Jerry Meandering

After eight weeks of hibernation, I am as stir crazy as everyone else, although I have the blessing of being able to conduct most of my legal practice from my home office, including reading multitudes of insurance policies. Nevertheless, I cannot rationalize my deep sense of regret for the year that has been torn away from the lives of friends, our children and grandchildren. We are very fortunate in Montecito to be cared for by Cottage Hospital, one of the nation’s great hospitals and also by our terrific local doctors and their staffs. But no one can predict with any degree of certainty where this calamity is heading (“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” – Charles Dickens). So return with me now to happier times, just over a half century ago, to1969. 1969 1969 was a very good year. I was a second-year law associate at a Wall Street law firm. I was working with very prominent lawyers from renowned New York families, including JP Morgan and Howard Hughes, who really did conduct his meetings from a phone booth. I worked on cases for North American Aviation (later Rockwell), that gave me access into the Space Program. I met astronauts, investigated the cause of the tragic fire in the command module in 1967 that killed three astronauts, and I ultimately represented North American in its successful administrative litigation against Pratt & Whitney for the rights to design and build the Main Engine for the Space Shuttle. Charley Pickett (Mr. Pickett to me) became the most significant mentor in my legal career. As Yogi Berra reportedly said about Yankee great catcher Bill Dickey: “He learned me all his experience.” 1969 was a very good year. Wall Street law firms had just raised the first year starting salaries for associates from $9,000 to $15,000 and we benefitted from that largess. To put that in perspective, we rented a lovely apartment in Brooklyn for $125 per month. Two slices of pizza and a Coke were 50 cents, phone calls were 10 cents and to ride anywhere on the New York City Subway system was also 10 cents. We were pregnant with our first child and followed the migration from Brooklyn to the suburbs. But which suburbs? Most young Brooklyn Jewish families migrated to the “island” (Long Island). But it was suggested by friends to consider Parsippany, New Jersey, 26 miles due West of New York City and a more attractive commute to Wall Street. Comparable homes in New Jersey, then, were less expensive. Parsippany, New Jersey 1969 was a very good year. Our first child, David, was born and Ali was born two years later. Woodstock became a household name, the New York Mets remarkably won the World Series, New York Jets Quarterback Joe Namath fulfilled his bold promise to bring the Super Bowl Victory (16-7) to New York over the much more highly touted Baltimore Colts (now in Indianapolis), Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon, Sesame Street began its run and we did move to Parsippany, New Jersey. The Holland Tunnel

MONTECITO JOURNAL42 “Leave something for someone but don’t leave someone for something.” – Enid Blyton I am writing this article both as a memorial to a dear friend of 50 years who just succumbed to COVID. And as a reminder to all that the coronavirus remains a clear and present danger to everyone.

Our journey to Parsippany began with looking for a house. We started by looking in a new development one weekend morning and we ran into Cal and Sheila Schoenfeld doing the same thing. We and Cal and Sheila were looking at the various model homes that were available; we probably had lunch together. We headed back to Brooklyn and Cal A Partner with Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, Jerold Oshinsky has more than 35 years of experience litigating insurance cases in federal and state courts throughout the country. Chambers USA consistently has designated him as the only lawyer to be accorded “Star” ranking in its national insurance category. Jerry has been a resident of Montecito for 14 years. Jerry Meandering

by Jerold Oshinsky

Memories are Made of This and Sheila did as well and ironically, as Sandy and I were stuck in traffic in the Holland Tunnel, immediately next to us in their car were Cal and Sheila. Somehow that coincidence was the launch of many decades of friendship. We and they moved to Parsippany at about the same time; we lived there for 10 years; our daughter Ali and their daughter Karen were close friends and still stay in contact. We celebrated our children’s birthdays together, street parties, barbecues, holidays, living in the same community for 10 years. We even shared the oddities of certain neighbors. For example, there was Marty. Marty

