canyon. March 12 5:30 p.m. $70. eventbrite.com. Saucelito Canyon Tasting Room, 3080 Biddle Ranch Rd., San Luis Obispo, 805-543-2111.

MEZCAL TASTING EXPERIENCE Join Ariette of Rambling Spirits in discovering four different mezcals from the Rambling Spirits Workshop private collection, and talk about the process. For up to 15 guests only. March 9, 6-8 p.m. $40. eventbrite. com. Rambling Spirits, 3845 South Higuera St., suite 114, San Luis Obispo. SLO FARMERS MARKET Hosts more than 60 vendors. Saturdays, 8-10:45 a.m. World Market Parking Lot, 325 Madonna Rd., San Luis Obispo.

SOUTH COAST SLO COUNTY

BLUE MOON OVER EPOCH One wine, one dish, and one great opportunity to experience the Rhône style terroir of the Central Coast. Blue Moon Over Avila, owned by Nanci Bell, has partnered with Epoch Winery’s award-winning winemaker, Jordan Fiorentini, to present an evening to collaborate as women in the industry. March 11 , 5-8 p.m. $60. athertable.com. Blue Moon Over Avila, 460 Front St., Avila Beach, 805-595-2583. AN EXPLORATION OF VERMOUTH

Experience the world of vermouth like never before at The Haven in Arroyo Grande. Attendees will be greeted with signature vermouth cocktail and light bites. March 12 3-5 p.m. $60. exploretock.com. The Spoon Trade, 295 West Grand Ave., Gover Beach, (805) 904-6773.

FISH FRY The St. Patrick’s Italian Catholic Federation (ICF) is offering a seasonal fish and chips and coleslaw dinner in the parish hall. Dine in or take out. Fridays, 4-7 p.m. through March 10 $10-$20. St. Patrick’s Church, 501 Fair Oaks Ave., Arroyo Grande, stpatsag.org.

FOOD & DRINK continued page 25

Vote

Best of SLO County Readers Poll

It only takes a few moments to show your support, so don’t hesitate. Voting is open until March 13, so don’t wait. Cast your ballot today https://bit.ly/VoteBrezden Remember,

BOOK FEATURE STORIES BY: March 9

BOOK ADS BY: March 16

PUBLICATION DATE: April

SPRING ARTS

BOOK ADS BY: March 9

PUBLICATION DATE: March 16

A Dream Come True! At the California Mid-State Fair, Landy & her family not only got to see Blake Shelton in concert, they got to go backstage and meet the man himself. These dreams give people a reprieve from their illness, something to look forward to, and something to remember. That look on her face happened because of dream makers like you.

If you know someone with a terminal diagnosis or want to donate to help us make dreams come true for our community go to dreammakersslo.com Sponsored by New Times

BOOK ADS BY: April 27

PUBLICATION DATE: May 4

SUMMER GUIDE May 25

WINNING IMAGES June 8

PRIDE June 22

The annual guide to everything arts-related happening this spring

The Central Coast guide to all things food and drink Find

readers poll

Vote online (newtimesslo.com), drop your ballot by our office, or mail it to: New Times -

Best of SLO County

1010 Marsh Street, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401

Name

Address

City/State/Zip _______________________________________________

Phone # Email

Ballots must be in our office by Monday, March 13, at 5 p.m. to be eligible for inclusion in the poll results.

THE RULES: One ballot per person. No more than two ballots may be submitted per envelope or in person at one time. No photocopies can be accepted. To prevent ballot-box stuffing (also known as cheating), all ballots must have at least 30 categories completed and must include the name and address of the voter, for verification purposes only. Ballots without this information will be disqualified. All information is kept in complete confidence. Ballots must be in our office by Monday, March 13, at 5 p.m. Winners will be announced in our May 4 special publication. All entries become the property of New Times. Remember, vote for your favorite local businesses!

Vote for your local favorites

Surf’s up SLO County! It’s time to get stoked to vote. Grab a seat on a beach towel, dig those toes into a little bit of Central Coast sand, and maybe crack a beer (in a can, not glass, people) as you figure out who’s going to win everyone’s favorite annual contest. We’re asking you, dear readers, to pick your favorite local businesses, leaders, restaurants, bars, and community members who can charge it, make the drop, and ride. But we don’t want any junk yard dogs, bennies, or barnies. We only want the raddest professionals, because our annual readers’ poll ain’t no ankle slapper. New Times’ Best of San Luis Obispo County contest is a heavy party wave, waiting for you to take off. You must fill out at least 30 categories for your ballot to be counted. Ballots are due Monday, March 13, by 5 p.m., and we will announce the winners on May 4!

EATS

1.

Best Mediterranean Food

15. Best Mexican Food

16. Best Thai Food  17. Best Seafood  18. Best Sushi

19. Best Poke

20. Best Barbecue

21. Best Vegan Food

Camillia Lanham

22. Best Vegetarian Food

23. Best Deli

24. Best Food Truck

25. Best Chef

26. Best Caterer

27. Best Butcher

28. Best Fish Market

29. Best Burrito

30. Best Breakfast Burrito

31. Best Taco

BALLOT continued on next page

DRINKS

ARTS

GOODS

SERVICES

RECREATION

SUNSET DINNER AND WINE PAIRING

Features a five-course plated dinner with wine pairings by local, women-owned Arianna Wines. March 10, 4:30-6:30 p.m. $65. eventbrite.com. Sunsets at Pismo, 1 Pier Plaza, Pismo Beach, 805-858-8220.

SANTA MARIA VALLEY/LOS ALAMOS

2023 KIWANIS CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE Each meal includes a generous portion of lean corned beef, red potatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions, horseradish, and a freshly baked roll. March 12 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Elwin Mussell Senior Center, 510 Park Ave., Santa Maria.

MUSIC

NORTH COAST SLO COUNTY

BLUES AGENDA JAM AND SHOWCASE

Held at the renovated Niffy’s Merrimaker every first and third Wednesday. Local, visiting, and newcomers are welcome

and Melodies Studio in Los Osos. March 19 3-4:30 p.m. Free; contributions only. calpoly.edu. Trinity United Methodist Church, 490 Los Osos Valley Rd., Los Osos, 805-528-1649.

LISTENING AS RITUAL Group listening sessions with musician/musicologist Ben Gerstein. Explore remarkable recordings of world music, nature field recording, western classical and contemporary, and jazz, sharing and discussing inspiration and perspectives on the expressive power of peoples, cultures, animals and habitats through sonic experience. Every other Monday, 7-8:15 p.m. $10-$15 donation. 805-305-1229. leftcoastartstudio.com/. Left Coast Art Studio, 1188 Los Osos Valley Rd., Los Osos.

LIVE MUSIC WITH GUITAR WIZ AT LUNADA GARDEN BISTRO “Guitar

Wizard” Billy Foppiano plays a wide range of music, including blues, R&B, classic rock, and more. Second Sunday of every month, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. 805-900-5444. Lunada Garden Bistro, 78 N. Ocean Ave., Cayucos.

Wing It, Bradberri, Blythe Berg, Walk the Whale, and Dead Nettle (one more artist will be added during the last contest of February). March 12 2-4:30 p.m. $25. 805-204-6821. songwritersatplay.com/ events. Cambria Center for the Arts Theatre, 1350 Main St., Cambria.

NORTH SLO COUNTY

BARREL ROOM CONCERT: RUN 4

COVER This free concert will have Cass wines, craft beer, and tasty food available for purchase. March 19, 4-6 p.m. my805tix.com. Cass Winery, 7350 Linne Road, Paso Robles.

EASTON EVERETT Easton Everett plays guitar-woven Indie music that has an

authentic feel and is easy to listen to but also surprises. March 19, 1-4 p.m. Free. eastoneverett.com. Locatelli Vineyards Winery, 8585 Cross Canyons Road, San Miguel, 805-467-0067.

FOREVER GREEN LIVE Come listen to the eclectic live music of Forever Green while enjoying world class wines at Pear Valley Vineyard. March 19, 1-4 p.m. Pear Valley Winery, 4900 Union Road, Paso Robles, 805-475-3389.

FRIDAY NIGHT DJ Weekly DJ series, with a different DJ every Friday. Presented by friends at Traffic Record store in Atascadero. Come listen, dance, drink, and unwind every Friday. All ages event;

no cover charge. Fridays, 7-10 p.m. 805460-6042. ancientowlbeergarden.com.

Ancient Owl Beer Garden, 6090 El Camino Real, suite C, Atascadero.

HARMONIOUS HARP Presented by Symphony of the Vines. March 12 , 5:30 p.m. my805tix.com. Cass Winery, 7350 Linne Road, Paso Robles.

KELLYTOWN: PADDY’S DAY PARTY

Lively fiddle tunes and rocking pub-songs from Ireland, the British Isles, and beyond.

March 17 7-10 p.m. No cover. 805-4005293. Bristol’s Cider House, 3220 El Camino Real, Atascadero, bristolscider.com/.

LIVE MUSIC: GHOST/MONSTER DUO

Celebrate Spring Release Month with some new wines and some great music.

March 18 , 12-3 p.m. 805-286-4028. parrishfamilyvineyard.com. Parrish Family Vineyard, 3590 Adelaida Road, Paso Robles.

SAN LUIS OBISPO

A BRASS MENAGERIE FEATURING THE SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY TRUMPET

ALLIANCE Enjoy several talented soloists and wonderful ensemble compositions and arrangements. Led by Warren Balfour. The 2022-2023 CPAC season is sponsored by Joan G. Sargen and the SLO New Times. March 12 , 2-4 p.m. $10-$15. tickets.cuesta.edu. Cuesta College

Cultural and Performing Arts Center, Highway 1, San Luis Obispo.

CAL POLY ARAB MUSIC ENSEMBLE

The Pacific Conservatory Theatre’s (PCPA) production of Emma debuted in early March and is scheduled to run through Sunday, March 19 at the Marian Theatre in Santa Maria. The show’s cast includes George Walker, Emily Trask, Jordan Stidham, Julia Mae Abrams (pictured, from left to right, respectively). To find out more about the show or purchase tickets, call the PCPA box office at (805) 922-8313 or visit pcpa.org. The Marian Theatre is located at 800 S. College Drive, Santa Maria. —C.W.

