Meet the Teacher 20 - 27 August 2020 Vol 26 Issue 34
SERVING MONTECITO AND SUMMERLAND
NOT I Z Z A R A P A P R E HELICOPT L A C O L P U G MESSIN . S R E V O B M O C ! E C I O J E R S R HAIRDRESSE
TAND S S E K A T L A N R U JO O IT C E T MON S P.5 ID LO B A T ET E R T S ET E FL T S AGAIN
Cold Spring School Superintendent Amy Alzina on getting class back in session, p. 16
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
SO WHAT DOES MONTECITO REALLY MEAN? HATTIE BERESFORD ON AN EVOLVING ETYMOLOGICAL HISTORY, PAGE 8
DEAR MONTECITO
JULIA KUPIEC ON WHAT TO DO WHEN A PANDEMIC PUTS A WRENCH IN YOUR LIFE PLANS, PAGE 20
REAL ESTATE VIEW
MONTECITO HOME SALES HAVEN’T BEEN THIS HOT SINCE THE REAL ESTATE BOOM OF 2002-2006, PAGE 12
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MONTECITO JOURNAL
20 – 27 August 2020
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20 – 27 August 2020
• The Voice of the Village •
MONTECITO JOURNAL
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Inside This Issue
5 Editor’s Letter Egalitarianism meets Regalitarianism: The royals are here – what does it all mean, if anything? 8 Celebrating History So what does Montecito mean anyway? Hattie Beresford untangles a confusing etymological history. 10 Village Beat Local schools navigate the start of the new year; Randall Road debris basin update; Kate Farms partners with SB Foodbank; Casa Dorinda awards scholarships; Ginger Salazar joins Board of Directors of Cottage Health; corrections & omissions 11 Letters to the Editor Does your advisor understand you? With so much at stake in your life, it never hurts to get a second op inioAncollection of communications from readers Bryan Rosen, Benjamin Watson, Gary Fletcher, Mike Hornbuckle, Nancy Freeman, Eberhard Brunner, and about your financial future. Arthur Olguin Tide Guide With so much at stake in your life, it never hurts to get a second opinion 12 Real Estate View My aabpop als.It’s official, Montecito real estate is booming. Not since perhaps 2002-2006 utro yoaucrhfinsatnacritasl fbutyuruen . derstanding your life and your financial go We then work together to create a framework designed to give you thhave e agents seen this kind of buyer activity, reports Mark Hunt. 14 On confidence to do what matters most--no matter what the markets are Entertainment Hanging with the duo HOCKET; KT Tunstall on Lobero’s lockdown-launched sedoinMgy. approach starts by understanding your life and your financial goals. ries; virtual Charlie Brown; Ben Platt raises funds for The Adderley School; and more We then work together to create a framework designed to give you the confidence to do what matters most--no matter what the markets are 16 Meet the Teacher Amy Alzina, Superintendent and Principal of Cold Spring School, lays out the doing. I want to help ensure you have all your current and future financial neegame ds plan for the 2020-21 school year are met. Call me for a free financial plan and portfolio review. 18 Seen Around Town The Paella Picnic and Project Fiesta, two themed, COVID-adapted events for a I want to help ensure you have all your current and future financial needs good cause are met. Call me for a free financial plan and portfolio review. 20 Dear Montecito What to do when a pandemic puts a wrench in your life plans? Julia Kupiec on coming out of “all this” and into a strange new world. 22 Perspectives by Rinaldo S Brutoco Take it from Bill Gates, it is insane America doesn’t have a national program to Christopher Gallo utilize testing as a key weapon in containing COVID-19 ChrU isB toSphFeirnGaanllcoial Services Inc. The Optimist Daily UBS22 Fi2naEnacisatl C Searrvriiclelos ISntcr.eet One part of Scotland is harnessing green hydrogen power while a town in 222SEuaistteC1ar0ri6 llo Street Spain is harnessing the power of migration SuitSea1n0t6a Barbara, CA 93101-7146 25 Brilliant Thoughts Santa Barbara, CA 93101-7146 805-963-3771 800-262-4774 Do you ever wonder what if? The events and decisions you look back on and 805-963-3771 800-262-4774 wondering how everything could have worked out differently? 28 Summerland Buzz Natalia Alarcon is the first Latina woman – and the youngest – to run for a seat on Carpinteria City Council in recent memory AI®MA® istpoh pe herr TT.. G , C, FC P®F,PC®IM ,C ChrCishtro Gaalllolo 31 Far Flung Travel CPAW®A® CPW Chuck Graham heads out on the “burrowing owl highway” in search of one of Vice President - Wealth Management the Golden State’s most sought out creatures Vice President - Wealth Management Portfolio Manager 32 Your Westmont Port8f0o5l-i7o30M-3a4n2a5 ger The college will begin fall semester remotely; museum displays works of recent 805c-h7ri3st0o-p3h4 er2 .t.5gallo@ubs.com art graduates; professor pens adventure novel for young adults christopher.t.gallo@ubs.com 34 Nosh Town Viva Oliva relocates to handsome location on State Street; peaches on the menu at Ca’ Dario 40 Our Town In final of three-part series of her “Arts Lockdown Series,” Joanne Calitri catches up with two local artists locked down in France 41 People of Montecito Nick Svensson on surfing Hammond’s and Biltmore, bartending Coast Village ubs.com/fs/christophertgallo Grill, Sotheby’s, and the art of coming full circle 43 Ernie’s World uAsbasfi.rcmopm Ernie’s grandson Jack comes to stay with him, keeping things entertaining and rovi/dfinsg/wceh alr this mtao nap geh me enrttsg erva iclelso to clients, UBS Financial Services Inc. offers both investment advisory services and brokerage services. Investment advisory services and brokerage services exhausting are separate and distinct, differ in material ways and are governed by different laws and separate 45 Back to School arrangements. It is important that clients understand the ways in which we conduct business and that s a fithrm S Faibnoaun rs boAmidst th ey cparreofvuilldy irneg adw theeaalgth reem ma ennta sg anedmde isn clot ssuerersvitche atswto e pcrloivein detst,o U thBem t tchiealprSoedruvcitcseosr Inc. offe COVID-19 three local colleges prepare for fall instruction; Jun Starkey ere vin cets awdevoisffoerr.yFosrem rmdatbiorno,kpeleraasg e erevsieerwvitchesP.DIFndvoecsutm t attaudbvs.icsoom usb . rokerage services vestsm rvoirceeisnfaon meenn ry/w seorvkicnegswaitnhd reports on state guidances for reopening campuses ® anadtaerdrisaIlncw . oaw e seCpeartriafieted FainnadncdiailsPtlian™ncnte,r dBiofafredr oifnStm ysnsatnhedcaerrteificgaotivoen rmnaerdks bCyFPdiafnfedrCeEnRtTIlFaIEwDs and separate ® F I N A N C I A L P L A N N E R i n t h e U . S . C I M A i s a r e g i s t e r e d c e r t i fi c a t i o n m a r k o f t h e I n v e s t m e n t s a n d W e a l t h rangements. It is important that clients understand the ways in which we conduct busin46 ess aClassified nd that Advertising Inasrteitfuutell,yforremaedrlytIh MeCA tesdoifsc Alm dweidper. o©vUid BSe2t0o20t.hAellm riga htbsoreuset rtvh ede. products or hey cU a,girnetehemUennittesd aStnad oesruicraeasntdhwaotrlw 47 Local Business Directory BS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC. D-UBS-87F27415
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ervices we offer. For more information, please review the PDF document at ubs.com/workingwithus. ertified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP® and CERTIFIED MONTECITO JOURNAL ® “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.” – Oscar Wilde ™
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20 – 27 August 2020
Editor’s Letter by Gwyn Lurie CEO and Executive Editor of the Montecito Journal Media Group
“Tabloid Culture” – A True Oxymoron
F
or a few decades before and one decade after the Millennium, there was a well-known restaurant in New York named Elaine’s, known as the “it” celebrity hang-out and “the private place where public people go to be private in public.” There was a rigorous selection process to get in (which was conducted by Elaine herself). Paparazzi and limousines were lined up outside. There were bouncers. Velvet ropes. The whole shebang. Montecito, in contrast, has always been known as the place where the well-heeled, the open-toed and the barefoot, the well-known and unknown alike, can Not the best stroller for the royals to use go to chillax and actually be private. The place if they want to remain under the radar where public (and private) people can go to here in Montecito, if that’s even possible be private in private. Montecito is not gussied (photo: Easywalker Mini Cooper Pram up. If anything, it’s gussied down. There are Stroller) large gated and ungated estates, but also modest homes and rundown cottages. And the people who live in all of these surf right next to each other and often send their kids to the same excellent public schools.
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Will The Royals Bring Tabloid Culture With Them To Our Quiet Little Hamlet?
If you’ve not yet heard the news you’ve certainly heard the helicopters. Harry and Meghan of Sussex and their young son Archie have moved to town. Google Earth may have redacted the location of their home, but if you really care to know where they live, just drop a plumb line off one of the endlessly circling paparazzi choppers. So will the Piccadilly Circus bring with it a ripple effect other than the addition of bangers and mash to the Lucky’s menu? And what does it all mean… if anything? Might Montecito be in danger of becoming some sort of satellite… dare I say it… Hampton?
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In the battle for Montecito’s soul, who am I to say what stays in and what remains behind the velvet rope? Certainly Montecito is no stranger to celebrity arrivals, though not, I don’t think, on the tabloid-fodder level of this family. But even before the royals Harriered in, I had already noticed a bit of a cultural shift with the opening of the Rosewood Miramar, a wholly owned subsidiary of GOOP (kidding). And with folks from nearby metropolises seeking both peace and plenty during the pandemic, Montecito was already topping the list of preferred havens. Suddenly it seemed like Lambos were becoming as common as Land Rovers. On the other hand, I enjoy the added venues the Miramar has brought. Not to mention the much-needed commerce, jobs, and contributions to our tax base that the Miramar provides. Anyway, in the battle for Montecito’s soul, who am I to say what stays in and what remains behind the velvet rope? We’ve only owned our home here for 15 years, but I can tell you that while I cherish old Montecito, I also appreciate the new. And of course, we all appreciate when people who could live anywhere choose to make this their home. So welcome, Archie and Meghan and Harry.
What Will Life Be Like For The Royals Here… And What Will Life Be Like For Us With Them Here?
My husband, Les, had some insight into this because he went to prep school with John-John Kennedy, who also grew up in a travelling fishbowl. It’s fair to say John-John was the stateside equivalent of Princes Harry and William. Les recalls life was fairly normal for the President’s son at the Collegiate School for Boys in New York City – or as normal as it could be for someone who was followed by a coterie of Secret Service everywhere he went. As with Montecito and the royals, JFK Jr., whose stepdad at the time was Aristotle Onassis, didn’t nec-
EDITORIAL Page 444 20 – 27 August 2020
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20 – 27 August 2020
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20 – 27 August 2020
• The Voice of the Village •
MONTECITO JOURNAL
7
Where’s Your Happy Place?
Celebrating History
What’s in a Name?
by Hattie Beresford
James Madison Alden was the artist for the US Coast Survey of the Pacific Coast in the 1850s. He painted this view labeled “Valley of Montecito…” in 1855, one of the earliest visual records of the area.
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ongtime Montecito resident J’Amy Brown contacted me the other day distressed by the current belief that the town’s name means “little mountain.” Maria Herold, late archivist of the Montecito Association History Committee, and David Myrick, author of the two-volume history Montecito and Santa Barbara, “must be rolling in their graves!” said J’Amy. Having known Maria, I believe she would have found it to be a nice idea, and not at all silly. But then Maria was quite a hussy as well as a historian, and didn’t believe that the “little mountain” meaning was awful at all. I, too, don’t believe it is egregious to the history of the place, but then Maria and I know history, and we know about semantic change and shifts in denotation and connotation over time. For instance, several hundred years ago the above paragraph would have meant something entirely different. For starters, a nice idea then would have been a silly, foolish, and simple idea. Whereas not being silly, would have meant not being worthy. I haven’t insulted Maria by calling her a hussy, only identified her as a housewife, and by saying the meaning wasn’t awful, I’m saying, in the parlance of 300 years ago, that it inspired no awe. As for “egregious,” well, that once meant distinguished or eminent, which the current definition as applied to the town certainly is not. While I have no ability to go into the Provincial Records and find references to the naming of El Montecito, I do know that it wasn’t bestowed by the first Spaniards to traverse Alta California with the Portola Expedition in 1769. They were a name calling bunch and named Carpinteria and many of the canyons along the Gaviota Coast, which still bear these old monikers. The Santa Barbara Presidio was founded in 1782, and by then the name “Montecito” was in use for the area we know today. In fact, it was there that the Spanish originally planned to build the mission. So, what did montecito mean in 1782? To know that, one must get to the root of the problem, which is the word monte, the suffix -cito being a diminutive. Today, though “mountain” is the most common definition, there are other meanings. They include scrubland; wood or forestland; meadow or pastureland; countryside; and as slang for marijuana. (Hmmm, that latter definition bodes nicely for the village.) Which brings us to the California town of El Monte, which, like Montecito, is not built on a mountain, small or otherwise. The editors of The Encyclopædia Britannica say that the Spanish missionaries and soldiers who inhabited the area in the 18th century, named it for its meadows, an archaic sense of the word monte. Isn’t it likely, therefore, that these self-same missionaries and soldiers had that meaning in mind when they named Montecito? After all, the missionaries would not have considered placing a mission on a mountain; they weren’t Tibetan monks, after all. Rather they would have chosen fertile lands near a steady stream of water and with a goodly supply of wood for construction and heating. The problem with looking up 300-year-old Spanish words in 2020 dictionaries is that meanings change over time. Further confusion ensues with regional differences in meaning. Anyway, since Montecito is not on a mountain, but at the foot of them, it is obvious that the name doesn’t mean “little mountain.” It makes much more sense that in 1782, el montecito referred to the countryside with its grasslands and wooded glades. The only way to possibly know for sure, however, is to access the early records, which were written in now archaic Spanish. In the meantime, though this senile controversy provides an interesting distraction, we probably have more important things to think about. Hopefully it will all soon fizzle out – look it up. •MJ (Sources: https://ideas.ted.com/20-words-that-once-meant-something-very-different/; various Spanish to English definition websites; https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/61876/11-words-meanings-have-changed-drastically-over-time)
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20 – 27 August 2020
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Village Beat
learning include outdoor classrooms, outdoor handwashing stations, small class sizes, desks six-feet apart, signage, PPE, and plexiglass partitions, as well as health screenings for students and staff. We’ll have more on the future of in-person learning at local schools as more decisions are made.
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-Person Instruction Updates
T
his week, school started for our two public elementary schools, via distance or virtual learning due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. On Tuesday, public health officer Dr. Henning Ansorg told the Board of Supervisors that the county’s number of COVID-19 cases is below certain thresholds, and the County is now drafting guidance and forms for schools that wish to pursue a waiver in order to offer in-person instruction. Guidelines from the State of California permit schools and school districts to reopen for in-person instruction at any time if they are located in a local health jurisdiction that has not been on the county monitoring list within the prior 14 days. If the county has been on the monitoring list within the last 14 days, such as SB County, the school must conduct distance learning only, until their local health jurisdiction has been off the monitoring list for at least 14 days. Schools may apply for a waiver if the local health jurisdiction meets certain thresholds; one of the requirements for schools to submit waivers is for the county to have a 14-day rolling average of fewer than 200 cases per 100,000 of population. Recently, the state updated their data, and Santa Barbara County is now at a 14-day rolling average of 154.5 cases per 100,000. Superintendents of both Montecito public schools, Dr. Anthony Ranii at Montecito Union School and Dr. Amy Alzina at Cold Spring School, tell us they already have comprehensive plans in place for the safe return of students to campus, which is a
requirement to submit a waiver. Both superintendents, as of press time, were consulting with their school respective school boards, teachers, and staff, parents, and community stakeholders before considering whether to pursue a waiver. It’s expected that further guidance from the County regarding testing of students and staff, contact tracing, and more will be released in the coming days. “I want to be clear that there has not been a decision about whether or not to apply for a waiver. It would be premature to have arrived at this decision before we consult with staff members, parents, and community organizations. I look forward to that process,” Dr. Ranii wrote in a letter to parents. “In the coming days and weeks, we will be engaging with labor, parents, and community organizations and seeking additional information about testing and contact tracing. If we decide to apply for a waiver, the county has informed us that we will not be able to return to in-person instruction for at least 14 days after submission,” he went on. As of press time, Dr. Alzina was in the process of surveying Cold Spring parents to see their thoughts on returning to in-person learning, when a waiver is available. On August 7, 72% of parents wished to send their kids back to campus, with 22% not in favor of in-person learning and 6% unsure. Dr. Alzina will make the decision to pursue a waiver after current survey results are in; she reports that the majority of teachers and staff would like to return to in-person learning. Cold Spring’s plans for in-person
Debris Basin Progress
At their hearing on Tuesday, August 18, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors approved the Environmental Impact Report for the proposed debris basin on Randall Road. A draft of the report was released in early May. The project, which is still in its design phase, includes building a new off-channel debris basin on San Ysidro Creek at Randall Road and East Valley Road, an area that was heavily impacted during the 1/9 debris flow, causing catastrophic damage to life and property. The project is proposed on eight parcels, seven of which are owned by private property owners and expected to be acquired by the County, now that the EIR is approved. The County has been in talks with all affected property owners; all but one of the properties was completely destroyed during the debris flow, causing loss of life on Randall Road as well as in the Glen Oaks area. Funding of the $21 million project is reliant on voluntary acquisition of the parcels. As part of the project, San Ysidro Creek would be slightly re-aligned but would remain equivalent in channel length. Channel width is proposed to be widened in some parts where steep banks would be re-graded to a lower slope, effectively widening the jurisdictional portion of the creek. The County also seeks to provide trail access, parking, and add native plantings. According to the staff report, the debris basin would reduce potential flooding and debris flow impacts at Highway 192 and downstream
infrastructure and properties. Longterm maintenance includes periodic vegetation maintenance, excavation of accumulated material after major flood events and/or wildfires, and irrigation upkeep and maintenance of the native plant restoration for two to five years until plants are established. The Montecito Association submitted a letter of comment to the Board regarding the EIR approval, which included three areas the MA board of directors hoped to highlight. The letter asked for mitigation of visual impacts of the project, with a courtesy review of the plans by the Montecito Architectural Board of Review. They also asked the County to provide fill to local contractors, and to be mindful of the amount of heavy truck traffic on Highway 192 during construction. The project is expected to begin construction early next summer. Lumped in with the approval of the Randall Road debris basin EIR, was approval of $1.5M of funding for the expansion of three other debris basins, including Romero Canyon, San Ysidro, and lower Mission Creek. “Today we made tremendous progress on flood control,” said First District Supervisor Das Williams. “On behalf of the people of the First District, I thank you,” he said to the Board.