Old ties are the deepest and we have remained friends with Cal and Sheila for 50 years. Cal was a talented commercial artist; but I think that, deep down, his true love (in addition to Sheila) was the art world in general and he could draw anything from Warhol to Van Gogh. He did not share my obsession with sports, and he never had a bad word to say about anybody, well... except Marty. Cal and Sheila had moved to Parsippany shortly before we did and Cal told me that our next-door neighbor, Marty, was a “meshuggeneh”( look it up) and he was. We had once purchased a patio table for our backyard and one night we heard noise coming from that direction. We looked out our back window and there was Marty, on the ground, with instruction plans in hand, studying our patio table. Sandy discerned that Marty had purchased the same table and was trying to figure out how the table was assembled! The day that the moving truck brought us to Parsippany, it was pouring rain, and the new driveway and lawn were not yet completed. There was water and mud all over and everything was a mess. Marty, in the next house, burst out his front door screaming that this was a “terrible” place and that we should go back to Brooklyn. Cal and Sheila, on the other hand, brought over sandwiches for lunch. They told Cal died last Thursday from complications of the Corona virus – our first and only close connection to the tragedy confronting our country and the world. We don’t know how he contracted the virus. He did all the right things and yet he succumbed, alone in a hospital in a neighboring town because there were no beds in the local Parsippany, New Jersey hospital. He spent a month in the hospital and after being on a ventilator for two weeks, he died.

Fairfax/Arlington, Virginia, Santa Barbara

In 1979, Sandy and I, Dave and Ali and Mr. Fluff, our female cat – we are gender flexible where cats are concerned – moved from Parsippany, New Jersey to Fairfax, Virginia. My law firm decided to open an office in Washington, D.C. and I was offered the opportunity to run that office. But we did not lose our connection to Cal and Sheila. We would always keep in touch by phone. Sandy and I moved to Santa Barbara in 2004. Sheila has two married sisters who live in Los Angeles and we would always meet Cal and Sheila when they came to the West Coast. When we traveled to NYC, Cal and Sheila would come in from Parsippany and spend the day with us.

Cal died last Thursday from complications of the coronavirus – our first and only close connection to the tragedy confronting our country and the world. We don’t know how he contracted the virus. He did all the right things and yet he succumbed, alone in a hospital in a neighboring town because there were no beds in the local Parsippany, New Jersey hospital. He spent a month in the hospital and after being on a ventilator for two weeks, he died.

Cal and Sheila have lived in the same Parsippany home for 50 years. They were married for 60 years. Cal leaves Sheila, his wife of 60 years and his best friend, his daughter Karen and her husband Steve and their two daughters, Hannah and Abby, and their son Eric, his wife and two sons. Hannah shares Cal’s artistic talent. He also leaves behind his very heartbroken friend Jerry Oshinsky.

At one point in his career Cal, the freelance commercial artist, decided to “go commercial” and take a job in New York City. He and I traveled on the Lakeland Bus Lines from Parsippany to New York City. But that was not to be his life. He soon returned to his basement studio in Parsippany. Cal was one of the smartest and best-informed people I knew. I have not known anyone with less “ego” than Cal. Cal was a throwback to an earlier generation. He was an artist, and a scholar and his calm demeanor was an attribute to be treasured by his friends. We shared the same core values and while I was running from court to court, Cal was quietly illustrating his advertisements; the coincidence of being stuck side by side In the Holland Tunnel was (with a nod to Casablanca) “the start of a beautiful friendship... we will always have... Parsippany.” 1969 was a very good year. So far 2020, not so much. •MJ

Safe Environment Guide, aka RISE Guide, is a roadmap that describes when and how the County can reopen businesses safely. The Guide, which is available to view on www.readysbc. org, is considered a live and fluid document, subject to change as guidelines change.

The good–great–news is that as of press time, Santa Barbara County has met or exceeded all requirements to accelerate the reopening of Phase 2B businesses, which includes resuming regular retail operations, the reopening of shopping malls and swap meets, dine-in restaurants, office-based businesses, school and childcare facilities, and some personal services including tanning facilities and car washes.