WINTER CONCERT Features a wide range of art, folk and popular music from Arab society as well as selected seminal pieces from the historically interconnected areas of Southwest Asia and North Africa. Programs also feature critically acclaimed guest artists. March 18 7:30 p.m. $20 general; $10 students. 805-756-4849. music.calpoly.edu/calendar. Spanos

Theatre, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

CAL POLY SYMPHONY WINTER

CONCERT: STUDENT SOLOIST

SHOWCASE AND STUDIO GHIBLI

Featuring winners of the Cal Poly Symphony’s Solo Competition. Come hear this year’s winners and celebrate musical talent from across the university. The orchestra will also explore Joe Hisaishi’s music from Studio Ghibli films, such as Spirited Away Howl’s Moving Castle , and Kiki’s Delivery Service March 17 7:30 p.m. $15-$20 general; $10 for students. 805-756-4849. music.calpoly.edu/ calendar/. Performing Arts Center, 1 Grand Ave., San Luis Obispo.

CAL POLY’S CANTABILE AND UNIVERSITY SINGERS CONCERT: CONTEMPORARY Cantabile and University Singers will perform a variety of modern works. Later in the month, Cantabile will give a concert in Lincoln Center, and will give a preview of its performance: two world premiere pieces by Jocelyn Hagen and Cal Poly Professor Meredith Brammeier. March 19, 3 & 7:30 p.m. $20 general; $10 students. 805-7564849. music.calpoly.edu/calendar/. First Presbyterian Church of San Luis Obispo, 981 Marsh St., San Luis Obispo.

CAL POLY’S POLYPHONICS AND CHAMBER CHOIR CONCERT: HEAVEN AND HELL Cal Poly’s PolyPhonics and Chamber Choir will to present a concert featuring two major works from both old and new traditions. PolyPhonics will perform Mozart’s famous “Requiem” with an orchestra from 1791, and the Chamber Choir Herbert Howells’ “Requiem,” which was composed in the 1930s. March 11 7:30 p.m. $20 general; $10 students. 805756-4849. music.calpoly.edu/calendar/. Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, 751 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo.

CHARLIE PARR WITH MARISA

ANDERSON Charlie Parr is an incorruptible outsider who writes novelistic, multi-layered stories that shine a kaleidoscopic light on defiant, unseen characters thriving in the shadows all around us. Parr has released 14 studio MUSIC continued page 26

March 12th * Sunday Matinee - CLARK CENTER - (805)489-9444

Steampunk Adventures

Sunday March 12th

Audience members are invited to wear any Steampunk attire! ENJOY INTERMISSION CHOICES:

- Come to the lobby and watch while judges award a $100 prize for “Best Full Outfit” and you can mix and mingle with the cast in the lobby or

- Enjoy the Cuesta Musical Theater Workshop singers in the theater - or enjoy both!

More information: clarkcenter.org/events

COURTESY PHOTO BY LUIS ESCOBAR REFLECTIONS PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIO

Hot Dates

albums and tours the globe performing at legendary venues like Newport Folk Festival. March 10 $20. slobrew.com. SLO Brew Rock, 855 Aerovista Pl., San Luis Obispo, 805-543-1843.

FOLK MUSIC OF THE WORLD Performed by Vocal Arts Ensemble, an award winning adult choir. Songs from Japan, Israel, Ukraine, France and more, plus classic American folk music. March 19 3-5 p.m. $30. 805-541-6797. vocalarts.org. Cuesta College Cultural and Performing Arts Center, Highway 1, San Luis Obispo.

FOREVER GREEN LIVE MUSIC AT THE ELKS LODGE Come enjoy the eclectic live music of Forever Green following St. Patrick’s Day dinner. March 17 6:45-9 p.m. SLO Elks Lodge, 222 Elks Lane, San Luis Obispo.

JACOB MANN WITH CUESTA JAZZ Jacob Mann is a pianist, keyboardist, composer, and arranger currently based in LA. Performing with groups such as Knower, Sam Wilkes, Lee Ritenour, Moonchild, Jacob Collier, Bob Mintzer Big Band, Michael Mayo, and Grace Kelly. March 10 7:30-9:30 p.m. $10-$15. tickets.cuesta.edu. Cuesta College Cultural and Performing Arts Center, Highway 1, San Luis Obispo.

LOS LOBOS WITH GABY MORENO Gaining international stardom in 1987 with their version of “La Bamba,” Los Lobos have released 17 critically acclaimed studio albums over a 40 plus year career. Opening the show and sitting in for a portion of Los Lobos’ set is Latin Grammy winner Gaby Moreno. March 14 7:30-9 p.m. $40-$65. 805-756-4849. calpolyarts.org. Performing Arts Center, 1 Grand Ave., San Luis Obispo.

NEXUS BALLROOM D.C. GRAND RE-OPENING AND ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY Come dance the night away and celebrate the reopening of this ballroom dance studio. Event will feature music, performances, champagne toast, appetizers, silent auction, and lots of dancing. March 18 6 p.m.-midnight $35 pre-sale. nexusslo.com. Nexus SLO Ballroom D.C. (Inside the SLO Public Market), 3845 S. Higuera St. #B-1, San Luis Obispo, 805-904-7428.

OF GOOD NATURE, WITH THE WHEELAND BROTHERS Of Good Nature (OGN) incites and unites listeners with a fusion-friendly approach to today’s music, uncovering a highly accessible sound that concentrates on positive and feel-good lyrics, uplifting energy, and technical musicianship, packed into a potent blend of alternative, soul, rock, groove, and pop. March 9 $17. slobrew.com. SLO Brew Rock, 855 Aerovista Pl., San Luis Obispo, 805-543-1843.

OPEN MIC NIGHT IN THE TASTING ROOM Kelsey Rae hosts this open mic event for music and comedy in the tasting room. Second Thursday of every month, 7-9 p.m. Free show. 805-7216878. SLO Cider, 3419 Roberto Ct., Suite C, San Luis Obispo. RAGGED JUBILEE WITH THE BOGEYS An album release party with The Ragged Jubilee on St. Pattys Day. There will be a special support set from The Bogeys. March 17 7 p.m. $10. slobrew.com. SLO Brew Rock, 855 Aerovista Pl., San Luis Obispo, 805-543-1843.

SINGING HER STORY Canzona Women’s Ensemble presents this afternoon concert of heartfelt storytelling and song. Musical selections are inspired by the various heritages of Canzona’s singers, highlighting diverse repertoire from a wide range of ethnic cultures. March 12 3 p.m. my805tix.com. San Luis Obispo United Methodist Church, 1515 Fredericks Street, San Luis Obispo, 805-242-6065.

SLO CIDER THIRD ANNIVERSARY PARTY With a pizza popup, prizes, live music, and more. March 11 , 12-9 p.m. Free show. 805-721-6878. classicentertainmentslo.com. SLO Cider, 3419 Roberto Ct., Suite C, San Luis Obispo.

ST PATRICK’S DAY PARTY WITH THE ANAM CARA CELTIC ALL-STARS The Anam Cara Celtic All-Stars will be on stage. March 17 2-5 p.m. Tips accepted. 1805-710-3309. BA Start Arcade and Taproom, 647 Higuera St., San Luis Obispo. ST. PAT’S SATURDAY PUB-CRAWL WITH THE ANAM CARA ALL-STARS Join The Anam Cara All-Star Revue for this St. Patrick’s Day celebration. March 18 , 12-3 p.m. Tips accepted. 805-710-3309. BA Start Arcade and Taproom, 647 Higuera St., San Luis Obispo.

YOUNG JAZZ SCHOLARSHIP CONCERT The San Luis Obispo County Jazz Federation is privileged to showcase the 2023 winners of its “Young Jazz” music scholarships. March 19, 4-5:30 p.m. my805tix.com. Mount Carmel Lutheran Church, 1701 Fredericks St., San Luis Obispo.

ZEPPARELLA: LED ZEPPELIN TRIBUTE Vocalist Anna Kristina, guitarist Gretchen Menn, bassist Holly West, and drummer Clementine have brought their passion for the sacred music of one of the greatest bands in rock history. March 16 $20. slobrew.com. SLO Brew Rock, 855 Aerovista Pl., San Luis Obispo, 805-543-1843.

SOUTH COAST SLO COUNTY

FOLK MUSIC OF THE WORLD Performed by the internationally acclaimed Vocal Arts Ensemble, a 34 member adult choir. Features music from France, Japan, and the Ukraine, as well as American folk music. March 16 7-9 p.m. $30. 805-235-2152. vocalarts.org. The Monarch Club at Trilogy Monarch Dunes, 1645 Trilogy Parkway, Nipomo.

ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARTY AT PUFFER’S OF PISMO WITH CELTIC CABARET Celtic Cabaret hits the road to Puffer’s of Pismo for a St. Patricks Day Bash to remember. March 17, 7-10 p.m. $5 at the door. 805-710-3309. Puffers of Pismo, 781 Price St., Pismo Beach, puffersofpismo.com. ∆

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Limited tickets available 805-238-7979

centralcoastbridalfair@gmail.com

The Wall That Heals is coming to SLO County March 16-19 at the Madonna Inn Meadows

The Wall That Heals is a three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial located in Washington, D.C. bearing the names of the 58,281 men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in Vietnam. The VVM Wall is dedicated to all Vietnam Veterans.

OPEN 24 HOURS FREE TO THE PUBLIC Closing Ceremony 1:30 PM on Sunday, March 19

Arts

Digital Art Group SLO presents PIXELS, Portals, and Paradigms

A collection of artworks created by members of Digital Art Group SLO are currently on display at Ann Foxworthy Gallery in Santa Maria, as part of the venue’s latest group exhibition— PIXELS, Portals, and Paradigms.

An artist reception for the exhibit will be held on Thursday, March 9, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., while the show is scheduled to remain on display at the gallery through Thursday, March 16.

Featured digital artworks in the program include sculptures based on interpreted sound waves, experimental video, installation art, “and other innovative combinations of traditional and digital mediums,” according to press materials.

Digital Art Group SLO is described as a collective of more than 50 artists who reside throughout the Central Coast, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

“These artists are interested in sharing ideas and processes, and creating art in the digital media realm,” Laura-Susan Thomas, gallery director of the Ann Foxworthy Gallery, said in press materials. “They are exploring and pushing the boundaries of how digital media can be used as an art form.”

To find out more about PIXELS, Portals, and Paradigms, call (805) 922-6966, Ext. 3465, or visit hancockcollege.edu/gallery. The Ann Foxworthy Gallery is located inside the Academic Resource Center, building L, on Allan Hancock College’s Santa Maria Campus, at 800 S. College Drive, Santa Maria.

The gallery’s regular hours, open for public viewing, are Monday through Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and every Thursday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. To request a viewing of PIXELS, Portals, and Paradigms outside the venue’s standard operating hours, reach out to Thomas by email, laura.thomas@ hancockcollege.edu.

Sideways author Rex Pickett holds book signing in Paso Robles

Tickets are available in advance for an upcoming book signing event with author Rex Pickett at Windward Vineyard in Paso Robles, scheduled to be held on Saturday, April 15, from 2 to 5 p.m. Pickett will be signing copies of Sideways the popular novel that explores wine country destinations along the Central Coast and spawned a critically acclaimed film adaptation in 2004.

