Make Montecito Bee-utiful

P.

more

Letters to the Editor – More thought on Santa Claus cannabis and support for Gullap-Moore Tide Guide

The Optimist Daily – Three ways to stay healthy this cold and flu season

P.22

P.23

Advice for what matters most, when you need it most

Congratulations to Donna Weidl for being named to the Forbes “Best-in-State Next-Generation Wealth Advisors” 2022 list.

Working with a dedicated Merrill advisor means you get personalized investment strategies from Merrill

access to comprehensive financial solutions only Bank of America can deliver.

The JJD Group Donna Weidl, CPWA®, CFP ®, CDFA® Senior Vice President Wealth Management Advisor 805.963.6308 • donna.weidl@ml.com

Merrill Lynch Wealth Management 1424 State Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101 fa.ml.com/jjdgroup

Data provided by SHOOK® Research, LLC. Data as of 3/31/22. Source: Forbes.com (August 3, 2022). Forbes “Best-inState Next Generation Wealth Advisors” ranking. SHOOK considered advisors born in 1983 or later with a minimum 4 years as an advisor. Advisors have: built their own practices and lead their teams; joined teams and are viewed as future leadership; or a combination of both. Ranking algorithm is based on qualitative measures: telephone and in-person interviews to measure best practices, client retention, industry experience, credentials, review of compliance records, firm nominations; and quantitative criteria, such as: assets under management and revenue generated for their firms. Investment performance is not a criterion because client objectives and risk tolerances vary, and advisors rarely have audited performance reports. Rankings are based on the opinions of Forbes and not representative nor indicative of any one client’s experience, future performance, or investment outcome and should not be construed as an endorsement of the advisor. SHOOK’s research and rankings provide opinions intended to help investors choose the right financial advisor and are not indicative of future performance or representative of any one client’s experience. Past performance is not an indication of future results. Neither Forbes nor SHOOK Research receive compensation in exchange for placement on the ranking. For more information, please see www.SHOOKresearch.com. SHOOK is a registered trademark of SHOOK Research, LLC. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (also referred to as “MLPF&S” or “Merrill”) makes available certain investment products sponsored, managed, distributed or provided by companies that are affiliates of Bank of America Corporation (“BofA Corp.”). MLPF&S is a registered broker-dealer, registered investment adviser, Member SIPC and a wholly owned subsidiary of BofA Corp.

Banking products are provided by Bank of America, N.A., Member FDIC and a wholly owned subsidiary of BofA Corp. Investment products: Are Not FDIC Insured Are Not Bank Guaranteed May Lose Value

The Bull Symbol and Merrill are registered trademarks of Bank of America Corporation. CPWA® is a registered certification mark of the Investments & Wealth Institute®. For more information about the Institute and the CPWA certification, please visit investmentsandwealth.org. CFP Board owns the marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, and CFP® (with plaque design) in the U.S. CDFA® and Certified Divorce Financial Analyst® are trademarks of The Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts™. © 2022 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved. | MAP4746398 | AD-08-22-0543 | 472538PM-0522 | 09/2022

P.

P.

P.

Our Town – It’s a costumed collage of Halloween festivities from around town, including Ghost Village Road

Community Voices – Salud Carbajal and Sigrid Wright write in on local climate action

Housing Updates – U.S. Dept. of Housing & Urban Development Region IX Administrator Jason Pu visits

P.26

Your Westmont – Christmas festival to usher in Holy Season and a downtown talk examines biblical environmentalism

Political Perspectives – Rinaldo S. Brutoco discusses inflation while Bob Hazard makes an appeal to Republican voters Monthly Meta

Nosh Town – Evan Kleiman talks food and Nigella Lawson before their upcoming evening at the Granada Santa Barbara by the Glass – Santa Barbara Wine Auction returns with a new collection of offerings

The Giving List – The Family Service Agency offers a School-Based Counseling program that is reaching the students who need it most

P.32

P.36

Montecito Reads – Hollis helps Cyrus with the opening of his wine bar but starts to put another plan into play

Calendar of Events – Couture Pattern Museum and other 1st Thursday events, ZooLights on display, and other happenings

P.38

On Entertainment – Miss You Like Hell on stage, Oscar Wilde’s wit, film festivals around town, and others

P.49 Far Flung Travel – Birds putting on a broken wing display serves multiple purposes and they rarely hurt themselves while doing it

P.54

27

P.31

Brilliant Thoughts – Jealousy may be one of the ugliest emotions and there’s many ways to feel it

Library Mojo – Green thumbs and space talks are coming to the Montecito Library

P.55

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

Mini Meta Crossword Puzzles

Local Business Directory – Smart business owners place business cards here so readers know where to look when they need what those businesses offer

“Real

happens one step at a time.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Editorial

It Takes a Crisis to Solve a Crisis

by Gwyn Lurie

At my core I’m an optimist. Not to be confused with a Pollyanna. I try to stay open to ideas and sources of inspiration and innovation that could lead us to a better place –no easy feat.

Which is why I enjoyed (or more accurately, had the enrich ing experience of) reading Ian Bremmer ’s book, The Power of Crisis: How Three Threats – And Our Response – Will Change the World . I personally would have amended Bremmer’s title to read: How Three Threats – And Our Response – Will Change the World.

OR WON’T

Bremmer, a renowned polit ical scientist and author, with a focus on global political risk, is the President and Founder of Eurasia Group, a political risk research and consulting firm. He’s also a founder of the digi tal media firm GZERO Media.

Bremmer serves as a foreign affairs columnist and Editor at Large for Time Magazine and teaches at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

In his New York Times best-selling book, which is unnerving but not without glimmers of hope, Bremmer presents, in the starkest of terms, how domestic and international conflicts leave us unprepared for three looming crises unfolding over the next decade; crises from which we might never come back: global pandemics, transfor mative climate change, and the disruptive technologies that come with the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution.

“Only through such an international format can the U.S., China, the E.U. (as the three most important actors), along with other state and nonstate actors (including the technology firms as stakeholders), ensure that the world safely advances the benefits of one of the greatest achievements of humankind.” – Ian Bremmer

Here’s the real problem: Americans have arrived at a moment when we can’t seem to reach consensus on any significant political issue; and U.S. and Chinese leaders, at the helm of two leading world powers, are behaving like they’re locked in a new Cold War.

Gwyn Lurie is CEO and Executive Editorof the Montecito Journal Media Group

Ian Bremmer will be speaking on November 10 at 7:30 pm at the Granada Theatre

Village Beat

Bee-utiful Montecito!

by Kelly Mahan Herrick

Save the date for this Saturday, November 5, for Montecito Association’s annual Beautification Day! Sponsored in conjunction with the Montecito Community Foundation, the event will be back at the Village Green in front of Tecolote in the Upper Village. The event was canceled in 2020 and was much smaller scale last year in 2021.

Hundreds of volunteers are expected to participate in picking up litter along Montecito’s trails, roads, and beaches, donning special safety vests – rather than t-shirts – and pick-up sticks. The fami ly-friendly event will begin with a con tinental breakfast provided by Andrea Newquist and Jacqueline Duran Participants will then head out to their designated litter site, filling bins provided by MarBorg.

Volunteers will return to the Upper Village green around 11:30 am, when there will be a short awards ceremony before lunch – provided by Montecito Village Grocery and San Ysidro Ranch – which is prepared and served by

Montecito Firefighters. Local school kids have been busy creating their “Bee Kind, Nice, & Happy” artwork, which is cur rently displayed throughout the com munity at Tecolote, the hardware store, and Rori’s and Toy Crazy in Montecito Country Mart. “I am overwhelmed at the amount of artwork we got from local schools,” said Montecito Association Executive Director Sharon Byrne. Kids from Montecito Union School, Cold Spring School, and Our Lady of Mount Carmel participated.

Local organizations will host commu nity tables during the event, including Montecito Water District, Montecito Sanitary, MERRAG, Casa Del Herrero, and more. New this year: live music provided by former American Idol con testant Jackson Gillies. “We’re really excited about adding live music this year,” Byrne said.

Two Citizens of the Year have been announced and will be honored at Beautification Day: local environmental leader Kathi King, who has worked with the Community Environmental Council, served on the Montecito Association Board, and chaired the Village Fourth;

and Mike Clark , the Montecito Water District’s Water Conservation Coordinator. Clark works directly with District residents to help them identify water waste on their property, and use less water during this historic drought.

The Montecito Water District is strongly encouraging customers to reduce water use, and Clark is dispatched to homes to discuss irrigation, drought tolerant land scaping, and more.

This year’s Beautification Day is chaired by Houghton Hyatt and the committee includes Mindy Denson, Michael Edwards, Cindy Feinberg,

Dana Hansen , Berna Kieler , Lisa Waldinger, Sharon Byrne, Andrea Newquist, Jacqueline Duran, Nina Terzian, Jean von Wittenburg, and Patty Rich Zucherman.

The event begins at 9 am in the Upper Village green. For more information, visit montecitoassociation.org.

Here’s the Scoop Closes

This past Monday, Halloween, Here’s the Scoop at Coast Village Plaza closed

Coast 2 Coast Collection

Please Join Us for A Special Holiday Event!

Saturday, November 12 th ~ Noon - 5pm

Noon - 2pm

Nora Fleming will be here to sign serving pieces and giftware! Free butterfly mini with each serving piece purchased. Meet Nora and purchase that special gift for the holiday season which will be personalized at this special event.

Noon - 5pm

Vietri Old St Nick Platters and Gifts will be personalized by our Vietri special guest Anna Giullani. Choose Italian or English phrases of holiday cheer! Vietri 2022 ornament gift with purchase of $200 or more.

Refreshments will be served throughout the day!

Coast 2 Coast Collection

La Arcada Courtyard 1114 State Street, Suite 10 Santa Barbara, CA 93101 (805) 845-7888

www.Coast2CoastCollection.com

Mike Clark and Kathi King are this year’s Citizens of the Year, to be honored at this Saturday’s Beautification Day

Montecito Miscellany

A Spooktacular Circus

Miles Hartfeld, Gretchen Lieff, Judi and Harry Weisbart, and Brendon Twigden at La Lieff tasting room (photo by Priscilla)

by Richard Mineards

It was a spooktacular Halloween weekend when the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History hosted a fearsome fundraiser for adults with all 250 of the $120 tickets being snapped up for a spine-tingling bash, with ghostly halls and spooky woods.

Creatively costumed guests met fright

ful and delightful curiosities around each and every corner and at journey’s end were met with a spectacular finale under the big top, including creative libations from Draughtsmen Aleworks, Cutler’s Artisan Spirits, and Final Girl Wines, and delectable nibbles from The Lark, Solvang Bakery, and DJs California Catering, live music by Joystix, and other dazzling amusements.

Museum staff spent 48 hours work

ing on their ghoulish, spectacular Creep the Halls: Midnight Circus, while the eerie lighting was organized by SPARK Creative Events, with net proceeds sup porting the museum’s nature and science education programs.

As if that wasn’t bewitching enough, it was then off to the Funk Zone for another horrifying party thrown by wine maker Gretchen Lieff, social gadabout Rick Oshay, and Teresa Kuskey Nowak

at the new La Lieff tasting room with 100 guests watching Teresa’s La Boheme dancers going through their energized paces, including the late singer Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”

Among the horror hordes quaffing the vino and noshing on the paella, while ubiquitous TV reporter John Palminteri emceed, were David Bolton

Unparalleled Whole Home Water Purification

La Boheme dancers out and about for Halloween (photo by Priscilla)

Ken Pfeiffer, Lisa Osborn, Nancy Schaak, and Mark Bacino at La Lieff tasting room (photo by Priscilla)

Letters to the Editor

Depend on Gullap-Moore for SBCC Board Trustee

Iam proud to support and endorse Dr. Charlotte Gullap-Moore for Santa Barbara City College Board Trustee TA#1. I have known Charlotte for more than four years, and in that time, I have found her to be an earnest community advocate, an honest person, and always stands up for the disenfran chised in the community. We could use a few more folks like that in politics these days.

I have worked with Charlotte on a number of projects in the communi ty, including as a board member on the Santa Barbara Women’s Political Committee. Charlotte excels at bringing people together to focus on issues, build consensus, and implement solutions.

She will bring an invaluable perspec tive on improving inclusion and equity culture on the college campus. Her experience as both a faculty lecturer of nursing and as a board-certified Adult Nurse Practitioner, will give beneficial insight to the rest of the board with healthy and ethical practices govern ing the execution of our programs and policies. As many of you know by now, California education is under attack. Many in our state would prefer that our colleges become part of the current political culture-polarization, but we can’t let that happen. Our stu dents deserve better, and the future of our state depends on it. We need Dr. Charlotte Gullap-Moore on the Santa Barbara City College Board.

Wendy Eley Jackson

Common Sense on Santa Claus

How about addressing the Santa Claus, Carpinteria, Cannabis outlet issue with a

positive slant, aka common sense. This is NOT about a radical NO vote against Cannabis, as in time we might reasonably come to accept proven medicinal benefits drawn from nature as a good thing. However, given the fact that for decades Cannabis was stigmatized/vilified in every manner and form in the U.S. with thousands prosecuted and jailed for its use, trans portation, or possession – it is rather counter intuitive, surreal, if not amus ing to now see Cannabis exonerated from the blacklist and be championed as a wishful/ hopeful new tax reve nue stream for the county. Yes, Santa Barbara County! One that boasts mul timillion dollar homes contributing to the pot of a one billion-plus per year income from property tax alone. That in itself should warrant priority consideration for our county’s resident homeowners, especially when it comes to help mitigate the inconveniences courtesy of this industrious agro-exper iment known for its stink, or, by recon sidering the accommodation of one of its product outlets to an appropriate location that would NOT disrupt the fragile harmony of place of the oceanside residential and recreational areas of: Toro Canyon, Santa Claus Lane, Padaro Lane, Sandpoint Road, and its respective beaches – all in proximity of suggested Santa Claus Lane ROOTS Cannabis outlet project – also discon certing, the idea that the Cannabis industry expand indiscriminately in communities known for their tradition al qualities, use, and distinctions, and whose attributes are at the very core of its residents’ choice to live there, quali ty of life, attraction, and low-key home artisanal commerce .

This should not become a political tug of war but an opportunity for Santa Barbara supervisors led by Mr. Das Williams to do the right thing for their county, one that over generations has prospered organically in many other ways to benefit its international and renowned image as a world-class destination and residential haven.

Medicinal Cannabis? Why not? How about such outlets be treated and pre sented as such in context and in loca tions that would benefit that industry and the community it pretends to serve? A win/win – not as drive-through “pit stops” for whatever effect and pur pose cannabis derivatives (CBD/THC Gummies, tinctures etc.) may provide – some of which are whimsically and powerfully mind altering (I’ll admit, by personal experience) and when con sumed out of a safe context, become a potential danger to their users and those around them. In Santa Claus’ case, thinking of the already precarious 101, frontage road traffic, and beach front activities.

In a nutshell, it’s all about county administrators’ common sense, their vision for the future, respecting their constituents and homeowners’ comfort zones, and not least, the preservation of these low-key nooks and their positive attributes acquired over generations, and cautiously opening the doors to new ways while not getting too intoxicated – mean while, let us beware and not skip up on potential banana peels!

Mr. Williams, County Supervisors –Thank you for your attention and recon sideration.

John Edward Heaton Carpinteria resident

Grateful Rosanne Crawford is Running

As a mother of four daughters, I am so grateful that Rosanne Crawford is running for the Santa Barbara Board of Education! We need more people, like Rosanne, on the school board who

strongly believe in improving literacy outcomes and keeping the school board accountable. We all know it is wrong when the current school board resisted videotaping their meetings for the pub lic. I know Rosanne Crawford will make school board meetings more accessible and transparent.

Tatiana Fenkner

MONTECITO TIDE GUIDE

Day Low Hgt High Hgt Low Hgt High Hgt Low Hgt

Thurs, Nov 3 12:39 AM 0.0 7:25 AM 4.9 01:09 PM 2.0 06:54 PM 4.9

Fri, Nov 4 1:21 AM 0.1 7:54 AM 5.4 01:57 PM 1.1 07:51 PM 4.9

Sat, Nov 5 1:57 AM 0.4 8:22 AM 5.8 02:40 PM 0.5 08:41 PM 4.8

Sun, Nov 6 2:29 AM 0.7 7:49 AM 6.1 02:21 PM 0.0 08:28 PM 4.6

Mon, Nov 7 1:58 AM 1.1 8:15 AM 6.2 02:59 PM -0.3 09:12 PM 4.3

Tues, Nov 8 2:26 AM 1.6 8:41 AM 6.3 03:36 PM -0.4 09:57 PM 4.1

Weds, Nov 9 2:51 AM 2.1 9:07 AM 6.2 04:14 PM -0.4 010:43 PM 3.8

Thurs, Nov 10 3:16 AM 2.4 9:34 AM 6.0 04:53 PM -0.2 011:36 PM 3.5

Fri, Nov 11 3:39 AM 2.8 10:02 AM 5.7 05:37 PM 0

Executive Editor/CEO | Gwyn Lurie gwyn@montecitojournal.net

President/COO | Timothy Lennon Buckley

tim@montecitojournal.net VP, Sales & Marketing | Leanne Wood

leanne@montecitojournal.net

Managing Editor | Zach Rosen zach@montecitojournal.net

Art/Production Director | Trent Watanabe

Office Manager | Jessikah Moran

Graphic Design/Layout | Stevie Acuña

Account Managers | Sue Brooks, Tanis Nelson, Elizabeth Nadel, Bryce Eller

Contributing Editor | Kelly Mahan Herrick Copy Editor | Lily Buckley Harbin Proofreading | Helen Buckley Arts and Entertainment | Steven Libowitz

Contributors | Scott Craig, Ashleigh Brilliant, Kim Crail, Tom Farr, Chuck Graham, Stella Haffner, Mark Ashton Hunt, Dalina Michaels, Sharon Byrne, Robert Bernstein, Christina Favuzzi, Leslie Zemeckis, Sigrid Toye Gossip | Richard Mineards

History | Hattie Beresford

Humor | Ernie Witham

Our Town/Society | Joanne A Calitri Travel | Jerry Dunn, Leslie Westbrook Food & Wine | Claudia Schou, Gabe Saglie

Published by: Montecito Journal Media Group, LLC

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 G, Montecito, CA 93108.

How to reach us: (805) 565-1860; FAX: (805) 969-6654; Montecito Journal, 1206 Coast Village Circle, Suite G, Montecito, CA 93108; EMAIL: tim@ montecitojournal.net

“The vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have.” – John Lewis

Here’s the Scoop is closing but plans to reopen as a new concept

its doors, just nine months after own ers Ellie and Bob Patterson sold the business to a new owner. According to an employee at the shop, the business will be closed until January, when it will reopen as a different concept.

Rumor has it that the new concept will be a nostalgic pharmacy or drug store, complete with an ice cream counter in order to keep the “Scoops” memory alive. We’ll have more on the new concept from the owner, who wishes to remain out of the spotlight, in a future edition.

Here’s the Scoop was a Montecito staple for nearly 18 years, offering daily house-made gelato and sorbet based on seasonal produce and flavors. The shop opened on April 2, 2004, in the lower level of the Plaza. Back then, the intox icating scent of homemade waffle cones would waft up to Coast Village Road, luring customers down the stairs to the sunken patio. In 2017, the shop moved to the main level, attracting more foot traffic and positioned to be the go-to place for something sweet after dinner on Coast Village.