Kate Farms Partners with Foodbank
The Foodbank of Santa Barbara partnered with local company Kate Farms last week to support those most impacted amid the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic through accessible nutrition. On Tuesday, August 11, 15 volunteers came together to package 8,000 meals to be delivered to the Santa Barbara community. Santa Barbara-based Kate Farms was founded by Michelle and Richard Laver, who initially developed the
VILLAGE BEAT Page 424
Montecito Tide Guide
10 MONTECITO JOURNAL
Day
Low
Hgt High
Hgt Low
Thurs, August 20
5:19 AM -0.8 11:41 AM 4.8
Fri, August 21
5:54 AM -0.4 12:18 PM 5
Hgt High
Hgt Low
05:08 PM
1.4
6.2
06:01 PM
1.2
011:16 PM
Hgt
Sat, August 22
12:05 AM 5.6
6:31 AM
0.2
12:58 PM
5.2
07:01 PM 1.2
Sun, August 23
1:00 AM
4.8
7:10 AM
0.8
01:44 PM
5.3
08:13 PM 1.2
Mon, August 24
2:10 AM
4
7:54 AM
1.6
02:38 PM
5.3
09:41 PM 1.1
Tues, August 25
3:48 AM
3.4
8:49 AM
2.2
03:43 PM
5.3
011:17 PM 0.8
Wed, August 26
5:54 AM
3.3
10:08 AM
2.7
04:58 PM
5.4
Thurs, August 27
12:37 AM 0.3
7:29 AM
3.5
11:43 AM
2.9
06:09 PM
5.6
Fri, August 28
1:37 AM -0.1 8:26 AM
3.9
12:58 PM
2.8
07:10 PM
5.8
“Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.” – Oscar Wilde
20 – 27 August 2020
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
Many Unanswered Questions
T
hank you, Kelly Mahan Herrick, for the August 6 article on the county’s spraying of herbicides in the debris basins of Montecito. Some questions come to mind after reading the responses of County officials Maureen Spencer and Jon Frye. Ms Spencer mentions that if there isn’t a burned watershed above a debris basin, “the District maintains a fifteen-foot-wide pilot channel through the basin, and the remaining area of the basin is allowed to be recolonized with vegetation.” How wide of a swath is the County maintaining now given the burned area above? She mentions how the crews are trained to keep spraying to a bare minimum, and to avoid flowing water. There were a number of containers of herbicide in the truck I saw. How many gallons of that were used in the San Ysidro debris basin? Do the crews spray during the wet season when there is much runoff and water levels fluctuate quite a bit? While herbicide use may be kept to a minimum on a larger plant, just how much herbicide does it take to kill it? She mentions that “the crew has found if they spray very small occasional sprouts, they use markedly less herbicide than they would if they allowed the basin to grow for several months...” Aren’t small sprouts easy to pull up by hand, or to dig up with a trowel? Mr. Frye states it is not required to post notices if spraying is more than 50 feet from the trail. Why not? There are
people who walk down the creek beds, and dogs that run down to them to get a drink. How long has the County been spraying the debris basins? Has the public ever been notified of this? Wouldn’t it be the right thing to do to notify the public before spraying occurs and give people the opportunity to comment? Notices could be put in local newspapers and at trailheads. If places and times of herbicide spraying were announced, the public could witness it for themselves. Taxpayers are supporting pesticide companies that haven’t behaved ethically. The County needs to support ethical businesses. Why not consult with Rincon-Vitova in Ventura, a company that offers non-toxic alternatives? To hear another side on the pesticide issue, people can contact Transition to Organics, a local environmental organization based in Ojai. Bryan Rosen (Publisher’s Note: We will be looking into this issue in an upcoming “On the Record” with MJ news editor Nick Schou. ~ TLB)
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Love for the Library
The Montecito Library is a place full of knowledge and wonder. From checking out a new book, to wandering the aisles, to attending puppet shows when I was younger, it is one of
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• The Voice of the Village •
FREE CONSULTATION Ca Lic # 887955
MONTECITO JOURNAL
11
Real Estate
by Mark Ashton Hunt
Mark and his wife, Sheela Hunt, are real estate agents. His family goes back nearly 100 years in the Santa Barbara area. Mark’s grandparents – Bill and Elsie Hunt – were Santa Barbara real estate brokers for 25 years.
Opportunities Await
I
t has been an incredible past two-plus months in the Montecito real estate market, to say the least. Sales are up and still climbing. Not since perhaps 2002-2006 have agents seen this kind of buyer activity, in all price ranges. Sales have been solid in Summerland, Carpinteria, Santa Barbara, and Goleta as well this summer, but Montecito is running way out front in terms of percent of sales increase over the previous five years. As I reported before, sales have been up considerably higher. Instead of the average 20+/- homes going into escrow during a summer month, we are seeing 40 or 50 homes fall under contract right now. As of last week, there are now nearly 60 homes in escrow/under contract right now, according to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Overall in the 93108 zip code, there were 38+/- sales tracked in the MLS between July 15 to August 14, 2020 and 10 were over $5 million, the highest being a 1.38 acre tennis court estate, just blocks from the beach and Coast Village Road, selling for $10.75 million. This past week (August 7-14) saw 12 properties go into escrow, in just one week, with half of them in excess of $4 million and some seeing multiple offers. It’s a feeding frenzy in the under $2.5 million market when something new hits the market. Notably a few listings in the Middle Road area have attracted attention and multiple offers. View properties are in high demand as are “Done” properties, meaning properties with new finishes, ready to move in. With Montecito hosting roughly 3,500 households, if we see something like 350 sales this year, that might indicate a 10 percent shift in our population in just one year. Some people are moving away, others moving across town, and many sales are to what will be part-time homeowners, but nonetheless, many new owners are hitting the streets of the Upper and Lower villages and hopefully
bringing with them a healthy dose of Montecito vibe. It is hoped new residents will embrace many of our unspoken rules here, like no honking or aggressive driving on our country lanes, no throwing cigarette butts on the ground along Coast Village Road, letting neighbors cross a street or merge in traffic, wearing a mask in public for now, refraining from road rage, consideration of neighbors and noise. You know, just basic civilized behavior. While many new listings have flown off the shelf quickly, and many existing listings finally found their buyers, I’d like to focus on a few homes that are surprisingly still on the market. All homes featured today have been on the market more than 200 days. But just because they have not sold, does not indicate anything other than they just have not found their soulmate yet. In fact, six months is not a long time on the market under normal times, but with the buyer frenzy hitting Montecito, and new listings hitting every day, it’s easy to overlook some homes that have been available prior to the pandemic. When you compare amenities, views, square footage and other factors to their counterparts that have sold, you can see my confusion. These are amazing properties, some of which have reduced in price, making them even better opportunities. From a newly completed estate on upper Picacho Lane to a contemporary estate with tennis court in West Montecito, here are four ocean view properties not to be overlooked.
915 PARK LANE – $5,850,000
This contemporary estate sits atop Park Lane and was designed by notable architect Robert Klammer. The home offers a blend of airiness and light in a style that blends into the environmental surroundings and offers a big ocean view backdrop. At approximately 6,000+/- square-feet of living space, the interior can handle a crowd, but is scaled to function well for everyday use. The entry wing offers an impressive two-story foyer with atrium and ridge skylights, a primary bedroom suite, home office and two guest bedroom suites. Entertaining spaces include the formal living/dining rooms, chef’s kitchen,
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12 MONTECITO JOURNAL
1127 Coast Village Road Montecito, 93108 805.695.0449 Text: 805.770.6712
“The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.” – Oscar Wilde
20 – 27 August 2020
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team@ RiskinPartners.com 805.565.8600 20 – 27 August 2020
ROBERT RISKIN
Village Properties Realtors license #01954177 • The Voice of the Village •
MONTECITO JOURNAL
13
On Entertainment Hacking 2020 with HOCKET at UCSB
T
he UCSB Department of Music not only didn’t cancel its annual Summer Music Festival in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, it’s actually using the event as something of a forum to address the situation. At least that’s the approach taken by HOCKET, the Los Angeles-based new music piano duo featuring firstyear UCSB faculty member Dr. Sarah Gibson that will spearhead this weekend’s online version of the five-yearold festival. HOCKET, which Gibson formed with fellow composer-pianist Thomas Kotcheff in 2015, commissioned 50 composers to join them in their new project called #What2020SoundsLike, an ambitious attempt to capture the year to date that has seen unprecedented mental, emotional, physical, and sociological stresses. The composers were invited to musically respond to 2020 with miniature works written for piano duo that are being recorded and released weekly on HOCKET’s social media (@HOCKETensemble) going back to mid-June and running
Composer-pianists Dr. Sarah Gibson and Thomas Kotcheff, the duo otherwise known as HOCKET, commissioned 50 composers to join them in their new project called #What2020SoundsLike
by Steven Libowitz
through September. The duo’s live-streamed performance of a selection of the pieces will include a contribution from current UCSB graduate composition student Raphael Radna, who is serving as artistic director of the 2020 festival that was founded in 2016 by then-composition grad student Federico Llach as a celebration of local artists and a forum for composers and musicians to have an opportunity to connect with the community. Among the other artists appearing in the multifaceted festival that spans instruments from more than a millennium are multi-percussionist/vocalist Miguelito León, who will offer a live-looping solo performance; computer-collaborating UCSB composition alumnus/pianist Marc Evanstein; the Nesta Steel Drum Band; UCSB carillonist Wesley Arai; and the ensemble Gamelan Sinar Surya, plus a demonstration of Medieval and Renaissance instruments from UCSB’s collection by composition grad student Matthew Owensby. Gibson, meanwhile, has relished her
Matthew Pifer, MD
time in Santa Barbara even though the academic year got cut short in March. That’s because 2019-20 marked her return to town for her first extended stay since she spent the summer of 2009 as a collaborative piano fellow at the Music Academy of the West. Coming back a decade later to teach in both the College of Creative Studies and the Music Department – where she also has taken over direction of the school’s much-lauded Ensemble for Contemporary Music – has been a satisfying full circle experience even if COVID has gotten in the way of completing her first year on campus. She talked about #What2020SoundsLike, and her time
at MAW, over the phone from her Los Angeles home earlier this week. Q. How did this project come about? A. Thomas and I were just trying to figure out how we could make music together during this time, which led us to decide that, just for music-making purposes, we would not social distance. We chose to trust each other and just bubble up with him and his fiancée and me and my husband. So that let us rehearse together for the last few months, which led to the idea to see what was happening with other musicians. We were excited to
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This historic Spanish revival, built-in 1924 and extensively remodeled, is located in the famed hedgerow of Montecito with a pool, pool pavilion, tennis court, guest cottage, and gym. Situated on 1.9 flat acres of park-like grounds, this estate has beautiful views of the Santa Ynez Mountains and is within walking distance to Miramar Beach, fine dining, and shopping in both the Upper and LowerVillage; it is also convenient to the worldclass Rosewood Miramar, Four Seasons Biltmore and San Ysidro Ranch resorts. Newly renovated, the main residence has an ideal floor plan with four spacious bedrooms upstairs, each with its own en-suite bathroom and walk-in closet. An additional nanny/granny’s room is downstairs with its own en-suite bathroom. The newly renovated guest cottage, situated at the back of the property, has a large upstairs bedroom, a kitchen, and dining and family room areas. This is the perfect place for your guests to retreat while visiting. There is a newly built, free-standing gym/work out pavilion. This estate offers the ultimate in privacy and tranquility, with an award-winning rose garden, a private well, a large koi pond, and babbling creek, several fountains and high hedges surrounding its perimeter - 1530 Mimosa is the sanctuary you have been searching for. *Showings available starting September 7*
OFFERED AT $11,500,000
© 2020 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties (BHHSCP) is a member of the franchise system of BHH Affiliates LLC. BHHS and the BHHS symbol are registered service marks of Columbia Insurance Company, a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate. BHH Affiliates LLC and BHHSCP do not guarantee accuracy of all data including measurements, conditions, and features of property. Information is obtained from various sources and will not be verified by broker or MLS. Buyer is advised to independently verify the accuracy of that information. CalDRE#: 00976141
20 – 27 August 2020
• The Voice of the Village •
MONTECITO JOURNAL
15
MEET THE TEACHER by Sigrid Toye, Ph.D. Ms Toye is a former L.A. Unified School District teacher and has worked as an educational-behavior therapist in private practice since 1979.
Amy Alzina, Superintendent and Principal, Cold Spring School
A
s my fingers tap the keyboard I’m reminded of an observation about coping in the world of the new normal: “Somehow it feels like we’re building the airplane while it’s in the air.” How true that is, not only now but possibly for the foreseeable future. Santa Barbara’s Fiesta parade, as an example, reimagined and carefully adapted to the new normal as it was, had to be scrapped within hours of the event. But Old Spanish Days was just one week. Think of the challenges inherent in designing a selection of alternative programs for an entire school year. This is the task that has absorbed Amy Alzina, Superintendent and Principal of Cold Spring School, and other educators throughout our community and our country. Even though she was busy preparing for the 2020-21 school year, Alzina was kind enough to spend some time bringing me up to date. “I’m so proud and grateful to our
Amy Alzina, Superintendent and Principal of Cold Spring School (right) and STEAM teacher Jean Gradias have a daunting task ahead of the 202021 school year
staff at Cold Spring School, especially during this dynamic environment,” she exclaimed. “We’ve been working tirelessly to meet the needs of every student in every situation, regardless of what changes may be in store for us going forward.” She also expressed gratitude to the school’s Governing Board of Directors for their support, and to the Cold Spring families for
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their continuing involvement and flexibility. Alzina emphasized that the comfort and safety of the entire school community is of paramount importance as well as compliance with the Santa Barbara County Health Department’s directives. The Remote Distance Learning model mandated by state requirements began the school year. “Each child is issued a computer and will use a combination of tools to receive information and communicate with one another and their teachers, Zoom being the most essential,” Alzina explained. “Google Sites is the hub for class information, and Google Classroom is the tool teachers use to manage coursework, assignments, grade, and send feedback.” The virtual school day is structured like a normal day from 8:45 am to 3 pm with attendance being taken, and morning sessions devoted to the Common Core State Standards of English Language Arts and Math curriculum. After lunch the Learning Specialist schedule begins: music, art, drama, chorus, and special projects under the STEAM umbrella. “The April school closing and the change to online learning was our original model,” she said. “We’ve made additions and adjustments to
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accommodate every grade level along with the addition of outside resources.” An important component is social and emotional support for all students, parents and staff. The District has partnered with Care Solace to provide telehealth resources to connect families with a therapist online in the comfort of their own home. Coordinating a cohesive virtual schedule for seven grade levels and all the support services needed for a functioning virtual program is a multi-faceted effort. The educational climate during this uncertain time is rife with conflicting information. In every state, county, or city there are often contradictory values, choices, and considerations, be it on campus classes, virtual or a hybrid learning, COVID-19 comfort, challenges to working parents, social distancing compliance, to mask or not to mask, and the right of the individual versus that of the community as a whole. Although Cold Spring School is beginning the year with Remote Learning there is a plan in place for an on-campus, in-person future. “Our community’s been faced with a series of natural disasters beginning with the 2018 Thomas Fire, then the January ninth debris flow, and now the 2020 pandemic so we have programs designed in anticipation of any change that might be presented to us,” noted Alzina. “If, at some point, classes are permitted to take place on campus, we’re ready for that. The Remote Learning option however, will still be available for any student who wishes to have it.” As Cold Spring School’s principal and a mother of two children of her own, Alzina reflected on coping in the “new normal” of the COVID-19 pandemic, “During the last week we’d have been on State Street enjoying the Fiesta in the company of friends and family, but the uncertainly in our world, lack of connection, and fear have taken its toll. What binds us together is the love of our children and the responsibility to provide them with the safest and most favorable educational environment regardless of the circumstances.” She added, wistfully, “In the eyes of my students I see those of my own two children and I’m reminded how important it is to make each child feel loved, valued, and protected.” •MJ
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20 – 27 August 2020
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All information provided is deemed reliable, but has not been verified and we do not guarantee it. We recommend that buyers make their own inquiries.
20 – 27 August 2020
• The Voice of the Village •
MONTECITO JOURNAL
17
Seen Around Town The Paella Picnic
The paella catering truck preparing the picnic
by Lynda Millner
The three co-chairs at the Paella Picnic pickup area (from left) Adriana Mezic, Sheila Hunt, and Maria Wilson
I
f at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That’s what the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation (TBCF) did. Because of COVID-19 their spring event was cancelled and also their fall fundraising event, the Gold Ribbon Luncheon. They have been operating since 2002 and hope their latest venture will add to the coffers. And it did. The Paella Picnic! The foundation had a partnership with SB Paella Catering, Andersen’s Danish Bakery, and Village Properties. “Folks will drive into Village Properties, park and pick up a beau-
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.
tiful bag filled with paella (a dish invented in Valencia, Spain) for four, with wine, dessert, and a gift,” said Kirsten Stuart, the foundation’s director of development and communica-
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The Giving Tree raising funds for the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation
tions. “Then take it home to enjoy in their own backyard or a park.” And more than 400 people did. There was also an opportunity drawing, a wine pull, and a giving tree. There were three large packages: Three SONOS speakers; a fashion spree at Giuliana Montecito and a staycation package with a paella dinner for ten, plus many local excursions. What is all this for? It will support local families facing the financial and emotional burden of a pediatric cancer diagnosis. Interim executive director Eryn Shugart explained: “TBCF is the only local organization to provide financial, educational, and emotional support to families battling pediatric cancer in the tri-counties. We provide a variety of support programs to families of youth up to age twenty-one.” In 2019 TBCF served a record 851 individuals through their core pro-
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grams: financial stability, emotional support, and educational advocacy. Event co-chair Sheela Hunt states, “I support TBCF because children battling cancer should always have the comfort of a parent by their side.” Co-chair Adriana Mezic says she’s involved because, “I support and connect with TBCF on a very personal level because pediatric cancer diagnosis affects the entire family and we consider ourselves an extended family support system.” Third co-chair Maria Wilson added, “You never know how important the impact of TBCF is until you meet some of the families, hear their stories, and see the appreciation on their faces. The money we are raising from this event will allow these parents to focus on their child in need, so they can be there for that child.” Helping the co-chairs were Carolyn
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© 2020 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties (BHHSCP) is a member of the franchise system of BHH Affiliates LLC. BHHS and the BHHS symbol are registered service marks of Columbia Insurance Company, a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate. BHH Affiliates LLC and BHHSCP do not guarantee accuracy of all data including measurements, conditions, and features of property. Information is obtained from various sources and will not be verified by broker or MLS. Buyer is advised to independently verify the accuracy of that information.
20 – 27 August 2020
• The Voice of the Village •
MONTECITO JOURNAL
19
Dear Montecito
Peanut the Bear knows as well as anyone the challenges of staying in shape during the pandemic
by Stella Pierce
Montecito Alumni Write Letters from Life’s Front Montecito Union alum Julia Kupiec graduated from New York University last year with a degree in film
M
anaging this column, I’ve been put back in contact with quite a few individuals I used to look up to back in my elementary school days. This week we’re hearing from Montecito Union alum and New York University grad, Julia Kupiec. Second grade Stella had myriad compelling reasons to hold Julia in high regard; she was four years my senior and played the very convincing character of “Queen” in our production of Cinderella. But I almost certainly held such reverence for this particular upperclassman because of that time she let me play ding-dong-ditch with her and her friends. In short, Ms Kupiec was a role model. Today, albeit for slightly altered reasons, Julia continues to be a strong exemplar. Her open letter details the essential process of admitting ignorance to events that occur outside our dear bubble of Montecito. Shedding the idyllic film of coast-side scenery and hometown safety isn’t a straightforward path. By virtue of this, I think we can easily see the value in Julia’s words.
