Our Town

Joanne is a professional international photographer and journalist. Contact her at: artraks@yahoo.com Rick Caruso on Trump & Newsom Economic Recovery Committees

Rick Caruso, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Caruso, owner/developer of Montecito’s luxury resort The Rosewood Miramar Beach, and philanthropist, was appointed on April 14 to U.S. President Donald Trump’s Great American Economic Revival Industry Groups Task Force Committee, a task force created to combat the economic impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Days later, on April 17, he was appointed to Governor Newsom’s Business & Jobs Recovery Task Force, with business and civic leader Tom Steyer as its Chief Advisor and co-chaired by Governor Newsom’s Chief of Staff Ann O’Leary. Newsom’s task force brings together Californians from a diverse range of the state’s economy to develop recommendations for a plan that works for all Californians, with a focus on the regions and communities hardest hit economically by the pandemic.

Caruso brings a rich education and background to these positions. He was president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, a member of the Board of Water and Power Commissioners, and is Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the University of Southern California. Mr. Caruso holds a B.S. from USC and a J.D. from Pepperdine University School of Law in 1983 as a Margaret Martin Block Scholar. In 1991, he launched the Caruso Family

Foundation to help students at risk from early childhood through college. Since late March, the Foundation is currently doing work in Montecito and the Los Angeles area to help locals during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Mr. Caruso recently took time from his busy schedule for an e-interview with me about his work with both President Trump and Governor Newsom:

Q. Who is on President Trump’s economic revival committee with you?

A. The Great American Economic Revival Industry Groups include over 100 business leaders throughout a vast array of industries from agriculture, financial services, real estate, food & beverage to technology and manufacturing. The group also includes leaders from unions, professional sports, think tanks, and more. The list of executives and thought leaders include Apple’s Tim Cook, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. (See the 411 for link.)

Are you leading any of the task forces on President Trump’s committee?

The White House’s newly formed economic advisory group is divided by industry so I am working with my peers in the real estate industry group.

What are the main goals of President Trump’s economic revival committee, and in your advisement, which goals can be accomplished and how? 1. This council is a group of bipartisan American leaders who have been tasked with helping the White House chart a course for reopening the economy while ensuring the health and safety of the general public. The steps initially taken – the sequence of protection, emergency funding, and recovery – was essential to keep our populations safe. We must now refocus our efforts on recovery, especially in areas with fewer resources. 2. I believe this crisis is not one that government can solve alone. This requires the will and participation of both private and public sectors through business, the medical community and beyond in order to reopen the economy in a safe and strategic way. We must unify our efforts in a common goal against a shared adversary.

Rick Caruso, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Caruso, at his Rosewood Miramar Beach Montecito

3. We also need to preserve our economy – and the way to do this is through protecting small businesses. In our country, small businesses make up millions of people’s livelihoods and they have been most acutely affected by this crisis. The revival of small business retailers needs to be the “ground zero” of our economic regrowth after COVID-19.

Who is on Governor Newsom’s Business & Jobs Recovery Task Force with you?

Governor Newsom’s Business & Jobs Recovery Task Force includes Apple’s Tim Cook, Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative’s Priscilla Chan, Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, Walt Disney Chairman Bob Iger, and Netflix’s Ted Sarandos.

Is Governor Newsom’s Business & Jobs Recovery Council divided into various business sector task forces and which one(s) are you involved with?

Groups are not sub-divided by industry (at the state level). of jobs right now. The toll on our economy, mental health and our communities are equal in magnitude to the virus’ threat to our health and safety. In the coming months, our goal is to bring intelligence from a broad spectrum of industry leaders throughout the public and private sectors to help develop actionable recovery recommendations that take into account those communities hardest hit by this pandemic. Our hope is to leverage the task force’s expertise to help rebuild California and provide a model for the rest of the country. 2. Our work on the task force is just beginning, but what I can share with you is my personal perspective on how and where we need to focus. This will be the same perspective I will share on a national level as well with our state, county, and local officials. 3. We need to focus on small business owners for two primary reasons: 1 – they are the most vulnerable when it comes to surviving these economic conditions, and 2 – they are vital to the American economy. Being able to provide small businesses a “head start” program will allow municipalities to monitor the virus more successfully by “following the data,” and help us

What businesses locally, and in California, are best suited for moving the country forward toward economic success and what do they need to do it?