Admission to the event is $60 per person, which includes a personally signed hardback copy of Sideways and a vertical flight of pinot noirs. For tickets and more info, contact lou@ windwardvineyard.com, visit windwardvineyard.com, or call (805) 239-2565. Windward Vineyard is located at 1380 Live Oak Road, Paso Robles. ∆ —Caleb Wiseblood

BY ADRIAN VINCENT ROSAS

Artistic journey

Charlie Rugg engages the bigger picture through abstract, detailed portraits in debut exhibit at SLOMA

Former LA Galaxy soccer player Charlie Rugg is on a journey.

“ roughout my sports career I remember there being a lot of moments like I felt there was something else for me. ... I was stuck in a process,” Rugg said. “We would get on a plane then get on a bus then play the game and then do it again.”

e once professional athlete is continuing to reach for that something else, accepting what has long been a part of him—a genuine curiosity about the bigger picture of life and embracing the inner artist he’s always wanted to be. at creative expression, as he’s discovered, is something that he needs.

“It’s true there is a beauty to sports; it’s an art form in itself, but throughout that I always felt this desire to do something di erent afterward,” Rugg said. “I was meant for something outside of sports.”

at journey plays a signi cant role in Rugg’s work, which is on display at the SLO Museum of Art in his rst professional show, And Also… , showcasing his oil paintings until May 29. From exploring his own search for meaning and the eventual acceptance of his inner artist to using his work to invite people to re ect on their own journeys, Rugg has found peace in using art as a vehicle for his personal evolution and purpose.

“ e point I am at right now, where I am on this journey through art, has made me realize this is who I am and who I want to be,” he said.

See the bigger picture

Experience Charlie Rugg’s And Also… exhibition at SLOMA, 1010 Broad St, San Luis Obispo, until May 29. For more information, visit sloma.org. Find Rugg’s work online at cruggart.com.

“It really is a privilege for the museum to host his rst main showcase,” Davis said. “Very rarely do we get to see the work of an artist who is not only doing something unique and beautiful but is also new to the community and o ers a fresh perspective.”

While the work might appear easy to read at rst glance, it invites viewers to take in the full picture and notice the subtle abstract details present in each piece.

Showtime!

Send gallery, stage, and cultrual festivities to arts@newtimesslo.com.

Rugg, who recently moved from Boston to San Luis Obispo, became interested in displaying his work at SLOMA after working alongside the art museum’s chief curator, Emma Saperstein, on a mural project at Cal Poly. After SLOMA Curator Courtney Davis visited Rugg’s studio, she decided his mixture of abstract details within realistic portraits felt like the perfect choice for the museum’s next feature and his rst professional showing.

“ is show is all about the complexity of the things we assign meaning to,” Rugg said. “We assign meaning to things through stories, building up details based on our experiences with them, and it’s something— especially with the pandemic, social media, and even AI art— that we are becoming more and more obsessed with as a society.”

For Rugg, And Also… is the vehicle helping him transition his life from soccer to art.

“ e challenge I faced in stopping sports is facing that process of de-attaching your identity to soccer,” he said. “You spend years going up in the system and playing at higher and higher levels, maybe best case scenario you get to the top and play professional.”

But no matter what, an athlete’s career eventually comes to an end.

“Some players end their careers and go, ‘Almost half of my life, if not more, has been built around this identity,’” Rugg said. “When I stopped playing ve years ago, I found myself in this ongoing transition of ‘who am I?’”

Rugg’s work is similar to his own journey, as he asks viewers to take in the setting of his paintings before focusing on the person he highlights, something that helped him realize his postprofessional athlete path.

“When humans are looking at the bigger picture, you try to go out as far as you possibly can, but our human minds can only zoom out and process so far,” Rugg said. “When I am painting these characters, I am trying to channel that zone of knowledge and really highlight it with the abstract details.”

ose details are what Rugg hopes people will take away and feel inspired to re ect on the role of a broader perspective on the meaningful things in their lives.

“I really want to channel that sense of ‘where do I t within the world?’” he said. “ at’s why I want to

zoom things out in this broad sense, to gure out what I can nd in the bigger picture.”

Rugg considers himself to be as much a messenger as an artist, with his work serving as the mode by which others to gain new meaning and nd new importance in their lives.

“I really want my work to convey that sense of ‘other’—like they come from some other place that understands the world better than we do,” Rugg said. “My hope is that these characters, my subjects, can bring us some of those messages from that realm and with it a better understanding of who we are.” ∆

Freelancer Adrian Vincent Rosas has a new outlook on the bigger picture of life. Reach him at arosas@ newtimesslo.com.

REAL AND IDEAL American Legend showcases how artist Charlie Rugg melds abstract details and portraiture, blending the figurative and literal to discover a deeper meaning about the person.

THE LITTLE THINGS As part of Charlie Rugg’s And Also... exhibit at SLOMA, The Navigator highlights the things one can miss when failing to observe the bigger picture.

BROADER PERSPECTIVE Both is featured as the main image in Charlie Rugg’s And Also... show at SLOMA, as Ruggs feels it best emphasizes his style and intentions as an artist.

Operation meh

Guy Richie directs this action comedy about super spy Orson Fortune (Jason Statham) who’s tasked with stopping arms dealer Greg Simmonds (Hugh Grant) from selling deadly new weapons technology. The lone wolf operative is reluctantly teamed with three other spies: Sarah Fidel (Aubrey Plaza), Nathan Jasmine (Cary Elwes), and JJ Davies (Bugzy Malone). Their plan is to blackmail Simmonds’ favorite Hollywood movie star, Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett), into getting close to Simmonds so they can take him down. (114 min.)

OPERATION FORTUNE: RUSE DE GUERRE

What’s it rated? R

What’s it worth, Glen? Stream it

What’s it worth, Anna? Stream it Where’s it showing? Colony, Downtown Centre, Park, Stadium 10, Sunset Drive-In

Glen Richie’s made some absolutely amazing films: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Snatch (2000), Sherlock Holmes (2009), The Gentlemen (2019). Even his mediocre films are usually at least watchable. I’d put his latest in the latter category— watchable but not Richie at his best. If fact, if it weren’t for the amazing performance by Grant and the easy sarcastic charm of Plaza, this would be a dud. They saved the film for me. Usually I like Statham, but his character is pretty flat, and violence-wise, he’s not given as much to do as usual. I’m a Richie fan, and if you are, try a matinee. Otherwise, wait for this one to stream.

Anna It’s a way to pass a couple of hours without feeling like it was a total waste of time. It certainly wasn’t my favorite Ritchie flick, but it did the job. You’re right that Plaza and Grant are the MVPs here; without them this film would have been a complete snooze fest. I also usually really like Statham, and I did like him here, but he just didn’t have much to do except roll his eyes and take part in a bit of intermittent violence. It’s not a

waste of time, but I don’t know that I would be stoked to pay full price to see it either. There is movie magic and some pretty onpoint stunts going on, but overall, the wow factor is in short supply. Watch for the gold stars that Plaza and Grant get, but don’t get too overly excited—most of this movie is effortlessly forgettable.

Glen The story itself is pretty standard stuff: Ukrainian mobsters, a rival spy guy named Mike (Peter Ferdinando), and exotic locales such as Madrid, Cannes, and Turkey. The McGuffin is something called “The Handle,” some high-tech device supposedly worth billions that Simmonds is going to sell to the highest bidder. We later learn it can be programmed to defeat any security system in the world or some such nonsense. There are also a couple biotech moguls who’ve been hoarding gold and want to use The Handle to collapse the worldwide financial markets. The plot feels irrelevant. In a final desperate act of wishful thinking, the story ends with a

setup for a sequel. The more I think about it, the less I like this film. Just wait to stream it. Anna Yep, it is definitely one you don’t want to think about too much. The little fun that’s there wears thin pretty quickly. You would think with this much money and star power you’d put in a little more work in the writer’s room, but that isn’t what happened here. Honestly, half the plot you just mentioned I had either not noticed or have completely forgotten about a day later. It’s kind of funny to watch Hartnett’s Danny Francesco prepare for the role of a lifetime—himself. Plaza is dry and snarky. Grant plays a smarmy rich dude with ease. It isn’t terrible, but it is terribly forgettable. I agree with you: This one can wait for home viewing when nothing else is on. ∆

Senior Staff Writer Glen Starkey and freelancer Anna Starkey write Split Screen. Glen compiles listings. Comment at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.

PAMELA: A LOVE STORY

What’s it rated? TV-MA

When? 2023

Where’s it showing? Netflix

Ryan White ( The Keepers ) directs this intimate and revealing portrait of blonde bombshell Pamela Anderson, who became a superstar playing C.J. Parker on the hit TV series Baywatch in the ’90s, fumbled an attempt to segue into film with Barb Wire (1996), and then saw her world implode after her sex tape with then husband and Mötley

A LIFE IN PICTURES Mateo Zoryan (center) stars as Younger Sammy Fabelman, a standin for co-writer and director Steven Spielberg in his autobiographical film The Fabelmans, this year’s Golden Globe Best Motion Picture winner, which is also nominated for seven Academy Awards.

Crüe drummer Tommy Lee was stolen and widely distributed. Anderson has always seemed like a caricature—a hyper-sexual bimbo who’s easy to make fun of. Her image wasn’t helped by her own need to please. She’d always gamely go along with jokes about her enormous implants on talk show appearances, and she had no problem shedding her clothes for Playboy magazine or slow-motion running on a beach in her iconic red swimsuit. This new documentary humanizes Anderson in the most refreshing way and paints her as a thoughtful, sympathetic woman who just wanted to love and be loved. I came away with a new respect for her as a person, a mother, and an artist. Yes, this recontextualization of her life was created with her blessing, so you might accuse it of curating her life, but but it feels as unvarnished as her makeupless face. (112 min.)

—Glen

THE FABELMANS

What’s it rated? PG-13

When? 2022

Where’s it showing? Redbox, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime

Nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Original Screenplay, this is one of the year’s important films I sadly missed in theaters. It’s already won Best Motion Picture and Best Director at this year’s Golden Globes. I sure wish I’d seen it on the big screen—beautiful, moving, and expertly acted and directed, it’s definitely among my favorite films this year, now available at Redbox and streaming on various online platforms.

UNEXPLODED BOMBSHELL

In Pamela: A Love Story, a new documentary streaming on Netflix, the ’90s sex symbol candidly shares the story of her early life, superstardom, rocky romances, and the sex tape scandal, ultimately revealing her humanity.