Last week the County successfully petitioned the State to be able to remove the COVID-19 case count and death statistics from the Lompoc Federal Prison, which was causing the County as a whole to be ineligible to reopen. Without these numbers, the County has had fewer than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days, or less than 8% testing positive in the past seven days. There have been no community deaths in the past two weeks; testing capacity is more than adequate; containment capacity, which includes the hiring of contact tracers and the ability to temporarily house at least 15% of county residents experiencing homelessness, is adequate, as is hospital capacity; vulnerable populations have the necessary PPE; and other criteria has been met or exceeded. “The disease is trending down,” said Public Health Officer Henning Ansorg to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday morning.

The County has already sent its attestation to get approval from the State for the reopening of Stage 2B businesses; it is expected to happen as early as the beginning of June. Business owners can view the RISE Guide on www.readysbc.org, and become familiar with the guidelines that will be in place. Businesses will have to perform a risk assessment and prepare and implement a protection plan, complete an industry specific checklist, complete attestation, and print out and post an applicable certificate at the place of business. There will be requirements for increased signage, employee training, physical distancing, and routine sanitation. Some businesses that require modifications in order to adhere to physical distancing guidelines may require inspections and permitting. “The goal is to make this exceptionally easy for our businesses to access,” said Terri Nisich, Assistant CEO at the County, who said that there are opportunities for existing businesses to expand their footprint outside, to accommodate social distancing. Business owners

• The Voice of the Village • MONTECITO JOURNAL 43 should check out pages 47, 48, and 49 of the RISE Guide, available at www. readysbc.org.

The next stages (Stages 3 and 4) of reopening will not take place until the governor allows; these businesses include the beverage industry including bars and lounges; hair and nail salons; barbers; body art parlors; gyms; faith-based community services; events, venues, attractions; and hotels and lodging for tourism and leisure. “I want to praise the people of Santa Barbara County. The reason we meet the criteria that the governor has set, is due to an unprecedented amount of cooperation from the people of the county. We are beating the disease,” said First District Supervisor Das Williams. “My hope is that people continue in that spirit. Support local business, and support each other as a community.”

Visit www.readysbc.org for the most current information. Coast & Olive Coming Soon!

If you’ve walked along Coast Village Road in the past weeks, you may have stopped to peruse the menu posted at the Montecito Inn; the hotel’s new restaurant, Coast & Olive, is set to open for takeout orders in the coming weeks. The eatery, which is run and managed by the Copus family, the owners of the Inn, was poised to open in early April, until the COVID-19 pandemic thwarted those plans.

Coast & Olive will feature cuisine inspired by the French Riviera, while being approachable and affordable, according to Jason Copus, who will run the restaurant with his brothers, Jim Copus and Danny Copus. “We have served travelers from around the world at the Montecito Inn and Coast Village Inn, and we felt it was time to own and operate the main restaurant space within the Inn,” Jason said. “While we believe people from around the world will love Coast & Olive, our main focus is on the locals. For years now we have paid attention to what the locals have said they want at our hotel, and we truly believe this restaurant will deliver what they’ve been asking from us for a long time.” The space was most recently occupied by The Monarch, which closed in September 2019, and prior to that was home to Montecito Café for over 30 years.

The brothers have plans to open the restaurant for takeout orders, and once fully open, Coast & Olive will offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily. The menu includes approachable breakfast items like yogurt and granola, waffles and French toast, and several egg dishes; lunch is an array of fresh salads with protein; avocado toast; a grilled chicken sandwich; a burger; and more. Dinner offers fish, chicken, and duck options, several different cuts of steak, risotto, a pork chop, and more. The restaurant promises to be kid friendly, with a special menu just for the little ones.

The Copuses have assembled an accredited team at Coast & Olive: Executive Chef John Butler has an impressive resumé which includes big name eateries in both the Bay Area and LA – including Mucho in Los Angeles and Mélisse Restaurant in Santa Monica – before moving to Santa Barbara to head up the kitchen at The Monarch. General Manager Ricardo Flores has worked at Bluewater Grill, the Miramar, and Lure Fish House, getting a feel for the local restaurant clientele.

