Imagining the Downtown of Tomorrow

The Persona Touch 1 - 7 Jan 2021 Vol 27 Issue 01

SERVING MONTECITO AND SUMMERLAND

A State Street pizzeria reopens under new ownership and a streamlined menu, p. 20

IMAGINING THE DOWNTOWN OF TOMORROW

AN EARTHQUAKE A CENTURY AGO SHOOK SANTA BARBARA BUT UNITED THE CITY. CAN TODAY’S HOUSING AND ECONOMIC CRISES EFFECT SIMILAR CHANGE? (PAGE 5)

We’re Watching You

A stakeout in the shadowy world of the stalkers who stalk celebrity stalkers, p. 6

Rockin’ Around

From Cate to Crane, Cold Spring to MUS, a rocking roundup of school holiday events, p. 12

The Way It Was

A memorial fountain on Sycamore Canyon and the “Million Dollar Heiress” who commissioned it, p. 24

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MONTECITO JOURNAL

1 – 7 January 2021

Happy New Year!

As this unusual year comes to a end,

we are filled with gratitude and respect for this

wonderful community we are lucky enough to call home.

A very special thank you to our friends, family and loyal customers.

Wishing you a happy and safe holiday and a glorious new year!

M O N T E C I T O E S TAT E S. C O M

The Premiere Estates of Montecito & Santa Barbara CAL BRE 00622258

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805 565/2208 1 – 7 January 2021

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

3

Inside This Issue

5

Imagining the Downtown of Tomorrow

A century ago, an earthquake shook Santa Barbara but united the city. Can today’s housing and economic crises effect similar change?

6

8

On the Record

Who’s stalking the stalkers that stalk celebrities? Nick Schou gets to the bottom of it.

Letters to the Editor

Communications from readers about Ashleigh’s Brilliant Thoughts, vaccines, and Richard’s 50-year journey from Cornwall

Tide Chart

10 Our Town

From Cate to Crane, Cold Spring to Montecito Union, Joanne Calitri cooks up a rocking roundup of school holiday events

14 Seen Around Town

Sip . Eat . Stay Connected .

- LET’S GO 2021-

Old Spanish Days readies itself for a return to normal days in 2021; Santa Barbara Maritime Museum exhibits naval art

19 Brilliant Thoughts

Ashleigh on breaking eggs and that sunny day he brought home eggs and it didn’t go over easy 20 Village Beat

Persona Pizzeria on State Street reopens with new ownership

23 On Science

A scorching atmosphere above volcanic plains and magma oceans. Tom Farr introduces us to Earth’s evil twin: Venus.

24 The Way It Was

The story behind a memorial fountain on Sycamore Canyon and the “Million Dollar Heiress” who commissioned it

26 Far Flung

Mountain lion sighting in Montaña de Oro State Park and Chuck Graham does what any intrepid journalist would do: laces up and grabs his camera

31 Ernie’s World 410 E. Haley St., Santa Barbara, CA 93101 805.965.9555 | info@themillsb.com | www.themillsb.com

Ernie finally comes to terms with his addiction... to Pinterest

38 Classified Advertising

Our own “Craigslist” of classified ads, in which sellers offer everything from summer rentals to estate sales

39 Local Business Directory

San Ysidro Pharmacy We wish you a very Happy New Year and look forward to seeing you in 2021! as you start to walk on the way, the way appears ~ Rumi

805-969-2284 1498 East Valley Road

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805.560.7424 • www.kfrankstyle.com 1150 coast village road, montecito ca 93108

OPEN DAILY FOR IN STORE SHOPPING 10am-6pm

Specializing in men’s and women’s designer and luxury clothing, shoes, accessories and jewelry from emerging and established collections from the US, Europe and Japan.

Featuring Herno, Veronica Beard, Stone Island, Golden Goose, Common Projects, Moussy, John Elliot, Harris Wharf and more.

Open daily for in store shopping and private appointments available.

•

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805.560.7424 • www.kfrankstyle.com 1150 coast village road, montecito ca 93108

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MONTECITO JOURNAL

“Winter blues are cured every time with a potato gratin paired with a roast chicken.” -Alexandra Guarnaschelli

1 – 7 January 2021

Imagining the Downtown of Tomorrow

by Zach Rosen

An earthquake a century ago shook Santa Barbara but united the city.

Can today’s housing and economic crises coalesce to effect similar change?

T

he retail closures of State Street and local housing crisis are familiar topics in the area and have been discussed for years. In 2017 the Santa Barbara chapter of the American Institute of Architecture (AIA) hosted a design charrette with 66 professions and nine teams approaching these problems, but the ensuing catastrophes of the Thomas Fire and Montecito mudslides stalled the momentum as the community had far more immediate problems to deal with. This year has also been catastrophic, but a glimmer of change is in the air. The closure of State Street to vehicular traffic and the pedestrian promenade and outdoor dining areas that have sprung up in their place have brought new life to State Street in a time where things could feel even more isolated. This is not the first time Santa Barbara has gone through such seismic change.

The 1925 earthquake that shook Santa Barbara helped the city to come together and plan what they wanted their city to look like. Led by the efforts of Pearl Chase and Bernard Hoffman, these changes transformed the appearance of Santa Barbara for the next 100 years. Detty Peikert, the principal and manager of architecture for RRM Design Group and member of the AIA’s advocacy committee, said Santa Barbara was at a similar crossroads today. The economic and housing crisis wrought by this year’s pandemic could coalesce to produce real change for the community to plan the next 100 years of Santa Barbara.

Peikert said architects had a long history of stepping up in these watershed moments. Along with Ellen Bildsten of Bildsten Architecture and Planning and current chair of the advocacy committee, and fellow committee member Cass Ensberg of Ensberg Jacobs Design Inc., Peikert said she found this the perfect opportunity for the AIA to do another round of design charrettes, the results of which have just been put on display downtown and online.

But before imagining what changes could take place, the three AIA co-chairs leading the charrettes first put together a survey so that the group could see what the community is actually looking for. They then reached out to a wide variety of creatives in the area to see who wanted to participate. Everyone from architects, urban planners, and landscape 1 – 7 January 2021

Detty Peikert, the principal and manager of architecture for RRM Design Group and member of the AIA’s advocacy committee, says Santa Barbara architecture is at a crossroads

designers, to artists, event directors, and even UCSB students, answered the call with 160 people joining the effort.

The participants came together for a preliminary meeting and were then split up into 16 groups with about 10 members each. The goal was to analyze State Street from the 400 block to the 1,000 block with four of the groups looking specifically at how to improve the State Street corridor. The other 12 teams were each given one of the six specific blocks and told to look at both the east and west blocks flanking that segment of State Street. Two teams were each assigned the same block of State Street. By having multiple groups look at the same areas, whether it was the State Street corridor or a particular block, they were able to find different solutions to the same space.

A design charrette is normally an intense meeting of minds where different professionals can come together to design and imagine various solutions for a given problem. Of course these aren’t normal times and the pandemic presented its own problems for the typical charrette format.

Over about six weeks, the entire group met each week over Zoom to discuss their ideas. The final body of work spans more than 300 pages but a more refined example of their efforts is currently being displayed in the windows of 901 State Street (the old Forever 21 store) with another window display at 410 State Street, where the old Staples building used to be. The full survey results and massive design charrettes book are available at aiasb.com.

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A Surveyed Response

Before getting the charrette groups together, the AIA performed a community survey to get an idea of what

Imagine Page 344 • The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

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On the Record

by Nicholas Schou

Nicholas Schou is an award-winning investigative journalist and author of several books, including Orange Sunshine and Kill the Messenger. If you have tips or stories about Montecito, please email him at newseditor@montecitojournal.net

Somebody’s Watching You, But Who’s Watching Them?

Welcome to the Weird World of the Stalkers of Celebrity Stalkers

Montecito’s Unique Stalker of Celebrity Stalkers Catch and Release

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he Montecito Journal’s investigation into the shadowy world of the stalkers who stalk celebrity stalkers began, in more ways than one, with a simple cup of coffee. On a weekday afternoon in mid-October, a Journal editor was about to leave a local coffee shop when he noticed what appeared to be a heated argument between a pair of middle-aged men in the parking lot.

Soon after, the police arrived and after further conversation between the two men and the officers, the cops handcuffed one of the men, a paunchy, crew cut character wearing a t-shirt, athletic shorts and rubber sandals, and promptly took him into custody. After the cops drove off, our editor did what any enterprising journalist would do and approached the unapprehended man and asked him what had just happened. “Who exactly do you work for?” the man, a fifty-something, fit-looking fellow, warily responded.

When our editor identified himself, the man told him he was a retired cop and private detective who had been hired by the security service of a local celebrity to intercept a stalker that had recently arrived in town with the apparent intention of making personal contact. The stalker of stalkers gave our editor his name

On The Record Page 184 184

THE ALLORA WINTER SALE STARTS JANUARY 4TH! ...another reason to look forward to 2021!

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MONTECITO JOURNAL

“Winter forms our character and brings out our best.” - Tom Allen

1 – 7 January 2021

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1 – 7 January 2021

• The Voice of the Village •

HALF PG MJ

MONTECITO JOURNAL

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Letters to the Editor

If you have something you think Montecito should know about, or wish to respond to something you read in the Journal, we want to hear from you. Please send all such correspondence to: Montecito Journal, Letters to the Editor, 1206 Coast Village Circle, Suite H, Montecito, CA. 93108. You can also FAX such mail to: (805) 969-6654, or E-mail to letters@montecitojournal.net

Love for Brilliant Thoughts

I

t is with anticipation that I pick up my copy of the Montecito Journal each Thursday morning to catch up on local news, learn what’s going on in Montecito and Summerland and find entertainment. My favorite column is Ashleigh Brilliant’s Brilliant Thoughts. Your paper never disappoints!

While I always appreciate Mr. Brilliant’s topics, thoughtfulness, writing style, and wit, I have never taken the time to publicly applaud his work. After reading his latest article – “Declaration of Dependence” – I marveled at how well written and meaningful it was, thinking to myself, “This is the best one yet.” But still I kept my opinion to myself. Days later, as I spoke by telephone with my 90-something-year-old friend she remarked about how “brilliant” she’d found Mr. Brilliant’s most recent column. We agreed it’s high time we send our praises of Mr. Brilliant’s weekly column to the Montecito Journal. So let it be known to one and all – we love Brilliant Thoughts!

Stacey Wright and friend Nancy

Warp Speed Vaccine?

You Go First.

In the 1940s, concern over tooth decay, especially in children, triggered a quest for solutions which continues still, even among today’s great thinkers.

Dentists around the world advocated fluoridation as an inexpensive, effective solution to prevent cavities and there was little opposition, until there was.

It didn’t take long before chiropractors, herbalists, politicians, religious leaders and “tree-huggers” began to hear terms like “tooth mottling” and “low-grade chronic fluoride poisoning.”

With fluoride compounds being a key ingredient in many insecticides, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for little people, aka “children.”

Experts, scientists, and physicians from every specialty, and every country, had strong feelings on both sides of the argument. Some countries enacted laws requiring mandatory fluoridation, and some countries (Germany, Sweden, Russia, and Japan) tried it for 10 or 20 years, then decided to return to chlorination after studies indicated a link between fluoridation and brain lesions, particularly in juveniles and seniors.

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MONTECITO JOURNAL

High levels of calcium fluoride, occurring naturally in water and soils, especially in rural India, have been linked to skeletal fluorosis, deformities and joint calcification but, thankfully, there are very few dental caries.

The two more common synthetic water purifiers, sodium fluoride and fluorite, are found in many consumer products (toothpaste, table salt, mouth rinses etc.) but these compounds are also listed as “…miscellaneous inorganic toxicants…” in many chemistry books, websites, and scientific literature. https://www.sciencedirect.com/ topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/ sodium-fluoride I’m not arguing for or against public water supply fluoridation because I eat as much toothpaste as anyone else.

So what does the cavity-vs-brain-lesion topic have to do with COVID-19?

If we look at the history of pandemics, including the three Black Plagues of 541 (Africa), 1347 (Asia/Crimea), and 1894 (China), we find that there was “no cure” for Yersinia pestis.

From 1918-1920, the “Spanish Flu” (aka H1N1), originating from birds, killed 50 million worldwide and about 675,00 in the USA. Again, no cure, just resilient human genes.

An enlightening 1998 PBS documentary (Influenza 1918) contained conclusions from health care providers regarding the effectiveness of face masks. Here is a segment for the 20-page original transcript.

Narrator: “…In many places, officials rushed through laws requiring people to wear masks in public. All of America, it seemed, put on masks. At last, many thought, they were safe. But masks didn’t help. They were thin and porous — no serious restraint to tiny microbes. It was like trying to keep out dust with chicken wire.

In Washington, D.C., Commissioner Louis Brownlow banned all public gatherings. He closed the city’s schools, theaters, and bars. He quarantined the sick. He did everything he had the power to do. But the death rate in Washington kept rising…”

Source – PBS ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT* https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/pdf/transcript/influenza_ transcript.pdf (search for words “chicken wire”) “INFLUENZA 1918” (First aired on PBS, February 9, 1998) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Experience_ (season_10) Although masks didn’t work in 1918, maybe they’ll work in 2020?

In 1977, another interesting historical failure involved well-intended mass inoculations and fail-safe government solutions (aka National Swine Flu Immunization Program) designed to fight the H1N1 (bird to pig to human) forecasted quasi-pandemic.

