Uphill
Editor’s note
Twenty-three years ago, Jim Suty sat in on a California Coastal Commission meeting and came away passionate about fighting to protect recreational access to the Oceano Dunes. He said no one was advocating through the legal system to keep the state vehicular recreation area open, so he formed Friends of Oceano Dunes. The nonprofit currently has 11 active lawsuits against various organizations, and over the past two decades, it’s filed dozens of suits against the likes of the Coastal Commission, the Air Pollution Control District, the Board of Supervisors, and Grover Beach. For this week’s cover story, Staff Writer Samantha Herrera speaks with Suty about fighting for the right to recreate [8] Also this week, read about the results of the 2024 homelessness Point-In-Time Count [4] , who’s responsible for road maintenance in Atascadero [9] , the Central Coast Artists Collective’s mission of inclusivity [24] , and the Edna Valley olive oil company with purpose [31].
PIT Count reveals reduction in SLO County’s homeless population
San Luis Obispo County’s homeless population is reportedly decreasing, according to data from the preliminary Point-in-Time (PIT) Count.
Released on May 6, early numbers showed that volunteers counted 1,171 homeless people on the night of Jan. 23—roughly 23 percent and 26 percent lower than the unhoused individuals accounted for in the 2022 and 2019 PIT Counts, respectively. The drop mirrored the downward trend established in the previous 2022 PIT Count.
“A complete analysis of homelessness in any community won’t come from one initiative alone, but the information learned from the PIT Count demonstrates a promising trend,”
Homeless Management Information System Program Manager Kari Howell told New Times on May 8. “We are glad to see the county’s effort and the hard work of service providers reflected in the data as the county continues to expand service provision, community partnerships, and, importantly, pathways to housing.”
SLO County conducted the 2024 PIT Count until Jan. 31, with the help of 250 volunteers deployed from logistic centers in San Miguel, Paso Robles, Atascadero, Morro Bay, SLO, Arroyo Grande, and Nipomo. The wide pool of volunteers reflected the county’s switch to a different methodology of data collection.
Until 2024, the county tabulated PIT Counts once every two years using the sample survey method where volunteers only surveyed a subset of the homeless community. That subset then represented the entire homeless population under study. Now, the county uses the more comprehensive full census method, which aims to survey as many people as possible.
The full census method demanded more resources. The county made a marked jump from appointing just 40 volunteers in 2022 to 250 volunteers this year.
Thurmond Consulting also recommended the full census method to reestablish a baseline for future reporting and analysis, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic affected the 2022 PIT Count. Making the switch resulted in an increase of the number of homeless people surveyed from 29 percent in 2022 to 64 percent in 2024.
The average majority of surveyed homeless people were white men who had lived in SLO County for at least a year. Forty-two percent of those surveyed experienced unsheltered homelessness for five years or more, and 97 percent of counted people belonged
unhoused individuals in 2024. The county has used the full census method since 2019.
“The county of Santa Barbara uses mapping software to assist outreach teams in identifying encampments throughout the region and partnered with New Beginnings Safe Parking Program to ensure a thorough vehicle count,” Homeless Assistance Program Manager Kimberlee Albers told New Times. “The robust nature of this method and data allowed teams to more accurately count and interview those living unsheltered in previously hard-to-reach locations and vehicles.”
to an “adults only (no children) household.”
“To conduct a complete census with total geographic coverage, the county needed to expand on-site and training resources as well as significantly increase community participation,” Howell said. “All volunteers completed required training, available in-person and virtually, in advance of the PIT Count and utilized an app on their phones (or paper surveys) to interview and count people experiencing homelessness.”
She added the full census method is the preferred methodology from the U.S. Deptartment of Housing and Urban Development because it ensures more reliability in the gathered data. County consultant
New legislation would help undocumented college students apply for on-campus employment
Undocumented college students across all California university campuses could be given the opportunity to apply for on-campus jobs through a new piece of legislation.
Assembly Bill 2586—the Opportunity for All Act—aims to provide equal access to campus employment opportunities for all students regardless of their immigration status, according
The data presented an eye-opener for Howell too.
“During the aggregate data and de-duplication phase, there were more than 150 duplicate surveys and observations for the PIT Count, meaning volunteers began to cross into each other’s assigned areas to truly survey the region,” she said. “This surprised me as it reinforced the expansive geographic coverage and enthusiastic hard work of the volunteers on Jan. 23.”
In contrast, neighboring Santa Barbara County saw a 12 percent increase in the number of homeless people tallied for its annual PIT Count. The count rose from 1,887 homeless people in 2022 to 2,119
to Assemblymember David Alvarez (D-San Diego), who introduced the bill.
“This has been a student-led movement, an undocumented student network who’s been advocating for this for some time,” Alvarez told New Times. “I just happen to now be in a position where I can help them with their efforts through the Legislature.”
Alvarez said it was important for him to introduce this bill because the federal government has lacked action on immigration reform and a generation of young people who came to this
Santa Barbara County attributed the increase to the lack of affordable housing; stagnation of wages versus rent costs; and the end of the pandemicinspired eviction moratoriums, emergency housing vouchers, and rental assistance programs.
For SLO County, the PIT Count and a balanced review of data within the newly updated Homeless Management Information System help present an overall picture of the state of homeless. Now, county officials are preparing to release the more in-depth community report of the PIT Count in late spring once the Department of Housing and Urban Development verifies the data.
—Bulbul Rajagopalcountry undocumented as infants is now college age and unable to enter the workforce.
“These are individuals who are working hard doing what we expect of all young people—which is to focus on their studies and be successful to earn a degree for a career—and because of the failure of the federal government to act on immigration laws, individuals themselves are unable to use those skills to be employed,” he said. “We have a lot of Californians in the thousands who already came to this country, and those individuals have now gone
through our schools, and they’ve decided to go to college and make the sacrifice and they’ve earned their degree. We are looking for a way to allow them to enter the workforce in the legal way.”
Cal Poly’s World Languages and Cultures Department Chair Karen Muñoz-Christian told New Times that this is much-needed legislation that will offer important access to employment for deserving students who have been excluded from those opportunities.
“The financial benefits to such students are significant and will support their pursuit of higher education,” she said. “These students and their campuses will be enriched by their valuable contributions as student assistants, researchers, tutors, and student leaders.”
Alvarez said the bill has currently gone through the Higher Education Committee of the Legislature, and it’s now at the Assembly Appropriations Committee, whose members will vote on it by mid-May.
If the bill makes it out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, it will then go to the Senate and then to Gov. Gavin Newsom in September to either be signed or vetoed.
“I definitely want to acknowledge the students at the many campuses and universities who have really been fighting for this, and we’re hopeful that all of their efforts can be successful through this legislation,” Alvarez said.
—Samantha HerreraRecall effort against Bruce Gibson fails with insufficient signatures
The second round of efforts to recall 2nd District Supervisor Bruce Gibson came to a screeching halt on May 2 after its proponents failed to gather enough signatures supporting their cause.
“The requirements for recalling an elected official were changed after the Newsom recall, which put the requirement of signatures needed at 20 percent, unlike previous recalls that only required 10 percent,” said a press release from the Committee to Support the Recall of Supervisor Bruce Gibson. “We were unable to get the required 20 percent of the signatures from Old District 2 (where he was elected).”
“Old District 2” refers to the district as outlined in the previously adopted Patten map, which groups like the SLO County Citizens for Good Government and League of Women Voters of SLO County alleged gerrymandered the county’s five districts to favor Republicans and disenfranchised
voters. The Patten map’s 2nd District comprised Atascadero, San Miguel, Lake Nacimiento, San Simeon, Cambria, Cayucos, and the rural parts of western Templeton and Paso Robles.
In 2022, Gibson won the supervisor race in that district against Republican Bruce Jones by a margin of 13 votes. Since then, the SLO County Board of Supervisors repealed the Patten map and adopted new redistricting boundaries last April. Gibson also fielded a manual recount request of the 2nd District supervisor race, which showed an unchanged result from the County Clerk-Recorder’s Office.
The recall committee claimed Gibson’s advocacy of reducing the voter threshold for special taxes would result in a repeal of Proposition 13, prompting the need for him to be recalled. Gibson told New Times in a prior report that he supports Proposition 13.
The recall committee needed at least 7,375 signatures from registered voters belonging to the Patten map’s 2nd District who made up 20 percent of the constituency.
County Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano disputed the committee’s statement about the alleged reduction in the signature requirement from 20 percent of registered voters to 10 percent of the constituency reportedly going into place after the failed recall against Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“No, the signature threshold for recalling a local office has been the same since Jan. 1, 2003,” she told New Times on May 8.
According to state legislation, a ballotqualifying recall must contain signatures from 20 percent of registered voters in an electoral jurisdiction if the voter registration in the area is at least 10,000 but below 50,000. A recall petition only needs signatures from 10 percent of voters in an electoral jurisdiction if registration stands at 100,000 or more.
Cano confirmed that the recall committee didn’t contact her office about the failed petition, and that it didn’t need to since it didn’t collect enough signatures.
“Since the redistricting map had been changed, there were literally hundreds, if not thousands of people we had to turn away who could not sign,” the recall committee’s press release said. “This shows it’s not only District 2 citizens who are extremely unhappy with his progressive ideology and actions, so are people throughout the county.”
The press release added that the recall committee organized an online survey about signature participation. According to the committee, 43 percent of people said they would sign the recall petition; 55 percent
answered, “I wish I could”; and less than 1 percent said they wouldn’t sign.
The ultimate number of signatures gathered by the recall committee remains unclear. Committee representatives didn’t respond to New Times’ requests for comment.
Gibson told New Times that he expected the recall efforts to fail, calling the fizzled attempt “one less distraction” from his work as supervisor.
“I also had faith that the voters of San Luis Obispo County would see this as an abuse of the recall process,” he said. “I would be surprised if [the recall committee] got even half of the signatures.”
—Bulbul RajagopalOceano applies for grant to build elementary school track for community recreational opportunities
A new form of recreation could be on the horizon for community members in Oceano after the Community Services District’s Parks and Recreation Committee applied for a grant to help build a local track.
During an April 24 Community Services District board meeting, President Charles Varni announced that the committee is seeking a $50,000 grant from the Community Development Block Grant Program to build a walking track at Oceano Elementary School that would be open to the public after school hours.
“When people don’t have the infrastructure to safely walk, they’re less likely to do so, and it’s hard to find continuous sidewalks where you could get like 45 minutes walking comfortably,” Varni told New Times. “To have a 12-foot-wide track that you don’t have to worry about stepping in a pothole, you can walk and talk, then you also have access to the playground for your kids to be playing— it’s a nice setup.”
The Community Development Block Grant Program partners with rural cities and counties to create community and economic development opportunites for low- and moderate-income residents, according to the program’s website.
Varni said the Parks and Recreation Committee is expecting to hear if they have been awarded the grant in July.
“The nice thing about this grant is that it’s funded with tobacco tax money and it’s a
preventative health grant. So when you think about our community, we do have some issues with obesity among kids and adults,” he said. “All the research shows that getting into a more regular routine of exercise is very effective at reducing those risks or preventing them, and walking is the cheapest, easiest thing to do.”
However, receiving the grant is only the first part of this proposed project.
Community Services District board member Shirley Gibson announced that she found out that the Lucia Mar School District won’t have any written agreement or contract until it has donations in hand.
“That kind of makes me uncomfortable that we have to collect $200,000—it just seems a little unusual,” Gibson said. “The school board is aware of the track, but they do absolutely nothing until they have the money.”
Varni said if awarded the grant, the next step would be to collect community donations to hopefully match the $50,000 and begin drafting construction plans.
“I’m hoping that within a month we can get that $50,000,” he said. “I’m going to lead off with a $5,000 donation to the campaign, and I’m looking for other people to join me. Once we reach the goal of 10 champions, and another $50,000 we’ll be looking for other champions to come in and other agencies and organizations and communitybased organizations and faith communities. The goal is to have $150,000 by the end of the year.”
Varni said this would be a project that will ensure healthy habits for decades in the community.
“I think it’s a legacy project for the community that will serve everybody no matter what your social class is or your ethnicity,” he said. “Until we have a complete system of sidewalks—curbs, gutters, and sidewalks— this will be a wonderful asset, and the kids are stoked about the idea.”
—Samantha Herrera
Correction
In the May 2 news brief “Grover H20 sues city over handling of water rates petition,” the organization’s spokesperson and former Grover Beach Mayor Debbie Peterson was misquoted. The quote included an incorrect election date. The quote should read, “Rushing is the only one that remains [named in the lawsuit], and the option is to put him on the November 2024 ballot or in a special election.” she said. New Times regrets the error. ∆
CATEGORIES:
Winning Images LAST WEEK TO ENTER!
THE RULES
Entry divisions are either ADULT or YOUTH (photographers who are under 18) ADULT
• Categories are: Animals , Flora Land/Seascapes People , Travel , Open and In Motion which can include any interpretation of action or motion.
• All images must be submitted digitally via our online entry form. The link below will take you to the entry form and invite you to open a free account. You’ll need an account to enter images.
• A completed online entry form MUST be submitted for EACH photo entered.
• Entrants are asked to submit a high-quality digital file of their image (jpeg format, at least 300 dpi) on the submission form.
• Photos submitted in previous years are ineligible.
• All photos must be the original, creative work of the submitting photographer.
• All photographs must be taken within the boundaries of San Luis Obispo or Santa Barbara counties – except submissions to the Travel and Open categories – for which photos may be taken anywhere.
• Entries are $10 per photo.
• You may also mail a check (made payable to New Times) to: Winning Images, c/o New Times, 1010 Marsh St., San Luis Obispo, CA 93401. Be sure to include your name, address, email, and a brief description of the photo(s) entered online. Photos and fees must be received by 5 P.M. ON MONDAY, MAY 13, 2024, to be considered o icially entered.
• Entry in the contest constitutes permission to use the photo in the paper, online, and for display.
• Judges have the right to reassign categories for mislabeled or misfiled photos at their discretion.
YOUTH
(PHOTOGRAPHERS WHO ARE UNDER 18 YEARS OLD)
• This is an OPEN category. Photographs can be of any subject of the entrant’s choosing, but must have been taken within the boundaries of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.
• Entrants must be younger than 18 years old as of June 15, 2024, and must be enrolled in any school (including a home school) that’s not a college. A winner’s legal guardian will be required to sign a release form.
• All other rules from the adult categories apply.
Winning photos will be published in the Thursday, June 20, 2024, issues of New Times and the Sun
‘Regain lost lands’
Friends of Oceano Dunes has 11 active lawsuits against various organizations, all in the name of protecting recreation at the dunes
Over the past 23 years, Friends of Oceano Dunes has filed dozens of lawsuits against various agencies and local governments to continue its mission of protecting camping, recreation, and beach driving.
The group currently has 11 active lawsuits against organizations such as the California Coastal Commission, the San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District, the SLO County Board of Supervisors, and local cities including Grover Beach. Friends of Oceano Dunes President and Founder Jim Suty told New Times that these continued lawsuits are important to maximize public access.
“Some [lawsuits] rely on others to be finished before the other ones can be moved. Right now, we had a huge victory against the Coastal Commission and now they’ve appealed that decision,” he said. “So now, we are working through that appeal, then our cross-appeal because even though we had a victory, the judge went against us in a couple of things that we argued.”
On July 19, 2021, Friends of Oceano Dunes brought three lawsuits against the California Coastal Commission’s March 2021 decision to phase out off-roading permanently in the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area.
The court determined that the Coastal Commission acted beyond its powers by deciding to permanently stop off-roading in all parts of the Oceano Dunes state park without considering the changes required to the current local coastal program.
That local coastal program is a documented planning tool that helped outline development in coastal zones. The Coastal Commission reviews all coastal programs after either city councils or the local county board of supervisors adopts them. The court said that under the Coastal Act, only the local government can amend its coastal program, according to previous New Times reporting.
“We always believed we had a winning case; we never really doubted it. What we doubted was whether the judge in the legal system would see it correctly. What was neat about this judge is they saw the facts for what it was,” Suty said.
“Our other very large lawsuit is what’s known as a ‘quiet title implied dedication lawsuit,’ and that’s scheduled to be heard Nov. 4.”
Suty explained that since the California Coastal Commission has used implied dedication multiple times for its own benefit, Friends of the Oceano Dunes can do the same thing to restore the use of recreation on the dunes.
Implied dedication is established when the public has used private land for a period of more than five years with full knowledge of the owner, without asking or receiving permission to do so, and without objection being made by anyone, according to the California Land Title Association.
Suty said all of the nonprofit’s lawsuits have a common denominator: They target organizations breaking the 1975 General Development Plan.
That plan provides direction and guidance for park purposes, broad land use planning uses, and program-based goals and guidelines. This general plan predates the California Coastal Act, according to California State Parks.
“There was an agreement made many years ago that certain areas would be closed off and certain areas would be left open for camping and off-roading recreation,” Suty said. “This was supported by environmentalists and conservationists and off-roaders, but then other groups of environmentalists and conservationists have gone against that and they continue to close more.
“So, if they’re not going to honor the agreement, then Friends of Oceano Dunes will work to regain lost lands to make sure that our sport and recreation can continue in the future.”
Suty, who lives in San Jose, said things hit a breaking point for him after he attended a February 2001 California Coastal Commission meeting with his dad and saw that commissioners were attempting to change recreation hours at the dunes.
“They don’t have the power or the authority to close the park, and when we were driving home, my father and I had discussed what we can do because there’s nobody leading the fight, nobody was doing anything,” he said. “I reached out to some people to tell them I’m willing to step up and fight the fight. So, Friends of Oceano Dunes was basically born out of that meeting.”
Classified as a 501(c)(3) California notfor-profit public benefit corporation, the group has 28,000 members, according to its lawsuit against the San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District, California
Department of Parks and Recreation, and the California Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Commission.
Although Suty said he couldn’t tell New Times how much money Friends of Oceano Dunes pours into lawsuits, he added that every dime received goes into regaining access to the dunes.
“Our driving force is raising the money to continue to pay for the lawyers and specialists to fight the fight. We don’t live and die by our membership,” he said. “One very unique thing about Friends of Oceano Dunes is we pay no salaries, so truly 100 percent of the money raised goes to the fight.”
The organization also works to promote the economic revenue that the dunes bring to SLO County.
According to a study by marketing organization Visit SLO CAL and tourism and economic development advisor Resonance, spending by visitors from outside SLO County to the dunes generated a total economic impact of $511.2 million in 2019, according to previous New Times reporting.
“What people fail to recognize is the closure of this park would have a drastic impact on employment, the economic engine of the area,” Suty said. “We have supporters worldwide—I mean people who have been here from Germany that want us to keep it open in case they come back. People from Canada, Mexico, all over the United States, people love the beach.”
Suty said he would like to see the hostile environment around the dunes end so that everyone can pursue what’s best for the community.
“Let’s all work to find solutions to the problems. If you’re a boater at Lopez Lake or a fisherman off the pier, then let’s work together as a populace to try and make sure we have the right behaviors installed,” he said. “But we’ve been excluded from the discussions, so our only recourse has been these lawsuits.” ∆
Reach Staff Writer Samantha Herrera at sherrera@newtimesslo.com.
Power over potholes
Atascadero residents are responsible for 30 miles of rural roads, and the city is considering extending a tax measure to continue helping with funds
When Atascadero Public Works
Director Nick DeBar moved to town, he was surprised by the way the city’s road system worked.
While the city maintains about 145 miles of the roughly 190 miles of roadway in town and Caltrans takes care of the highway miles, residents are responsible for about 30 miles of roads.