Cannabis Appeal Denied

On Tuesday, November 1, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to deny an appeal of the approval of a Coastal Development Permit to operate a cannabis retail store, Roots Carpinteria, on Santa Claus Lane. The appeal was made by a group of aggrieved neighbors and the public call ing themselves Preserve Access on Santa Claus Lane, as well as Steven Kent. The appellants were represented by attorney Jana Zimmer

The appellants cited seven appeal

issues, which included conflicts with Coastal Act policy, traffic and parking issues, the proxim ity to youth-serving programs, inadequate traffic and park ing analysis, inadequate review under CEQA, incompatibility with the surrounding area, and other items which the shop’s owners and managers, as well as County staff, refuted.

The store secured approv al for a CDP by the Santa Barbara Planning Commission in September to operate on Santa Claus Lane. The project includes interior building improve ments and minor changes to the exterior of the cur rently vacant location, which was most recently occupied by an art gallery. Tenant improvements proposed to the interior of the building include a check-in area, a retail area with restroom, a service counter and payment area, a secure cannabis stor age room, an office, an employee break area, a janitor’s closet, a server room, and a secured cannabis intake area. Windows will be frosted for security and privacy. The property includes 12 on-site parking spaces, six of which will be dedicated (by sig nage posted on site) to on-site Roots employees and customers. Hours of operation will be from 9 am to 9 pm, seven days a week.

The appeal was not unexpected according to Luis Castaneda, direc tor of retail operations for Roots Carpinteria. “Our goal has always been to remove the negative stigma associ ated with cannabis and show how a dispensary can operate with integrity and can be positive members of the community,” he said during the Board of Supervisors hearing, adding that Roots opened a dispensary in Lompoc in 2019 much to neighbors’ chagrin, but has slowly gained the trust and respect of the community. The com pany is owned by Pat and Maire Radis , Victor Sanchez , Castaneda, Beth Thuna, and David Garcia

For more information about the proj ect, call (805) 637-9699.

Boost Your Immunity This Cold & Flu Season

It’s that time of year again: flu and cold season. Though catching a cold during this time of year may seem unavoidable, there are steps you can take to fortify your immune system and lessen your vulnerability.

1. Establish a regular sleep routine

A good night’s sleep is essential to health and immunity at any time of year, but it’s espe cially important when you are feeling under the weather. Scientific evidence supports the wisdom of prioritizing sleep over other activities; for example, a study involving 153 men and women found that those who had shorter sleep duration in the weeks preceding expo sure to a rhinovirus (fancy talk for a cold) were more susceptible to the virus. According to the study, your chances of getting a cold increase if you get less than seven hours of sleep per night (which also increases your risk for cardiovascular illnesses).

2. Don’t skip your vitamin C

This is tried and true advice, but it’s still good to be reminded: Get enough vitamin C. So, why does vitamin C play such a crucial role in boosting the immune system? Vitamin C promotes the generation of Lymphocytes2, a type of white blood cell that helps fight off infections caused by bacteria and viruses. Vitamin C also aids in the “eating” and destruction of harmful microbes by neutrophils3, another type of white blood cell. Keep track of the Vitamin C rich foods you eat or take a Vitamin C sup plement to make sure you are getting enough.

3. Keep stress to a minimum

It’s not easy to simply “stop” stressing, regardless of whether your main source of stress is your job, your relationships, your finances, or whatever else. However, there are some activities that have been shown to help alleviate some of that stress, which is actually crucial for maintaining a healthy immune system that can effectively fight off colds.

Stress suppresses your immune response because it causes your body to produce the hormone cortisol, physician Heather Moday, M.D. explained to mindbodygreen “Cortisol itself interferes with the ability of specific white blood cells called T-cells to proliferate and get signals from the body,” she said. “In addition, cortisol also lowers an important antibody called secretory IgA, which lines the respiratory tract and gut and is our first line of defense against invading pathogens.”

Kelly Mahan Herrick, also a licensed realtor with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, has been editor at large for the Journal since 2007, reporting on news in Montecito and beyond.

Our Town Halloween Roundup Montecito Country Mart Annual Halloween Fest

by Joanne A Calitri

The Montecito Country Mart held its annual Halloween festivities on Sunday, October 30, from 1 to 5 pm. The pumpkin patch in the center of the mart was the main area of gathering for kids and parents in costume. Kristin Teufel, manager of the mart for J.S. Rosenfield & Company, organized the event and helping her with taking polaroid photos of any child who wanted to enter the costume contest was Véronique Létourneau of KULE. Pitching in at the T.W. Hollister complimentary spritzer bar was retail consultant Kelly Finefrock of KULE, bedecked in rhinestones and rubies with bestie Elizabeth Raith dressed as The Devil Wears Prada. Costumes ranged from Ghostbusters to Ginsburg. Contact the mart for the best costume and pumpkin weight winners.

Community Voices National Climate Progress Takes Local Climate Action

by Salud Carbajal and Sigrid Wright

The two of us have joined forces with many others in our community on a clear mission. We are running a race to protect a fundamental aspect of life on Earth: a safe, livable climate.

A year ago, we heard the global community of scientists issue an unequivocal alarm bell by deeming our climate crisis a code red for humanity. We also heard their evi denced-based timeframe for action: one short decade.

The message is clear: we need to pick up the pace.

The good news is that our community and our country are doing just that. We are now experiencing the strongest tailwinds for climate progress that the United States has ever had thanks to historic action in Congress as well as bold moves by the California Legislature.

Over the past year, we’ve gotten the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law signed into law, creating the largest investment in climate solutions in our nation’s history. These two laws put America on track to cut our carbon emissions more than 40% by 2030.

The climate agenda we’ve seen signed into law allocates more than $360 billion to improve climate resilience up and down our coast, with a particular focus on disad vantaged communities.

This will translate into a vast expansion of renewable electricity and energy storage capacity: installing 950 million solar panels, 120,000 wind turbines, and 2,000 grid scale battery plants in the coming years.

These new laws also mean a commitment of over $170 billion in transit, EV buses, and charging infrastructure. Consumers will see tax rebates to buy electric vehicles: $4,000 for used vehicle purchases and up to $7,500 for new ones.

While massive in scope, Congressional passage of these bills is only the first step. We need local action to turn this investment into actual on-the-ground progress. Nearly half of all climate action takes place at the local, regional, and neighborhood level.

Fortunately, the Community Environmental Council (CEC), which has led the way on environmental solutions for more than 50 years, is implementing a laser-focused plan for unrelenting, rapid, and inclusive climate action in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties.

The first line of defense is to secure a rapid, equitable transition to 100% clean, renewable electricity without leaving anyone behind – supporting the Americans cur rently employed by the fossil fuel sector with the training and opportunities they need to thrive in our renewable energy economy.

This is more viable now than ever before. Finally, there’s been a long overdue economic shift away from fossil fuels, giving clean energy a long-lasting competitive advantage. Locally, we are on a glide path to 100% renewable electricity by 2030, about 15 years ahead of state targets.

Second, we need to propel a rapid transition to clean, zero-emission transportation and buildings that run on an increasingly green grid. For example, the County of Santa Barbara is developing an Electric Vehicle (EV) Action Plan and committed to purchasing only EV light duty vehicles like sedans and trucks. We encourage other local governments to follow suit.

A third part of the plan is to help nature do what it does best: cycle carbon by bringing climate-smart agriculture to scale. Over the last five years, CEC has elevated sequestration as a major opportunity by supporting carbon farming pilots on multi ple sites across Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. State law is now propelling this work by offering meaningful incentives for farmers and ranchers to improve their

climate-smart practices to help protect natural resources for generations to come.

As federal legislation emphasizes, a central part of our charge is to ensure that society more fully includes community members who have traditionally been left out of some of the benefits of the green economy – or left out of the decision making about what a climate safe future might look like. Often the people who are least responsible for climate change are burdened with a greater share of the impacts. With support from the state, CEC has recently begun a neighborhood level air monitoring project in Guadalupe that will include data collection and analysis of air quality, wildfire smoke, and pesticide exposure. This information will be shared with the community, so that they can better understand and respond to air quality dynamics and health effects.

Clearly the climate crisis is too complex and too big to be solved by an infusion of government funding or a single organization with a mandate to implement. It is about mobilizing people and resources and ensuring that people see that the climate crisis is an immediate, real, and present danger that affects just about every issue you care about. It’s because of organizations like CEC that everyday citizens become cli mate stewards and climate leaders, showing up to ensure we preserve our region for generations to come.

If you aren’t running with us already, now is the time to join the race for a safe and livable climate. The road ahead is challenging, but in 2022 the wind is at our back.

Salud Carbajal is the U.S. Representative for California’s 24th Congressional District, representing Santa Barbara County and portions of San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties. He was first elected in 2016. Prior to his service in Congress, he served for 12 years on the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors.

Sigrid Wright is Executive Director/ CEO of the Community Environmental Council (CEC) with 30 years of experience in environmental advocacy. In 2022 she was named Congressional Woman of the Year; and in 2020 CEC was recognized as a California Nonprofit of the Year and City of Santa Barbara Climate Hero.

SANTA BARBARA HOPE RANCH MONTECITO

and Gonzalo Sarmiento , Donna Reeves, Miles Hartfeld, Lisa Osborn, Lynn Kirst, Edie Caldwell, Brendon Twigden, Kathryn and Peter Martin, Mark Whitehurst and Kerry Methner, Mike and Debbie Stoker, and Adam McKaig and Melissa Borders

A fright-fully good night...

Remembering Ridley-Tree

Montecito uber philanthropist Leslie Ridley-Tree, who died at the age of 97 last month, was remembered at a packed funeral service at All Saints-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, which she had attend ed for decades, that was also live streamed. Leslie, whose bountiful parties I attend ed for more than a decade at her homes on Hot Springs Road and, latterly, Birnam Wood, supported myriad local organiza tions over the years, including the Music Academy, the Dream Foundation, Santa Barbara City College, the Santa Barbara Symphony, Westmont College, Santa Barbara Zoo, and Sansum Clinic.

Polo Lessons Available

Prince Harry’s polo playing pal Nacho Figueras is now part of a Neiman Marcus

Christmas present – for a price!

For $295,000 the legendary Texas emporium – known as Needless Markup by Dallas denizens – is offering a twonight stay at the St. Regis in Aspen, Colorado, with a private Argentinian Asado dinner by chef Agustin Mallmann, whose father is a top restau rateur in Buenos Aires.

Figueras, model for Ralph Lauren’s Polo brand, and millionairess Melissa Ganzi, both of whom play at the Santa Barbara Polo Club, will provide pri vate lessons for the buyer and up to 11 friends at the members-only Aspen Valley Polo Club.

For the star-studded polo event, the VIP tickets include membership of the exclusive invitation-only Neiman Marcus tent, with champagne and canapés as you watch the chukkers.

The buyer will also receive a custom Casablanca polo jersey emblazoned with his or her name, another polo shirt worn and signed by Figueras, and a profession al photo with the championship players in their team gear.

No word yet if Figueras comes wrapped in a bow...

A Prized Piece

Santa Barbara’s United Nations Association has awarded the local non profit ShelterBox USA, which has helped with more than 100 disasters in over 100 countries since 2000, its sixth annual Peace Prize.

Current deployments include Ukraine, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Syria.

Kerri Murray , president of ShelterBox, which was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 and 2019, accepted the crystal award from Santa Barbara City Council member Kristen Sneddon and a colorful proclamation from Congressman Salud Carbajal at a fun fête at Pascucci, the lower State Street eatery.

Guests, including documentary maker Leslie Zemeckis, John Glanville, and Kerrilee Gore, all received a copy of

Fan photo of Joystix band members getting ready for a bone-chilling evening at the museum

Prince Harry’s polo playing friend Nacho Figueras (center) available for Yuletide (photo by Priscilla)

A FESTIVE

Thanksgiving

Enjoy a crafted 4-course pre-fixed dinner featuring locally sourced ingredients thoughtfully crafted for the occasion.

5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Adults $125 Children 4 to 12 Years $55

Limited à la carte menu also available.

A prix-fixe menu featuring Chef Massimo’s holiday classics, including seasonal ingredients harvested by local farmers.

11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Adults $125 Children 4 to 12 Years $55

CHANDELIER BALLROOM

Honor traditions with a memorable Thanksgiving gathering on the coast featuring holiday classics accompanied by festive activities for children.

FIRST SEATING

Buffet available from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

SECOND SEATING

Buffet available from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Adults $165

Children 4 to 12 Years $65

Prices exclude tax and gratuity. Complimentary for children 4 and under.

FOR RESERVATIONS,

6169 1759 S. JAMESON

MONTECITO, CA

But we have multiple opponents, not the least of which is ourselves. The result being that we are squandering opportunities to meet the challenges that will soon confront us all. What we need, according to Bremmer, is “a crisis scary enough to make us forge a new international system that pro motes effective cooperation on a few crucial questions.”

“G-Zero” is the term Bremmer uses to describe the world in which we find ourselves, where we lack leaders willing or able to break up fights and force compromise even in the name of global stability, shared benefit, and indeed human survival. And unfortu nately, we see the same thing in our domestic politics even when our lives and those of our children and grand children depend on such cooperation. “In truth,” Bremmer says, “there’s no guarantee our world will survive the next fifty years.”

Even for perennial optimists, that’s terrifying. The author’s entirely rea sonable solutions involve such basic things (we all should have learned in grade school) like government action, self-sacrifice, and tolerance of opposing opinions, all of which are in short supply at the moment. I wondered what gives Bremmer, one of the greatest minds exploring international affairs, hope that this can change given the deep divisions that exist between the U.S. and its adversaries, like China and Russia and Iran; not to mention deepening political divisions within our own country with a growing call for a more nationalistic agenda.

Bremmer does deliver some good news, however. Like that some farsighted political leaders, decision-makers, and individual citizens are hard at work collaborating to tackle the crises. What keeps me awake, what should keep all of us awake, is whether they will work well enough and quickly enough to navigate us toward a better world before it’s too late?

Bremmer is deeply engaged in this important work and on a world tour for his best-selling book. Which is why I was given the opportunity to ask just one question.

What I wanted to ask: How could I possibly ask just one question when you’re saying the world is at risk of ending in the next 50 years?

My Question: The us vs. them mentality between the U.S. and China (regarding technological competition) in many ways mirrors the us vs. them mentality seen in our deep political divisions. You say that finding and sharing accurate information can be the difference between life and death. Do you see any way of establishing an agreed upon set of facts and a shared understanding of what’s at stake for our world so that countries like the U.S. and China can begin to collaborate at least toward finding solutions?

Bremmer’s answer: You are right that the us vs. them mentality (unfortunately) trans lates to and epitomizes the world’s two largest economies as well as domestic politics in the United States. The unprecedented technological advances of the last decade have only exacerbated this process of alienation. However, that was not always the case. Rapid expansion of social media, online presence among developing and even least developed societies, and accessibility to internet in real time by individuals virtually across the globe some 15-20 years ago, initially brought a wave of optimism. Accountability, almost instant flow of information, and rallying of bottom up, grassroots movements enabled democracy promotion thanks to the emerging technologies such as fast internet, smartphones, and social media. It also helped pave the way out of poverty to millions, on every continent.

Soon, nondemocratic and hybrid regimes caught up, adapted, and started using these technological advances, binding them to highly controlled and censored envi ronments, and influencing and mobilizing largest amounts of people. To your ques tion, we do have to ensure the technological advances don’t come back to bite us. Fact checking, listening to, and engaging in a respectful debate with the other side, breaking the echo-chambers, are some of the ways that we can enhance our online experience. And this individual behavior can indeed save us a lot of friendships, nerves, and lives. But that’s just one variable, a part of the solution.

The second variable lies within the institutions, again – domestic and interna tional. From regulating the big technological firms – the European Union is on the forefront of this process – to creating an international body that would address

MASTERSERIES AT THE LOBERO THEATRE

7:30PM

HÉLÈNE GRIMAUD, piano

Internationally acclaimed French pianist Hélène Grimaud returns to the Lobero stage for a transformative recital performance featuring Schumann’s Kreisleriana, Op.16, along with a selection of evanescent miniatures by Chopin, Debussy, Satie, and Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov, which, in Grimaud’s own words, “conjure atmospheres of fragile reflection, a mirage of what was—or what could have been.”

Sponsor: Alison & Jan Bowlus Co-Sponsors: CAMA Women’s Board • Nancy & Byron K. Wood

Concert Partners: Stephen Cloud • Raye Haskell Melville • Maureen & Les Shapiro

(805)

COMMUNITY ARTS MUSIC ASSOCIATION OF SANTA BARBARA

The Power of Crisis: How Three Threats – And Our Response – Will Change the World is available now

Susan Keller for Montecito Fire Protection District Board

BY

WHO KNOW SUSAN AND RECOGNIZE HER SKILLS!

• Chip Hickman – Fire Chief, Montecito Fire Protection District, retired

• Pat McElroy – Fire Chief, City of Santa Barbara Fire Department, retired; Executive Director, Partnership for a Resilient Community

• Salud Carbajal – Congressman, 24th District

• Das Williams – Santa Barbara County Supervisor, 1st District

• Gregg Hart – Santa Barbara County Supervisor, 2nd District; candidate for State Assembly, 37th District

• Hannah-Beth Jackson – State Senator, 19th District, retired

PARTIAL LIST:

Peggy Anderson, David Bates, Stephen Forrest Beck, Darlene Bierig, Maria & Stephen Black, J’Amy Brown, Susan & Claude Case, Marcia Cohen, Joe Cole, Gillian Conway, Ann Daniel, Jane & Bruce Defnet, Jordan Feldman, Jan Fisher, Hannelore Foraker, Tish Gainey, Susan Miles Gulbransen, Barbara Hill & William Volero, Ashley Hollister, Victoria Jackson, June & Jorgen Kjaempe, Drs. Nancy & Jeff Kupperman, Dawn & David Ligon, Christine & Bruce Lyon, Debra Manchester & Don MacMannis, Val & Bob Montgomery, Diane Morgan, Susan F. Petrovich, Lily Phillips, Marla McNally Phillips, Carol & Ned Quackenbush, Norma Jean Shaw, Dr. Myron Shapero, Susan K. Silver, Marcia Smith & Joel Ungar, Lynne Sprecher, Pru & Rob Sternin, Anne S. Towbes, Lauren & Michael Weithorn, Medeighnia Westwick, Candace White, Lisa & Dr. Glen Wysel.

Housing Updates

Press Conference on Affordable Housing in Santa Barbara County

by Joanne A Calitri

An impromptu press conference with U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) Region IX Administrator Jason Pu was held on October 26, at the Santa Barbara Housing Authority Offices on Laguna Street. Rounding out the HUD support were state and local politicians Congressman Salud Carbajal, City of Goleta Councilmember James Kyriaco MPA, and First District Supervisor Das Williams. Representing HUD and affiliate organizations working with the issues were Executive Director/ CEO of Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara Rob Fredericks, Assistant Regional Administrator for Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Hal Zawacki, and Senior Regional Advisor of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness Helene Schneider. Prior to the press con ference, Pu was given a tour of local housing units El Carrillo, Johnson Court, Vera Cruz Village, the Gardens on Hope, Dignity Moves, the Super 8 Motel, the Pescadero Lofts, and Hedges House of Hope.

Pu was announced to his HUD posi

tion by President Biden on December 29, 2021. He served twice as mayor of the City of San Gabriel, California, is a business attorney, and founded an independent Asian Pacific American Community record label – jd8 Records, LLC. He holds a JD from UCLA and BS in Psychology from Stanford University.