With approximately 25 percent of the population vaccinated, the program was terminated in 1979 because of unforeseen allergic reactions, possibly from the “attenuated live” (aka not dead) virus and a coincidentally high number of Guillian-Barré syndrome (GBS) cases. Oh, did I mention that the Swine Flu never flourished outside the United States? So much for statistical forecasts and analysis.

This false-alarm was later termed “The Gerald Ford Pandemic That Never Was” and Harry Schwartz, of the NY Times, dubbed the entire effort “…a fiasco…but probably one of the largest and most well-intentioned public health initiatives by the U.S. government.” – https://www. nytimes.com/1976/12/21/archives/ swine-flu-fiasco.html Where have I heard those well-intended words before?

In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the first city to introduce fluoride into its public water supply and the CDC’s current website proudly proclaims the 75th Anniversary of Fluoridation as “…one of public health’s greatest success stories…” https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/basics/anniversary.htm

Good intentions and face masks weren’t sufficient in 1918 or 1979 but maybe it will save millions in 2020.

Let’s watch (and pray) as the “Mother of All Pandemic Vaccines” begins its Warp Speed charge into battle.

I’ll cover my face with a “chicken wire” mask and have a glass of vintage year calcium fluoride, but when it comes to mass confirmation of the vaccine, you go first.

Cautiously, Dale Lowdermilk, Founder NOTSAFE(.)ORG Santa Barbara, CA

Half a Century Not Out!

In the sport of cricket in England when a player crosses 50 runs, it is called a half-century, and is recorded in the batsman’s records.

As was well documented in his recent Montecito Miscellany weekly column MJ journalist Richard Mineards celebrated such a milestone of a different record: the start of a 50-year journey from Cornwall, a ceremonial county in southwest England, to eventually residing 5,000 miles away on the central Southern California coast.

Such was the life journey that started a successful career as a journalist beginning with local, regional, and national newspapers in England, and then across the Atlantic to the gossip pages and entertainment media world of New York and Los Angeles before landing in our Eden by the Beach, to use his own words!

Richard’s television interviews and news writings on royalty, society occasions, the great and the good and probably an assortment of colorful celebrities and characters in between are the stuff that have filled columns for 50 years starting from near Land’s End in England, the East and West Coast, and eventually to our Montecito neighborhood.

The peripatetic journalist has a new neighbor and resides closer to a royal than any of the royal family blue blood! Long may Richard write and reign over his column.

Nigel Gallimore Montecito •MJ

Montecito Tide Guide Day

Low

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Thurs, December 31 3:13 AM 2.5 9:30 AM 6.1 04:52 PM -0.8 011:36 PM 3.6 Fri, January 1 3:49 AM 2.6 10:07 AM 6 05:32 PM -0.8 Sat, January 2 12:23 AM 3.6 4:36 AM 2.7 10:48 AM 5.7 06:13 PM Sun, January 3 1:09 AM 3.7 5:35 AM 2.7 11:36 AM 5.2 06:56 PM Mon, January 4 1:58 AM 3.9 6:52 AM 2.7 12:33 PM 4.5 07:41 PM Tues, January 5 2:48 AM 4.2 8:28 AM 2.4 01:50 PM 3.9 08:30 PM Wed, January 6 3:38 AM 4.6 10:06 AM 1.9 03:29 PM 3.3 09:24 PM Thurs, January 7 4:27 AM 5.1 11:26 AM 1 05:13 PM 3.1 010:22 PM Fri, January 8 5:15 AM 5.6 12:28 PM 0.1 06:40 PM 3.2 011:21 PM

“Winter is a season of recovery and preparation.” - Paul Theroux

Hgt

-0.5 -0.2 0.2 0.7 1.1 1.6 1.9

1 – 7 January 2021

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Solaire Inn & Suites, 1995 S Broadway, Santa Maria, CA, 93454. Jai Shiv, INC, 1995 S Broadway, Santa Maria, CA, 93454.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on December 18, 2020. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL).

FBN No. 2020-0003021.

Published December 23, 30, January 6, 13, 2020.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Lavish Nails, 991 Linden Ave, Carpinteria, CA, 93013.

Nhan Hoai Nguyen, 740 Janetwood Dr. Apt 1, Oxnard, CA, 93030. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on December 15, 2020. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL).

FBN No. 2020-0002988.

Published December 23, 30, January 6, 13, 2020.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Economy Inn, 607 N Broadway, Santa Maria, CA, 93454.

RoniaVI Inc, 607 N Broadway, Santa Maria, CA, 93454. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on December 14, 2020. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL).

FBN No. 2020-0002981.

Published December 16, 23, 30, January 6, 2020.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Vai Art Services, 5142 Hollister Avenue #244, Santa Barbara, CA, 93111. Vai Services LLC, 5142 Hollister Avenue #244, Santa Barbara, CA, 93111. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on November 9, 2020. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 20200002760. Published December 9, 16, 23, 30, 2020.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT: The following person(s) has (have) abandoned the use of the Fictitious Business Name(s): Cabin 11 Bakery, 11 San Marcos Trout Club, Santa Barbara, CA 93105. Anneli Clavering, 11 San Marcos Trout Club, Santa Barbara, CA 93105. This statement was originally filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on November 12, 2019. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL), filed November 20, 2020. Original FBN No. 2019-0002806. FBN 20200002845. Published December 9, 16, 23, 30, 2020.

Specializing in Fine Homes • Concept to Completion

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Drains Plus, PO Box 2058, Santa Maria, CA 93457. Raul Avila, 354 Hobbs Lane, Santa Maria, CA 93455. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on November 23, 2020. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 20200002859. Published December 9, 16, 23, 30, 2020.

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Contributors Scott Craig, Julia Rodgers, Ashleigh Brilliant, Sigrid Toye, Zach Rosen, Kim Crail Gossip Richard Mineards • History Hattie Beresford • Humor Ernie Witham Our Town Joanne A. Calitri Society Lynda Millner • Travel Jerry Dunn • Sportsman Dr. John Burk • Trail Talk Lynn P. Kirst Account Managers Sue Brooks, Tanis Nelson, Casey Champion Bookkeeping Diane Davidson, Christine Merrick • Proofreading Helen Buckley

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“Winter is not a season, it’s a celebration.” - Anamika Mishra

1 – 7 January 2021

Happy New, Fresh Year!

Hayward’s has the largest selection of fine outdoor furniture and accessories between Los Angeles and San Francisco—in stock for immediate white glove delivery.

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805-966-1390

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MERRAG COMMUNITY AWARENESS EVENT For Family Safety and Emergency Preparedness COVID UPDATE and MEDICAL OPS I Thursday – 01/14/2021 @ 10:00 AM (2nd Thursday) Via ZOOM COVID Update following the holidays and Vaccine Update Information

CERT Course: Medical Ops I

• Learn how CERT medical operations can play a vital role in limiting deaths from trauma • Learn basic treatment for life-threatening conditions – for use when medical professionals may not be immediately available • Learn about ‘START’ and why it is a critical concept for initially dealing with casualties in a disaster – for your family, neighborhood or community • Learn the principles of ‘triage’ in a disaster environment and how you can be most effective • Learn basic ‘triage’ procedures

Registration required at merrag.org/training MERRAG is a 501(c)(3) organization ~ donations maybe sent to 595 San Ysidro Rd., Montecito, CA 93108 or www.merrag.org 1 – 7 January 2021

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

11

Our Town

Scott Holmes from Cate School class of 2020 and Will Holmes, director of Community Engagement at Cate School, collect the Holiday Cheer packages to deliver to families in Carpinteria (Photo courtesy of Cate School)

by Joanne A. Calitri

Joanne is a professional international photographer and journalist.

Contact her at: artraks@yahoo.com

A Rocking Roundup of School Holiday Events

M

ontecito schools held a new format for their holiday concerts and winter sings, given the new state lockdown restrictions announced on December 6. Through careful planning many schools conjured up a new direction for the holidays, including virtual concerts sent out exclusively to each student’s family, new charity funding initiatives and holiday Zoom singalongs for students and their families. The head of every school was invited to offer their special Holiday Message to their students, families and our community.

Here is a holiday roundup from Santa and me on our virtual sleigh:

Cate School

Cate School, whose motto is Servons (“we serve”), continued with its annual traditions of giving to the local community through several events with strict COVID adaptations. Every Wednesday, on Public Service Night, students called Bingo games over Zoom for residents of a group home in Santa Barbara.

Members of the Cate acapella group, Last Call, with faculty member Beth Caylor and senior students, joined together to sing for the residents of Cornerstone House. Cate students made regular phone calls to Shepard Place Apartment residents, a highlight for the residents isolated more than usual during the pandemic. Four Cate School adult volunteers stepped in to deliver holiday meals December 3, as students were not allowed to leave campus. Students made winter-themed decorations for PATH Santa Barbara now displayed on homeless shelter walls. Cate’s Round Square board hosted two Krispy Kreme fundraisers, proceeds went to Carpinteria businesses affected by the pandemic, and to support Cate’s annual Holiday Cheer program. Holiday Cheer sponsored five local Carpinteria families in need. Members of the school’s varsity basketball teams

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collected donations from their campus dormitories, which were combined with faculty member and parent contributions. The money was used to purchase clothes, books, household items, grocery store gift cards, toys and more. Will Holmes, director of Cate Community Engagement, and his son Scott, a Cate 2020 grad, delivered goods to the families with strict COVID precautions. Scott shared, “Being able to deliver for Holiday Cheer was definitely a privilege. My last three years at Cate I was part of my basketball team’s collection process, but this year it was nice to be part of the deliveries and gain perspective on how privileged I am in my life. Putting a smile on people’s faces, especially during times like these, was a treat.”

In his holiday message Benjamin D. Williams IV, the head of Cate School, said: “The Holidays at Cate begin with a ceremony called The Giving of Thanks, in which we share the blessings of this world and express our gratitude to those who make our journeys full and deep and meaningful. Then we get to work: to support those in need as we have each been supported, to reach out to those in want of company or sustenance or education. Cate is about being part of something larger than ourselves, and our motto Servons (“we serve”) reminds

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Scott Holmes with the Holiday Cheer deliveries (Photo courtesy of Cate School)

L-R: Sabrina and Debra

Cate School Public Service Night Holiday Karaoke Cornerstone House: (from top left) Jasmine Ross ‘21, Rae Fox ‘21, science teacher Beth Caylor, Cornerstone residents Nicole Teh ‘23, Rachel Wilkes ‘21 and Almira Bowo ‘21; and Cate students Ella Chen ‘23 and Talia Tom ‘23 (Photo courtesy of Cate School)

Cate School faculty deliver holiday meals to Shepard’s Place residents (from left) Richard McDonald, Lisa Holmes, Lauren Jared, and Will Holmes (Photo courtesy of Cate School)

us perpetually of our responsibility to have beneficial impact in lives beyond our own. In this year in particular, when the suffering is unusually acute, we hope we can ease burdens, reassure those who worry, and affirm the power of our common humanity.”

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Cold Spring School

The entire student body of Cold Spring voted to trade in its annual Winter Sing and instead support The Unity Shoppe for the holidays with a food drive organized by the Student Council, represented by president Summer Smith, secretary Amelia Dysart, treasurer Georgia MacPhail, and vice president Cecilia Duarte. Teachers collected food items in a box located outside of their classrooms, and local community members dropped off canned goods through Friday, December 11. Teachers got creative with learning experiences such as remote learning teacher Becki Gonzales teaching how to decorate gingerbread

1 – 7 January 2021

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Our Town Page 164 • The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

13

Seen Around Town

¡Viva La Fiesta!

by Lynda Millner

Old Spanish Days segundo vice presidente David Bolton social distancing with La Presidenta Stephanie Petlow at the Santa Barbara Club

Drummer Boy greeting members at the Santa Barbara Club

Y

es, it’s time to think about that 97 year-old-fun fest, Old Spanish Days (OSD). To start the Fiesta year off La Presidenta 2021 was just announced, Stephanie Petlow.

She has lived here for many years and served on the OSD board for 20 years. Her leadership team is primer Alex Castellanos, vice presidente; David Bolton, segundo vice presidente and el secretario; Casie Killgore, treasurer; and division chiefs Janice Howell (celebrations), Maria Cabrera (dance and entertainment), and Gary MacDonald (pageantry).

Fiesta is run by a volunteer board of directors with only one full-time staff member which is unique among festivals. Their office is at the Carriage Museum. The OSD board of directors oversees operations, fundraising, and planning.

It all began in 1924 when the city fathers (and mothers) decided they needed something to draw people to Santa Barbara in the summer. In those days it was popular to come here for the winter, especially if you were wellto-do, but business lagged in the summer. The Fiesta would also tie in with

Ms Millner is the author of The Magic Makeover, Tricks for Looking Thinner, Younger and More Confident – Instantly. If you have an event that belongs in this column, you are invited to call Lynda at 969-6164.

the opening of the Lobero Theatre by Jose Lobero and so Old Spanish Days was founded. It celebrated our state’s Rancho Period, a time of romance and hospitality displayed through pageantry, dance, music, costumes, and cuisine. In 2021 Old Spanish Days will take place August 4-8.

“I am extremely honored to lead OSD in our 97th annual Fiesta,” Stephanie told me over lunch. “Our founding families have left and continue to leave an amazing and unique legacy for our beautiful city and for future generations to enjoy.” Her goal is to educate our chidren and each other to preserve our culture by learning our history.

One of the focuses is dance and music, which is a year-round activity

for many of our youth. Some of them have gone to Jerez, Spain for their flamenco dancing and to buy authentic Spanish dresses and traje cortos (suits). That’s where my family lived for seven years and our fiesta wardrobes grew with the years and the kids, including an Andalucian horse name Alagria (it means happiness and our daughter was).