“It was a little strange, even for me,” said DeBar, who’s also the city engineer. “Predominately … they’re old roads.”
Many are inherited, built by E.G. Lewis or following the plans he laid out for the city in the early 1900s. They’re also roads that SLO County didn’t “accept” into its road maintenance system when they were constructed. So when Atascadero incorporated in 1979, it kept the status quo— agreeing to maintain the roads the county had already accepted into its system, but not the rest.
“There could be a whole host of reasons why the county didn’t accept the roads into the county system,” DeBar said. “It wasn’t wide enough, or it was too steep.”
Or the shoulder wasn’t built to county standards or it was paved without the proper pavement. Generally speaking, the unmaintained roads are considered to be local roads, which are only used by the residents who live there, such as on the west side of town. A lot of the roads there, he added, were possibly cost-prohibitive to build to county standards at the time the area was developed.
Some of those roads aren’t even paved, he added.
“They’re dirt roads or DG [decomposed granite] or gravel roads, and you know, it seemed like once upon a time, a lot of the neighbors would … have a tractor and they would go out and grade the road after each winter,” DeBar said. “I think that some of that has been lost as … new owners buy homes. A lot of the old-timers that used to do that aren’t around anymore.”
New people who move to Atascadero from places like the Bay Area or even the East Coast are often surprised by the issues they run into.
“Common complaints are potholes, drainage issues—primarily that, some vegetation issues,” he said. “Primarily just condition of pavement, condition of rideability.”
Many residents air their complaints directly to the city or on the Everything Atascadero Facebook page. New Times reached out to several residents who had posted road complaints but didn’t hear back before press time.
One resident who moved to town in March 2024 said he was having an issue with Waste Management trucks tearing up a paved non-city-maintained road.
“I now have a 4-foot-wide, 1-foot-deep pothole in the middle of the road near my driveway,” the resident posted on Facebook. “Has anyone else had issues like this?”
Several residents chimed in, calling out the condition of some of the roads in town. One
respondent said that he lived on a road by Atascadero Lake Park with the same issues: “The city says it’s the property owners that are supposed to do the upkeep on the road.”
DeBar said the city does offer free cold-mix asphalt to residents who live on non-maintained roads with pothole problems and encouraged residents with road issues to reach out to Public Works’ maintenance line at (805) 470-3148. He added the city’s street maintenance website includes a map showing the unmaintained roads in town.
While the city used to have a local road repair program in partnership with Santa Lucia Bank—where it would help secure loans for people who lived on unmaintained local roads and came together as a neighborhood to work with a contractor to fix their roads—that program ended with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 and Santa Lucia Bank no longer exists. Atascadero is actively working to bring that program back, DeBar said.
spent more than $17 million on city-maintained roads over the last 10 years and is seeking to extend the measure F-14 sales tax earmarked for maintenance of neighborhood roads, including Dolores Avenue (pictured), which sunsets in 2027.
Neighborhoods have rallied together to repair three or four roads in recent memory, DeBar said. They worked with the city to get zero-cost encroachment permits for improvements in the city’s right of way.
“We have a zero permit fee for them to do that. It’s a subsidized service because we don’t want to make it harder for people to do that,” DeBar said.
City Councilmember Susan Funk brought up the issue during a general plan update discussion in March where higher density zoning was proposed for areas of town with unmaintained roads.
She wondered if there was a way to make it easier for property owners looking to develop in those areas to get their roads up to code and eventually get accepted into the city’s road maintenance plans. DeBar said it would be hard to require a developer to upgrade an entire road, especially the segments of it that don’t directly interact with the property.
He told New Times that there are two things that need to happen for roads to be fully accepted by a city or county: First, the developer has to offer the road to the municipality and the municipality has to accept it. The second thing that needs to happen is the municipality also has to accept the road improvements into its roads system.
“If that second piece doesn’t occur … that does not obligate the city to maintain the roads. So that falls back on the developer or the residents on that road,” he said.
In Atascadero’s case, with the non-private, non-city-maintained roads, it has accepted the public right of way—which provides access for the public and for utilities to run electrical, gas, internet, and water—but not the road improvements.
“The purpose of a right of way is to provide kind of a conduit to provide services to the
individual parcels,” DeBar said. “Even with new roads that are built with new development, we still will accept the offer of public right of way … but we still do not accept the road improvements into the city system, even though they’re built to city standards.”
That refusal of the road improvements is about the financial obligation that the city takes on, more than anything, he said. And the city wants to be able to maintain the roads that it’s already obligated to take care of.
To help with the issue, city residents passed Measure F-14 in 2014. The halfcent sales tax is earmarked specifically for maintenance and upgrades on neighborhood roads that the city is responsible for and has helped resurface at least 52 miles of road.
“The F-14 money has been spent entirely on those local roads and the collector roads that would have never been touched,” he said. “Because of the limited funding that we had at the time, … we had to spend on El Camino or Santa Rosa.”
Collector roads are streets that take residents from the main drags (aka arterial roads) into the neighborhoods. Before 2014, the city had enough money to maintain those arterial roads, but not much else.
Atascadero has spent more than $17 million on city-maintained local and collector roads in the last 10 years; however, F-14 sunsets in 2027. Atascadero is discussing putting a replacement measure on this November’s ballot that would maintain the half-cent tax for local roads starting in 2027.
“It’s been a game-changer for us,” DeBar said. “There’s been a lot of paving going on out there.” ∆
Reach Editor Camillia Lanham at clanham@newtimesslo.com.
Welding education
Nipomo High School recently became one of 34 schools from 29 states to join the High School Welding Education Initiative for the first time, a program offered through welding equipment supplier Airgas.
“Nipomo High School was selected to participate … as the teachers and the school board had an established commitment to advancing welding education; their community has a high unmet financial need; and there was high potential for Airgas associates in the area to collaborate with the program,” Airgas representative Brian Jones said on May 3.
Airgas associates provide the participating schools with professional development training, continuing education opportunities for welding teachers, and donations of welding equipment and personal protective equipment.
The welding education initiative has helped 117 schools since 2018, comprising 8,100 students and 560 instructors, according to Airgas. Roughly 1,000 students secured jobs immediately after graduating from a school program supported by its donations.
Nipomo High’s inclusion is part of the Airgas initiative’s expansion to 65 schools for the 2024 academic year—34 new and 31 returning schools—which underscores the American Welding Society’s forecast that 360,000 new welding professionals are projected to be needed by 2027.
“The faculty and students can determine what type of equipment and resources are most needed for their program and will be able to customize their donation selection from Airgas,” said Jones, Airgas director of risk management and corporate responsibility.
“Teachers at Nipomo High School connect with local Airgas branch team members and welding process specialists to ensure their coursework will help prepare students for welding careers, to learn more about new products and technology advancements, and to discuss career opportunities for students,” he said.
One of these teachers is Nipomo High welding instructor Clayton Carlson. While the Airgas donation will allow the school to buy safety equipment and consumables like grinding wheels and electrodes for welding students, he said, the priority is to obtain a new and larger plasma cutter.
“We already have one plasma cutter but it’s a little
dated and the new one that we will get will have some industry standards like an all-selfcontained cutting tip,” Carlson said on May 6.
Carlson heads the agriculture mechanics program at Nipomo High that’s split across three classes. They teach the basics of woodworking, plumbing, and welding. Two of the three courses are dual-enrolled with Cuesta College—meaning students get college credits for completing them—while the third one is pending approval.
“They’ll be able to jump in on more advanced spots for getting welding certificates at Cuesta, to be certified to go out and weld skyscrapers and do structural work,” Carlson said. “It puts them on a little bit of a fast track.”
Carlson’s student and Nipomo High senior Anthony Zelis said he loved the agriculture maintenance course under the agriculture mechanics program so much that he repeated it. He’s worked as a farmhand for the past three years where he’s applied his welding skills.
Zelis is on track to start as a part-time agriculture business student at Allan Hancock College. Though the soon-to-be graduate won’t experience the incoming donations from Airgas, Zelis acknowledged the impact of the company on Nipomo High’s program.
“In welding, we use gas all the time, and Airgas actually helps provide us with gas, so we’re able to actually run our shop because of them,” he said. “They’re vital in our program. The amount we spend on consumable items and materials is pretty high. Them being able to help us out is very beneficial.”
Fast fact
• KCBX Central Coast Public Radio will host a parking lot music sale on May 11 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Attendees can choose from thousands of music titles in vinyl and CD format for as little as a dollar. The sale will also include stereo equipment, books, and collectibles curated by Morning Cup radio show host Neal Losey from his private collection. The parking lot sale is a fundraising event to support KCBX and KCPR. It will take place at 4100 Vachell Lane in San Luis Obispo. Email members@kcbx. org or call 800-549-8855 for more information. ∆
Reach Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal at brajagopal@ newtimesslo.com.
‘Partisan hackery’
Residents should be mindful of how they present their case to the public and who presents it
Citizen initiatives and referendums play an invaluable role in our democracy in California. While community grassroots efforts certainly are not immune from critique, there should be an attempt made to understand.
As a Morro Bay resident, I proudly support ballot measure A-24: a citizen-led initiative that actually gives more local control by empowering residents to vote on significant amendments to land use designation. A-24 aims to preserve the general plan, which was approved by the city of Morro Bay and certified by the California Coastal Commission just two years ago.
Vistra Energy’s controversial battery energy storage system simply does not meet criteria the city initiated, vetted, voted in support of, and certified within their sevenyear process. The intent behind this initiative is plainly and calmly stated. Their case to the community is factually based.
EV mandate will cause more problems than it solves
According to the state Air Resources Control Board, California is mandating by executive fiat the electrification of all new vehicles purchased in California by 2035. Not mentioned is the cost of the mandate or who will pay for it.
The first issue is fire safety. According to Business Insider, “Car fires have always been dangerous and difficult for firefighters, but highly combustible chemicals in electric car batteries are posing new challenges. One major difference is the possibility of what’s referred to as a ‘thermal runaway,’ in which an EV [electric vehicle] battery falls into a cycle of overheating and over-pressurizing,
In Grover Beach, residents are justifiably concerned about their City Council voting to double the water and sewer rates for a project that’s now dead—all in the name of so-called “water resiliency.” Grover H2O, the citizen-led grassroots effort leading the charge against these rate hikes, expressed deep concern about residents on fixed incomes subsidizing future growth outside of their community. Grover H2O certainly has the right to exercise legal remedies to repeal the hikes that are kept in place and to ensure the City Council properly resets the conversation on their water rate structure.
That said, residents should be mindful of how they present their case to the public and who presents it.
Former Grover Beach Mayor and Grover H2O founder Debbie Peterson has a long and storied history of making false, misleading, and outlandish allegations to justify her rapidly dwindling relevance as a performative and punitive “activist.”
causing fires and sometimes explosions.”
Even minor fender-bender accidents can cause a short-circuit, causing a fire. Fires in EVs are difficult to extinguish using conventional methods and, unlike fires in fossil fuel-powered vehicles, create large amounts of contaminated water and hazardous waste from the carcass of the burned-out vehicle.
Who pays for this? The owner of the car must pay to replace his vehicle and/or anything else that’s damaged (like their house) in the fire. Taxpayers pay to extinguish the fire. But who pays for waste cleanup and disposal?
And what about the distribution system upgrades that will be required to support increased power loads? One local power utility manager told me that if every single-
Right before flamboyantly quitting the Grover Beach City Council in 2019, Peterson alleged—without any evidence—her nowformer colleagues and staff were “corrupt” and involved in a “pay-to-play” scheme for awarding commercial cannabis business licenses. But because she disagrees with the current City Council majority for voting to raise water and sewer rates, Peterson has once again declared them “corrupt”; that Grover H2O would only be supporting “incorrputable” candidates.
Peterson uses this incendiary language, which implies criminal conduct, to push for a recall of elected officials who voted to raise rates. Once again, no evidence of corruption. Presenting this as a matter of “corruption” only undermines concerns the community has about their local government and devalues any legitimate inquiry about actual corruption.
Full disclosure: In her 2022 book, Peterson falsely claimed I was in cahoots with former District 3 Supervisor Adam Hill to denigrate his perceived political opponents, despite the state Second District Court of Appeals ruling in 2021 that there was no evidence of Hill coordinating with anyone.
Shortly after her book was published, I
family house on any city block were to have an EV charging station in their home, the utility would have to double the number of transformers serving the block and rewire the distribution system to handle the load.
These improvements will cost millions of dollars.
One fleet car rental company recently sold all its EVs at a loss because no one would rent them, primarily because of the limited travel distance between recharges and the difficulty finding recharging stations and the two-tosix-hour wait while they recharged.
These are just some of the issues to consider when you place your vote; Gov. Gavin Newsom issued this mandate by executive order. There was no public debate, voters weren’t allowed
presented her with the relevant portion of the case ruling, which she ignored. After I submitted evidence that contradicted her spurious claims, Peterson retaliated by personally attacking me in a pair of childish, negative reviews on amazon.com—as former city leaders and elected officials are known to do.
This leads me to my next point. Shredder wondered aloud why “everyone” was writing a book about SLO County’s “shitty smalltown shenanigans” [“Sue everyone,” May 2]. There are people and certain online tabloids in SLO County that engaged in extraordinary misconduct as a means to putting a spotlight on what they perceive as “corruption.” Their flawed processes have led to actual corruption being left uncovered and community issues being whitewashed by their sensationalism clickbait and bombast. If only this was about small-town shenanigans. Don’t let partisan hackery hijack the conversation we should be having about the local issues. Support grassroots organizations that prioritize conversations over carnivals. ∆
Aaron Ochs writes to New Times from Morro Bay. Send a response for publication to letters@newtimesslo.com.
to choose the mandatory change to EVs, and the state Assembly didn’t debate the positive or negative aspects of the change.
Newsom is termed out, but someone will step up and ask for your vote. The first thing voters should ask a new candidate for governor is about the EV mandate: Who will pay for it?
One good way to kill an economy and place an untenable economic burden on the average family is to require this change. Whether you’re rich or poor, an environmental activist, or just don’t care, when electrical fees and taxes are increased to pay for system upgrades, you and I will be paying for this.
Guilt and grievance
It is no secret that we live in a polarized, increasingly “tribalized” society. And most of us realize that our history has not always been admirable. Does it help us to obsessively dwell upon the shameful parts of our remote history, especially when it is then used to assign blame to some of today’s people? And if we insist upon affixing blame on someone, on whom?
The column in the April 18 edition of New Times by John Ashbaugh (“Hero to whom?”) examined the story of John Frémont, an American who explored much of California and who has numerous sites here bearing his name. Ashbaugh relates how troops under Frémont massacred a large number of Wintu and Klamath Indians, offering this account to somehow rebut charges that some of our schools are currently engaging in indoctrination, and arguing that the schools are actually “sanitizing” American history. Mr. Ashbaugh is a retired teacher of California history, and is unquestionably far more informed on California history than myself. But the facts are not the issue here. Instead, the question is what do we make of them today? Should we assign guilt for the past to today’s people, and if so, to which people?
Accounts of past wrongs perpetrated by members of one group against another are unavoidably accusatory, and, especially in these bitterly divided times, blame is typically directed at modern members of the guilty group. Collectively this has divided society into “victims” and “victimizers.”
Obviously we must confront and acknowledge the wrongdoings in our history, and neither seek to justify nor minimize our national sins. But have we actually failed to do so, as Ashbaugh charges?
I am roughly of the same vintage as Mr. Ashbaugh and attended school during the same era. While I cannot recall specifically learning of the killing of the Wintu or Klamath, I do recall learning generally of the awful treatment of the Indians, including broken treaties, massacres, being forced onto reservations, and deliberately being infected with smallpox.
Likewise, I also learned about slavery, the KKK, lynchings, and segregation—including a description of the horrific voyage on the slave ships—and the auctioning of human beings.
Unless one is a student of history like Ashbaugh, what purpose does subjecting all students to a relentless examination of historic atrocities serve? The wrongfulness of the conduct is recognized by nearly everyone, and there is no realistic danger of it ever being repeated, despite the histrionics and hyperbole of some partisans.
And upon whom today should we place blame? The current fashion is to blame “white people” generally, regardless of their lack of personal participation, the date of their ancestors’ arrival, and their ancestors’ lack of participation in the wrongdoing, reckoning that melanin alone serves as a reliable badge of shame.
But while this may seem satisfying to
some, is it accurate? For example, consider the famous Buffalo Soldiers, a unit of Black calvary soldiers, who participated in the Indian wars and killed Indians. Are today’s African Americans both victim and victimizer due to sharing a complicit color? Aren’t all Americans today of all colors heirs to both the good and the bad in our national history?
Sadly, discussion quickly devolves into racial acrimony. After one commenter to Ashbaugh’s column threw out a one-liner accusing him of “white guilt,” another commenter promptly labeled that commenter a “white supremacist” who believes that “all white leaders were glorious,” and who wants to “censor history,” reading quite a bit into the first comment. See what I mean about “polarizing”?
Some white folks eagerly embrace the guilt and engage in relentless self-flagellation for wrongs they had no part in. We see earnest white liberals paying to take seminars from 20-year-old entrepreneurial Black college kids, instructing them on their “white privilege” and imputed racism. They reckon that they must atone for such racism, much like how the wealthy in medieval times purchased indulgences from the pope to gain absolution for their sins. And liberals wonder why I make such fun of them?
My personal philosophy is that I am only chargeable for the sins that I have personally committed, just as I am only able to claim pride in accomplishments to which I have personally contributed. I only feel shame for my own transgressions, not for those of people with whom I only share a skin color.
Human history is replete with conquest and subjugation, usually brutal and sometimes genocidal, and slavery occurred in many
societies. But no other societies engage in this level of social masochism and self-loathing, and most chose a more affirming narrative. While we must acknowledge the nation’s past transgressions, do we really need to keep picking at the scabs of historical guilt? We get it. It won’t happen again. But wallowing in guilt and self-loathing just divides us into “victim” and “victimizer” groups, creating a society of competing and warring groups seeking villains to castigate and ready to be exploited by opportunistic politicians. Enough already. ∆
John Donegan is a retired attorney in Pismo Beach, who feels guilty about parking overtime at an expired meter. Contact him through the editor at clanham@newtimesslo. com or send a letter for publication to letters@newtimesslo.com.
How do you feel about the Santa Maria Speedway reopening?
31% I’m so excited and can’t wait to go this summer!
24% It’s great that local racers will return to the Central Coast track.
24% I’ll feel better once I see it last a few more years.
21% Ugh. I can already hear the noise and see the traffic.
Some people sure have a bee in their bonnet over 2nd District Supervisor Bruce Gibson. To hear them describe him, he’s practically got pointy horns, a forked tail, and cloven hooves. According to the pithily monikered Committee to Support the Recall of Supervisor Bruce Gibson (CTSTROSBG), the liberal-minded politician is guilty of all manner of travesties, chief among them his desire to repeal Proposition 13, which caps California property taxes. Except, according to Gibson, he supports Prop. 13. Who to believe?
“He will lie and tell you that this is not the case,” the CTSTROSBG claimed in a recent press release, which they issued to announce that their recent attempt to gather signatures to recall Gibson was successful in every way except one: The recall won’t make the ballot because they didn’t gather enough signatures. But that’s beside the point!
“We were successful in educating the public about what a county supervisor is, what they do, and how their decisions affect all of us,” the CTSTROSBG crowed. “We succeeded in pointing out all the progressive actions that Supervisor Gibson has taken since gaining a majority on the Board of Supervisors and how this will change the way SLO County looks heading into the future.
behavior for a sitting supervisor. 13 votes, Gibson. 13 votes.”