Montecito’s newest spot for date night, lunch meetings, special occasions, and everything in between has been remodeled in a contemporary, elevated aesthetic that still feels comfortable and friendly. “We are excited to start serving the community in this new way and bring our new passion into their homes for takeout,” Jason said. “And in due time, we will be ready to welcome them into this new space, which we’ve designed to celebrate every occasion.”

To follow along with the progress, follow @coastandolive on Instagram. Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation Pivots

In a time when many nonprofit organizations are struggling to raise their usual funds, Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation, which assists and supports families dealing with childhood cancer along the Central Coast, has pivoted to raise much needed funds for their families.

TBCF has announced a new song, “Stronger Than You Know,” is available for purchase on amazon.com, which was recorded by local 8th grader Joanne Tudor. Tudor, who attends Marymount, wrote and sang the song in honor of her best friend, who was diagnosed with cancer. Joanne performed the song live at TBCF’s Little Heroes event in February, and now it’s available for purchase. An anonymous donor has offered to match funds raised up to $5,000.

“Even though COVID-19 has caused us to cancel or postpone two major events, including the California Clambake and the Gold Ribbon Luncheon, we are still staying focused on our families and our mission,” said Interim Executive Director Eryn Shugart. The Foundation has been able to continue giving gift cards and financial aid to families, as well as providing dinner deliveries, flowers and goodie bags for Mother’s Day, a virtual Easter Egg Hunt, and a virtual Support Group. Giving opportunities are available online at www.teddy bearcancerfoundation.org or call 805- 563-4723.

To purchase the song, which costs $.99, visit www.amazon. com/-/es/Joanne-Tudor/dp/ B0843NQWJC?language=en_US. •MJ Coast & Olive, an approachable eatery run by the Copus brothers, is set to open soon at Montecito Inn Joanne Tudor will donate 100% of the proceeds from her new song, “Stronger Than You Know,” to Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation

State Street Cross Section with Tivoli Lights (rendering by 2017 Charette: Team 9)

Fortunately, the Council has in its possession a number of architectural drawings by the AIA, the local architect’s association, that almost directly addresses these opening steps as well as a more robust reopening. In fact the drawings created for the AIA’s 2017 Charrette, the same year Councilwoman Sneddon came into office, seem as if they were presciently drawn for this precise social distancing moment.

“We have drawings of different walks of State Street where it’s been suggested that we shut down that block either on a temporary or permanent basis,” AIA member and charrette leader Ellen Bildsten of Bildsten Architecture and Planning remarked. “Each drawing has all kinds of elements including planters and other features that would make for a great pedestrian experience.”

These drawings are at the very least a visualization if not a vision, a starting point and framework as Councilwoman Sneddon has suggested.

Social Distancing Drawings Before There Was Social Distancing

In 2017 a drawing charrette was held by the AIA to envision State Street for a better time. Today these drawings appear eerily designed in anticipation of a world where social distancing is imperative. The drawing of Arlington Way from architect Cass Ensberg, of Art & Architecture, Interior Design and Planning, “You can easily imagine applying this drawing to State Street. You can see how the tables are spaced widely apart,” said Ms Ensberg.

All the drawings in the charrette were a collection of team efforts made by architects and architectural firms across the city and represent the collaborative effort of the entire professional organization.

The Arlington drawing is more than the addition of a few planters, it summons the sensation of bringing the public out into nature. The triple assets of sea, sky, and mountains are a blessing in Santa Barbara that sheltering in place have given us a renewed opportunity to appreciate. It’s like sleeping under the stars when you were a kid. Yes, we will miss our indoor spaces, but our homes have become so dominant in our lives during this pandemic that the outdoors takes on greater value. The beauty of this design is that it replaces what might seem like a loss with a sense of liberation.