Director and co-writer Steven Spielberg (with co-writer Tony Kusher) presents this semiautobiographical tale based on Spielberg’s early life as an aspiring filmmaker who discovers a disturbing family secret but also learns that filmmaking can help him process his emotions. It’s a reminder that at 76, he’s still a master at his craft, delivering a personal film that’s really about the magic of filmmaking.

The cast is absolutely wonderful, led by Michelle Williams as Mitzi Fabelman, an artist trapped in the role of a 1950s housewife. Paul Dano is Burt Fabelman, a talented electrical engineer and inventor who thinks of his son’s interest in filmmaking as a “hobby.” It’s easy to understand where Spielberg found his balance between artistry and technical wizardry. A terrific film. (151 min.) ∆ —Glen

Starring: Woody Harrelson

DEEP COVER Special operator Orson Fortune (Jason Statham) enlists Hollywood actor Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett) and spy Sarah Fidel (Aubrey Plaza) to help him take down an arms dealer, in Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, screening in local theaters.

COURTESY PHOTO BY DAN SMITH/LIONSGATE

PHOTO COURTESY OF NETFLIX

PHOTO COURTESY UNIVERSAL PICTURES

BY GLEN STARKEY

LA Icons

For 50 years, Los Lobos has defied classification

Los Lobos has always labeled themselves a rock band, but that seems too limiting for a group that plays everything from Tex-Mex to brown-eyed soul, folk to zydeco, country to R&B, blues to punk to traditional Latin sounds like cumbia, boleros, and norteños. Now celebrating their 50th year together, this Los Angeles-based quintet transcends any label you could try to put on them.

This Tuesday, March 14, at the Performing Arts Center, Cal Poly Arts presents Los Lobos and special guest Gaby Moreno (7:30 p.m.; ages 5 and older; $40 to $65 at pacslo.org).

Their most recent studio album, Native Sons (2021), is dedicated to the music of their hometown of Los Angeles and consists of cover songs such as “The World is a Ghetto,” “Sail on, Sailor,” and “Jamaica Say You Will.”

It peaked at No. 7 on Billboard’s Americana/ Folk Album chart and took home the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Americana Album, proving this is a band that isn’t resting on its laurels, of which is has many.

The band has been an international sensation since it supplied the soundtrack to the Ritche Valens biopic La Bamba, and over 17 albums, they’ve proven to be inventive and shapeshifting, always ready to reinvent themselves and their sound.

Moreno will open the show and sit in for a portion of Los Lobos’ set. The Guatemalan singer-songwriter was a Best New Artist winner at the Latin Grammys and an Emmy nominee (for the theme song to NBC’s Parks and Recreation).

Texas soul

Next Thursday, March 16, Numbskull and Good Medicine present Kolton Moore & The Clever Few at The Siren (7 p.m.; 21-and-older; $20 at goodmedicienepresents. com). Formed in 2012, the group has garnered 80 million Spotify streams since 2016, 2021 American Idol winner Chayce Beckham covered their song “What Brings Life Also Kills,” and their song “Peace in the

Pines” closed out the season 4 finale of the TV show Yellowstone

Also this week at The Siren, Flannel 101—the ultimate ’90s party rock band— returns on Friday, March 10 (7:30 p.m.; 21-and-older; $16 plus fees at eventbrite.com), for another night of ’90s hits by the likes of Nirvana, Green Day, Pearl Jam, Sublime, No Doubt, Oasis, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Alanis Morissette, and more.

Which One’s Pink: A Celebration of Pink Floyd will play all Floyd, all night, this Saturday, March 11 (8 p.m.; 21-and-older; $25 plus fees at eventbrite.com). Founded in 1997 by musician-turned-lawyer Larry Isenberg, the band’s name comes from the Pink Floyd classic “Have a Cigar”: “The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think, oh by the way, which one is pink?” Instead of trying to look like the original band members, they focus “exclusively on re-creating the surrealistic sound and psychedelic atmosphere associated with Pink Floyd.”

Three at the Rock SLO Brew Rock kicks off its week with soul groovers Of Good Nature and beach rock reggae act the Wheeland Brothers this Thursday, March 9 (7 p.m.; 18-and-older; $17 at ticketweb.com). It promises to be a laid-back evening of feel-good tunes.

Sound out!

Charlie Parr with Marisa Anderson plays on Friday, March 10 (7 p.m.; 18-andolder; $20 plus fees at ticketweb.com). “Parr is an incorruptible outsider who writes novelistic, multi-layered stories that shine a kaleidoscopic light on defiant, unseen characters thriving in the shadows all around us,” his bio explains.

And next Thursday, March 16, check out Zepparella: The Led Zeppelin Tribute (7 p.m.; 18-and-older; $20 plus fees at ticketweb. com). Powerhouse vocalist Anna Kristina, guitarist Gretchen Menn, bassist Holly West, and drummer Clementine bring Zep’s music alive.

More music …

Vivian Leva and Riley Calcagno will play their old-soul roots music at the historic Octagon Barn Center this Thursday, March 9 (7 p.m.; $20 presale at eventbrite.com or $25 at the door), melding “Appalachian traditional music with fresh iconic melodies and the tightly wound vocal harmonies of indie folk,” organizers noted.

COME ON LET’S GO Eclectic rockers Los Lobos play Cal Poly’s Performing Arts Center on March 14

COMFORTABLY NUMB Pink Floyd tribute Which One’s Pink? plays The Siren on March 11

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SIREN

HAVE SOME MOORE Numbskull and Good Medicine present Kolton Moore on March 16 at The Siren

PHOTO COURTESY OF GOOD MEDICINE PRESENTS

STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN On

check out all-female Led Zeppelin tribute act Zepparella at SLO Brew Rock.

COURTESY PHOTO BY MAX CRACE

EMERALD ISLE Kerry Irish Productions presents St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland with vocalist Christa Burch and other performers on March 11

PHOTO COURTESY OF KERRY IRISH PRODUCTIONS

Also this Thursday, March 9, Bad Bunny fans will gather at the Fremont Theater for Noche de Verano Sin Ti, the Bad Bunny Birthday Bash DJed by Cali Ally (8 p.m.; 18-and-older; $26 plus fees at seeticket.us).

You Had To Be There (UH2BT)—a new pop-up DJed party experience—presents K Pop Night at the Fremont this Friday, March 10 (8 p.m.; all ages; $11 plus fees at seetickets.us). Dance to all you favorite Korean pop songs.

SLO Cider Company celebrates its third anniversary this week. Billy “The Guitar Wiz” Foppiano plays the tasting room this Friday, March 10 (6 to 8 p.m.), and the big party happens on Saturday, March 11 (noon to 9 p.m.; all ages), with live music from David Orr (3 to 5 p.m.) and two sets by DJ (5:30 and 8 p.m). There’ll be pizza by

Earth and Oven and a raffle for awesome prizes.

Vert Jungle and Shabang Music Productions present Skate Safari 2023 in Arroyo Grande on Saturday, March 11 (2:30 p.m.; $45 to $150 at shabangslo.com/skatesafari). Hear The Paranoyds, Ciszak, The Ragged Jubilee, Chocolate Sushi, Pacific Roots, and Couch Dog while watching skaters shred a 13.5-foot halfpipe.

Kerry Irish Productions presents St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland on Saturday, March 11, at the Clark Center (7:30 p.m.; $35 to $50 general with discounts for kids and seniors at clarkcenter.org). You’ll be transported to the Emerald Isle for a night of Irish music and dance with vocalist Christa Burch and principal dancer Connor Reider

The final round of the Songwriters at Play contest happens this Sunday, March 12, at the Cambria Center for the Arts Theatre (2 p.m.; $25 at cambriaarts.org/theatre-tickets). Ten final contestants will play two original songs to see who’ll take home the $500 prize. Performers include Kaitlyn Chui, Fort Vine, Ricky Berger, Dave Tate, Just Wing It, Bradberri, Blythe Berg, Walk the Whale, and Dead Nettle

The San Luis Obispo County Trumpet Alliance presents A Brass Menagerie this Sunday, March 12, in the Cuesta College Performing Arts Center (2 p.m.; $15 general and $10 student at tickets.cuesta.edu). Expect a brass ensemble directed by Warren Balfour and Lyle Stubson playing an eclectic mix of music. ∆

Contact Senior Staff Writer Glen Starkey at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.

SLO COUNTY IDOL Witness the final round of the Songwriters at Play songwriting contest March 12 at Cambria Center for the Arts Theatre, featuring nine performers including Walk the Whale.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SONGWRITERS AT PLAY

CAL POLY SYMPHONY

WINTER CONCERT SOLOIST SHOWCASE AND STUDIO GHIBLI

Featured students:

Davis Lerner: Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto in B-flat major, K. 191; (third movement)

Reenu Kutty: Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26 (first movement);

Ari Maman, saxophone: Paul Maurice’s “Tableaux de Provence” (first three movements)

Sarah Jane Scott, soprano: “Laudate Dominum” from Mozart’s “Vesperae solennes de confessore,” K. 339 Yumin Park composition: “Chronicles”

Winter Concert

$10 students $15

805-756-4849

Jayden Perez, conductor, John Williams’ “Theme from Jurassic Park”

SINGER AUDITION

Experienced singers of all voices needed to audition for the awardwinning Vocal Arts Ensemble.

Morro Bay High School

March 28, 6:30-8:30 PM

CAL POLY CANTABILE and UNIVERSITY SINGERS

CONCERT: ‘CONTEMPORARY’

York City’s Lincoln Center!

The concert will feature music of contemporary female composers, including two world premieres!

I Breathe, I Hope”

Pre-concert Q&A with Hagen At 2 p.m., made possible by Cricket Handler and Community Foundation San Luis Obispo County.

University Singers will perform modern compositions with texts by poets Sara Teasdale, Christina Rossetti and Maya Angelou. The group will also perform works by Ruth Morris Gray, Domanick Diorio and Rollo Dilworth.

3 p.m. Sunday, March 19, 2023

San Luis Obispo United Methodist Church

$20 general, $10 students | Cal Poly Ticket Office: pacslo.org, 805-756-4849

More information: music.calpoly.edu/calendar, 805-756-2406

The symphony will also perform music by Joe Hisaishi from four Studio Ghibli films: “Howl’s Moving Castle,” “Spirited Away,” “Kiki’s Delivery Service” and “My Neighbor Totoro.” David Arrivee, conductor.

and $20 general pacslo.org,

Jocelyn Hagen: “While

Meredith Brammeier: “I Pastured My Wolves”

Scott Glysson: conductor Paul Woodring: accompanist

A preview of Cantabile’s March 25 performance in New

Jocelyn Hagen and Meredith Brammeier

BY CHERISH WHYTE

On the right track

Timbre Winery debuts a new production facility and tasting room in San Luis Obispo

Affectionately referred to as “Cap,” for its location on Capitolio Street, the new Timbre Winery facility in SLO also represents a huge feather in founder and winemaker Joshua Klapper’s cap.