We need to keep our focus on small businesses because they are what make up the connective tissue in our communities. One of the things we’ve learned is that isolation is not a great way to live. We want to be out, but we’re going to choose places that enrich us, because we’ve just had weeks or months of being inside. We may be more selective with our time, but I already see how communities are supporting their local businesses now. They are buying from sources that have greater impact, they are ordering take-out from local restaurants more frequently and I’ve seen some pretty amazing fundraisers to support people who have experienced loss of business. It’s a fundamental part of the American spirit – it’s in our DNA, it’s who we are – we will be drawn to supporting and championing the individuals who represent the American dream. I hope our policies guide this and help small businesses get back on their feet again.

What is the timeline in your professional opinion at this point, and what factors will change that timeline?

A phased timeline needs to be developed in conjunction with medical experts. These phases will impact different cities and municipalities at different times depending on the diminished numbers of the virus outbreak in a given area as well as whether or not the healthcare system can accommodate the current load of patients. I am a firm believer that we can open the economy in a methodical way that is wholly dependent on data.

Bringing this to Montecito, your business the Rosewood Miramar Beach and other businesses in the area, what is your overview and suggestions for the health of our local economy?

My recommendations for the national and state officials also apply to my businesses. We are preparing to usher in a new era of hospitality. I think right now is the time to innovate and we are working hard to determine what best practices are across all industries and vetting those with health organizations and medical professionals. We want our guests, employees, and tenants to know when we re-open that their health and safety are our top priority. We’re in touch with top epidemiologists for their recommendations. We’re in touch with our guests and employees to understand their concerns. We are taking a 360 approach to this. The Rosewood Miramar Beach Montecito has a tentative date to reopen May 21, 2020. Our team is diligently working on new initiatives as they relate to the health and safety of our guest experience on property.

And the Caruso Family Foundation’s assistance during the lockdown?

The Miramar Food Truck has been serving the Montecito community throughout the COVID-19 crisis. Launched in late March, the #MiramarOnTheMove initiative has visited several locations throughout Santa Barbara and Los Angeles Counties, providing frontline workers and first responders with complimentary hot meals. To date, #MiramarOnTheMove has served over 12,000 meals to essential workers and those in need. Most recently, the food truck visited Los Angeles to provide 600 meals to the Weingart Center, a Skid Row based nonprofit agency that provides homeless individuals with the basic skills necessary to stabilize their lives, secure income, and find permanent housing. In an effort to support our local community, we are also redoubling our efforts with Para Los Niños and Operation Progress so they do not go hungry during this critical time. Because of need, we’ve also made a commitment to Meals on Wheels. We’re supporting LAFD through funding PP&E so they can set up mobile testing stations throughout our city. We have also worked with our tenants at multiple properties to provide meals for first responders. It’s been a joy to see how we have come together to serve our most vulnerable populations.

Anything else our readers should know and how can they be involved?

Have faith and know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. This crisis will end and when it does, I know we will emerge with a new perspective, a deeper appreciation for human connection and human contact. I know, in the end, we will retreat some from our digital lives so that we can spend more time with one another, face to face. And that will be a beautiful thing. •MJ

411: www.rosewoodhotels.com/ en/miramar-beach-montecito www.caruso.com www.whitehouse.gov/brief ings-statements/president-don ald-j-trump-announces-great-amer ican-economic-revival-indus try-groups/ www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/ uploads/2020/05/Governors-TaskForce-on-BusinessJobs-Recovery.pdf

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MONTECITO JOURNAL44 “It is a scientific fact that your body will not absorb cholesterol if you take it from another person’s plate.” – Dave Barry ON THE RECORD (Continued from page 13) flexible,” he explains. “We expect to start on campus next year and have a regular program, but we might scale back some of our trips, and maybe delay our full-contact sports until we know more. But we are small and we can close campus for a week and get everyone tested and do contact tracing and get back in the classroom more quickly than larger schools. There are a lot of silver linings here,” McWilliams concludes. “I almost feel guilty because some people are really hurting. Even though one-third of our kids are on financial aid, we are so lucky compared to just about everybody.” Time Zones Matter

Founded in 1910, Carpinteria’s exclusive Cate School has just 292 students, about 80 percent of whom board on campus throughout the school year. Although the school’s average class size is tiny, the student population, which hails from 19 different countries and no less than 30 states around the country, couldn’t be more diverse.