OSD is a platform for a variety of

local nonprofits to raise their necessary operating funds at the annual Mercado. Hopefully by next August there will be the usual food booths for the thousands of visitors as well as the arts and crafts at West Beach.

“2020 has certainly made all of us realize the importance of family, friends, and our special community of Santa Barbara,” Stephanie said. “We are thankful for the continued support during this pandemic from our sponsors, the City of Santa Barbara, the County of Santa Barbara, and our community collaborators. The entire Board of Directors and past presidents are committed to presenting a safe and wonderful Fiesta 2021 to continue our rich history and traditions.”

Pre-auditions for the Spirits of Fiesta will be held on January 9. La Prima Vera, the spring party, will be on May 15.

For information call 805-962-8101 or check out sbfiesta.org.

Art of the Sea

There is a wonderful art exhibit of 55 naval paintings at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum awaiting

Seen Page 304

After Pearl Harbor Beaumont’s work supported the U.S. war effort and reflected dramatic life or death struggles in the Pacific

Greg Gorga, the executive director of the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, which is exhibiting 55 naval paintings until May 2021

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MONTECITO JOURNAL

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Our Town (Continued from page 13 13))

“We may not be able to continue with our traditional singing and large gathering, but the spirit of joy, love, generosity, and unity remain strong through this holiday season! Our entire student body has decided to support the Unity Shoppe with a food drive as a way to give back to the community. And the Cold Spring School District will be celebrating the holiday season with our in-person (90 percent) and remote-learning (10 percent) students in many creative ways thanks to our teachers and families. We are grateful to live in such a wonderful place that truly treasures each one of these virtues! Happy Holidays!”

Crane Country Day School Crane Country Day School Virtual Holiday sing moments (Photo courtesy of Crane Country Day School)

Cold Spring School Student Council promoting the Unity Shoppe Food Drive: (from left) president Summer Smith, secretary Amelia Dysart, school superintendent Dr. Amy Alzina, treasurer Georgia MacPhail, and vice president Cecilia Duarte (Photo courtesy of Cold Spring School)

Cold Spring School first grader in his cardboard gingerbread house at school (Photo credit: Amy Alzina) Crane Country Day School Virtual Holiday sing with music teacher Konrad Kono and his twin daughters (Photo courtesy of Crane Country Day School) Cold Spring School holiday virtual gingerbread decorating with chef Mark Gonzales and his daughters Ava and Sophia (Photo courtesy of Gonzalez family)

houses sent to the students made by her husband Mark, a professional chef.

First grade teacher Stephanie Carey taught families to make cardboard gingerbread houses for each student to use in the classroom as their own individual reading fort.

The holiday message from Dr. Amy Alzina, superintendent and principal:

Crane hosted a Virtual Cross Cultural Family Holiday Sing Along Zoom with music teacher Konrad Kono for students and families on December 16. I attended the holiday Zoom, which included the singing of traditional holiday songs, holiday bingo games with homemade chocolate chip cookies by director of development Debbie Williams as prizes, and break-out rooms to share favorite family holiday traditions. Everyone had received the holiday songbook to follow along. Konrad led and accompanied the singing on his electric piano, and invited everyone to dance. Songs were, “Happy Hanukah and Merry Christmas,” “Jingle Bells,” “The Dreidel Song,” “Rockin Around the Christmas Tree,” “Feliz Navidad,” and concluded with “We Wish You a Happy Holiday and A New Year.” Debbie shared that the school raised more than $800 for the Carpinteria Women’s Club to be used for Meals on Wheels, families in need and

Our Town Page 284

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Crane Country Day School Virtual Holiday event recorded via Zoom (Photo courtesy of Crane Country Day School)

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• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

17

On The Record (Continued from page 6)

For a second time, Falconstone’s target is interviewed by Santa Barbara PD James X. Falconstone (left) confronts his target, photographed by the Montecito Journal

and number and agreed to be interviewed for this story so long as we withheld his name and identifying information, as well as the names of his clients and the identity of the stalker he was stalking.

Two days later, I met at the same coffee shop with the detective, who asked to be identified only by his somewhat fanciful nom de plume, James X. Falconstone, which he invented for his recently self-published memoir concerning his three-decade career as a former prison guard, inmate firefighter administrator, and state parole officer, a volume which was recently optioned

by Hollywood for a possible TV series based on his exploits.

Because the stalker of stalkers occasionally assumes fictional identities in his line of work – for example, he often poses as the boyfriend or out-of-town relative of a female client who is being harassed by neighbors or ex-boyfriends – Falconstone explained that it was imperative that this article not include any photographs of him or any compromising details about his physical likeness.

The Journal also agreed not to identify the place of our first encounter or other key locations in this story for confidentiality reasons.

Falconstone and his Falcons

According to Falconstone, the man who had been arrested at the Montecito coffee shop two days before I met him, while not a registered sex offender, did have a prior conviction for indecent exposure at a beach on the East Coast, and had only avoided sex offender classification by agreeing to a plea bargain. The charge was a few years old, however, and the man was no longer on parole, so after viewing an Instagram photograph of a particular Montecito celebrity walking out the door of the coffee shop in question, the man had elected to drive himself all the way across the country, hoping to make the acquaintance of the object of his obsession.

How Falconstone got on the case in the first place has everything to do with the bizarre pathology of celebrity stalking. As it turns out, another private detective who, unlike the more low-key Falconstone, is listed in Santa Barbara’s public telephone directory, had actually received a call from the stalker himself, who had asked for his help in tracking down the celebrity in question.

“My friend told me the guy wanted to pay him to find my client,” Falconstone explained, laughing at the absurdity.

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Montecito: Where Public People Go to Be Private, But Somewhat Publicly It’s an unspoken but very real part of life in a celebrity-rich community such as Montecito: All those famous people, whether they be Hollywood luminaries, captains of industry, house-flipping talk show hosts, or recently-relocated British royals, inevitably attract an outsized amount of attention.

Aside from the predictable cadre of tourists who flock to our fair town with the hope of witnessing a famous person sipping a latte at Pierre Lafond Market or enjoying a quiet meal at the Honor Bar, Montecito also has its share of telescopic lens-toting photographers, says Montecito Journal gossip columnist Richard Mineards, who boasts decades of experience covering Santa Barbara’s celebrity community. “The ‘snapperazzi’ whom I have dealt with over the years may be a nuisance, but are not normally threatening,” he says. “They are just determined to get the unique celebrity shot (for which they will presumably be well rewarded) and then leave you alone.”

According to Mineards, the lion’s share of celebrity-seeking in Montecito is strictly commercial i.e. transactional. “There are obviously a number of intrepid shutterbugs in our rarefied enclave given the continuing flow of photos in British national newspapers and the U.S. celebrity glossies of bold-faced names like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle dining at Lucky’s, or Ellen DeGeneres, Portia de Rossi, Orlando Bloom, and Katy Perry shopping in our Eden by the Beach or picking up their java jolts at places like Merci Montecito.”

Because so many celebrity-driven publications pay well for exclusive celebrity photographs, veteran photographers often go to extreme lengths to win the perfect shot. “I remember one tabloid paparazzo disguised himself as a sheep at Neverland, Michael Jackson’s estate, when the Wizard of Odd tied the knot with Lisa Marie Presley,” recalls Mineards.

Sadly Not All Stalkers Are as Harmless as Sheep

Unfortunately, some local celeb stalkers are more like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. And sometimes they’re just wolves in wolves’ clothing. More than out to make a quick buck, these are folks who suffer from the delusion they have a spiritual relationship with a particular celebrity they’ve never met, and who arrive here with the express goal of cementing that bond by any means necessary.

It’s a very real phenomenon with its own particular pathology, says Cooper Lawrence, a New York-based psychologist, radio host, and bestselling author (most recently of Celebritocracy) who specializes in celebrity stalking.

“Psychologists define the basic pathology of any stalking behaviors, celebrity or otherwise, as unwanted and intrusive behavior that cause the target to feel unsafe and distressed,” Lawrence says. “Celebrity stalking is a bit of a different animal because of the attention seeking behaviors built into celebrity jobs with social media posts and TV appearances, for example, all designed to elicit attention, promote themselves and to generally court the public.”

Advantage to the Stalker: The Constitutional Right to Face One’s Accuser

Unfortunately for the notables being stalked, an important tool stalkers have in their toolbox is the 6th Amendment to the Constitution aka the “Confrontation Clause” otherwise known as the “right to face one’s accuser.”

What this means is that if a celeb files a case against a stalker, that stalker then has the right to face their accuser in a court of law. Which helps the stalker get

“Winter forms our character and brings out our best.” – Tim Allen

1 – 7 January 2021

A few days later, I spot Falconstone’s target being contacted by cops yet a third time

Brilliant Thoughts

by Ashleigh Brilliant Born London, 1933. Mother Canadian. Father a British civil servant. World War II childhood spent mostly in Toronto and Washington, D.C. Berkeley PhD. in American History, 1964. Living in Santa Barbara since 1973. No children.

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Email ashleigh@west.net or visit www.ashleighbrilliant.com

Eggscuse Me

I exactly where they want to be: in the same room as their fixation and locked in a drama with them.

The recent rise of social media has only exacerbated the phenomenon, argues Cooper Lawrence. “Social media and a 24-hour news cycle have made information about a celebrity’s life more accessible,” she explains. “When they buy a new house, we know where it is. When they’re on vacation with their family, we know where they are.” Thus, in a perverse way, social media has the unintended function of promoting a particular psychological phenomena that Lawrence calls the “illusion of intimacy.”

“This idea explains our fun connection to our favorite celebrity as well as the unhealthy ones by a person with mental illness,” Lawrence says, “Because we know so much about a celebrity we feel super connected to them.” Instagram, in particular, can make people feel that celebrities are speaking directly to them, because, in many cases, that’s exactly what celebrities are doing.

“Since they are talking directly to us, we have the illusion that we know them,” she continues, adding that the growing trend of celebrities to share intimate details about their lives completes the pathological equation in the minds of both the straightforward fan and the celebrity stalker. “As a result, we know who has had everything from a drug problem, a secret marriage, or a miscarriage to a zit, dry eyes, or a penchant for beekeeping,” concludes Lawrence. “The more relatable, the more we have bonded with our favorite star and the more we feel this intimate connection.”

If at First You Don’t Succeed

When Falconstone first confronted the celebrity stalker at the Montecito coffee shop parking lot, his primary aim was to stall the man until the cops, whom he’d already notified, could arrive. His secondary objective was to talk to the suspected stalker and get as much information and potential evidence out of him as possible.

“I told the guy I knew why he was in town and that I knew he’d been arrested three years ago for indecent exposure,” Falconstone said. The man was intrigued that Falconstone knew this, and began talking nonstop, explaining that the arrest was all a misunderstanding and that he worked directly for Jesus Christ himself and was in town to discuss some urgent spiritual business with Falconstone’s celebrity client.* (*As of press time, Jesus Christ was unavailable for comment due to commitments elsewhere.) During the chat, after Falconstone (with no intention of actually doing so) agreed to talk to his client about the man’s proposal, he agreed to allow the police to search his vehicle.

On The Record Page 224 224

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Luxury Real Estate Specialist

’m sure you’ve heard it said that “you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.” This, I suppose, is another way of stating the Machiavellian principle that “the end justifies the means” – i.e. to get a good outcome, you sometimes have to employ less-than-good methods.

My problem is that I don’t like breaking eggs – certainly not in the literal sense. A fresh unbroken egg is such a beautiful object. And part of the beauty, to my mind, lies in its fragility. Another part lies in the irreversibility of the act. As we have known from childhood (despite Lewis Carroll’s less tragic version in Through the Looking Glass) once that fragility is shattered, there’s no going back, not even with the aid of “all the King’s horses and all the King’s men.”

For me, this is no abstract cogitation.

Since I make all my own meals – and since I like an omelet of my own style – I’m very frequently obliged to break open, not just one, but two beautiful eggs. (Even if I were a vegetarian – which I’m not – eggs are permitted in most vegetarian diets.)

(Incidentally, the size of an egg is apparently not measured by a fixed standard, but is a matter of commercial terminology. There was once a time when you could buy eggs classed as “small.” But those savants we call “market researchers” apparently discovered, at some time in living memory, that people didn’t want “small” eggs. As a result, in my local supermarket, the smallest eggs available are called “Large.” Next up the scale are the “Extra Large” – and the largest of all are called “Jumbo.”)

So there I am, with an egg in my hand, about to do the dastardly deed.

No doubt devices are available today which would perform the act with no need for my participation. And I know that large food companies which use thousands of eggs in the preparation of their products have heartless robots which break eggs all day without a qualm.

But I have to steel myself every time I smash one of those lovely delicate ovoids against the edge of the frying pan. And many a time I must first do a series of taps before gathering strength to strike the fatal blow. And – alas! – many (but mercifully, not quite so many) a time, I then strike too hard, penetrating the innards prematurely, with dire consequences I won’t go into here.

• The Voice of the Village •

Of course, the desired effect is to make just enough of a crack in the shell to enable its two halves to be neatly separated, and the contents to be gently deposited on the frying surface.

I will not deny that at this point we enter a new realm of aesthetics.

The useless shell is now cast away as garbage, and we are confronted with a bright yellow “sun” surrounded by a clear liquid “sky” which, with the application of heat, gradually clouds over. From here on, the culinary arts prevail, and the beautiful oval casing from which this miracle emerged is gone and forgotten.