An extension of its busy tasting room in Arroyo Grande, the new endeavor consolidates winemaking in an expansive 6,500-square-foot space with the capacity for an estimated 50 guests.

Tasting room manager Denise Cotinola envisions reserve, library, barrel, and private tastings as well as tours and clubmember-only access to a lounge that will be “comfortable and cozy, yet swanky and posh,” she said.

“Club members … can bring friends and hang, relax after a long day, or have privacy for a meeting,” Cotinola said. “We’re sure it will be highly sought after, so be sure to make a reservation.”

Mirroring the popularity of the Arroyo Grande location, which opened in 2017, the team anticipates equally packed tasting quarters at Cap, with a grand opening slated for April.

The winery is situated in an area referred to by locals as “LoBro,” for Lower Broad, sandwiched between downtown SLO and the SLO County Regional Airport.

“It is a fantastic location for production,” Klapper said. “This industrial [complex] is now home to breweries, a cider house, and soon more wineries. There is a lot of home and condo development within a mile or so of the winery, so we are ripe to become a hangout for those locals that wouldn’t naturally come down and hang out in Arroyo Grande.”

The Timbre crew—several of whom have been with the winery since its inception—are a tight-knit group of food, wine, and music lovers whose overarching goal is simple: “To make wines that taste good,” according to Klapper.

His deep hospitality experience kicked off in his native New York—at Coco Pazzo Trattoria and Café Boulud—followed by Sona Restaurant in Los Angeles.

As sommelier and wine director at Sona,

Klapper developed a world-class wine list that earned the Grand Award from Wine Spectator magazine in 2004 and subsequent years.

Not surprisingly, he turned to winemaking, learning the ropes from Central Coast trailblazers Bob Lindquist and the late Jim Clendenen of Qupé and Au Bon Climat, respectively.

In 2005 Klapper went solo at Santa Maria’s Central Coast Wine Services—now Miller Family Wine Company—founding La Fenêtre Wines, which became Timbre in 2016.

As a childhood choir singer who can hold his own on vocals and guitar in casual settings, Klapper selected a music-focused name, pronounced TAM-ber or TIM-ber and meaning the color or quality of tone.

“It is what makes two voices sound different, even when singing the same song,” Timbre’s website explains. “It is why two winemakers, working with the same vineyards, make unique wine. As a terroirdriven winery, we make wines expressive of the places and times from which they came. As winemakers, we channel those sites through our experience, adding our own mark—our timbre—to the resulting wines.”

“When I was in restaurants,” Klapper added, “I described food in musical terms, and with wine it’s the same thing.”

Timbre produces an estimated 4,500 cases annually. Grapes are sourced primarily from SLO and Santa Barbara counties, with a heavy focus on the SLO Coast American Viticultural Area.

Varieties run the gamut from chardonnay, pinot noir, and cabernet sauvignon to Rhones, riesling, and even hard apple cider.

“I want to make wines that are expressive of the place where the grapes are grown,” Klapper said, and also ensure that “the fruit is ripe enough that all the tannins are resolved and the acids

Stay tuned

Timbre Winery will celebrate the grand opening of its San Luis Obispo tasting room at 770 Capitolio Way in April. Updates will be posted at timbrewinery.com and on Instagram and Facebook @timbrewinery. Visit the winery’s Arroyo Grande location at 225 E. Branch St. on Sunday, Monday, and Thursday from noon to 5 p.m., and on Friday and Saturday until 6 p.m.

are balanced as soon as the wine is released.”

The Timbre crew lets loose with musicthemed names ranging from Rare Groove and Stereophonic to Dancing Queen.

Winery business partner Gary Gates, of Dalkey, Ireland, partnered with direct salesperson and social media manager Bethany Watje, of Arroyo Grande, to make Dancing Queen, with Klapper’s encouragement and blessing.

Grapes for the rosé, producing only 50 cases, hail from the same vineyard Klapper uses for his Lead Vocals pinot noir.

“In the past, that was Bien Nacido and Pali [in Santa Barbara County],” Gates explained. “This year it’s Spanish Springs [in the SLO Coast AVA].

Regarding the name, “I am a child of the disco era, so I have a certain reverence for ABBA,” Gates said. “I’m also gay, so there’s that.

“It’s definitely a playful reference. While Timbre does a lot of community givebacks in a variety of ways, the 10 percent of proceeds to LGBT causes—to SLO’s Gala Pride and Diversity Center for the 2022 vintage—is specific to Dancing Queen.”

Share tasty tips!

OFF THE CHARTS Timbre Winery’s latest release ranges from the 2021 Opening Act albariño to the 2019 Rare Groove No. 2 syrahgrenache blend. A pair of just-bottled 2022 rosés, a 2022 albariño, and a 2019 Rhone blend from Gary Gates’ debut Antiphon label will soon be hitting the tasting lineup.

Gates has been on the Klapper bandwagon for nearly 25 years.

He and husband Mike Beary met Klapper shortly after moving to Los Angeles, where Gates worked as a demographer at UCLA. “[Klapper] was the sommelier at nearby Sona, [and his] wine expertise was amazing,” Gates explained. “We became friends just as he was starting to make wine. We still have some of his 2004 vintages in our collection. We remained big fans of his wine and eventually became business partners. I started coming to work at harvests in 2016 after I retired.

Send tidbits on everything food and drink to bites@newtimesslo.com.

Gates is also debuting his own label, Antiphon, which means a musical refrain, in time for Timbre’s grand opening. It will specialize in small-production red blends, and the first vintage is a 2021 grenache-syrah-mourvedre.

“Part of the proceeds from Antiphon will go to a program at the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra—my hometown in Pennsylvania— that supports youth music education,” Gates said.

“Josh is a great friend and mentor. He welcomed my interest in winemaking and has provided the opportunity for me to learn the craft in a fun and supportive environment.”

Cotinola and Watje have also been with Klapper since Timbre launched and concur that it’s the perfect place to work.

“It’s been really fun,” Watje said. “He is the best educator, and everything I’ve learned is from the last six years [with] him.” ∆

Flavor Writer Cherish Whyte thoroughly enjoyed Timbre pours and hanging with the band. Reach her at cwhyte@newtimesslo.com.

WOOD INSTRUMENTS Timbre Winery founder and winemaker Joshua Klapper and tasting room manager Denise Cotinola, both of Arroyo Grande, handcraft their signature flight boards, which feature generous pours and the ease of comparison.

PHOTO BY CHERISH WHYTE

DRY DIVA Sourced from pinot noir at Spanish Springs Vineyard near Pismo Beach in the SLO Coast American Viticultural Area, Timbre Winery’s Dancing Queen has a floral nose and dry, robust palate.

PHOTO

PHOTO COURTESY OF TIMBRE WINERY

BEAUTIFUL BUNGALOW Timbre Winery’s quaint tasting room in the Village of Arroyo Grande was recently joined by a bigger, more industrial sister facility in San Luis Obispo.

PHOTO COURTESY OF TIMBRE WINERY

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3.7 V6, at, ac, ps, pw, pdl, cc, tw, am/fm/cd, pseat, 81k low miles, red, gray cloth, premium wheels #276667 $14,988

2012 HONDA CR-V AWD LX

2.4 4cyl, at, ac, ps, pw, pdl, cc, tw, am/fm/cd, alloys, green, lt gray cloth #603671 $18,988

2012 MERCEDES 350 SLK CONVERTIBLE

3.5 V6, at, ac, ps, pw, pdl, cc, tw, am/fm/cd, white, tan lthr, 78k low miles #029715 $19,988

2015 CHEVY TAHOE LT 4WD

5.3 Ecotec3 V8, at, ac, ps, pw, pdl, cc, tw, am/fm, CD, white, black lthr, nav, 3rd row, tow #223576

$25,988

2017 FORD F150 SUPERCREW XLT

2.7 Ecoboost V6, at, ac, ps, pw, pdl, cc, tw, am/fm/ cd, pseat, tow, prem whls, white, gray cloth, 76k miles #D73202

$27,988

SAN LUIS OBISPO CITY COUNCIL NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

The San Luis Obispo City Council invites all interested persons to attend a public hearing on Tuesday, March 21, 2023 at 5:30 p.m. held in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 990 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo. Meetings can be viewed remotely on Government Access Channel 20 or streamed live from the City’s YouTube channel at http://youtube.slo.city. Public comment, prior to the start of the meeting, may be submitted in writing via U.S. Mail delivered to the City Clerk’s office at 990 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 or by email to emailcouncil@slocity.org.

PUBLIC HEARING ITEM:

• The City Council will introduce an Ordinance amending Title 17 (Zoning Regulations) of the Municipal Code to implement Housing Element Program 2.15 and Policy 6.6 to provide a Downtown Flexible Density Program. The main goals of the program are to help address the local housing demand by facilitating increased higher density residential infill development in the downtown area near employment centers, incentivizing smaller units, and diversifying the City’s housing stock. (CODE-0017-2023)

For more information, you are invited to contact Kyle Bell of the City’s Community Development Department at (805) 781-7524 or kbell@slocity.org

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that on Tuesday, March 14, 2023, at 6:00 p.m. or as soon thereafter as possible, the Pismo Beach Planning Commission will hold a public hearing in the Council Chamber at City Hall, 760 Mattie Road, Pismo Beach, for the following purpose:

PUBLIC HEARING AGENDA:

A. Address: 690 Dolliver Street

Applicant: Roger Sharp, Tito’s Red Tacos

Project No.: P22-000127

Description: Sign Permit for four new signs and three murals, and Categorical Exemption No. 2023-008. Location – 690 Dolliver Street. The project is located within the Coastal Zone and is not appealable to the Coastal Commission. APN 005-131-036.

Environmental Review

In accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), it has been determined that the project is categorically exempt pursuant to Section 15301(a) of the CEQA Guidelines regarding minor alterations to an existing structure.

B. Address: 591 Five Cities Drive

Applicant: United Signs, Poppy Markets

Project No.: P23-000013

Description: Sign Permit for a Sign Program at a new gas station and convenience market, and Categorical Exemption No. 2023-009. Location –591 Five Cities Drive. The project is located within the Coastal Zone and is not appealable to the Coastal Commission. APN 005-242-010.

Environmental Review

In accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), it has been determined that the project is categorically exempt pursuant to Section 15301(a) of the CEQA Guidelines regarding minor alterations to an existing structure.

Details about ways to participate in this hearing will be provided on the agenda posted for the meeting online at pismobeach.org/agenda, and on the bulletin board at City Hall. The agenda will be posted no later than Friday, March 10, 2023.