Yikes! So much to unpack. The 13 votes referred to the 2022 election tally when Gibson bested his opponent Bruce Jones by 13 votes. Remember Darcia Stebbens? She requested and (mostly) paid for a recount of the results, which—insert drumroll, please— proved the original count was correct.
Keep in mind, that vote was in the gerrymandered Patten map, designed to give the conservative candidate the advantage. The county was sued over the Patten Map, forced to repeal it and install a map that compiled with state and federal laws, and directed to award $300,000 in county funds to plaintiff groups to cover attorney costs … which the CTSTROSBG also blames Gibson for, as if it was his fault the then-conservative majority pushed through a gerrymandered map that was deemed illegal.
You can’t make this stuff up, folks, though
when women didn’t have control over their reproductive systems and we didn’t let in immigrants who bring drugs, crime, rape, and some, they won’t assume, are good people”?
Dear members of the CTSTROSBG, when you point out “all the progressive actions that Supervisor Gibson has taken since gaining a majority on the Board of Supervisors and how this will change the way SLO County looks heading into the future,” an apparent majority of us think, “Good. We like progress, which is the root of ‘progressive.’”
According to the CTSTROSBG, they would have gathered enough signatures if the state wasn’t such a cheater-cheater-pumpkineater: “The requirements for recalling an elected official were changed after the Newsom recall, which put the requirement of signatures needed at 20 percent, unlike previous recalls that only required 10 percent. Initiatives only require 10 percent of signatures to be put on the ballot.”
Um, except according to SLO County ClerkRecorder Elaina Cano, that’s false: “No, the signature threshold for recalling a local office
citizens like Gibson and believe he represents their political views and priorities, like, for instance, prioritizing homeless services, closing the Oceano Dunes State Park to offroad vehicles, and finding ways to mitigate climate change. We get that you don’t agree with this stuff, but you’re in the minority, which is why your candidate lost and why you can’t get enough signatures to recall Gibson. Maybe get over it, eh?
Speaking of homelessness, the contentious and arguably abysmal failure that was the Oklahoma Avenue Safe Parking site is now officially closed. According to the Department of Social Services, “The remaining 10 individuals voluntarily left the site by the end of the day on Monday, May 6.”
The county wanted to close the site months ago, but the SLO County Homeless Union sued the county to keep it open. The case has now been settled.
“The county agreed to pay the union a total sum of $60,000 to fund temporary lodging and related relocation assistance for those 10 individuals during their transition to an
Hot Dates
ARTS
NORTH COAST SLO COUNTY
CENTRAL COAST ARTISTS COLLECTIVE
Three artist groups of the Central Coast Artists Collective (photographers, sculptors, and craftmakers) show selected works by members in this annual exhibition. Reception: Sunday, May 19, from 2 to 4 p.m. May 16 -June 24 12-4 p.m. Free. 805-772-2504. artcentermorrobay.org/. 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. The party includes a complimentary glass of wine and canvas with materials. Saturdays, 12-2 p.m. $55. 805-394-5560. coastalwineandpaint.com. Harmony Cafe at the Pewter Plough, 824 Main St., Cambria.
EMERITUS COLLEGE SENIOR SHOW
The Cuesta College Emeritus College art students are showcasing their watercolors and drawings at Buttercup Bakery through the end of May. Come by and enjoy a croissant and some wonderful artwork by older artists from classes hosted by the Morro Bay Senior Center. Mondays, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. through June 1 Varies. morrobayseniors.org. Buttercup Bakery and Cafe, 430 Morro Bay Blvd., Morro Bay.
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.
FOREVER STOKED SPRING ART SHOW
Come join the Forever Stoked crew and guests to celebrate the release of
their latest works of art. Featuring new paintings from Charlie Clingman, Peter Pierce, Chris Pedersen, Ken Christensen, Carey Lynch, Cooper Willson, and more. We will also have fun tunes and tasty snacks. May 11 , 12-8 p.m. Free. 805-772-9095. foreverstoked.com/. Forever Stoked, 1164 Quintana Rd., Morro Bay.
LUNNENBURG A comedy/drama directed by Lisa Woske. A widow inherits a house she didn’t know her husband owned and other surprises along with it. Through May 19 By The Sea Productions, 545 Shasta Ave., Morro Bay, bytheseaproductions.org.
MAY ARTISTS RECEPTION AND ATRIUM
PARTY Featuring artists Brian Johnson, Hema Sukumar, and Thomas Brown with mixed media, paintings, and jewelry, respectively. May 11 3-5 p.m. Free. 805772-1068. galleryatmarinasquare.com. Gallery at Marina Square, 601 Embarcadero suite 10, Morro Bay.
MOTHER’S DAY WEEKEND PAINT & SIP Bring your Mom or a friend and have a local artist inspire and instruct you in a step-by-step coastal masterpiece. No experience is necessary. May 11 12-2 p.m. 55.00. 805-394-5560. coastalwineandpaint.com. Harmony Cafe at the Pewter Plough, 824 Main St., Cambria.
SEEING STARS BY STEVE BUDD A heartfelt and hilarious exploration of family dysfunction, mental illness, and a man’s desire to connect with his dad. May 10 and May 11 my805tix.com. Cambria Center for the Arts, 1350 Main St., Cambria. STROMSOE OPEN STUDIOS (SECOND SUNDAY) A rare opportunity to visit our historical silversmithing shop and design studio. Learn about the various techniques involved in hand forging, spinning and fabricating a variety of handcrafted art objects. Serve ware, vessels and, hand fabricated fine jewelry will be available
for purchase. Reservations encouraged. Features a complimentary gift for visitors celebrating Mom. May 12 12-4 p.m. Free with reservation. 805-237-8632. Randy Stromsoe Metalsmith, Highway 46 West, SLO County, randystromsoe.com.
WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT LOVE BY STEVE BUDD Steve Budd brings 12 characters to life. One review described the show as a hilarious take on how people fall in love. May 12 2-4 p.m. my805tix.com. Cambria Center for the Arts, 1350 Main St., Cambria.
NORTH SLO COUNTY
BE PART OF THE PROCESS:
PRINTMAKING DEMO Curious about the process of printmaking? Don’t miss this rare opportunity to “Be Part of the Process” in this Printmaking Demonstration featuring Resident Artists Rosey and Barbara Rosenthal. Rosey and Barb will help you ink, wipe, and print an etching plate they have already drawn. May 18 2-4 p.m. Free. 805-238-9800. studiosonthepark.org/events/be-part-ofthe-process-printmaking-demo/. Studios on the Park, 1130 Pine St., Paso Robles.
COLORBAR Experience watercolor painting with Studios’ unique COLORbar. Create your own masterpiece by filling in a pre-drawn original design by professional local artists. Your participation fee of $10 includes all supplies, and supports essential arts programming. Pay $15 instead to include a glass of wine. May 18 6-9 p.m. $10-$15. 805-238-9800. studiosonthepark.org/events/colorbarand-wine/. Studios on the Park, 1130 Pine St., Paso Robles.
DEPRISE BRESCIA ART GALLERY:
OPEN DAILY Features a large selection of encaustic art, sculpted paintings, art installations, acrylic palette knife paintings, digital art, glass, jewelry, stones,
LORI’S LORE
In early May, the Cambria Library debuted its showcase of artworks by local painter Lori Slater, whose exhibit will remain on display through the end of the month. Admission to view the showcase is free. Slater’s works include watercolor, oil, and acrylic pieces. Call (805) 927-4336 for more details. To find out more about Slater, visit lorislater.com. The Cambria Library is located at 1043 Main St., Cambria. —Caleb Wiseblood
fossils, and a butterfly sculpture garden. ongoing DepriseBrescia.com. Deprise Brescia Art Gallery, 829 10th St., Paso Robles, 310-621-7543.
MOSAIC MIRROR WORKSHOP Create a unique mosaic mirror in this two-day workshop. The first day: cut the glass, design, and glue. The next day: grout the pieces. All materials included. May 18 10 a.m. and May 19, 12-1 p.m. $80. 805-464-2633. glassheadstudio.com. Glasshead Studio, 8793 Plata Lane, Suite H, Atascadero.
MOTHER’S DAY CERAMIC EARRING
MAKING WORKSHOP Create your own ceramic earrings using hand building techniques. The first part of the class will be spent making the earrings out of clay. The second part of the class will be spent creating findings. We will glaze, fire, and assemble your earrings for you. May 11 , 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. $96. 805-203-0335. thepotteryatascadero.com/workshops. The Pottery, 5800 El Camino Real, Atascadero.
POETIC PRINTS POETRY READING Hear the poetry that inspired the art featured in our Poetic Prints exhibition. Join us for a free Poetry Reading featuring local poets. After the reading, the Printmakers featured in the exhibition will be discussing their processes. May 19 2-3 p.m. Free. 805-2389800. studiosonthepark.org. Studios on the Park, 1130 Pine St., Paso Robles.
PRIVATE HOME SCHOOL ART SESSIONS
Use clay sculpting, ceramic tiles, textile art, paper crafts, watercolors, and more. You’ll be amazed as we unravel the secrets of color theory, famous artists, time periods, and techniques. Every other Monday, 2:304 p.m. through May 27 $25. 805-400-9107. artsocial805.com. ArtSocial 805 Creative Campus, 3340 Ramada Drive, suite 2C, Paso Robles.
REDESIGN AND WINE: A MIXED MEDIA
MAKEOVER Do you have a surplus of canvasses from Paint and Sip events? Bring them to the studio and experiment with mixed media such as crushed glass, fabric, paper, and yarn to enhance your existing paintings. Local wine and light snacks included. Bring your canvas. May 10 6-8 p.m. $65. 805-464-2633. glassheadstudio.com. Glasshead Studio, 8793 Plata Lane, Suite H, Atascadero.
SAN LUIS OBISPO
2024 STUDENT ANNUAL ART
EXHIBITION Juried by Cal Poly instructor Makia Sharp, this exhibit showcases the work of Cuesta students, featuring drawings, paintings, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, and digital art. Proceeds of sales go directly to students, less 10 percent which goes to Fine Arts Access scholarships. Mondays-Fridays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. through May 17 Free. 805-546-3201. cuesta.edu/student/ campuslife/artgallery/2023-24exhibitions/2024StudentAnnual.html. Harold J. Miossi Gallery, Highway 1, San Luis Obispo.
ALFRED ROBLES LIVE AT THE FREMONT THEATER All ages. Doors open at 7 p.m. May 18 8 p.m. $24.50-$49.50. fremontslo. com/events/alfred-robles/. The Fremont Theater, 1035 Monterey St., San Luis Obispo, 805-546-8600.
BARRY GOYETTE: MULBERRY For his exhibition at SLOMA, San Luis Obispobased artist Barry Goyette shows a series of portraits taken by a very specific mulberry tree as a site for portrait photography guided by the models, of varying stages of life. Through June 3, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Free. 805-543-8562. sloma.org/ exhibition/barry-goyette-mulberry/. San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, 1010 Broad St., San Luis Obispo.
COMIX FAIR 2024 With local comic book artists, a vendor showcase, photo booth, board games, and more, all inside the library. This mini-comics convention is free and family-friendly. Wear your favorite costume. May 11 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. 805781-5991. slolibrary.org. San Luis Obispo Library Community Room, 995 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo.
IMPROV COMEDY SHOW Presented by Central Coast Comedy Theater. May 10, 6-8
p.m. my805tix.com/. SLO Public Market, 120 Tank Farm Road, San Luis Obispo. Hosted by Central Coast Comedy Theater. May 18 , 6-8 p.m. my805tix.com. The Bunker SLO, 810 Orcutt Road, San Luis Obispo. MR. BURNS A group of strangers come together and reconstruct a storyline of an episode from The Simpsons , entirely from memory. Over 75 years, this simple act evolves into new traditions of storytelling and performance that attempt to preserve the things we remember. ThursdaysSaturdays, 8-10 p.m. and May 12 , 2-4 p.m. through May 18 $15 students; $25 general admission. 805-756-1465. theatredance. calpoly.edu/mr-burns-post-electric-play. Spanos Theatre, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. OPERASLO: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Celebrate Mother’s Day Weekend with the entire family in a production “you’ll remember for the rest of your lives.” Described as perfect for all ages, OperaSLO’s production promises to thrill and wow patrons moment-to-moment with expansive sets and costumes, ballet, chorus, and a nationally acclaimed leading cast. May 11 2-4 p.m. and May 12 2-4 p.m. $30-$87. 805-782-7342. operaslo.org. Performing Arts Center, 1 Grand Ave., San Luis Obispo.
PICKET PAINTING PARTY Decorative picket purchasing opportunities are available to show your support and help fund maintenance and educational programs in the Children’s Garden. Second Saturday of every month, 1-4 p.m. $75 per picket or 2 for $100. 805-541-1400. slobg. org. San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden, 3450 Dairy Creek Rd., San Luis Obispo.
SECOND ANNUAL SPRING ART AND CRAFT FAIR Seeking handmade/ homemade artisans and crafters. Download an application from post66slo. org. Deadline for application: May 15. May 18 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and May 19 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Free to attend. 805-441-1405. post66slo. org. Veteran’s Memorial Building, 801 Grand Ave., San Luis Obispo. SECOND SATURDAYS SLOMA’s Second Saturdays program encourages intergenerational learning and creative expression for children of all ages. Families are invited to SLOMA’s lawn to learn about
WITH THRIFTED TREASURES CHALLENGE
Join us for the #ThriftedTreasures Challenge! Showcase your thrifted outfits or home decor on social media to celebrate sustainability and creativity. Let’s make thrifting the trend of the season!
WHY PARTICIPATE? HOW TO JOIN:
Eco-Friendly Fashion: Thrifting reduces waste and promotes sustainable living.
Express Creativity:
Flaunt your unique style with thrifted finds.
Community & Engagement: Share your looks, inspire, and get inspired.
Let’s Thri
Find: Pick unique items from Goodwill Central Coast.
Style & Decorate: Create your look or decor piece. Share: Post on social media with #ThriftedTreasures & tag @GoodwillCentralCoast.
CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS:
Weekly Themes: From "Retro Revival" to "Upcycling Ideas."
Share & Inspire: See how the community & influencers style their finds.
Make an Impact: Your participation supports Goodwill’s mission for a sustainable future.
Goodwill Central Coast builds lives, families and communities by helping people with employment needs become successful, supported by innovative enterprises that preserve earth’s resources.
the visual arts together using unique activity kits and create an art project inspired by current exhibitions. Second Saturday of every month, 11-1 a.m. through Dec. 14 Free. 805-543-8562. sloma.org/ events/second-saturdays/. San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, 1010 Broad St., San Luis Obispo.
SHAKESPERIENCE: A CUESTA DRAMA
IMMERSIVE PRODUCT This new, cutting-edge interactive event allows guests to experience different Shakespeare plays in different locations in one night. This interactive experience has pairs of audience members moving from location to location to experience the best of Shakespeare. May 9 7 & 9 p.m., May 10 7 & 9 a.m., May 11 , 1:30, 3:30, 7 & 9 p.m. and May 12 , 1:30 & 3:30 p.m. $18. Harold J. Miossi CPAC at Cuesta College, Highway 1, 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.
SOULHEAL: FILM SCREENING AND DISCUSSION Join us in the Library Community Room for a free presentation of the short film “Soulheal” by local filmmaker, José Enrique Pardo, who will lead a discussion of the film’s topics afterward. For more information and trailer, visit soulhealfilm.com. May 10, 4-5 p.m. Free. 805-781-5994. slolibrary.org. San Luis Obispo Library Community Room, 995 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo.
TELLUS READING AND RECEPTION A reception and poetry reading by students selected to be in Cuesta’s Literary and Fine Arts journal. The gallery will also be open with works from Cuesta’s Student Annual Art Exhibition and Tellus award winners on display. May 9, 5-7:30 p.m. Free. 805-5463201. cuesta.edu. Harold J. Miossi Gallery, Highway 1, San Luis Obispo.
Community Center, 1230 Trouville Ave., Grover Beach.
FINDING NEMO JR. The charming 60-minute musical, designed for middle school-aged performers, is based on the beloved 2003 Pixar film. This show is a collaboration between Mesa and Judkins Middle School students and directed by Marcia Geyer. May 10 7-9:30 p.m. and May 11 , 2-4:30 & 7-9:30 p.m. $10-$15. 805489-9444. clarkcenter.org/shows/mesajudkins-finding-nemo-jr/. Clark Center for the Performing Arts, 487 Fair Oaks Ave., Arroyo Grande.
THE FISH WHISPERER A mysterious outsider plots to fix a small fishing town’s sudden bad luck when it comes to fishing. Through May 11 Great American Melodrama, 1863 Front St., Oceano.
PAINT NIGHT Paint at your own pace. Join our Paint Party benefitting the Boys & Girls Clubs of South SLO County. All skill levels welcome for this fun night. For ages 21 and over; identification will be checked at the door. Limited space available, sign up today. 100 percent of donations support the Clubs’ mission. May 16, 6-8 p.m. $25. 805481-7339. bgcslo.org/events. Boys and Girls Clubs of South San Luis Obispo County Clubhouse, 1830 19th St., Oceano.
SCULPTURAL LAMP STACK WORKSHOP
Build your own beautiful piece of garden art. Your sculptural lamp stack may include lamps, ceramic pots, found objects, driftwood, and ready-to-mosaic polystyrene/concrete forms. You’ll also have time to add mosaic to your stack. Each lamp stack will be completely portable for reassembling at home. May 16, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., May 17 9 a.m.-4 p.m., May 18 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and May 19 10 a.m.-1 p.m. $695. 805-4403054. passifloramosaics.com. Passiflora Mosaics, 330 N. 10th St., Grover Beach.
CULTURE & LIFESTYLE
TAI CHI AND QI GONG: ZEN IN MOTION Small group classes with 2019 Tai Chi Instructor of the Year. Call for time and days. Learn the Shaolin Water Style and 5 Animals Qi Gong. Beginners welcomed. Mondays, 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Call for price details. 805-7017397. charvetmartialarts.com. Morro Bay Martial Arts, 850 Shasta, Morro Bay. TAI CHI CHUN/ QI GONG BASICS Learn the foundation of Qi Gong, the rooting of breathing, and Shaolin Tai Chi. TuesdaysThursdays Call for details. 805-701-7397. charvetmartialarts.com. Grateful Body, 850 Shasta, Morro Bay.
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. YOGA AND FORAGING BEACH DAY RETREAT Visit site for more info on this unique retreat event. May 18 11 a.m.-4 p.m. my805tix.com. Estero Bluffs, Estero Bay, Cayucos.
NORTH SLO COUNTY
THE THANKSGIVING PLAY Good intentions collide with absurd assumptions in this wickedly funny satire, as a troupe of well-meaning, but hilariously misguided teaching artists scramble to create a school pageant that can somehow celebrate both Turkey Day and Native American Heritage Month. ThursdaysSaturdays, 7-9 p.m. and Saturdays, Sundays, 2-4 p.m. through May 19 $20-$40. 805-786-2440. slorep.org/shows/thethanksgiving-play/. SLO Rep, 888 Morro St., San Luis Obispo.
TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL Art Central is excited to present “Too Cool for School”, an exhibition showcasing Cuesta College students’ remarkable artwork. It celebrates the passion and creativity found within our local student community. Artist reception will be held Friday, May 3, from 5-7 p.m. during Art After Dark. Mondays-Fridays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sundays, 12-4 p.m. through May 17 Free. 805-747-4200. artcentralslo.com/portfolio/ too-cool-for-school/. Art Central, 1329 Monterey St., San Luis Obispo.