Another drawing also by Ms Ensberg’s charrette team, shows a State Street cross section that adds colored bike paths, planters and Tivoli lights in an “Enhanced Zone.” Imagine yourself one balmy evening under the stringed lights, the street alive with dining tables, murmuring, laughter, and music echoing. Talk about a “moveable feast.”

Planters, lighting, Pedicabs, paths for pedestrians and landscaping block by block are envisioned in these drawings as is greater residential use.

Another drawing shows a bird’s-eye view of the bottom of State Street from Cota to East Gutierrez streets with the cross streets remaining open. This preserves many of the traffic patterns we are used to in order to keep State Street circulating. It also helps to prevent dark corners that are less safe. It’s Santa Monica’s 3rd Street Promenade model.

The AIA is continuing to build on the 2017 Charrette in order to focus on new efforts for needed housing and post-COVID planning.

“We’re planning a charrette for this year,” Ms Ensberg said, “we’re figuring out our new ‘virtual’ setting and identifying teams for the later part of this year.”

These designs are well-considered and already tailored to spaces we know and love. They could be implemented immediately, adjusted and changed or merely used as a jumping off point for other ideas. They would bring vitality and vibrance and hope to what has become a sad area. Cass Ensberg, architect and AIA member (photo by Hugo Rohas)

Taking Advantage of Urbanscapes and Landscapes Concurrently

Pictures say a thousand words and drawings reassure and bring understanding. They allow people to conceptualize how they might move around in these spaces which will need to accommodate social distancing in an enjoyable way. Drawings make it possible to mentally place oneself in new environments with the positive anticipation of what these spaces might actually be like to explore.

For instance, the conceptualization of Lobero Plaza shows how the Lobero might envision outdoor performances maximizing its adjacent spaces, capitalizing on the natural acoustics of Santa Barbara’s downtown area.

These drawings suggest the idea that we should take advantage of our city more. The streets, the plazas, the paseos are open for us to inhabit and find joy. When one removes the car from so many cityscapes, people are allowed to breathe the city in more deeply, to explore it and appreciate it from a more humane pedestrian perspective.

These are not new ideas. Cities around the world like Venice, Rome, and Lisbon have long allowed local denizens to use their cities in ways that make the structures they live with more meaningful and purposeful. In the United States think of New York’s High Line as a highly successful pedestrianed thoroughfare and Portland’s Pearl district.

“This is a proven concept in cities throughout the world and all over

• The Voice of the Village • 21 – 28 May 2020 MONTECITO JOURNAL 45 perous? Perhaps more importantly, is a reinvigorated State Street a necessity for the sake of Santa Barbara?

At a time where budgets are crunched and even greater sacrifices lie ahead, the AIA drawings provide a great deal of guidance that seem tailor made for now. These charrettes are part of their professional mission. They do not cost the City anything. For City Hall to not take advantage of such talent in this city would be a shame, as these plans would enable scaling up the City’s initial steps to bigger, more substantial ones. People Movers on the Way

Fortunately, Transportation Manager Rob Dayton and his team have already purchased new kinds of people movers that could easily offset the limitations on cars.

“The first all-electric bike system in the nation is going to be here in September,” Mr. Dayton remarks. “Each bike is $2,500. They are free to the city because the provider charges for use. We challenged the design team for Beach Cycle, and they developed a unique single docking system that looks more like a bike rack. You just push the front tire in, it locks up and you unlock it with your phone.”

“We will have 250 initially. They’ll be up and down State Street, a little bit on the waterfront at the City College to encourage the students to become more connected to Downtown.”

Dayton, who never stops calling Santa Barbara “Paradise,” is probably the city’s greatest optimist and an enormous asset in forward looking planning. He understands how the basic economics of the city work and is always trying to figure out how to make city life more attractive to its residents.

“I always say, we don’t do things for tourists. We do things for locals and tourists want to be here,” he remarks.

In all likelihood, however, we may not actually know how many hurdles and how long the path will be to true reopening especially in terms of outside visitors. Many tourist-based businesses have already written off the rest of 2020. They are looking to 2021 before the business will even achieve half of the industry’s 2019 capacity. But Dayton wants to be ready now.