While the COVID-19 outbreak came suddenly, according to Charlotte Brownlee, Cate School’s director of admissions and enrollment, the timing couldn’t have been better.

“Our Spring Break was earlier than a lot of other schools,” Brownlee said. “We sent kids home on February 27 for a two-week break. Late in the first week, we realized that we may not be able to bring our kids back.”

According to Brownlee, Cate used the extra vacation week to come up with a remote learning plan that would be ready to implement within days. One of the first things the school realized was how challenging it would be to simultaneously pull together students from all over the world into an online classroom.

“Time zones are definitely our biggest challenge,” says Brownlee. “We have kids in twelve different time zones from Africa and Asia to Alaska, just all over the place.”

To accommodate as many students as possible, Cate has rescheduled certain classes for the evenings so that students halfway around the globe can participate.

“We have kids from a variety of economic backgrounds, so we also helped some kids get access to Wi-Fi,” adds Brownlee. “By and large we have the kids hooked into our program.”

Because Cate is only for students between 9th and 12th grades, it doesn’t face the same remote learning challenges that schools with younger students must grapple with.

“We are lucky because high school kids can be independent learners,” Brownlee says.

Juniors recently participated in a Zoom-based college application exercise where each student was handed four college applications with the task of accepting one application, denying another, and wait-listing the remaining two.

“We had two actual college admissions officers on the Zoom call with them and they walked all the kids through how they would have done it,” she says.

Brownlee is optimistic that Cate will be able to return to a normal school year this fall.

“Obviously our primary goal is the health and well-being of our students and faculty,” she says. “But the next most important goal is to determine how we can accomplish as much learning as possible, and face-to-face learning is still the best way to do that. Of course, we hope to reopen, but we’re looking at a variety of scenarios.” Small Scale Success

Like the nearby Montecito Union School, Cold Spring School is a oneschool district located in an extremely wealthy demographic area. And with just 169 students, it has the added benefit of being small. “One of the benefits of being a small school district is that we were able to easily pivot over the weekend,” says Amy Alzina, Cold Spring’s principal and superintendent. “Some schools lost as much as a week or a month, but we were able to move in a much more efficient way.”

It didn’t hurt that Cold Spring had already begun gradually investing in technology. “When I came to Cold Spring, the technology was outdated,” Alzina says, adding that she worked with the school’s educational foundation to create a lease-to-own program that funded half the cost of each student’s electronical device.

As a principal of a small school, Alzina is intimately involved in the new, remote-learning based curriculum. “All the students Zoom on to me at 8:25 am, so I can keep everyone accountable,” she explains. “We sing happy birthday to kids, highlight students, and I do a fun, ‘80s-style workout. This is where I tell my colleagues to ditch the tie and have fun. You are a cheerleader, you can have fun, and success builds success.”

Creating a fun yet structured online routine is the key to successful remote learning for young students, argues Alzina. “After meeting with me, the kids get on Zoom with their teacher, who keeps them on until lunch. After that, our specialist teachers come in with art, drama, and other project-based learning.”

Every Friday, parents drop by to pick up packages of art supplies, worksheets, and even garden planners which include a small bag of soil and a plant. According to Alzina, Cold Spring School’s instructional assistants have helped families resolve technological issues at their homes and established Zoom chatrooms to provide further aid. “We do home visits,” she adds. “We had a family with a broken screen, and we fixed the screen. We are making sure we follow up with every kid. We have not only one hundred percent attendance, we have one hundred percent work completion.” Beyond Zoom

Along with Cold Spring School, the Montecito Union School (MUS) is extremely fortunate to have a student body ranked among the most privileged in California, if not the United States. Because of this, MUS has an educational foundation that, among other things, has raised enough cash to send administrators and teachers to Harvard University’s Project Zero, a summer training session which provides them with the latest and most innovative educational training.