His statement at the press conference was under five minutes as he presented strategic points on housing issues and federal funding. Pu stated, “The FY23 Federal Budget proposes $50 billion in mandatory funding for housing and additional Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. Today, I saw a lot of examples of local housing projects where there is a lot of collaboration to solve homeless ness and housing crisis issues. We at the Federal government are standing with you with funding to make those projects happen. Community members may not notice these projects are there because they are beautiful projects anyone would be proud to live in and anybody would be happy to live next to. The projects are a collaboration with the public housing authorities, the City, and County to

Angie Huff, Architect

Jason Pu addresses attendees at the press conference on housing in Santa Barbara (photo by Joanne A Calitri)

Housing Authority Page 284

From left, Congressman Salud Carbajal, Rob Fredericks, Helene Schneider, Das Williams, James Kyriaco, Jason Pu, and Hal Zawacki (photo by Joanne A Calitri)

Your Westmont Christmas Festival Returns to Granada

by Scott Craig photography by Brad Elliott

The 18th annual Westmont Christmas Festival, The Prince of Peace, returns to Santa Barbara’s

Granada Theatre Saturday, December 3, at 7 pm and Sunday, December 4, at 3 pm. Tickets, which cost $22 each, go on sale Thursday, November 3, at 5 pm at westmont.edu/

festival. For ticket information or to pur chase tickets by phone, please contact the Granada box office at (805) 899-2222.

For many, Christmas in Santa Barbara begins with the festival, which celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ through an inspiring presentation with a theme, a narrative, and Christmas music from around the world and throughout the centuries, deepening our understanding of this holy season.

“In a broken world where there is con stant conflict and strife, it can feel over

whelming and hopeless at times,” says Ruth Lin, who conducts the Westmont Orchestra and chairs the college’s music department. “We hope that this year’s Christmas Festival will remind all of us that a Prince of Peace was promised, has come, and will come again.”

The festive event features the Westmont Orchestra, College Choir, Chamber Singers, and Choral Union.

Lin, who has worked with orchestras and conductors from around the world, says her choice of music holds both edu cational and thematic meanings. “Most importantly, our musical choice serves to advance the musicianship of our students as it also ties into the theme of Christmas,” she says. “It’s an examination of how com

posers throughout the ages have thought about and expressed their ideas of hope.”

This is Lin’s first Westmont Christmas Festival, overseeing three choirs, one orchestra, 100 students, and at least four different speakers. “We’ve been planning this for months, and I look forward to having our vision realized and sharing it with the community,” she says. “I cannot wait to hear our students in the Granada and seeing the faces of the audience as they take in the entire program.”

Alumnus Daniel Gee , Westmont director of choral activities and director of the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony, will conduct the Westmont College

Daniel Gee conducts the College Choir at last year’s festival

Ruth Lin makes her festival debut conducting the orchestra

POLITICAL PERSPECTIVES

Here

at the Montecito Journal, we have long believed in offering a variety of views, letting each side have its space to speak. In light of the upcoming election, two of our longtime contributors have written in on what they think you should consider when heading to the ballot box this November 8.

With Rinaldo S. Brutoco on the Left and Bob Hazard on the Right...

Read on to find what each side would like to say.

Fear vs. Real Economics:

of the Cliff Dead Ahead Republicans, We Have a Problem

by Rinaldo S. Brutoco

The word on most voters’ lips these days is “Inflation.” In some ways that is understandable. People are still reeling from the inflationary shocks that began to hit the U.S. economy in

April 2021. We need to understand what caused current inflation to be able to engineer our way out of it with minimal damage.

We can’t afford to be the prover bial ostrich with our head in the sand. We have to understand how we

by Bob Hazard

Nationwide, Democrats hold a 10-point edge in regis tered voters, 39% to 29% over Republicans. Republicans can stay competitive, but only

if they offer a compelling message to attract a substantial majority of the 29% of Americans registered as Independent voters.

In California, the reality is differ ent – a whopping 47% of voters are registered as Democrats, compared to

MullerMonthlyMusicMeta

http://www.pmxwords.com

similartoaNYTimesWednesdayorThursdaypuzzle.Tofinish thepuzzle,solversneedtofigureoutthemeta,whichisusuallya songorband.SolvershaveuntilSundayat11pmtosubmittheir answertothemeta.

“Democracy

Rinaldo S. Brutoco, an entrepreneur, is the founding president and CEO of the Santa Barbara-based World Business Academy and a co-founder of JUST Capital

Mr. Hazard is a guest columnist of this paper and a former president and ceo of two of the five largest hotel franchise chains in the world.

Nosh Town Evan Kleiman Talks Food and Why Nigella Lawson Has Earned Culinary Diva-dom

Santa Barbara by the Glass

The Ultimate Paddle Party: Santa Barbara Vintners’ Charitable Gala Returns

by Claudia Schou

Come see “An Evening with Nigella Lawson” on Saturday, November 12 at 7:30 pm at the Granada Theatre, as the global food icon converses with KCRW’s Evan Kleiman about her new cookbook and the meals, people, and experiences that shaped her life. I had the chance to recently chat with Kleiman about the upcoming event and Nigella’s influence on the food world.

Q. Usually when a celebrity comes to town you read an article about the celebrity, not the person interviewing the celebrity, which is what you will be doing next week for UC Santa Barbara’s Arts & Lectures series when culinary diva Nigella Lawson comes to town. I should also note

that you’re a culinary celebrity too with a wildly popular radio show (KCRW’s Good Food) and cookbook author, which makes you uniquely qualified to be the one onstage with Nigella.

A. I’ve interviewed Nigella four times over the past 15 years or so and we always enjoy the conversation, which is why I think I was asked to do the in-person interview. All my radio inter views start as 30-minute conversations that are then edited down. But inter viewing someone in person in front of an audience is so much richer. There is more time, more laughter, and the energy from the audience brings addi tional thoughts out of the person being interviewed. It’s such a treat for me.

Where does Nigella fit in the sphere of Ina Garten, Martha Stewart, and even

by Gabe Saglie

Winemaker phenom Bryan Babcock is throwing open the doors to his Montecito estate. The exclusive invite includes a five-night stay for six people at what’s affectionally dubbed Villa Flora, a captivating property located just three minutes from Miramar Beach that features Mediterranean architecture and elegant gardens. Guests will also be treated to a Spanish-inspired dinner prepared by executive chef Sergei Simonov of Loquita, a Santa Barbara standout, and chauffeur service to the Santa Ynez Valley to taste and mingle at Babcock Winery with the wine maker himself. The lucky winners go home with a curated selection of wines, including a jeroboam of Babcock pinot noir. And it can all be yours, if the price is right.

This special Babcock experience is one of dozens of sumptuous lifestyle lots that are part of this year’s Santa Barbara Wine Auction, taking place across wine country and at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara Resort on November 11 and 12. The biennial gala is the event of record for the Santa Barbara Vintners Foundation, a philanthropic team of local winery leaders that has raised mil lions of dollars in the last 20-plus years for area charities, primarily Direct Relief International (DRI). But the altruistic focus has expanded in the last two years and now earmarks substantial funds for Santa Barbara County farmworkers, too.

“I am a Latina, and I have such great respect for all vineyard workers,” says Jessica Gasca, the creative behind the Los Olivos-based Story of Soil wine label and president of the Santa Barbara

Vintners Foundation since 2018. “We have such an important relationship with them, and so I took it to the board – that we could leverage the auction to bring healthcare directly to our vineyards.”

Fact is, the women and men who work the fields where wine grapes grow are often in the shadows. Theirs is an ongoing contri bution that crescendos during the fall har vest but keeps them connected to the land throughout the year-round growing season.

A critical cog in the winemaking wheel, but one that readily goes unseen. For many of these workers – people whose immigration status can remain in perpetual limbo – stay ing in the shadows is a safety mechanism, really, but one that can deliver dangerous consequences to their medical welfare.

“So many in the vineyard working community don’t go see doctors, they don’t go in for preventative medicine, they don’t feel comfortable putting their names down on paper and filling out forms,” says Gasca. So, two years ago – the 2020 Auction took place, ser endipitously, in February, right before

The 2020 Santa Barbara Wine Auction reeled in funds that went on to support commu nity outreach efforts by Direct Relief and Community Health Centers

Actors Jane Lynch and Montecito resident Billy Baldwin added star power to the 2020 Santa Barbara Wine Auction

Evan Kleiman of KCRW’s Good Food will be interviewing Nigella Lawson at the Granada for UCSB Arts & Lectures

arrived here if we want to get past this place of lingering inflation. There is a trade-off that the Biden administra tion has resisted implementing that could augment FED policy to bring inflation down much more quickly. However, this approach would cause rapid increases in unemployment.

Economic historians know that the rapid rise of inflation starting 20 months ago came from the pent-up demand that arose during the pandem ic. This catchup demand completely overwhelmed international trade capa bilities. Supply chains for almost all goods became hopelessly backed up, triggering an immediate, and persistent run up in prices.

For instance: California watched as 83 ships lined up outside the Port of Long Beach/Los Angeles with no ability to quick ly unload. That drove prices up further to account for the dramatic and massive increases in all sea freight, which in turn drove the price of other types of cargo.

At that point, President Biden could have elected to withhold the mas sive amount of direct stimulus checks that he unleashed from around June 2021. These stimulus checks were not the cause of inflation; the global sup ply chain mess was. The checks were designed to put money in every con sumer’s pocket so they could afford to keep buying in the face of the rising prices. President Biden believed that putting that money into the pockets of average consumers would prevent the inflation spiral from locking middle class families out of the buying cycle needed to emerge from the pandemic.

It worked brilliantly. Household incomes went up, job creation acceler ated, unemployment went down, and the economy started to “hum” even as it continued to be hobbled by a wide swath of pandemic-caused death and economic retraction.

All that extra money shooting into the economy would have temporari ly increased inflation but the benefits achieved by the amount it raised average household savings – even while purchas ing picked up dramatically – stabilized the middle class in a way that was essen tial to restoring economic balance.

Unfortunately, unforeseen geopolitical events sent the world economy in a dif ferent direction. In January 2022, Russia massed the largest land army since World War II on the borders of Ukraine. This sent the oil and gas markets shooting up. Then, in February, Russia actually invaded Ukraine, causing a further spike in fossil fuel prices. Those dramatic price increases (a gallon of gas in Montecito went over $7/gallon) in turn spiked increases in prices first at the grocery store and then in every sector of the econ omy as fuel costs to transport all goods became the primary driver of inflation.

One could legitimately fault Biden for taking too long to tap the Strategic

Petroleum Reserve, and for tapping it too lightly initially, because the signal he want ed to send was far too meek to be heard in the oil capitals of the world. And, one could fault Biden for sending too little weaponry to Ukraine (particularly for air defense) as had he been more forceful the war in Ukraine might not have been as harsh as it got nor as deadly for civilians. Even with those criticisms, however, it is clear that U.S. support and that of virtually the entire world is going to produce a victory for Ukraine sometime in 2023.

The price increases in groceries and virtually everything that travels by truck across America, together with the stimu lus spending, led to more inflation and an overdue increase in the average wage. Is this a full “wage-price” spiral in the classical sense? No, it isn’t.

The current situation has several eco nomic factors working in tandem: the increase in prices – or inflation; a real increase in wages and average household disposable income; and now interest rates that have been increasing which drives everything – particularly housing – to increase costs, which will be corrected by downward adjustments in the “hot” housing market.

So, was the trade-off to higher infla tion in order to restore economic activity and restore the purchasing power of the middle class? You bet it was! Look at the U.S. compared to any other developed economy, and it is clear how much better the Biden policies were than those of other nations.

China’s growth rate continues to be less than a third of its historical rates for the last several decades and appears likely to fall further. Europe is in recession, due to the dramatic increase in energy costs brought about solely as a result of Putin’s actions to weaponize fossil fuel in his los ing invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, the U.S. is continuing to add jobs while the economy keeps growing.

Here’s something you can safely bet on: if the U.S.A. maintains its support of weapons for Ukraine, Russia will clearly have lost the war by March, 2023. Why? Because the almost total cut off from Russian gas and oil to Europe together with the cessation of any shipping of grain from Ukraine ports (which are now blocked once again), will produce a freezing cold, very hungry, European continent. It will be like what George Washington had to survive at Valley Forge – but Europe will survive.

Given the necessity Russia forced on the western world to more rapidly move away from fossil fuels, the total reliance on historical Russian imports will plum met. Russia will find fewer customers for its oil, and the international price of oil will come down as soon as it is apparent that Putin’s fossil fuel blackmail failed to win him the war.

This winter in Europe is Putin’s “last hurrah.” All the barrels he does sell after March will be at a much lower price as

Europe emerges with more energy inde pendence, and global oil prices continue to fall. Gas prices at the pump have been falling for the past seven months. The current price for gas in our area is $5.57/ gallon. That price is almost certain to drop further after Russia loses its “game of chicken” with Europe this winter.

Getting Inflation Under Control

So, what do we need to do to bring inflation under control? The FED clearly has a role to play. However, monetary policy by the FED is only a part of the necessary policies. What are those policies?

1) First and foremost, we must ensure that Putin fails with his attempt to weap onize fossil fuel and that Europe survives a very harsh winter but emerges – from an energy perspective – stronger than ever. That will put further downward pressure on international oil prices for many years into the future.

2) We must preserve the Biden’s admin istration’s policies to cap insulin prices for all Medicare recipients. Furthermore, we need to preserve the newly won right for Medicare to negotiate drug prices with Big Pharma. This in itself will bring drug prices down by 20-40 percent as those prices become the established range for all non-Medicare purchases as well. It is a scandal that drugs made in the U.S. sell for up to 40 percent more here than they cost in Europe, where they are imported and sold for far less.

3) We need to preserve the massive incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) for stimulating climate change solu tions by accelerating the growth of renew able energy sources like wind, solar, geo thermal, and hydro, which will put further downward pressure on fossil fuel prices.

4) We have to build upon Biden’s “rein dustrializing America” initiatives, which preference goods, particularly advanced silicon chips and electric cars, being man ufactured here in the U.S.A. Many free trade advocates are against this modified form of protectionism that will occur because of the preference of subsidies to domestic industries contained in the recent “Build Back Better” and IRA ini tiatives. However, these policies will create jobs in the country’s manufacturing sec tors. This will make the U.S. more com petitive on world markets. These policies will hobble China’s efforts to overtake the U.S.A. as the world’s biggest economy and may force China’s President Xi to re-open the Chinese economy once again. Until Xi does such, however, we need to maintain pressure on his economy so he will have less maneuvering room to harass Taiwan and his other Southeast Asia neighbors.

5) We must continue to create jobs so that the unemployment rate remains at its current very low level of 3.2 percent.

The best way to permanently rein in inflation is to increase productivity. The funds for massive infrastructure spending have already been approved and those funds – together with the growing inno vation in the alternative energy sectors – will provide a meaningful boost to well-paying jobs in 2023.

6) We need to continue efforts to make the tax code fairer and more balanced. Biden has done so by putting minimum tax collections on the largest U.S. corpo rations that previously had paid none. We also have to keep the new IRS budget intact so that it can have the personnel it needs to properly audit the tax cheats in our society.

7) Finally, and most importantly, we must avoid the political stalemate that could halt the very meaningful progress we have made for the last two years. We have left the pandemic crisis, skated over an internationally created inflation spiking gasoline price acceleration, and successfully maneuvered ourselves into a situation where the economy is growing robustly. In the meantime, FED interest policies are creating downward pressure on inflation. Any form of political stale mate brought on by the mid-term elec tions will likely yield “stagflation” – that horrible condition of rising prices and falling economic outputs, which we hav en’t seen since the 1970s.

I think inflation has already peaked and stagflation must be avoided. Make no mistake about it. The U.S. is still a consumer economy where 75 percent of our GDP growth occurs due to consumer purchases. We need those purchases to stay strong so we can continue to put more money into blue-collar middle-in come pockets, which in turn will create more money at the top of the economic pecking order from higher long-term corporate profits. Everyone wins when the middle class “wins.”

The “edge of the cliff” we are stand ing on is not one labeled “inflation.” That problem is being handled, and absent mid-term political upheaval will continue to fall over time. The “soft landing” we all want is not only achiev able, it is unfolding as you read this. Now what we voters must do is to “stay the course” and avoid the temp tation to elect “election deniers” who would throw our democratic form of government out the window in favor of a “Maga fascist” state – and with it would crash our economy just assured ly as Britain crashed its with Brexit. Everyone, not just the middle class, has a major stake in this election. The poli cies of a democracy will see us through to increasingly strong economic times, which will continue to be the envy of our trading partners. We just have to rationally evaluate the issues and decide to vote for a capital markets system that will continue to be incubated in a democratic republic.

“A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation.” – James Freeman Clarke

only 24% registered Republicans. Independent voters in California com prise 23% of registered voters, near ly the same as GOP voters. With a 23-point edge in registered voters, Democrats have made California a reli able one-party blue state. The GOP has not won a statewide office since Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected Governor in 2006.

Why Have Republicans Become an Endangered Species in California?

In California, Democrats and their friends in the media have successfully caricatured Republicans as “nasty, old, rich, fat, greedy white men”; “deplorable, bigoted rednecks who cling to their guns and bibles”; and “systemic racists who lack human compassion and caring for the poor and homeless.”

Democrats control all the levers of power from coastal county supervisors to school board members to judges and mayors, police and fire chiefs, uni versities and labor unions. Democrats have an iron grip on both California’s Assembly and the State Senate, the Governor’s office, the civil service, and all the Regulatory Commissions.

Common Sense Agenda

This year, Republicans may have found a few key issues to attract more Independents, working Hispanics, AsianAmericans, the under-privileged, mid dle-class voters, and suburban women who have been turned off by Donald Trump’s lumpish behavior.

Freedom From Runaway Inflation

This year, punishing inflation and the rising cost of living are every voter’s biggest nightmare. U.S. food prices have risen 13% in the last 12 months. The cost of bacon is up 28%. Low-fat milk is up 40%. Building materials are up 26%. Airline tickets are up 40%. The Core Consumer Price Index (CPI) has hit a 40-year high of 8.2%. Millions of low and middle-income Americans are facing an economic squeeze, never before seen in their lifetime.

The average fixed-rate 30-year home mortgage hit a 20-year high of 6.92% this month, pricing many home buyers out of the market. America’s national debt surpassed $31 trillion for the first time on October 3, up $3.3 trillion in the last two years.

Congressional Democrats have pumped a staggering $3.8 trillion of taxpayer money into the economy since 2020 – $1.9 trillion for COVID relief in the American Rescue Plan,

followed by $1.2 trillion in new and baseline spending for infrastructure. Over the summer, Democrats passed a $280 billion bill to compete with China, plus a gun control bill with $20 billion in spending. Finally, they passed the Inflation Reduction Act at a taxpayer cost of $430 to $480 billion. This act does everything except reduce inflation. Canceling student loans will add another $400 billion. Meanwhile, the stock market has recorded mas sive selloffs, sensing the fear of a deeper recession as the cost of doing business has increased far faster than consumer prices.

Democrats blame runaway inflation on COVID and the Ukraine War, rather than Congressional spending blowouts loaded with local pork. They refuse to acknowledge that excessive spending, borrowing, and printing new money is the root cause of infla tion. Like him or not, under President Trump, this country had the lowest unemployment rate in the last 50 years, 2% inflation, and steady growth in income for most Americans.

This year, more voters acknowledge that inflation is primarily caused by too much money chasing too few goods and services. Expand drilling to bring down energy prices. Support business owners with pro-growth poli cies to grow the economy, create jobs, and cut regulatory control. Stop print ing money this country doesn’t have. These policies worked for Reagan to lower President Carter’s double-dig it inflation; the same policies will work now.

Abortion After Roe v. Wade

It is hard to measure the effect of voters angered by the Supreme Court’s rejection of Roe v. Wade . The Court recognized Roe as bad law, requesting that either the Congress, or each state, pass legislation expressing the will of their people. Pew Research claims 61% of Americans believe that abortion should be mostly legal with exceptions, while 56% of Americans believe that a human fetus that can live outside the womb at 20 to 24 weeks has a right to life.