I have to steel myself every time I smash one of those lovely delicate ovoids against the edge of the frying pan

Yes, of course I know about the chicken who produces this wonder, usually at the cost of its own freedom, and ultimately its own life. And I know there are many other kinds of eggs produced by other species, including our own. But for some reason, as far as gastronomical consumption is concerned, chicken eggs have attained the greatest popularity in our culture.

Not that all chicken eggs are equal.

Quite apart from size, there is the major distinction between “white” and “brown” eggs. The pigment is determined by the breed of chicken – and despite legendary differences in nutritional value there is no proven health benefit determined by egg color – nor, for that matter, by the conditions in which the chicken was raised.

But I must conclude with a true egg story which goes back to my childhood in Washington, D.C. At the age of about 11, I was trusted to do certain shopping at our local Safeway market.

On one memorable occasion, the item I was assigned to buy and bring home was a carton of a dozen eggs. Don’t ask me how it happened, because I have conveniently forgotten all the details – but the eggs I delivered to my mother were all broken.

My mother had a gift for ridicule – and from that day on, when any other embarrassing peccadillo on my part evoked the memory of that incident, I was known to our family as “Eggs Brilliant.”

•MJ MONTECITO JOURNAL

19

Village Beat

Persona Pizzeria on State Street reopens with new ownership; manager Sawyer Diaz, and co-owners Shawn Noormand and Kiona Gross have strong ties to Montecito and Carpinteria

by Kelly Mahan Herrick Kelly has been editor at large for the Journal since 2007, reporting on news in Montecito and beyond. She is also a licensed realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, and is a member of Montecito and Santa Barbara’s top real estate team, Calcagno & Hamilton.

In Business: Persona Pizzeria

P

ersona Pizzeria on State Street has reopened under new ownership, despite statewide stay-at-home orders that have shut down indoor and outdoor dining in the majority of counties in California. “We know it’s not the optimal time to open a new business, but we are super COVID-safe and looking forward to offering the same delicious, freshly sourced pizzas, sandwiches, pastas, salads, and exceptional customer service,” said co-owner Kiona Gross, during a socially-distanced visit to the pizza shop earlier this week.

Gross, along with co-owner Shawn Noormand, purchased the shuttered business in October; the former owners shut the doors permanently in March following the first stay-at-home order. Gross is the former owner of Curious Cup Bookstore in Carpinteria, which closed five years ago. She and Noormand are longtime friends, meeting in Carpinteria at their respective businesses.

Noormand is the longtime owner of Giovanni’s Pizza on Carpinteria Avenue, where he celebrates 24 years in business on January 1. “I’ve been looking for a new venture for awhile, and when Kiona brought the idea to me, I knew it was the perfect opportunity,” Noormand said. “I have a great staff at Giovanni’s in Carpinteria, who I trust to run the store while I focus my attention on this new business.”

The pizza business runs deep in the Noormand family; Shawn’s dad, Alex, owned the Giovanni’s in Montecito for 32 years before closing in January 2019. Shawn grew up working at the Coast Village Road eatery, which is now home to Ca’Dario Montecito. Shawn’s sister Shannon owns Crushcakes in Santa Barbara and Isla Vista, and sister Alex co-owns Yellow Belly Tap & Restaurant on De La Vina Street. “We do keep it in the family,” Shawn laughed,

20 MONTECITO JOURNAL

adding that his own sons will be helping launch the business while they are home from college for the holidays. Noormand tells us that his dad, Alex, who many in Montecito grew up visiting on Coast Village Road, is semi-retired and spending his days mentoring small business owners for the local nonprofit, SCORE. The newly opened Persona Pizzeria will keep the same name and recipes as the former franchise, but the menu has been streamlined and the prices have been lowered, offering a more affordable price point for pizza, salads, pasta, and calzones. All pizzas are personal sized (12”) and there is a popular “create your own” option with an array of toppings including various sauces, meats, cheeses, veggies, and more. There are also glu- The pizzas at Persona Pizzeria are made to order with any ten free and vegan options number of combinations of crust, sauce, and toppings available. Salads include a burrata and beet salad, caprese, Caesar, house, and more. The entire menu can be found on www.toasttab.com/persona-Sb. Many of the staff members from the former iteration of Persona have returned, including manager Sawyer Diaz.

During their COVID-friendly re-opening, customers can order online, over the phone, or at the door of the eatery, located near the corner of Canon Perdido Street. Orders are available for pickup or curbside, no-contact delivery. “At this time no one may enter the restaurant, as we want to keep both our staff and our patrons as safe as possible,” Gross said. Future plans for the interior of the restaurant include walls filled with local art, and the offering of beer and wine (liquor license is pending). “We will also offer lunch specials at some point too,” Gross said. An empty parklet is set up out front for use once the stay-at-home order is lifted.

Initial hours are Thursday and Sunday 11 am to 8 pm, and Friday and Saturday 11 am to 9 pm for pick-up and take-out. Hours will expand in the future.

“Persona Pizzeria is a community restaurant and we take great pride in our beautiful city and its people. We appreciate your support and patience during these difficult times,” Gross said.

Persona Pizzeria is located at 905 State Street. Visit www.persona-pizzeria. com for online ordering and for more information.

•MJ

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• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

21

On The Record (Continued from page 19 19))

This time, the cops had apparently had enough

Three strikes and you’re gone

“The car was full of weird stuff, said Falconstone, including two rubber masks on the front passenger seat, one of [U.S. President Donald] Trump and one of Batman.” Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything actually illegal inside the car. “We searched him and his property head to toe, but didn’t find anything,” said Falconstone. “We were hoping to get him on a DUI, or possession of drugs or a weapon, but we didn’t find any of that.”

Still, Falconstone considered the arrest a success. “I felt good about it, and so did my client,” he elaborated. “We got him booked, cited, and released, we had his fingerprints and a local picture of him, and now I could call my buddies in law enforcement and let them know he was in their jurisdiction.”

view with Falconstone, when he called me on my cell phone to announce that he had just bumped into the stalker at another coffee shop in the general area.

According to Falconstone, he just happened to be drinking coffee at the location when the man walked up to him and asked if they didn’t know each other.

“We sure do,” Falconstone said he replied, upon identifying himself. “And if you haven’t realized already, I’m always going to be one step ahead of you.”

Although it’s certainly possible that one of Falconstone’s sources had alerted him to the man’s general whereabouts, Falconstone insisted that the impromptu meeting was simply a coincidence. However, it struck me as more likely that Falconstone had somehow placed a tracker on the man’s car, although Falconstone would never admit to such a thing.

When I arrived at the coffee shop, two uniformed Santa Barbara police officers and a pair of plainclothes detectives were talking to the stalker, who was carrying a large cup of coffee that Falconstone had just purchased for him to allow police enough time to arrive on scene. For several minutes, the cops quietly and calmly spoke to the celebrity stalker, who seemed to be complaining about both Falconstone and the police following him. “This is a really small community,” I overheard the detective say at one point.

“Right now, they are probably trying to figure out what to do with him,” Falconstone told me as we watched the interview in progress. “Before I bumped into him at the coffee shop, he’d apparently already done something to piss somebody off, so they are asking him about that. But did he do something severe enough to arrest him?”

Apparently not. After 20 minutes or so, the cops left without arresting the man and this time, they even allowed him to drive off without so much as a search of his car.

Always One Step Ahead

During our initial interview, Falconstone described to me a few tricks of his trade, extra-legal methods he’d perfected over his years as a private detective who often works in tandem with law enforcement, but tactics he would never have used when he was still a cop. For example, impersonating people and lying to people in order to get them to cooperate with his client’s wishes.

Once, when an Armenian-American landlord asked Falconstone to scare away the proprietor of what turned out to be an illegal marijuana shop that had opened a storefront on the man’s L.A. County building, Falconstone confronted the unlicensed shop owner and warned him to move out or risk being shut down. When the tenant didn’t leave, Falconstone convinced a cop friend to set up an undercover buy with an underaged customer. After the cops raided the shop, the tenant split town.

Another hypothetical tactic that he described involves planting items in the vehicle of a target, something that momentarily crossed his mind concerning the celebrity stalker at the coffee shop. “When I confronted the guy in the parking lot, he was away from his vehicle and had the windows rolled down,” Falconstone told me after the fact with a conspiratorial smile. “I could easily have thrown something in the car that could have been real trouble for him.”

Barring that, Falconstone added, he could easily have slapped an expletive laden sticker over the man’s rear license plate which would have given the police probable cause if the man had elected to drive away before the cops arrived. “Just imagine this guy driving down the road and instead of his plates, the cops just see a sticker saying ‘F*ck the police’ or something,” he speculated, chuckling. “That’s all they’d need to pull him over.”

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Three Strikes and You’re Out

After that incident, Falconstone said he wouldn’t be surprised if his client’s determined stalker might finally give up, but this was not meant to be.

However, this time, it was me who alerted Falconstone (who was out of town at the moment) to the stalker’s whereabouts, at yet a third coffee shop in town.

I happened to be driving down Coast Village Road when I spotted the stalker once again being interviewed by a pair of police officers.

For a moment, I couldn’t believe it was actually the same guy, but there he was, wearing the same confused seeming expression on his face, and the same baseball cap, athletic shorts and sandals that he’d been wearing during his two prior interactions with the cops. After snapping a few photographs from my car and calling Falconstone about the sighting, I pulled over and took several more shots as the cops, who seemed completely fed up with the guy, placed him in handcuffs and pushed him headfirst into their SUV. Montecito’s most determined recent celebrity stalker’s third interaction with the cops took place, according to my iPhone records, at exactly 12:40 pm on the afternoon of October 29, just two days before Halloween. According to Falconstone, after the cops arrested and released him that day, he hasn’t been seen since.

“There’s been no contact,” Falconstone told me a few weeks ago. “The cops told him if he showed up in town one more time they would arrest him, impound his vehicle and drive him to San Bernardino County where he has a misdemeanor warrant for stealing electricity. Maybe he’s finally left,” Falconstone surmised. “Maybe he’s driven down to San Diego, where it’s warmer. Or maybe he drove back east to be with his mom. Moms almost never give up on their kids. That’s a good thing, I guess.”

•MJ

“Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

1 – 7 January 2021

On Science

the atmosphere below and a strange thermal infrared anomaly at one volcano, indicating the possibility that Venus is indeed active. And earlier this year there was an unexpected announcement that phosphine, a gas associated with life, was discovered through Earth-based observations of Venus’ atmosphere. Since then, more analysis indicates that it may be a calibration error, but work is continuing. NASA is considering a new mission called DAVINCI to precisely measure the composition of the atmosphere as a follow-up on these observations as well as to understand better how the atmosphere evolved and determine whether Venus ever had an ocean.

by Tom Farr

Tom Farr joined NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1975 and has helped develop the first geologic applications of imaging radar using aircraft, satellites, and the Space Shuttle. He has taught a class on planetary exploration at Santa Barbara City College for more than 10 years. He currently resides in Montecito.

Our Solar System: Venus

I

was already in the Science Team room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory when the second cycle of radar images of the surface of Venus were beamed down in May of 1991. I waited impatiently for the five-inch print roll to start spooling out. The first cycle had gone well and most of Venus’s surface was mapped for the first time. We were the first people in history to see the unveiled face of Venus. What we saw were impact craters, huge volcanoes, and lava flows everywhere. The reason I was so early to the Science Team room was that those lava flows looked super fresh, implying that they may have been flowing even as we imaged them. That would make Venus one of only three planets with active volcanoes. If the second cycle showed changes to any of the lava flows, it would be big news.

I had already pulled out of the archive the previous coverage of the area that was newly re-imaged. It was many feet long and printed on thermal paper: while the images were digital, computers in the ‘90s weren’t quite up to the task of displaying a five-inch by many feet long image swath, as captured by the Magellan spacecraft radar system. The new image had been acquired the day before, but raw synthetic aperture radar data requires a lot of computer processing to create the image. I laid the new image over the old one and flipped back and forth to see if there were any changes in the margins of the lava flows. No changes popped out; the question of Venus volcanism is still undecided.

Earth’s Evil Twin

Because its size is almost identical to the Earth’s, Venus has always been called Earth’s twin. But if it is, it’s Earth’s evil twin, as just about everything else about Venus is completely alien to Earth: it’s covered in thick clouds that produce a surface pressure of 100 times that of Earth – more like the bottom of our ocean!

That thick atmosphere is almost all carbon dioxide, which produces a runaway greenhouse effect making the planet, at 700-900°F, hotter than Mercury, the innermost planet. The thick atmosphere also diffuses the heat, so everywhere is pretty much the same temperature. Interestingly, at about 100,000 feet up, the pressure and temperature of the atmosphere are about the same as Earth’s.

Venus’s rotation is also different from Earth’s and every other planet in the solar system: it rotates in the opposite direction and very slowly, possibly the result of a collision with some huge object early in its history. Its “day” is 243 Earth days long, longer than its year (225 Earth days).

Because of its thick, hot atmosphere, landing a probe on its surface has proved very challenging. Oh, and did I mention in addition to carbon dioxide, there is a large amount of sulfuric acid floating around? But way back in the 1970s and ‘80s, the Soviet Union managed to land several probes, which lasted up to two hours. They took gas samples on the way down and photos of a rocky, volcanic surface. But NASA’s Magellan mission was the first to map the whole planet with enough resolution to interpret its geologic history. With its radar penetrating the thick clouds, Magellan saw the two California-sized highlands that had been discovered with Earth-based radar systems, including the giant Arecibo dish in Puerto Rico that recently collapsed. Those two areas were called, with drab scientific succinctness, Alpha and Beta Regio. As Magellan mapped more and more features, we named them after prominent women, fittingly for planet Venus.