Despite all this, Anthony Ranii, MUS’s principal and superintendent, says he never imagined Zoom being used as an educational tool. Besides video chats with contractors and architects, he had never utilized video conferencing software in his professional life. But in the hours and days after California’s schools were ordered to close, Ranii moved quickly to create a Zoom-based remote-learning curriculum. “It was not unknown,” he says of the software, “but we had never thought of the whole concept of using it for instruction.”

In the meantime, Ranii sent parents a guide to online educational resources to help them keep kids on track with their homework. As remote learning sank in, Ranii says the school began to adapt to what We’re going to need a bigger table

worked and what didn’t. “We have gone through three iterations thanks to feedback from staff as well as a survey that went to parents,” he says. Now, students are in Zoom classrooms from 9 am-noon, Monday through Thursday, and 9-10 am on Friday. “We pair that with independent learning,” Ranii continues. “All our kids are doing things outside of Zoom, whether it’s as simple as reading a book, working on math, and our youngest kids are using a program called See-Saw that they can upload to their class account and get comments from teachers.”

For younger children, nothing can replace face-to-face interactions in the classroom. “There is no way distance learning is going to be as effective for them as in-person learning,” Ranii says. “It’s an unreasonable expectation, because part of what you are supposed to learn in those grades is the ability to work in a group on a project together over several weeks. All those things are possible in the digital world, but for little kids, it’s a lot harder.”

The inherent challenge of providing good early childhood education via Zoom is only magnified thanks to socio-economic inequalities. “When I look at California and the nation, this pandemic is exacerbating the haves and the have-nots,” he says. “Everyone in Montecito Union School has their own device and Wi-Fi at home and parents that are computer literate and reading and writing literate and are supporting their kids amazingly well.

That said, Ranii worries about the fate of other public schools in the Santa Barbara area that aren’t so fortunate. “There are plenty of parents working low-paying jobs, and some of these kids aren’t getting what they need,” he says. “And that divide will continue to grow.”

Black Death some of the women who made beer at home became full-time brewers and their houses became a “public house” where anyone could go buy a beer and socialize. After the fear and devastation of the plague, the pent-up desire to socialize exploded.

The behavior of the human species is changed by disease. Like all animals, changes in the environment, diseases, natural events, change where we live, what we do, and how we do it. Our history is simply not independent of the natural world. Nothing proves this more than the current coronavirus pandemic. GOOD LION (Continued from page 26)

The Next 18 Months

• The Voice of the Village • 14 – 21 May 2020 MONTECITO JOURNAL 45

Brandon believes that for the next 18 months they’ll be functioning near 50% capacity. Because his bars are lean and small, he believes they’ll still be attractive and potentially profitable.

“Our projects were built to feel cool and comfy even if there’s only ten people in the bar,” Brandon remarks. “Our playlists are probably going to change to music that feels right with so few people. We have to think what is going to be cool during this time.” Spilling Out into the Streets

Around the world cities are finding ways for bars and restaurants to spill out into the streets, where contagion should have a harder time. While European countries have had open air plazas and cafés since the 1700s, North America has never fully absorbed the tradition, perhaps due to our Puritanical forefathers. Who knows what evolution drove Europe to open its streets, but it’s an easy fall back in cities from Riga, Latvia to Stockholm, Sweden.

Here, in Santa Barbara, despite a popular groundswell of community support, it’s been like pulling teeth to get our city government to open the streets to accommodate the natural environment, even when it’s good for commerce, even when it allows people to maintain the integrity of social distancing in one of the most gorgeous natural settings in the world, even when it creates joy. If Santa Barbara businesses could integrate the outdoors with architectural integrity and urban planning, it would be a permanent attraction for the city. Hopefully the Mayor’s Task force will propose exactly this important new direction, after all open plaza dining is very much in keeping with the founding aesthetic of Spanish Colonial design.

“I’m going through that exact thing in the Hamptons right now, literally having this conversation,” Eric Lemonides remarked. He is the owner of Almond in Bridgehampton, arguably the most successful restaurant on the East End of Long Island. He had opened a new establishment in Palm Beach just as the economy went covidtose. “I’m trying really hard to re-envision the side area by the road, which doesn’t get going except on Friday nights when it becomes a madhouse inside.”