Dear Montecito,
When I imagined what my first year out of college would look like, I did not picture waking up in my childhood bedroom, met eye to eye with the ridiculous life-sized teddy bear that my high school boyfriend purchased for me at the age of 17. The bear’s name is Peanut, and he is slumped almost drunkenly on the opposite wall, stuffed between an array of odd objects and pieces of furniture my parents have apparently decided they no longer want, but which they haven’t gotten around to actually donating or dropping off at the end of our driveway. Perhaps I shouldn’t call it “our driveway” anymore and instead I should say “my parents’ driveway.” It is difficult to know when to make that transition. This is the crux of life I found myself in when the COVID pandemic swooped in and threw a wrench in the plans of practically everyone, but perhaps in a particularly odd way, those in my position: recent college graduates
Your Montecito and Santa Barbara Real Estate Agent
RDouglas@bhhscal.com | 805.318.0900 RachaelDouglas.com Montecito | Hope Ranch | Santa Barbara | Goleta
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DRE 02024147
with an uncomfortably vague relationship with whatever their “next step” was supposed to be after graduation. I completed my degree in film from NYU in 2019 and, afterwards, began making small steps in my attempted ascent from artist-who-makes-no-money to artist-who-makes-some-money-sometimes. For all intents and purposes, this was going OK. Then, ten months after my graduation, a major pandemic hit, NYC shut down, and I realized I was moving back to Montecito for the foreseeable future. Where I find myself now is uncertain. I am reckoning with an unspecified amount of time to reflect on what I want, who I’ve been, and how I hope to come out of “all this” into a strange new world, whatever that strange new world might look like. And in the meantime, I’m attempting to collect my thoughts into some kind of coherent form the only way I know how: by writing about it. This has not been altogether an unpleasant process, but as with any amount of self reflection, it is happening slowly (in that I do not yet have a better way to describe the current state of my life or the world in general other than by referring to it as “all this”). In discussing the odd point of life I and other college grads find ourselves in, I do not mean to imply that my small and distinctly privileged demographic (white, college educated, and without student debt) has been unduly affected by the strange and unfortunate shift this pandemic has caused. It is wildly important to note that the biggest problem the COVID pandemic has caused me is an uncomfortable amount of “me time” and an equally uncomfortable roommate status with Peanut. I am not housing or food insecure. The most tragic thing that has happened to me in the last month is a scathing sunburn. I, like most Montecitans, have a beloved safety net. Perhaps this has become the biggest defining characteristic I’ve come to associate with being from Montecito: that strange sense of confidence that only comes from knowing that, if you were to fail, or if the world were to light itself on fire, you could come back to that place called home and lounge in the sun and not wear enough SPF and take the time to consider what you might do next. Most people don’t have that kind of luxury, but Montecitans – for the most part – do. And for better or worse, this is largely what defines us. I grew up with a strange feeling about being from Montecito, which took my leaving to identify. I knew it had something to do with the fact that I found myself, at parties, arguing heatedly with boys who played volleyball and drove Audis about political issues that would not affect any of us at all. Before I had the words to describe it, I was aware that Montecito did not necessarily bear resemblance to the vast majority of the country. It was richer, undeniably beautiful, and largely homogenous – and therefore somehow, an observer of, but not necessarily a participant in – the general chaos of the world. I guess what I felt as a young Montecitan was that my privilege was making me comfortably oblivious. I find myself, now, thinking about that innate naivety I felt as a teenager and I realize that, although I ran away and tried to become “educated,” I still feel so stupid all the time. When the pandemic hit, I realized how many of my friends do not have the ability to fly home to a small paradise and chill out till it’s safe to emerge again. When the BLM protests began, I realized how little effort I, up to this point, had actually put into learning about systemic racism and the continued injustices against black people in the United States. It feels, in a way, appropriate that I’m coming eye to eye with my own continued stupidity after my college graduation, in the place that has seen me through all of my phases, and where I’ve always been able to be most honest with myself. For the most part, I’m thankful for the timing of this lesson that, in the murky water of my early twenties, I might use as my guiding compass forward: The rest of my life is an education. And, for better or for worse, I am now entirely in charge of the battle to pass through the mist of my own obliviousness – with or without a consultation from Peanut. •MJ
“All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does, and that is his.” – Oscar Wilde
20 – 27 August 2020
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• The Voice of the Village •
MONTECITO JOURNAL
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Perspectives
by Rinaldo S. Brutoco
Rinaldo S. Brutoco is the Founding President and CEO of the Santa Barbara-based World Business Academy and a co-founder of JUST Capital. He’s a serial entrepreneur, executive, author, radio host, and futurist who’s published on the role of business in relation to pressing moral, environmental, and social concerns for over 35 years
Testing Insanity
We can’t succeed without a comprehensive national program for COVID testing “Testing Insanity” – Bill Gates, Global Pubic Square
W
hat exactly was Bill Gates trying to communicate when Fareed Zakaria interviewed him recently on his CNN GPS show? Zakaria is a serious interviewer who pries information out of his guests. And Gates, well what can you say about a guy who built the largest personal fortune in the world (until Jeff Bezos came along) by founding and building Microsoft into one of the largest corporations in the world, and then went on to start the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with assets in excess of $36 billion (yes, that’s “B” like in billion)? Bill and his wife, Melinda Gates, have led the funding and technical effort to eradicate malaria globally. From funding basic R&D, to distributing millions of mosquito nets, to innumerable other initiatives, the Gates Foundation has been at the forefront of improving humanity’s health on every continent. The Gates Foundation has also played a significant role in investigating the COVID19 virus, how it is transmitted, how it can be controlled/contained, and funding for basic vaccine R&D, as well as funding for a rapid manufacturing process while the vaccine candidates are still in clinical trials to the tune of billions of dollars already. Even more impressively, Bill Gates gave a TED Talk in 2015 where he predicted a coronavirus pandemic was coming, for which he said we weren’t prepared which immediately needed to change. He was right. When asked about that amazing prediction, Gates explained that he was aware of the global health conditions that would likely give rise to a cross species virus, and since the SARS epidemic originated in China’s wet markets and was in the coronavirus family, he figured there was a good chance the next mass infection could similarly originate from an Asian cross-species infection (which it did). Smart people often make good guesses because they have so much information at their disposal. It’s more like making a calculated judgment than the way you or I might throw out a similarly portentous “guess.” As
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Gates later explained, if you looked at all the data, it was an “obvious” conclusion for him. Right. And of the approximately 7 billion people on the planet at the time of his “guess,” He was one of the few who saw it all coming, predicted it would be a virus from the coronavirus family, and understood that we were critically unprepared for it. As I write this column there are more than 775,000 deaths globally and more than 22 million cases from COVID-19. Wow, that is one very smart, prescient guy!
Here’s something positive to think about: we actually can flatten the curve by simply wearing masks every time we leave our homes, observing proper social distancing, and practicing good personal hygiene
So… what did he mean when he said only America has this “testing insanity”? He was referring generally to the total absence of a national program to utilize testing as a key weapon in containing the virus. More specifically, he was saying it was “crazy” to pay billions of dollars (as we currently do) for test results that come back more than three days after being administered. He said those tests are practically worthless, so we should say to the labs, “We won’t pay if you can’t get us the results within three days.” To put a finer point on that, he said the residual value of such a test result is less than 20 percent and it drops off to zero quickly thereafter. What we’ve created, he observed, is precisely the exact wrong incentive for the testing labs since they had every reason to drag getting the test results back so they can optimize their respective work flows and profitability. He said we shouldn’t pay anything for any test returned in more than three days. That way, the private sector would be incentivized to get timely data back to the public because their economic interests would be aligned with the
Solutions from Scotland to Spain
T
he Orkney Islands are a small collection of about 70 rainy landmasses in northern Scotland. Although not well known, these tiny islands have silently been mastering the creation of green hydrogen power, an energy source with zero carbon emissions that, unfortunately, isn’t always eco-friendly to produce. Researchers quickly learned how to store and move hydrogen before eventually converting it back to usable electricity. This project, called Surf n Turf, turns the leftover renewable energy into hydrogen, which will power a local ship, a fleet of cars, and potentially the world’s first hydrogen-powered sea ferry in the near future. Using the natural advantages of their climate, the islands are able to meet 100 percent of their electricity needs using renewable sources and the move to hydrogen power allows them to expand these sources to meet the needs of even more widespread energy users like vehicles, boats, and other transportation systems. Creating eco-friendly hydrogen power is tricky, but the Orkney Islands are demonstrating that electrolysis can effectively be scaled up to meet growing energy demands.
Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor…
In November last year, Ángel Márquez and his family abandoned their home in Venezuela’s Barinas province and joined the more than four million Venezuelans that have left their homelands due to the economic and humanitarian crises that plague the country. In search of a new home, the Márquez family rooted themselves in the town of Pareja in Spain, which has a population of 400 people, as reported by The Guardian. So why Pareja? The answer is two-fold. Pareja is among many places in Spain which is seeing an exodus of young people in search of other opportunities elsewhere. This puts a heavy toll on the local economy and school enrollment and ages the town’s demographics. Responding to this demographic challenge, a small NGO called Towns with a Future Association is working to match depopulated areas with migrants in search of a new life, such as the Márquez family. The association is working with eight migrant families with children and about 35 individual migrants. While many of the migrants it helps are from Venezuela, it is also assisting people from Colombia, Peru, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Ukraine, Mali, and Nigeria. •MJ public’s health interests. If you don’t receive the results in a timely fashion, you are of limited value for contact tracing; contact tracing is really the second biggest point concerning testing. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, tells us we have to flatten the curve of infection to the point where contact tracing is meaningful (defined as getting below 5 percent infection rate on random testing). If you have thousands of new infections per day, and it takes a week to get test results back, it means you can’t effectively trace a meaningful percentage down. You’re requiring those contact tracers to track down many tens of thousands of contacts. It isn’t possible when the pandemic is raging at this level. Here’s something positive to think about: we actually can flatten the curve by simply wearing masks every time we leave our homes, observing proper social distancing, and practicing good personal hygiene. Frankly, that isn’t a lot to ask knowing that it has worked in every developed country in the world
“With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?” – Oscar Wilde
that tried it. Failing to wear masks has provoked rapid social contagion in every country foolish enough to try it – think Brazil and the good ole USA. Social distancing is similarly part of the effective way to flatten the curve, and it is rather shocking that young people particularly haven’t been willing to give up their “night out” in order to bring this virus under control. I hope people realize that we could be going back to a “new normal” in as little as eight weeks if we just flattened the curve. Is that a lot to ask to end this nightmare? Come on folks, you don’t have to be as smart as Bill Gates to know the answer to that question. And you don’t have to be as smart as Bill Gates to know that the way we execute and pay for testing in the absence of a thoughtful national policy is insane. Not using a smart testing regime to unlock our ability to do contact tracing is insane. Letting this pandemic drag on here while the rest of the world has already begun to reach the “new normal” is insane. Yes Bill, this is “insane.” Thanks for pointing it out. •MJ 20 – 27 August 2020
LETTERS (Continued from page 11)
my favorite places. Over these months of quarantine, I realize even more how important books are to our daily life. Books are an escape for most of us. They have the ability to transport us away or teach us something new. We have also realized the importance of social interaction. Getting to be wowed by a magic show or learning a new language, these are best done in groups. The Montecito Library provides all of those services for us and it needs your help. Our library relies on donations for 50 percent of its operating costs and needed help before the pandemic happened. As we begin to hopefully recover, please keep the library in mind and try to support it if you can, to help keep this wonderful place of community open. If you make a donation, please make it to Friends of the Montecito Library so it goes to our library. My favorite book this summer has been The Alchemist if you are looking for something new to read. Benjamin Watson 8th grade, SBJH
Republican vs. Democrat DNA
Just because one says it is doesn’t mean it actually is. A recent writer declares “The Democratic Party divided people by race... so please don’t ascribe that DNA to the Republican Party.” During the Civil War the Democrats were for slavery, the Republicans against. That ideology totally flipped decades ago for reasons too numerous to mention here. Take a look at the audiences at Trump rallies. Except for a well-placed group of minorities behind him, the audience is virtually white. It obviously scares many white males (and too many females) to think they could be a minority in this country. Look at almost any picture of Democratic rallies and the percentage of Black and Hispanic people in attendance is striking. Add to that many of these people are female and it’s clear why the fear factor runs rampant with a certain ethnic, gender and age group. I happen to be a member of that group but am not afraid of change. That change as defined by the radical right is not the reality of the situation, and try as they might, the exception to the rule is not the rule. Seemingly intelligent people have found amazingly narrow blinders to ignore the disgraceful actions of our president, who seems to thrive in a constant state of chaos and turmoil, weekly scandals, reckless decisions and about-faces, broken promises galore and petty, infantile Twitter fights. Oh yeah, and lots of patent lies. The whole world is laughing at us, the dollar has lost prestige and value and we seem to have forgotten our role in this world that our WWII veterans fought and sacrificed for. Gary Fletcher 20 – 27 August 2020
Do As I Say Democrats With respect to the letter by Danute Handy in the August 13 issue there may be a few points worth mentioning with respect to her comments. Her notion the Democrat party is not based on identity politics is debunked by her very question as to why Reagan started his campaign in Philadelphia, MS. Only a democrat would insinuate he a racist for speaking of a principle in his presidency of downsizing the federal government and leaning towards states and local rights in a southern state where he was trying to
best a southerner in President Carter. All why she grouped the GOP into an identity box of “old white men.” Democrats are the ones with 15 genders and gender and racial specifications on vice presidential running mates, not Republicans. Secondly, Republicans are politicians and at fault for deficits as well. They have grown government, just not as fast as the Democrats do and prefer. Lastly, the idea that Donald J. Trump gave tax cuts to the very rich is a deceiving talking point of Nancy Pelosi. The top rate under Barack Obama was 39.6 percent with significant deductions
like mortgage interest and state taxes. Trump lowered the rate to 37 percent and took away the big deductions generally creating a push in amount paid. The top 1 percent (1.4 million people) earns $480,000 per year or more and makes 20 percent of the income and pays 39 percent of the taxes. The top 10 percent (14 million people) earns $140,000 per year or more and pays 70 percent of tax revenues. The bottom 50 percent (70 million people) pays 3 percent of the revenues and most receive benefits (taxfoundation.org). Some
LETTERS Page 304
CITY OF SANTA BARBARA NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
Accessory Dwelling Unit Ordinance Amendments Planning Commission Thursday September 3, 2020, 1:00 p.m. The Planning Commission has continued the hearing from August 6, 2020 and will consider a recommendation to City Council on Title 30 Inland Zoning Ordinance and Title 28 Coastal Zoning Ordinance amendments to regulations for Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) and Junior Accessory Dwelling Units (JADUs) for compliance with state law. The proposed Zoning Ordinance amendments are in response to new state legislation effective January 1, 2020. The staff report and draft ordinance amendments from the August 6, 2020 hearing can be found online at SantaBarbaraCA.gov/ADU. The agenda for the September 3, 2020 hearing will be available on Thursday August 27, 2020 online at SantaBarbaraCA.gov/PC and posted at 630 Garden Street. Written comments are welcome by email at PCsecretary@SantaBarbaraCA.Gov. Please note that the Commission may not have time to review written comments received after 4:30 p.m. the Tuesday before the meeting; however, it will be added to the project file. For more information, please email Rosie Dyste, Project Planner, at RDyste@SantaBarbaraCA.gov. The Planning Commission will continue discussion on the proposed Zoning Ordinance amendments at this hearing. This hearing will be conducted electronically via the GoToWebinar platform, as described in more detail below. IN ORDER TO PROMOTE SOCIAL DISTANCING AND PRIORITIZE THE PUBLIC’S HEALTH AND WELL-BEING, THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA ISSUED EXECUTIVE ORDER N29-20, WHICH ALLOWS THE CITY TO HOLD MEETINGS VIA TELECONFERENCES OR OTHER ELECTRONIC MEETING FORMAT WHILE STILL MEETING THE STATE’S OPEN AND PUBLIC MEETING REQUIREMENTS. AS A PUBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY PRECAUTION, THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS WILL NOT BE OPEN TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. PLANNING COMMISSION MEMBERS MAY PARTICIPATE ELECTRONICALLY. THE CITY STRONGLY ENCOURAGES AND WELCOMES PUBLIC PARTICIPATION DURING THIS TIME. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IS AVAILABLE THROUGH THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS: TELEVISION COVERAGE: This meeting will be broadcast live on City TV-Channel 18 and online at www.SantaBarbaraCA.gov/citytv. ELECTRONIC PARTICIPATION: Join the meeting electronically by clicking on the meeting link which will be found on the meeting agenda. You will be connected to audio using your computer’s microphone and speakers (VoIP). A headset is recommended. You can also select the option to use your telephone, but you must use the GoToWebinar software to interact with the meeting. Select “Use Telephone” after joining the webinar and call in using the numbers listed on the agenda that will be posted online. Oral comments during a meeting may be made by electronic participation only. AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT: If you need auxiliary aids or services or staff assistance to attend or participate in this meeting, please contact the City Administrator's Office at (805) 564-5305. If possible, notification at least 48 hours prior to the meeting will usually enable the City to make reasonable arrangements. Specialized services, such as sign language interpretation or documents in Braille, may require additional lead time to arrange. INTERPRETACIÓN EN ESPAÑOL: Si necesita una interpretación del español al inglés, para sus comunicaciones al Consejo, comuníquese con la Oficina del Secretario Municipal al 564-5309, o por correo electrónico a Clerk@SantaBarbaraCA.gov. Si es posible, la notificación de al menos 48 horas generalmente permitirá a la Ciudad hacer los arreglos. • The Voice of the Village •
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REAL ESTATE (Continued from page 12) breakfast nook and the adjoining family/media room. Two additional bedroom suites and an art studio encompass the second story. Gated entry, central air conditioning, a motor court, three-bay garage and separate guesthouse and pool, round out the three-acre site, located in the Montecito Union School district.
811 CAMINO VIEJO ROAD – $7,495,000
lush botanicals, a private well, intimate terraces, tropical gardens, a pool and tennis court, all within the Montecito Union School district, make this an estate not to be missed and at less than $10 million, you can own this home for less than the previous owner paid approximately five years ago.
848 PICACHO LANE - $13,750,000
With a 6,000+/- square foot main home and a 1,000+ square foot guesthouse, Casa Bene was designed and created by Donald Sharpe AIA. Incredible ocean, city, and mountain views are yours from this commanding knoll top property on the border between Montecito and Santa Barbara making this a very convenient, close in location. A gated entry leads up the approximately 300-foot-long private drive ending at the vast motor court with the dramatic architecture as a backdrop. There is an open kitchen and family room, a formal dining room that flows to the double height living room with its walls of glass framing the views. All main rooms face the ocean view. A sweeping staircase leads to either the private owners wing or the lower level bedrooms. The owner retreat features a study with fireplace and bookcases that shares a view terrace with the primary bedroom. The lower wing features four bedrooms and the poolroom with disappearing wall of glass leading to the pool. A separate three-room, two-bath guest quarters with glass doors opens to coastline and mountain views. Down a garden path is a spa room and bath with ocean and mountain views. The well-landscaped 1.9+/- acre lot also features a tennis court.
956 MARIPOSA LANE - $9,950,000
Ocean views span the horizon of this gorgeous 2.5-acre estate in the foothills just above Lilac Drive. Moroccan influences and ultra-luxurious finishes create captivating interiors while stunning outdoor spaces foster an incredible lifestyle. Offering 7,500+/- square feet of living space plus 1,225 square feet of other structures, the lavish and livable floor plan includes an expansive, ocean view, main floor primary bedroom with dual baths and a media room. Upstairs, a secret office opens to a private patio. Public spaces open to the southern terrace, a perfect place to check the surf or watch the sunset. An impressive guesthouse is ideal for visitors. Central AC,
The elegant yet simple design, combined with ocean and mountain views and attention to architectural detail and craftsmanship are evident in this recently completed home. Mediterranean style, custom details and stone accents set the quality and tone throughout this home that rests near the top of Picacho Lane, in the Montecito Union School district. The voluminous entry expresses openness, providing a worthy introduction to the remainder of the home. Access from the main street or off a private lane allows for parking of many cars on site for gatherings or daily living. Elements of structure, finishes and classic features complement the intricate elements throughout this Jon Sorrell-designed home. The artful blend of hardscape and landscape elements merge to create a versatile compound on 2.19 acres of premier, Picacho Lane soil. Enjoy the more than 7,200 square feet of interior living space. Once outside, the outdoor living areas provide entertaining spaces, a pool and gardens. There is also a private well and central AC. For information on any of these listings or to have me arrange a showing with one of the listing agents, please contact me directly, Mark@Villagesite.com or call/text 805-698-2174. Please view my website, www.MontecitoBestBuys.com, from which this article is based. •MJ
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“Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit.” – Oscar Wilde
20 – 27 August 2020
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. Best-known for his illustrated epigrams, called “Pot-Shots”, now a series of 10,000. Email ashleigh@west.net or visit www.ashleighbrilliant.com
What If SUPPOSE All my life I’ll cherish So much I can’t forget – The things that didn’t happen, And the girls I never met.