Interesting features abounded in addition to the 1,600 volcanoes. There were huge volcanic plains similar to the ancient lava plains of eastern Washington and Oregon. We discovered that many volcanoes were topped with a substance that reflected radar waves much like metal. The best guess was it was a product of sulfuric-acid weathering. As expected, there were few impact craters due to the thick atmosphere, but some of the meteors that made it to the surface produced parabolic shock-wave patterns in the surface deposits, something we’ve never seen on another planet. We also discovered sand dunes in the ejecta of one crater, proving that there was a source of sand and wind enough to move it.

More Than Meets the Eye

Venus has continued to serve up surprises since Magellan was sent crashing into its surface at the end of its mission in 1994. Venus Express, a European Space Agency mission, orbited between 2005 and 2015. It detected lightning in 1 – 7 January 2021

NASA is considering a new mission called DAVINCI to precisely measure the composition of the atmosphere as a follow-up on these observations as well as to understand better how the atmosphere evolved and determine whether Venus ever had an ocean A big mystery still revolves around the population of impact craters on Venus’s surface. Even accounting for the thick atmosphere, there are fewer craters on its surface than would be expected if its surface had sat around for the roughly four billion years of its history. In fact, models indicate that the crust we see is only about 750 million years old. It could be that eruptions forming lava plains have been enough to cover the older craters, but some researchers have proposed that there was enough heat trapped within Venus to completely melt the crust, causing it to founder into a magma ocean, resetting the “clock.” An orbital mission proposed to NASA called VERITAS would produce better geologic and topographic maps to confirm whether Venus ever had plate tectonics, or if the crustal foundering process may have occurred instead. Future ideas include balloons that could float in the more hospitable upper atmosphere, dropping down occasionally to sample the surface.

Meanwhile, Venus will be our Morning Star for a few more months, later slipping behind the Sun and returning as the Evening Star later in 2021. •MJ

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• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

23

The Way It Was

The Courtney Fountain on December 14, 2020 seems to sport paint samples as the City attempts to determine the next step in the process of restoration (Courtesy of Bryan Rosen)

by Hattie Beresford

The Story Behind the Fountain on Sycamore Canyon

Ms Beresford is a local historian who has written two Noticias for the Santa Barbara Historical Museum as well as authored two books. One, The Way It Was: Santa Barbara Comes of Age, is a collection of articles written for the Montecito Journal. The other, Celebrating CAMA’s Centennial, is the fascinating story of Santa Barbara’s Community Arts Music Association.

The Courtney Fountain in 2017 shows its color makeover, but the trough is cracked and damaged despite attempts at repairs (Author photo)

A

t the intersection of Stanwood Drive and Sycamore Canyon Road, a memorial fountain approaches its 100th year. Known as Jack’s Trough or Courtney Fountain, it was designed in 1925 by Lutah Maria Riggs of the George Washington Smith architectural firm for thrice-married Marguerite Doe. Known as the “Million Dollar Heiress” in her hometown of San Francisco, Marguerite moved to Santa Barbara in 1911 when she was 21 years old. She built a grand home designed

by Russell Ray on property between today’s Lotusland and El Mirador and became an indefatigable socialite who entertained and was entertained with a dizzying array of parties and events.

Peggy, as she was known to her friends, was also an avid horsewom-

an and animal advocate. During her lifetime she funded dozens of animal hospitals and shelters throughout the world. She even recruited her friends to work at a thrift shop to benefit animals. It was located on Anacapa Street near Anapamu. She engaged George Washington Smith’s office to design three animal hospitals in California.

Upon her death in 1970, per her instructions, the Marguerite Doe Foundation was established. Its purpose was to benefit projects that assisted animals through shelters, ambulances, spaying programs, hospitals, and more.

Completed in 1926, “Jack’s Trough,” a memorial to her favorite saddle horse, was a gift to the horses and riders and other animals of the area, a reliable watering hole at which to

quench their thirst. Two ground level basins flank the trough to accommodate smaller animals. Saint Barbara graces the classical pediment, and cast stone heads of dogs, horses, cattle, and sheep are inlaid into the frieze. The plaque includes images of oats, a tree of life, stars, birds, and a hoof print. It says, “Jack, to his friends, 1926.”

In 1983, the fountain, which stands on private land, was designated a Santa Barbara City Historic Landmark.

The venerable fountain, however, shows its age despite a superficial makeover circa 2017 that painted the walls a subtle pinkish orange color, the cornice brown, and the framing for the frieze white. Nevertheless, structural repairs were not completed. Its waters have not run for a long time because there were problems with vandalism, and the fountain had continually overflowed, creating several additional problems.

Currently, the City of Santa Barbara is engaged in a project to repair and restore the Courtney Fountain (so named because Marguerite was married to Geoffrey Stuart Courtney at the time). Using the approved National Park Service historic preservation guidelines, the City will repair the rock wall, weld the railings to their

Lutah Maria Riggs of the architectural firm of George Washington Smith was commissioned to design the fountain; this is her drawing (Courtesy UCSB Architecture and Design Collection)

Three horses adorn the frieze, the central one is presumed to indicate Jack (Author photo)

Marguerite Doe Courtney commissioned the fountain as a tribute to her horse Jack (Author photo)

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24 MONTECITO JOURNAL

“I like the cold weather. It means you get work done.” — Noam Chomsky

1 – 7 January 2021

TO HEALTH, FAMILY and LOTS of NEW SNOW IN 2021

Lutah Maria Riggs’ rendering of the design of Santa Barbara for the pediment (Courtesy UCSB Architecture and Design Collection)

original configuration, repair cracks and paint the entire fountain a subtle shade of white, to return it to the original look of a marble Greek temple.

It is not known if the fountain will be put back into working order. The City Memorandum on the topic quotes Ruth Days, who grew up on Mountain Drive in 1950s and 60s when many Montecito kids still rode their horses to school, and bridle paths were common. There was once a path along Sycamore Canyon, and Days recalls that they’d ride their horses to Jack’s

Santa Barbara in the pediment in 2017 (Author photo)

Trough, and would sit there and relax while the horses watered up. Wider roads, asphalt, and increased traffic make it unlikely that horses will return to drink from the fountain, but the charming landmark is a reminder of the way it once was in Montecito.

(Sources: San Francisco Call and Morning Press articles of the time; City of Santa Barbara Planning Division Memorandum of May 1, 2019 and staff report; Elane Griscom’s “The Remarkable Peggy Ravenscroft,” Santa Barbara Magazine, Spring 1990.)

•MJ

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• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

25

Far Flung Travel

by Chuck Graham

Close Escape to Old California

I

t was a trail run like no other. Three trail runners had returned from an early morning run beneath dewy, overcast skies, reporting a mountain lion sighting on the narrow single-track trail, the Coon Creek Trail of Montaña de Oro State Park, located just south of Morro Bay. The runners reported that the mountain lion had downed a mule deer doe, and now state park personnel was about to close down the trail. Once I heard all the information, I laced up, grabbed my camera, and took off before the trail was officially closed.

The Coon Creek Trail traverses along a dense riparian corridor in tangled poison oak and wild rose, coastal chaparral smothering the steep mountainsides of this stunningly diverse state park. About a mile up the winding, open book-shaped canyon, I came

across the partially gutted mule deer, but no mountain lion in sight.

After catching my breath, I tried listening for any possible movement. At some point the mountain lion would return. I could see where the mountain lion had ambushed its prey, lying in wait in a seasonal arroyo to pounce in the early morning hours, an easy opportunity for a stealthy predator that enjoys this coastal range. After an hour of waiting and listening I gave in and continued my run with camera in hand, hoping for a glimpse, but like a ghost the mountain lion had vanished with ease in one of the best kept secrets along the Central Coast of California.

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Point Buchon Trail

Tucked Away

When a concentrated region of California’s diversified topography lies only a couple hours north of Santa Barbara, isn’t it worth a look? Montaña de Oro State Park can have that effect on you and take you on foot or mountain bike from the ocean through the coastal range within several minutes.

This stunning stretch of the Central California Coast became part of the California State Park system in 1965.

Even after all this time, it’s still a place I tend to forget about because it’s kind of tucked away south of Los Osos and north of Avila. Montaña de Oro means “Mountain of Gold” in Spanish for all the vibrant California poppies that spring to life atop its wave-battered marine terraces and sweeping coastal hillsides.

Within its 8,000 acres are secluded, rugged beaches, steep, perfectly groomed sand dunes, teeming

tidepools, weather-beaten coastal bluffs, gurgling creeks, and chaparral-choked hills, the high point being Valencia Peak at 1,347 feet. Beyond the breathtaking scenery, a maze of trails meanders through all the canyons attracting hikers, equestrians, mountain bikers, and trail runners alike.

There is a small campground located behind the visitor center, the perfect car camping venue offering a terrific base to explore this unique slice of “Old California.”

Wildlife abounds at Montaña de Oro. Southern sea otters can be seen rafting up on the thick canopies of dense kelp forests lying just offshore.

Coyotes lope along the hillsides roaming the coastal bluffs and their yelps and howls are heard frequently throughout the long, sloping canyons.

Teary-eyed mule deer can be seen at any time in the state park. Hordes of cormorants, gulls, and California

brown pelicans enjoy the craggy sea stacks. Western scrub jays, California thrashers, white-crowned sparrows and other songbirds forage the coastal sage scrub. Raptors of all types can be found soaring over this windswept state park.

There is an amazing bonus hike/ run at Montaña de Oro. Located at the south end of the state park, the Point Buchon Trail is only open to the public Thursday – Monday from 8 am to one hour before sunset. After crossing over gurgling Coon Creek, state park personnel are stationed in a rustic kiosk where visitors are required to sign in before hiking the secluded single-track trail.

This easy-going route hugs the winding coast to the south with convenient overlooks atop windswept marine terraces that reveal secluded pocket beaches and wave-cut bluff.

The 6.6-mile out-and-back route possesses some of the most pristine and scenic stretches of coastline in Central California. The trail eventually offers views of the old Diablo Power Plant.

Early morning hikes on the Point Buchon Trail are typically quiet and rarely crowded offering serenity and solitude the Central Coast typically lives up to.

Getting There: Heading north on Highway 101, take the Los Osos Valley Road exit and head west to the coast. Once in Los Osos, simply follow the signs into Montaña de Oro State Park. Visit www.parks. ca.gov.

•MJ

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• The Voice of the Village •

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27

Our Town (Continued from page 16 16)) the Food Bank. Crane students also sent out 235 holiday cards to the “Sending Smiles” organization, which sends the greetings to patients in hospitals.

The holiday message from Joel Weiss, head of Crane Country Day School: “At Crane Country Day School, we pride ourselves on our strong sense of community, our ability to provide a hands-on experiential approach to education, and our fun-filled annual traditions and celebrations. While this year has been different, we are enjoying connecting and supporting each other in new and unique ways. Our Virtual Sing Along and Cookie Baking is just one event in a series of monthly online gatherings to keep our sense of community alive during a time when parents and family members cannot meet in large groups. I am extremely thankful and grateful for our kind and supportive Montecito community, our parents who have partnered with us to keep our school safe, and our amazing students who continue to imagine, learn, laugh, and create. Thank you all for being part of our journey this year. On behalf of Crane, I wish you a bright and merry holiday season and a happy new year!”

Laguna Blanca Lower School “Home for the Holidays” concert featuring drumming by the third-grade class (Photo credit: Erica Downing)

El Montecito Early School Christmas wishes from the staff of El Montecito Early School (Photo courtesy of El Montecito School)

The kindergarteners of Laguna Blanca Lower School, looking snazzy for their holiday performance (Photo credit: Erica Downing)

Suzy Dobreski, the school director, made a difficult decision to cancel the preschool annual Christmas Concert this year due to the lockdown.

Her holiday message: “El Montecito Early School offers the Montecito community our very best wishes for this Christmas season. We sincerely hope you all have an opportunity to experience the real meaning of Christmas, enjoy the festivities of the New Year and spend quality time with loved ones. We look forward to welcoming our students back for the start of the 2021. Blessings, from all of the El Montecito Early School staff – assistant director Meika McCrindle, property manager Shawn Monroe, and teachers Jenna Berndt, Melanie Cuxil, Bayli Morrow, Lyndsi Morrow, Lisa Salgado, and Melissa Toth.

Laguna Blanca Lower School

Laguna opted for an EK-12 Virtual Winter Concert titled, “Home for the Holidays.” Here the students performed from their homes or were masked and socially distanced outside at the school. Highlights included the opening song, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” dancing, singing, and playing bells to “Happiness,” folk songs on xylophone and electric piano, drumming on hand-painted bucket drums, a ukulele band playing “Octopus’s Garden” (The

28 MONTECITO JOURNAL

Beatles), and the upper school students performing in bands with songs “Auld Lang Syne,” “Come Together,” and the Mariah Carey super hit, “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” full on with violin, drums, electric guitars and piano, while the Lower School performed a dance outside. Thanks to music instructors Molly Markstrum and Rob Moreno, performing arts by Brianne Hwang and Dana Caldwell, choreography by Kateri Ransom, and film by Ian Branch, Moreno, Dug Uyesaka, and Island Fox Media.

The holiday message from Andy Surber, head of Laguna Blanca Lower School: “We are thrilled to be sharing the holiday season together at Laguna.