You have a right to comment on this project and its effect on our community. Interested persons are invited to participate in the hearing or otherwise express their views and opinions regarding the proposed project. Emailed comments may be submitted to planningcommission@pismobeach. org; staff cannot guarantee that emailed comments submitted after the start of the meeting will be given full consideration before action is taken. Written comments may be delivered or mailed to the Community Development Department / Planning Division Office at 760 Mattie Road, Pismo Beach, CA 93449, prior to the meeting, or hand-delivered during the meeting no later than the comment period for this item. Oral comment may be provided prior to the meeting by calling 805-773-7005 and leaving a voice message. Please state and spell your name and identify your item of interest. Oral comment may also be made during the meeting, either by joining the virtual meeting using the link provided on the agenda document, or by attending the meeting in person in the Council Chamber at City Hall. Please refer to the agenda for this meeting for specific instructions for participation.

INVITATION TO BID (SUB BIDS ONLY)

GENERAL CONTRACTOR: MAINO CONSTRUCTION

COMPANY, INCORPORATED

PROJECT NAME: CALIFORNIA POLYTECHNIC STATE UNIVERSITY SAN LUIS OBISPO

YOSEMITE – TOWER 4 RESTROOM

RENOVATION PROJECT

PROJECT LOCATION: BLDG. 114E - CAL POLY STATE UNIVERSITY, SLO, CA 93407

PROJECT OWNER: TRUSTEES OF THE CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY

ARCHITECT: HARRIS ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN

BID DATE & TIME: THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2023@ 12:00 P.M.

PRE-BID SITE REVIEW: N/A

ESTIMATE/BUDGET: $750,000

ANTICIPATED SCHEDULE: 2 MONTHS

START DATE: JUNE 19, 2023

COMPLETION: AUGUST 31, 2023

(CONTRACTOR IS RESPONSIBLE FOR OVERTIME AND WEEKEND WORK ANTICIPATED TO MEET PROJECT SCHEDULE)

SCOPE OF WORK:

Asbestos and lead abatement, interior demolition of (5) existing restrooms, metal stud framing, drywall and cement board, fiberglass ceilings, wall and floor tile, wall mirrors, Corian countertops with integral bowl sinks and backsplash, toilet partitions and accessories.

The University will be performing the following trades: Painting, Plumbing, Electrical.

BIDS SHALL BE EMAILED TO: tomm@mainoslo.com and sonnys@mainoslo.com

BID REQUIREMENTS:

• Subcontractors must be bondable and may be required to provide Payment and Performance Bonds.

• Bid Bond is not required.

• Safety Record is of the utmost importance. Subcontractors with aggregate EMR Rate of 1.5 over the past three years may be disqualified.

• Prevailing Wage

TO VIEW PLANS/SPEC:

Plans and specs may be downloaded from ASAP

Reprographics at www.asapplanroom.com

Plans and specs may also be viewed at the following Builders

Exchanges:

- SLO County Builders Exchange – www.slocbe.com

- Santa Maria Valley Contractors Association

– www.smvca.org

- Central California Builders Exchange – www.cencalbx.com

Maino Construction Company, Incorporated is an equal opportunity Contractor. It is the responsibility of each Subcontractor to view all pertinent information and documents prior to submitting a proposal.

March 9, 2023

INVITATION TO BID (SUB BIDS ONLY)

GENERAL CONTRACTOR: MAINO CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, INCORPORATED

PROJECT NAME: CALIFORNIA POLYTECHNIC STATE UNIVERSITY SAN LUIS OBISPO SIERRA MADRE – TOWER 2 RESTROOM RENOVATION

PROJECT

PROJECT LOCATION: BLDG. 113C - CAL POLY STATE UNIVERSITY, SLO, CA 93407

PROJECT OWNER: TRUSTEES OF THE CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY

ARCHITECT: HARRIS ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN

BID DATE & TIME: THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2023@ 12:00 P.M.

PRE-BID SITE REVIEW: N/A

ESTIMATE/BUDGET: $1,100,000

ANTICIPATED SCHEDULE: 2 MONTHS

START DATE: JUNE 19, 2023

COMPLETION: AUGUST 31, 2023

(CONTRACTOR IS RESPONSIBLE FOR OVERTIME AND WEEKEND WORK ANTICIPATED TO MEET PROJECT SCHEDULE)

The City Council may also discuss other hearings or business items before or after the items listed above. If you challenge the proposed project in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at the public hearing described in this notice, or in written correspondence delivered to the City Council at, or prior to, the public hearing.

Council Agenda Reports for this meeting will be available for review one week in advance of the meeting date on the City’s website, under the Public Meeting Agendas web page: https://www.slocity. org/government/mayor-and-city-council/ agendas-and-minutes. Please call the City Clerk’s Office at (805) 781-7114 for more information. The City Council meeting will be televised live on Charter Cable Channel 20 and live streaming on the City’s YouTube channel http://youtube.slo.city.

March 9, 2023

Staff reports, plans and other information related to this project are available for public review from the Planning Division Office, by emailing the Planning Division at planning@pismobeach.org. The meeting agenda and staff report will be available no later than the Friday before the meeting and may be obtained upon request by mail or by visiting www. pismobeach.org/agenda. The Planning Commission meeting will be televised live on Charter Cable Channel 20 and streamed on the City’s website.

PLEASE NOTE:

If you challenge the action taken on this item in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at the public hearing described in this notice, or in written correspondence delivered to the City of Pismo Beach at, or prior to, the public hearing.

For further information, please contact Lindsay Christiansen, Community Development Department Administrative Secretary, at lchristiansen@ pismobeach.org or 805-773-4756.

Lindsay Christiansen Administrative Secretary

9, 2023

SCOPE OF WORK: Asbestos and lead abatement, interior demolition of (3) existing restrooms, new concrete curbs, metal stud framing, drywall and cement board, fiberglass ceilings, wall and floor tile, wall mirrors, Corian countertops with integral bowl sinks and backsplash, toilet partitions and accessories, doors-frames-hardware. The University will be performing the following trades: Painting, Electrical.

BIDS SHALL BE EMAILED TO: tomm@mainoslo.com and sonnys@mainoslo.com

BID REQUIREMENTS:

• Subcontractors must be bondable and may be required to provide Payment and Performance Bonds.

• Bid Bond is not required.

• Safety Record is of the utmost importance. Subcontractors with aggregate EMR Rate of 1.5 over the past three years may be disqualified.

• Prevailing Wage

TO VIEW PLANS/SPEC:

Plans and specs may be downloaded from ASAP

Reprographics at www.asapplanroom.com

Plans and specs may also be viewed at the following Builders

Exchanges:

- SLO County Builders Exchange – www.slocbe.com

- Santa Maria Valley Contractors Association

– www.smvca.org

- Central California Builders Exchange – www.cencalbx.com

Maino Construction Company, Incorporated is an equal opportunity Contractor. It is the responsibility of each Subcontractor to view all pertinent information and documents prior to submitting a proposal.

March 9, 2023

1. Consent Agenda – Item Nos. 1 thru 28 Resolution (#15 pulled to later date) (Res) Nos. 2023-031 thru 2023-036, approved.

2. Public Comment Period – Items not on the agenda: M. Brown; J. Roulean, D. Stebbens (doc), C. Muir, A. Duckworth, B. McFarland, L. Quinlan; G. Kirkland, N. Shaw, P. Hotstetter, G. Grewal (doc), D. Greenaway, L. Owen & B. Price: speak. No action taken.

3. FY 2023-24 County & State Budget Update, rec’d and filed w/ direction provided to staff and separate motion to provide 1% or $14,167 of the total $1.4 million county’s allocation under the Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund (LATC) to National Association of Counties (NACo) to the newly established National Center for Public Lands Counties (The Center) to give public lands counties an enhanced opportunity to demonstrate how prosperous public lands counties create a prosperous United States. Contribution to be made to CSAC and made by April 4, 2023, approved.

4. County’s temporary events update regarding rules, regulation, and enforcement, rec’d and filed w/ direction provided to staff.

5. Closed Session – Anticipated Litigation. Significant exposure to litigation - potential cases: 3. Initiation of litigation - potential cases: 3. Conference with Legal Counsel – Pending Litigation: Existing Litigation (Formally initiated.): SLO County Citizens for Good Government, Inc., Gomez, Maruska, Villa v. County of Luis Obispo Board of Supervisors, San Luis Obispo County Superior Court, Case No. 22CVP-0007; Application Filed by PG&E in the 2021 Nuclear Cost Triennial Proceeding (U39E A.21-12-007); San Luis Obispo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District v. A. Teichert & Son, Inc., et al, Santa Clara County Superior Court, Case No. 21CV380615; People of the State of California, et al v. Sunny Acres, Inc., et al, San Luis Obispo County Superior Court, Case No. 22CV-0163; Steven Renderos, Valeria Thais Suarez Rojas, Reyna Maldonado, Lisa Knox, Mijente Support Committee, and Norcal Resist Fund, et al v. Clearview AI, et al, Alameda County Superior Court, Case No. RG21096898; and Richard Garcia-Tafolla v. County of San Luis Obispo, et al. San Luis Obispo Superior Court, Case No. 21CVP-0086, ) Jeannot Nahmias v. County of San Luis Obispo et al, San Luis Obispo County Superior Court, Civil Division, Paso Robles Branch, 21CVP-0282; and Jeannot Nahmias v. County of San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo County Superior Court, Civil Division, Paso Robles Branch, 22LCP-0119/B325340. Conference with Labor Negotiator, concerning the following employee organizations: SLOPA; SLOCEA-T&C; DCCA; SLOCPPOA; DSA; DAIA; SLOCPMPOA; SLOCEA – PSSC; Unrepresented Management and Confidential Employees; SDSA; and UDWA. Report Out. Open Session.

6. Ordinance No. 3485 amending First 5 Children & Families Commission Commissioner terms & selection process, adopted.

7. Res. 2023-037, Resolution of Necessity for the acquisition of real property interests required for the Dover Canyon Road Bridge over Jack Creek Replacement Project, Paso Robles , approved. MEETING ADJOURNED

For more details, view the meeting videos at: https://www. slocounty.ca.gov/Departments/Administrative-Office/Clerk-ofthe-Board/Clerk-of-the-Board-Services/Board-of-SupervisorsMeetings-and-Agendas.aspx

Wade Horton, Clerk of the Board of Supervisors

By: Tessa Cornejo, Deputy Clerk March 9, 2023

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

WHO: San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors

WHEN: Tuesday, April 4, 2023, at 9:00 a.m. All items are advertised for 9:00 a.m. To find out placement of this item on the Board of Supervisors Agenda, go to the County’s website at www.slocounty.ca.gov on the Wednesday before the scheduled hearing date.