Perhaps our bitterly divided nation could look to the Swiss for a practical solution that was supported by 90% of Swiss voters last year. Abortion in Switzerland has been defined as a med ical issue between a woman and her doctor, not a political issue. The Swiss have made abortion legal for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, subject to manda tory personal counseling on alternatives, including adoption.

Swiss physicians can authorize an abortion between weeks 12 to 22 in cases of rape, incest, saving the moth er’s life, or serious fetal medical com

plications. Abortion is illegal after 22 weeks when the fetus is deemed a human being, able to survive outside the womb.

Eighty-eight percent of U.S. abor tions occur in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy; 96% by week 16; and 99.5% by 20 weeks. Bitterly fighting over the last one-half of 1% of abor tions makes no common sense. In addition, FDA approval of the morn ing after abortion pills which stop the fetus from growing, and empties the uterus of the fetus, have replaced surgical procedures as the preferred choice for safe abortions during the first 10 weeks worldwide. Abortion pills that can be prescribed and deliv ered to patient’s homes, privately, safe, and fast, from anywhere in the world, without a doctor visit, make a no-abortion policy unenforceable.

Reduce Energy Costs

California’s punishing increases in gas price are visible every week. Premium gas hit $7 a gallon in Montecito, meaning it cost a record $105 to fill a 15-gallon tank. The average price for regular gas in Texas is $3.11 per gallon; in Florida it is $3.39, even after Hurricane Ian. In California, the average price for regu lar gas is $5.37 per gallon, a 58% pre mium over the price paid in Florida.

California residents pay the highest gas prices in the nation, but get no cleaner air than Utah, nor better high ways than other Western states. The Democrats’ war on fossil fuels that are produced in America by American workers, has reached comic proportions when the President reaches out to buy dirty Venezuelan oil to produce dirty air in the United States. Draining our strategic petroleum reserve to a 1984 level puts the U.S. at greater strategic risk of a major pipeline disaster or an oil embargo.

Elect Republicans who will create a reasonable plan to convert to renew able energy with a realistic time sched ule at a reasonable cost; approve the Keystone pipeline; strengthen the power grid; expand fracking; stop demoniz ing oil companies; and encourage energy independence.

Stop Rising Crime Rates

Murder rates have increased 22% in Chicago in the last two years; 127% in Los Angeles County; 113% in Minneapolis; 132% in Oakland; and a whopping 800% in Portland. Violent crime, defined as rape, sexual assault, armed robbery, aggravated assault, and murder, has infected major cities, mak ing residents fearful and afraid for their personal safety. Of the 20 most dan gerous cities in the U.S., 18 are run by Democrat mayors and two by mayors

elected in non-partisan races.

Since the wrongful death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, public opinion of policing has undergone a major shift. After the resulting massive inner-city riots, lootings, and burning of businesses in cities across America, Democrats sided with Black Lives Matter in calling for defunding the police and replacing uniformed officers with social workers.

Democrats support shorter prison sentences, early release of convicted felons, and elimination of cash bail bonds. It is unfortunate that police put their lives on the line to take criminals off the street, while com passionate district attorneys and lib eral judges impose lighter sentences, even on repeat offenders, to prevent prison overcrowding.

Republicans support embattled police officers. Stripped of public and political support, experienced officers retired and resigned in record num bers, leaving cities and towns with gaping holes in law enforcement. Police officers, told to stand down in riots and looting, understandably have been reluctant to initiate aggressive actions that rioters and criminals may find offensive.

A majority of Americans oppose soft-on-crime justice. Moderate voters view public safety as a necessary cor nerstone of civilized behavior, espe cially in low-income neighborhoods where the victims are disproportion ately people of color. They support more funding for law enforcement, more professional training, protec tive riot equipment, and respect for police officers who routinely put their lives on the line to save others from violent criminals.

How to Win Elections?

The Republican Party needs to broaden its appeal. It can no longer be portrayed as the party of the rich, Christian white and greedy, but not the needy. It needs to attract voters who love their country but want it improved. It wants voters who seek less government intrusion and control. It needs minorities who want safety and security in their streets.

Republicans are especially interested in Asian Americans, Hispanics, and disaffected Jewish voters who have supported Democrats all their life, but now support a growth economy with a stable currency, less debt and low inflation, lower taxes, a strong mili tary, less crime, affordable housing, a secure border, lower energy costs, and the best public education system in the world.

NEXT WEEK: Part II. A look at Racism, Public Education, Competitive Capitalism, Workfare Not Welfare, and Open Borders.

The Giving List Family Service Agency

by Steven Libowitz

A cross Santa Barbara County, as is true around the country, more children and adolescents are expe riencing challenges to emotional well-be ing, including documented increases in anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. Not surprisingly, the COVID pandemic increased the urgency to address our youth mental health crisis.

Fortunately, Family Service Agency (FSA) of Santa Barbara County, whose organizational history dates back to the last year of the 19th century, has been one of the primary nonprofits addressing the issue since long before the pandemic proved the need. FSA provides school counseling for six of the county’s school districts, including Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, and Hope, plus three more in mid and north coun ty. Altogether FSA is on site at 38 ele

mentary schools, 13 junior highs, and eight high schools, including all three big public schools in the area.

FSA’s School-Based Counseling pro gram delivers therapy, case management, home visits, and critical incident response services. Available in south county at K-12 school campuses in Carpinteria, Santa Barbara, and Lompoc, the program provides a convenient, familiar, and safe environment for children, adolescents, and their families.

More than 730 youth countywide received more than 8,800 hours of mental health counseling from FSA’s school-based program, most of them receiving weekly sessions for 10-14 weeks or even longer, which is clearly making an impact.

“We’re really proud of being able to reach these students and provide them with support,” said Carol Morgan, M.A., LMFT, School Counseling Program Manager for FSA in south and mid

county. “What makes our service particu larly important is that a majority of these students receiving support in the school most likely wouldn’t be able to access it in the community otherwise.”

That could be due to financial constraints – FSA’s School-Based Counseling program is completely free for youth – or other barriers such as access to transportation or a language gap, Morgan said.

“We provide counseling in their native language, most often Spanish, even if they’re bilingual,” she said. “Up in Santa Maria, there’s a population that speaks Mixteco, and we have at least one coun selor in that language as well.”

Having the very robust mental ser vices program embedded within the schools not only complements what’s available in the community through other agencies, but actually plugs what otherwise would be a big gap, and at the very least serves as the first point of contact for the youth.

Thanks to FSA having a supervisor on staff who has special training in trau ma-informed practices, all of the agen cy’s counselors have the opportunity to receive that training, Morgan said.

“It lines up well with the presenting concerns that students who visit a school counselor come in with,” she said. “It’s generally either trauma related or stem ming from adverse childhood experiences (ACE). It’s one of the highlights of the program.”

Trauma-based or ACE has a big impact on a student’s ability to do well in school, Morgan said. “Whatever stressors you’re facing come to school with you. So even if school is a safe place, the trauma is part of wherever you go, and you can re-expe rience it based on what might look like a minor trigger. Having counselors right there on-site where a student can at least see someone even if they might have to wait a while for the weekly visits is very important.”

Also very effective, which is probably what matters most.

FSA’s just-released annual report and school district-specific documents show the program’s impressive success out come figures.

One hundred percent of those sur veyed showed a reduction in post-trau matic stress symptoms and 98 per cent showed a reduction in symptoms of depression. Ninety-six percent of parents were satisfied with the sup port their children received, and all of the students who became Intensive In-School Clients remained in the reg ular school setting.

FSA is aware that the School-Based Counseling program has its limits, as some youth require more intensive ser vice than can be provided on campus, or are even just dipping their toes into the waters of receiving help. But every encounter can make a difference that pays dividends down the road.

“We know that sometimes we’re just planting seeds,” Morgan said. “We could be meeting with a student for just an ini tial conversation who may not become part of our caseload because they may not quite be ready to do in-depth coun seling, to fully face the issues or really connect with the painful emotions and memories. But those seeds may grow a few years from now where that student is in a spot where they can seek out help, and they will remember when they talk ed with that FSA counselor and it was a positive experience.”

Whatever level of service ends up being offered, Morgan said the FSA program providers are proud of all the work they put into supporting students in school because it makes a big difference off campus, too.

“Ultimately, when youth have that one adult in their life who is committed and dedicated to helping them with their emotional well-being and their men tal health, it contributes to the overall health of the whole community,” she said. “When we help one child at a time to be more well-adjusted and capable of meeting their goals, it always feels good because we know we’re able to make a difference in the community at large.”

Family Service Agency of Santa Barbara County

Lisa Brabo, Executive Director (805) 965-1001

fsacares.org

“Voting is the expression of our commitment to ourselves, one another, this country and this world.” – Sharon Salzberg

More than 730 youth countywide received more than 8,800 hours of mental health counseling from FSA’s school-based program

Brilliant Thoughts

Jealousy

by Ashleigh Brilliant

Ihave been asked to write something about Jealousy. For me, this was a difficult but challenging assign ment, because I have rarely felt jealous of anybody else, and, as far as I know, I myself have not generated that emotion in other people – although I suppose it isn’t the kind of feeling you readily admit to being guilty of.

Let me clear the air, then, by confess ing that the one kind of jealousy I do remember having felt, much earlier in my life, is what might be categorized as sexual. As a lonely young single man, I recall experiencing it with regard to oth ers of my generation who might already have attractive girlfriends, or even wives.

The word “jealousy” is equated with “envy,” about which there seems to be no question that one should feel guilty. It ranks fourth in the list of Seven Deadly Sins, first enumerated by Pope Gregory I, in the 6th Century.

Well, it may be a sin, but it is not a crime. You can go around envying peo ple as much as you like, so long as you don’t let it make you do anything illegal.

But there is another word for being jealous or envious – and that is, to “covet.” And this takes us back long before Gregory and his Deadly Sins, to the Old Testament book of Exodus, and the Ten Commandments, where coveting comes in at Number Ten, but is spelled out in much more detail than any of the other nine:

“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s.”

But even earlier in the list, we had “Thou shalt not commit adultery” –and surely, adultery expresses another form of coveting, whether or not it’s with any of the above specified partners.

But wait! About 500 years before the Ten Commandments, there was another set of laws called the Code of Hammurabi (inscribed in Babylonian dialect on a type of stone column called a stele. This one is now in Paris, in the Louvre). And, sure enough, it too made adultery a crime.

So, jealousy has a long history, and of course, it pops up much more recently in literature, notably in Shakespeare’s Othello. From that play we get the line: “O beware, my lord, of jealousy. It is the green-eyed monster.” But there is also a strong element of racism in that drama, reminding us that, besides occurring among individuals, jealousy can also exist between large bodies of

people, such as races and nations. In particular, poor nations tend to be jealous of rich ones.

That kind of national jealousy was indeed one of the causes of World War I. By 1914, most of the world’s leading powers had been building extensive empires. Britain and France, of course, but also Portugal, and even Belgium, had vast colonial holdings. Russia, though she had sold her Alaskan colo nies to the U.S.A., still had a huge land territory, covering much of Europe and Asia, and stretching all the way to the Pacific. But Germany, powerful though she was in her own small area, had virtually no colonies. This was particularly galling to the Germans and their Kaiser, who aspired to be recognized as world leaders. It didn’t take much provocation to trigger these long-standing jealousies.

But there are, and have been, cul tural jealousies, as between Chinese and Japanese, Hindus and Moslems, Christians and Jews – the latter being expressed most recently in the horror we call the Holocaust.

The Old Testament is full of stories involving jealousy, of which one of the most striking is that of Joseph, in the Book of Genesis. Joseph has elev en brothers, but he is a favorite of his father, which leads to his being abduct ed by his jealous brothers and sold into slavery in Egypt.

Speaking of slavery, can you imagine how jealous America’s own slaves must have been of their masters, or, even more recently how the same feeling must have prevailed, and probably still prevails, among poorly-paid workers regarding their wealthy employers.

Nobody, it seems, has a good word to say about jealousy. It can even make you hate yourself – as I remem ber from a song popularized by Tex Ritter in the 1960s:

“Jealous heart, oh, jealous heart, stop beating Can’t you see the damage you have done? You have driven her away forever Jealous heart, now I’m the lonely one.”

disruptive technologies. Here, reaching a consensus that we have a problem with disruptive tech on a global scale is necessary but not sufficient. Similar to the for mation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – also known as the Conference of the Parties, or simply COP – we need to establish a World Data Organization that would define the problem, reach a consensus on the issues at stake, and then start a long (and yes, necessarily bureaucratic) process of finding the way forward.

Only through such an international format can the U.S., China, the E.U. (as the three most important actors), along with other state and nonstate actors (including the technology firms as stakeholders), ensure that the world safely advances the bene fits of one of the greatest achievements of humankind.

Of course, I had more questions. Here are some that Bremmer will likely touch on in his upcoming presentation on November 10 at 7:30 pm at the Granada Theatre, as part of UCSB Arts & Lectures’ Thematic Learning Initiative this season: Leadership and Vision.

Additional Questions:

MJ: You say the greatest threat to America arises from its own failings: its hyper polarized politics, widening inequity, and deepening mistrust of political institutions and the media. How much of this, if any, has been intentionally orchestrated by other countries to sow divisions, like Russia and China and Iran, through cyber warfare?

MJ: Algorithms are fast replacing humans in the workplace. You write that these tech nologies are shifting the relationship not only between the citizen and the state, but between us and our fellow humans. That they’re “changing what it means to be human.” What do you mean by that?

MJ: In your chapter about Pandemic Politics, you call out ways that the private sector can play a crucial role in what you call “shock absorption.” Has the private sector stepped up enough to provide this? Universities?

MJ: You write that “solutions to our most pressing problems are enormously disruptive, politically, economically, and socially.” And yet, Americans have proven that we don’t want to be inconvenienced, even if it means saving our own lives. How can we create a greater perceived self-interest to help us, for example in the case of our climate crisis, to reach net-zero targeting?

MJ: Drawing on strategies from The Marshall Plan to The Green New Deal, you pro vide something of a roadmap for surviving – even thriving in – the 21st century, with governments, corporations, and concerned citizens. Can we use these coming crises to create what 20th-century globalism promised but failed to deliver? And how is that possible when there seems to be so little political will (internationally and domestically) to get us there? What incentives can we create to alter this reality?

MJ: What role will quantum computing play in helping to find solutions to the world’s more vexing questions?

MJ: With the growing “digital divide,” there is a strong need for global investment in narrowing these gaps in the form of regulations of businesses that have been, heretofore, unwilling to shift business models that profit by dividing opinions and people. When cor porations have so much power, and there’s such a strong push for even greater deregulation, what’s the answer?

MJ: You call out nations’ capacities to shut down another country’s critical infra structure – its national nervous system. Are there steps we can take to limit such potentially imminent and devastating risks?

Ashleigh Brilliant born England 1933, came to California in 1955, to Santa Barbara in 1973, to the Montecito Journal in 2016. Best-known for his illustrated epigrams, called “Pot-Shots,” now a series of 10,000.

email: ashleigh@ west.net. web: www. ashleighbrilliant.com.

MJ: How can we find what you call “moral imagination” to solve our most vex ing and existentially threatening problems?

Do yourself a favor: go hear Ian Bremmer speak about what are undoubtedly some of the most existen tially important and vexing issues of our lifetime. And you will likely have the chance to ask some of your own ques tions. Or, if you’d prefer, feel free to ask any of mine.

Real Estate Appraiser

Brashears

Choir and Chamber Singers. Lonnie Ostrander, who has enjoyed a versatile career as a musician over many years, conducts the Choral Union.

Talk Offers Biblical Environmental View

Sandra Richter, Westmont’s Robert H. Gundry professor of biblical studies, speaks about “Down to Earth: A Biblical Perspective on Environmentalism,” on Thursday, November 3, at 5:30 pm at the Santa Barbara Community Arts Workshop (CAW), 631 Garden Street. The Westmont Downtown Lecture is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are required. Free parking is available on the streets surrounding CAW or in nearby city parking lots. For more information, please call (805) 565-6051. Environmental stewardship, and the personal and public conservation efforts it encompasses, has found itself center stage in our current historical moment. “Terms like ‘sustainable agri culture,’ ‘species extinction rate,’ and the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ – almost unknown 20 years ago – have become regular parlance for this generation,” says Richter, who earned a doctorate in Hebrew Bible from Harvard University. “But this topic is also controversial, particularly within the faith commu nity. I’ll offer a biblical perspective on environmental stewardship and how it is that this contemporary concern is also an ancient one.”

Richter, who has taught at Westmont since 2017, serves on the New International Version Committee for Bible Translation. Her book, Stewards of Eden: What Scripture Says about the Environment and Why It Matters, has won numerous awards from Christian publishers and organizations. Most recently, she has written several essays, including “Environmental Approaches in

Old Testament Studies” in the forthcom ing The State of Old Testament Studies: A Survey of Recent Research and “The Biblical Mandate for Creation Care” in Evangelicals Magazine. She has led numerous student groups in archaeological excavation and historical geography classes in Israel.

The Westmont Foundation sponsors the talk, part of Westmont Downtown: Conversations about Things that Matter. The foundation and local businesses also sponsor the President’s Breakfast, featuring keynote speaker Doris Kearns Goodwin, on Friday, March 10, 2023.

weave and bring resources together to solve these complex issues. Housing first does not just mean housing only; projects are needed to stabilize indi viduals and their families so they can be on a better pathway for themselves and the community. Decades of under investment in housing and services has certainly created a very steep and tall mountain to climb. I hope that we can continue to work together as we move into a new era where we are establish ing a system that did not exist before and one where all levels of government – federal, state, local, and tribal – are aligned.” He concluded by thanking all government officials and organizations represented at the press conference.

Carbajal highlighted the Federal Government’s close work with state and local housing authorities, “These housing programs from the Federal, State, and local government are most successful when we take a holistic approach to the people needing housing. I’m a product of living in public housing as a kid growing up in Oxnard, my father was a farmer – we need ed housing. It is a different model today than what that was. I recognize that the Santa Barbara Housing Authority has mod

eled the way to achieve affordable housing along with Santa Barbara County Housing Authority which is a major player.”

Williams pointed out that the current rental and housing market is chasing peo ple out of the Santa Barbara area, creating a less diverse community, and our carbon emissions is out control due to people having to move and commute to the area for work. Of note is the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) Homekey Grant for Santa Barbara, with $6.9 million of that going to an Isla Vista housing project. Homekey is a California program to pur chase and rehabilitate housing, including hotels, motels, vacant apartment build ings, and other properties, and convert them into permanent, long-term housing for people experiencing, or at risk of expe riencing, homelessness.

411: hacsb.org

The Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara was recently awarded with the Gindroz Award for Excellence in Affordable Housing. In its inaugu ral year, this award has been given by the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA) and recognizes organizations that have demonstrated excellence in the design and implementation of affordable housing in the classical tradition.

Joanne A. Calitri is a profes sional international photogra pher and journalist. Contact her at: artraks@yahoo.com

Vote Salud Carbajal for Congress

Fighting for the Central Coast

• Solving climate change

• Protecting abortion access

• Reducing prescription drug costs

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people.” – H.L. Mencken

“I strongly endorse Marybeth Carty for school board. I have known Marybeth for over 25 years. I know her heart and the strength of her convictions. I also know how much she cares about our children, their families and our communities. ”

INTEGRITY.

MARYBETHCARTY.NET

ON OR BEFORE NOV 8TH!

JOYCE DUDLEY SANTA BARBARA COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY

BY:

Scott Craig is manager of media relations at Westmont College

Sandra Richter offers a biblical perspective on environmentalism November 3

Congressman Salud Carbajal speaking at the press conference (photo by Joanne A Calitri)

MONTECITO PLANNING COMMISSION NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING*

IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The California State Legislature recently passed, and the Governor signed, Assembly Bill (AB) 361, which amends the Government Code to allow Brown Act bodies to continue to meet remotely after September 30, 2021, if there is a proclaimed state of emergency and the State or local officials recommend measures to promote social distancing. Based on the proclaimed state of emergency and the Santa Barbara County Public Health Officer’s recommended social distancing, the Montecito Planning Commission meeting will not provide in person participation at this hearing.