I am so proud of our community for their teamwork and care as we learn and grow together during these challenging times. I am inspired daily by how Laguna Blanca Owls adapt and find creative ways to overcome obstacles, especially when it comes to reimagining our most cherished school traditions. We look forward to all the good that 2021 holds for our families and the greater Santa Barbara community.”

Montecito Union School

Students videotaped their Annual Holiday Strings Concert, taught and led by music teacher Ron Zecher. The strings concert is part of their annual Winter Sing. The video was sent out the students’ families December 18. “I am continually inspired by the effort and commitment of our young musicians as they learn to play their instruments,” Ron said. “This year it is even more remarkable as most of their instruction has been online in Zoom sessions. We are so grateful that we are able to give this Winter Strings Concert!” The Winter Strings Concert program featured songs by the second grade class – “Blast Off,”

Montecito Union music teacher Ron Zecher with second and third graders performing their Winter Strings Concert (Photo credit: Rusty Ito)

“The first fall of snow is not only an event but it is a magical event.” —J. B. Priestly

1 – 7 January 2021

“Rolling Along,” and “Good King Wenceslas”; by the third grade class – “Can Can,” “Dreidel,” and “Jingle Bells”; by second and third grades – “A Mozart Melody”; and by the MUS Orchestra – “Burst!” by Brian Balmages, “Arioso” by George Handel, and “Carol of the Bells” by Mykola Leontovych.

The holiday message from Anthony Ranii, school superintendent: “At Montecito Union School, we are working hard to keep up school-wide traditions during COVID-19. We are therefore overjoyed that Mr. Zecher has been able to persevere with an instrumental holiday concert, giving our young musicians the opportunity to perform and giving our MUS students, parents, and the larger community an opportunity to rejoice with the sounds of the season. Usually, our Winter Sing is highly attended by parents and community members, and instrumentalists and singers go out to the community to perform concerts to cheer members of our community that may need a little extra holiday boost. This year, singing itself has been curtailed at school as it is against health regulations for groups of students to sing close to one another.

That said, the winter holiday spirit continues. Our visual arts teachers planned lessons with several grade levels that use festive lights: a symbol of many holiday traditions. Finally, many classes are focusing on gratefulness in writing assignments, in their Mustang Meetings (daily class meetings) and in their arts projects in class.”

Our Lady of Mount Carmel School

Mount Carmel had students present for in-person learning with protocols in place. Their annual Christmas Concert was changed out for the school’s talent show, with each student filmed by Tera. The video host was student body president Nic Forry. Students from all grades participated. Acts included a boy group doing magic tricks, a hula hoop dance, a Michael Jackson and Cyndi Lauper imitation, a ballet duet, a girl trio masked on the beach doing a gymnastic technical group dance, and Sean performing a lovely rendition of Beethoven’s “Für Elise” on electric piano, no sheet music needed. The finale was the eighth grade boys’ piece to Rocky II complete with music.

Other events held were a Spirit The eighth graders of Our Lady of Mount Carmel School Week sponsored by the Student made a Banner of Gratitude for the front line healthcare Council, with themed dress up workers (Photo courtesy of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the classrooms, parent volun- School) teers made treats for the students, a Christmas BINGO, and arts crafting. The eighth graders made a Banner of Gratitude for front line healthcare workers that was delivered by a school parent who works at the local hospital COVID unit.

The Holiday Message from Tracie Simolon, the principal of Our Lady of Mount Carmel School: “This pandemic has certainly caused us to think creatively about many aspects of our lives. I am so proud of our talented students and technology teacher Carly Van Eyck for still making this Mount Carmel tradition of the Talent Show a reality, albeit digitally this year. In spite of the difficulties that COVID-19 has created, our school community is learning lessons in problem solving and resilience, all while still celebrating our students and school!”

YMCA Preschool kids rock the holiday spirit (Photo credit: Annie Fischer)

to be! The children have been busy learning and teaching each other about the Season of Giving! We feel so fortunate to have opened our doors to the children of this community for 35 years and provide the opportunities for them to learn and grow. Wishing you a joyous Christmas and Hanukkah, and a New Year filled with Peace and Love!”

•MJ

A New Year Celebration! &

The Montecito Family YMCA Preschool

Students celebrated families during the month of December and learned about all different types of families, the traditions that families share, and opened to families in need with a toy drive for the Salvation Army. Students were excited to be able to give toys to children that needed toys. The Pre-K class did its Annual First Christmas play, however this year it was filmed and sent out to families due to COVID. Students’ holiday activities included making candy trains and pancakes, and sang holiday songs outside socially distanced, quoting the 2003 film Elf, “the best way to spread Christmas Cheer is singing loud for all to hear!”

The holiday message from Annie Fischer, the director of the preschool, and her teaching staff: “The Montecito Family YMCA Preschool is a great place 1 – 7 January 2021

4441 Hollister Ave. SB 93110 (805) 770-7715 www.ConsignmentsbyMMD.com / www.LouisJohnBoutique.com

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Seen (Continued from page 14 14))

The naval paintings by Arthur Beaumont chronicle accomplishments of the U.S. Navy

Beaumont did three assignments as a correspondent for the Navy in the 1950s and ‘60s, painting frozen landscapes in Alaska and Antarctica

your visit as soon as lockdown is over and executive director Greg Gorga can unlock the doors. The exhibit was scheduled to open December 3, 2020 until May 30, 2021.

It’s sponsored by George H. & Olive J. Griffiths Charitable Foundation, Mimi Michaelis, Alice Tweed Tuohy Foundation and Wood-Claeyssens Foundation.

• Available to care for our neighbors, and accepting new patients.

• Infection control protocol followed, with all areas sanitized including wait area and exam room.

1483 E. Valley Road, Suite M | 805.969.6090

30 MONTECITO JOURNAL

“We were one of ten museums in the United States asked to participate and we are one of the top ten maritime museums in the United States,” Greg said of hosting the naval paintings.

Obviously this is a proud accomplishment for the museum’s 20-year history. In normal times, the museum has more than 40,000 visitors annually and provides year-round maritime history and marine science education for local youth. The First-Order Fresnel Lighthouse Lens from Point Conception is especially impressive. It took several world experts months to clean the lens and ready it for exhibition.

“Even the strongest blizzards start with a single snowflake.” ― Sara Raasch

The exhibit artist is Arthur Beaumont and his paintings chronicle accomplishments of the U.S. Navy, from the USS Constitution to atomic bomb tests and expeditions to the North and South poles.

This is the last show on the West Coast before its departure to the East. Beaumont uses impressionist techniques in painting the stunning images, capturing the majesty of the oceans and the vessels that sail them.

Arthur Beaumont (1890-1978) was born in Norfolk County, England and came to the U.S. in 1908 to study art at Berkeley, before moving to Los Angeles and opening his first commercial art studio in 1917. After studying more and teaching art and watercolor painting, he received a commission as a lieutenant in the Navy and became the “Artist of the Fleet” by 1933. After Pearl Harbor his work supported the U.S. war effort and reflected dramatic life or death struggles in the Pacific. In 1944 he was given the official title of war correspondent.

After World War II, Beaumont became the official artist for Operation Crossroads, documenting the Navy’s first tests of the nuclear bomb and continued to travel and paint for the Navy on missions to China and Japan. He also did work during the Korean War, in movies, and private and personal painting.

He did three assignments for the Navy in the 1950s and ‘60s, painting frozen landscapes in Alaska and Antarctica.

Toward the end of his life he painted the RMS Queen Mary as it arrived in Los Angeles. He did a series of Revolutionary War-era sailing vessels and operations along the Mekong River during the Vietnam War. My late husband was a carrier pilot, so my favorite paintings were showing the carriers launching airplanes off their deck – a small deck rolling in the waves and add night landings in the mix. Scary stuff. Many years ago my husband’s squadron invited the wives for a Powder Puff Cruise from Coronado, California. A rare treat! Sadly I was in his stateroom being seasick the whole day and never got to see the “show.”

In addition to the paintings there will be a book of Beaumont’s life and art written by Beaumont’s son Geoffrey Campbell Beaumont and published by the Irvine Museum. On January 21, 2021 the author will give a presentation about the exhibit and his father’s life.

Santa Barbara Maritime Museum is located in the Santa Barbara Harbor at 113 Harbor Way, Suite 190. For details visit sbmm.org or call (805) 962-8404.

Hope to see you there soon.

•MJ 1 – 7 January 2021

that can hold 350 pounds.” Or, “A dancing robot!” Or “mini drones you can play with in the house... a battery operated chain saw... Baby Yoda made out of Legos... a remote-controlled excavator... do-it-yourself snow cone maker... and... and... and...”

by Ernie Witham Anyway, thank you for listening to my story. I’m feeling much better now Ernie has been writing humor for more than 20 years. He is the author of that I have admitted I have a problem. And I promise, as 2020 melds into 2021, three humor books and is the humor workshop leader at the prestigious I will avoid Pinterest purchases and be a better guy...

Santa Barbara Writers Conference.

Wait! My phone just dinged. A 27-piece grilling tool set just went on special.

Comes with a strap-on headlamp for night cooking. Gotta run!

•MJ

Ernie’s World

Pinterest-aholic

H

i. My name is Ernie...

“Hi Ernie!” ...and I am a Pinterest-aholic.

It has been 12 days, 5 hours, and 31 minutes since my last Pinterest purchase. (Light applause.) Thank you.

Funny, I remember a few years back when they predicted that we would all be shopping online in the future.

I scoffed at this. “I need to see things.

Touch things. Try things on.” And I continued going to brick and mortar stores (actually, in Santa Barbara, it’s mostly plaster and red tile) to shop long after others had stopped. And it was nice that there seemed to be a bit more parking and fewer people at the checkout stands. And the not-so-busy staff was so helpful.

“Welcome to Plus Sizes Are Us. I will be your personal shopper today.

Here for a larger shirt? That one seems A plastic vase you can stick on your refrigerator.

Just one of the many items Ernie cannot resist on a bit snug around the middle.”

Pinterest.

“Actually, I’m here for shoes.”

“Good idea, that style went out with disco.”

Of course, you had to go to a number of stores to find everything you needed. “Welcome to Sports Nutz. Bowler, right? I can tell by the way you are bending over and listing to one side.”

“Actually, I’m looking for a yoga mat.”

“Gift for someone?”

And it was nice to just wander about boutique shops. “Welcome to Songs and Bongs. CD or CBD?” “Sorry, just looking for a direction.”

“Got you covered, Dude. Granddaddy Purple will get you there. One bud or two?”

But finally, I relented. I tentatively made a first purchase on Amazon back when they just sold books. “Let’s see,” the text on the screen read. “Ernie’s World the Book, by Ernie Witham... Wait that’s you. You’re buying your own book?”

“I need to increase my sales figures.”

“Good thinking. Let’s see, that brings you up to... 11.”

For the next few years, I split my time between actual stores and virtual stores. I opened a PayPal account, using the funds collected from sales of my (now) three humor books to buy other things I needed. “Pay with PayPal?” The button asked. “Yes,” I said as I moused over it. “Sorry, insufficient funds available. Please buy more of your own books first.”

Finally, stores started letting you keep a Visa card on file along with all your information, so when you saw something you needed, you just had to push the purchase button. “Congratulations! Your ‘Sling Your Thing’ underwear assortment in pleasing pastels will be shipping immediately.”

“Wait! I was just looking...”

Like many folks, I got the hang of online shopping after a while. I learned how to put things into a shopping cart and double-check before I actually bought to make sure the quantity button was on 1 when I clicked it and not 17. I learned to read the store’s return policy: “Place your order back into its original package, seal it, take it to UPS. Pay. We will happily refund your purchase amount in three to six months, if we are still in business by then.” I even learned to check to see if the actual company was located in China or Bhutan so that shipping didn’t take 18 weeks.

Yup. I had everything under control... until I found Pinterest. For those of you unfamiliar with Pinterest, it is a giant bulletin board with an interesting array of items pinned on it. Some are funny photos and witty sayings. Some are educational opportunities. Many are ads, especially this time of year...