I
wrote those lines a long time ago. But for most of us, the sentiment, no doubt, remains true, no matter where we are in life. The great question of how different things might be now, if only something other than reality had taken place then, constitutes the stuff that dreams are made of. There must be, in everybody’s life, events and decisions we look back on, wondering how differently everything might have turned out… the person we didn’t marry, the job we didn’t take. Robert Frost said it for all of us in his haunting piece about The Road Not Taken. In my case, the person I didn’t marry married somebody else, and
had a happy, successful, and fulfilling life. The college job I didn’t take might have frozen me permanently into academia, with who knows what magnificent or dreadful results. In Citizen Kane, one scene lingers in my mind because of what it says about memory. Mr. Bernstein, Kane’s long-time associate, reminisces about what Kane might have been remembering, when he uttered his last word, “Rosebud.” “A fellow will remember things you wouldn’t think he’d remember. You take me. One day, back in 1896, I was crossing over to Jersey on a ferry, and as we pulled out, another ferry was pulling in – and on it, there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she had on – and I only saw her for one second and she didn’t see me at all – but I’ll bet a month hasn’t gone by since, that I haven’t thought of that girl.” As it happens, I have a similar
romantic memory – although this happened when I was only ten years old. I was attending a summer camp for boys in Maryland, called Camp Airy. We had a “sister camp” nearby, called Camp Louise. Somehow, I was in a train carriage on which the only other person was one of the girls from Camp Louise, who, it happens, was also dressed in white. As with Mr. Bernstein, I don’t think she even noticed me, and I never saw her again – but I have never forgotten her. Fiction writers, especially science fiction, make great play with ideas about alternative realities. A favorite concept is time travel – especially the notion of going back in time and making changes which will cause the present to be different from the one we know. Of course, things like that happen all the time – but only in our dreams. Indeed, for all we know, that may be the purpose of dreams – to help us cope with what might otherwise be an intolerable reality. But the simple truth is that you are here, and this is now. To quote one of my more popular epigrams: “Nothing we can do can change the past – but everything we do changes the future.” The trouble is that too many are playing this game at the same time – and there are no rules. If you want to change the future, be sure you know
Innovating, Together
what you’re doing – but how can you? The future is unexplored territory (or, as they used to label it on the old maps, “terra incognita”). The past is spilt milk, which, as everyone knows, is no good crying over. All the milk in the future, however, is as yet unspilt. In fact, it hasn’t yet even been produced. Yet many of us do cry over the future, especially as, for us individually, and for those we love, it becomes shorter and bleaker, and more inevitable. On the other hand, what if we could make our own happy endings? I at least have the power to give this article one. So, here’s another poem I wrote, which may at least balance out the sad one I started with: I woke upon a day so fair, your name was written in the air – Spring must not come to find us still apart! I rushed along a busy street – a wayside flower bloomed at my feet – I knew that Spring had gained an early start. Breathless at your garden gate, I heard a bluebird sing – too late! My speed could not compete with Nature’s art. But oh, to feel your warm embrace, rejoiced me I had lost the race – For Spring was on your lips, and in your heart. •MJ
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• The Voice of the Village •
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Notice Inviting Bids El Camino De La Luz Bridge Trestle Repairs Project Bid No. 5742 1.
2.
Bid Submission. The City of Santa Barbara (“City”) will accept electronic bids for its El Camino De La Luz Bridge Trestle Repairs Project (“Project”), by or before September 23, 2020 at 3:00 PM, through its PlanetBids portal. Bidders must be registered on the City of Santa Barbara’s PlanetBids portal in order to submit a Bid proposal and to receive addendum notifications. Each bidder is responsible for making certain that its Bid Proposal is actually submitted/uploaded with sufficient time to be received by PlanetBids prior to the bid opening date and time. Large files may take more time to be submitted/uploaded to PlanetBids, so plan accordingly. The receiving time on the PlanetBids server will be the governing time for acceptability of bids. Telegraphic, telephonic, hardcopy, and facsimile bids will not be accepted.
ORDINANCE NO. 5955 AN ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA BARBARA ADOPTING THE AMENDED 2020-2022 MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE CITY
OF
SANTA
CHANGES FOR CONFIDENTIAL EMPLOYEES.
Bid results and awards will be available on PlanetBids.
11, 2020.
Project Information.
meeting of the Santa Barbara City Council held on August
The publication of this ordinance is made pursuant to the
Mandatory Bidders’ Conference. A bidders’ conference will be held on Wednesday, September 9, 2020 at 9:00 AM., at the following location: The westerly end of the bridge to acquaint all prospective bidders with the Contract Documents and the Worksite. The bidders’ conference is MANDATORY. A bidder who fails to attend a mandatory bidders’ conference will be disqualified from bidding. NOTE: Park in the La Mesa Parking lot and walk westerly to the bridge. Bidders are responsible for bringing and wearing a face mask and following social distancing guidelines while on site. License and Registration Requirements. 3.1 License. This Project requires a valid California contractor’s license for the following classification(s): Class A or Class B or C-29 or C-33 3.2 DIR Registration. City may not accept a Bid Proposal from or enter into the Contract with a bidder, without proof that the bidder is registered with the California Department of Industrial Relations (“DIR”) to perform public work pursuant to Labor Code § 1725.5, subject to limited legal exceptions.
6.
7.
SERVICE
(GENERAL UNIT) AND PROVIDING COMPENSATION
provisions of Section 512 of the Santa Barbara City Charter as amended, and the original ordinance in its entirety may be obtained at the City Clerk's Office, City Hall, Santa Barbara, California. (Seal)
2.3 Estimated Cost. The estimated construction cost is $60,000.
5.
THE
The above captioned ordinance was adopted at a regular
2.2 Time for Completion. The Project must be completed within 30 calendar days from the start date set forth in the Notice to Proceed. City anticipates that the Work will begin on or about October 5, 2020, but the anticipated start date is provided solely for convenience and is neither certain nor binding.
4.
AND
If any Addendum issued by the City is not acknowledged online by the Bidder, the PlanetBids System will prevent the Bidder from submitting a Bid Proposal. Bidders are responsible for obtaining all addenda from the City’s PlanetBids portal.
2.1 Location and Description. The Project is located at the east end of Camino de la Luz, just west of La Mesa Park and is described as follows: • Concrete spall removals and crack cleaning, apply primer and patch material, followed by placement of an overall sealant, followed by placing an anti-graffiti coating.
3.
BARBARA
EMPLOYEES’ INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL 620,
Contract Documents. The plans, specifications, bid forms and contract documents for the Project, and any addenda thereto (“Contract Documents”) may be downloaded from City’s website at: http://www.planetbids.com/portal/portal.cfm?CompanyID=29959 A printed copy of the Contract Documents may be obtained from CyberCopy Shop, located at 504 N. Milpas Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93103, at (805) 884-6155. Bid Security. The Bid Proposal must be accompanied by bid security of 10 percent of the maximum bid amount, in the form of a cashier’s or certified check made payable to City, or a bid bond executed by a surety licensed to do business in the State of California on the Bid Bond form included with the Contract Documents. The bid security must guarantee that within ten days after City issues the Notice of Award, the successful bidder will execute the Contract and submit the payment and performance bonds, insurance certificates and endorsements, and any other submittals required by the Contract Documents and as specified in the Notice of Award. Prevailing Wage Requirements. 6.1 General. Pursuant to California Labor Code § 1720 et seq., this Project is subject to the prevailing wage requirements applicable to the locality in which the Work is to be performed for each craft, classification or type of worker needed to perform the Work, including employer payments for health and welfare, pension, vacation, apprenticeship and similar purposes.
/s/ Sarah Gorman, CMC City Clerk Services Manager ORDINANCE NO. 5955 STATE OF CALIFORNIA
) ) COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA ) ss. ) CITY OF SANTA BARBARA ) I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing ordinance was introduced on August 4, 2020 and adopted by the Council of the City of Santa Barbara at a meeting held on August 11, 2020, by the following roll call vote: AYES:
Councilmembers Eric Friedman, Oscar Gutierrez, Meagan Harmon, Mike Jordan, Kristen W. Sneddon; Mayor Cathy Murillo
NOES:
None
ABSENT:
None
ABSTENTIONS:
None
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereto set my hand and affixed the official seal of the City of Santa Barbara on August 12, 2020.
6.2 Rates. These prevailing rates are on file with the City and are available online at http://www.dir.ca.gov/DLSR. Each Contractor and Subcontractor must pay no less than the specified rates to all workers employed to work on the Project. The schedule of per diem wages is based upon a working day of eight hours. The rate for holiday and overtime work must be at least time and one-half. 6.3 Compliance. The Contract will be subject to compliance monitoring and enforcement by the DIR, under Labor Code § 1771.4. 8.
Performance and Payment Bonds. The successful bidder will be required to provide performance and payment bonds, each for 100% of the Contract Price, as further specified in the Contract Documents.
9.
Substitution of Securities. Substitution of appropriate securities in lieu of retention amounts from progress payments is permitted under Public Contract Code § 22300.
10.
Subcontractor List. Each Subcontractor must be registered with the DIR to perform work on public projects. Each bidder must submit a completed Subcontractor List form with its Bid Proposal, including the name, location of the place of business, California contractor license number, DIR registration number, and percentage of the Work to be performed (based on the base bid price) for each Subcontractor that will perform Work or service or fabricate or install Work for the prime contractor in excess of one-half of 1% of the bid price, using the Subcontractor List form included with the Contract Documents.
11.
Instructions to Bidders. All bidders should carefully review the Instructions to Bidders for more detailed information before submitting a Bid Proposal. The definitions provided in Article 1 of the General Conditions apply to all of the Contract Documents, as defined therein, including this Notice Inviting Bids.
By: ___________________________________ Bill Hornung, CPM General Services Manager Publication Dates: 1) August 19, 2020
Date: ________________
2) August 26, 2020 END OF NOTICE INVITING BIDS
26 MONTECITO JOURNAL
“If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.” – Oscar Wilde
/s/ Sarah P. Gorman, CMC City Clerk Services Manager I HEREBY APPROVE the foregoing ordinance on August 12, 2020.
/s/ Cathy Murillo Mayor Published August 19, 2020 Montecito Journal
F I C T I T I O U S B U S I N E S S NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: All Systems Up and Running, 927 N Alisos St, Santa Barbara, CA 93103. Rachel R Gately, 927 N Alisos St, Santa Barbara, CA 93103. This statement was filed with
the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on August 12, 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. 2020-0002030. 20 – 27 August 2020
ORDINANCE NO. 5956
ORDINANCE NO. 5957
AN ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
AN ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
AN ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
SANTA BARBARA ADOPTING THE AMENDED 2019-2021
SANTA BARBARA ADOPTING THE AMENDED 2018-2020
SANTA BARBARA ADOPTING THE AMENDED 2019-2022
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE
CITY
CITY OF SANTA BARBARA AND THE SANTA BARBARA
CITY OF SANTA BARBARA AND THE SANTA BARBARA
FIRE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION
POLICE OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION
The above captioned ordinance was adopted at a regular
The above captioned ordinance was adopted at a regular
OF
SANTA
BARBARA
AND
THE
SERVICE
EMPLOYEES’ INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL 620, AIRPORT AND HARBOR PATROL OFFICERS' AND TREATMENT PLANTS' BARGAINING UNITS (TAP UNITS) The above captioned ordinance was adopted at a regular meeting of the Santa Barbara City Council held on August 11, 2020. The publication of this ordinance is made pursuant to the provisions of Section 512 of the Santa Barbara City Charter as amended, and the original ordinance in its entirety may be obtained at the City Clerk's Office, City Hall, Santa Barbara,
meeting of the Santa Barbara City Council held on August
meeting of the Santa Barbara City Council held on August
11, 2020.
11, 2020.
The publication of this ordinance is made pursuant to the
The publication of this ordinance is made pursuant to the
provisions of Section 512 of the Santa Barbara City Charter
provisions of Section 512 of the Santa Barbara City Charter
as amended, and the original ordinance in its entirety may be
as amended, and the original ordinance in its entirety may
obtained at the City Clerk's Office, City Hall, Santa Barbara,
be obtained at the City Clerk's Office, City Hall, Santa
California.
Barbara, California.
California. (Seal) /s/ Sarah Gorman, CMC City Clerk Services Manager
(Seal)
(Seal)
/s/ Sarah Gorman, CMC City Clerk Services Manager
/s/ Sarah Gorman, CMC City Clerk Services Manager
STATE OF CALIFORNIA
) ) COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA ) ss. ) CITY OF SANTA BARBARA ) I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing ordinance was introduced on August 4, 2020 and adopted by the Council of the City of Santa Barbara at a meeting held on August 11, 2020, by the following roll call vote: AYES:
Councilmembers Eric Friedman, Oscar Gutierrez, Meagan Harmon, Mike Jordan, Kristen W. Sneddon; Mayor Cathy Murillo
NOES:
None
ABSENT:
None
ABSTENTIONS:
None
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereto set my hand and affixed the official seal of the City of Santa Barbara on August 12, 2020.
/s/ Sarah P. Gorman, CMC City Clerk Services Manager I HEREBY APPROVE the foregoing ordinance
ORDINANCE NO. 5958
ORDINANCE NO. 5957
ORDINANCE NO. 5956 STATE OF CALIFORNIA
ORDINANCE NO. 5958
) ) COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA ) ss. ) CITY OF SANTA BARBARA )
STATE OF CALIFORNIA
) ) COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA ) ss. ) CITY OF SANTA BARBARA )
I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing
I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing
ordinance was introduced on August 4, 2020 and adopted by
ordinance was introduced on August 4, 2020 and adopted by
the Council of the City of Santa Barbara at a meeting held on
the Council of the City of Santa Barbara at a meeting held on
August 11, 2020, by the following roll call vote:
August 11, 2020, by the following roll call vote:
AYES:
Councilmembers Eric Friedman, Oscar Gutierrez, Meagan Harmon, Mike Jordan, Kristen W. Sneddon; Mayor Cathy Murillo
AYES:
Councilmembers Eric Friedman, Oscar Gutierrez, Meagan Harmon, Mike Jordan, Kristen W. Sneddon; Mayor Cathy Murillo
NOES:
None
NOES:
None
ABSENT:
None
ABSENT:
None
ABSTENTIONS:
None
ABSTENTIONS:
None
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereto set my
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereto set my
hand and affixed the official seal of the City of Santa Barbara
hand and affixed the official seal of the City of Santa Barbara
on August 12, 2020.
on August 12, 2020. /s/ Sarah P. Gorman, CMC City Clerk Services Manager
/s/ Sarah P. Gorman, CMC City Clerk Services Manager I HEREBY APPROVE the foregoing ordinance
I HEREBY APPROVE the foregoing ordinance on August 12, 2020.
on August 12, 2020.
on August 12, 2020. /s/ Cathy Murillo Mayor
F I C T I T I O U S B U S I N E S S NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Folio Press and Paperie, 301 Motor Way, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. Marlene 20 – 27 August 2020
M Bucy, 215 La Jolla Drive, Santa Barbara, CA 93109. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on July 22, 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 origi-
nal statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2020-0001807. Published August 19, 26, September 2, 9, 2020. F I C T I T I O U S B U S I N E S S NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business
/s/ Cathy Murillo Mayor Published August 19, 2020 Montecito Journal
Published August 19, 2020 Montecito Journal
Published August 19, 2020 Montecito Journal
Published August 19, 26, September 2, 9, 2020.
/s/ Cathy Murillo Mayor
as: Amador Consulting & Coaching, 1332 Santa Barbara Street, CA 93101. Santa Barbara Matchmaking, LLC, 1332 Santa Barbara Street, CA 93101. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on August 13, 2020. This statement expires
• The Voice of the Village •
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. 2020-0002045. Published August 19, 26, September 2, 9, 2020.
F I C T I T I O U S B U S I N E S S NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Deep Blue Bikini Co, 5695 Ekwill Street #101, Goleta, CA 93117. Cassidy Drury-Pullen, 132 Las Ondas, Santa Barbara, CA 93109. This statement was filed with
MONTECITO JOURNAL
27
Summerland Buzz
by Leslie A. Westbrook
A third-generation Californian, Leslie, currently resides in Carpinteria but called Summerland home for 30 years. The award-winning writer assists clients sell fine art, antiques and collectibles at auction houses around the globe. She can be reached at LeslieAWestbrook@gmail.com or www.auctionliaison.com
Natalia Alarcon: Bringing Diversity to the Table
N
atalia Alarcon, 34, is not the first woman, nor is she the first Hispanic, to run for a seat at the Carpinteria City Council dais. But she is the first Latina woman – and the youngest – to run, at least in recent history. Two seats are open in the race – a new mayor will also be selected, by the Council members. Jason Lesh, Brittany Jordan, and Marc Denitz began the process of candidacy, but didn’t go through with the nomination process. Incumbent Mayor Wade Nomura will be running for the second seat, giving Alarcon a clear shot for one of the two representative spots. Alarcon, who is bilingual in Spanish and English, works full time as the program manager for the nonprofit Community Action Commission. “I’ve been afforded the opportunity in the
nonprofit sector to work with families that need their basic needs met: food, clothing, and shelter,” Alarcon said. “I’ve worked at Family Service Agency and now CAC – developing programs to help the community. The last thing that we want is for anyone to be evicted and be on the streets – we need to do whatever we can to make sure everyone has a roof over their head, so that they and their children can thrive.” Alarcon, also a licensed marriage and family therapist, recognizes the importance of mental health as well. A married mother of three, she is the youngest of five children. The Alarcon name is familiar in Carp. She has three sisters and one brother; her oldest sister Marisol, an immigration attorney, and another sister, Caroline, a notary, both work in Carpinteria. Natalia’s husband, Eric Vega, an electrician, was also raised in Carpinteria. The couple has three young children: son Elias, 8, and daughters Aileen, 3, and Vianna, 2. Born in Alaska, Natalia is a first-generation American citizen (her parents are originally from Chile) who arrived in Carpinteria with her family at age 8. The family ended up in Carpinteria because Marisol (who is 15 years older) had attended Westmont College and she and Caroline were living in Santa Barbara. The family wanted to be closer to both of them. “Our first few months in Carpinteria we were homeless,” Natalia recalls. “Luckily, my parents decided Carpinteria was going to be home and they were able to get jobs and earn enough money to rent a small apartment near the beach.” Alarcon attended Canalino Elementary School, Main School,
Natalia Alarcon is the first Latina woman – and the youngest – to run for a seat on Carpinteria City Council in recent memory
Natalia’s husband, Eric Vega, an electrician, was raised in Carpinteria. The couple has three children: son Elias, 8, and daughters Aileen, 3, and Vianna, 2.