WALT WHITMAN GAY MEN’S BOOK CLUB
This club reads, studies and discusses books chosen by the group which relate to their lives as gay men. All are welcome. Second Monday of every month, 7-9:30 p.m. Free. galacc.org/events/. Online, See website, San Luis Obispo.
SOUTH COAST SLO COUNTY
NEWSIES JR. Presented by Coastal Christian School. Inspired by the rousing true story of newsboys in turn-of-thecentury New York City, Newsies Jr. features a Tony Award-winning score by Alan Menken and Jack Feldman and a book by Tony Award-winner Harvey Fierstein. May 18 2-4:30 & 7-9:30 p.m. $10-$18. 805-4899444. clarkcenter.org/shows/ccs-newsiesjr/. Clark Center for the Performing Arts, 487 Fair Oaks Ave., Arroyo Grande.
DANCE FITNESS ART AND CULTURE FOR ADULTS Discover dance as a form of artistic expression and exercise, using a wide range of styles and genres of music (including modern, jazz, Broadway, ethnic). Tuesdays, 4-5 p.m. $10 drop-in; $30 for four classes. 510-362-3739. grover.org. Grover Beach
NORTH COAST SLO COUNTY
BREATHE AND STRETCH: BAYSIDE
MARTIAL ARTS
This class for ages 18 and over is a hybrid of yoga, active isolated, resistance stretching, and more. Breath work is incorporated throughout. You must be able to get down onto the floor and back up again. Please bring a mat and some water to stay hydrated. Sundays, 9-10 a.m. $15 session. 415-516-5214. Bayside Martial Arts, 1200 2nd St., Los Osos.
BREATHE AND STRETCH: OMNI STUDIO
This class for ages 18 and over is a hybrid of yoga, active isolated, resistance stretching, and more. Breath work is incorporated throughout. You must be able to get down onto the floor and back up again. Please bring a mat and some water to stay hydrated. Tuesdays, 5:30-6:30 p.m. $15 session. 415-516-5214. Omni Studio, 698 Morro Bay Blvd., Morro Bay.
CHAKRA MEDITATION ON THE BEACH Hosted by Aurora Meditations and Rituals. May 11 , 10 a.m. my805tix.com. Beach Access Parking Lot, 102 Atascadero Road, Morro Bay.
IRONKIDS RACE IRONKIDS events offer
youth who are under one to 17 years old experience the excitement of competition while enjoying the outdoors and promoting healthy living. May 18 , 9-11 a.m. $25. endurancecui.active.com. The Cloisters Community Park, 2501 Coral Ave., Morro Bay, 805-772-6278.
LAWN ALTERNATIVES AND LANDSCAPE
DESIGN Learn what to plant to replace your lawn, and why you should (it’s about more than water). A Master Gardener and landscape architect will explain how to imagine a new garden space. Presentation will follow “Plant Propagation” talk. May 19, 2-4 p.m. Free. lovgardenclub.com. First Baptist Church of Los Osos, 1900 Los Osos Valley Road, Los Osos, 805-528-3066.
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.
BALANCE FLOW Suitable for all levels. This class is meant to benefit the mind-body connection while emphasizing safe and effective alignment as well as breath awareness and relaxation. Please call to register in advance. Tuesdays, Thursdays, 4:30-5:30 p.m. $16-$22; $50 membership. 805-434-9605. ttrtennis.com/fitness/ yoga/. Templeton Tennis Ranch, 345 Championship Lane, Templeton. CRYSTAL BOWLS SOUND HEALING WITH JAMIE NICOLE AT AWAKENING WAYS CSL Experience deep relaxation and inner harmony with during this session with Jamie Nicole. Let the gentle vibrations of crystal bowls wash over you, promoting healing and balance within mind, body, and spirit. See website for details. May 15, 6:30-7:30 p.m. 805-391-4465. awakeningways.org. Awakening Ways Center for Spiritual Living, 9350 El Camino Real, No. 101, Atascadero.
GODDESS GROUP Please join Oracle Owner/Intuitive Medium, Tiffany Klemz, for this twice monthly, Goddess Group. The intention of this group is to curate connection, inspiration, unity, and empowerment. Every other Tuesday, 6:30-8 p.m. $11. 805-464-2838. oracleatascaderoca.com. Oracle, 6280 Palma Ave., Atascadero.
GROW YOUR OWN LAVENDER GARDEN AT HAMBLY FARMS Visit site for more info on this event at Hambly Farms. May 19, 9 a.m.-noon my805tix.com. Hambly Farms, 1390 Grana Place, San Miguel. HOUSEPLANT ARRANGEMENT CLASS Visit site for more details. May 10 6:30 p.m. my805tix.com. Golden State Goods, 5880 Traffic Way, Atascadero.
YOGA AT HAMBLY LAVENDER FARM Class starts with an inspirational card and lavender spritz to set the tone. May 18 9-10 a.m. my805tix.com. Hambly Farms, 1390 Grana Place, San Miguel.
SAN LUIS OBISPO 2024 SPRING FOLK-N-SOAK Features live music, yoga, hot springs, camping opportunities, and more. Visit site for full details. May 17-19 my805tix.com. Franklin Hot Springs, 3015 Creston Rd., Paso Robles. AERIAL SILKS CLINIC Learn aerial skills that build memory, strength, coordination, confidence, and endurance. Plus, silks is a great way to learn flipping safely. Ages 7-17; all levels welcome. May 18 1-3 p.m. $25 for first child; $10 per additional sibling. 805-47-1496. performanceathleticsslo. com/saturday-event-clinics. Performance Athletics Gymnastics, 4484 Broad St., San Luis Obispo. CAR, BIKE, AND TRUCK SHOW Multiple categories for vehicle display. Applications available on website. Call for more information. May 18 , 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Free to attend. 805-459-4015. post66slo.org. American Legion Post 66, 1661 Mill St., San Luis Obispo.
CULTURE & LIFESTYLE continued page 18
2nd SUNDAYS!
May 12th
June 9th
July 14th
August 11th
Noon - 4pm
You are invited to experience this rare opportunity to visit our private silversmithing studio and showroom.
• Bring a friend or make a new one
• Access to Randy’s new work and curated vintage finds
• Observe live demonstrations of work in progress
• Occasional guest artists and work on display
Fill out the contact form on randystromsoe.com
We will send you a confirmation with directions Scenic Highway 46 West @ Old Creek Road randystromsoe.com
ESL TUTOR TRAINING (SLO COUNTY)
Local non-profit “Literacy for Life” is looking for volunteer tutors (based in SLO County). Our program welcomes adults aged 18 and older, providing support to both native English speakers and those for whom English is a second language. Work one-on-one with adults learning to read, write, speak English. May 13 3-6 p.m. 805-541-4219. literacyforlifeslo.org/. First Presbyterian Church of San Luis Obispo, 981 Marsh St., San Luis Obispo. HANDSTANDS AND AERIALS CLINIC
Build your flipping finesse. We’ll check out what you know, and give you tips for safe, successful improvement. The Target Skills are intermediate level, but even beginners can start working on the fundamentals. All levels welcome. Ages 5-17. May 11 1-3 p.m. $25 for first child, plus $10 per additional sibling. 805-547-1496. performanceathleticsslo.com/saturdayevent-clinics. Performance Athletics Gymnastics, 4484 Broad St., San Luis Obispo. KCBX PARKING LOT MUSIC SALE Selling loads of vinyl and CDs from the KCBX archives and from the private collection of “Morning Cup” host Neal Losey. All proceeds support KCBX and Cal Poly’s radio station, KCPR. May 11 9 a.m.-1 p.m. No admission fee. 1-800-549-8855. kcbx.org/ parking-lot-music-sale. KCBX Public Radio, 4100 Vachell Ln., San Luis Obispo. KIDS’ PARTY PARADISE: MOTHER’S DAY MUSCLE MADNESS This Mother’s Day, give yourself a treat. You’ll probably spend the day with your kids, but then we think you should drop them off at our Kids’ Party Paradise and take the evening to celebrate motherhood however you want to. Ages 4-13; no gymnastics experience necessary. May 11, 5-9:30 p.m. $50 for 1 child; $70 for 2 or more siblings. 805547-1496. performanceathleticsslo.com/ kids-party-paradise. Performance Athletics Gymnastics, 4484 Broad St., San Luis Obispo. LGBTQ+ FED THERAPIST LEAD SUPPORT GROUP (VIRTUALLY VIA ZOOM) A pro-recovery group offering space to those seeking peer support, all stages of ED recovery. We understand recovery isn’t linear and judgment-free support is crucial. Share, listen, and be part of a community building up each other. Third Wednesday of every month, 7-8 p.m. Free. galacc.org/events/. Online, See website, San Luis Obispo. MINDFUL TRAVEL IN AN UNEQUAL WORLD WITH DR. ANU TARANATH Cal Poly International Center welcomes Dr. Anu Taranath, award-winning author of Beyond Guilt Trips: Mindful Travel in an Unequal World (2019). Join us for an illuminating conversation as Dr. Taranath examines the intersections of equity and global travel. A book signing will follow the event. May 15, 5:30-7 p.m. Free; parking permits required. 805-756-1477. international.calpoly. edu/event/2024-internationalizationsymposium/. Cal Poly Performing Arts Center, 1 Grand Ave, San Luis Obispo.
THE SAN LUIS OBISPO OUT OF THE DARKNESS WALK Check-in and event activities begin at 10 a.m.; walk starts at 11 a.m. This event raises awareness and funds for suicide prevention. May 11 , 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Free. afsp.org/SLO. CalPoly University Union, 1 Grand Avenue, San Luis Obispo.
SLO WOMEN PILOTS FUNDRAISER
The SLO 99s are holding a scholarship fundraiser to promote women in aviation. Professor Paulo Iscold will be talking about a “black box” that he has made that will allow aerobatic pilots to record their maneuvers and play them back on a computer. May 9 6:30-8:30 p.m. Free. 805-544-0775. ACI Jet, 4751 Aviadores Way, San Luis Obispo, acijet.com.
A JAR IS BORN
Kulturhaus Brewing Company in Pismo Beach hosts its Hands-on Sauerkraut Class on Sunday, May 12, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Each participant of the workshop will learn the basics of probiotic fermentation and take home a jar of sauerkraut— made with locally grown, organic cabbage—and a recipe packet. Admission is $50. Visit kulturhausbrewing.com for more details. Kulturhaus Brewing Company is located at 779 Price St., Pismo Beach.
noon Free. 805-229-1250. sunwork.org. Online, See website, San Luis Obispo.
SOUTH COAST SLO COUNTY
ADVENTURES WITH NATURE: BOARDWALK TO BUTTERFLIES TO BEACH Join State Park Docent Becky for an easy stroll along the boardwalk trail to Pismo State Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove and then return by way of the beach. Meet in the plaza area at the tables across from Fin’s Bar and Grill. RSVP by calling 805-474-2664. May 18 9:30-11:30 a.m. Free. 805-474-2664. West Grand Avenue Plaza and Parking Lot, 25 W Grand Avenue, Grover Beach.
ADVENTURES WITH NATURE: OCEANO’S
BEAVERS Join State Park Docent Dan to learn about the beavers’ physical adaptations, their role in our country’s westward expansion, and their local history. Enjoy an easy paced walk around the Oceano lagoon as we search for evidence and signs of beaver. RSVP by calling. May 11 10 a.m.-noon Free. 805-4742664. Oceano Dunes Visitor Center, 555 Pier Ave., Oceano.
BEGINNER GROUP SURF LESSONS AND SURF CAMPS Lessons and camp packages available daily. All equipment included. ongoing Starts at $70. 805-835-7873. sandbarsurf.com/. Sandbar Surf School Meetup Spot, 110 Park Ave., Pismo Beach.
BEGINNING BALLET FOR ADULTS Enjoy the grace and flow of ballet. No previous experience needed. Wednesdays, 5:15-6:15 p.m. $12 drop-in; $40 for four classes. 510-362-3739. grover.org. Grover Beach Community Center, 1230 Trouville Ave., Grover Beach.
MULTICULTURAL DANCE CLASS FOR ADULTS Experience dance from continents around the earth, including from Africa, Europe, and more. Described as “a wonderful in-depth look at the context and history of cultures of the world.” Tuesdays, 5:30-6:30 p.m. $10 drop-in; $30 for four classes. 510-362-3739. grover.org. Grover Beach Community Center, 1230 Trouville Ave., Grover Beach.
POINT SAN LUIS LIGHTHOUSE TOURS
TECH BREW MEETUP Tech Brew is a free networking event where people interested in technology can hang out in an informal environment with a small TEDtalk-like presentation from an interesting speaker. Learn more online. Second Monday of every month, 5-7 p.m. 805-323-6706. meetup.com/softec/. StoryLabs, 102 Cross St, Suite 220, San Luis Obispo.
VOLUNTEER SOLAR INSTALLER TRAINING WEBINAR WITH SUNWORK
Learn the basics of installing solar energy systems and water heater electrification by volunteering with SunWork. May 11 , 9 a.m.-
A docent-led tour of the buildings and grounds of the historic Point San Luis Light Station. Check website for more details. Wednesdays, Saturdays pointsanluislighthouse.org/. Point San Luis Lighthouse, 1 Lighthouse Rd., Avila Beach.
SOCIAL GROUP FOR WIDOWS AND WIDOWERS Call for more details. Second Saturday of every month, 10 a.m. 805-9046615. Oak Park Christian Church, 386 N Oak Park Blvd., Grover Beach.
A SPECIAL TWIST GOLF AND GIVE TOURNAMENT A golf tournament that will truly make a difference. A Special Twist Gymnastics provides a place for kids, with and without special needs, to come and build friendships and learn gymnastics in a
safe environment. A place where everyone is welcome and everyone thrives. May 18 , 7 a.m.-1 p.m. $60. 805-234-0758. Pismo Golf Course, 9 Le Sage Drive, Grover Beach. SPRING FEST: AN AANHPI HERITAGE MONTH CELEBRATION Features a local makers market, food vendors, free prize drawings, face painting, and more. May 19 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. 805-481-7339. bgcslo. org/springfest. Great American Melodrama, 1863 Front St., Oceano.
SANTA MARIA VALLEY/LOS ALAMOS MOTHER’S DAY SPRING CLASSIC Features live music, food, drinks, and 100 to 150 classic cars. May 12 11 a.m.-6 p.m. my805tix.com. Pioneer Park, 1150 W. Foster Rd., Orcutt.
FOOD & DRINK
NORTH COAST SLO COUNTY
BREAKFAST ON THE BAY A monthly occasion that brings together the passionate citizens and business owners of the greater Estero Bay region in one place to deepen connections and share information. Breakfast is included with ticket price. Third Wednesday of every month, 7:30-9 a.m. $20 per member; $25 per non-member. 805-772-4467. morrochamber.org. Morro Bay Community Center, 1001 Kennedy Way, Morro Bay. 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. NORTH SLO COUNTY
BEER YOGA While flowing through your practice, enjoy an ice-cold craft beer from the vast draft beers that Ancient Owl has to offer or a seltzer. May 18 10-11 a.m. my805tix.com. Ancient Owl Beer Garden, 6090 El Camino Real, suite C, Atascadero, 805-460-6042. CLUB CAR BAR TRIVIA WITH DR. RICKY Teams of 1 to 6 people welcome. Visit site for more info. Wednesdays, 7-10 p.m. my805tix.com. Club Car Bar, 508 S. Main Street, Templeton, 805-400-4542. COMEDY NIGHT For ages 21 and over. May 14 , 7-10 p.m. $5. my805tix.com. Club Car Bar, 508 S. Main Street, Templeton, 805-400-4542.
MASTERS OF FIRE AT PASO WINE FEST
FOOD & DRINK continued page 20
SPRINGJAZZ CONCERT
featuring MARCUS SHELBY
friday
Marcus Shelby, notable Bay Area bassist, bandleader, composer and educator, will be the featured guest. Shelby, who was also a member of the University Jazz Band (UJB) from 1988-89, will direct the band and play bass in a set of his original compositions and arrangements. His work focuses on African American lives in social movements and music education. He recently voiced Ray Gardener, the father of the movie’s protagonist, Joe, in Pixar’s 2020 Academy Awardwinning animated film “Soul.” Dave Becker will direct the UJB for other pieces. The Jazz Combos, Dylan Johnson, director; and Vocal Jazz Ensemble, Inga Swearingen, director; will open the program.
$15 and $20 general $10 students and Jazz Federation members Tickets: pacslo.org, 805-756-4849
For more information, visit music.calpoly.edu/calendar/jazz
2023/2024
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Join celebrity chef Tyler Florence for a one-of-a-kind food experience. Enjoy all-you-can-eat barbecue from Tyler as local grill masters compete for an esteemed title. Sample their culinary creations and vote for the winner. May 17, 5-9 p.m. $250. 805-2398463. pasowine.com. Paso Robles Event Center, 2198 Riverside Ave., Paso Robles.
MCV SPRING BRUNCH MCV is pairing with Knife + Fork for this brunch event. Menu and tickets available on website. May 19, 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m. my805tix.com. MCV Wines, 3773 Ruth Way, suite A, Paso Robles, 805-712-4647.
MOTHER’S DAY BRUNCH AT THE CASTLE
Celebrate Mother’s Day with a delightful brunch at Tooth and Nail House of Wine. Enjoy a gourmet selection of dishes expertly crafted by our chef, paired with our finest wines. It’s the perfect setting to honor Mom and create lasting memories. Reserve your table now. May 12 11 a.m.-4 p.m. $45. 805-369-6100. toothandnailwine. com. Tooth and Nail Winery, 3090 Anderson Rd., Paso Robles.
MOTHER’S DAY: BUILD A BRUNCH BOX
Celebrate Mother’s Day and enjoy a glass of our newly released 2023 Tracing Paper Rosé as you create your own brunch box with Alba Provisions including gourmet cheese and charcuterie, quiche, fresh baked pastries, yogurt parfaits, and sweets. May 11 1-3 p.m. $45. 805-434-5607. onxwines.com/events/mothers-day-atonx/. ONX Wines, 2910 Limestone Way, Paso Robles.
MOTHER’S DAY LAVENDER FARM
EXPERIENCE AND CHARCUTERIE BOARD WORKSHOP Visit site for tickets and more info on this special Mother’s Day event. May 12 , 9 a.m.-noon my805tix.com. Hambly Farms, 1390 Grana Place, San Miguel.
PASO WINE FEST GRAND TASTING The Grand Tasting will feature more than 100 wineries, expanded food offerings, live entertainment, artisans, craft spirits, and elevated brand experiences. Nowhere else will one find this many Paso Robles wineries together at one time. May 18 12-4:30 p.m. $165-$250. 805-239-8463. pasowine.com/consumer_events/winefest/. Paso Robles Event Center, 2198 Riverside Ave., Paso Robles. PASO WINE FEST WINEMAKER DINNER
Kick off your Paso Wine Fest celebration with a Winemaker Dinner at The Hatch Rotisserie and Bar where wines will be paired and presented by the winemakers from Cairjn Wine Cellars, Rockbound Cellars, Ulloa Cellars. May 16, 6:30-9 p.m. $160. 805-239-8463. pasowine.com. The Hatch Rotisserie and Bar, 835 13th St., Paso Robles.
SPARKLING PASO AT PASO WINE FEST
End your Paso Wine Fest experience with brunchtime bubbles. This festive event brings to the forefront a new movement of sparkling wines in Paso Robles with specially paired bites from Chef Joe White of Paris Valley Road Estate Vineyard. May 19 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. $100. 805-239-8463. pasowine.com/winefest/. Paris Valley Road Estate Winery, 5625 E. Highway 46, Paso Robles.
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.