“Dear! You’ve got to see this! It’s a plastic vase that you can stick on your refrigerator. So cool.” Or, “Dear, you won’t believe this! A collapsible stool 1 – 7 January 2021

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Heal the Ocean extends our deep Appreciation to our Supporters Undisclosed

Georgia Funsten Revocable Trust

$150,000

Nora McNeely Hurley and the Manitou Fund

$15,000-$20,000

Dan & Rae Emmett/ Emmett Foundation Nora McNeely Hurley & Michael Hurley Tomchin Family Foundation

$10,000-$14,999

Brittingham Family Foundation Marcy Carsey/Carsey Living Trust Nancy & Thomas Crawford Charles & Brynn Crowe/ Kirby-Jones Foundation Roy E. Crummer Foundation Julia Louis-Dreyfus & Brad Hall/ Hall Charitable Trust Brian Hodges/WWW Foundation La Cumbre Animal Hospital for the HTO Doggie Bag Program

Poehler-Stremel Charitable Trust Sam Scranton in memory of Sherilyn Scranton

$5,000-$9,999

Sandy & Tim Armour Susan Baerwald & Marcy Carsey/ Just Folk Roger & Sarah Chrisman/ Schlinger Chrisman Foundation Tom & Sheila Cullen Greg & Elisabeth Fowler/ G.A. Fowler Family Foundation Frank & Joseph Gila/ The Frank & Joseph Gila Fund Johnson Ohana Foundation Patagonia.com Jay & Talia Roston/ Pajadoro Foundation Robert Sollen Trust John & Lacey Williams

Larry & Wendy Barels Betsy Denison/ Denison Family Foundation Steve Starkey & Olivia Erschen Ken & Nancy Goldsholl/ The M&M Foundation Chris Baker & Jodie Ireland/ LOJO Foundation John & Gloria McManus Miller Fund Radis Family Peter & Nini Seaman/ STS Foundation

$1,000-$1,999

Cooper Allebrand/ Turpin Family Charitable Foundation Lee Parker Bacon Martha Blackwell J’Amy Brown Wendy Bruss Terri Carlson, MD Ani & Monico Casillas/ The Casillas Family Cearnal Collective Citrix/Employee Match for Ani Casillas Jim & Jolene Colomy Susan Eng-DenBaars & Steve DenBaars James & Wendy Drasdo/ The Jim and Wendy Drasdo Fund The Ebbin Group for the HTO Doggy Bag Program

Tisha Weber Ford/ Tisha Weber Ford Family Fund Robert & Sherry Gilson Nancy Gunzberg Lee E. Heller Judge George Eskin (Ret.) & Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson K. Leonard & Melanie Judson Dick & Peggy Lamb Judith Little/Wm Brian & Judith A Little Charitable Trust $3,000-$4,999 Kenny Loggins Advanced Veterinary Specialists Helene Marsh for the HTO Doggy Bag Program Marie Morrisroe Carbon2Cobalt Devon Geiger Nielsen/ Dr. David Dawson/ B&B Foundation Montecito Pet Hospital/ Francoise Park San Roque Pet Hospital Ron & Stacy Pulice/The Pulice Trust for the HTO Doggie Bag Program Marla Mercer & Frederick Herzog III/ Melissa & Christian Riparetti-Stepien Hoyt Tarola/Tarola Properties Herzog & Mercer Family 1% For the Planet Living Trust Ray Link & Jill Taylor Topa Topa Brewing Company Patsy Tisch 1% For the Planet in memory of Hilary Tisch Robin Tost Susan Venable & Charles Vinick $2,000-$2,999 Jonathan & Elise Wygant Anonymous (2) Alex & Gina Ziegler Maren Hansen & Steve Aizenstat

32 MONTECITO JOURNAL

Sue Hollingsworth Kanaloa Seafood* Sharon Keigher in memory of Clark Alexander Kat Laurain John Lyon $500-$999 Murray McTigue & Whitney Abbott Loraine & Billy B. McIntosh N.E.W. Fund Peter & Becky Adams Denise Nelson Darlene Chirman/ Donley & Valerie Olson Chirman Family Fund Neal Rabin Wendi Ostroff & Greg Chittick David Rockey Lloyd & Richard Dallett Ed & Karen Shiffman Mimi deGruy in memory of Mike deGruy Rob & Pru Sternin/ Sternin Family Fund Stan & Roberta Fishman Judy Stewart Joan Fried Thomas Sturgess Diane & Chris Gabriel Dana & Grant Trexler Dodd & Beth Geiger/ B&B Foundation Hunter Turpin/Turpin Family Charitable Foundation Mina Goena-Welch in memory of Paul Turpin Richard & Connie Kennelly Cath Webb Linda Keston Jim Winter Patrick Marr Wendy Dozoretz & Fredric Woocher 1% For the Planet Judith & George Writer MSM Construction/Matt McGinn Hank Yeiser Sharon Metsch Andy & Yvonne Neumann $200-$249 New Day Marketing, Ltd. Maria Belknap Ted Rhodes & Joan Pascal Dr. Roger & Polly Bookwalter Eric & Kit Peterson Hope Bryant Susan Petrovich Brian & Judi Cearnal Zog Industries Steve & Belinda Zola/ Steve and Belinda Zola Foundation

for the HTO Doggie Bag Program

Ann Linnett Pless/Ann Linnett Pless Donor Advised Fund Blair & Steve Raber Harry & Randi Rabin Charles & Eileen Read Christine Ryerson/The Jim Ryerson Environmental Foundation Fund Tony Allina & Christiane Schlumberger Chip Seigel/Seigel Family Jim & Ingrid Shattuck Gebb Turpin/ Turpin Family Charitable Foundation Teresa Whipple-Zwick

$250-$499

in appreciation of Matt Lum

Margo & Jeffrey Barbakow Stephen Schweitzer & Judith Bennett Maria & Stephen Black Rinaldo & Lalla Brutoco/ Omega Point Institute Inga Canfield Laura Capps Manuela & Rob Cavaness

for the HTO Doggie Bag Program

Ron & Jeanie Sickafoose Garry Sun Kathryn & Alan Van Vliet Jon Wilcox

in memory of Doug & Yvonne Wilcox

Barbara Willett Walt & Rachel Wilson

in memory of Clark Alexander

$100-$199

Anonymous (5) Anacapa Equipment for the HTO Doggie Bag Program Shane & Genny Anderson Sally Watling & Curt Coughlin Audrey Austin Natalie Cutler MJ & Brad Bakove Deirdre & Duncan Dylan Henderson Kikka Bayly

“Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood.” – Andy Goldsworthy

H S

D A N I D R

M J K

S

J

B

N

M R W J T P

Mary Conrad D FLIR Systems, INC/Employee Match J Peter & Betty Gray Frank Hood K Tyler Howell Virginia Castagnola Hunter in memory of Carter Hines J Jim Marshall L in honor of all who have helped HTO B realize the success they’ve achieved!

R Penny Mathison & Don Nulty B Sheldon & Alice Sanov Ron & Jeanie Sickafoose C

in honor of Taryn Van Vliet & Brett Buchea

Dave Adornetto

N

1 – 7 January 2021

C

S M G J C

M

L D D K

B S C

er

And we wish you all a very Peaceful New Year!

Nadia Bernardi

Debbie Mackie

Hannah G. Bradley Stephen & Christina Brown

Vesta McDermott Kathleen McGuire

Deborah Burns Anne Carty Nancy Castro Isabella & Cotty Chubb David & Jeannie Clark Richard & Mary Coffin

Robert & Linda Meyer Sally Mobraaten

in honor of Hillary Hauser

in memory of Eric Brown

in memory of Lisa Coffin

Mead Conoley Judith C. Cooley Kathryn Courain

for the HTO Doggie Bag Program

Sheldon & Janet Crandall

in memory of Chris & Tim Cutler

Jane Craven

in memory of Patricia Canning

Bob Cunningham

for the HTO Doggie Bag Program in honor of Aye’la

Natalie Cutler

in honor of Thayer & Patty Bigelow

Matt & Karen Dodson Robin & Eryn Donaldson Walt Dunlap Jettie Edwards Thomas Evans Peggy Ewing

in memory of Laddie Handelman

Devin Catherine Fairbanks ch Jennifer Fry

x

in memory of David Fry

Konnie & Andy Gault

in honor of the incredible Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Jude Bijou Tom & Laura Brooks Samuel & Patricia Burke Erin Buzuvis

in memory of Patricia Canning

in memory of Patricia Canning

in honor of John Barab

Patricia & Ronald Caird in honor of Erin Caird

in memory of Cynthia Mobraaten

Nancy Callahan Colby Centrella Natasha Chamberlain Betsy Cramer Margaret M. Dewey

Tom & Kim Modugno Deb Monroe Mitchell Morehart Kerry & Mary Mormann Emily Nolan Robert Perry Valerie & David Powdrell Georgia Pulos

in memory of Prof. James Tait Goodrich, MD/PhD

Patty Volner & Rick Dison Kathleen Doherty The Elder Family Edgar Eltrich Diane Evans & Tom Farr John & Jodi Ferner

in honor of Gabby Ferrara

Geraldine McCormick-Ray & Carleton Ray Mikki Reilly Lana Rose

in honor of Maire Radis

Barbara Finch Dr. Jennifer Freed

in memory of our dearest friend Patricia Canning

Susan Ryan Mark & Terry Schleich Loren Solin/Solin Design Shirley Soper

in honor of Nora McNeely Hurley

Kathy B. Gallo Cara Gamberdella

in honor of Whitney Bruice’s 50th birthday!

in memory of Christopher Cutler

Joni & Gary Stauffer Judith Stauffer Melinda Staveley Ken Sterling

in honor of Hillary Hauser & Jonathan Wygant

Jacob Tell Tellus Law Group Polly Turpin/Turpin Family Charitable Foundation Laura Vondracek Scott & Laurie Waters Malcom & Kay Weiss

John T. & Elizabeth Gerig Lin Goodnick Barbara Greenleaf Renee Hamaty in honor of Dr. Mary Furner Barry Kaufman & Margo Handelsman Kathy Snow & Bendy White in memory of Patricia Canning Tracey Willfong Charlie Hocking Jonathan Wygant Charlie Hocking/ in honor of Bill Nasgovitz & Greg Downey Family Foundation Harding Brown Susanne Humbel-Heierling Edward & Grace Yoon Michele Jackman Mary Beth & David Yudovin Glenn Jordan Richard Solomon & Jana Zimmer Janice Kaspersen to $99 Christy Kayser-Cook Anonymous (2) in honor of Sharon Kayser AbbVie/Employer Match for Margaret Kearns Talithia Laurain in memory of Patricia Canning Susan (Yates) Anderson Linda Krop Dale Kunkel Deborah Lee Kristin Linehan

in memory of Clark Alexander

Betty Little Sheila Lodge Christine Adams & Lori Lynch 1 – 7 January 2021

in memory of Brandon Yates

Danielle Anderson Durga Andre Robert Andre The ArielBroidy Family Claire Bailey Norrine Besser

Mark Schildhauer & Joyce Gauvain Eugene Geller Barbara Godley Graumann Family Harrison Grauso Nancy Grinstein Juliette Hagh/ Raytheon Employee Giving John Hankins Char Harris Steve Hausz Lauren Hawksworth in memory of Marjorie Hawksworth

Sarah (Sally) Hearon

in memory of Patricia Canning

David & Nancy Hill Heather Hudson Gretchen Jones Sue Lael Katnic Paul & Cynthia Kimmel/ Kimmel Family Trust David Klinger in memory of Cindy Klinger

Robert & Mary Ann Latham Talithia Laurain/AbbVie Employee Match Program Wendy Lee in memory of Lanny Wright & Shelley Merrick

Elizabeth Lee

Lori Lenz Marian Lindner Dreena Lindsay Marcia Loft Linda & Ernie Lugdon

in memory of Frank Louda

Ria Marsh Frances Marsh Bruce & Sheila Marshall Nancy Masse Robery & Patricia Mayer Carolyn McCleskey Frank Meister Gerda & Gary Meyer Sophie Moritz Alyssa Nauman

in honor of Justin & Leticia Resch

Michael & Lisa O’Connell Erik & Diane Ozolins Tina Panteleakos Julie & Art Pizzinat/ Pizzinat Family Trust Bill, Pam & Lily Poehler Meagan Prasad Raytheon Stewart Reid Craig & Merrie Rice James Riegert/ Raytheon Employee Giving Geri Riehl Don Roos Elissa Ross Tara Rybnicek in honor of Theo Rybnicek

Stephen Segal/ Stephen Segal Construction Bruce Dobrin & Karla Shelton Tamara Simmons Kirk & Marguerite Taylor Sally Torgeson The Trauntvein Family

in memory of our first Grandson, Carson Trauntvein and in honor of our second Grandson, Colton Trauntvein

Janet Tupper Phillip & Sarah Vedder Kaleb Curtis Vidal Deb & Lee Waldron Connie Wernet Kristiann Wightman Richard Wilke Robert & Carolyn Williams Janet & Harvey Wolf

in memory of Clark Alexander

Irene & Ruben Ynzunza Caroline & Donald Young Kevin Young

HTO thanks the Phyllis S. Poehler/Water E. Stremel Charitable Trust, St. Paul, Minnesota, for the funds for our public outreach, including this tribute to our supporters. *Donations received as of 12/15/2020. Full donor list to be published in HTO Annual Newsletter.

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Imagine (Continued from page 5) the community actually wants and how they feel about the different ideas being considered. The survey received almost 5,000 replies and the responses were very well represented between the different age groups, showing that all generations of the community care about the outcome of the downtown area. It is worth noting that only 12 of the 4,752 responses were submitted in Spanish however that does not take in account bilingual participants so that hopefully doesn’t represent the full ethnic breakdown of responses.

Of those surveyed, 15 percent or so lived downtown with around the same amount working in the area and about half of the total people surveyed identified as patrons of the downtown area. The survey results had a strong local voice with 98 percent of the respondents coming from the area, spanning from Carpinteria to Hope Ranch, with about three quarters currently residing in Santa Barbara. Since closing to vehicular traffic, the State Street promenade has drawn in a lot of the community with around 85 percent saying they have visited since the closure.

Where to direct bicycle traffic has been a common topic of conversation since the State Street closure and it remains a somewhat divided issue with about 55 percent wanting it to stay as is and 35 percent wanting State Street to be pedestrians only. About 45 percent were happy with the current boundaries of the closure but almost 40 percent said they would like to see the space expanded so there may be room to grow the promenade in the future. The survey also asked what kind of activities people would like to see take place on State Street. Dining, music, public art, and seating areas seemed to be a crowd favorite, however there were other activities like food trucks and retail vendors that garnered interest.

Housing remains a main point of discussion and about 65 percent would like to see more housing downtown with nearly as many saying they were open to living there as well. More than half were interested in seeing small, one- to two-bedroom rentals being built although there was interest in both micro and larger units as well. If living downtown, around 65 percent said they would still need a car but interestingly 15 percent of the respondents were undecided on whether they would need a car. With the right downtown design, public transportation, and amenities, this could help ease parking congestion and move unsure Santa Barbara residents closer to a car-less lifestyle.