It’s no coincidence that restaurateurs and bar owners the world over are considering the same issues and potential solutions.

In Manhattan, talking to a NYC City planner summoned up the same concepts, street closings to enhance social love while at the same time honoring social distancing.

“I can see closing between 14 th Street and 23 rd Street, just to see what happens,” the planner remarked. “Let people come out, keep their masks on until they sit down at a table six feet away from the next. String up a bunch of lights and music, everyone would have a blast.”

Palm Beach, Manhattan, Bridgehampton, Montecito, Santa Barbara all have the luxury to truly experiment with new business models that could serve their economies for the future. It’s not like Europe hasn’t been doing so for the past 300 years, attracting tourists by the thousands. Testing is Still a Thing

Let’s not pretend it’s not. The cost of testing 90,000 people, the approximate population of Santa Barbara, is not vast. Foundations in Santa Barbara have made greater investments in the community. Perhaps the city’s greatest fear is finding out the truth of testing. At some point, we have to know. Similarly, ratings of eateries and bars for COVID compliance would be a great public benefit. Everyone could feel reassured walking into a bar or restaurant that has been tested. Why shouldn’t Santa Barbara be a leader in this regard? It might help support our hospitals and medical community as they suffer financial losses having converted from profitable elective surgery to COVID treatment and profit businesses.

Why not develop a state-of-the-art testing and verification system? Between UCSB and Cottage and Sansum it certainly seems possible. At some point there will be industrial COVID experts with all the protocols and multiple testing procedures to assure that businesses are safe. It will be a highly profitable service. Who Are Cities For?

It has become the prevailing contradiction of Santa Barbara’s City government that while City Administrators bemoan the Governor’s regulations and prevaricate about their inability to change their own process, they fail to understand who cities are for.

No one in fact appreciates the police, the fire department, the water authority, or department of sanitation more than business. They need that support to thrive. But in times like these, businesses are the savior of a city. City coffers will not refill without the work of businesses who have to risk it all to serve their customers. Tourism will not return because a well-meaning Mayor patrols local beaches or a City Administrator teaches civic lessons or because the City strikes a highly questionable partnership with a failing shopping mall, a relic of the past, like Paseo Nuevo.

These times call for the kind of thinking that combines the meticulous problem-solving approach and innovation The Good Lion folks brought to town. You can be sure Brandon and Misty would have a lot of thoughts if they didn’t have their shoulders to the wall figuring out how to save their businesses and get their employees working. Economic Recovery is Competitive

Santa Barbara is no longer sitting in the catbird seat. Recovery is a competitive business. Cities don’t last without innovation. Ventura and San Luis Obispo have been working for decades to compete for business. Being a beautiful, attractive, architectural wonder by the sea, isn’t enough in “Survivor: the City Edition.” Santa Barbara has coasted on its good looks for too long. If the alarms aren’t ringing in City Hall right now, it’s time for an intervention. City leaders should take a cue from The Good Lion.

“Frankly we’re feeling optimistic. We love this community. We moved here for a reason. We think that the city is going to bounce back,” Brandon reflected. “This will cause more change for the better and is a real opportunity for the city to emerge stronger.”

The thought drives Brandon Ristaino to contemplate the essential nature of his craft and business.

“Does it make complete logical sense for someone to go into our bar and drink a cocktail they could easily make at home, at close to the level we’re doing it?” Brandon asks. “They’re coming for the social interaction, for the vibe, for the way that it makes them feel to interact with our bar team and other people in the community. I think it’s pretty much ingrained in this generation and the generation before it.”

As after that other plague, the black one, there will be a huge pent up need and demand for social activity. That demand will drive the adaptation to a new normalcy. The desire that happens when the breeze is blowing, and the sun is out, and friends are nearby, is not going to be stopped. •MJ Hand model Misty Orman on the miniature set for a recent toy commercial Eric Lemonides, owner/operator of Almond Bridgehampton, one of the most successful restaurants in the Hamptons