The following alternative methods of participation are available to the public. If you wish to make a general public comment or to comment on a specific agenda item, the following methods are available:

1. You may observe the live stream of the Montecito Planning Commission meetings on (1) Local Cable Channel 20, (2) online at: http://www.countyofsb.org/ceo/csbtv/livestream.sbc; or (3) YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/user/CSBTV20

2. If you wish to make a general public comment or to comment on a specific agenda item, the following methods are available:

• Distribution to the Montecito Planning Commission Submit your comment via email prior to 12:00 p.m. on the Friday prior to the Commission hearing. Please submit your comment to the Recording Secretary at dvillalo@countyofsb.org. Your comment will be placed into the record and distributed appropriately.

• Video and Teleconference Public Participation To participate via Zoom, please pre register for the meeting using the below link. When: November 16, 2022 09:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Topic: Montecito Planning Commission 11/16/2022 Register in advance for this webinar: https://countyofsb.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_D4X9Ocd4RE2_Tr4TAIDVdQ

After registering,

OR PARTICIPATE VIA TELEPHONE: Dial

webinar.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS

NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Regen Coop, 506 S Salinas, Santa Barbara, CA 93103. Regen erative Landscape Alliance, LLC, 506 S Salinas, Santa Barbara, CA 93103. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on October 24, 2022. 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 cor rect copy of the original state ment on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2022-0002599. Pub lished November 2, 9, 16, 23, 2022

file in my office. Joseph E. Hol land, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2022-0002392. Published Oc tober 12, 19, 26, November 2, 2022

US:

+1 602 753 0140 or +1 312 626

or +1

or +1

831 0333 or +1 301 715 8592 or 877 853

or 888

(Toll

or 833 548 0276 (Toll Free) or 833 548 0282 (Toll Free)

Webinar ID: 874 9694 7413

The Commission’s rules on hearings and public comment, unless otherwise directed by the Chair, remain applicable to each of the participation methods listed above.

The Montecito Planning Commission hearing begins at 9:00 a.m. The order of items listed on the agenda is subject to change by the Montecito Planning Commission. Anyone interested in this matter is invited to speak in support or in opposition to the projects. Written comments are also welcome. All letters should be addressed to the Montecito Planning Commission, 123 East Anapamu Street, Santa Barbara, California, 93101. Letters, with nine copies, and computer materials, e.g. PowerPoint presentations, should be filed with the secretary of the Planning Commission no later than 12:00 P.M. on the Friday before the Montecito Planning Commission hearing. The decision to accept late materials will be at the discretion of the Montecito Planning Commission. Maps and/or staff analysis of the proposals may be reviewed at https://www.countyofsb.org/plndev/hearings/mpc.sbc or by appointment by calling (805) 568 2000.

If you challenge the project 21CDH 00000 00031, 21DVP 00000 00021, 22AMD 00000 00003, 22CDH 00000 00010, 21CDH 00000 00033, or 21VAR 00000 00005 n court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at the public hearing described in this notice, or in written correspondence to the Montecito Planning Commission prior to the public hearing. In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you need special assistance to participate in this hearing, please contact the Hearing Support Staff (805) 568 2000. Notification at least 48 hours prior to the hearing will enable the Hearing Support Staff to make reasonable arrangements.

* This is a partial listing of the items to be heard at the Montecito Planning Commission Hearing of November 16, 2022. Previously noticed Case No. 21CDH 00000 00031 (Airline Highway Fund, LLC New Residence) was continued to this hearing from the hearing of October 19, 2022. See previous notice for full descriptions of these items. If you have any questions, call Planning and Development at (805) 568 2000.

21DVP 00000 00021 Grassini ADU Appeal 1775 Fernald Point Lane Exempt, CEQA Guidelines Section 15301 and 15303 Nicole Lieu, Supervising Planner (805) 884 8068 Chris Schmuckal, Planner (805) 568 3510

Hearing on the request of Larry Grassini, Applicant and Property Owner of 1775 Fernald Point Lane, to consider the following:

a) Case No. 20APL 00000 00034 for an Appeal of the Director’s denial of Case No. 20CDP 00000 00076 to allow construction of an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) and attached deck within the Environmentally Sensitive Habitat (ESH) Buffer Zone, approximately 4 ft. from the top of bank of Romero Creek;

b) Case No. 20CDP 00000 00076 for a Coastal Development Permit to allow demolition of an existing unpermitted 1,300 square foot (sf) accessory structure and the construction of a new 1,159 sf. ADU in compliance with Section 35 142 of the Article II Coastal Zoning Ordinance, and to widen the existing footbridge to 4 ft. in within to meet the Montecito Fire Department access requirements in compliance with Section 35 169 of the Article II Coastal Zoning Ordinance

c) Case No. 21VAR 00000 00004 for a Variance to reduce the rear setback along the north property line from 25 ft. to 4 ft. to allow construction of the ADU in compliance with 35 173 of the Article II Coastal Zoning Ordinance; and,

And to determine that the project is exempt from CEQA under Section 15303 [New Construction or Conversion of Small Structures] and Section 15305 [Minor Alterations to Land Use Limitations]. The project involves Assessor Parcel No. 007 380 007, located at 1775 Fernald Point Lane, in the Montecito Community Plan area, First Supervisorial District.

22AMD 00000 00003

22CDH 00000 00010

Santa Barbara Cemetery Grading Project

Exempt, CEQA Guidelines Section 15301 and 15303

901 Channel Drive

Joe Dargel, Supervising Planner (805) 568 3573 Alia Vosburg, Planner (805) 934 6259

Hearing on the request of Charles McClure, agent for the Santa Barbara Cemetery Association, to consider the following:

a) Case No. 22AMD 00000 00003 for approval of an amendment to the Cemetery’s operating Conditional Use Permit (68 CP 31) to allow installation of 2,358 pre cast concrete crypts with associated grading (approximately 9,859 cubic yards of cut and 4,066 cubic yards of fill over an area of approximately 1.17 acres and approximately 5,793 cubic yards of export) in compliance with Section 35 172.11.2 of the Article II Coastal Zoning Ordinance, on property zoned 20 R 1;

b) Case No. 22CDH 00000 00010 for approval of a Coastal Development Permit in compliance with Section 35 169 of the Article II Coastal Zoning Ordinance, to allow installation of 2,358 pre cast concrete crypts with associated grading (approximately 9,859 cubic yards of cut and 4,066 cubic yards of fill over an area of approximately 1.17 acres and approximately 5,793 cubic yards of export) on property zoned 20 R 1; and

To determine the project is exempt from the provisions of CEQA pursuant to State CEQA Guidelines Section 15301. The application involves Assessor Parce Nos. 009 270 001 and 009 270 003, located at 901 Channel Drive, in the Coastal Zone of the Montecito Community Plan Area, First Supervisorial District.

21CDH 00000 00033

21VAR 00000 00005

Loomis Additions

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The follow ing person(s) is/are doing busi ness as: Cheddar Photo Booths, 37 Dearborn Pl. #79, Goleta, CA 93117. Michael A Mendoza, 37 Dearborn Pl. #79, Goleta, CA 93117. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on September 30, 2022. 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. 2022-0002441. Published Octo ber 26, November 2, 9, 16, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Santa Barbara Sage, 2729 Puesta Del Sol, Santa Barbara, CA 93105. Seana M Sears, 2729 Puesta Del Sol, Santa Barbara, CA 93105. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on October 14, 2022. 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. Hol land, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2022-0002543. Published Oc tober 26, November 2, 9, 16, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Farm to Fork Social Club Catering, 480 Toro Canyon Road, Santa Barba ra, CA 93108. Joseph W Cordero, 480 Toro Canyon Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93108. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on September 30, 2022. 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. 2022-0002437. Published Oc tober 12, 19, 26, November 2, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Tierra Costa, 2030 Edison Street, Santa Ynez, CA 93460. TC Landscaping Services, LLC, 1883 West Royal Hunte Drive, Cedar City, UT, 84720. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on September 28, 2022. 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. Hol land, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2022-0002408. Published Oc tober 12, 19, 26, November 2, 2022

1536 Miramar Beach Drive

Errin Briggs, Supervising Planner (805) 568 2047 15303, and 15305 Katie Nall, Planner (805) 884 8050

Exempt, CEQA Guidelines Sections 15301,

Hearing on the request of William & Kristin Loomis, property owner and applicant, to consider Case Numbers 21CDH 00000 00033 & 21VAR 00000 00005, for the construction of a residential addition to an existing single family residence in compliance with Section 35 169 [Coastal Development Permits], and a Variance (VAR) from the required front setback regulations to allow 9 feet 10 inches of encroachment into the front setback in compliance with Section 35 173 of Article II, the Coastal Zoning Ordinance, for property zoned residential (7 R 1); and to determine that the project is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Sections 15301, 15303, and 15305 of the State Guidelines for Implementation of the California Environmental Quality Act. The application involves Assessor Parcel No. 009 345 040 located at 1536 Miramar Beach Drive, in the Montecito Community Plan Area, First Supervisorial District.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Golden Estate Management, 4810 Sawyer Avenue, Carpinteria, CA 93013. Robert P Herman, 4810 Sawyer Avenue, Carpinteria, CA 93013. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on September 27, 2022. 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

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME: CASE No. 22CV03910. To all interested par ties: Petitioner Sharon Lynn Alex ander-Weir filed a petition with Superior Court of California, Coun ty of Santa Barbara, for a decree changing name to Sharyn Lynn Alexander-Weir . The Court orders that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the peti tion for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the pe tition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing. Filed October 19, 2022 by Narzralli Baksh. Hearing date: December 9, 2022 at 10 am in Dept. 4, 1100 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. Published Oc tober 26, November 2, 9, 16, 2022

“Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision.” – Abraham Lincoln

Library Mojo

Wanted: Green Thumbs

by Kim Crail

Montecito Library is looking for gardeners, designers, landscape architects, and permaculture experts who might be willing to share some of their knowledge with the community. Starting this spring, we hope to offer gar dening programs for children and adults at the Montecito and Eastside libraries.

Some topics that we are interested in covering are gardening basics, compost ing, soil prep, seed saving and starting, harvesting, food preservation, vegetable gardening, taking care of indoor plants, succulents, natives, community gardens, and redesigning thirsty lawns. There are so many ideas that we could explore so these are just a start.

If individuals or organizations are interested in getting involved or just want to be kept in the loop about this project, please get in touch.

Landscaping and Garden Inspiration

Our local water district has been work ing to share their message of saving water

and reducing irrigation throughout our community. Indeed, we are now experi encing extreme drought conditions. If you are looking for ways to reimag ine your outdoor space, we have curated a list of books (visit catalog.sbplibrary. org/MyAccount/MyList/5700 or look up

“Drought Tolerant Landscaping” if you are searching our catalog lists) available through the Santa Barbara Public Library devoted to garden design, native plant ing, landscaping, and firescaping.

Included in this list are books about attracting pollinators, hardscaping, low-maintenance and small-space gar dens, cactus care, wildlife gardening for kids, permaculture, shade challeng es, entertaining, and relaxing. There is something for almost everybody at your public library!

All you need is a library card to access these and get started. Library staff are always happy to help as well, in person or over the phone.

Space Talks Welcome NASA Enthusiasts

Our Space Talk Series, offered by Santa Barbara City College instructor and for mer NASA scientist Tom Farr, has gotten off to a great start, covering an overview of the planets as well as Earth and its moon for the first two installments. November’s talks will cover both Mercury and Venus and then Mars will get its own presentation.

While Mr. Farr has geared the talks to be suitable for kids (using examples of our solar system to the scale of the Upper Village and showing the relative sizes of Earth and its moon using pumpkins), adults in the audience have much to gain, too.

One benefit of learning from a real space expert is that Farr is able to deliv er solid answers for curious attendees. While many of us think of space as being the setting of our favorite science fiction and fantasy movies and books, scientists like Farr rely on evidence with out making assumptions or extrapolating from our experiences on Earth, which is an important lesson about how science works in the real world.

We welcome NASA enthusiasts of all ages to attend.

November Events: Stay and Play – Tuesdays, Drop in any time 9-10:30 am

Knit ‘n’ Needle – Thursdays, 2-3:30 pm Library On the Go Van @ Cold Spring School – Wed, 11/2, 3:30-5:30 pm

Space Talk: Mercury and Venus – Thurs, 11/3, 4-5 pm

Election Day Voting – Tues, 11/8, 7 am-8 pm

Poetry Club: Robinson Jeffers – Thurs, 11/17, 2-3 pm

Space Talk: Mars – Thurs, 11/17, 4-5 pm

Montecito Book Club: American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins – Tues, 11/22, 12-1 pm

We’ll be closed on November 18 for a staff training and November 24 and 25 for Thanksgiving.

See you at the library!

Some of the books avail able that can help craft a more drought-tolerant home garden and land scaping

Kim is the Branch Lead of the Montecito Library. Questions or comments? Contact her: kcrail@santabarbaraca.gov

DOWN TO EARTH A Biblical Perspective on Environmentalism

Thursday, Nov. 3 | 5:30 p.m.

Sandra Richter, Westmont's Robert H. Gundry professor of biblical studies, will speak about a Biblical perspective on environmentalism.

Santa Barbara Community Arts Workshop (CAW) 631 Garden Street

BY THE

The library is looking for permaculture experts, landscape architects, and semi-pro succulent enthusiasts who are interested in sharing their skills with the community

Montecito Reads Tastings and Tokens

by MJ Staff

Take a sneak peek of Montecito by Michael Cox in this ongoing serialization of his yet-to-be-published book. This fictional story is inspired by “tales of true crime THAT HAPPENED HERE.” With the Wimbys back from Fiji, Hollis helps with the opening of the Entre Nous tasting room. Chapter 29 and 30 are avail able online at montecitojournal.net and the QR code below.

“Bula bula,” she repeated. “Fijian for hello.”

“I learn something new every day,” I said, clinking my wine glass against hers. Our eyes met, as good fortune mandates, then drifted toward Cyrus. He was behind the pourer’s bar in the middle of an animated story while a semi-circle of onlookers listened raptly.

“Look at him,” Genevieve said. “In his element.”

I nodded. “Cyrus excels at this. He is a natural born—”

“He likes to talk,” Genevieve interrupted.

I nodded again, less certain that my acknowledgment was appropriate. “He certainly does.”

“But you and I know that success isn’t achieved by talking, right Hollis?”

Another, even weaker nod.

She laughed, seemingly to herself. “You can talk about the ribeye or the porterhouse or the filet mignon till you’re blue in the face. You can describe the lovely pasture in which the herd grazed. You can brag about the aging. You can paint the picture of exquisite marbling and fork-tender preparation. You can recite the flavor profile of your mesquite charcoal, and you can hint at the inclusion of a secret dry rub that harkens back to the East India Trading Company…”

Genevieve turned her eyes from Cyrus back to me and finished her wine in one gulp. “But no one is eating steak,” she continued, “until someone slits that cow’s throat.”

I swallowed, reflexively covering my Adam’s apple with my free hand.

“Where is Cricket?” Genevieve said, saving me from the awkwardness of having no reply.

I scanned the room but could not find her. “I don’t know.”

Montecito

by Michael Cox

Chapter 31

The Wimbys returned from Fiji just in time for the grand opening of the Entre Nous tasting room. In a mismatch for the ages, Cyrus had left me to herd the con struction and interior design crews in his stead, and it was this work that filled most of my time while they were away. Each time I visited the site, I walked past Merci, where Cyrus and I met for our first coffee and where this entire journey began. In contrast to the broader Country Mart – with its shades of brown and blends of Mission, Spanish, and retro-modern styles – the tasting room was done in blinding white. So much of it, in such a similar shade, that a coffee table staged in a small living room set claimed more than one damaged shin during the grand opening party. The only thing preventing more injuries was the size of the crowd: body to body. The people formed a negative image of the furniture, indirectly illuminating the safe zones.

To commemorate the event, Cyrus debuted a Vintner’s Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon called Priscilla and a new red blend – Cabernet, Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre – called Rosaland, the name of Priscilla’s horse. The invita tion-only guest list had been chosen by the Wimbys; my only contributions were Paul and Jenny. It was a who’s who of Montecito, including all of ExOh’s local investors and the inner circle of Miramar Bank’s John Colton.

Cricket knew most everyone there including a celebrity couple that she had worked for back in her public relations days. The couple cornered her and begged her to ditch the Storytellers Children’s Center – at least temporarily –to help them turn their divorce into a PR bonanza; she graciously declined. While she seemed to be having fun, I felt extraneous as usual. My palate was not refined enough to appreciate great wine from good wine, and I was naturally suspicious of subtle, unverifiable claims. Priscilla and Rosaland were being sold for ninety dollars a bottle; a price Cyrus assured everyone was a steal. Plenty of tasters nodded in agreement, but I could barely tell the dif ference between these penthouse wines and their basement-dwelling cousins. Thanks to Cyrus, all attendees were automatically enrolled as Executive mem bers of the Entre Nous wine club, earning free tastings for life. They probably did not care, given their income tax brackets, but this membership came with a minimum quarterly purchase of $200 that would be automatically charged to the credit card they casually swiped to complete their wine club enrollment.

I guess this should have made me happy. I was the CEO of the company owning fifty-one percent of this money printing machine. But I was a phys ical wreck, having now lost eighteen pounds since joining ExOh, all of them the wrong way. Perhaps that is why the wine did not taste unique or special. In those days, little that passed my lips was rewarding.

“Bula bula,” Genevieve whispered into my ear from behind, giving me a head-to-toe shiver.

I turned and traded cheek kisses. “Bula what?” I asked.

Genevieve narrowed her eyes. “Well, the last I heard, this was a work event.” She raised her empty wine glass, indicating the need for a refill. “See if you can round her up, Hollis. I’d like to catch up with her.”

Good luck with that, I laughed internally. If Genevieve thought Cricket was going to hop-to at the snap of some fingers, she was sadly mistaken. I have never met a more independent spirit in my life than Cricket. She never shied away from a challenge and she would not be outworked, but she also never submitted to subjugation. “I’ll see if I can track her down.”

“Do,” Genevieve said before moving on to another pod of far more import ant people.

I had expected Genevieve to return from Fiji in the afterglow of vacation bliss, but I sensed no such thing. Beginning with the pre-vacation blow up over the care of her luggage, continuing through her scathing background commentary when Cyrus sent me to retrieve his fobs, to now, she seemed stressed. Anxious. Even perhaps angry.

I set my glass down on the white marble tasting bar and shimmied through the room to the exit, ostensibly to find Cricket.

Once outside the tasting room, the fresh air of freedom filled my lungs. I decided a few laps around the Country Mart would not hurt anyone. With my hands in my pockets and my gate set to stroll, I passed the barber shop and the toy store, lingered in front of an apothecary and a pizzeria under renovation, then turned a corner to find Cricket and Jenny sitting against a rock wall with plastic spoons, cups of Rori’s ice cream, and guilty smiles.

“Whoops,” Cricket said.

“Don’t worry,” I laughed, “I’m not the hall monitor.” I took a few steps closer, eyeing their ice creams. “But I do accept bribes.”

She handed me her spoon and I took a tiny bite of her favorite flavor: Salted Caramel. It was fantastic and did not, thankfully, result in more stom ach queasiness for yours truly.

I leaned against the wall beside them. “The wine not doing it for you?”

“Meh,” Jenny said, shrugging.

“Ditto,” Cricket said. “Maybe I’m just over it.”