WHAT: Hearing to acknowledge receipt of the California Coastal Commission’s resolution of certification and consider acceptance of the California Coastal Commission’s suggested modifications (LCP Amendment No. LCP-3-SLO-20-0059-2) for the County of San Luis Obispo’s proposed Local Coastal Program Amendment to amend the Coastal Zone Land Use Ordinance (Title 23 of the San Luis Obispo County Code) as it relates to accessory dwelling units. All Districts.

County File Number: LRP2017-00001

Supervisorial District: All Districts Assessor Parcel Number: Countywide

Date Accepted: N/A

WHERE: The hearing will be held in the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors Chambers, 1055 Monterey St., Room #D170, County Government Center, San Luis Obispo, CA. The Board of Supervisors Chambers are located on the corner of Santa Rosa and Monterey Streets. At the hearing all interested persons may express their views for or against, or to change the proposal.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: You may contact Ani Garibyan, Planner, in the San Luis Obispo County Department of Planning and Building, 976 Osos Street, Room 309, San Luis Obispo, California 93408, or by calling (805) 781-5113. The staff report will be available for review the Wednesday before the scheduled hearing date on the County’s website at www.slocounty.ca.gov.

ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION: The Board-approved amendments, along with the California Coastal Commission’s suggested modifications, are exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Public Resources Section Code 21080.17. This section states that CEQA does not apply to the adoption of an ordinance to implement the provisions of section 65852.2 of the Government Code (i.e. the State ADU law).

COASTAL APPEALABLE: County action may be eligible for appeal to the California Coastal Commission. Appeals must be filed in writing as provided by Coastal Zone Land Use Ordinance Section 23.01.043.

**If you challenge this matter in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at the public hearing described in this public notice or in written correspondence delivered to the appropriate authority at or before the public hearing**

DATED: March 2, 2023

WADE HORTON, EX-OFFICIO CLERK OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

By /s/ Niki Martin, Deputy Clerk March 9, 2023

Commission

COUNTY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO

OF PLANNING & BUILDING NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

WHO County of San Luis Obispo Planning Commission

WHEN Thursday, April 13, 2023 at 09:00 AM. All items are advertised for 09:00 AM. To verify agenda placement, please call the Department of Planning & Building at (805) 781-5600.

WHAT A request by Joshua and Katherine Morris for a Conditional Use Permit (DRC2020-00033) to allow the development of an approximately 7,200 square feet (SF) single story winery facility that will include a 4,200 SF production area/barrel storage area, a 323 SF tasting area, 213 SF kitchen, restrooms, storage rooms and a 1,200 SF second floor mezzanine area that will include an office, storage areas and 184 SF outdoor patio. The project includes a 2,586 SF subterranean cave for wine storage, a 423 SF members only tasting room, and 177 SF bottle storage area. The winery’s initial annual production is anticipated to be approximately 2,700 cases with a maximum of 5,000 cases. The project includes a request to host up to 30 winery special events annually with a maximum of 250 guests (including non-profits). The applicant is requesting to participate in wine industry-events as allowed by the Land Use Ordinance. Events to be held both indoor and outdoor. The applicant is requesting a modification to ordinance Section 22.30.070.D.i(3) to allow outdoor amplified sound beyond 5 p.m. to allow up to 8 p.m., and a modification to the ordinance Section 22.10.090.C.1 limiting the height of the winery building to 45 feet to allow up to 50 feet. The project would result in approximately 2.4 acres of site disturbance on a 32.23-acre parcel, including 9,200 SF of cut and 1,240 SF of fill. The proposed project is located with the Agriculture land use category and is located at 8790 East CA-41. The proposed project is located within the El Pomar-Estrella Subarea of the North County Planning Area. Also to be considered at the hearing will be the adoption of the Environmental Determination prepared for this item. The Environmental Coordinator, after completion of the initial study, finds that there is no substantial evidence that the project may have a significant effect on the environment, and the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report is not necessary. Therefore, a Mitigated Negative Declaration (pursuant to Public Resources Code Section 21000 et seq., and CA Code of Regulations Section 15000 et seq.) issued on March 8, 2023 for this project. Mitigation measures are proposed to address Air Quality and Biological Resources and are included as conditions of approval.

County File Number: DRC2020-00033

Supervisorial District: District 5

Assessor Parcel Number(s): 035-111-022

Date Accepted: 12/12/2020

WHERE

The hearing will be held in the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors Chambers, 1055 Monterey Street, Room #D170, County Government Center, San Luis Obispo, CA. The Board of Supervisors Chambers are located on the corner of Santa Rosa and Monterey Streets. At the meeting all interested persons may express their views for or against, or to change the proposal.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

COUNTY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO

DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING & BUILDING

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

WHO County of San Luis Obispo Subdivision Review Board

WHEN Monday, April 3, 2023 at 09:00 AM. All items are advertised for 09:00

AM. To verify agenda placement, please call the Department of Planning & Building at (805) 781-5600.

WHAT

A request by Donna Evenson for a Tentative Parcel Map (SUB202100014/ CO 20-0079) to subdivide a 24-acre parcel into four parcels, ranging in size from 5.0 acres to 8.6 acres for the sale and/or development of each proposed parcel. Building envelopes are proposed, and an open space easement is proposed across the southern portion of all four parcels. The project also includes the construction of an access road (Oak Hill Court) to the north, connecting to Oak Hill Road, for access to the project site, resulting in 1,816 cubic yards (cy) of cut and 2,925 cy of fill (4,741 total cy of earthwork) and approximately 57,215 square feet (1.31 acres) of ground disturbance.

The project includes a request for an adjustment to Title 21 (Real Property Division Ordinance) to allow more than five parcels to take access off a private easement (Oak Hill Court and Oak Hill Road). The project site is located in the Residential Suburban land use category, on the east side of Corbett Canyon Road, approximately 600 feet south of Oak Hill Road, northeast of the city of Arroyo Grande. The project is located within the San Luis Bay (Inland) Sub Area (South) of the South County (Inland) Planning Area.

Also, to be considered at the hearing will be adoption of the Mitigated Negative Declaration prepared for the item. The Environmental Coordinator, after completion of the Initial Study, finds that there is no substantial evidence that the project may have a significant effect on the environment, and the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report is not necessary. Therefore, a Mitigated Negative Declaration (pursuant to Public Resources Code Section 21000 et seq., and CA Code of Regulations Section 15000 et seq.) has been issued on January 20, 2023, for this project. Mitigation measures are proposed to address Air Quality, Biological Resources, Cultural Resources Geology and Soils, Hazards and Hazardous Materials, Hydrology and Water Quality, Land Use Planning, and Utilities and Service Systems, and are included as conditions of approval.

County File Number: SUB2021-00014

Supervisorial District: District 3

Assessor Parcel Number(s): 044-332-022

Date Accepted: 07/26/2021

WHERE

The hearing will be held in the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors Chambers, 1055 Monterey Street, Room #D170, County Government Center, San Luis Obispo, CA. The Board of Supervisors Chambers are located on the corner of Santa Rosa and Monterey Streets. At the meeting all interested persons may express their views for or against, or to change the proposal.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Free Will Astrology

by Rob Brezsny

Homework: Who or what do you belong to in ways that keep you free?

Newsletter.freewillastrology.com

ARIES

(March 21-April 19): Repressed feelings and dormant passions are rising to the surface. I bet they will soon be rattling your brain and illuminating your heart, unleashing a soothing turbulence of uncanny glee. Will you get crazy and wise enough to coax the Great Mystery into blessing you with an inspirational revelation or two? I believe you will. I hope you will! The more skillful you are at generating rowdy breakthroughs, the less likely you are to experience a breakdown. Be as unruly as you need to be to liberate the very best healings.

TAURUS

(April 20-May 20): You finally have all you need to finish an incomplete mission or resolve a mess of unsettled karma. The courage and determination you couldn’t quite summon before are now fully available as you invoke a climax that will prepare the way for your awe-inspiring rebirth. Gaze into the future, dear Taurus, and scan for radiant beacons that will be your guides in the coming months. You have more help than you know, and now is the time to identify it and move toward it.

GEMINI

LIBRA

(Sept. 23-Oct. 22): How might your life come into clearer focus when you uncover secrets that inspire your initiative and ingenuity? What happens when resources that had been inaccessible become available for your enjoyment and use? How will you respond if neglected truths spring into view and point the way toward improvements in your job situation? I suspect you will soon be able to tell me stories about all this good stuff. PS: Don’t waste time feeling doubtful about whether the magic is real. Just welcome it and make it work for you!

SCORPIO

(Oct. 23-Nov. 21): It’s not the best time to tattoo a lover’s likeness on your abdomen. Maybe in May, but not now. On the other hand, the coming weeks will be an excellent time to see if your paramour might be willing to tattoo your name on their thigh. Similarly, this is a favorable period to investigate which of your allies would wake up at 5 a.m. to drive you to the airport, and which of your acquaintances and friends would stop others from spreading malicious gossip about you, and which authorities would reward you if you spoke up with constructive critiques.

SAGITTARIUS

A copy of the staff report will be made available on the Planning Department website at www.sloplanning.org. You may also contact Holly Phipps, Project Manager, in the Department of Planning and Building at the address below or by telephone at 805-781-5600.

OBISPO DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING & BUILDING NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

COUNTY OF SAN LUIS

If you challenge this matter in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at the public hearing described in this public notice or in written correspondence delivered to the appropriate authority at or before the public hearing.

Ysabel Eighmy, Secretary Planning Commission March 9, 2023

A copy of the staff report will be made available on the Planning Department website at www.sloplanning.org. You may also contact Andy Knighton, Project Manager, in the Department of Planning and Building at the address below or by telephone at 805-781-4142.

If you challenge this matter in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at the public hearing described in this public notice or in written correspondence delivered to the appropriate authority at or before the public hearing.

Ysabel Eighmy, Secretary Subdivision Review Board

March 9, 2023

(May 21-June 20): Our sun is an average star in a galaxy of 100 billion stars. In comparison to some of its flamboyant compatriots, it’s mediocre. More than 860 light years away is a blue-white supergiant star called Rigel, which is twice as hot as our sun and 40,000 times brighter. The red supergiant Antares, more than 600 light years away, has 12 times more mass. Yet if those two showoffs had human attitudes, they might be jealous of our star, which is the source of energy for a planet teeming with 8.7 million forms of life. I propose we make the sun your role model for now, Gemini. It’s an excellent time to glory in your unique strengths and to exuberantly avoid comparing yourself to anyone else.