As someone who lived in the area without a car for nearly 10 years, I can tell you that it is easier (and healthier) than people may think.

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An illustration by Team 5B of the 900 Block of State Street proposed additional housing units along Carrillo and Anacapa streets

A vision of the future of Downtown Santa Barbara, where pedestrian promenades and outdoor dining areas dominate the scenery (Art by Jon Messer, State St Corridor Team A)

Imagining the Future

When the entire group first met, they were told to put the survey results first so that the ideas represented what the community actually wants. The groups were instructed to consider overall how their stretch of State Street could fit into the complete picture of the promenade while also addressing three items: look for an opportunity site where new housing structures could be built, identify an existing building that could potentially be turned into housing (known as adaptive reuse), and finally, study the outdoor circulation of the area.

The participants were encouraged to let their minds roam and not get too bogged down with what can and

cannot be built because of current codes and regulations. This means it is important to remember that these ideas are just proposals and any development would still have to go through the layers of approval required to actually be built. The result of this exercise though was a creative envisioning of Santa Barbara’s future.

Now this doesn’t mean the images are filled with a childlike fantasy of rocket ships and robots. The proposed ideas still contain all of the technical data like housing units, building heights, and other stats that will help inform future building codes, ordinances, and regulations to meet the needs of the city. What is represented though is an educated imagining of the future

“Kindness is like snow—it beautifies everything it covers.” – Kahlil Gibran

of State Street from our community’s range of talented professionals.

The displays are planned to be up until the first week of January however with the current lockdown, there is a good chance that these displays will be kept up longer than that. Not all of the ideas are represented in the over-three-hundred-page report produced, and while these window displays only provide a glimpse into their vision, the AIA currently has the full version online and will be printing several book copies that they will present to the city council and planning commission.

Cass showed the window displays to Mayor Cathy Murillo and Councilmember Eric Friedman recent1 – 7 January 2021

ly. The displays provide a fun and safe outdoor activity for the community (of course after the lockdown is lifted). When you can, take a moment to visit them and take in all of the hard work that our talented, creative community of experts spent countless hours working on. Whether looking at the window displays or perusing the full report from your computer, let your own imagination roam. These charrettes consider where we’ve been, where we are, but most importantly, where we can go in the future.

So as you look through the different charrettes, let your mind wander and think not just about the city you would want to live in, but the one that you would like to see your children and grandchildren grow up in. This is the moment for us to imagine Santa Barbara for the next 100 years and see what we can create together.

Globally Inspired

When reading through the full AIA report, what was clear was that the teams were not just looking at Santa Barbara but around the world for the successful solutions other cities have discovered and how these could be adapted locally. One participant on Team 5A of the 900 block, David Alvarez, a recent UCSB graduate that majored in the history of art and architecture, reflected on his own experiences studying abroad in Barcelona. He is currently applying to grad school for a master’s in architecture and it was in Barcelona that he noticed the role inclines play in seeing space in a different way and designing structures that allow for a fuller range of views. He had a similar revelation when parking to first

Existing structures like the Nordstrom building can be converted into housing units (Art by Team 4B - 700_800 Block)

meet his charette team. The parking structure was on an incline and David looked up to see the beautiful mountains and Riviera facing him, noticing that you can’t always view the mountains when walking along State Street.

He ended up working on that very parking structure, adding inclines and viewing areas to his final design.

Another UCSB graduate, Alex Jordan, who is currently applying to grad schools for a master’s in landscape design, was on Team B of the State Street Corridor and worked on a design of sky bridges between housing units. He said he remembered studying abroad in Singapore and

The Team 6B - 1000 Block imagined a functional transit center with housing and paseo to State Street

1 – 7 January 2021

seeing the “combination of natural elements and plants into the built environment,” and that he “wanted to create an open space for people to connect from different buildings but would also give them an indoor garden setting to really diminish the nature deficit disorder we experience in America.” From the fountains and piazzas found in European cities, to The High Line in New York City and immersive media arts complex Meow Wolf in New Mexico, the various charrettes used global references of buildings, art installations, and public spaces that have been successful on both a cultural and economic scale.

Of course to find what has worked you don’t have to look so far. In Santa Barbara, Paul Rupp, Project Architect at AB design studio and who was on Team B of the State Street Corridor with Jordan, worked on both the MOXI Museum and Santa Barbara Bowl. As the project architect and manager of the Santa Barbara Bowl for 12 years, he saw it go from zero dollars to tens of millions in the ground over eight phases of development. Today, the picturesque Bowl, nestled among the hills and featuring the area’s top performance space, is a gem of the community and a world-class venue. It was working on New York’s Bryant Park in 1992 that Rupp first “got educated on how the public private partnerships are just absolutely a powerful mechanism to support the community and transform places.” From his experience working on these cultural institutions, he sees how a master plan for State Street, which is city property, can be phased out and developed over time. By forming an exploration committee, nonprofit foundation, and partnerships with local institutions like

• The Voice of the Village •

the Music Academy of the West or the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, State Street can be programmed, where it is not just projects but activities that can help the downtown thrive. He has seen this work very successfully on both Bryant Park and the Santa Barbara Bowl. By taking guidance from what has already worked, both globally and in our community, we can build upon that to find solutions that accentuate the existing themes and Mediterranean vibes that the city has to offer. With the right vision, the future buildings and culture of State Street can become inspiration for other cities around the world, many of whom are dealing with the same problems.

Imagine Page 364

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Imagine (Continued from page 35)

Imagining a Better State Street

Of course, Santa Barbara is already a world-class city, drawing international tourism and known worldwide for its pristine weather and distinct ambiance that is uniquely both Mediterranean in feel and Californian in style. The different charrettes illustrate how future designs could add to the splendid beauty of the area.

Imagine a State Street with music pavilions, interactive installations, and public art spread throughout the promenade. Elegant planters separating the umbrella-dotted outdoor dining and plazas as the babble of a fountain ripples in the background of the hum of conversation. Various water features, gateways, and even colorful mosaic tiles could pave the way between the different districts yet distinguish them from one another. This could be the State Street of tomorrow.

When thinking 100 years in the future, climate change and the environmental impact of any new developments must be considered. Robert Adams of Earthknower Studio Landscape Architecture emphasized the role that stormwater and urban runoff will play in the future design of State Street. While sea level rise may not be an immediate problem, it will be one in the upcoming decades and new designs and structures will need to take it into consideration. Adams’s team for the State Street Corridor came up with a series of ideas like extended planters, rainwater pods, and runoff filtration tanks that would help address these environmental issues.

Many of the other teams approached these environmental concerns from their own angle.

Opportunities for new housing developments, whether by adding a building or adapting an existing one, was one of the primary goals of the charrettes and looking through the different designs it is clear that there are many options available. To make downtown livable, amenities like marketplaces and laundries would all have to be available from a walking distance. Retail stores would also have to be smaller so that they could support local businesses. One rendering from Team B of the 600 block illustrated how a proposed building on the corner of Cota and State streets could fuse commercial and residential space into a splendid structure with cascading balconies and lush gardens that would give unique views to each level.

There is an impulse to think new housing would be too expensive but this is not necessarily the case. What every team identified was the need for a diverse assortment of housing at a range of price points. As Ensberg emphasized, “we need to have housing for everyone,” and this includes

36 MONTECITO JOURNAL

Anthony Grumbine, the principal architect of Harrison Design and chair of the Historical Landmark Commission, said developments could honor history while moving towards the future

the low income and homeless members of our community. Younger and older residents do not need the same amount of space as a growing family might, and the different housing options will have to provide units that can fit this range of needs.

These charrettes showed how studios, multi-bedroom rentals, and condos could all coexist to bring the housing options required for a thriving community to live in. The designs were not just additive, but also looked at where buildings could be removed, like the empty Macy’s building, to open up the space and provide paseos and alleyways that connect and open up the downtown spaces.

One of the other objectives was to consider outdoor circulation, considering how the design of State Street would affect traffic patterns. This includes not just vehicular traffic, but how pedestrians, bicycles, and even the shuttle would move around the downtown area. Many designs separated bicycle from pedestrian paths, compared to the free-for-all that currently exists along the promenade.

Kym Cochran of The Environment Makers mentioned that her group, Team 2A of the 500 block, explored the idea of moving bicycles and shuttles off State as a way of improving the circulation of people and helping draw attention to the businesses not directly on the main drag of State Street. Or as she puts it, “spreading the love.” The designs also addressed how emergency services and the differently abled would have access to the promenade.

Some charrettes considered how the various parades like Fiesta and Solstice, that are definitive of our local culture, would take place downtown.

By preserving our historical buildings, as well as the iconic events that take place downtown, these charrettes made sure that as State Street moves into the future, our cultural identity will remain intact.

Making Dreams Reality

As the survey showed, many people in the community recognized the need for housing in the downtown area yet

the idea of change can be scary. All too often change is viewed as a loss of something, but it can also lead to the gaining of something, allowing growth to take place in unforeseen ways. There are ideas, after all. Any new buildings would still have to go through the iterative process of approvals to actually get built. Many of these proposed developments will not take place, but those that do, would still maintain the Santa Barbara identity, both in their specific location and in the future of our town, through this process.

Anthony Grumbine, the principal architect of Harrison Design and chair of the Historic Landmarks Commission, knows this well. Over the years he has led symposiums on the historical buildings and architecture of Santa Barbara. When the charrette groups were first coming together he gave a presentation on the big picture and historical context of the area’s architecture. He said developments could honor history while moving towards the future. There are practical reasons too, he said, for the materials and Spanish Revival architecture that the area is known for.

Grumbine mentioned that the shallow red tile roofs and thick walls with lots of wall per window ratio suit the sunny climate of the area, leading to greener and more sustainable buildings that can withstand the test of time. As future designs begin to incorporate solar panels, he said these features could still be done in a Santa Barbara way. There is one hurdle though: If you see a snapshot of the building, does it tell you “Santa Barbara” in some way, so that no matter where or when it was built, it still looks in place in this town? This city is infamously hard for building new structures, but Grumbine said these restrictions have led to beautiful buildings and the distinctive style that defined Santa Barbara.

If anything, the closure of State Street this year, happening in a single day by a city council vote, showed how quickly and positively change can take place. Only five percent of survey respondents said State Street should go back to how it was. Dawn Sherry of Sherry & Associates, Architects Inc., and board member of the Downtown Organization, who was part of State Street Corridor Team D, recognized there had been a certain momentum resulting from the closure of State Street and the outdoor dining areas that had been built since.

So the final question remains: where to go from here? If anything, this year has given us a moment to pause and think. Out of the chaos of the pandemic and months of social distancing, what we have now is the opportunity to come together and determine where we go for the next 100 years.

The idea of a “master plan” for State

“I still get the same simple thrill out of glimpsing a tiny patch of snow.” – Edmund Hillary

Street kept coming up during interviews, and while these charrettes help inform what one would look like, there still remains a lot of work to be done. It will be hard work and require the efforts of our builders, local government, and members of our community. Thankfully, these charrettes provide a solid framework for the answer. The Santa Barbara that these architects, designers, artists, and most importantly, community members envision shows a future that is even more vibrant and beautiful than the city we know today. Just imagine it.

The Contributors

Everyone from architects, urban planners, and landscape designers, to artists, event directors, and even UCSB students, answered the call with 160 people joining the effort of the design charettes State St Corridor Team A: John P. Margolis AIA, Steve Aldana Assoc.

AIA, Kent Mixon AIA, Ken Mineau AIA, Morgan Solorio Assoc. AIA, Justin Manuel, Debbi Tilley, Alexandra Cole, Megan Saunders State St Corridor Team C: Susan Steindler Assoc. AIA, Fred Sweeney AIA, Robert Adams ASLA, Steve Diaz, Elly Iverson, Gabriel Farhadian, Laura Dell‘Anno, Karl Benkert, Alex Wyndham, Eve Sanford, Ray Twyford Team 2A - 500 Block: Amy Tripp Assoc.

AIA, Tod Stockwell Assoc. AIA, Rachel Raynor, Katie Klein, Kym Cochran, Ryan Mills, Dylan Thompson Team 4A - 700/800 Block: Paul Poirier AIA, Haley Kolosieke, Isabel Larriba Assoc. AIA, Sage Shingle SE, Jesiy Brown, Susanne Tejeda AIA, Barret Reed, Stephanie Poole AIA Team 4B - 700/800 Block: Jeff Hornbuckle AIA, Alexis Stypa Assoc. AIA, Dennis Thompson FAIA, Harvey Molotch, Ivan Bercovich, Jeremy White AIA, Jerry Rocci, Ken Marshall, Kimberly True ASLA, Marcus Schiff Assoc. AIA, Megan Sheard, Ohan Arakelian Team 5A - 900 Block: Blake Herpst, Karl Kras, Andrew Thill, Yan Wencheng, David Alvarez, Jolie Wah AIA, Armando Arias Assoc. ALA, Pat Saley, Yvonne Chen AIA, Joseph Tasca Team 5B - 900 Block: Alex Pujo AIA, Cassandra Ensberg FAIA, Matt LaBrie, Alex McGonegal, Sherinx Li, Bryan Bugaj, Jacob Niksto AIA, Michael Soto, Tom Jacobs AIA, Robert Schmidt, Jan Hochhauser AIA Team 6B - 1000 Block: Erica Obertelli Assoc. AIA, Molly Morrison, Eric Meyer, Alanna Green, Eva Yang, Brian Launder, Richard Warner, Kristin Stoyanova, Detty Peikert AIA, Kalie Grubb •MJ

1 – 7 January 2021

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