Carpinteria Middle School and Carp High. Her college studies took her to Cal State University Northridge, SBCC, and then to UCSB – graduating in 2008 with a bachelor’s in history. She also became very involved in the fundraising program “Parents for Aliso” at Aliso School and actively recruited other parents to participate. She set up a 501c3 nonprofit for fundraising and helped grow the organization with activities for students and more at the school with a large percentage of Latino students. Carpinteria schools average about 80 percent Latino students. “Since I was really young, I’ve always been passionate about helping people and volunteering,” Natalia told me over her first Zoom interview with the press. “That’s always been a big part of who I am as a person.” I joked that her background and joy in volunteering suited her desire to be a City Council representative, as the position only pays $300 a month. “I started thinking about running for City Council about a year ago,”
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28 MONTECITO JOURNAL
“It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.” – Oscar Wilde
Alarcon said. “I started attending the meetings and noticed there was really a lack of diversity and inclusion on the dais. I really felt like there needs to be more perspective. It’s beyond the age, ethnicity, and race – although I may fit in those gaps for that diversity – I really feel like I am a qualified woman and I am involved. It’s something that I am passionate about.” Alarcon has the support of Carpinteria City Council member and former mayor Fred Shaw, who is retiring from the Council, and his wife Lisa Gurvitz, a director on the Carpinteria-Summerland Fire District Board and a Santa Barbara Women’s Political Committee board member. “She’ll make a great Council member,” Shaw wrote to me. While Alarcon hopes to be a spokesperson for the Latino community (Carp is more than 40 percent Hispanic) and fill that gap, she also is trying to encourage others to speak up and get on the soap box at City Council meetings. “I really want to amplify all of the voices of our community and I don’t feel like that has been happening,” she said. “We have a very vibrant Latino community and I would love to be that vessel.” She added, citing her main motivation, “I don’t know that everyone knows how to approach City Council or how to address their issues, so when it comes to our Latino population I really want to educate them on how they can bring up their needs and how the city can strengthen that.” She even discovered that she shared common ground with her political 20 – 27 August 2020
opponents, including Jason Lesh, a local businessman also with young children, before he dropped out of the running. “Carp is so unique, it’s local and it has its small-town charm but were getting to a place where there are a lot of young families like mine finding that it’s quite difficult to survive,” she said. “We need to afford those opportunities for those young families to stay here and build businesses here. I want to see Carpinteria thrive in that way.” Here are more thoughts from my conversations with the first-time candidate. Q. How do you feel about the cannabis issue as it relates to Carpinteria? A. Cannabis is a huge issue in Carpinteria. Even though it’s a county issue, a lot of residents have voiced their opinions and unfortunately I don’t think that the county has taken a lot of our residents’ concerns into account. It’s a shame, because Carpinteria is kind of between a rock and a hard place. I do think there are a lot of valid concerns that the community has and my goal would be to strengthen that partnership with our Board of Supervisors and develop a way our concerns are being heard so that they are being exposed to the concerns – for instance, the smells. These concerns are real. We have the growers very close to our high school and a lot of residences in the town. At the same time, we need to figure out a way to work with them – because they are here – they are not going to go back. We need to devise a plan that really works for everyone. But I do think our concerns need to be heard. We need to have a louder stake at the table.
piece, that’s very connected to that, is our economic vitality. I really want to support our small businesses and see us thrive. Another piece is our affordable housing and workforce housing, I’d love to see more of that as well. I think those are my three big main ideas. But I think overall, on a broader scope, my intention is to get our younger families and our younger residents of Carpinteria out there to vote, because that is really the first step. My intention is to provide a lot of education on the importance of voting and teach people how to register to vote. We need to exercise those civic duties that our residents have.
I want to really make sure that I am hearing the voices of our residents and I really want to be accessible. I want to develop opportunities where I can meet our residents – unfortunately not face to face (due to COVID). I want the community to know that I am here and that I care and that I want to make some changes. How do you campaign and communicate during COVID and be accessible to voters? A large part on social media – Facebook, Instagram, and a webpage are in the works. This has not been typically used by our current Council members. I’ll also be leveraging my
relationships with other residents in the community because if they feel safe and they know their neighbors and they are willing to have me walk with them, that would be amazing. I also plan on doing outreach to all our local businesses, as well as through the media. I really want to amplify the voices of all of our community, but the other thing I want to change up is I think our City Council can do a better job of being more transparent with the community and seeking community input via forums. I’d like to see more community involvement when it comes to making decisions and I want to be a part of that effort. •MJ
RELIABLE. RESPONSIVE. TRUSTED.
What about Carp Growers donations to schools? That’s a tough one. I have struggled to answer this question as a parent and a politician. The growers are giving back and that’s great because our schools and our community needs it. It’s a challenging place to say if it’s good or not – it’s providing some support for our children. I do feel like there needs to be more regulations. Why did you choose to run for Carpinteria City Council instead of the School Board, which is where many begin their political journey? My work professionally had been on a broader scope and I thought that I could make more of a difference on our City Council than the school board. How will you shake things up? What are some specifics of your platform? First and foremost is the health and safety of all our residents given the pandemic we’re living in. The other 20 – 27 August 2020
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• The Voice of the Village •
MONTECITO JOURNAL
29
LETTERS (Continued from page 23)
complain about partners in Wall Street investment funds who pay a capital gains rate on their share of gains in their funds and this is where we hear of unfair tax rates. Capital gains are taxed at a lower rate (23.8 percent) as to encourage investment, which is the force that creates economy as opposed to government creating it. Warren Buffett is an example of a wealthy person taxed at the lower rate due to income generated by capital gains, not labor. He travelled with Obama complaining he should pay a higher rate, yet never did and astonishingly leaves his $80 billion estate in a foundation to protect it from the government estate tax confiscation because, as he said, his daughter is a better steward of that money than government. Less is more when it comes to taxes as revenue is always more due to increased economic activity. Obama said multiple times taxes should be punitive. Another of his points that may hit home is he said at some point you have enough house, then hypocritically went out and bought a $13.5 million house on Martha’s Vineyard. He is a perfect example for do as I say, not as I do as I am the social engineer, ironically in what is a free market society. Mike Hornbuckle
Trump Likes Women?
It has been a pleasure to read this new iteration of what was a one-sided pro-wealth and pro-Republican Montecito Journal. It is refreshing to not be subjected to photos of the same 15 faces and the jolly events they spent their time at. This new MJ has a wider relevant point of view, and I thank you for that. Mr. Buckley’s letter (MJ #26/32) laments his being a pin cushion. Would he prefer, I wonder, our using
a more robust weapon for his pin cushion mentality? I want to address his claim that Trump is not a misogynist because, Mr. Buckley says, Trump “dated a number of beautiful women”; and that is proof that Trump “likes” women? Only a shallow one-dimensional male would conclude that Trump’s propensity for prostitutes/call girls, his childish name-calling of women, and his clear disdain for strong intelligent women this as evidence he “likes” women. Trump is a shallow man. Men who like women don’t announce on television how available those women’s private parts are to him, nor do they bribe them with thousands of dollars to not reveal his consorts with them. Does Mr. Buckley, I wonder, think Jeffrey Epstein “liked” his 15-yearold victims? He must have. Just look how often – three times a day, I read – Epstein used their bodies. Epstein probably liked women three times as much as Trump! News Alert: Men who use women’s bodies for pleasuring themselves don’t like women; they are indeed and instead exactly what Mr. Buckley said a misogynist is: “a person who dislikes, despises, or is strongly prejudiced against women.” Do we really need that definition to know, with each of our senses, how much Trump dislikes women? I hope Mr. Buckley is still laughing at the truism made about the present silent Republican Party during this reign of Trump being – yes – racist. Silence should not be an option for these mostly old frightened white men who make up today’s Republican Party, who cannot bear to part with whatever money or glory they are privy to since being elected. Don’t sully Abraham Lincoln’s name nor the war against slavery to imply today’s Republican Party in any way equates to that other one. You want to use the Civil War to prove Trump is not a racist? A typical cheap shot. Shame on you! Some evidence of Trump’s racism – as though we need any – exists in the gender and color of the people he has chosen to surround himself. How many are not white and male? Of his 24 cabinet members, two non-white men, four women. Not since Reagan
have there been so many white sycophants at his behest. Then there are the judges, his many lawyers, and his ever changing press personnel – mostly white men. Do you get the picture, Mr. Buckley? Nancy Freeman
Keep ‘em Coming
Who is Bill Hicks? I discovered all his quotes on every other page and they are quite fun! I like that you embed little things like that in the paper. Lastly, please tell Rinaldo S. Brutoco that my wife and I like his opinion pieces. He addresses so many of our social ills that are perpetuated through our neoconservative and libertarian society. Robert Bernstein addressed one aspect of our broken system in the latest issue – “Property vs Humanity?” – another example of this is Citizens United v. FEC (https://www.brennancenter. org/our-work/research-reports/citizens-united-explained) which elevated wealthy people and corporations as people under the law (https://www. npr.org/2014/07/28/335288388/ when-did-companies-become-people-excavating-the-legal-evolution). Thank you for your paper, we look forward to it each week. Regards, Eberhard Brunner (Publisher’s Note: Bill Hicks (December 16, 1961 – February 26, 1994) was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, and musician ~ TLB)
Back to School
Santa Barbara County schools plan to continue remote learning for the fall 2020 semester. Santa Barbara Community College also plans online educational programs but is considering some campus-based laboratory and activity classes for programs that cannot be delivered fully online, or disciplines in which courses can be provided using recommended safety protocols to lower risk and reduce COVID-19 transmission. I strongly endorse campus-based activity classes in the PE-Health-athletics program and performing arts departments at SBCC. On August 7, California released COVID-19 Industry Guidance:
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30 MONTECITO JOURNAL
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Heterogeneity of Student Learning and Needs Although equipment to facilitate remote learning was provided to some students, there remains a size-
LETTERS Page 394
LICENSE #645496
“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” – Oscar Wilde
Institutions of Higher Education. These State guidelines contain standards and protocols to which higher education institutions must conform in order to deliver campus-based courses. I reviewed the comprehensive plan for “Return to Face-to-Face Physical Activity Classes Outdoor Activities” developed by SBCC’s physical education/health/athletics departments. SBCC’s plan is well-conceived, thorough, and responsive to state and federal guidelines issued for public education. The SBCC comprehensive plan accounts for general guidelines for being on campus, as well as specific protocols for students in activity classes and various facilities comprising the health and fitness programs. As a research psychologist, educator, and licensed therapist in California, I’m concerned about potential problems children, youths, and adults may experience by extended closure of faceto-face instruction and its replacement by remote learning in which extended screen time is the principal activity for long periods of time. Should online learning drift into the spring 2021 semester or beyond, this dubious educational experiment risks a generation of students with arrested learning, physical and mental impairments that may be longstanding. Remote education should be adopted cautiously only as a last option given multiple other considerations. Activity classes (physical education, sports, etc.) and performance-based programs (e.g., theater arts and music) have many physical and psychological health benefits for students amply documented by well-designed research. In a lengthy letter to the SBCC Superintendent/President and Board of Trustees, County Board of Supervisors and Public Health Director, and legislators at the state and federal levels, I outlined areas where there exists clear empirical support showing positive benefits of physical activity and performance-based programs and health risks from lack thereof. These broad areas include: • Obesity, diabetes and mortality risk • Anxiety, depression, mental health and mortality • Abuse and neglect, identification and prevention • Meals and nutrition provided by schools • Supportive research on school reopening and cautions about remote learning • Online instruction compromises student achievement
20 – 27 August 2020
Far Flung Travel
Digging In
T
he nameless dirt road turned out to be a nighttime buffet for a squadron of opportunistic burrowing owls. It was all about the crickets and grasshoppers, a menagerie of entomology living in the tall grasses and the cunning eight-inchtall owls gobbling down as many as they could before taking a break. As I inched forward in my truck, my headlights enhanced the feeding frenzy. There were eight burrowing owls in all taking advantage of the beams of light along the edge of the dirt track. When the owls took a break, I took advantage with my camera and a dusty, lit-up road. Slinking out of my truck, I laid down in the dirt, the burrowing owls posing for me in between the bug fest.
Entrenched
Recently scouting wildlife for a film crew, I was employed to seek out feathered and four-legged critters alike. Burrowing owls were at or near the top of their want list. Fortunately, I came through. During the winter of 2019/20, I received a hot tip from a reliable birder about an active burrowing owl den out on the Carrizo Plain National Monument. When speaking of the last of California’s grasslands, 50 miles east of San Luis Obispo, it’s not as simple as turning down Brown Road and looking under the locked iron gate at the end of the line. It was more like connecting from one dirt road to the next and then following a well trampled game trail that lead to a bushel of green ephedra where the den might be. Wildlife is on no timeline except its own, so my first attempt last winter revealed nothing in the way of bur20 – 27 August 2020
by Chuck Graham
rowing owls, but there were a few clues. There were some dirt mounds that were dens along a rolling hillside, but they could have belonged to any number of different species of wildlife. I sat and waited for several hours, but I struck out on that cool winter day. I came back in the spring poised for another run of wildlife with burrowing owls on the brain. I drove to the same spot and didn’t need to leave the truck. The male was roosting outside the den and let me know about it. With a series of defensive cooing calls, he let it be known that this was his turf, and that I had zero chance of approaching the den for photos. I had a plan. The next morning, I was on it, sneaking near the den site at 3 am. As soon as I crested the ridgeline of the rolling hillside just east of the den, the male burrowing owl let me have it with a barrage of coos. I sat in the bushes for over an hour hoping he would settle down, but he was relentless, and I had no chance of getting any images. However, the film crew scored, getting some incredible footage of behavior between the parents and their little owlets, camera traps capturing the cute, the responsible and the many anthropomorphic moments that burrowing owls can convey.
After all, the Salton Sea possesses about 70 percent of California’s entire burrowing owl population. I saw and photographed many other birds: American white pelicans, American avocets, sacred ibis, geese, swallows and so on, but no burrowing owls. On a non-kayaking trip, I traded in my paddle for some trail shoes and spent some time at the Sonny Bono National Wildlife Refuge (NWF), located in the southeast corner of the Salton Sea. Still, no burrowing owls, so I walked into the visitor center where I was hesitant to ask the person at the front desk where all the owls were.
“I know this might be a dumb question,” I asked sheepishly, “but where are all the burrowing owls?” She immediately slapped a map of the NWF on the counter. “Not a dumb question at all,” she said kindly. She marked several places to look on the map, and I was off on the “burrowing owl highway” in the southeast corner of this manmade, inland sea. I wasn’t five minutes into my drive when I spotted one above a ditch. Before I knew it, I had seen nine owls, most of which were outside their dens, the Salton Sea finally proving to me to be a Mecca for these longlegged owls. •MJ
Hold the Salt
I always knew the Salton Sea, located in the Golden State’s southeast corner, was one of the best birding hotspots in North America. So, initially I thought I would see some burrowing owls during five kayaking trips (and counting) around some of the 110 miles of shoreline of California’s largest lake.
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• The Voice of the Village •
MONTECITO JOURNAL
31
Your Westmont by Scott Craig (photography by Brad Elliott) Scott Craig is manager of media relations at Westmont College
Classes to Begin Remotely
W
estmont is working relentlessly to begin the fall semester in person with flexibility and safety concerns for students and faculty as a priority while observing all Santa Barbara County health and COVID-19 guidelines. A plan to repopulate its campus is on hold until further progress is made in slowing the spread of the coronavirus in Santa Barbara County. As it waits for the 14-day decline in reported COVID-19 cases, Westmont will begin the fall semester remotely on August 31 with plans to repopulate the campus on September 28 with state and county approval. Westmont faculty and staff worked tirelessly over the summer crafting a 150-page planning document that meets or exceeds all of the higher education reopening guidelines presented by the governor’s office on August 7. Santa Barbara County remains on the state’s monitoring list because it has had more than 100 new cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents over the past 14 days. While Westmont is the right size – 1,300 students – to shift and pivot its plans and scenarios to respond to the changing health requirements, other options including outdoor learning and class sizes smaller than 10 students are also great possibilities because of its Montecito location. Westmont was even featured on ABC’s Good Morning America, which looked at the college’s fall plans, including the installation of Plexiglas throughout the Dining Commons.
Graduating Seniors Art Exhibition Goes Online
Twelve Westmont art graduates, unable to exhibit their artwork at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum on campus in May due to COVID-19, are displaying their senior projects virtually. “Adjacent: Westmont Graduate Exhibition 2020” is available in person at the museum only to the artists and their families by prior appointment. The exhibition, including a virtual tour, is available to the general public online at westmont.edu/museum/adjacent. The exhibition, sponsored by Ken and Francie Jewesson, celebrates the artwork of Alyssa Beccue, Julianna Carl, Amanda Colacchia, Audrey De Haan, Jessica Galvan, Olivia Kinkelaar, Jordan Marshall, Emily Mata, Noah The cover of the spring edition of Westmont Terrill, Cara-Celeste Vannortwick, magazine features the artwork of graduate Alyssa Beccue Emma Wade, and Ashley Walker. “This group tends to veer away from the conventional in terms of media and message,” says Meagan Stirling, assistant professor of art. “They are investigating themes of identity and purpose, relationships, and the purely formal
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32 MONTECITO JOURNAL
qualities of art.” This year’s diverse media include oil painting, printmaking, sculpture, installation, mixed media collage, and video. Beccue, who designed the poster image for the exhibition, and whose artwork was selected for the cover of the spring issue of Westmont magazine “Interrupted” dedicated to the Class of 2020, says the graduates chose “Adjacent” as the theme because it encompassed the sense of ideas and values being presented in conversation with each other. It also spoke to their Jordan Marshall’s Blooming: Portrait of my experience as a senior class creating Grandmother these works of art. “We realized a lot of themes centered around some sort of juxtaposition,” she says. “Many of our projects grappled with the feelings of rejection or separation from a group or idea, while others sought to unite and meld concepts into a bigger story. Some more adeptly harmonized with the visual character of ‘Adjacent,’ showing subject matter that held more significance in togetherness than in solitude.”
Willis Pens New Book, All in a Garden Green Music brings people together across borders, religions, and even time. Paul Willis, professor of English at Westmont, explores this idea in his newly published young-adult novel, All in a Garden Green (Slant Books, 2020). His experience teaching at Hengrave Hall in England (the home of the Westmont-in-England semester for Ashley Walker’s Azusa, CA 20 years) inspired him to depart from his usual nature writing and pen a story set in the old English manor house. In the novel, 13-year-old Erica Pickins walks through a door on a family visit to Hengrave Hall and finds herself mistaken for the elder daughter of the house – in the year 1578! The household expects Queen Elizabeth I for a special visit, and the musically talented Erica becomes a key part of desperate attempts by the Catholic family to entertain the Protestant queen. “I want anyone who reads this book to have an adventure,” Paul says. “I can’t predict where that adventure will take them in their imagination. That said, I admit that insofar as the story dips into the deep sense of conflict between Catholics and Protestants in sixteenth century England, I want to educate young readers about what that might have been like – and to warn them away from taking part in that kind of conflict as they get older. In the end of the story, the power of music becomes an almost magical way in which this conflict (at least for the moment) is resolved. I suppose I want to provide some hope that our differences, however intractable, can be transcended.” Gary Schmidt, a Newbery Honor recipient and National Book Award Finalist, says, “Fling together a girl about to leave childhood behind, an ancient house filled with chapels and towers and chambers and hidden staircases, lutes and virginals, Queen Elizabeth I, a wise and knowing mentor, and two huge St. Bernards – and then mix them with the slipperiness of time, and you have this rollicking novel that speeds its way to its nick-of-time ending. This is a playful book, spanning four centuries of a changing language, and undergirded by the lovely certainty that what lies ahead will always be better.” Paul has written numerous books, including fiction, essay collections, and poetry collections. He won the 2018 Indies Bronze for Essays and was an Indies Finalist for Autobiography and Memoir by Foreword Reviews for his collection of essays To Build a Trail: Essays on Curiosity, Love and Wonder (WordFarm, 2018). His other books include Say This Prayer into the Past (Cascade Books, 2013), The Alpine Tales (WordFarm, 2010), and numerous books of poetry. He graduated from Wheaton College, earned a doctorate in English at Washington State University, and has taught at Westmont since 1988. For a copy of Westmont magazine, contact westmontmagazine@westmont. edu. •MJ
“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.” – Oscar Wilde
20 – 27 August 2020
SEEN (Continued from page 18)
Shepard Baham, Nina Johnson, Terre and Gary Lapman, Maria Long, Debbie Neer, Tara Zanecki, and Mandana Mir. TBCF will not be hosting their annual luncheon at the Four Seasons this year which typically raises a third of their operating expenses so the success of this campaign is critical in order to continue supporting all the families who need their services. For more information, call Kirsten Stuart at 805-962-7466.