TRIVIA NIGHT: MODERN FAMILY AT DRACAENA WINES Test your knowledge on all things related to the hilarious, popular TV show. Grab your friends and family to form a team or join one on the spot. Enjoy some delicious wine while competing for awesome prizes. May 15, 6-8 p.m. Free. 805-270-3327. dracaenawines. com/event/trivia-night-modern-family/. Dracaena Wines, 1244 Pine Street, suite 101 B, Paso Robles.
Send event information to events@newtimesslo.com or submit
Company, 3525 Adelaida Rd., Paso Robles. SAN LUIS OBISPO
AMERICAN LEGION POST 66 ANNUAL PANCAKE BREAKFAST FUNDRAISER Join us for a delicious breakfast of pancakes and sausages in support of the programs of American Legion Post 66. Tour the Veterans Memorial History Museum and visit the Spring Art and Craft Fair. May 19, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. $5. 805-441-1405. post66slo.org. American Legion Post 66, 1661 Mill St., San Luis Obispo.
COFFEE AND PAINT Grab your paintbrush and a cup of Joe while diving into a caffeinated painting workshop with Drew Davis. May 19, 6-8 p.m. my805tix.com. Ascendo Coffee, 311 Higuera St., San Luis Obispo, 805-345-2155.
DOWNTOWN SLO FARMERS MARKET
Thursdays, 6-9 p.m. Downtown SLO, Multiple locations, San Luis Obispo.
FOREVER STOKED: PAINT PARTY Enjoy a very special Paint Party. May 15 7 p.m. my805tix.com. Liquid Gravity, 675 Clarion Court, San Luis Obispo.
HEAD GAMES TRIVIA NIGHT Live
multi-media trivia every Wednesday. Free to play. Win prizes. Teams up to six players. Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Free. headgamestrivia.com. Antigua Brewing, 1009 Monterey St., San Luis Obispo, 805-242-1167.
MOTHER’S DAY TEA AT THE DALLIDET
Here’s your chance to celebrate daughters, mothers, and grandmothers by experiencing this great British tradition. May 12 11 a.m. my805tix.com. Dallidet Adobe and Gardens, 1185 Pacific St., San Luis Obispo.
QUEER TRIVIA Sip some cider, test your LGBTQ trivia knowledge, and learn new fun facts. Topic themes and hosts rotate each week. Prizes for winners. BYO food. Third Friday of every month, 6-8 p.m. Free. 805-292-1500. Two Broads Ciderworks, 3427 Roberto Ct., suite 130, San Luis Obispo, twobroadscider.com.
SLO FARMERS MARKET Hosts more than 60 vendors. Saturdays, 8-10:45 a.m. World Market Parking Lot, 325 Madonna Rd., San Luis Obispo.
SUNSET WINE/RAIL EXCURSION: SANTA BARBARA These fully-hosted, docent-led excursions will depart from the SLO Railroad Museum at 11 a.m. taking a motor coach to the Santa Barbara Wine Collective May 18 my805tix.com. San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum, 1940 Santa Barbara Ave., San Luis Obispo, 805-548-1894.
TRIVIA NIGHT Reservations are no longer required to play. Reservations are now for teams who want to guarantee a table to play. Tables available first come, first serve. Wednesdays, 7-9 p.m. my805tix.com. Bang the Drum Brewery, 1150 Laurel Lane, suite 130, San Luis Obispo, 805 242-8372.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT PUB TRIVIA Bring your thinking cap as questions vary from pop culture, geography, to sports. There is a little for everyone. Prizes for the winning teams. Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Free. 805-439-2529. Oak and Otter Brewing, 181 Tank Farm Road, suite 110, San Luis Obispo.
WEDNESDAY PUB TRIVIA Bring your thinking caps as questions vary from pop culture, geography, to sports. There is a little for everyone. Prizes for the winning teams. Trivia provided by Geeks Who Drink.
Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Free. 805-4392529. Oak and Otter Brewing, 181 Tank Farm Road, suite 110, San Luis Obispo.
SOUTH COAST SLO COUNTY
MONTHLY FERMENTATION CLASSES
6627. kulturhausbrewing.com/classes/. Kulturhaus Brewing Company, 779 Price St., Pismo Beach.
MUSIC
NORTH COAST SLO COUNTY BLUES AGENDA JAM AND SHOWCASE
A rockin’ blues dance party at Niffy’s Merrimaker every first, third, and now fifth Wednesdays. The Blues Asylum house band welcomes local, visiting, and newcomers to the blues groove. Spirits, beer, and wine, with outside food welcome. Every other Wednesday, 7-10 p.m. Free. 805-235-5223. The Merrimaker Tavern, 1301 2nd Street, Los Osos.
BRYNN ALBANESE AND IAN SCARFE: RECITAL Presenting classical and contemporary works in a lecture recital setting. May 18 , 2:30 p.m. my805tix.com. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 2700 Eton Road, Cambria.
BURLEY THISTLES Burley Thistles plays guitar-woven music that has an indie attitude and a tough beat and generates curiosity with original songs that are in distinctive stylistic shapes outside the pop main stream. May 11 7-10 p.m. eastoneverett.com. The Savory Palette (formerly Morro Bay Wine Seller), 601 Embarcadero, Morro Bay, (805) 679-3326 / (805) 858-8440.
CAYUCOS BACKYARD SHOW FEATURING YNANA ROSE Host will send you the address and more details after you buy tickets. May 19 2 p.m. my805tix.com. Backyard Show, Private home, Cayucos. EASTON EVERETT Easton Everett plays guitar-woven music with an indie attitude with songs in distinctive stylistic shapes outside the pop mainstream. His singing delivers the strengths of his lyrics. It is music that is easy to listen to but also surprises. May 18 , 5-7 p.m. eastoneverett. com. Sea Pines Golf Resort, 1945 Solano St., 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. ONE VOICE Presented by the Cambria Community Chorale. May 12 and May 19 my805tix.com. Cambria Community Presbyterian Church, 2250 Yorkshire Drive, Cambria.
RIFF TIDE LIVE Part of a Saturday evening concert series. Enjoy beer, wine, live music, and more. May 18 , 5-8 p.m. Free show. 805-226-6678. debiredmusic.com. Buttercup Bakery and Cafe, 430 Morro Bay Blvd., Morro Bay.
THE SURFACE WALKERS A brand new science fiction rock musical written and created locally in Morro Bay. Time warp into the future for a wild evening full of rock music and sci-fi adventures. May 16, 6:30-10 p.m. $12 advance; $15 at the door. thesurfacewalkers.com. The Siren, 900 Main St., Morro Bay, 805-225-1312. NORTH SLO COUNTY CELTIC/AMERICANA DUO: ANAM CARA Join critically acclaimed acoustic duo Anam Cara (Friend to My Heart), in their return to The Porch Cafe, for an evening of original, Celtic, and folk favorites, featuring their tight vocals and sweet arrangements, as heard on the radio. With Angela Wood and David Evans. May 18 , 5:30-7:30 p.m. Tip the bar; tip the band. 805-710-3309. The Porch Cafe, 22322 El Camino Real, Santa Margarita, theporchcafe.com/.
EASTON EVERETT Easton Everett plays guitar-woven music that is easy to listen to but also surprises. May 17, 5-7 p.m. eastoneverett.com. Outlaws Bar, Grill, & Casino, 9850 E Front St, Atascadero, 805-466-2000.
WINE FEST AFTER PARTY Features wine tasting, music, and food at the Estate Tasting Room. Anthony Michael Arriola will be playing music starting at noon, and Yabba Dabba Dogs Food Truck will be on-site for you to purchase food. May 19 11 a.m.-5 p.m. No entry fee. 805-237-1245. mcpricemyers.com. McPrice Myers Wine
New topics each month with a thorough demo and explanation of the process that creates non-alcoholic, probiotic, and nutrient-dense fermentations. Leave the class confident and prepared with recipes to make your own at home. Limited seating; reserve spot prior to class by phone/email. Second Sunday of every month, 3:30-5 p.m. $30. 805-801-
JOLON STATION BAND VARIETY SHOW Come join Jolon Station Band every Thursday night in downtown Atascadero for a night of comedy, musical guests, prize wheels, and more. Thursdays, 8-10 p.m. $5 at the door. Raconteur Room, 5840 Traffic Way, Atascadero, 805-464-2584.
RAELYNN LIVE An indoor concert. All
ages welcome. Food and wine available for purchase. No pets allowed. May 18 , 7:30 p.m. my805tix.com/. Rava Wines + Events, 6785 Creston Rd., Paso Robles, 805-238-7282.
SINGING HANDS CHILDREN’S CHOIR
A unique performing arts group that performs across the state for deaf festivals, service organizations, churches, fairs, and other outlets. New members always welcome. Registration open weekly. Mondays, 5-6:30 p.m. $45 tuition per month. singinghandschildrenschoir. com/. Singing Hands Children’s Choir and Performing Arts, 1413 Riverside Ave., Paso Robles.
SPOTLIGHT ON BROADWAY: ONE-NIGHT
FUNDRAISER
Hosted by Wine Country Theatre. Proceeds from this event will help fund the group’s enchanting upcoming performances. May 19, 5 p.m. my805tix.com. Downtown Paso Robles, Private address revealed to ticket holders, Paso Robles.
SAN LUIS OBISPO
30 YEARS OF FRIENDS AND SONG
Presented by the Central Coast Youth Chorus. May 18 and May 19 my805tix. com. First Presbyterian Church of San Luis Obispo, 981 Marsh St., San Luis Obispo, 805-543-5451.
ALL AGES OPEN MIC NIGHT Tuesdays, 6-9 p.m. Liquid Gravity, 675 Clarion Court, San Luis Obispo.
CAL POLY INSTRUMENTAL STUDENT
RECITAL Cal Poly Music Department student instrumentalists present this free recital. May 14 7:30 p.m. Free. 805-7562406. music.calpoly.edu/calendar/free/. Cal Poly Davidson Music Center, Room 218, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.
CAL POLY POLYRHYTHMICS
PERCUSSION RECITAL The Cal Poly
Percussion Ensemble will provide an evening of fun and exciting music from the world of percussion, including Paul Elwood’s quietly enigmatic “Bowl of Light,”
Ivan Trevino’s popular “Catching Shadows,” and Sven-David Sandstrom’s juggernaut quintet “Drums.” May 16 7:30 p.m. Free. 805-756-2406. music.calpoly.edu/ calendar/. PAC Pavilion, Performing Arts Center, 1 Grand Ave, San Luis Obispo.
CAL POLY SPRING JAZZ CONCERT
Performances by Cal Poly’s Vocal Jazz Ensemble, Inga Swearingen, director; Jazz Combos, Dylan Johnson, director; and University Jazz Band, Dave Becker, director. May 17 7:30 p.m. $15 and $20 general; $10 students and Jazz Federation members. 805-756-4849. music.calpoly.edu/calendar. Performing Arts Center, 1 Grand Ave., San Luis Obispo.
CAL POLY’S AN EVENING OF WOODWIND CHAMBER MUSIC Several Cal Poly music ensembles will perform a variety of traditional and contemporary repertoire featuring woodwind instruments. May 9, 7:30 p.m. Free. 805-756-2406. music. calpoly.edu/calendar/free/. San Luis Obispo United Methodist Church, 1515 Fredericks Street, San Luis Obispo.
COMBOPALOOZA! The end of the year combo festival, with all nine combos playing at their best. The Cuesta Combo program has often been recognized for its excellence and creativity. May 14 , 7:30 p.m.
$10-$15. Harold J. Miossi CPAC at Cuesta College, Highway 1, San Luis Obispo.
CUESTA CHOIRS CONCERT: BEGINNING TO SEE THE LIGHT “How do we bring together our audience, with its incredible diversity of thought and experience?” The Cuesta Chamber Singers and Voce will attempt this important task through “our love and hard work, using the tools given to us in this inspiring set of music.” May 10
7:30 p.m. $10-$15. Harold J. Miossi CPAC at Cuesta College, Highway 1, San Luis Obispo.
CUESTA JAZZ ENSEMBLES CONCERT
A evening of sophistication and swing in this end of the (school) year jazz show. Featuring the Cuesta big band and the best of the school’s jazz combos, this concert is “the best at featuring our best.” May 11
VROOMING AND GROOVING
The inaugural Mother’s Day Spring Classic takes place at Pioneer Park in Orcutt on Sunday, May 12, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. This festive car show features more than 100 vehicles, live music from Mariachi Voces Tapatias (pictured) and additional entertainment, food, drinks, and more. Visit my805tix.com for tickets and more info. Pioneer Park is located at 1150 W. Foster Road, Orcutt.
7:30 p.m. $10-$15. Harold J. Miossi CPAC at Cuesta College, Highway 1, San Luis Obispo.
EMO ORCHESTRA FEATURING ESCAPE
THE FATE Doors open at 7 p.m. All ages welcome. May 19 8 p.m. The Fremont Theater, 1035 Monterey St., San Luis Obispo, 805-546-8600, fremontslo.com.
HYINK STRINGS CONCERT The Hyink Strings are a talented family of stringed instrumentalists whose repertoire includes classical and contemporary music. May 9 6-7:30 p.m. Free will offering. 805-543-8327. zionslo.com. Zion Lutheran Church, 1010 E Foothill Blvd., San Luis Obispo.
JAZZ WEDNESDAYS Spinning jazz records all night. Bebop, jazz funk, acid jazz, hard bop, nu jazz, jazz house, crossover, Latin jazz, and more. Featuring guest selectors. Music at a polite volume in an acoustically treated space. Vintage sound system, big warm speakers. Plenty of free parking. Wednesdays, 3-8 p.m. through Oct. 30 Free. 805-439-1544. jansplaceslo.com. Jan’s Place, 1817 Osos St., San Luis Obispo.
LIVE MUSIC FROM GUITAR WIZ BILLY FOPPIANO AND MAD DOG Join “Guitar Wiz” Billy Foppiano and his trusty side kick Mad Dog for a mix of blues, R&B, and more.
Saturdays, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. 805-544-2100. Bon Temps Creole Cafe, 1819 Osos Street, San Luis Obispo, bontempscreolecafe.com/ index.htm.
LOST TO THE VOID, IMPALEMENT, AND 805 PROOF Presented by GS3events and PinUp. May 10 7 p.m. my805tix.com. Humdinger Brewing (SLO), 855 Capitolio Way, suite 1, San Luis Obispo, 805-781-9974.
A MUSICAL SPRING Featuring classical and contemporary works for violin and piano presented by Rhapsody Duo. May 19 2 p.m. my805tix.com. Mount Carmel Lutheran Church, 1701 Fredericks St., San Luis Obispo.
SAM HIRSH QUARTET FEATURING
RALPH MOORE Presented by the San Luis Obispo County Jazz Federation. May 11 7:30 p.m. my805tix.com. Mount Carmel Lutheran Church, 1701 Fredericks St., San Luis Obispo.
SARAH SAVIET VIOLIN RECITAL Berlinbased violinist Sarah Saviet performs new music for solo violin. The program features work by Iannis Xenakis, Lisa Streich, Timothy McCormack, and original work by Saviet. These works complement Sarah’s debut solo album SPUN May 16 5:30 p.m. Free. 805-756-2406. music.calpoly.edu/ calendar/. Cal Poly Davidson Music Center, Room 218, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.
SARAH SAVIET: CHAMBER MUSIC
MASTER CLASS Violinist Sarah Saviet will coach students active in the Music Department’s string chamber music program. She is based in Berlin and is dedicated to the performance of contemporary music. She is a member of the Saviet/Houston Duo and Ensemble Mosaik. May 16, 11:10 a.m. Free. 805-7562406. music.calpoly.edu/calendar/free/. Cal Poly Davidson Music Center, Room 218, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.
SLO COUNTY TRUMPET ALLIANCE
MOTHER’S DAY CONCERT The San Luis Obispo County Trumpet Alliance presents a special Mother’s Day concert this year. May 12 , 2 p.m. $10-$15. Harold J. Miossi CPAC at Cuesta College, Highway 1, San Luis Obispo.
W. TERRENCE SPILLER: BEETHOVEN
PIANO SONATA CYCLE VIII Pianist and Cal Poly Professor Emeritus W. Terrence Spiller will conclude his survey of Beethoven piano sonatas in this eighth and final recital. May 10, 7:30 p.m. $20 general; $10 students. 805-756-4849. music.calpoly. edu/calendar/. PAC Pavilion, Performing Arts Center, 1 Grand Ave, San Luis Obispo.
SOUTH COAST SLO COUNTY CENTRAL COAST UKULELE FESTIVAL Ukulele groups from San Luis Obispo County will perform. May 18 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Free. 805-489-5148. Heritage Square Park, 205 Nelson St., Arroyo Grande. COME PLAY IN MAY AT PUFFERS OF PISMO WITH THE CLIFFNOTES The Cliffnotes Band springs into Puffers of Pismo, with their New Orleans-style boogie blues. Featuring former Janis Joplin stand-in for Big Brother and The Holding Co., Valerie Johnson. May 11 7-10 p.m. Free. 805-773-6563. puffersofpismo.com. Puffers of Pismo, 781 Price St., Pismo Beach. HYPERION: A CYBERPUNK RAVE Visit site for tickets and more info. May 18 8 p.m. my805tix.com. Fuego in Grover Beach, 1187 W. Grand Ave., Grover Beach, (805) 710-6477.
KARAOKE EVERY FRIDAY Enjoy some good food and karaoke. Fridays, 5-8 p.m. 805-723-5550. The Central Grill, 545 Orchard Road, Nipomo.
KARAOKE EVERY WEDNESDAY A weekly event with barbecue offerings and more. Wednesdays, 4-8 p.m. Rancho Nipomo BBQ, 108 Cuyama Ln., Nipomo, 805-925-3500.
SKATE SAFARI AND MORE Features various musical acts. Address info in Arroyo Grande granted to ticket buyers. Visit site for more info and tickets. May 17 6 p.m. my805tix.com. Historic Village of Arroyo Grande, Branch and Short St., Arroyo Grande. TRUE ZION Enjoy a night of reggae music and good vibes. May 11 7:30 p.m. my805tix. com.
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Arts
Halcyon program highlights filmmaker and author Vladan Mijatovic Zivojnov
The Temple of the People in Halcyon is hosting a two-day program with documentary filmmaker and photojournalist Vladan Mijatovic Zivojnov, who will speak about his latest book, Into the Heart of Gold The book documents Zivojnov’s pilgrimage to meet with the Dalai Lama of Tibet.
On Saturday, May 18, Zivojnov will read an excerpt from the book and present a soundtrack of chants he recorded during pilgrimages to Bodhgaya and the Himalayas, at the Temple’s University Center Gallery, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Later that day, the Temple will screen a segment of Zivojnov’s documentary, Tibetan Trinity: Life, Death, Time at Hiawatha Lodge, from 3:30 to 5 p.m.
The documentary’s third and final chapter, “Time,” will be screened. According to press materials, Zivojnov received special permission to film at the Dalai Lama’s Kalachakra for the World Peace event—two weeks of Buddhist teachings at Mt. Kinnaur Kailash—for the documentary. A Q-and-A with Zivojnov will follow the screening.
On Sunday, May 19, Zivojnov will speak during the Temple’s regular Sunday Service at the Blue Star Memorial Temple, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. He’ll share his experiences and insights “as a pilgrim, wanderer, and student of His Holiness the XVI Dalai Lama,” according to press materials.
Later that evening, the Temple will host a pre-meditation gathering in the University Center Gallery, from 6:30 to 6:55 p.m., followed by a one-hour meditation in the Blue Star Memorial Temple, from 7 to 8 p.m. Tibetan Buddhist chants, recorded by Zivojnov, will accompany the meditation. Floor sitters are asked to bring their own meditation cushions to the event.