I nodded. There was no reason to argue, and I did not disagree. I thought of mentioning Genevieve’s request that Cricket return to the party, but I quickly shelved that notion. If anyone was required to genuflect for the Wimbys it was me, not Cricket.

“Do you mind if we go?” Cricket asked. “I think I’ve had enough Wimby extravagance for the week.”

“No,” I shook my head, “that’s fine.”

“Send Paul out,” Jenny said. “He has the keys. We’ll take Cricket home.” I kissed Cricket on the cheek and said my goodbyes. Paul was easy to find on my return; he was sharing tasting notes with John Colton who – in addition to being the head of Miramar Bank and Trust and an ExOh Board member – was also an investor in CryptoWallet.

“Tobacco, really?” John Colton said as I invaded their circle.

“Notes of it,” Paul insisted. “I’m also getting…,” he stuck his nose in the glass of Vintner’s Reserve Cabernet, “nutmeg.”

“Interesting,” John said.

“Pardon me, gentlemen,” I said, “Paul, can I steal you away for a moment?”

“If [people] decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.” – Abraham Lincoln

Scan here for Chapters 29 & 30

He shook John’s hand and followed me toward the room’s open doors. “What’s up?”

“The girls want to leave,” I said. “They’re at Rori’s.”

“No sweat,” Paul said. “I was just about to blow my cover anyway.”

“What? No tobacco? No notes of nutmeg?”

Paul shook his head. “All I can taste is the essence of fermented grapes. And between you and me, pretty average ones.”

“So, I’ll put you down for a case,” I said.

Paul patted me on the arm. “See you soon.”

With Paul’s exit, any semblance of a safe zone was gone too. I did not want any more wine, but I asked the pourer for a quarter-glass of Pinot Noir so I could safely appear to be participating. Glass in hand, I spotted Cyrus and decided to make my way over, taking my place among his disciples.

“Hollis,” Cyrus said as soon as he spotted me, “How much was it that we raised for the Syrian refugees? It was five-hundred thousand, right?”

My stomach twisted as Cyrus’s eyes narrowed on me. I could feel the eyes of the others in his circle zeroing in for confirmation. “Just about,” I choked out, knowing the more accurate answer was just about half of that.

He nodded. “Ok. Just about five-hundred thousand,” he repeated, “and then my company, ExOh, matched that with one-and-a-half million. So, all together, we donated two million dollars to help alleviate one of the greatest human rights travesties of our time. Isn’t that right, Hollis?”

Cyrus’s eyes again found me; say it! they demanded. In truth, I had split the actual donation of two-hundred-twenty-five-thousand dollars between two charities with Syrian refuge relief efforts: CARE and Direct Relief, the latter a group headquartered in Santa Barbara that Cricket and her mother had been volunteering with for decades. As to ExOh’s matching donation, I had no idea. I had moved every penny of the rest of the recent equity raise to the company’s Hong Kong bank account, just as Cyrus had insisted. From that windfall, Cyrus pledged that he would pay himself the one million dollars that ExOh owed him for the company’s stake in Entre Nous and make the matching donations to char ity. I had no doubt that Cyrus had paid himself, but the charities? Only Cyrus knew if he had actually pushed the button on those donations. Nevertheless, I squeamishly answered, “Exactly,” just as I knew I was obligated to do.

Cyrus nodded. “For those of you who do not know, Hollis Crawford here is ExOh’s Chief Executive Officer. Hollis, be sure to give these guys your card in case they want to learn more about ExOh, the next Amazon.com.”

I shook hands, smiled, and passed out my business card. With roughly one quarter of Cyrus’s charisma, I was not the crowd pleaser that he was. Soon, I found myself alone yet again.

Even though every fiber of my being wanted to leave, I vowed to stay to the end. After being criticized for departing the 4th of July party early, I would not repeat that mistake. I carried my prop of wine from pod to pod, faking genuine conversation; had I been wearing a step-counter, I would have gotten a good-day’s exercise in circling the room. When the crowd finally wound down to a handful, I felt like I had accomplished something, though I was saddened by how compromised my sense of accomplishment had become.

I tried to invade the final pod of nine by edging in next to Cyrus. It is possi ble that I was being oversensitive, but I could have sworn that he saw me and refused to expand the circle. Eventually, John Colton edged over to allow me in, just as Cyrus said, “Shall we?” and everyone began to gather their jackets and purses, heading for the exit. I took up the rear, clueless as to where we were headed. As if noticing me for the first time, Cyrus laid his gargantuan paw on my shoulder. “We’re going to Lucky’s,” he said, naming the venera ble steakhouse at the end of Coast Village Road next to the Montecito Inn. “Would you help the pourers do inventory then lock up?”

“I don’t have the keys to—,” I began to say before he jangled a set of shiny silver keys in my face.

“Thanks, Hollis,” he said, turning to leave.

“Thanks, Hollis,” I heard from Genevieve in the distance.

And just like that, they were gone.

Chapter 32

Being treated like a servant would have hurt much more if I were a sensi tive guy. Thankfully, I am not. The Wimbys walked off to their celebratory dinner at Lucky’s, and I locked up the tasting room and went home, grateful that I would not have to fake another smile that night.

My life was already far more complicated and duplicitous than I preferred. Like Clark Kent, whiling away his time at the Daily Planet, I continued to do Cyrus’s bidding while leading a second life on the side. A life centered on unraveling the mystery of the RemoteToken fobs, which now strikes me as a bad title for an episode of Scooby Doo.

On the day I discovered the fobs in Cyrus’s desk drawer, I FedEx-ed them to Fiji, just as Cyrus had demanded. But, before sending them, I took photos of

each fob’s serial number. Under normal circumstances, and in normal hands, the serial numbers would be useless. But nothing about this was normal.

Back in the halcyon days of my collecting an actual paycheck as the Chief Operating Officer of CryptoWallet, my specialty was knotty challenges. CryptoWallet’s business plan was theoretically simple: seamlessly consolidate all of a person’s bank accounts, credit cards and – ta da! – crypto currencies into one hub. The CryptoWallet wallet meshed these disparate accounts and currencies into one, greatly simplifying a complex financial existence. It was a cool idea.

And, like most cool ideas, it was easier to say than to do. Banks are like paranoid neighbors who barricade themselves behind walls, fences, shrubbery, and No Trespassing signs. The last thing they want is for some other company to come between them and their customer. So, the coding necessary to accom plish CryptoWallet’s simple idea was beastly. When a customer logged into their CryptoWallet, the system had to simultaneously log into every individual account the customer maintained, pulling and consolidating the latest bits and bytes of information, then combining and reformatting it all into a single view.

As Isabel might say – so long as I was out of earshot – thanks for the history lesson, boomer. But this trip down memory lane has actual relevance: the thorniest bank accounts for CryptoWallet to log into were those guarded by RemoteToken fobs. Yes, Cyrus’s fobs.

As described previously, RemoteToken fobs generate six-digit random numbers that explode every thirty seconds to be replaced by new numbers. These numbers serve as ever-changing passwords. The customer does not have to memorize anything, they just have to possess the fob. CryptoWallet did not have many customers with bank accounts guarded by RemoteToken fobs, but the company had designs on global dominance. To achieve that, they needed a RemoteToken solution. Needless to say, this was precisely the kind of knotty project that had my name all over it.

The challenge was that the underlying account password – the six-digit number – was always changing; storing it was useless. So, I worked with the programmers at RemoteToken to create code whereby our customer would enter the serial number on their fob and the current password the first time they linked the account. My code would then look inside the RemoteToken server to verify both the serial number and the code. If both numbers matched, the link was approved by RemoteToken in perpetuity.

To coax RemoteToken into accepting this work-around, I gave them sever al assurances. I promised that I would isolate the code that accessed their sys tem on a separate server located in a galaxy far, far away from CryptoWallet’s actual business servers. If that were not good enough, I also promised that my code would act as a black box, receiving the serial number and explod ing password, checking those numbers against RemoteToken and returning only a True or False answer to CryptoWallet. At no time would anyone at CryptoWallet ever be able to see inside the RemoteToken servers.

If CryptoWallet had followed through on my promises, the RemoteToken server would have been as impenetrable as ever. But, despite my arguing, flail ing, complaining, crying, and general petulance, CryptoWallet did not follow through. Instead of spending its money on security, as I had promised, the company spent it on a splashy debut at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show and sent me packing in cardboard box number three.

As all this gobbledygook suggests, the serial numbers in my possession should have been useless. But CryptoWallet took a security short cut, bet ting that no one would figure out its secret. Certainly, they would not have suspected innocent-to-a-fault me. A man riding so tall on his high horse that they had to cut him loose.

But they were wrong. So, with the serial numbers in hand and the hacking chops to exploit them, I set off in search of the answer to a question that had been nagging me since the first day Cyrus Wimby asked me to open a bank account and start transferring millions of dollars: what the hell was in that Hong Kong bank account?

Michael Cox is a 2005 graduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Wall Street refugee. Including Montecito, Michael has written three novels, each in various stages of the path to publication. He can be reached at mcox@alumni.gsb.stanford.edu.

Tune in next week for more Montecito

Book Still Being Written

Buckingham Palace is no doubt batten ing down the hatches in anticipation of Prince Harry’s 416-page autobiography Spare, which is now officially hitting bookshelves on January 10 in 16 lan guages from New York publishing giant Penguin-Random House, part of a $20 million three-book deal.

The Duke of Sussex has also announced he is donating $1 million to Sentebale, a

charity that helps children affected with HIV/AIDS founded in the southern African nation of Lesotho by Harry and Prince Seeiso, the king’s brother, and a further $340,000 to the U.K. charity WellChild, of which he has been a patron for 15 years.

The book promises to be “full of insight, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom” about the eternal power of love over grief. An “intimate and heartfelt memoir” promising the youngest son of King Charles III will “offer an honest and captivating personal portrait.”

Harry has been making last minute editorial changes to the ghost-written book, presumably reflecting the death of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, in September, and fears the final draft might not go down too well after the long-reigning monarch’s move to more heavenly pastures.

Already major British booksellers, like W.H. Smith and Waterstones, have started marketing the tell-all tome at half price, more than two months before its publication.

It is to be hoped that Harry does not shoot himself in the foot with Spare. King Charles and his older brother, the Prince of Wales, only have so much patience after the incendiary interview he and wife Meghan Markle did with Montecito TV titan Oprah Winfrey last year...

A Kicking Quartet

Prophet – the Hatmaker’s Son: The Life of Robert Muller, the late husband of the association’s former president Barbara Gaughen-Muller, who served as the U.N.’s Assistant Secretary General.

The ever-popular Juilliard String Quartet kicked off CAMA’s latest Masterseries at

Kerri Murray accepts the Santa Barbara Peace Prize from the UNA (photo by Priscilla)

John Glanville, Helga Norris, and John Palminteri (photo by Priscilla)

Juilliard String Quartet – ever impressive (photo by Erin Baiano)

Gratitude Grows Here.

We never stop reaching higher for our patients and for our community.

When your loved one is in our care, we’re here to support you and your family.

The new Cottage Family Suites provide accommodations for out-of-town families caring for a loved one who is hospitalized. Cottage Family Suites are made possible by donations from the community. Thank you for ensuring we have the highest quality and compassionate care...and hospitality...right here at home.

Learn more at cottagehealth.org/reachinghigher

Calendar of Events

by Steven Libowitz

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3

Dressing Up for Paris Night – Santa Barbara’s Couture Pattern Museum, the privately held teaching museum with a historical dressmaking atelier at 1221 State Street, heads downtown to Workzones to present haute couture dresses curat ed from 1957 to celebrate the 65th anniversary of Vogue Magazine’s Paris Night Looks as part of the 1st Thursday Artwalk. The launch represented the time in his tory that world-famous Parisian designers officially licensed their haute couture designs line-by-line for the home seamstress through paper patterns. Visitors can deepen an experience of the democratization of high fashion represented by walking among the four lively recreations, exhibited side-by-side with original patterns, magazine photos, and store counter books, all dating back to 1957 and drawn from the museum’s collection. Tonight’s visitors are encouraged to dress up or wear historical costumes to bring back the feel of Paris from 65 years ago.

WHEN: 5-8 pm

WHERE: 351 Paseo Nuevo

COST: free

INFO: (805) 303-4775 or couturepatternmuseum.com

1st Thursday Faves – Elsewhere, Santa Barbara Art Association’s Stepping Out, a diverse and exuberant two-dimensional exhibition at Channing Peake Gallery (105 E. Anapamu St.), highlights 60 works by local artists that collectively invites the viewer to reflect outside the pandemic’s shadow… Engel & Völkers’ downtown realty office (1323 State) is still displaying an arresting collection of watercolor paintings by Marianna Victoria Mashek accompanied by wine, sparkling water, and tasty hors d’oeuvres… Paint ings by Santa Ynez-based artist Delmar Leon boasting evocative colors and sculptural strokes hang on the walls at domecíl (1221 State, Suite 7) where you can also shop Angeli Antoine-Honey’s whimsical Edwardian/Art nouveau jewelry and art objects… It’s the last week to take Artistic License at 10 West Gallery (10 W. Anapamu) featuring new works from 11 Santa Barbara-area contemporary artists that finds paintings of city life and explorations of community dynamics sharing wall space with expressive abstracts informed by nature… Memories of Mountain Drive, a retrospective/reminisce about San ta Barbara’s bohemian enclave that thrived in the Montecito foothills in the 1960s, has taken up residence at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum (136 E. de la Guerra) and features works of art, photographs, and written and recorded personal reminiscences… Just a couple of blocks away, Grooveshine, this month’s live music band, plays what could be considered a modernized version of the Mountain Drive soundtrack, adding hip-hop production techniques to folk rock-world beat rhythms.

WHEN: 5-8 pm

WHERE: Lower State Street and side streets

COST: free

INFO: (805) 962-2098 or downtownsb.org/events/1st-thursday

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4

Navajita Plateá at Lobero – ¡Flamenco! Santa Barbara presents the Latin Gram my-nominated contemporary flamenco duo from Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, in Noches de Bohemia, a special night of music and dance downtown. Ildefonso de los Reyes (“Pelé”) and Francisco Carrasco (“Curro”), who each hail from renowned gypsy family dynasties, have been together for over three decades and have captivated fans all over the world with their eclectic sound compositions that blends flamenco with blues, rock, Latin, and even hip hop. Navajita Plateá will be joined by cel ebrated dancer and artistic director María Bermúdez, along with dancers Manuel Gutiérrez, Timo Nuñez, and friends.

WHEN: 7:30 pm

WHERE: Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido St. COST: $30-$45

INFO: (805) 963-0761 or lobero.org/events/navajita-platea/

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4

Rondeau Goes Baroque – Harpsichord virtuoso Jean Rondeau, who is a mem ber of the forward-thinking, bound aries-expanding Baroque ensemble, Nevermind, is also a star as a solo artist who has written and performed his own composition. Most recent among those is UNDR, inspired by Bach’s Goldberg Variations and composed by Rondeau in collaboration with percussionist Tancrède Kumme, which premiered just this past June. He returns to the original composition for tonight’s perfor mance as part of a current tour, but fear not: Rondeau’s outstanding talent and innovative approach to his well-known keyboard repertoire will be on full display as he tackles the beloved Goldberg Variations on the instrument for which they were originally intended. Rondeau will play the piece in its complete form, with all of the indicated repeats as well as judicious inserts of moments of silence, right here in Montecito at Hahn Hall on the campus of the Music Academy, which has no doubt hosted a number of go-rounds of the Goldberg over its 75-year history.

WHEN: 7 pm

WHERE: Hahn Hall, Music Academy of the West campus, 1070 Fairway Road COST: $30

INFO: (805) 893-3535 or ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu

Davis’ Birds-Eye View – Jack E. Davis , the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Gulf: The Making of An American Sea , alights at the Santa Barbara Muse um of Natural History’s Fleischmann Auditorium to talk about The Bald Eagle: The Improbable Journey of America’s Bird , his sweeping work of cultural and natural history that asks us to reconsider the story of America through the lens of our relationship to the natural world. Davis employs spectacular sto ries of founding fathers, rapacious hunters, heroic bird rescuers, and the lives of bald eagles themselves to demonstrate how one bird’s wondrous journey provides inspiration today as we grapple with environmental peril on a larger scale. Perhaps representing the kind of collaboration, it might take to com bat climate change, the talk is co-sponsored by the museum, UCSB A&L, and Santa Barbara Audubon Society, while books will be available for purchase and signing courtesy of Chaucer’s.

WHEN: 7:30-9 pm

WHERE: 2559 Puesta Del Sol Rd.

COST: free INFO: (805) 893-3535 / ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu or (805) 682-4711 / sbnature.org

Zoo’s Latest Bright Idea – The Santa Barbara Zoo launches a new holiday cel ebration called ZooLights that nearly nightly will let visitors see the zoo in a whole new, yes, light. From 4:30-8:30 pm, the zoo will transform into a winter wonderland with larger-than-life-size animal and wildlife installations that aims to illuminate not only the zoo but also the community’s post-pandemic holiday spirit. The immersive experience will feature thousands of handcraft ed silk-covered lanterns aglow with a total of more than 50,000 LED bulbs with the giant lanterns representing animals and nature scenes of wild places from around the world. Discover the African plains, a whimsical butterfly display, interactive areas, and a taste of the Outback – all within the zoo’s beautiful grounds. Kids can take photos with Santa on select dates, while everyone can enjoy wintry snacks and drinks available for purchase.

WHEN: November 3-January 15

WHERE: Santa Barbara Zoo, 500 Ninos Drive COST: $20-$32 INFO: (805) 962-5339 or https://www.sbzoo.org/zoolights/

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5

Mesa Artists Studio Tour – The annual mid-autumn weekend event when the Mesa Studio Artists members open their studios for the public to come visit them in their working environment is surely dwarfed by the much larger Santa Barbara Studio Artists tour held on Labor Day weekend. But what the Mesa can’t offer in

“The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

All Hale ‘Quips & Clips’ – It was just shy of 15 years ago that Hale Milgrim first creat ed Go to Hale – after being relieved as CEO and president of Capitol Records, he used it as an opportunity to “retire” and return to the town where he first worked in a record store. The series ostensibly serves as a benefit for his beloved Lobero Theatre, but it’s also an excuse of Milgrim’s to dive deep into his personal musical collec tion, a vast private archive of both commercial and unreleased recordings and film clips from his decades in the biz and even longer as a fan – which is why “retire” is in quotes. Milgrim serves as host and tour guide, but for almost a decade he’s had a producing partner in Richard Salzberg, a kindred spirit who complements and enhances Milgrim’s approach, making the cu rating probably even more fun than the show itself for its creators. Tonight’s installment is titled “Sounds of Change,” which can mean so many things and allow for a zillion songs, even just choosing among those with the word in its title. In Milgrim’s and Salzberg’s hands, it will probably go places beyond our imaginations. Little of the program gets announced in advance, and the shows are only done once. So if you want to be a true change taker, you need to be there.

WHEN: 6:52 pm; pre-show on the plaza at 6:22 pm

WHERE: Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido St.

COST: $20

INFO: (805) 963-0761 or lobero.org

breadth is easily overshadowed by its charms, which includes the fact that you can pretty much walk between the venues, or at least take an electric bike ride with the oceanside neighborhood – although a couple of locations stretch the boundaries of the Mesa past anyone’s definition – to spend a few minutes or sev eral hours with the 11 painters and mixed media arts on this year’s tour. Abstracts, plein air landscapes, wood carvings, and mosaics are among what you’ll find at studios that are embedded within the artists’ homes, with the creators more than happy to talk about their work or share their process. It’s also completely free, with some of the nine locations just blocks from the beach, meaning you can also check out the recently refurbished Thousand Steps access, which some might consider a work of art all its own. Download the map and tour brochure and follow the yard signs and red balloons on tour days.