Let’s Dance
The Santa Barbara Historical Museum is one of the cultural gems of our city with a collection of more than 80,000 irreplaceable objects and artifacts relating to Santa Barbara’s extraordinary past. For local history it’s a must. The museum complex was constructed in 1965 by the Santa Barbara Historical Society (now called Museum), which was founded in 1932. Santa Barbara’s rich past is represented with artifacts from Chumash, Spanish, Mexican, “Yankee,” and Chinese cultures. The library contains documents
The 2020 Old Spanish Days poster at the SBHM Harwood
including 50,000 historic photographs. There are also two early 19th century buildings: the 1817 Casa Covarrubias and the 1836 Historic Adobe adjacent to the museum. Because of the pandemic, Fiesta had to change as well. The museum is promoting “Project Fiesta! Building a History of Old Spanish Days.” It is free to the public, outdoors in the courtyard, and features art, film, vintage posters and historical photographs highlighting those celebrations
Flower girls with SBHM acting director Dacia Harwood
begun in 1924. Acting executive director Dacia Harwood explained, “There is a postcard section from the John C. Fritsche Postcard Collection housed in the Museum’s Gledhill Library. The collection numbers some seven thousand three hundred cards, the most extensive collection of old Santa Barbara ever assembled,” and never before seen. Fiesta El Presidente Erik Davis reminded us, “The rhythm of life in Santa Barbara is measured from one Fiesta to another: Families gather together, making memories, forming traditions, having the pride we all feel in our community. This year many signature events will be online or on television.” Erik’s theme was “Let’s Dance!” The Museum had blown up giant posters from years past and hung them all around the courtyard, many of them dancing fiesteros. The Spirit of Fiesta Alena Velasco and Jr. Spirit Alexandra Nocker
El Presidente Erik Davis with La Primera Lady Angelique Davis and the Junior and Senior Spirits Alexandra Nocker and Alena Velasco
each did a dance after receiving their Fiesta necklaces. This year’s Saint Barbara, Teresa Kuskey Nowak (the city’s patron saint), was there dressed in her white attire with red cape and golden crown. Each year Reina del Mar Parlor No. 126, Native Daughters of the Golden West selects one of its members for this honor. The tradition began in 1926. Teresa claimed her civic pride is because her father was so active. “I grew up watching a man who continually gave to his community, often anonymously,” she said. Old Spanish Days 2020 executive committee is: El Presidente Erik Davis, La Prima Vice Presidenta Stephanie Petlow, El Segundo Vice Presidente Alex Castellanos, El Secretario David Bolton, and La Tesorera Maria Cabrera. The Museum is located at 136 De la Guerra Street and you can still catch the exhibit through August 22. Call 805-966-1601 for hours. Viva la Fiesta! •MJ
Saint Barbara Teresa Kuskey Nowak at the Old Spanish Days Fiesta show opening
The front of the SBHM with their Fiesta theme façade
20 – 27 August 2020
• The Voice of the Village •
MONTECITO JOURNAL
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NOSH TOWN VIVA OLIVA:
The shop offers a star-studded lineup of 40 extra virgin olive oils that vary from single variety and specialty oils to infused and fused
by Claudia Schou
KEEPING YOUR PANDEMIC PANTRY UP TO DATE
Amanda and Sven Dybdahl have relocated Viva Oliva to a bright and airy storefront on State Street.
H
aving a well-stocked pantry during the pandemic is crucial for those days when there’s nothing in your fridge and you’re reluctant to brave long lines at the grocery store. Whether you’re tossing together pasta and clams or a home cooked bean salad, somehow shopping your pantry makes life feel orderly and easy. Local purveyor Viva Oliva offers premium olive oil, balsamic vinegars, and specialty provisions to Santa Barbara gourmands who want to keep their pantries up to date. Viva Oliva’s new bright and airy, high-ceiling artisan boutique in downtown Santa Barbara makes shopping fun. It has a modern gallery feel, complete with stylish wood-and-metal shelving, olive branch floral displays, and a wide selection of pantry essentials from olive oils, balsamic vinegars, salts and spices to stuffed olives, truffles, pasta and tins of imported seafood delicacies such as baby sardines, octopus and mussels. Here shoppers will find notable Santa Barbara suppliers such as Santa Barbara Soups, La Reina Pure Natural Coastal Honey, Jilli Vanilli, Ojai Jelly, Mustard and Co., Cabin 11, Pacific Pickleworks, Pascale’s Kitchen, and Chocolats du CaliBressan. And then there are the tempting novelty items: Haku Twashi Whiskey Barrel Aged Fish Sauce ($37), Noble Tonic 01 Tuthilltown Bourbon Barrel Matured Maple Syrup ($32), and Pacific Pickleworks Asparagusto! ($15). Previously Viva Oliva was located in a quaint 800-square-foot shop on Coast Village Road, where original owner Andy Newell operated the business from 2015 to 2017, before it was purchased by Sven and Amanda Dybdahl. The couple had a desire to expand its concept and move into a larger space that would allow them to keep up with a higher volume of business. The couple’s new digs in a 2,500-square-foot space includes a loft office, temperature-controlled cellar and shipping/storage space. Amanda handles retail and shipping, while Sven oversees marketing and e-commerce. “Andy laid the foundation for Viva Oliva and many of the products that she curated we still carry,” Sven said. “We have since developed the brand and expanded it significantly to include more specialty food items.” The couple also puts a focus on marketing and opening new sales channels, particularly its online business, with free shipping for purchases more than $75. The shop offers a star-studded lineup of 40 extra virgin olive oils that vary from single variety and specialty oils to infused (blending herbs with the oils) and fused (a technique that involves crushing the olives together with herbs) for a variety of vivid flavors. Picual, coratina, Tuscan herb, basil, lemon, garlic and wild rosemary are just a few EVOOs available. “Olive oil is not a product that improves with age, it’s best consumed as fresh as possible,” Sven explained. The crush date is added to each bottle. Once opened, a bottle of olive oil retains its peak flavor for three to four weeks, he added. Viva Oliva partners with Veronica Foods, a family-owned company run by third-generation Italian immigrants who work directly with olive oil producers in California, Spain, Italy, Greece, Tunisia, Portugal, Chile and Australia. Given their global sourcing, Viva Oliva can offer customers fresh products twice a year, whereas if it carried just California olive oils it could sell only one harvest per year. While a fresh and clean olive oil can make a meal taste great, balsamic vinegars, another coveted pantry item, with thick, deep fruity tones and woody flavors from the barrel-aging process, can add a final touch of excellence with just a few drizzles.
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Viva Oliva’s selection is produced in Modena, Italy, and offers both dark and white varieties, made with Lambrusco and Trebbiano, Albana and Montuni grapes, respectively. The process involves caramelizing the balsamics in a large copper pot over an open wood fire before they are aged in wood barrels similar to those used in winemaking, Sven said. The variety of woods (such as oak, chestnut, acacia, cherry, mulberry, ash and juniper) add new dimensions to the flavor. Pomegranate, black mission fig, dark chocolate, lavender, Sicilian lemon, grapefruit, ginger lemon grass and Blenheim apricot are just a few experimental fusion vinegars that can be used to dress a salad, marinate a pork chop or drizzle on your favorite pizza or ice cream. Add any of them to a glass of sparking water or cocktail – voila! – you have a refreshing craft-vinegar tonic made with natural extracts. The Blenheim apricot is a regal variety that was imported to England in the mid-19th century and grown on Winston Churchill’s estate. It’s a delicious ingredient that makes a decadent cocktail. The olive oils and balsamic vinegars range from $15-$23 for a 200 ml bottle. Sample sets are available for $15-$36. The shop also offers a fine selection of kitchen essentials such as linen dishtowels and aprons, olive wood servers and Italian crockery. Viva Oliva is so enticing and the staff so welcoming it could easily become an epicurean’s favorite hangout post pandemic. For now we venture out of quarantine knowing exactly which ingredients to pull from the shelves in order to complete our gourmet weekend. Order online at www.vivaoliva. com or visit 927 State Street in downtown Santa Barbara.
CA’ DARIO SPOTLIGHTS SUMMER PEACHES
C
a’ Dario Chef-Owner Dario Furlati has added fresh summer peaches to his menu. Influenced by the rustic home-style cooking served in osterias in Italy’s EmiliaRomagna region, the chef-driven eatery is offering a trio of summer dishes that spotlight the flavor and texture of this juicy fruit at its locations in Montecito, downtown Santa Barbara, and Goleta. The peaches are prepared three ways – seared, baked and grilled – in a variety of dishes for fruit lovers. As a starter or a meal, Chef Furlati assembles a grilled peach burrata salad served over a bed of fresh arugula and drizzled with saba grape must featuring notes of grapes, plums and raisins ($18). A seared oven-baked pork chop served with sautéed peaches in a balsamic reduction ($34) will delight those who enjoy savory tart flavors. “The peaches offer a distinct flavor and texture to each dish,” said Chef Furlati, who rounds out the trio with a warm peach crumble served á la mode ($10). Find Ca’ Dario at 1187 Coast Village Road. Outdoor seating and carryout service available. To view the entire menu or place an order, visit www.cadariorestaurants.com. •MJ
“No good deed goes unpunished.” – Oscar Wilde
As a starter or a meal, Ca’ Dario assembles a grilled peach burrata salad served over a bed of fresh arugula and drizzled with saba grape must featuring notes of grapes, plums and raisins ($18)
The seared oven-baked pork chop served with sautéed peaches in a balsamic reduction ($34) at Ca’ Dario will delight those who enjoy savory tart flavors
20 – 27 August 2020
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20 – 27 August 2020
• The Voice of the Village •
MONTECITO JOURNAL
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ENTERTAINMENT (Continued from page 14)
get some new music to work on, but also because we were really curious to hear creative responses in real time from composers. We asked them to create either 15, 30 or 45 seconds work for us. Obviously, it’s really hard to have such a short time, but it’s been amazing to get their responses. The composers are finding small things or internal things to share, or outward political statements, or choosing anything under the sun. HOCKET also uses things like toy pianos and doing things inside the instrument, so the palette is expanded.
How did you choose 15-second increments? Initially so we could learn the pieces quickly and get them out very quickly on social media, but also because we’re all online so much more than normal and fatigue sets in, even 10 minutes long felt like a big commitment. So we didn’t want to ask people to focus on their screen for more than a minute. It feels almost like an escape in that way. How much can someone express in 45 seconds? Maybe just the beginning of a single idea? It seems like it could be frustrating? Sure, but parameters for composers can also be really helpful. As a creator, a composer and as a performer, looking at a blank page can be terrifying. But if they tell you that you can only use these three pitches, it gives you somewhere to start. Keeping it short gave them some freedom and you have to be really sharp to have a focused idea that really pops. It has been really fascinating to see how they turn out. And because we gave them rolling deadlines and have made all the videos, the ones that are coming in later have seen the composers responding and thinking more about those aspects. There’s one we’ll play in the concert this week called “Distance” by Joel Thompson in which he wrote it for us to be six feet apart on two different piano benches. I play the top part of the piano only with my left hand and Thomas plays the bottom part of the keyboard only with his right hand. So we’re as far apart as we can be. It’s a fascinating visual experience on the video, capturing what this time has been like. What has been the most surprising or moving aspect of the project for you? One thing has been this sense of getting the composer’s voice in a very focused manner so that even in half a minute or less, you can tell it’s them. There’s also been a palpable feeling of empathy from the composers where we are seeing this side of what they’re going through. Maybe it’s how I’m interpreting things and it’s not neces-
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sarily that they’re saying this is how I’m feeling when they present the piece, but there’s a sense of connection and emotional awareness in the interpretation that is quite powerful. The project isn’t finished yet, but how did you cull which pieces to perform for the UCSB festival? We definitely wanted to premiere the six works we got from UCSB grad students, and then, because we are recording it live, to have a flow with the staging we selected pieces that have similar instrumentations that we could just move from one to the other. We wanted to get as live as we could, even though we won’t be in a hall with an audience. I can’t help but marvel at how much work is going into something that, hopefully, is somewhat ephemeral in that it might lose the hook if things ever return to normal, right? We’re making an album of all of the work, so that will last, and I certainly can imagine that we’ll play this as a concert multiple times whenever we can. What we’re going through has been so unprecedented in so many ways that I think audiences will have empathy for these sort of musical responses and feel an attachment to help to this creative outlet in a way that one might not normally be as universal. But even if we play it only a few times, it’s been poignant and feels completely worthwhile to be doing it. Can I close by asking you what stands out from your time at MAW? Jonathan Feldman was utterly amazing, one of the most incredible teachers I’ve ever had. He taught me things in lessons every day that I still draw on today. My sight reading skills got so much practice, and thinking about it now, I’m thinking that has really been helpful in having to learn six new pieces every week for this project. I learned so much repertoire and got to play with so many different instruments: tuba or trumpet or the cello or whatever it might be, so I got to understand the instruments in a different way. I wasn’t just reading a textbook about how to write for them – I’ve played with them, I’ve rehearsed with them, and I’ve heard them talk about what is difficult or facile or truly playable in the standard repertoire so I could use that in composing. It was a great summer. (UCSB’s free Summer Music Festival takes place Saturday-Sunday, August 22-23. Visit www.music.ucsb. edu/summerfestival for schedule and programming details and live links, or see the virtual concerts on the UCSB Department of Music’s YouTube channel.)
Proceeds from KT Tunstall’s livestreamed Lobero concert on August 22 will go towards supporting the theater during the COVID crisis (photo credit: Piper Ferguson)
KT’s Coronavirus Compromise
Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall was all set to make her Santa Barbara debut at the Lobero Theatre on January 8, back when COVID-19 barely had a name, just the novel coronavirus that seemed to be contained in China. Then illness forced the show to be postponed and rescheduled for October. But the coronavirus crisis has resulted in the cancellation of all live performances in front of an audience in venues of any size, and that restriction looks like it will persist through the fall. So instead Tunstall will be the second artist to participate in the Lobero’s lockdown-launched series of low-priced live-streamed concerts that take place without an audience and with strict safety and COVID19 sanitation protocols in place. The viewing window for the solo virtual concert begins at 12 noon on Saturday, August 22, and ticket holders will be able to view the 75-minute show using Vimeo anytime within 72 hours after the show. Tunstall, who emerged in 2004 with Eye To The Telescope, spawning a career that has since included five more critically acclaimed albums with total sales in the millions – hasn’t been sitting on her hands waiting for things to change. In fact, she’s been washing them, or rather actively encouraging others to do so via a danceable topical song called “Wash Ya Hands” that features a beatbox breakdown from electro-pop singer-songwriter and fourtime UK Beatbox Champion Grace Savage. The lyric video for the song, which was released on June 8, stars KT and invited fans to submit footage to become part of the collective experience that resulted in an updated version later in June. That followed the May use of her song “The Healer” as the soundtrack for her friend and legendary Hollywood stunt professional Zoe Bell’s video for an all-female Hollywood quarantine Fight Club known as #BossBitchFightChallenge. Featuring Cameron Diaz, Scarlett Johansson, Margot Robbie, and Halle Berry among many other stars,
“I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.” – Oscar Wilde
the video finds the ladies kicking each other’s butts through clever editing as Tunstall’s song plays in the background. Being aligned with women-related issues is nothing new for the Grammy-nominated Tunstall, whose first hit single, “Suddenly I See,” written about Tunstall’s reaction to the photograph of Patti Smith on the cover of her album Horses, was used in the opening credits of the empowerment comedy. “I’d seen the album cover many times before, but that one time I was looking at it, at about two am in my basement flat in London, trying to make it (in music), I was so taken by her gaze,” Tunstall told me back in January. “She wasn’t trying, she was just being. There’s almost a challenge in how self-assured she seems. I really aspired to that state of ‘being’ rather than ‘trying.’” More than 15 years later, Tunstall is two-thirds through a trilogy of albums around the themes of soul, body, and mind that, ironically, seem even more apt in the age of our “new normal.” “KIN was all about the spirit overcoming existential obstacles,” Tunstall explained about the first album in the trilogy, which should be completed some time next year. “They are all endlessly fascinating subjects.” Sunday’s show at the Lobero is a rare solo gig, and will now have a very different vibe given that the theater will be empty save for the very socially separated skeleton crew that includes four camera operators. It will be interesting to see how Tunstall copes with the challenges, as she told me back in January that at the bandless concerts, “I end up talking to the crowd more since I’m not able to replicate the complexity that I’ve crafted on my records. But my loop pedal and gadgets create the same kind of vibe as a full band, so I can still whip up a good party vibe even when it’s a solo show.” Or, even one in which she’s truly alone? Maybe even better, at least for the audience at home, Tunstall suggests in the promo video for the event on the 20 – 27 August 2020
Lobero’s website. “When you buy a ticket to a show, even if you’re in the front row, you can’t see super up close what I’m doing,” she says. “But at this show you’ll be sitting on my shoulder seeing exactly what I’m doing every minute.” (Tickets for KT Tunstall’s livestreamed Lobero concert on August 22 are $15 each. Proceeds go towards supporting the theater during the COVID crisis, and a donation will be made to NIVA, the National Independent Venue Association to assist similar halls. Visit www.lobero.org.)
Good Grief Goes Virtual
While you won’t be able to check out the talented kids at Ensemble Theatre’s Young Actors Conservatory this summer, audiences are invited to join in virtually for the season-ending production of You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown. The musical that explores life through the eyes of Charlie Brown and his friends in the Peanuts gang is a series of songs and vignettes based on the beloved comic strip by Charles Schulz, who was an annual staple at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference for decades. The uplifting comedy features Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Schroeder, Sally and Linus interacting and includes one of the great topical songs of the theater in “Suppertime.” The production, which will stream at 2 pm and 7 pm on Saturday, August 22, features six student performers from Santa Barbara County: Cassidy Broderick, Ruby Campbell, Morgan P. Johnson, Leo Kearney, Beck Mortensen, and Jett Mortensen, with direction by Brian McDonald. Tickets cost $25 and are available at https:// store.ensembletheatre.com/Default. aspx.
Red Talk With a Real Star
As its website says, graduates of The Adderley School for the Performing Arts have won Tony Awards, starred in blockbuster movies, appeared as Young Cosette on Broadway, and Winthrop in The Music Man with Kristin Chenoweth at The Hollywood Bowl. They have performed for Hillary Clinton and Oprah Winfrey and have toured with Andrea Bocelli, including an appearance at Madison Square Garden. Now, Ben Platt, the school’s biggest success story in its 25-year-plus history, is returning yet again, Zooming in to help the academy raise funds to cope with the coronavirus crisis. Platt studied at Adderley from ages 6-16, during which he began his professional career in theater by appearing in The Music Man and Auntie Mame at the Hollywood Bowl, as well as on the Broadway tour of Caroline, 20 – 27 August 2020
Ben Platt, the biggest success story in the history of The Adderley School, is Zooming in to help the academy raise funds to cope with the coronavirus crisis
or Change. He played Benji in the Pitch Perfect movie franchise, starred as Elder Cunningham in The Book of Mormon, and as the title character in Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway, winning the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for the latter. Platt co-starred in Lin Manuel Miranda’s Hamildrops mashup “Found/Tonight” in 2018, and released his debut album as a recording artist, Sing to Me Instead, last year, when he also starred in the Netflix comedy-drama series The Politician, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Platt will discuss his experiences at Adderley and beyond in a conversation with actor-comedian James Corden, the host of The Late Late Show on CBS, at 6 pm on Sunday, August 23, to close out Adderley’s summer-long Red Star series. Tickets cost $20 for the event, $50 including an autographed photo, or $100 for the event, picture and a VIP pre-show reception with Platt and Corden, the opportunity to ask a pre-submitted question, and admittance to an exclusive silent auction of Platt-autographed memorabilia. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Adderley Foundation to underwrite tuition for underserved kids. Visit www.theadderleyschool.org for details, ticket link, and information on the upcoming fall semester.