Admission to each event in the series is free. Goodwill offerings will be accepted. To find out more about the upcoming program and other programs hosted by the Temple of the People, call (805) 489-2822 or visit templeofthepeople.org.
Morro Bay Senior Center hosts art exhibit at Buttercup Bakery and Cafe
Watercolor paintings and drawings from participants of art classes at the Morro Bay Senior Center are currently on display at Buttercup Bakery and Cafe, as part of a new exhibition. The showcase opened in early May and is scheduled to remain up through Saturday, June 1. For more info on the exhibit and the Morro Bay Senior Center, visit morrobayseniors.org.
Buttercup Bakery and Cafe is located at 430 Morro Bay Blvd., Morro Bay. ∆
—Caleb Wiseblood
BY SAMANTHA HERRERARoom for everyone
The Central Coast Artists Collective doesn’t discriminate when it comes to art or artists
With beautiful scenery and slower pace of life, the Central Coast is home to a plethora of skilled artists but not everyone gets the opportunity to showcase their work. e Central Coast Artists Collective aims to give its members that chance.
e collective of painters, sculptors, crafters, photographers, and more formed in March 2021 after the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art’s (SLOMA) mission changed to focus on national and international artists and exhibitions, collective member Charlotte Daigle told New Times.
“ e artist groups lost their venue and services and were left to fend for survival on their own,” she said. “A few members of the artist groups came together to form the Central Coast Artists Collective with the goal of providing the lost services.”
e group accepts local artists who pay a $30 membership fee. e collective promotes creativity and o ers their members free range on their work, Central Coast Artists Collective treasurer and stone carver Carl Berney told New Times.
“Basically, the only rules that we apply to exhibitions is that art can’t be pornographic,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that you can’t have naked bodies because naked bodies are a big part of art. We don’t espouse a lot of political statements just because we see that’s too divisive, and we want people to have a good time observing art. But yeah, there’s very few restrictions on anybody joining and what they present.”
e membership fees are to help fund services such as exhibition showings, Berney said.
could be on show all the time,” he said. “It was just a matter of some people like to show their work to the public and other people not so much.”
e collective works with various galleries on the Central Coast to show its members art, including an upcoming show at Art Center Morro Bay that will run from May 16 to June 24.
Join ’em
For more info about how to join the Central Coast Artists Collective or where their work is showing, visit centralcoastartistscollective.org. See their show at Art Center Morro Bay, 835 Main St., from May 16 to June 24.
“We now provide the artist groups with a bank account that each artist group controls,” he said. “ e idea is that we provide the services that a small or even medium sized group can’t, and we make contractual arrangements with the limited venues that we have here for exhibiting art.”
However, photographer and collective member Ralph George told New Times that the collective still lacks a permanent meeting place.
“We never really did have a place where our stu
e show will host work from the photography group, sculptors’ group, and the craft maker’s group. Berney said that alongside wonderful pieces of art, he will present a stone carving that he’s been working on for ve years— RajaKapotasana—depicting a woman in pigeon pose.
“I had a piece of stone leftover from an earlier project. It was basically a triangular-shaped piece, and if you think about that pose, it’s essentially a triangle because the front leg and the back leg are sticking out and the arms are up over their head and the top of the triangle was kind of the points of the elbow,” he said.
“I had a piece of stone that was roughly that shape, and it would t in here.”
ose who practice pigeon pose in yoga often sit on the oor with one leg in front, bending inward toward their body and one leg behind bending up toward the ceiling. Some to reach their hands back and grabbing the foot that’s toward the ceiling, while others prefer to keep their arms reaching long to the sky.
“ e story you hear about sculptors’ stone carvings, staring at a piece of stone and they visualize what’s inside and then take away everything that doesn’t look like that is kind of an urban myth,” he said. “Basically, what happens is it doesn’t have to be very detailed, but it has to have the exterior dimensions of the piece you want. en I look around my studio and say, ‘Yeah, what would this t in?’ And of course what you want to do is make the sculpture t in the piece of stone and you want to waste as little as possible.”
Berney said he’s thankful that he can bring stone carving to the Central Coast because it’s a dying art that not many young people take up anymore.
“You have to have patience and persistence to do it, and people today want immediate results, but stone carving doesn’t work that way,” he said. “ ey want to sit down at the beginning of the day and make something, and ship it out for an art show that afternoon.”
Photographer and collective member George said 69 photographs from various photographers will be hanging at the art center alongside the sculpture. ese include Denise Taylor’s Half Dome on a Winter’s Night and Mimi Ditchie’s Tree and Spectacular Sunset
An opening reception with food, drinks, and artist awards will be held on May 19 from 2 to 4 p.m. at Art Center Morro Bay. ∆
Sta
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luis obispo May 18 $20/Reg. ($5 Family Discount) Dad Jam $5!
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Achy breaky hearts
Former stuntman-turned-director David Leitch (Bullet Train, Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde) helms this action comedy loosely based on Lee Majors TV series of the same name (1981-1986), about Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling), a Hollywood stuntman who’s drawn into a complicated conspiracy involving his ex-girlfriend, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), a former camerawoman shooting her directorial debut in Sydney, Australia. (104 min.)
THE FALL GUY
What’s it rated? PG-13
What’s it worth, Bulbul? Full price
What’s it worth, Caleb? Full price
Where’s it showing? Colony, Downtown Centre, Park, Stadium 10, Sunset Drive-In
Glen Before the lm began, the theater rolled a brief tape of David Leitch and Ryan Gosling thanking audiences for coming to the cinema and explaining that their new lm is a “love letter” to stuntmen, the unsung and usually unrecognized daredevils who make an action lm come alive. A lot of lms these days rely on CGI to create gravitydefying stunts, but this lm is about good old-fashioned stunt performers taking the hits, the falls, the punches, and the ames. Colt Seavers is an old-school stuntman, the guy who makes action star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) look good. e story brings viewers into this largely unseen world where we get to see how the e ects are created. Ryder is an egotistical and vindictive prick, and Colt is badly injured redoing a stunt because Ryder thinks the rst take showed too much of Colt’s face. It’s the setup for the rest of this implausible but highly entertaining love story about how after an 18-month absence, Colt and Jody rekindle their romance. Gosling and Blunt are both incredibly likeable with some believable chemistry between them. e lm’s a hoot from beginning to end.
Anna is lm does one of my favorite things—it has a running gag poking fun at
FREAKY FRIDAY
What’s it rated? PG When? 2003
Where’s it showing? The Palm Theatre of San Luis Obispo on May 11 (1:30, 4:15, 7, and 9:30 p.m.), May 12 (1:30, 4:15, and 7 p.m.), and May 13 (7:30 p.m.)
Freaky Friday features teenaged Lindsey Lohan in her heyday and Jamie Lee Curtis as a putupon mom whose lives get turned upside down when an argument in a Chinese restaurant turns into a body-switching snafu. The two simply couldn’t understand each other before, but this
THE OLD SWITCHAROO
Overworked mom Tess Coleman (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her rebellious teenage daughter, Anna (Lindsay Lohan), switch bodies and lives in the 2003
Friday
itself. ere’s all this buildup to the third act, which coincides with Jody’s inability to resolve the third act of her space cowboy love story directorial debut. Blunt and Gosling each have the uncanny ability to be both ridiculously gorgeous and funny, so getting these two onscreen together is a total treat. After Colt’s accident, he shut Jody out, but when producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham in an increasingly chaotic brunette wig) calls him up and insists that Jody is asking for him on her rst lm, Colt can’t help but hop on a plane to Sydney. It soon becomes clear that Jody had no intention to see Colt again and that Gail’s motives aren’t to reunite two starcrossed lovers. Jody is still reeling from Colt’s disappearance from her life, and no new project or new haircut is going to erase the painful memory—so she’s going to make Colt work for her attention. Watching Blunt as Jody torture Colt time and time again proves entertaining, and Colt seems willing
Disney classic from 2003 (a remake of the 1976 original) attempts to bring some humor and levity to Tess and Anna’s sticky situation. was a teen when this flick came out, and subsequent rewatches in the many years between now and then still bring joy. Lohan and Curtis are quite the pair—each with a real pizzazz for taking on their counterpart’s character. Between the nightmare of watching your mom talk to your crush while wearing your face to realizing that you may just have to marry your soon-to-be stepdad the next day, Freaky Friday is full of situations that Tess and Anna have to tackle as they race to get back to being themselves.
This film’s sure to be a family favorite, so the opportunity to see it on the big screen is a treat! Freaky Friday reminds us that we’re a lot more alike than we are different, even when your parent or teen seems like a total alien to you. (107 min.)
—Anna
STREETS OF FIRE
What’s it rated? PG
When? 1984
to take the punches if it means getting his girl back. is lm is pure popcorn fun! Glen e story eventually becomes completely inane, but by then I no longer cared. I just wanted Colt to win back Jody, and I wanted the myriad villains to get their comeuppance. is is a lm that’s better on the big screen, so don’t wait for streaming. Get thee to the theater. is is pure cinematic joy on par with Everything Everywhere All at Once Anna Yep, this is one that’s meant to be enjoyed, not analyzed. If this is what summer movies of 2024 are shaping up to be, I’m here for it! Go enjoy the glitz of Hollywood and the action packed, stunt lled ick that gives us all permission to laugh at the over-the-top silliness of it all. I loved it! ∆
Senior Sta Writer Glen Starkey and freelancer Anna Starkey write Split Screen. Glen compiles listings. Comment at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
Where’s it showing? The Palm Theatre of San Luis Obispo on May 10 (4:15 and 7 p.m.)
Director and co-writer Walter Hill (The Warriors, 48 Hrs., Johnny Handsome) helms this neonoir “rock & roll fable,” a furious motorcycle musical set in a dystopian ’50s-esque retro future that exists in a gritty nighttime city populated by leather-clad street gangs, corrupt cops, and rock music fans bedecked in ’80s attire.
At the top of the musical mountain is rock
Ellen Aim (Diane Lane), who becomes the kidnapping target for Raven Shaddock (Willem Defoe) and his gang of motorcycle thugs, The Bombers. Ellen’s old flame, ex-soldier Tom Cody (Michael Paré), just happens to be cruising through town, so Ellen’s manager, Billy Fish (Rick Moranis), hires Cody to rescue her.
Ry
and
and Holly Sherwood, the film boasts a terrific soundtrack. Upon its release, it got mixed reviews and bombed at the box office, earning just $8 million on a $14.5 million budget, but it went on to rightfully gain cult classic status. This film drips with cool. (93 min.) ∆ —Glen
a
Music
National treasure
The incomparable Mavis Staples plays the Fremont
Mavis Staples is among the great powerhouse female vocalists of R&B and gospel, up there with Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Odetta, and Bettye LaVette. She’s literally a living legend, the last surviving member of the groundbreaking family band The Staple Singers, a three-time Grammy Award winner who during her long and illustrious career collaborated with everyone from Prince, Ry Cooder, and David Byrne.
Now 84, she remains a phenomenal talent renowned not only for her music but also her civil rights activism and the melding of both with iconic songs such as “Long Walk to D.C.” and “When Will We Be Paid?” You can see her live and in person this Saturday, May 11, in the Fremont Theater (8 p.m.; all ages; $39.60 to $99.50 at prekindle.com).
Also at the Fremont, see English post punk and new wave rockers The Psychedelic Furs on Wednesday, May 15 (8 p.m.; all ages; $49.50 at prekindle.com), with special guests John Doe and Exene of X.
Catch Canadian indie pop act Tegan and Sara on Thursday, May 16 (8 p.m.; all ages; $43.50 at prekindle.com), with special guest Devan opening.
And if you want to get your dance on, Club Saltburn spins indie Y2K dance music on Friday, May 10 (8 p.m.; all ages; $14 at prekindle.com).
Numbskull
and Good Medicine
Don’t forget, country singer-songwriter Wade Bowen plays The Siren on Thursday, May 9 (7 p.m.; 21-and-older; $23 at goodmedicinepresents.com), with Joe & Martina opening.
Good Medicine, Numbskull, and KCBX also present Steve Poltz on Wednesday, May 15, at Castoro Cellars (6 p.m.; all ages; $25 at goodmedicinepresents.com), with Derek Senn opening. Poltz is an amazing entertainer—a mischievous raconteur, relentlessly creative songwriter, and human
open to the whims of the universe.
When recording his new album, Stardust & Satellites (2022), he explained in press materials how its single, “Can O’ Pop” came to be: “Jano from The Wood Brothers was leaving the studio, and I asked him to give me a beat, and I told him I’d write a song with the beat he gave me,” Steve recalled.
The result was an exuberant, syncopated groove animated by the lyric “I want to feel the fizzy rhythm with you.” Poltz is a true original.
“Hey, everyone loves a can of pop.”
The Siren
Natural Bridge plays an afternoon concert on Saturday, May 11 (2 to 5 p.m.; 21-andolder; free), playing power rock, soul, blues, pop, and country. “Our choice of music is a variety of the most popular, enjoyable songs of many eras and genres,” the band said.
The Purple Ones (An Insatiable Tribute to Prince) returns on Saturday, May 11 (8 p.m.; 21-and-older; $22 at tixr.com), to supply your Prince fix. This is a big band, with 11 or 12 players and a complete horn section, that “delivers their own spin on Prince’s (and other Prince related artists such as The Revolution, The
New Power Generation, Sheila E., Morris Day & The Time and the general Minneapolis Sound) music live onstage,” according to the band. Ready for something odd and original?
Check out The Surface Walkers—a Sci-Fi Rock Opera on Thursday, May 16 (7 p.m.; 21-and-older; $12 at tixr.com). “We’re here to spice up your day with something weird, wild, and totally different!” Ben and Becca from The Surface Walkers wrote. “The Surface Walkers is a brand-new science fiction rock musical written and created right here in Morro Bay. It’s an epic journey like nothing you’ve ever seen! A psychedelic rock theatrical experience, a time warp into the future ... where we dare you to discover a deeper connection with music, yourself, your fellow humans, and the planet.”
SLO Brew Live at Rod and Hammer Rock
SLO Brew Live and (((folkYEAH!))) present L’Eclair with Omar Velasco on Thursday, May 16 (doors at 7 p.m.; 18-and-older; $22 at ticketweb.com). L’Eclair is a cosmic instrumental sextet from Geneva, Switzerland. Expect “relentless grooves, classic tones, and silky-smooth melodies,” according to their bio.
Cal Poly Arts
Opera San Luis Obispo presents Disney’s Beauty and the Beast: The Musical at Cal Poly’s Performing Arts Center on Saturday, May 11 (2 and 7 p.m.) and Sunday, May 12 (2 p.m.) (all ages; $30 to $87 at pacslo.org). Expect spectacular sets and costumes, ballet, chorus, and OperaSLO’s live orchestra.
“Based on the Academy Award-winning animated feature, the stage adaptation includes all of the wonderful songs written by Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman, along with new songs by Mr. Menken and Tim Rice,” Opera SLO explained. “The original Broadway production ran for over 13 years and was nominated for nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical.”
Parkfield
Bluegrass Festival
Don’t forget the 24th Annual Parkfield Bluegrass Festival starts Thursday, May 9, and runs through Sunday, May 12, and this year they have 13 terrific acts lined-up (visit parkfieldbluegrass.org for
PARKFIELD BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL
a schedule and my805tix.com for tickets).
Acts include Mr. Sun, Edgar Loudermilk Band, The Clements Brothers, Never Come Down, Mountain Highway, Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band, Alum Ridge Boys, Stillhouse Junkies, SLO County Stumblers, Amber Cross, and more.
Coastal Country returns
Country singer-songwriter and Cal Poly alum Derek James returns to the area for four shows this week. After graduation, he moved to Nashville to pursue his music career, where he introduced Music City to his patented “Coastal Country” sound.
“Things have been going well in Nashville,” James said. “I’ve recently landed a handful of indie cuts, was a part of my first sold out show at The Listening Room, and was selected as a finalist in the American Songwriter Song Contest. Been gigging a lot, recording new music, and had a new single come out April 26.”
See and hear his catchy new single “California Rays” on YouTube and see him live on Thursday, May 9, in SLO’s McLintock’s (6 to 8:30 p.m.); Friday, May 10, in the Shell Beach McLintock’s (6 to 8:30 p.m.); Saturday, May 11, in Avila’s PierFront Wine & Brew (3 to 6 p.m.); and Sunday, May 12, in SLO’s Claiborne & Churchill Winery (1 to 4 p.m.). All shows are free.
More music …
Pianist and music Professor Emeritus W. Terrence Spiller will give his final Beethoven sonata cycle recital on Friday, May 10, in the Pavilion of the Performing Arts Center (7:30 p.m.; all ages; $20 general and $10 for students at the Cal Poly Ticket Office or by calling 805-756-4849). Two sonatas will bookend he program: the massive Sonata No. 4 in E-flat Major, Op. 7, and the joyously majestic “Waldstein” sonata, No. 21 in C Major, Op. 53. Between these will be two smaller works: the compact and joyous Sonata No. 22 in F Major, Op. 54, and the lyrical No. 13 in E-flat Major, Op. 27, No. 1.
The Cliffnotes return to Puffers of Pismo on Saturday, May 11, bringing their New Orleans style boogie blues to the wine-centric bistro (7 to 10 p.m.; free). According to bandleader Cliff “Crawdaddy” Stepp, you can expect “great times and fine wines with dance music and dad jokes by The Cliffnotes.”
Continuing their 40th anniversary concert series, the SLO County Jazz Federation presents the Sam Hirsh Quartet featuring Ralph Moore on Saturday, May 11, in SLO’s Mt. Carmel Lutheran Church (7:30 p.m.; all ages; $30 general, $20 for Jazz Fed members, and $10 for students art my805tix.com).
“Sam Hirsh has been a highly regarded pianist, composer, and educator in Los Angeles for decades, playing with some of the top names in jazz,” the Jazz Fed announced. “Ralph Moore is a legendary saxophonist, playing in the bands of Horace Silver, Dizzy Gillespie, Cedar Walton, and Freddie Hubbard among many others.”
Santa Cruz-based singer-songwriter Joe Kaplow will play a house concert this Saturday, May 11, at Rainbow Creek Ranch. It’s all very hush-hush, but if you’re interested, contact Kaplow at joekaplow@gmail.com for show time and directions to the ranch. He’s been touring in support of his new album, Posh Poodle Krystal and Toe, which will
be released on May 17, on Fluff and Gravy Records. He’s got a bit of a Neil Young vibe. Pacific Breeze Concerts presents The Damon Castillo Band playing their annual Mother’s Day concert at Dinosaur Caves in Shell Beach on Sunday, May 12 (1 to 4 p.m.; all ages; free). Castillo’s jazzy pop, R&B, and funk will get you dancing.
“We can’t wait to celebrate Mother’s Day 2024 with you all in Pismo Beach,” Castillo said. “Lots of music, laughs, food, drinks, family, and friends in a singularly beautiful spot here on the coast. Oh, and it’s free, with fun stuff for the kids to do. Bring your lawn chairs, blankets, and picnics and let’s celebrate!”
Cottonwood Canyon Winery (3940 Dominion Road, Santa Maria) hosts a Mother’s Day Reggae Fest featuring Ras Danny & the Reggae All Stars on Sunday, May 12 (doors at noon, entertainment from 1 to 5 p.m.; $15 presale at my805tix.com or $25 day of show), with performances by SoulFyah and an all-star tribal and fusion belly dance show.