“We need to create a destination for people to want to be here,” he insists. “Don’t tell me the rules right now. Tell me how we survive. We just have to be nimble, fluid, ready. In leadership, the worst decisions are made out of fear.”

In the 1990s Paseo Nuevo was built out of fear that La Cumbre Plaza would draw consumers away from downtown Santa Barbara. State Street is the downtown that turned itself into a mall to compete with La Cumbre. Now La Cumbre is dead. Will State Street be the next casualty? It seems clear in these pandemic times that if you live by the mall you die by the mall. Fast Times at Ridgemont High are now past times.

“I would absolutely state in the strongest terms, we have a moment in time right now to break through this gridlock on State Street that we’ve had for the last fifty years,” Ms Ensberg declares. Despite rolling street closures, Paseo Nuevo clearly remains an issue.

“I’ve been advocating since 2017 that Macy’s should just be demo-ed. Then the street would open up.” Time for a Paradigm Shift Reassessing State Street

Hopefully the City Council’s initial measures will provide some relief to establishments directly in harm’s way, particularly those on State Street. But at some point, the question arises – why does the notion persist that State Street – as a unified thirteen block neighborhood – will transform and become prosSample State Street Closure with Open Cross Streets (rendering by Team 1)

Perhaps the time has come for a paradigm shift, a new way of looking at State Street and the entire city. Instead of assessing Santa Barbara in terms of areas and districts, perhaps the map of Santa Barbara should be regarded from the point of view of providing strong businesses, in whatever part of town that can survive, with help. Not thinking in terms of literal geography, but in terms of history, stability, and potential.

Instead of looking at the big hole on State Street, perhaps the focus should be on businesses that are uniquely equipped to sustain through this challenging time and take us to the next level of post-COVID prosperity. Businesses like La Super-Rica, a local institution that has had a successful business for decades, will likely come back, if they can survive this difficult period.

Coast Village Road is another potential area that may already be more geared to survival and growth than State Street. This area warrants taking substantial measures, actually spending the time to design its expansion into the COVIDready side lane, fully taking all of its establishments into the streets.

“Ever since I can recall, we’ve had these conversations about the downtown area and the city has been stuck on the downtown area,” Councilmember Alejandra Gutierrez remarked. Born and raised on the Eastside, Ms Gutierrez represents the Funk Zone, Haley, the Eastside and Milpas. She has grown up intertwined in two cultures and in many ways has a wider perspective on the city. Representing such a diverse business base has made her look at the city in terms of those businesses. “Really innovative, visionary people got together, and boom, the Funk Zone came up. Nobody would go in that area,” she recounts. “Then the Funk Zone became this happening place. But there are lots of areas that were thriving and will thrive again if they can make it through this. Coast Village Road, all the restaurants on Upper State, Milpas. We have to look at getting through this in terms of all the businesses.”

One thing is extraordinarily clear, the time has come to look beyond State Street. Certainly, closing the downtown to traffic in order to open more dining, retail, and enjoying the urbanscape and the landscape simultaneously is laudable.

But the entirety of our businesses can’t be sacrificed for one geographic area. In all likelihood the impending economic reshuffling will be significantly more dire than that which is currently being addressed. There is definitely a factor of how much disturbing news we can effectively absorb. But we need to prepare for greater changes and initiatives as the reality of business demise evolves. Panacea or Placebo?

Is saving State Street a panacea for Santa Barbara or a placebo? Is State Street a nostalgic attachment or a city administrator’s stopgap? Most importantly has the time come to go beyond the focus on a particular street with such a burdensome past? Maybe it’s better to stop concentrating on streets at all and single-mindedly see our city in terms of the business establishments themselves on a case-by-case basis and become an enabler of those cherished establishments, wherever they reside.

Regardless, State Street seems to be headed toward a now or never moment. •MJ America,” Sherry Villanueva remarked after this week’s meeting endorsing the new expansion.