CANCER

(Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Redwoods are the tallest trees in the world. They may grow as high as 350 feet. Their roots are shallow, though, reaching down just 6 to 12 feet before spreading out 60 to 100 feet horizontally. And yet the trees are sturdy, rarely susceptible to being toppled by high winds and floods. What’s their secret? Their root systems are interwoven with those of other nearby redwoods. Together, they form networks of allies, supporting each other and literally sharing nutrients. I endorse this model for you to emulate in your efforts to create additional stability and security in your life, Sagittarius.

COUNTY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING & BUILDING

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

WHO County of San Luis Obispo Planning Commission

All items are advertised for 09:00 AM. To verify agenda placement, please call (805) 781-5600.

WHO County of San Luis Obispo Planning Commission

WHEN

Vesting Tentative Tract 3184 / C-SUB2021-00001 & Development Plan/Coastal

WHEN Thursday, April 13, 2023 at 09:00 AM. All items are advertised for 09:00 AM. To verify agenda placement, please call the Department of Planning & Building at (805) 781-5600.

0.28-acre site comprised of two existing lots into five residential lots ranging square feet. The project request includes the construction of three, 3-level including garages. The project includes tree removal, major site preparation/ improvements, and road improvements along the property frontage. The applicant as a Density Bonus project with concessions to address Title 23 ordinance located within the Residential Multi-Family land use category at 250 & 254 feet south of the San Miguel Street and Avila Beach Drive intersection, in the the Avila Beach Urban Reserve Line in the San Luis Bay Coastal planning exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act under the provisions of 21080(b)(5), which provides that CEQA does not apply to projects which a public

-038

WHAT A request by G&A Industries LLC for a Conditional Use Permit to establish an approximately 27,117 sq. ft. commercial cannabis operation within a previously approved two-story warehouse building (DRC2019-00164). Operations will include up to 11,128 sq. ft. of indoor cultivation canopy, up to 2,646 sq. ft. of ancillary nursery canopy, 1,662 sq. ft. of processing, 883 sq. ft. of manufacturing for onsite and offsite product, 358 sq. ft. of manufacturing storage, 410 sq. ft. of non-storefront dispensary, 187 sq. ft. of distribution, 112 sq. ft. of cannabis storage and ancillary transport (distribution – transport only). An employee break room, employee locker rooms, security office, administrative office, general storage room and employee shower room will be used to support the proposed cannabis operations. The project includes a request for a modification from the parking standards set forth in Land Use Ordinance (LUO) Section 22.18 to reduce the number of required spaces from 39 to 12. The project will not result in any site disturbance, and all activities would occur within existing on-site structures approved under DRC2019-00164. The proposed project is within the Industrial land use category and is located at 320 Marquita Avenue in the community of Templeton within the Urban Reserve Line (URL). The project site is within the Salinas River Sub Area of the North County Planning Area.

Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors Chambers, 1055 Monterey Street, Center, San Luis Obispo, CA. The Board of Supervisors Chambers are located on Streets. At the meeting all interested persons may express their views for or

The Environmental Coordinator, after completion of the initial study, finds that there is no substantial evidence that the project may have a significant effect on the environment, and the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report is not necessary. Therefore, a Mitigated Negative Declaration (pursuant to Public Resources Code Section 21000 et seq., and CA Code of Regulations Section 15000 et seq.) has been issued January 27, 2023 for this project. Mitigation measures are proposed to address Energy, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Hazards & Hazardous Materials, Noise, and Mandatory Findings of Significance and are included as conditions of approval.

available on the Planning Department website at www.sloplanning.org. You Department of Planning and Building at the address below or by telephone at may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at the public notice or in written correspondence delivered to the appropriate authority

County File Number: DRC2019-00165

Supervisorial District: District 1

Assessor Parcel Number(s): 040-153-026

Date Accepted: 08/19/2020

WHERE

Thursday, March 23, 2023 at 09:00 AM All items are advertised for 09:00 AM. To verify agenda placement, please call the Department of Planning & Building at (805) 781-5600.

WHAT

A request by John Rourke for a Vesting Tentative Tract 3184 / C-SUB2021-00001 & Development Plan/Coastal Development Permit to subdivide a 0.28-acre site comprised of two existing lots into five residential lots ranging in size from 1,573 square feet to 2,720 square feet. The project request includes the construction of three, 3-level residences of 2,050 square feet each including garages. The project includes tree removal, major site preparation/grading, retaining walls, drainage improvements, and road improvements along the property frontage. The applicant is requesting the project be reviewed as a Density Bonus project with concessions to address Title 23 ordinance compliance requirements. The site is located within the Residential Multi-Family land use category at 250 & 254 San Miguel Street, approximately 250 feet south of the San Miguel Street and Avila Beach Drive intersection, in the community of Avila Beach. The site is in the Avila Beach Urban Reserve Line in the San Luis Bay Coastal planning area.

The project is found to be statutorily exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act under the provisions of Public Resources Code section 21080(b)(5), which provides that CEQA does not apply to projects which a public agency rejects or disapproves.

County File Number: C-SUB2021-00001

Supervisorial District: District 3

Assessor Parcel Number(s): 076-205-037, -038

Date Accepted: N/A

WHERE

The hearing will be held in the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors Chambers, 1055 Monterey Street, Room #D170, County Government Center, San Luis Obispo, CA. The Board of Supervisors Chambers are located on the corner of Santa Rosa and Monterey Streets. At the meeting all interested persons may express their views for or against, or to change the proposal.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

(June 21-July 22): The philosophical principle known as Occam’s razor asserts that when trying to understand a problem or enigma, we should favor the simplest explanation with the fewest assumptions. While that’s often a useful approach, I don’t recommend it in the coming weeks. For you, nuances and subtleties will abound in every situation. Mere simplicity is unlikely to lead to a valid understanding. You will be wise to relish the complications and thrive on the paradoxes. Try to see at least three sides of every story. Further tips: 1. Mysteries may be truer than mere facts. 2. If you’re willing to honor your confusion, the full, rich story will eventually emerge.

LEO

(July 23-Aug. 22): “There are no unsacred places,” wrote Leo poet Wendell Berry. “There are only sacred places and desecrated places.” Poet Allen Ginsberg agreed. “Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy!” he wrote. “Holy the solitudes of skyscrapers and pavements! Holy the cafeteria! Holy the mysterious rivers of tears under the streets! Holy the sea, holy the desert, holy the railroad.” With Berry’s and Ginsberg’s prompts as your inspiration, and in accordance with current astrological imperatives, I invite you to invigorate your relationship with sacredness. If nothing is sacred for you, do what it takes to find and commune with sacred things, places, animals, humans, and phenomena. If you are already a lover of sacred wonders, give them extra love and care. To expand your thinking and tenderize your mood, give your adoration to these related themes: consecration, sublimity, veneration, devotion, reverence, awe, and splendor.

VIRGO

CAPRICORN

(Dec. 22-Jan. 19): What’s the best way to be fulfilled? Hard work and discipline? Are we most likely to flourish if we indulge only moderately in life’s sweet pleasures and mostly focus on the difficult tasks that build our skills and clout? Or is it more accurate to say that 90 percent of success is just showing up: being patient and persistent as we carry out the small dayto-day sacrifices and devotions that incrementally make us indispensable? Mythologist Joseph Campbell described a third variation: to “follow our bliss.” We find out what activities give us the greatest joy and install those activities at the center of our lives. As a Capricorn, you are naturally skilled at the first two approaches. In the coming months, I encourage you to increase your proficiency at the third.

AQUARIUS

(Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Mackerels are unusual fish in that they must keep swimming nonstop. If they don’t, they die. Do they ever sleep? Scientists haven’t found any evidence that they do. I bring them up now because many of you Aquarians have resemblances to mackerels—and I think it’s especially crucial that you not act like them in the coming weeks. I promise you that nothing bad will happen if you slow way down and indulge in prolonged periods of relaxing stillness. Just the opposite in fact: Your mental and physical health will thrive as you give your internal batteries time and space to recharge.

PISCES

Commission

The hearing will be held in the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors Chambers, 1055 Monterey Street, Room #D170, County Government Center, San Luis Obispo, CA. The Board of Supervisors Chambers are located on the corner of Santa Rosa and Monterey Streets. At the meeting all interested persons may express their views for or against, or to change the proposal.

action may be eligible for appeal to the California Coastal Commission. An to the Coastal Commission only after all possible local appeals have been Land Use Ordinance Section 23.01.043(b). Local appeals must be filed using as provided by Coastal Zone Land Use Ordinance Section 23.01.042(a)(1).

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

A copy of the staff report will be made available on the Planning Department website at www.sloplanning.org. You may also contact Eric Tolle, Project Manager, in the Department of Planning and Building at the address below or by telephone at 805-781-5600. If you challenge this matter in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at the public hearing described in this public notice or in written correspondence delivered to the appropriate authority at or before the public hearing.

Ysabel Eighmy, Secretary Planning Commission

March 9, 2023

A copy of the staff report will be made available on the Planning Department website at www.sloplanning.org You may also contact Terry Wahler, Project Manager, in the Department of Planning and Building at the address below or by telephone at 805-781-5621.

If you challenge this matter in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at the public hearing described in this public notice or in written correspondence delivered to the appropriate authority at or before the public hearing.

COASTAL APPEALABLE

If the County approves this project, that action may be eligible for appeal to the California Coastal Commission. An applicant or aggrieved party may appeal to the Coastal Commission only after all possible local appeals have been exhausted pursuant to Coastal Zone Land Use Ordinance Section 23.01.043(b). Local appeals must be filed using the required Planning Department form as provided by Coastal Zone Land Use Ordinance Section 23.01.042(a)(1).

Ysabel Eighmy, Secretary Planning Commission March 9, 2023

(Aug. 23-Sept. 22): My favorite Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, wrote the following: “In us, there is a river of feelings, in which every drop of water is a different feeling, and each feeling relies on all the others for its existence. To observe it, we just sit on the bank of the river and identify each feeling as it surfaces, flows by, and disappears.” I bring this meditation to your attention, Virgo, because I hope you will do it daily during the next two weeks. Now is an excellent time to cultivate an intense awareness of your feelings— to exult in their rich meanings, to value their spiritual power, to feel gratitude for educating and entertaining you.

(Feb. 19-March 20): A financial advisor once told me I could adopt one of three approaches to running my business: 1. Ignore change; 2. always struggle with change, half-immobilized by mixed feelings about whether to change or stay put; 3. learn to love and thrive on change. The advisor said that if I chose either of the first two options, I would always be forced to change by circumstances beyond my control. The third approach is ultimately the only one that works. Now is an excellent time for you Pisceans to commit yourself fully to No. 3—for both your business and your life. ∆