The SLO County Trumpet Alliance plays a Mother’s Day concert this Sunday, May 12, at Cuesta College’s Performing Arts Center (2 p.m.; all ages; $15 general or $10 students at tickets.cuesta.edu). The concert also features the Tetrasonic Saxophone Quartet.
John Wessel album drop
Inveterate bar band warrior John Wessel will release his new Rhombus Records album, It Was Magical When We First Met, on Mother’s Day, and over the next couple months, he’ll have weekly shows with his band Shameless every Thursday in May and June including Thursday, May 16, 23, and 30, and June 6, 13, 20, and 27, at Fin’s Seafood. Wessel—a multi-instrumentalist (voice, wind instruments, and keyboards)—creates originals inspired by his lifelong love of classic ’60s and ’70s rock. He also recently released a new single not included on the album, “Time Won’t Let Me,” which was written by his cousin Sonny Geraci and released in 1966 by Sonny’s band The Outsiders.
“His brother Michael Geraci played the saxophone [on the original recording],” Wessel explained. “I bought the saxophone that was on that record off of my cousin four years ago, so I used the original baritone saxophone.”
Cool connection!
Volunteer to work the Live Oak Music Festival
Want to go to the Live Oak Music Festival but you’re short on funds? Volunteers exchange work at the festival for a full festival pass. You could help provide security, be a site crew member driving shuttles and keeping the site clean, work the Children’s Area, be an Acorn Roll monitor, work catering services, and more. Visit liveoakfest.org and click on the volunteer tab under the Join Us dropdown menu. This year’s headliners include bluegrass legend Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway on Friday, June 14, classic ska revivalists The English Beat on Saturday, June 15, and folk heroes John Craigie with the Coffis Brothers on Sunday, June 16. Plus, a ton of other acts. Visit the website for the whole schedule and tickets for this annual fundraising event. ∆
Contact Senior Staff Writer Glen Starkey at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
Flavor
Pressed for the future
Purposeful Edna Valley’s freshly bottled olive oil helps Central Coast FFA students achieve agricultural goals
Purposeful Edna Valley founder Laurie Sances scanned her husband’s 20-year-old olive trees and thought of the children.
“I proposed that I could do a harvest and use it to try to create scholarship funds for agricultural students,” she said. “It’s a profession which is not maybe attracting as many students as it once had.”
Sances’ vision allowed the olive trees that shaded the assortment of crops on her husband’s 10-acre Edna Valley farm to be plucked for the first time in January. It was a cool weather-induced late harvest compared to the usual picking time in October.
Sances told New Times that she was driven by the concept of ikigai—meaning “a reason to live” or “purposeful”—encountered on a month-long stay in Japan. Paired with clinical dietician and part-time agricultural educator Wendy Minarik, the retired physical therapist began learning the art of harvesting, processing, and pressing olives, all with students in mind.
The duo approached Kiler Ridge Olive Farm in Paso Robles for help.
“[Kiler Ridge Founders] Gregg Bone and Audrey [Burnam] came out to the farm and gave us an assessment of our crop harvest,” Sances said. “We had the oil milled within hours of the harvesting and bottled at their food-grade facility.”
Sances and Minarik gauged the supply and demand for Purposeful’s olive oil through an eight-hour harvest of the Spanish Arbequina and the Tuscan Pendolino, Leccino, and Frantoio olives. It proved to be a labor of love. They spread tarps beneath the trees, grabbed long-handled rakes, and beat the branches with them. They gathered the tarp with the olives that rained down and stored them in bins ready for milling.
Over the course of one day in January, Sances, Minarik, and a dozen workers harvested 30 percent of the fruit from 450 olive trees. It produced 740 bottles of Purposeful’s custom Bella’s Blend of the Tuscan varietals and 70 bottles of the Spanish Arbequina olive oil called Mattie’s Arbequina—both named after two of Sances’ dogs. Purposeful has already sold out the latter.
“To get a quality oil, you can’t collect them from the ground if they’ve just fallen and [were] lying on the ground for days,” Sances said. “You need to harvest them and collect them and get them pressed very quickly to produce an olive oil that has a healthy fruity flavor and body.”
While the majority of Purposeful’s 375 milliliter bottles can be purchased at SLO’s Bishop’s Market, Wolff Vineyards, Saucelito Canyon Tasting Room, Baileyana Winery, and from Top Dog Coffee Bar in Morro Bay, Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapters around the Central Coast enjoyed 40 percent of the total bottled olive oil as donations to supervised agricultural experience projects. Purposeful olive oils found themselves not only at Shandon High School, SLO High School, and Paso Robles
Grab your bottle
Purposeful Edna Valley olive oil is available at Bishop’s Market in the SLO Public Market, Wolff Vineyards, Saucelito Canyon Tasting Room, Baileyana Winery, and at Top Dog Coffee Bar in Morro Bay. Keep up with events and its list of FFA chapter recipients on its website free-4494545. webadorsite.com.
High School in SLO County, but also at Everett Alvarez High School in Salinas and Ernest Righetti High School in Santa Maria.
For Righetti freshman Mia Saucedo and junior Samantha McDonald, Purposeful olive oil flew off the shelves when their FFA chapter sold bottles on campus and from its booth at the Santa Maria Strawberry Festival in April.
“They donated four cases of 12 bottles of olive oil, which is a total of 48 bottles,” McDonald said. “We helped them sell them and we brought just over $500. The money is going to be used to help us with our awards banquet, which is coming up this May 15.”
McDonald, Saucedo, and the other FFA students sold Purposeful olive oil for $10 per bottle. They shared the profits with the founders who, in turn, gave them a cut of the surplus.
Righetti’s FFA chapter is familiar with high-quality olive oil. The campus houses young olive trees, according to FFA Advisor Miguel Guerra. A mobile press company comes and processes Righetti’s olives for free, and the FFA chapter sells the bottled oil to faculty and students to
raise money for events and travels. Though it sold out its share of Purposeful olive oil, the chapter looks forward to continuing working with Sances and Minarik. Guerra and his students said they enjoyed the taste of the olive oils, with the advisor even sampling the grassy and buttery notes in an offbeat way.
“Other people will cook with it but if you really appreciate the flavor, some bread to dip it in,” Guerra said. “But to me, two drops on vanilla ice cream make it taste really refreshing.”
FFA chapters looking to work with Purposeful can find the application for olive oil donation at the company’s website. It asks students about their business plans, career goals, and higher education plans. Sances told New Times that she’s anticipating more
chapters to contact her since Purposeful is now an established FFA donor.
But donating bottles to a higher volume of recipients means Purposeful must expand its rate of harvest. New to olive processing, Sances and Minarik are taking advantage of the educational resources around them, such as the classes offered by the Olive Oil Source in Santa Maria and at Paso Robles’ Kiler Ridge. They’re also tapping into the UC Davis olive program’s online courses.
“People in the community, the olive farmers who have been doing this for 35 years, have been willing to impart their knowledge and share and help us to learn and grow as well,” Sances said.
Eventually, she’d like to transform Purposeful into a nonprofit with a 501(c)(3) classification. Sances added that Purposeful’s early commitment to serve as an FFA donor aimed to fill a gap in the opportunities available
Guest Speaker: Rosalie Salutan Marquez, FANHS-CCCC
Ceremony Includes: Patriotic Music, Gettysburg Address, Color Guard, Flag Presentation, Memorial Wreath, etc.
Guest Speaker: Rosalie Salutan Marquez, FANHS-CCCC Ceremony Includes: Patriotic Music, Gettysburg Address, Color Guard, Flag Presentation, Memorial Wreath, etc.
+ coleslaw, chips, cookie, water. Veterans free w/valid ID
+ coleslaw, chips, cookie, water. Veterans free w/valid ID
+ coleslaw, chips, cookie, water. Veterans free w/valid ID
New Special Exhibit onsite, honoring WWII American & Filipino POWs and those in the Philippines conflicts
New Special Exhibit onsite, honoring WWII American & Filipino POWs and those in the Philippines conflicts
New Special Exhibit onsite, honoring WWII American & Filipino POWs and those in the Philippines conflicts
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ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME
CASE NUMBER: 24CV0213
To all interested persons:
Petitioner: Joshua Garcia filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: PRESENT NAME: Joshua Garcia, to PROPOSED NAME: Valentino Azazel Tempestas.
THE COURT ORDERS: that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted.
Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.
NOTICE OF HEARING: Date:
June 5, 2024, Time: 9:00 am, Dept. D4, in person or by Zoom at the Superior Court of California, County of San Luis Obispo, 1035 Palm Street, Room 385, San Luis Obispo, CA 93408 . A copy of this Order to Show Cause shall be published at least once each week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing on the petition in the following newspaper of general circulation, printed in this county: New Times
Date: April 10, 2024. /s/: Tana L. Coates, Judge of the Superior Court April 18, 25, May 2, 9, 2024.
ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME CASE NUMBER: 24CV0221
To all interested persons: Petitioner: Micaiah John Clark filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: PRESENT NAME: Micaiah John Clark, to PROPOSED NAME: Micaiah John Beltran.
THE COURT ORDERS: that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.
NOTICE OF HEARING: Date: May 23, 2024, Time: 9:00 am, Dept. 2, in person or by Zoom at the Superior Court of California, County of San Luis Obispo, 1035 Palm Street #385, San Luis Obispo, CA 93408. A copy of this Order to Show Cause shall be published at least once each week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing on the petition in the following newspaper of general circulation, printed in this county: New Times Date: April 10, 2024.
/s/: Craig van Rooyen, Judge of the Superior Court April 25, May 2, 9, 16, 2024.
SUMMONS (CITACION JUDICIAL)
NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: (AVISO AL DEMANDADO) Craig Doll
YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: (LO ESTÁ DEMANDANDO EL DEMANDANTE): Law Offices of R. Morgan Holland & R. Morgan Holland
CASE NUMBER (Número de caso): 23LC-0266
Notice! You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below.
You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo. ca.gov/selfhelp), your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money and property may be taken without further warning from the court.
There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www. lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association. NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of $10,000 or more in a civil case. The court’s lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case.
¡AVISO! Lo han demandado. Si no responde dentro de 30 dias, la corte puede decidir en su contra sin escuchar su version. Lea la informacion a continuacion.
Tiene 30 DIAS CALENDARIOS despues de que le entreguen esta citacion y papeles legales para presentar una repuesta por escrito en esta corte y hacer que se entregue una copia al demandante. Una carta o una llamada telefonica no lo protegen. Su respuesta por escrito tiene que estar en formato legal correcto si desea que procesen su caso en la corte. Es posible que haya un formulario que usted puede usar para su respuesta. Puede encontrar estos formuleriors de la corte y mas informacion en el Centro de Ayuda de las Cortes de California (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/ espanol), en la biblioteca de leyes de su condado o en la corte que le quede mas cerca. Si no puede pagar la cuota de presentacion, pida al secretario de la corte que le de un formulario de exencion de pago de cuotas. Si no presenta su repuesta a tiempo, puede perder el caso por incumplimiento y la corte la podra quitar su sueldo, dinero y bienes sin mas advertencia. Hay otros requistas legales. Es recomendable que llame a un abogado inmediamente. Si no conoce a un abogado, puede llamar a un servicio de remision a abogados. Si no puede pagar a un abogado, es posible que cumpla con los requisitos para obtener servicios legales gratuitos de un programa de servicios legales sin fines de lucro. Puede encontrar estos grupos sin fines de lucro en el sitio web de California Legal Services, (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), en el Centro de Ayuda de las Cortes de California, (www. sucorte.ca.gov) o poniendose en contacto con la corte o el colegio de abogados locales. AVISO: Por ley, la corte tiene derecho a reclamar ias cuotas y los costos exentos por imponer un gravamen sobre cualquier recuperacion de $10,000 o mas de valor recibida mediante un acuerdo ao una consesion de artitraje en un caso dce derecho civll. Tiene que pagar el gravamen de la corte antes de que la corte pueda desechar el caso.
CASE NUMBER: (Número de caso): 23LC-0266
The name and address of the court is: (El nombre y dirección de la
corte son) SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT 1035 Palm Street, Room 385 San Luis Obispo, CA 93408
The name, address, and telephone number of plaintiff’s attorney, or plaintiff without an attorney, is: (El nombre, la dirección y número de telefono del abogado del demandante, o del demandante que no tiene abogado, es): R. Morgan Holland 137938 Law Office of R. Morgan Holland, LC 323 Vine Street Santa Maria, CA 93454
805-739-0504
Date: (Fecha) 04/11/2023
By: /s/ Michael Powell, Clerk (Secretario); Jessica Perez-Figueroa, Deputy (Adjunto)
May 9, 16, 23, & 30, 2024
SUMMONS
NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: Sharon Sims, an individual and Successor Trustee of the Gerald Raymond and Barbara Anne Larson Revocable Trust established July 20, 2007; Daniel Keith Larson, an individual; All other persons unknown, claiming any right, title, estate, lien or interest in the real property described in the complaint adverse to plaintiffs’ ownership interest or any cloud on plaintiffs’ right thereof; and DOES 1 through 50, inclusive, YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: WILLIAM ASHLEY WILSON, an individual; and KATHRYN SAMPILO WILSON, an individual CASE NUMBER: 30-2022-01275167-CUOR-NJC
Notice! You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond in 30 days. Read the information below. You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo. ca.gov/selfhelp), your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money and property may be taken without further warning from the court. There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www. lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association. NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of $10,000 or more in a civil case. The court’s lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case.
CASE NUMBER: 30-2022-01275167-CU-OR-NJC
The name and address of the court is: Orange Superior Court 1275 Berkeley Ave. Fullerton, CA 92832 North Justice Center
The name, address, and telephone number of plaintiff’s attorney, or plaintiff without an attorney, is: Nicole S. Dunn, Esq, First American Law Group 5 First American Way Santa Ana, CA 92707
714-250-3500
Date: 07/19/2023
By: /s/ David H. Yamasaki, Clerk, R. Baker, Deputy Clerk
April 18, 25, May 2, & 9, 2024
ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME
CASE NUMBER: 24CV0222
To all interested persons: Petitioner: Joseph Michael Clark filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: PRESENT NAME: Joseph Michael Clark, to PROPOSED NAME: Joseph Michael Beltran.
THE COURT ORDERS: that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the c ourt may grant the petition without a hearing.
NOTICE OF HEARING: Date: May 23, 2024, Time: 9:00 am, Dept. 2 , Dept: 2, in person or by Zoom at the Superior Court of California, County of San Luis Obispo. Paso Robles Branch, 1035 Palm Street, #385, San Luis Obispo, CA 93408. A copy of this Order to Show Cause shall be published at least once each week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing on the petition in the following newspaper of general circulation, printed in this county: New Times Date: April 10, 2024. /s/: Craig van Rooyen, Judge of the Superior Court April 25, May 2, 9, 15, 2024.
ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME CASE NUMBER: 24CV0229
To all interested persons: Petitioner: Michelle Denise Steddum filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: PRESENT NAME: Michelle Denise Steddum, to PROPOSED NAME: Michelle Denise Maltby.
THE COURT ORDERS: that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.
NOTICE OF HEARING: Date: May 30, 2024, Time: 9:01 am, Dept. 2, in person or by Zoom at the Superior Court of California, County of San Luis Obispo. Civil Court Operations 1035 Palm Street, Room 385, San Luis Obispo, CA 93408. A copy of this Order to Show Cause shall be published at least once each week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing on the petition in the following newspaper of general circulation, printed in this county: New Times Date: April 16, 2024. /s/: Craig B. van Rooyen, Judge of the Superior Court. April 25, May 2, 9, 16, 2024.
ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME
CASE NUMBER: 24CV0231
To all interested persons: Petitioner: Kelly Marie White filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: PRESENT NAME: Kelly Marie White, to PROPOSED NAME: Kelly Marie Holcomb.
THE COURT ORDERS: that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.
NOTICE OF HEARING: Date: May 30, 2024, Time: 9:00 am, Dept. 2 , in person or by Zoom at the Superior Court of California, County of San Luis Obispo,1050 Monterey Street, Room 220, San Luis Obispo, CA 93408. A copy of this Order to Show Cause shall be published at least once each week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing on the petition in the following newspaper of general circulation, printed in this county: New Times
Date: April 16, 2024. /s/: Craig van Rooyen, Judge of the Superior Court. April 25, May 2, 9, 16, 2024.
ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME
CASE NUMBER: 24CV0242
To all interested persons: Petitioner: Bradley Milton Bable filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: PRESENT NAME: Bradley Milton Bable, to PROPOSED NAME: Redd Flynn O’Shaughnessy.
THE COURT ORDERS: that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.
NOTICE OF HEARING: Date: June 5, 2024, Time: 9:00 am, Dept. 4, in person or by Zoom at the Superior Court of California, County of San Luis Obispo. 1050 Monterey Street, San Luis Obispo, CA 93408. A copy of this Order to Show Cause shall be published at least once each week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing on the petition in the following newspaper of general circulation, printed in this county: New Times Date: April 19, 2024.
/s/: Tana L. Coates, Judge of the Superior Court May 9, 16, 23, 30, 2024.
ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME
CASE NUMBER: 24CV0251
To all interested persons: Petitioner: Twila May Thomas filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: PRESENT NAME: Twila May Thomas, to PROPOSED NAME: Twila May Burbank.
THE COURT ORDERS: that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.
NOTICE OF HEARING: Date: June 13, 2024, Time: 9:00 am, Dept. 2, in person or by Zoom at the Superior Court of California, County of San Luis Obispo. 1050 Monterey Street, San Luis Obispo, CA 93408. A copy of this Order to Show Cause shall be published at least once each week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing on the petition in the following newspaper of general circulation, printed in this county: New Times Date: April 24, 2024. /s/: Tana L. Coates, Judge of the Superior Court May 9, 16, 23, 30, 2024.
ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME CASE NUMBER: 24CVPO103
To all interested persons: Petitioner: Peter Vincent Farrow Jr. filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: PRESENT NAME: Peter Vincent Farrow Jr., to PROPOSED NAME: Vincent Reginald Vargas.
THE COURT ORDERS: that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.
NOTICE OF HEARING: Date: May 22, 2024, Time: 9:30 am, Room 2 , in person or by Zoom at the Superior Court of California, County of San Luis Obispo,Paso Robles Branch, 901 Park Street, Paso Robles, CA 93446. A copy of this Order to Show Cause shall be published at least once each week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing on the petition in the following newspaper of general circulation, printed in this county: New Times Date: April 12, 2024. /s/: MC Kelly, Judge of the Superior Court. April 25, May 2, 9, 16, 2024.
Adult Services
On 01/08/2024, found currency was turned over to the San Luis Obispo Police Department. If this is not claimed by the rightful owner seven days after the date of this advertisement, it is proposed that the item will become the property of the individual who located it. If anyone believes this item is their property, they are asked to notify the San Luis Obispo Police Department at 805-781-7360. Anyone attempting to claim this item will be asked to show verification of ownership. SLOPD Case #240108030
May 9, 2024
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
Pursuant to California Government Code Section 25215.5 and Chapter 3.22 of the San Luis Obispo County Code, by which service charges may be collected on the general County tax bill, the Board of Supervisors of the County of San Luis Obispo, acting as the Governing Board of County Service Area Nos. 1 (Old Galaxy and Tract 1690, Nipomo), 1-A (Galaxy Park and Tract 1898, Nipomo), 1-F (New Galaxy, Nipomo), 7-A (Oak Shores), 18 (San Luis Obispo Country Club Estates), and 21 (Cambria), will hold a public hearing on May 21, 2024, in the Board of Supervisors Chambers, County Government Center, San Luis Obispo, regarding the collection of annual service charges on the FY 2024-25 tax roll. All hearing items are scheduled for 9:00 a.m. To determine the placement of this item on the agenda, please contact the County Administrative Office the Thursday afternoon before the scheduled hearing date. The report describing the service charges proposed to be collected on the FY 2024-25 tax roll is on file in the Office of the County Clerk and is available for public review.