WHEN: 11 am-4 pm today & tomorrow

WHERE: Along the Mesa COST: free

INFO: santabarbaramesaartists.com

NOVEMBER 6

Pico’s Interviews That Inspire – Pico Iyer, the tireless world-traveling es sayist, writer, and master interviewer who lives part time in Santa Barbara, has become a staple on the UCSB A&L schedule for his periodic evening in conversation with other authors, leaders, and changemakers. Due both to his mastery of the material through exhaustive research and his extraor dinary ability to be simultaneously investigative, insightful, and empathetic, the Speaking with Pico series is a must, even when the guest is unfamiliar. That won’t be the case with tonight’s season opening event, as Iyer interviews Jennifer Egan, the writer whose innovative literary fiction routinely makes The New York Times’ bestseller list with such books as the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad, Manhattan Beach, and The Candy House, her latest. Expect a night that’s both lively, revealing, and likely even moving.

WHEN: 3 pm

WHERE: Campbell Hall, UCSB campus

COST: $20-$35

INFO: (805) 893-3535 or ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu

300 Years of Owl Illustration Exhibit now open

John

BY Jamie

On Entertainment Out of the Box Gets Us Out of Our Heads

by Steven Libowitz

Out of the Box founder Samantha Eve has always exhibited an enduring fondness for contem porary or offbeat musicals, as indicat ed by the nonprofit community theater company’s past productions over the last dozen years of everything from Bare to Bonnie & Clyde, and Carrie to Heathers But in the wake of the turmoil of the last few years, Eve has a special place in her heart for Miss You Like Hell, which will have its Southern California profession al premiere at Center Stage Theater on November 4-13.

The musical offers an unusual take on the classic American road story, here pop ulated by a mother and daughter whose relationship is complicated not only by years of estrangements but also an immi nent danger of deportation as the mother, Beatriz, is an undocumented Mexican who has lived here for 20 years. Her 16-year-old daughter Olivia has posted suicidal ideation on her blog, and Beatriz more or less com mands Olivia to join her on a weeklong trip from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, where immigration policies threaten to derail the trip, and the just-resumed relationship.

“We love to dive into difficult family relationships, exploring how it can be dif ficult to connect with the people that you love,” Eve said. “Miss You Like Hell feels very realistic and the topic is so relevant, so there’s a lot that gets covered, includ ing being with the challenge of feeling like you don’t belong in a country where you have built a life.”

The songs were another instant appeal. An unusual collaboration of Quiara Alegría Hudes (book and lyrics), the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Water by the Spoonful, who also wrote the book for In the Heights, coinciden tally playing concurrently at Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre, and Erin McKeown, the folk-rock singer-songwriter who has performed previously in town at the Lobero and the Live Oak Festival (music and lyrics) produces a soundtrack that mirrors the show’s movement.

“It’s just kind of all over the place in a

good way, a lot of different styles, which really represents the America it’s trying to portray,” Eve said.

As with the best musicals, it’s when the story and the songs merge that Miss You Like Hell reminds us that musicals have the power to explore the exposed territo ry where the political becomes personal, as one critic put it, rather than serving as mindless entertainment.

One of those moments provided a dart to the heart for Eve.

“Towards the end of the show, there are a couple of musical moments that really get me,” the director said. “I was watching the run-through the other day, and for a brief moment I was experiencing being in Olivia’s shoes, feeling what she feels. It was real empathy, and I was distraught for a good 20 seconds before I pulled myself together and remembered I was supposed to be taking notes for the cast.”

That’s a good thing, because nearly all of the actors are Out of the Box newcomers in nearly every role, with Beatriz portrayed by Michelle Hernandez, an old college colleague who was Eve’s first scene partner at NYU. Olivia’s Laura Larissa is a Santa Barbara native who recently returned to town after graduating from a performing arts high school in Texas. A six-piece band provides the live soundtrack for the songs from a platform on the stage.

Fortunately, the audience is free to get swept away by whatever comes up in the cross-country, cross-culture family adven ture that reminds us we are all human beings with human connections, not an issue or an inconvenience.

Visit centerstagetheater.org or call (805) 963-0408 for tickets to Miss You Like Hell , playing Fridays-Sundays, November 4-13.

SBCC Comedy: From Simply Silly to Social Satire

Fresh from the over-the-top antics,

BY Patrick Barlow

Miss You Like Hell is an unusual take on the classic American road story

Bremmer

Leading

Alice Waters – where neither claims to be

In the 1980s Martha was the exacting mother with crazy high standards whose focus was on how everything looked more than how things tasted. Hard to please and hard to live up to. She pushed the idea of food as entertainment forward. My mother and I found her screamingly funny. I like her so much better now. Ina is us if we were absolutely comfortable in the kitchen, had a fabulous husband, house, business. She’s less idiosyncratic than Nigella, which I attribute to the fact that she had a food business for so many years and had to develop recipes to please those customers. Alice is in a different category. Never a cook, always a support er of cooks/chefs she hired and yet she’s probably the most influential of them all as the person who made us all aware of the deliciousness of seasonality and the importance of knowing where your food comes from and having a direct relation ship with growers. There is the thread of Alice running through all of them. Nigella has made cooking at home sexy and is a consummate communicator of realness in the kitchen. In fact, in the preface to How to Eat, Nigella says, “I am not a chef. I am not even a trained or professional cook. My qualification is as an eater. I cook what I want to eat – within limits.”

Besides being a self-described “domestic goddess,” Nigella is Oxford educated and by most accounts a very good cook. Why is she important to the culinary world at this particular moment?

There are many smart people in the food space, more joining every day, but Nigella has always been special. Being a journalist for many years (covering beats other than food) means that she is a natural researcher and a phenome nal writer, not only on the subject she

may be focusing on (a particular recipe, ingredient, trend) but on herself as well. I think it’s what enables her to be so open emotionally about the subject of food and how it affects her. Nigella is a perfect example of how the specific is universal. As she moves through ques tions that interest her, there is emotional resonance for all of us.

In these tough economic times, Nigella’s How to Eat, which makes a case for home cooking versus dining out, seemed like a novel idea when she wrote it two decades ago. Do you think she was ahead of the curve here?

Yes, in fact to prepare for my upcom ing interviews with her I re-read her first book. The intelligence of the preface is still groundbreaking. The idea that to know how to cook you have to first understand what you want to eat, what pleases you. Because we’re all different and what may obsess me may not do anything for you.

I also think that her thoughts on restaurant/chef food versus home cook ing is spot on. After two decades of food media being focused on chefs and restaurant food and with more of us eating “prepared foods” from every where from the local grocery store to gas stations, reading her thoughts on home cooking – how she says “What I am not talking about is strenuous origi nality.” Too many of us view cooking at home as a competitive sport even down to the photographs we post to prove our chops. Nigella’s pictures are filled with brown food, the soups and stews she loves, and often you can see they are real meals she’s made, not some prettified version.

Nigella doesn’t seem to buy the concept of convenience when you can easily pre

pare the same recipe at home. How has her approach to “making it at home” as opposed to buying it “premade” changed the American psyche?

Nigella often talks about how ground ing cooking is for her. The repetitive practice itself is immensely pleasurable, not a burden for her. What I think she strives to do more than anything is to lead readers and watchers along a cook ing journey until we too can feel that we have attained enough chops to be more relaxed in the kitchen and also find it to be grounding. In a time like now when people are experiencing so much anxiety, learning how to approach cooking, it binds that anxiety (rather than causing more) and is so important. It’s also so much healthier. I’m not sure it’s changed the American psyche because we still consume so much prepared food, but she’s there to reach out a hand when peo ple are ready to start.

In many cultures, women are expected to be natural cooks. But in fact, cooking does not come naturally for a lot of people. In what sense has Nigella’s perspective changed the narrative?

None of us who are home cooks are chefs. I think women used to learn how to cook from their mothers and grandmothers or aunties so in that sense the learning of how a kitchen works and how to buy and prepare foods became “natural.” Although many of us who learned that way didn’t necessarily learn from a gifted home cook. That’s why I started cook ing, to eat food I found more delicious than what my mother offered.

I grew up in the 1950s and ‘60s when the industrialization of food was beginning and convenience foods were embraced by women who found the repetitive nature of putting three meals on the table drudgery. My mom mostly cooked fresh food from scratch but our

meals relied heavily on meat. Chops one night, followed by a roast, followed by different chops, etc., all accompanied with one cooked vegetable made with just salt and pepper and a salad. The salad was the best part. She never baked and the recipes she made were either weird slop made with cream of whatever soups or from Weight Watchers. I start ed reading cookbooks about food from other parts of the world as a child and I was eager to try recipes. I financed my first trip to Europe as a teen by making chocolate chip cookies at home and sell ing them to stoners at school.

For this generation of food lovers, Nigella in essence becomes that older sister, or aunt or mom in absentia, giving us tools both technical and emotional to feel comfortable to create our own unique kitchen practice.

Presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures, “An Evening with Nigella Lawson” is on Saturday, November 12, 7:30 pm at the Granada Theatre. Pre-signed books will be available for purchase, courtesy of Chaucer’s. General Public tickets are $31$46 or $16 for UCSB Students (Current student ID required). More info can be found at ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu, (805) 893-3535; or The Granada Theatre, granadsb.org, (805) 899-2222.

Claudia Schou is a high-heel enthusiast, boot camp novice, and fancy recipe collector.

Loves Flannery O’Connor and Breakfast with The Beatles. Formerly at California Apparel News, Orange County Register, and L.A. Times Community News.

Barbara Debut

stunning.” The New York Times

from Tony Award-winning MacArthur “Genius“ Bill T. Jones features a

from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s

Have a Dream speech.

pulled out the stops – and mantle

closing night last weekend – SBCC Theatre Group segues into a student pro duction of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, one of the cleverest comedies in the canon. Though it’s more than 125 years old, Wilde’s witty wonder remains endlessly engaging as the tale takes its twists and turns in addressing the age-old conundrum of love as well as the desire to avoid societal obligations. The dialogue is some of the most deli cious ever delivered from a stage, and the farce never falters in employing the characters’ fictitious personae to poke fun at the social conventions of the late Victorian era in London. SBCC’s intimate Jurkowitz Theatre will likely add even more immediacy to the production that runs November 9-19, with a student cast directed by Theater Department Co-chair

Katie Laris. Call (805) 965-5935 or visit theatregroupsbcc.com.

Film Festival Fever Downtown and in Ojai

There are a lot of highlights of this year’s Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival, which returns for its first post-pandemic gathering back at The New Vic Theatre November 2 through November 6, including Repairing the World: Stories from the Tree of Life, which screens at 5 pm on November 3. The documen tary about the 2018 synagogue shoot ing in Pittsburgh, and the community’s response to hate and antisemitism, will be followed by an expert panel with film maker Patrice O’Neill, Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Vice President of the Center on Extremism Oren Segal, and Lorne M. Fienberg, Immigration

Attorney and the brother-in-law of Joyce Fienberg, a Tree of Life victim.

Similarly, the November 6 screening of The Jewish Jail Lady and The Holy Thief, a documentary that traces the journeys of Rabbi Mark Borovitz and Harriett Rossetto from troubled pasts to the founding of Beit T’Shuvah, a world-re nowned recovery and treatment center in Los Angeles, will be followed by a discus sion with the film’s subjects. The 13 total screenings also include a showing of The Jews and The Blues on November 5 capped off by a performance by Jewish blues artist Saul Kaye, and the quirky romantic com edy Love and Mazel Tov complete with the typical meet-cute and comedy-of-errors that’s improbably about a young Gentile woman whose “crush on Judaism” extends to owning a Jewish literature bookstore who tries to undo her family’s “bad karma” for making lots of money from art and antiques bought cheaply from Jews fleeing Germany in WWII.

Visit sbjewishfilmfestival.org for more information.

Met soprano star Sondra Radvanovsky as the mythic sorceress who will stop at nothing in her quest for vengeance. The Met-premiere production recorded live transmission at 2 pm on November 6 also stars tenor Matthew Polenzani, soprano Janai Brugger, bass Michele Pertusi, and mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova. Visit musicacademy.org… Bakosó: AfroBeats of Cuba, a documentary that traces the story of Cuban DJ and producer Isnay Rodriguez, screens November 9 at UCSB’s MCC followed by a discussion and Q&A with co-producers Eli and Kahlil JacobsFantauzzi. Details at mcc.sa.ucsb.edu.

Notes Around Town

Single Items to Whole Estates Consignments & Auctions

November 3-7 marks the in-person portion of the 23rd annual Ojai Film Festival – which is still the younger stepsister to SBIFF, but one that fills out its five days with an abundance of ambi tion. There are 19 narrative features, 14 documentaries, and dozens of shorts in narrative, documentary, animation, and other categories screening in that span. Seminars in matte painting, comedy, using YouTube for exposure, cinema tography, screenwriting, diversity, and much more are also on the schedule, plus panels with filmmaker Michael Milano for both his Emmy-nominated docs, 137 Shots and Burning Ojai: Our Fire Story, about the impact of the Thomas Fire in the Ventura County community.

Following its hybrid model from last year, all of the films and some of the special programs will then be available to stream on demand November 8-20. Visit ojaifilmfestival.com for details, schedules, and ticket information.

Music at the Movies

The Music Academy launches its new season of projecting Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD series at the recently tech nically upgraded Hahn Hall with Luigi Cherubini’s rarely performed Medea, with

Sihasin, the duo of brother and sister, Clayson and Jeneda Benally, from the Diné Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona, grew up protesting the environmental degradation and inhumane acts of cul tural genocide against their traditional way of life, with the anger reflected in their previous family band. Now, Sihasin offers music that reflects hope for equality, healthy and respectful communities, and social and environmental justice, albeit via an explosive genre-blurring combination of only bass, drums, and vocals. Catch them at UCSB’s MCC on November 4… Innovative piano-based singer-songwrit er Jennifer Terran performs a CD release show for her years-in-the-making new disc California National Anthem, accompanied by Loránd Lokuszta on violin, Laura Mihalka on cello, and Ada Sycamore Ray with vocal harmonies. The November 5 concert from the veteran Santa Barbara musician who once recorded a praiseful ode to Trader Joe’s takes place at her own mountain venue called The Barn. Details at jenniferterran.com…

Short Cuts

Dirtwire brings its “back-porch space cowboy blues, swamptronica, and elec tro-twang” to SOhO on November 5... Café Tacvba, Mexico’s leading alter native rock band known for blending indigenous folk with electronic, rock, and punk, brings its three-decades-plus experience to the Arlington Theatre on November 6… Local Kimberly Ford offers up her nationally-touring spot on a tribute/interpretation of Joni Mitchell complete with a seven-piece band mod eled on Mitchell’s years backed by Tom Scott & the L.A. Express (Court & Spark, Hissing of Summer Lawns, Miles of Aisles) back at SOhO on November 8.

Steven Libowitz has covered a plethora of topics for the Journal since 1997, and now leads our extensive arts and entertainment coverage

Drew Stone blowing the shofar in The Jews and The Blues

Oscar Wilde’s timeless wit can be seen in The Importance of Being Earnest (photo by Ben Crop)

Celebratethe Miramar Holidays at

Miramar is bringing the spirit of the season to Montecito this year. Enjoy the holidays at the resort with mouth-watering menus, awe-inspiring entertainment, and beautifully bespoke experiences. And—in true Miramar manner—each holiday celebration features spectacular service and impeccable attention to detail at every turn. Don’t miss the magic of Miramar, from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day.

anksgiving

Kick off the holiday season and gather in gratitude like never before. You’re invited to give thanks around every table at Miramar. Join us for brunches, dinners, music, and more at all of your favorite Miramar restaurants and bars.

Christmas Eve Christmas Day

Count down to Christmas at Miramar. Dig into Seven Fish dinners on the coastline at Caruso’s, revel in the music of carolers in the Living Room, and delight in snowfall on the Great Lawn. Here’s to making this your most memorable Christmas Eve yet.

31

Unwrap the magic of Christmas morning at Miramar. Delight in a delicious brunch of festive favorites and whimsical touches for a holiday celebration that your family will cherish for years to come.

01

New Year’s Eve

A night of unmatched elegance awaits at Miramar, the place to be on New Year’s Eve. Join us for an unforgettable evening where the ordinary is escaped and the extraordinary is embraced, including an oceanfront champagne dinner at Caruso’s, a gala hosted in the Chandelier Ballroom, and showstopping performances in The Manor Bar, culminating in a truly magical midnight toast.

New Year’s Day

Get ready to raise a glass to 2023 along the Central Coast. Miramar is offering a festive lineup of brunches, lunches, can’t-miss cocktails, and dinners, sure to make New Year’s Day memorably special. Cheers to starting the year in style.

To explore all of our holiday happenings, please visit us at: @rosewoodmiramarbeach www.rosewoodmiramarbeach.com facebook.com/RosewoodMiramarBeach/ email miramar@rosewoodhotels.com 805-900-8388

Notice Inviting Bids

PRODUCT WATER PUMP STATION UPGRADES

Bid No. 4067

1. Bid Submission. The City of Santa Barbara (“City”) will accept electronic bids for its Product Water Pump Station Upgrades Project (“Project”), by or before 8 December, 2022, at 3:00 P.M., 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.

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.

Bid results and awards will be available on PlanetBids.

2. Project Information.

2.1 Location and Description. The Project is located at Charles Meyer Desalination Plant 525 E Yanonali St, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, and is described as follows: Demolition of existing pump header and concrete pads. Installation of two pumps, air compressors, surge protection system, piping, cable tray, all associated electrical work, control panels, and appurtenances.

2.2 Time for Final Completion. The Project must be fully completed within 480 calendar days from the start date set forth in the Notice to Proceed. City anticipates that the Work will begin on or about 23 January 2023, but the anticipated start date is p rovided solely for convenience and is neither certain nor binding.

2.3 Estimated Cost. The estimated construction cost is $3,200,000

3. License and Registration Requirements.

3.1 License. This Project requires a valid California contractor’s license for the following classification(s): A General Engineering Contractor.

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.

4. 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.

5. Bid Security. The Bid Proposal must be accompanied by bid security of five 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.

6. 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.

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.

7. 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.

8. Substitution of Securities. Substitution of appropriate securities in lieu of retention amounts from progress payments is permitted under Public Contract Code § 22300.

9. 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, Cali fornia 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.

10. Not Used

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 Docum ents, as defined therein, including this Notice Inviting Bids.

12. Bidders’ Conference. A bidders’ conference will be held on 10 November 2022, at 10:00 AM, at the El Estero Water Resources Conference Room, 520 E Yanonali St., Santa Barbara CA 93103, to acquaint all prospective bidders with the Contract Document s and the Worksite. The bidders’ conference is mandatory. A bidder who fails to attend a mandatory bidders’ conference may be disqualified from bidding.

13. Specific Brands. Pursuant to referenced provision(s) of Public Contract Code § 3400(c), City has found that the following specific brands are required for the following particular material(s), product(s), thing(s), or service(s), and no substitutions will be considered or accepted:

Item: Required brand: Reference:

Butterfly Valves Dezurik Section 3400 (c)(2)

Variable Speed Drives Schneider Section 3400 (c)(2)

Swing Check Valves > 2 inch Dezurik Section 3400 (c)(2)

Electrical Equipment Schneider Section 3400 (c)(2)

_________ Date: ________________

ORDINANCE NO. 6090

AN ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA BARBARA AMENDING THE SANTA BARBARA MUNICIPAL CODE (“SBMC”) BY AMENDING SECTIONS 17.04.010, 17.12.050, 17.20.005, AND 17.36.040 PERTAINING TO DEFINITIONS, VESSELS, SLIP ASSIGNMENTS, AND PARKING IN THE SANTA BARBARA HARBOR

The above captioned ordinance was adopted at a regular meeting of the Santa Barbara City Council held on October 25, 2022.