‘Parallel’ Problems
The Pulitzer Prize-winning American born British-Libyan author Hisham Matar won the coveted award for The Return, his 2016 memoir about his journey to Libya to find out what happened to his father. An exiled opponent of the infamously brutal Gaddafi regime, the elder Matar was kidnapped in Cairo and flown back to Libya, where he disappeared, when the author was just 19. That was the same year that Matar discovered the Sienese school of painting, where he turned to find both comfort and clarity after his father was kidnapped, visiting the gallery at lunch where he would spend an hour studying just one painting. The parallel stories inform his second memoir, the recently published A Month in Siena, which speaks
The next episode of the Santa Barbara Symphony’s live broadcast series takes place at 3:30 pm on August 23
eloquently of his sense of loss and of suspended time, solitude, loneliness, love, and the way in which art can both console and consume us. Reviewers have praised how the author explores his own inner landscape as if walking the outline of an idea, revealing thoughts that are both of that time and connected to our own current world in addressing the limits of grief, how the imagination is altered by events, and the acknowledgement that both love and art are an expression of faith. Matar will offer a reading from A Month in Siena and engage in a conversation about the subject and his life as an author in the second installment in a new series of free Parallel Stories events offered by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art via Zoom. Visit sbma.net for details and to register and receive the Zoom link for the 11 am to 12:30 pm event on Sunday, August 23.
Sundays With the Symphony
The next episode of the Santa Barbara Symphony’s live broadcast series takes place at 3:30 pm on August 23, when the Music-Artistic Director Nir Kabaretti will be joined by the symphony’s new Director of Music Education, Kristine Pacheco, to shine the spotlight on students of all levels from the youth program. The young musicians persevered in pursuing their studies through the pandemic through a series of creative virtual activities. The special concert offers viewers the chance to hear from all the Symphony’s various Music Education Center programs, including the Camerata Ensemble (beginner), the Philharmonia Orchestra (intermediate), and the Youth Symphony (advanced). The episode will also check in with some of the program’s graduates who are continuing their musical path in the professional world, and feature an exclusive clip from Lorenzo DeStefano’s documentary, Hearing is Believing, about the collaborative project between the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony and local
• The Voice of the Village •
composer Rachel Flowers. Access the event via the symphony’s website at www.thesymphony.org/livestream.
Focus on Film
Despite a lack of socializing and being forced to sit on a car seat rather than a blanket or lawn chair, fans have still taken to UCSB Arts & Lectures’ 2020 free Summer Cinema series Game On! Grit, Grace & Glory, which has proven to be almost as popular as previous years held at the Sunken Gardens downtown. So the comingof-age soccer film Bend It Like Beckham has been added to the sports-themed lineup as the season closes. Starring Keira Knightley and Parminder Nagra as teens in West London who dream of playing professional soccer like their idol David Beckham, the comedy about friendship and family was a surprise hit when it premiered back in 2002. Gates open at 7 pm for the 8:30 pm screening on Wednesday, August 26, at the West Wind Drive-In, and patrons can enjoy food trucks, standard drive-in concessions, and entertainment before the film. Info at (805) 893-3535 or www.ArtsAndLectures. UCSB.edu.
SBIFF Film Talk Serenades Shelton
Vera Cruz, the short film by UCSB professor and veteran documentarian Christopher Jenkins that follows artist-architect Jeff Shelton as he cajoles the creative community into decorating the outside of a colorful house at 521 Santa Barbara Street, gets renewed focus as this week’s entry in the film festival’s new online series of screenings and discussions between SBIFF’s programmers and filmmakers. Visit https://vimeo.com/121515049 to watch the short in advance, then join in as Jenkins and Shelton will both be on hand for a conversation with senior programmer Mickey Duzdevich at 6 pm Thursday, August 20. Register at sbiff.org. •MJ MONTECITO JOURNAL
37
ORDINANCE NO. 5959
ORDINANCE NO. 5960
AN ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA
AN ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
AN ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
BARBARA ADOPTING THE SIDE LETTER AMENDING THE
SANTA
2020-2021
SANTA BARBARA ADOPTING THE 2020-2021 SALARY
2018 MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE
PLAN APPLICABLE TO GROUP 1 AND GROUP 2
CITY OF SANTA BARBARA AND THE SANTA BARBARA
CITY OF SANTA BARBARA AND THE SUPERVISORY
UNREPRESENTED
POLICE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION
EMPLOYEES’
PROVIDING
DIVISION CHIEF-OPERATIONS, FIRE CHIEF, AND POLICE
CONFIDENTIAL
CHIEF; EXCEPT THE CITY ADMINISTRATOR AND THE
The above captioned ordinance was adopted at a regular meeting of the Santa Barbara City Council held on August 11, 2020. The publication of this ordinance is made pursuant to the provisions of Section 512 of the Santa Barbara City Charter as amended, and the original ordinance in its entirety may be obtained at the City Clerk's Office, City Hall, Santa Barbara, California. (Seal)
BARBARA
BARGAINING
COMPENSATION
CHANGES
FOR
MANAGERS
INCLUDING
FIRE
The above captioned ordinance was adopted at a regular
The above captioned ordinance was adopted at a regular
meeting of the Santa Barbara City Council held on August
meeting of the Santa Barbara City Council held on August
11, 2020.
11, 2020.
The publication of this ordinance is made pursuant to the
The publication of this ordinance is made pursuant to the
provisions of Section 512 of the Santa Barbara City Charter
provisions of Section 512 of the Santa Barbara City Charter
as amended, and the original ordinance in its entirety may be
as amended, and the original ordinance in its entirety may be
obtained at the City Clerk's Office, City Hall, Santa Barbara,
obtained at the City Clerk's Office, City Hall, Santa Barbara,
California.
California. (Seal)
(Seal)
/s/ Sarah Gorman, CMC City Clerk Services Manager
/s/ Sarah Gorman, CMC City Clerk Services Manager
ORDINANCE NO. 5960 STATE OF CALIFORNIA
) ) COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA ) ss. ) CITY OF SANTA BARBARA )
I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing ordinance was introduced on August 4, 2020 and adopted by the Council
AND
CITY ATTORNEY
ORDINANCE NO. 5959 ) ) COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA ) ss. ) CITY OF SANTA BARBARA )
UNIT
THE
SUPERVISORY EMPLOYEES
/s/ Sarah Gorman, CMC City Clerk Services Manager
STATE OF CALIFORNIA
ADOPTING
ORDINANCE NO. 5961
ORDINANCE NO. 5961 STATE OF CALIFORNIA
) ) COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA ) ss. ) CITY OF SANTA BARBARA )
I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing
I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing
ordinance was introduced on August 4, 2020 and adopted by
ordinance was introduced on August 4, 2020 and adopted by
of the City of Santa Barbara at a meeting held on August 11,
the Council of the City of Santa Barbara at a meeting held on
the Council of the City of Santa Barbara at a meeting held on
2020, by the following roll call vote:
August 11, 2020, by the following roll call vote:
August 11, 2020, by the following roll call vote:
AYES:
Councilmembers Eric Friedman, Oscar Gutierrez, Meagan Harmon, Mike Jordan, Kristen W. Sneddon; Mayor Cathy Murillo
AYES:
Councilmembers Eric Friedman, Oscar Gutierrez, Meagan Harmon, Mike Jordan, Kristen W. Sneddon; Mayor Cathy Murillo
AYES:
Councilmembers Eric Friedman, Oscar Gutierrez, Meagan Harmon, Mike Jordan, Kristen W. Sneddon; Mayor Cathy Murillo
NOES:
None
NOES:
None
NOES:
None
ABSENT:
None
ABSENT:
None
ABSENT:
None
ABSTENTIONS:
None
ABSTENTIONS:
None
ABSTENTIONS:
None
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereto set my hand and affixed the official seal of the City of Santa Barbara on August 12, 2020.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereto set my hand and affixed the official seal of the City of Santa Barbara
hand and affixed the official seal of the City of Santa Barbara
on August 12, 2020.
on August 12, 2020.
/s/ Sarah P. Gorman, CMC City Clerk Services Manager I HEREBY APPROVE the foregoing ordinance on
/s/ Sarah P. Gorman, CMC City Clerk Services Manager
/s/ Cathy Murillo Mayor Published August 19, 2020 Montecito Journal
the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on August 5, 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. 2020-0001965.
F I C T I T I O U S B U S I N E S S NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Aquatic Jewels, 1470 East Valley Road, Suite K, Santa Barbara, CA 93108. Dorothy L Allen,
38 MONTECITO JOURNAL
I HEREBY APPROVE the foregoing ordinance on August 12, 2020.
/s/ Cathy Murillo Mayor Published August 19, 2020 Montecito Journal
Published August 19, 26, September 2, 9, 2020.
/s/ Sarah P. Gorman, CMC City Clerk Services Manager
I HEREBY APPROVE the foregoing ordinance on August 12, 2020.
August 12, 2020.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereto set my
1470 East Valley Road, Suite K, Santa Barbara, CA 93108. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on July 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 origi-
/s/ Cathy Murillo Mayor Published August 19, 2020 Montecito Journal
nal statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2020-0001717. Published August 12, 19, 26, September 2, 2020. F I C T I T I O U S B U S I N E S S NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as:
“Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.” – Oscar Wilde
Bob’s Vacuum, 5276 Hollister Ave, 403, Goleta, CA 93111. Gilbert J Short, 520 Pine Ave Spc 29, Goleta, CA 93117. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on July 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. 20200001714. Published August 5, 12, 19, 26, 2020. F I C T I T I O U S B U S I N E S S NAME STATEMENT: 20 – 27 August 2020
ORDINANCE NO. 5962
ORDINANCE NO. 5963
AN ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
AN UNCODIFIED EMERGENCY ORDINANCE OF THE
SANTA BARBARA ADOPTING THE 2020-2021 SALARY
COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA BARBARA EXTENDING
PLAN APPLICABLE TO THE CITY ADMINISTRATOR AND
AND AMENDING ORDINANCE NO. 5944 PERTAINING TO
THE CITY ATTORNEY
COVID-19 ECONOMIC RECOVERY
The above captioned ordinance was adopted at a regular
The above captioned ordinance was adopted at a regular
meeting of the Santa Barbara City Council held on August
meeting of the Santa Barbara City Council held on August
11, 2020.
11, 2020.
The publication of this ordinance is made pursuant to the
The publication of this ordinance is made pursuant to the
provisions of Section 512 of the Santa Barbara City Charter
provisions of Section 512 of the Santa Barbara City Charter
as amended, and the original ordinance in its entirety may be
as amended, and the original ordinance in its entirety may be
obtained at the City Clerk's Office, City Hall, Santa Barbara,
obtained at the City Clerk's Office, City Hall, Santa Barbara,
California.
California. (Seal)
(Seal)
/s/ Sarah Gorman, CMC City Clerk Services Manager
/s/ Sarah Gorman, CMC City Clerk Services Manager
ORDINANCE NO. 5963
ORDINANCE NO. 5962 STATE OF CALIFORNIA
) ) COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA ) ss. ) CITY OF SANTA BARBARA )
ordinance
STATE OF CALIFORNIA
) ) COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA ) ss. ) CITY OF SANTA BARBARA ) I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing
I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing
ordinance was introduced and adopted by the Council of the
was introduced on August 4, 2020 and adopted by the Council of the City of Santa Barbara at a meeting held on August 11, 2020, by the following roll call vote: AYES: Oscar
Councilmembers Eric Friedman, Gutierrez, Meagan Harmon, Mike Jordan, Kristen W. Sneddon; Mayor Cathy Murillo
NOES:
None
ABSENT:
None
ABSTENTIONS:
None
City of Santa Barbara at a meeting held on August 11, 2020, by the following roll call vote: AYES:
Councilmembers Eric Friedman, Oscar Gutierrez, Meagan Harmon, Mike Jordan, Kristen W. Sneddon; Mayor Cathy Murillo
NOES:
None
ABSENT:
None
ABSTENTIONS:
None
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereto set my
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereto set my hand and affixed the official seal of the City of Santa Barbara
hand and affixed the official seal of the City of Santa Barbara on August 12, 2020.
on August 12, 2020.
/s/ Sarah P. Gorman, CMC City Clerk Services Manager on
I HEREBY APPROVE the foregoing ordinance
August 12, 2020.
/s/ Sarah P. Gorman, CMC City Clerk Services Manager I HEREBY APPROVE the foregoing ordinance on August 12, 2020.
/s/ Cathy Murillo Mayor /s/ Cathy Murillo Mayor
Published August 19, 2020 Montecito Journal
Published August 19, 2020 Montecito Journal
The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Lena’s Nail Studio, 1482 East Valley Road Suite 4, Santa Barbara, CA 93108. Lena Truong, 101 La Calera Way, Goleta, CA 93117. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on July 23, 2020. This 20 – 27 August 2020
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. 2020-0001817. Published July 29, August 5, 12, 19, 2020.
FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Bright Hand Painted Interiors, 644 Windsor Ave, Goleta, CA 93117. Caroline Hambright, 644 Windsor Ave, Goleta, CA 93117. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on
July 22, 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. 2020-0001801. Published July 29, August 5, 12, 19, 2020.
• The Voice of the Village •
LETTERS (Continued from page 30)
able proportion of students whose instruction was severely interrupted, especially students of color and those from lower-income backgrounds. To illustrate, about 13 percent of students in the LAUSD were completely absent or did not log into classes every day following the shut-down in mid-March. At SBCC, drop rates also increased markedly during the spring despite herculean efforts to support students’ digital needs, and there was an 11 percent drop in enrollments for the fall semester. That raises the issue of equity. Lederman (2020) argues equity gaps are, given the relative failure of emergency remote learning efforts in the spring, continuing into the fall, a form of “digitizing discrimination.” We should not assume that students from vastly different socio-economic backgrounds have access to adequate computer equipment, stable internet connections, appropriate private spaces to learn and concentrate, parent support, or other resources critical for educational growth. To homogenize student characteristics fails to recognize or appreciate individual differences in learners, and multiple strategies good teachers must use on the fly to reach these students. Moreover, students who are preparing for careers in teaching, physical education, physical or occupational therapy, athletic training and coaching, drama and musical performing arts, and many others, are seriously disadvantaged by wholesale cancellation of academic programs preparing them for those fields. As the pandemic extends several months, and anxiety or depression accumulate from lay-offs, furloughs, company closures, child-rearing or other stressors, outlets are needed for students and community members to productively release energy, learn positive health-promotion strategies, and to combat the detrimental negative behaviors that extended stay-at-home orders produce. Activity-based courses offered at SBCC serve as a useful community-based intervention. Of course, health-safety are important for students and families, but as indicated in COVID-19 Industry Guidance: Institutions of Higher Education, classroom environments and activity spaces can be arranged to minimize direct contact, and preventive tools can be used by students and teachers. SBCC’s physical education/health/athletics departments department’s comprehensive plan for “Return to Face-to-Face Physical Activity Classes Outdoor Activities” plan serves as a model for community colleges in the state and nationally. Much learning occurs off-line, interpersonally and in physical spaces, not merely from online sources, and we must support disciplines that offer these essential face-to-face activities while adopting comprehensive protocols to reduce potential ill health effects that are realistic. In order to support the regularization of education, especially for activity, sports, and performing arts classes, I strongly support, and encourage the public to support, SBCC’s comprehensive plan for “Return to Face-to-Face Physical Activity Classes Outdoor Activities,” permitting students’ return to selected instructional areas on campus for the fall. To our education leaders, please give your every consideration and support of the proposal for SBCC to offer activity-and-performance-based classes under safer distancing protocols. Arthur Olguin, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology Santa Barbara City College •MJ MONTECITO JOURNAL
39
Our Town
by Joanne A. Calitri
Joanne is a professional international photographer and journalist. Contact her at: artraks@yahoo.com
Arts Lockdown Series Part 3: Skye Gwilliam and Dari Mos
I
t’s 2016 and a millennial Santa Barbara gallery owner and multi-medium visual artist is seated writing furiously in his journal at the Café Rendez-Vous des Amis in Montmartre, once home to 19th century artists Gauguin, Monet, Degas, and Cézanne. Also sitting there is a chic femme artist-musician from Belarus studying philosophy at Sorbonne University Paris. Intrigued by his concentration, she goes over to find out more about him, and... La vie est belle. This arts in lockdown interview is with Skye Gwilliam and Darya Moskaliova (professionally known as Dari Mos) two inseparables of art and music currently locked down in France due to COVID-19. Skye, the owner of Gone Gallery in the Funk Zone SB, is creating works in France, with six watercolor paintings recently acquired by Davis Taft Gallery Montecito via Dan Levin. Dari graduated from the Sorbonne in 2018 and concentrates fulltime on her art and music. The couple first rented in the Parisian neighborhood Barbès, and then moved to Annecy near Geneva. After a visit to California, they returned to Paris only to face the lockdown and now reside in Saint-Girons, a commune in the Ariège department in southwestern France. During lockdown they needed a note to leave the house for an hour and were restricted to stay within one kilometer of their house, or be fined 300 euros. Yet they are happy in their cocooned life of creating art and music. Here is our California-to-France interview via Facetime and emails: Q. Skye, what is your background? A. Born and raised in Ojai, California. While no accredited academic schooling in art, I am raised in an environment conducive to developing as an artist; my father an architect and artist, and my mother a freelance editor and graphic abstract artist. I have been painting the majority of my life. After suffering bilateral loss of my vestibular function twenty-five years ago, art shifted to my main outlet for survival. Privately my discipline is mostly focused on brushless oil painting and sculpture while publicly I work mostly with aerosol and acrylic. And Dari? I was born in Minsk, Belarus, and moved to France and the age of 15. I studied philosophy at Sorbonne and
40 MONTECITO JOURNAL
Skye Gwilliam’s oil on linen painting, Man in a Room
Artists Skye Gwilliam and Dari Mos have been working from their residence in Saint-Girons, in southwestern France, throughout the pandemic
theater in lyceum and conservatory. I started photography when I moved to France, taking photos of my theater comrades, making posters for our plays. Philosophy brought a certain harmony to all my passions: theater, music, video, photography, sculpture, drawing, painting. I took my first singing and theater classes at the age of four, went to music school for five years and played guitar. Videography, painting and other things came in between 2011 and 2015. In photography, I use both film and digital. I have several cameras (Canon, Sony, Olympus, Minolta) and I also use my phone, which has a Leica lens. I experiment with prints on my own ink-jet printer. For my other artworks, I like to make it in the most complicated ways possible, so the audience can’t figure out how it was done. I mix printed photography with paint – I mostly use Chinese ink and gesso – then I scan it, print it, paint on it again, scan it, print it, cut it, scan it, use digital post-retouch on it (I use Lightroom) and it never stops. My artwork is always alive, finishing it and framing will be killing it. That is why I don’t like art shows. During lockdown, are the arts a plus or minus, and do they influence change? Skye: Artists, I believe, are perhaps more prepared and well practiced in isolation than people whose activities and interactions rely on the social normalcy of day-to-day life. I feel having an artistic outlet during the lockdown has been an invaluable resource for survival. I believe without a doubt a shift in the human condition
Dari Mos’s digital photography, The Look Out
will be felt with the change in lifestyle we are forced to consider moving forward in the current state of the world. Human interactions we once perceived as normal are now forced to adapt to a lifestyle of social distancing and remote communication. Dari: Definitely a plus for me and the artists I know. The lockdown is an inconvenience and that’s an unpleasant experience for most people; the arts seem to be there to help to find some beauty in the misery. Music, theater, literature, cinema all helps to survive in the hardest moments for the humanity (like war), I don’t see why it wouldn’t help now. As the battle we are having against the COVID is a war, just in a different shape. With the internet, a lot of viewers started to create, so not only art can help its viewer, it also can help its creator. It always affected the human condition
“Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.” – Oscar Wilde
in a good way and in my opinion it always will. Is that different for visual arts and music? Skye: Visual arts as with music are often created and shared remotely within the artistic personal space of the artist. Aside from presentation of live concerts and physically attended art shows, I think creation will continue much as it was done in the past. The change will not so much be for the creation of the art but in the way the artworks and artists interact with the audience. The way we view art will be greatly affected, as there is seldom a replacement for the intimate experience of interacting with music or visual art firsthand. I do not feel that digital art shows or live streaming will ever replace the profound impact of art experienced directly by the viewer. Dari: The lockdown definitely par20 – 27 August 2020
alyzes certain aspects of art. It is hard for me, as a photographer, to take photos of my main subjects – people. It is hard to travel. In the middle of the French quarantaine I had to make a video with my little brother, we had to keep the distance and pretend we didn’t know each other each time we saw the police. As we were only authorized to go out for an hour, we had to go home each time to re-write a new autorisation of sortie. That was very inconvenient for the creation. I really enjoy this time to make music and get together with other musicians, they were sending me something they work on, I would add my sound to it and send it back to them. In my opinion, of all the arts, cinema and music come as the most needed during the lockdown. I can’t picture my day without music and my week without at least a movie. It is like food and water. Any anthropological-social-economic-political issues influencing your experience right now? Skye: I think it is almost impossible to not take the current state of the world into consideration when creating art. Whether concisely or subconsciously, we digest all that is happening around us. Our personal experience is reflected in what we create and how we live, though I cannot say there in one particular motivating factor other than the collective influence of injustice affecting all of humanity and the personal reflection that creates in every aspect of our life. Dari: I can’t say that what is happening in our world right now influences my art in a direct way, I have never been creating anthropological-social-economic-political related art-pieces and I wouldn’t start now, it is just not for me. However, as an artist I am very sensitive to what is happening around. I feel like a lot of people I know suddenly started to create art and I feel like they do it to take part of the history and experience some sort of importance and fame. I find it really sad. I don’t want to say that I don’t care about what is happening around. I do! Sometimes I take things too close to my heart: for example, what is going on right now in my homeland – Belarus – affects me in a very profound way. My beloved people have been living under the dictatorship of [Alexander] Lukashenko for the past twenty-six years; a lot of people are in jail for no reason, a lot of people are dead. Being in France is hard, but I still manage to do every little thing that I can do from here to help rewrite the history of Belarus. That said, what is going on affects my thoughts and my subconscious, which naturally does affect my art. The difference is that I don’t premeditate my work; I just take a blank piece of paper 20 – 27 August 2020
and put on it whatever crawls out of my mind and heart. Are you seeking new ways to create? Skye: The need to find new avenues to voice my personal experience is relentless. The shift is constant in the pursuit in adaptation and development towards finding a way to communicate that experience though art.