DATED: April 25, 2024
REBECCA CAMPBELL, ACTING COUNTY ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER AND EX-OFFICIO CLERK OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS By /s/ Niki Martin Deputy Clerk May 2, 9, 2024
about the PLHA program, or to review the NOFA, please visit https://www.hcd.ca.gov/grants-and-funding/programs-active/ permanent-local-housing-allocation. The City is eligible to submit one application for a single activity, whether the
and a
of
• The
sources, if applicable. For each funding source, indicate the amount and the status of the source (i.e. awarded, being applied for).
• If a project: • The minimum total application amount is $500,000. The maximum total application amount is $5 million. The organization’s
e-mail to jreese@groverbeach.org. May 9, 2024
WHO County of San Luis Obispo Planning Commission
WHEN Thursday, May 23, 2024 at 9:00 AM: All items are advertised for 9:00 AM. To verify agenda placement, please call the Department of Planning & Building at
WHAT
A hearing to consider a request by James and Debra Saunders for a Conditional Use Permit (DRC 2019-00252) to construct 36 multifamily residential units on a two-acre parcel APN: 021-371-002 and APN: 021-371-003. The project would consist of seven one-story buildings, onsite parking, and landscaping. The project will result in ground disturbance of the entire two-acre site. The project is within the Recreation land use category and is located at 777 Monterey Road, in the community of San Miguel. The site is in the Salinas River Sub-Area of the North County Planning Area.
Also to be considered is the environmental determination (ED# 24-058). The Environmental Coordinator finds that the previously certified Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) is adequate for the purposes of compliance with CEQA because no substantial changes are proposed in the project which will require major revision of the previously certified FEIR, no substantial changes have occurred with respect to the circumstance under which the project is undertaken which will require major revision of the previously certified FEIR, and no new information of substantial importance has been identified which was not known at the time that the previous FEIR was certified.
County File Number: DRC2019-00252
Supervisorial District: District 1
Assessor Parcel Number(s): 021-371-002
Date Accepted: 4/18/2024
WHERE The hearing will be held in the Katcho Achadjian Government Center, Board of Supervisors Chambers,1055 Monterey Street, Room #D170, 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
A copy of the staff report will be made available on the Planning Department website at www.sloplanning.org. You may also contact Elizabeth Moreno, 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
May 9, 2024
NEWS RELEASE
MAY 2, 2024 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SUBJECT: NOTIFICATION OF TWO (2) VACANCIES ON THE CITIZENS TRANSPORTATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE (CTAC)
Each year, millions of dollars are spent on transit services, roadways, and highway projects in our region—have you ever wondered how those spending decisions are made?
The San Luis Obispo Council of Governments (SLOCOG) works with local governments, community members, and the state to identify deficiencies in the transportation system and allocate state and federal dollars to co-create solutions that achieve a common goal: to improve the quality of life in San Luis Obispo County.
The Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee (CTAC) members serve as representatives of the general public. They review SLOCOG staff plans, studies, and funding proposals and prepare recommendations for consideration by the SLOCOG Board. This committee is comprised of appointments from each of the five County Supervisorial Districts and seven incorporated cities, and three “at-large” appointments made by SLOCOG.
Presently, SLOCOG seeks to fill two (2) at-large vacancies. The appointees will help elevate diverse perspectives related to social equity, environmental justice, and equitable economic opportunities, especially as they relate to transportation planning and funding.
The committee normally meets on a Wednesday of alternative (odd) months from 4:30 p.m. until approximately 6:30 p.m., in San Luis Obispo. For application/more information, please contact James Worthley, Deputy Director, at 805-7882002, or email at: JWorthley@slocog.org. For more information on SLOCOG, visit www.slocog.org
Deadline: Applications are accepted, and Positions will remain OPEN until filled. The CTAC application form is available online at this link: https://slocog.org/about/opportunities
May 9, 2024
COUNTY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO
DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING & BUILDING
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
WHO County of San Luis Obispo Planning Commission
WHEN Thursday, May 23, 2024 at 9:00 AM: All items are advertised for 9:00 AM. To verify agenda placement, please call the Department of Planning & Building at WHAT Hearing to consider a request by Colin Weyrick for a General Plan Amendment and Land Use Ordinance Amendment (LRP2023-00003) to (a) change the land use category designation for a parcel (APN 040-201-057) from Residential Rural (RR) to Residential Suburban (RS), (b) modify the Templeton Community Standards (Land Use Ordinance Section 22.104.090) to reflect the land use category designation change, and (c) remove the building coverage limitation standard (Land Use Ordinance Section 22.104.090(D)(3)(c)) for two parcels (APNs 040-201-046 and -056). The project site is located in the community of Templeton, west of Highway 101 and Theatre Drive and north of Championship Lane. The project site is in the Salinas River Sub-area of the North County Planning Area. District 1.
Also to be considered is the environmental determination that the project qualifies for the General Rule Exemption under CEQA, pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15061(b)(3). A Notice of Exemption has been prepared pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15062. The project qualifies for the General Rule Exemption, because the project only involves a General Plan Amendment and Land Use Ordinance Amendment, future development would be subject to environmental review under CEQA, and the project will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment (CEQA Guidelines Section 15060(c)(2)).
County File Number: LRP2023-00003
Supervisorial District: 1
Assessor Parcel Number(s): 040-201-057, -046, 040, &-056
Date Accepted: 7/18/2023
WHERE The hearing will be held in the Katcho Achadjian Government Center, Board of Supervisors Chambers, 1055 Monterey Street, Room D170, 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
A copy of the staff report will be made available on the Planning Department website at www.sloplanning.org. You may also contact Claire Momberger, Project Manager, in the Department of Planning and Building at the address below or by telephone at (805) 781-1392. 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
May 9, 2024
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, May 21, 2024 at 5:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 990 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo. Meetings may be viewed remotely on Government Access Channel 20 or streamed live from the City’s YouTube channel at www. youtube.com/CityofSanLuisObispo. 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 hold a Public Hearing to introduce an Ordinance adopting local amendments to Part 6 (Energy) of the 2022 California Building Code via San Luis Obispo Municipal Code Chapter 15.04.060 “Amendments – Energy Standards.”
The local amendments would apply to single family residential buildings with major additions and alterations of 500 or more square feet, would require increased energy efficiency standards for these types of projects, and in some cases would require that buildings include outlets for future “zero emission” appliances. The project is exempt from environmental review pursuant to the General Rule under CEQA Guidelines section 15061(b)(3).
For more information, contact Chris Read, Sustainability Manager for the City’s Administration Department at (805) 781-7151 or by email, cread@ slocity.org.
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-andminutes. Please call the City Clerk’s Office at (805) 7817114 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 www. youtube.com/CityofSanLuisObispo. May 9, 2024
COUNTY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO
DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING & BUILDING PLANNING COMMISSION
WHO County of San Luis Obispo Planning Commission
WHEN Thursday, May 9, 2024 at 9:00 AM: All items are advertised for 9:00 AM. To verify agenda placement, please call the Department of Planning & Building at
WHAT
Hearing to consider a request by CJ Horstman for a Conditional Use Permit to allow a freeway identification sign and other on-site improvements including a proposed drive-thru fast-food restaurant and shared parking lot. The project will result in approximately 23,000 square feet of total site disturbance on a 26,139 square foot site. The proposed project is within the Commercial Retail land use category and is located at 475 West Tefft Street at the corner of West Tefft Street and the northbound Tefft Street exit ramp of Highway 101 in Nipomo. The site is in the South County Inland Sub-Area of the South County Planning Area within Supervisorial District 4.
Also to be considered is the determination that this project is exempt from environmental review under CEQA based on the commonsense exemption, CEQA Guidelines § 15061(b)(3).
County File Number: N-DRC2023-00023
Supervisorial District: District 4
Assessor Parcel Number(s): 092-251-022
Date Accepted: 12/16/2021
WHERE
The hearing will be held in the Katcho Achadjian Government Center, Board of Supervisors Chambers, 1055 Monterey Street, Room #D170, 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
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 May 9, 2024
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING City of Atascadero
DATE: Tuesday, May 21, 2024
TIME 6:00 p.m.
PLACE: City of Atascadero Council Chambers 6500 Palma Avenue, Atascadero, CA 93422
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Planning Commission of the City of Atascadero will hold a PUBLIC HEARING at the time and place indicated above to consider the proposed projects:
1. Amendment to the Dove Creek Master Plan of Development, PD overlay zone text amendment and a Tentative Tract Map to establish a mixed-use development containing commercial tenant spaces, a hotel, and residential units on a vacant parcel located at 11600-11700 El Camino Real on APN 045-331-014. The project is consistent with the previously certified Mitigated Negative Declaration 2004-0026 (DEV23-0079)
2. Conditional Use Permit for a telecommunications facility with height modification for a 63’ monopine cell tower and associated equipment at 2605 Traffic Way on APN 049-063-003. The project is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) under Categorical Exemption §15303; Class 3: new construction or conversion of small structures (USE24-0014).
3. Conditional Use Permit for retail tobacco store at 9520 El Camino Real Suite A on APN 056-071-014. The project is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) under Categorical Exemption §15303; Class 3: new construction or conversion of small structures (USE24-0018).
4. Conditional Use Permit for a proposed towing services yard and automotive repair shop including outdoor vehicle storage with fence screening and landscape setback modification at 7625 San Luis Ave. on APN 030-241-058. The project is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) under Categorical Exemption §15301; Class 1: Existing Facilities (USE24-0033).
INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS are invited to participate and will be given an opportunity to speak in favor or opposition to the aboveproposed project. To provide written public comment, please email comments to pc-comments@atascadero.org by 12:00 p.m. on the day of the meeting. Comments will be forwarded to the Planning Commission and made part of the administrative record. If a comment is received after the deadline for submission but before the close of the meeting, the comment will still be included as part of the record of the meeting. Please note, email comments will not be read into the record. A virtual option to join the meeting will be published on the agenda.
Information regarding the hearing is filed in the Community Development Department. If you have any questions, please call Planning Services or visit the office at 6500 Palma Ave., by appointment only, Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. All documents related to the project will be available for review on the City’s website 72 hours prior to the public hearing at http://www.atascadero.org/agendas.
DATED: May 6, 2024
S/ P Dunsmore, Community Development Director PUBLISH: May 9, 2024
Applications to make minor changes to the properties at the addresses listed below have been received by the City.
1. 229 Luneta Dr. FNCE-0144-2024; Request for fence height exception to allow a new 10-feet tall fence (combined 6-feet tall wooden fence and 4-feet tall retaining wall) and a 6-feet tall wooden fence to be built approximately 3-feet in from the property line along La Entrada Avenue, where 3.9-feet is the allowed fence height (categorically exempt from CEQA environmental review); R-1 Zone; Wesley Rowland, applicant. (Mallory Patino)
2. 314 San Miguel Ave. HOME-0095-2024; Review of a homestay rental application to allow short-term rental (such as Airbnb) of one bedroom within an owner-occupied single-family residence (categorically exempt from CEQA environmental review); R-1 Zone; Michael Anderson, applicant. (Mallory Patino)
3. 2138 Broad St. DIR-0128-2024; Request for exceptions from the City’s Sign Regulations standards, including a request for a total of three (3) on-site signs, including two (2) new internally illuminated wall signs, in the Neighborhood Commercial (N-C) zone where a total of two (2) non-internally illuminated on-premise signs is the standard Sign Regulations limit in this zoning district (categorically exempt from CEQA review); C-N Zone; Sign Industries, Inc., applicant and SLO Martin Properties, LLC, applicant (Callie Taylor) The Community Development Director will either approve or deny these applications no sooner than May 20, 2024
The Director’s decision may be appealed, and must be filed with the appropriate appeal fee within 10 days of the Director’s action. For more information, contact the City of San Luis Obispo Community Development Department, 919 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401, stop by Monday and Wednesday between 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. and Tuesday and Thursday between 9 a.m. – 12 p.m., or call (805) 781-7170, weekdays, 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. May 9, 2024
COUNTY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO DEPARTMENT OF
the Adelaida sub area of the North County planning area.
Also to be considered at the hearing will be adoption of the Environmental Document 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 eq., and CA Code of Regulations Section 15000 et seq.) has been issued on May 1, 2024, for this project. Mitigation measures are proposed to address Air Quality, Biological Resources, Geology and Soils, Hazards and Hazardous Materials, and Mandatory Findings of Significance and are included as conditions of approval. County File Number: N-DRC2022-00034
Supervisorial District: 2
Assessor Parcel Number(s): 014-152-042
Date Accepted: 9/18/2023
WHERE The hearing will be held in the Katcho Achadjian Government Center, Board of Supervisors Chambers, 1055 Monterey Street, Room #D170, 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
A copy of the staff report will be made available on the Planning Department website at www.sloplanning.org You may also contact Mason Denning, Project Manager, in the Department of Planning and Building at the address below or by telephone at +1-805-781-1298.
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 May 9, 2024
The Winter/Spring 2024 issue of Get Outside is ON STANDS NOW!
Free Will Astrology by Rob Brezsny
Homework: What’s your favorite subject to fantasize about? Newsletter.freewillastrology.com
ARIES
(March 21-April 19): When my friend Jessalyn first visited Disneyland as a child, she was smitten by its glimmering, unblemished mystery. “It was far more real than real,” she said. “A dream come true.” But after a few hours, her infatuation unraveled. She began to see through the luster. Waiting in long lines to go on the rides exhausted her. The mechanical elephant was broken. The food was unappetizing. The actor impersonating Mickey Mouse shucked his big mouse head and swilled a beer. The days ahead may have resemblances to Jessalyn’s awakening for you. This slowmotion jolt might vex you initially, although I believe it’s a healthy sign. It will lead to a cleansed perspective that’s free of illusion and teeming with clarity.
TAURUS
(April 20-May 20): Keizoku wa chikara nari is a Japanese proverb that means, “To continue is power.” I propose you make that your motto for the next four weeks. Everything you need to happen and all the resources you need to attract will come your way as long as your overarching intention is perseverance. This is always a key principle for you Tauruses, but especially now. If you can keep going, if you can overcome your urges to quit your devotions, you will gain a permanent invigoration of your willpower.
GEMINI
(May 21-June 20): Do you believe there are divine beings, animal spirits, and departed ancestors who are willing and able to help us? If not, you may want to skip this horoscope. I won’t be upset if you feel that way. But if you do harbor such views, as I do, I’m pleased to tell you that they will be extra available for you in the coming weeks. Remember one of the key rules about their behavior: They love to be asked for assistance; they adore it when you express your desires for them to bring you specific blessings and insights. Reach out, Gemini! Call on them.
CANCER
(June 21-July 22): I’m taking a gamble here as I advise you to experiment with the counsel of visionary poet and painter William Blake (1757-1825). It’s a gamble because I’m asking you to exert a measure of caution as you explore his daring, unruly advice. Be simultaneously prudent and ebullient, Cancerian. Be discerning and wild. Be watchful and experimental. Here are Blake’s directions: 1. The road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom, for we never know what is enough until we know what is more than enough. 2. If the fool would persist in his folly, he would become wise. 3. The pride of the peacock is the glory of God. The lust of the goat is the bounty of God. 4. No bird soars too high if it soars with its own wings. 5. Exuberance is Beauty.
LEO
(July 23-Aug. 22): Cosmic energies are staging a big party in your astrological House of Ambition. It’s a great time to expand and intensify your concepts of what you want to accomplish with your one wild and precious life. You will attract unexpected help as you shed your inhibitions about asking for what you really want. Life will benevolently conspire on your behalf as you dare to get bolder in defining your highest goals. Be audacious, Leo! Be brazen and brave and brilliant! I predict you will be gifted with lucid intuitions about how best to channel your drive for success. You will get feelers from influential people who can help you in your quest for victory. (PS: The phrase “your one wild and precious life” comes from poet Mary Oliver.)
VIRGO
(Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Is it possible to be too smart for your own good? Maybe, although that won’t be a problem for you anytime soon. However, you may temporarily be too smart for some people who are fixated on conventional and simplistic solutions. You could be too super-brilliant for those who wallow in fear or regard cynicism as a sign of intelligence. But I will not advise you to dumb yourself down, dear Virgo. Instead, I will suggest you be crafty and circumspect. Act agreeable and humble, even as you plot behind
the scenes to turn everything upside-down and inside-out—by which I mean, make it work with more grace and benefit for everyone concerned.
LIBRA
(Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In my fairy tale about your life in the coming weeks and months, you will transform from a crafty sleuth to an eager explorer. You will finish your wrestling matches with tricky angels and wander off to consort with big thinkers and deep feelers. You will finish your yeoman attempts to keep everyone happy in the human zoo and instead indulge your sacred longings for liberation and experimentation. In this fairy tale of your life, Libra, I will play the role of your secret benefactor. I will unleash a steady stream of prayers to bless you with blithe zeal as you relish every heart-opening, brain-cleansing moment of your new chapter.
SCORPIO
(Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In the coming months, I will encourage you to keep deepening and refining the art of intimacy. I will rejoice as you learn more and more about how to feel close to people you care for and how to creatively deal with challenges you encounter in your quest to become closer. Dear Scorpio, I will also cheer you on whenever you dream up innovations to propitiate togetherness. Bonus blessings! If you do all I’m describing, your identity will come into brighter focus. You will know who you are with greater accuracy. Get ready! The coming weeks will offer you novel opportunities to make progress on the themes I’ve mentioned.
SAGITTARIUS
(Nov. 22-Dec. 21): You could offer a workshop on the perks of wobbliness. Your anxious ruminations and worried fantasies are so colorful that I almost hesitate to tell you to stop. I’m wondering if this is one of those rare phases when you could take advantage of your so-called negative feelings. Is it possible that lurking just below the uneasiness are sensational revelations about a path to liberation? I’m guessing there are. To pluck these revelations, you must get to the core of the uneasiness.
CAPRICORN
(Dec. 22-Jan. 19): During the last 11 months, life has offered you unprecedented opportunities to deepen and ripen your emotional intelligence. You have been vividly invited to grow your wisdom about how to manage and understand your feelings. I trust you have been capitalizing on these glorious teachings. I hope you have honed your skills at tapping into the power and insights provided by your heart and gut. There’s still more time to work on this project, Capricorn. In the coming weeks, seek out breakthroughs that will climax this phase of your destiny.
AQUARIUS
(Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Naturalist and author Henry David Thoreau declared, “We need the tonic of wildness.” Amen! In my view, you Aquarians especially need this sweet, rugged healing power in the coming weeks. Borrowing more words from Thoreau, I urge you to exult in all that is mysterious, unsurveyed, and unfathomable. Like Thoreau, I hope you will deepen your connection with the natural world because it “it is cheerfully, musically earnest.” Share in his belief that “we must go out and re-ally ourselves to Nature every day. We must take root, send out some little fiber.”
PISCES
(Feb. 19-March 20): I have four questions and homework assignments for you, Pisces. 1. Is there a person in your inner circle who is close to ripening a latent talent that would ultimately benefit you? I suspect there is. What can you do to assist them? 2. Is there a pending gift or legacy that you have not yet claimed or activated? I think so. What would be a good first step to get it fully into your life? 3. What half-dormant potency could you call on and use if you were more confident about your ability to wield it? I believe you now have the wherewithal to summon the confidence you need. 4. What wasteful habit could you replace with a positive new habit? ∆