People of Montecito
by Megan Waldrep
Nick Svensson
Dari: I think I have all the possible ways of creation at my disposal and if I didn’t take them, it’s that I just didn’t discover them yet. Discovery is a big part of creation. I am glad there are still a lot of ways to discover and experience. What’s next for you? Skye: Currently I am taking things as they come not really knowing what the next step may be. Dari: I don’t know and don’t really think about it. I enjoy the moments of the inspiration and hope they’ll never end. It is really difficult to experience the luck of inspiration, when motivation is present but I have nothing to say. That’s the moments I use to do what normal people do – go get groceries, clean the house. As when I am full of inspiration for an entire week non-stop, you can’t even wonder how my house or my fridge looks like. What is next, I imagine it will be making more shows, I have one in September, so I need to put it together. It is my least favorite part of being an artist. I wish I could just create all day long and have someone doing all the social things for me. Any advice for the artists/musicians going forward? Skye: I would say now as I have always felt, to stay true to the work and what you need to communicate while being wary of compromising or pandering for acceptance or sales. Historically, I believe artistic communities are built in times of turbulent uncertainty. Dari: Never stop, but never force. If it comes to you, don’t be afraid of experiencing it till the very end. If it doesn’t, don’t beat yourself up, just go do something else. If you are creating because otherwise you just can’t live – I am sorry for you, you have no choice. If you are an artist because you chose it for yourself for whatever reason (you find it cool, hype, or it brings you money and fame), do yourself and other people a favor – just stop, as it compromises and parasitizes everything that we, artists, breathe for.
What’s a Montecito Memory Many People Don’t Know About? “I grew up in Santa Barbara and my dad was in Montecito. I’ve been surfing Hammond’s and Biltmore since I was a little kid. In high school, I actually used to manage the Liquor & Wine Grotto during my senior year. Then, I was a bartender at the Coast Village Grill, which is now Lucky’s. They used to call that area ‘the Montecito Triangle.’ People from the Grill to the bistro, which is now Los Arroyos, to the night club, Nippers… it was chaos. It was out of hand back in the day. Lots of partying. I was in high school and had hair down to my belt. I started real estate twenty-four years ago. Right here, at this desk. It was a different office, Fred Sands, which I was with for four years. Then I worked at Sotheby’s for sixteen, and came here four years ago. Back to the original place. Full circle!” Nick Svensson, Compass •MJ
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411: Skye: https://www.instagram. com/gonegallery/ Dari: https://www.instagram.com/ darimos/ https://wwwdarimoscom.dpg.cx/ home/ •MJ • The Voice of the Village •
John Entezari
Unison Financial Group President CA BRE LIC.# 01113108 NMLS# 326501
email: johne@west.net
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VILLAGE BEAT (Continued from page 10)
Volunteers pack up 8,000 meals donated by Kate Farms to the Foodbank of Santa Barbara
highly nutritional meal replacement formula for their daughter Kate, who has cerebral palsy and was unable to tolerate solid foods or tube-feeding formulas already on the market. The plant-based, non-GMO formulas and meal replacements do not contain common food allergens, and are used for a variety of people including those with malnutrition, oncology patients, gastrointestinal issues, and more. The company, led by an expert board of directors headed by Montecito’s Brett Matthews, continues its efforts within California and across the country as a part of a donation of more than 250,000 meals to serve those most at risk. The ongoing pandemic has increased the demand for the Foodbank of Santa Barbara, which continues to see an ongoing need. Through its donation to the Foodbank, Kate Farms meal replacement shakes will be distribut-
ed directly to those most in need of nutrition, including seniors. For more information, visit www. katefarms.com.
Casa Dorinda Scholarship Fund
Due to the ongoing pandemic, Casa Dorinda residents and staff missed out this year on celebrating the recipients of the Casa Dorinda Scholarship in person, an annual tradition dating back to 1998 when a group of Casa residents began a fund to help staff members and their families achieve their educational goals. But the pandemic didn’t stop the giving, and 24 recipients were granted scholarships totaling $85,000; instead of a celebratory reception, a video thankyou message was shown on the Casa Dorinda TV station, KASA-TV. Scholarship chair Barbara Marx
tells us the scholarship celebration is a highlight of the year at Casa, with residents eager to help staff members and their families, who many residents consider family. Recipients apply for scholarships every winter, and the program is open to employees of the retirement community and their children or spouses, who are advancing their education. Administered by the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara, the Casa Dorinda Scholarship Fund has awarded 681 scholarships totaling $1,442,226 since 1998. “Each year we give more and more scholarships, and we love helping the staff,” Marx said. This year’s recipients were given between $3,000-$4,000 each, for various educational endeavors. The needs range from single mothers attending four-year schools, to first year college students, to others enrolled in local technical programs at SBCC. The Scholarship Committee, comprised of six Casa residents, raise funds for the program each year. Some of the funding also comes from Casa’s Holiday Bazaar, where residents sell arts and crafts and donate funds raised to the Scholarship Fund. “They totally own this, they run it, and they promote it,” said Casa’s Director of Philanthropy Lisa Thomas. “It’s so special that the residents are so invested in the staff. They see the staff as their family.” The Scholarship Committee would like to thank the generous donors who continue to make the program happen, year after year. And a big congratulations to this year’s recipients.
Ginger Salazar Joins Cottage Health Board of Directors
Montecito’s Ginger Salazar has joined the volunteer Board of Directors of Cottage Health. Salazar, born and raised in Lompoc, has Last year’s Casa Dorinda Scholarship recipients
Montecito’s Ginger Salazar has joined the volunteer Board of Directors of Cottage Health
spent the last decade working to improve health and opportunities for Santa Barbara County residents. She leads branding at Kate Farms. Her professional career began in brand management and marketing for Procter & Gamble. She then co-founded Imagitas, Inc., a direct marketing company that formed public private partnerships with the government. Imagitas received the White House Hammer Award from Vice President Al Gore and was recognized by the U.S. Congress for improvements in government work cost and efficiency. Salazar received her Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Stanford University where she is co-chair for the LEAD Council. She also serves on the boards of the Santa Barbara Foundation and the Towbes Foundation. She served as co-chair of the committee to create and fund the recently completed Lompoc Community Track & Field. She previously served on the boards of Prevent Child Abuse America, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, and the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara. Members of the Cottage Health Board of Directors serve without compensation to guide the not-forprofit Cottage hospitals in the mission to provide superior health care through a commitment to our communities and to our core values of excellence, integrity and compassion. For more information, visit www. cottagehealth.org.
Corrections & Omissions
42 MONTECITO JOURNAL
Last week we reported on the candidates vying for seats at our local special districts. Montecito Planning Commissioner Susan Keller, who contemplated running for a seat on the Montecito Fire Protection District, is no longer in the race. She reports to us that she will stay on the Montecito Planning Commission. •MJ “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” – Oscar Wilde
20 – 27 August 2020
Ernie’s World
by Ernie Witham
Read more exciting adventures in Ernie’s World the Book and A Year in the Life of a “Working” Writer. Both available at amazon.com or erniesworld.com.
Grandchildren Keep Us Young. If We Survive.
“E
rnie?... Ernie?... Ernie?... Ernie?...” “Sorry, can’t play right now, Jack.” “Why?” “Because I have some writing to do.” “Why?” “It’s for my column?” “What’s a column?” “About 700 words.” I laughed. Jack didn’t. “My column for the Montecito Journal is due. I have an allotted space to fill.” “What’s a lotta space to fill?” “About 700 words at the rate I’m going. Let’s see how quiet we can be right now. Like a game. The silent game. Okay?” “Okay... Ernie?... Ernie?... Ernie?... Ernie?...” Jack is four. His parents live in Los Angeles and are having a baby. So Jack is staying with us. He’s a fun, joyous, bright, inquisitive, inventive, loving child, and has an energy level that could power a small city. He likes to build stuff. So we have plastic building blocks, gears, wheels, tools and other creative toys all over the house. “Owowowowowowow!” “Moma! Ernie stepped on my tetradactyl again. What does F$#@&frat&%*# mean?” When he starts turning all his toys into weaponry and making explosion sounds, we head outside. He loves to ride his bicycle all around our condo complex and he likes it when I run after him. “Come on, Ernie. Faster!” “I need (gasp) to rest (wheeze).” “Moma ran faster this morning.” ‘Moma’ had gone to Trader Joe’s for a “few things” more than an hour ago. I’m betting she’s in their parking lot with the seat back, napping. When “we” get all sweaty from exercise, Jack also likes the pool. He has water wings so he can float forever. “Come on, Ernie. Faster.” “I need to stop before I sink” (blub blub blub). Fortunately, there are still a few spots open in Santa Barbara to take kids for a change of pace, like Alice Keck Park. “Look at all the ducks and turtles!” “But don’t touch the turtles okay Jack?” Moma said. “Why?” “Because they are snapping turtles and might bite you.” “Oh... Ernie, put your finger in the turtle’s mouth. I want to see if he bites you.” “Tempting, but maybe we should just move to a different spot. Over near the ducks.” “Don’t get your feet wet,” Moma started to say. “Why do I have to take my shoes off before I get back in the car?” “Because the constant dripping sound makes it hard to concentrate on driving. And they smell a bit like duck poo.” “Duck poo, duck poo, duck poo,” Jack said melodically. Another successful grandparenting lesson. We also go to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History a lot. He loves the “Butterflies Alive” exhibit. “Remember Jack. You can’t touch the butterflies,” Moma said. “Why? Do they bite?” “No. Because they are fragile. See how thin their wings are?” Why are their wings thin?” “Because if they were too heavy they would just keep falling out of the sky like rocks and crush us all,” I said. “Like meteors. Then we would have to get laser guns and shoot all the butterflies to save everyone,” Jack suggested. We both made some blasting sounds. Several pair of attendees’ eyes flashed our way. I smiled apologetically. Jack, meanwhile, got as close to the butterflies as he could without actually touching them. “They have weird eyes. Like zombies.” “Never noticed that before. We should add that fact to Wikipedia.” “What’s wickedpedia?” “It’s where students find their term papers.” “Why?” We also have miles of beaches in Santa Barbara and Jack loves to go to the tide pools. “What’s this big thing?” Jack asked, holding up a large Sea Hare. I reached for it. “Don’t squeeze it or it might ink you,” I said, just as it got purple ink on both 20 – 27 August 2020
of us. “Does it make any other colors?” Jack asked. We also usually find a few crabs. “Be careful. They pinch,” said Moma. She suggested I pick it up. “Look Moma. The crab has Ernie’s finger.” Jack has a delightful, often loud, and lengthy laugh. Luckily, my pain threshold has increased in the last four years... “Ernie? Are you done writing yet?” I looked at the screen. Somehow I had squeaked out 700 words. “Yes! What should we do now?” “Climb trees,” Jack said. “Perfect!” I grabbed the first Young Jack, contemplating why butterflies have thin aid kit. •MJ wings
• The Voice of the Village •
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EDITORIAL (Continued from page 5)
U SS S U U
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IN THE AGE OF COVID 19 J U LY 2 2 N D J U LY 2 2 N D T H R U ND H R2U2 OFF 25%JAU–UTLY 75% G 8TH AUG 8TH
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essarily stick out at Collegiate, surrounded by Gettys, Rockefellers, Newhouses, and even a bespectacled pimply-faced kid named Firestein. As I suspect will hold true for Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, as was true for his dad, Kennedy still got in trouble, forgot his homework, got in fights, and his folks would be called in to meet with the teacher and sometimes even the headmaster. Apparently John-John was as normal a kid as the son of the slain U.S. President could be. Of course, there are going to be oddities that are part and parcel of royal life, just as there were with John-John’s royal American life. While John Jr. attended Collegiate, the curriculum was altered so that U.S. history was taught only up to but not including the Kennedy administration. And of course, there was the Secret Service following John-John onto the public bus and even into the school bathrooms. Still, Collegiate offered our young American Prince the best chance he had of a normal school experience. A simulacrum, as it were, of normal life. My hunch is that much of what attracted the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to Montecito is not so different. In my experience, Montecito is actually not a great town for “Hey, look at me!” And I suspect that the oddities in the Windsors’ lives won’t be much more exceptional than, say, wearing a surgical mask and rubber gloves out in public. As for my future personal interactions with the Duke and Duchess, if I ever back into them, I’m going to remind myself that President Kennedy sought fame and renown, but his offspring John-John and Caroline most assuredly did not. Just as Harry and William did not. Just as Baron Trump does not. Nor Chelsea Clinton. Nor Malia and Sasha Obama. The royals have chosen not to be in the thick of it on Fleet Street or in any major metropolis for a reason and they are certainly entitled to as normal a life as they can find, and the same easy, respectful anonymity that Montecito so generously affords all who come here. As for the tabloid culture, the helicopters, and the paparazzi which the royals may have inadvertently packed with them, I do not believe they are merely harmless and frivolous. In addition to having no nutritional value, the tabloids actually harm people, damaging their targets, their readers, and our general culture alike. And, in the case of Archie’s Grandmum, they had a seriously deleterious effect not just on how her life ended, but on how it was lived, as well. I hope but also feel confident that our new neighbors find the supportive community and fun and solitude we all so cherish here in the 93108. Now, as they say, go get yourself in some trouble, Little Archie. Good trouble. •MJ
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44 MONTECITO JOURNAL
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20 – 27 August 2020
Back to School
by Jun Starkey
Three Local Colleges Prepare for Fall Instruction Amidst COVID-19
F
or so many parents, sending a child off to college is a milestone, akin to a wedding day or buying that first home. Until recently, it’s been a romanticized moment of waving goodbye as the center of your world officially branches out to start a life of their own. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the biggest question parents had was, “Will they come home for Thanksgiving?” Now, with more than 5 million confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. and more than 170,000 dead so far, questions about college have stretched beyond what anyone could have imagined. College, as we know it, may never be the same. For three local institutions, navigating the ongoing coronavirus crisis has been a compli-
cated struggle between concern for students’ safety and the quality of the education they are paying for. On August 7, the California Department of Public Health
With more than 5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S., questions about college have stretched beyond what anyone could have imagined
released a state guidance for reopening college campuses, the first clear direction for higher education from
Laughing Matters I
n a small town in Iowa the local veterinarian also serves as a taxidermist. The office sign reads: “No matter what happens you get your dog back.” ~ J. Jacobs Send us your best joke, we’ll decide if it’s funny. We can only print what we can print, so don’t blame us. Please send “jokes” to letters@ montecitojournal.net
The best little paper in America (Covering the best little community anywhere!) Executive Editor/CEO Gwyn Lurie • Publisher/COO Timothy Lennon Buckley Editor At Large Kelly Mahan Herrick • News and Feature Editor Nicholas Schou Associate Editor Bob Hazard • Copy Editor Lily Buckley Harbin Arts and Entertainment Editor Steven Libowitz
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 Design/Production Trent Watanabe Published by Montecito Journal Media Group, LLC PRINTED BY NPCP INC., SANTA BARBARA, CA Montecito Journal is compiled, compounded, calibrated, cogitated over, and coughed up every Wednesday by an exacting agglomeration of excitable (and often exemplary) expert edifiers at 1206 Coast Village Circle, Suite H, Montecito, CA 93108. How to reach us: Editorial: (805) 565-1860; Sue Brooks: ext. 4; Christine Merrick: ext. 3; Classified: ext. 3; FAX: (805) 969-6654; Letters to Editor: Montecito Journal, 1206 Coast Village Circle, Suite H, Montecito, CA 93108; E-MAIL: tim@montecitojournal.net
20 – 27 August 2020
the state before the upcoming school year. The guidance covers basics, such as mandatory masks, washing hands often, putting at least six feet between all desks, and discouraging all unnecessary travel. The guidance also goes into other aspects of college life, such as encouraging dining halls to provide graband-go meals, closing nonessential shared spaces such as lounges, and installing plastic barriers between bathroom sinks.
For housing, colleges are being asked to prioritize single person housing whenever possible. If the college allows two to a room, beds must be kept six feet apart. Indoor lectures are prohibited for counties on the state’s coronavirus monitoring list for three consecutive days, although in-person labs and specialized courses may continue in those counties. Currently, 38 of California’s 58 counties are on the monitoring list, including Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. In light of that, Santa Barbara City College announced in late July that it would begin its fall semester completely online, with few exceptions. “I know this announcement will come with mixed feelings,” wrote Dr. Utpal Goswami, SBCC superintendent and president, in an address to the SBCC community. “However, we must put safety first.” The few in-person classes offered, such as nursing, marine diving, and construction technology, broadly fall in line with the guidance to use “non-classroom space” for instruction, such as outdoor spaces. UC Santa Barbara is returning to school with a similar arrangement of online lecturing and a small array of in-person classes. In-person instruction will be limited to labs, small lectures, and some arts and performance courses. UCSB is also limiting the capacity in its residence halls to no more than two in a room. Incoming residents are required to submit proof of a negative COVID19 test. Although Westmont College initially planned to keep its doors open for the upcoming fall semester, the college’s leadership since then decided to start the semester online while remaining hopeful students will return to campus.
• The Voice of the Village •
“Although the daily infection rate hasn’t come down to the level we need,” said Gayle D. Beebe, the college’s president, in a conference call on August 11, “[The county] is cautiously optimistic that we will be able to repopulate yet this fall.” During the call-in session, Beebe said he anticipated remote learning to last four weeks. He said he planned to begin repopulating the campus on September 25, and begin in-person teaching on September 28. State guidance asks colleges to consider “routine systematic testing of staff or students,” though there is no mandate to do so. Beebe addressed students and parents concerns regarding testing, saying it would be provided at the beginning and throughout the semester. He also said the school was prepared to quarantine and provide contact tracing if a student is infected. Dr. Edee Schulze, vice president of student life, also spoke during the call, and told students to be ready to come back to their rooms on campus, but remain flexible about the date. “We believe that the best of Westmont is accessed when you live here,” Schulze said. The county has not yet approved the college’s proposed September 25 date to begin repopulating the resident halls. •MJ
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• The Voice of the Village •
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“Good Food for Good People”
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