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)

/s/ Sarah Gorman, MMC City Clerk Services Manager

ORDINANCE NO. 6090

STATE OF CALIFORNIA ) ) COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA ) ss. ) CITY OF SANTA BARBARA )

I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing ordinance was introduced on October 18, 2022 and adopted by the Council of the City of Santa Barbara at a meeting held on October 25, 2022 by the following roll call vote:

AYES: Councilmembers Eric Friedman, Oscar Gutierrez, Mike Jordan, Kristen W. Sneddon, Mayor Randy Rowse

NOES: None

ABSENT: Councilmembers Alejandra Gutierrez, Meagan Harmon

ABSTENTIONS: None

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereto set my hand and affixed the official seal of the City of Santa Barbara on October 26, 2022.

/s/ Sarah Gorman, MMC City Clerk Services Manager

I HEREBY APPROVE the foregoing ordinance on October 26, 2022.

/s/ Randy Rowse Mayor

“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that you vote is never lost.”

John Quincy Adams

Donations from this year’s auction will help grow the number of CHC’s mobile units, which bring medical services directly to farm workers in the vineyard

the global pandemic shutdown – the Foundation extended its charitable reach beyond DRI to also include Community Health Centers of the Central Coast, or CHC, which brings a large menu of medical and healthcare services directly to workers and into the fields.

The 2020 Auction proved essential for CHC: Covid vaccinations to farm workers, many of them delivered directly to vineyards via mobile units, topped 38,000; more than 10,000 Covid Care Kits were delivered; and a new CHC clinic opened its doors in Los Alamos. Ongoing outreach has included a holiday event last year that raised more than $30,000 in children’s gifts and a health fair in Buellton this past August that included everything from diabetes screenings to appointments with immigration lawyers.

“Of course, this is a long-term dream,” adds Gasca. “Wouldn’t it be great to have mobile medical units going to the vine yards on a weekly basis? But for now, the word is getting out there in the commu nity that these services are available, and our vineyard teams are feeling acknowl edged and appreciated.”

There’s plenty of wow factor around this year’s auction, then, to both amaze guests and encourage their generosity. To that end, what has always been a onenight gala event is expanding this year to a two-day affair. On Saturday, November 11, three curated lunch experiences take guests to wine country: at Pico Restaurant in Los Alamos, a farmer-driven meal will be paired with wines from Foxen, Fess Parker, Sea Smoke, Story of Soil, and Lumen; at Presqu’ile Winery in Santa Maria, which also include wines from Au Bon Climat, the lunch experience also includes a guided winery tour; and a lunch at SAMsARA Winery in Goleta will also feature wines from Sanford and Stolpman. Tickets are $200 per person, with half earmarked for CHC.

The official Auction extravaganza opens up Friday night at Bacara with a first-ever auction preview and walkaround tasting of dozens of Santa Barbara wines. And then, things get fancy on Saturday, November 12, when guests are seated at winery-hosted tables (you’ll find me with my Foxen friends) and treated to a magical night.

This year’s culinary experience is in the hands of Executive Chef Daisy Ryan,

owner of Bell’s in Los Alamos and Bar Le Côte in Los Olivos, and winner of a Michelin star in the fall of 2021. Industry veteran Chris Shackelford will lead a team of sommeliers who’ll look after the pairings at each table.

The auction is, of course, the pièce de résistance, thanks to a cavalcade of lots that aim to impress. Alongside the afore mentioned Montecito getaway offered by Babcock Winery, guests will compete in a paddle-raising frenzy over dozens of exclusive experiences like:

– Foxen Library Wines Dinner inside bouchon Restaurant’s private Cork Room, hosted by Foxen founders Dick Doré and Bill Wathen, including six take-home bottles of Foxen pinot noir magnums

– Wine and Dine at the San Ysidro Ranch with Richard Sanford, the man known as the Godfather of the Sta. Rita Hills, including a take-home case of wines from Alma Rosa, a label he launched

– A Dining Experience inside the pri vate Bungalow dining room at Lucky’s in Montecito

– Two nights at the Retreat at 11 Oaks, Carhartt Winery’s estate two-bedroom vineyard home in the Santa Ynez Valley, including a ranch tour and tasting, as well as dinner at Solvang’s Sear Steakhouse

– A two-night stay, plus dinner for eight, inside the brand new Mattei’s Tavern, Auberge Resorts Collection, in Los Olivos

Attendees have various sponsorship opportunities to choose from, starting with the Bronze Package ($3,250, tax deductible), which includes two tick ets to the Friday night reception and Saturday evening Auction.

This year’s vintner honoree is Grassini Family Vineyards, well known for their premium cabernet sauvignon and sau vignon blanc, as well their own ongoing charitable causes.

For tickets and full lowdown on the impressive auction lots, visit sbwineauction.org. Cheers!

Gabe Saglie has been covering the Santa Barbara wine scene for more than 15 years through columns, TV, and radio. He’s a senior editor with Travelzoo and is a leading expert on travel deals, tips, and trends.

Reimagined

Find an endlessly inspiring setting, a wealth of activities, first-class cuisine, innovative wellness & attentive service all under one stylish roof with new friendships, new discoveries and the peace of mind that comes from onsite supportive services. It’s all here. A place built for all that makes you, you.

Lunch & Learn |

NOV. 17TH • 11:30AM

Join us for a presentation on our beautiful community. Afterwards, take a tour and enjoy lunch with an autumn theme. To RSVP, please call 805.319.4379.

Jessica Gasca, winemaker-owner of the boutique wine label, Story of Soil, is presi dent of the Santa Barbara Vintners Foundation

1. OWNER: Montecito Union School District

2. PROJECT IDENTIFICATION NAME: 2223 1 Construction of Foundation for Modular Restroom

3. PROJECT LOCATION: 385 San Ysidro Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93108

4. PROJECT DESCRIPTION Installation of a concrete foundation and landing at the restroom building and repair of adjacent decomposed granite walk. Grading of the area around the building to provide drainage per plan and relocation of existing boulders on site. Completion of utility connections under a separate contract. Provide signage and door stops.

This project is anticipated to start approximately February 1, 2023 and is anticipated to be completed by May 21, 2023.

Concrete Foundation Summary: Construction of foundation for Modular Restroom Building (restroom building is fabricated and installed under a separate contract). This project includes the installation of a concrete landing at the restroom building and the repair of an adjacent decomposed granite walk. Grading of the area around the building to provide drainage per plan and relocation of existing boulders on site. Provide signage and door stops. Utility connections are also under a separate contract.

5. BID DEADLINE: Bids are due on December 8 not later than 2:00 p.m.

6. PLACE AND METHOD OF BID RECEIPT: All bids must be made using the District provided bid forms and must be completed, sealed and turned in by the deadline. Bid packet will be provided at the job walk. Bids may be turned in by personal delivery, courier, or mailed via United States Postal Service and addressed to Montecito Union School District, 385 San Ysidro Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93108. ATTN: Virginia Alvarez

7 PLACE PLANS ARE ON FILE: Montecito Union School District, Business Department, Second Floor, 385 San Ysidro Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93108, www.tricoblue.com

8 ALTERNATES: If alternate bids are called for, the contract will be awarded to the lowest bid price on the base contract without consideration of the prices on the additive or deductive items.

9 MANDATORY JOB WALK: Meet at Montecito Union School Office on Monday November 14, 2022 at 9:30 a.m sharp Attendance at the entire job walk is mandatory and failure to attend the entire job walk may result in your bid being rejected as non responsive. Contact OWNER for details on required job walks and related documentation.

10 This is a prevailing wage project. OWNER has ascertained the general prevailing rate of per diem wages in the locality in which this work is to be performed for each craft or type of worker needed to execute this contract. These rates are on file at OWNER’s office, and a copy may be obtained upon request, or at www.dir.ca.gov Contractor shall post a copy of these rates at the job site. ALL PROJECTS OVER $1,000 ARE SUBJECT TO PREVAILING WAGE MONITORING AND ENFORCEMENT BY THE LABOR COMMISSIONER.

It shall be mandatory upon the contractor to whom the contract is awarded (CONTRACTOR), and upon any SUBCONTRACTOR, to pay not less than the specified rates to all workers employed by them in the execution of the contract.

11 A Payment Bond for contracts over $25,000 and a Performance Bond for all contracts will be required prior to commencement of work. These bonds shall be in the amounts and form called for in the Contract Documents.

12 Pursuant to the provisions of Public Contract Code Section 22300, CONTRACTOR may substitute certain securities for any funds withheld by OWNER to ensure CONTRACTOR’s performance under the contract. At the request and expense of CONTRACTOR, securities equivalent to any amount withheld shall be deposited, at the discretion of OWNER, with either OWNER or a state or federally chartered bank as the escrow agent, who shall then pay any funds otherwise subject to retention to CONTRACTOR. Upon satisfactory completion of the contract, the securities shall be returned to CONTRACTOR.

Securities eligible for investment shall include those listed in Government Code Section 16430, bank and savings and loan certificates of deposit, interest bearing demand deposit accounts, standby letters of credit, or any other security mutually agreed to by CONTRACTOR and OWNER. CONTRACTOR shall be the beneficial owner of any securities substituted for funds withheld and shall receive any interest on them. The escrow agreement shall be in the form indicated in the Contract Documents.

13 To bid on or perform the work stated in this Notice, CONTRACTOR must possess a valid and active contractor's license of the following classification(s) C 8 No CONTRACTOR or subcontractor shall be qualified to bid on, be listed in a bid proposal, subject to the requirements of § 4104 of the Public Contract Code, for a public works project (submitted on or after March 1, 2015) unless currently registered with the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) and qualified to perform public work pursuant to Labor Code § 1725.5 No CONTRACTOR or subcontractor may be awarded a contract for public work on a public works project (awarded after April 1, 2015) unless registered with the DIR DIR’s web registration portal is: www.dir.ca.gov/Public Works/Contractors.html

14 CONTRACTOR and all subcontractors must furnish electronic certified payroll records (eCPR) to the Labor Commissioner monthly in PDF format. Registration at www.dir.ca.gov/Public Works/Certified Payroll Reporting.html is required to use the eCPR system.

The following notice is given as required by Labor Code Section 1771.5(b)(1): CONTRACTOR and any subcontractors are required to review and comply with the provisions of the California Labor Code, Part 7, Chapter 1, beginning with Section 1720, as more fully discussed in the Contract Documents. These sections contain specific requirements concerning, for example, determination and payment of prevailing wages, retention, inspection, and auditing payroll records, use of apprentices, payment of overtime compensation, securing workers’ compensation insurance, and various criminal penalties or fines which may be imposed for violations of the requirements of the chapter. Submission of a bid constitutes CONTRACTOR’s representation that CONTRACTOR has thoroughly reviewed these requirements.

15 OWNER will retain 5% of the amount of any progress payments.

16 This Project does not require prequalification pursuant to AB 1565 of all general contractors and all mechanical, electrical and plumbing subcontractors

17. BID PACKET will be provided at the job walk to attendees.

Advertisement Dates: October 27, November 3, 10, 2022 weekly editions.

ORDINANCE NO. 6088

AN ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA BARBARA ADOPTING THE 2022 2026 SUPERVISORS MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING AND PROVIDING FOR COMPENSATION CHANGES FOR CONFIDENTIAL SUPERVISORY EMPLOYEES

The above captioned ordinance was adopted at a regular meeting of the Santa Barbara City Council held on October 25, 2022.

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)

/s/ Sarah Gorman, MMC City Clerk Services Manager

ORDINANCE NO. 6088

STATE OF CALIFORNIA ) ) COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA ) ss. ) CITY OF SANTA BARBARA )

I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing ordinance was introduced on October 18, 2022 and adopted by the Council of the City of Santa Barbara at a meeting held on October 25, 2022 by the following roll call vote:

AYES: Councilmembers Eric Friedman, Oscar Gutierrez, Mike Jordan, Kristen W. Sneddon, Mayor Randy Rowse

NOES: None

ABSENT: Councilmembers Alejandra Gutierrez, Meagan Harmon

ABSTENTIONS: None

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereto set my hand and affixed the official seal of the City of Santa Barbara on October 26, 2022.

/s/ Sarah Gorman, MMC City Clerk Services Manager

I HEREBY APPROVE the foregoing ordinance on October 26, 2022.

/s/ Randy Rowse Mayor

“Every citizen of this country should be guaranteed that their vote matters, that their vote is counted.” – Barbara Boxer

Notice Inviting Bids Bid No. 4088

1. Bid Submission. The City of Santa Barbara (“City”) will accept electronic bids for its FY2022 B PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE (OVERLAY) Project (“Project”), by or before November 10, 2022, at 3:00pm., 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.

If any Addendum issued by 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 City’s PlanetBids portal. Bid results and awards will be available on PlanetBids.

2. Project Information.

2.1 Location and Description. The Project is located at various streets throughout the City, and is described as follows: Repair various streets, as shown on the Project Location Map, by performing asphalt dig outs to repair failed areas; tree root pruning and concrete curb and gutter replacement; sidewalk removal and replacement; asphalt; reconstruction of existing non compliant curb ramps; construct new curb ramps; traffic striping and markings; relocate and protect existing signs and roadway name stamps; perform traffic control, notifications, and postings, complete and in place.

2.2 Time for Completion. The Project must be completed within two hundred twenty five (225) working days from the start date set forth in the Notice to Proceed. City anticipates that the Work will begin on or about Januar y 2, 2023, but the anticipated start date is provided solely for convenience and is neither certain nor binding.

2.3 Estimated Cost. The estimated construction cost is $9,500,000.

3. License and Registration Requirements.

3.1 License. This Project requires a valid California contractor’s license for the following classification(s): A General Engineering

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.

4. 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.

5. Bid Security. The Bid Proposal must be accompanied by bid security of 5% 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 th e 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.

6. 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.

6.2 Rates. The prevailing rates are on file with 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.

7. 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.

8. Substitution of Securities. Substitution of appropriate securities in lieu of retention amounts from progress payments is permitted under Public Contract Code § 22300.

9. 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.

10. 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: ___________________________________ Date: ________________ Bill Hornung, General Services Manager

Publication Dates: 1) October 26, 2022 2) November 2, 2022

ORDINANCE NO. 6089

AN ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA BARBARA ADOPTING THE 2022 2024

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE CITY OF SANTA BARBARA AND THE SERVICE EMPLOYEES' INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL 620, HOURLY EMPLOYEES’ BARGAINING UNIT

The above captioned ordinance was adopted at a regular meeting of the Santa Barbara City Council held on October 25, 2022

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)

/s/ Sarah Gorman, MMC City Clerk Services Manager

ORDINANCE NO. 6089

STATE OF CALIFORNIA ) ) COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA ) ss. ) CITY OF SANTA BARBARA )

I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing ordinance was introduced on October 18, 2022 and adopted by the Council of the City of Santa Barbara at a meeting held on October 25, 2022 by the following roll call vote:

AYES: Councilmembers Eric Friedman, Oscar Gutierrez, Mike Jordan, Kristen W. Sneddon, Mayor Randy Rowse

NOES: None

ABSENT: Councilmembers Alejandra Gutierrez, Meagan Harmon

ABSTENTIONS: None

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereto set my hand and affixed the official seal of the City of Santa Barbara on October 26, 2022.

/s/ Sarah Gorman, MMC City Clerk Services Manager

I HEREBY APPROVE the foregoing ordinance on October 26, 2022.

/s/ Randy Rowse Mayor

Published November 2, 2022 Montecito Journal

COX HAS YOUR FALL STREAMING LINEUP ON CONTOUR

BY SUZANNE SCHLUNDT

Just in time for cozy movie nights this fall with family and friends, Cox announces the addition of Apple TV+ to its growing library of streaming apps available through Contour and Contour Stream Player. Now Cox custom ers can watch what they want their way, all in one place on Contour—all with America’s fastest internet download speeds and without switching TV inputs or remotes.

The big news got us excited about the fall streaming lineup available to Cox customers, not just on AppleTV+ but also on other streaming apps available on Contour with a simple voice command. The Contour Voice Remote lets you use voice commands to easily search across live TV, streaming platforms and On-De mand channels to watch or listen to what you want on the spot, from any device you have connected. Just press the Contour button, say the name of the app, and you’re in (show) business!

So, what’s on deck this fall as we settle in to mellow nights at home with our blankets and hot beverages? While there are a lot of great options across the streaming platforms, we’re most excited for these shows and movies from the most popular networks:

APPLETV+

Contour’s newest addition, Apple TV+, is the home of premium Apple Original drama and com edy series, feature films, documentaries, and kids and family entertainment, including record-break ing Emmy Award winner “Ted Lasso.”

As we wait for the release date of the third season of “Ted Lasso” to be announced (many in the industry are now speculating late fall or winter 2022), we BE LIEVE now is a great time to rewatch seasons one and two. This show is a great feel-good pick going into the holiday season.

DISCOVERY+

discovery+ features a wide range of exclusive, orig inal series across popular passion verticals. The subscription streaming service is preparing to bring the holiday cheer—Food Network and HGTV will release four new holiday features on discovery+ beginning Friday, November 11 featuring seasonal decor, yuletide culinary delights, even budding ro mances and more.

DISNEY+

Disney+ has an unrivaled lineup of family favorites to enjoy this fall. We’re excited for “Disenchanted,” a sequel to the 2007 Disney film “Enchanted” that is more than 10 years in the making. This is slated for release on November 18.

NETFLIX

The highly anticipated fifth season of Netflix’s “The Crown” returns on November 9. The royal family’s life from the early-to-mid-1990s takes the spotlight, with a strong emphasis on the preemi nent family scandal of the time: Princess Diana and Prince Charles’s marital turmoil. The new season is sure to draw audiences, especially on the heels of Queen Elizabeth’s recent passing.

While these represent a small fraction of the streaming apps available on Cox Contour, we’re confident the shows and movies available on these apps this fall are more than enough to get you started. For a complete list of apps available on Contour, visit us online.

Plus, with Cox Contour you can catch the latest blockbuster film in the comfort of your own home theater. Our lineup of On-Demand Movies brings new releases right to your living room, and at a more economical price than the cost of seeing them in a movie theater.

Having the right Internet plan is an important part of keeping up with all the shows you love. Cox’s broadband network can deliver speeds that are even faster than 5G providers’. Cox Communications’ high-speed internet service was recognized by Ook la® Speedtest®, the global leader in network intel ligence and connectivity insights, as offering Amer ica’s fastest internet download speeds in the second quarter 2022. And that’s important because, on average, download speeds are where people spend 90% of their time online.

The best part? All the benefits of Cox Contour and Cox Internet are available thanks to Cox’s $10 billion investment in its network to power homes, businesses and communities now and in the future.

Learn more and get started at cox.com.

“We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.”

– Thomas Jefferson

Paid Advertisement

Suzanne Schlundt is Vice President of Marketing, West Region for Cox Communications.

Far Flung Travel Feigning Injury

by Chuck Graham

Down on the Carpinteria State Beach, between the mouth of the Carpinteria Creek and southeast of the Tarpits, a nesting colony of western snowy plovers continues to grow on the popular summertime beach.

Nesting season is March 15 to September 15, and in 2021, the first successful western snowy plover nest since 1960 saw three snowy plover chicks fledge on that busy state beach. There was a big leap in terms of the number of nests attempted in 2022, with a total of nine. The first nest successfully fledged two chicks, but the other nests saw predation and big tides impacting any potential sur vivorship, revealing the challenges snowy plovers face as they attempt to reclaim historic habitat.

Whenever I had the time, I pho tographed the successful, endearing moments of the plovers. I also photo graphed the failures they endured due to beachgoers that were unaware of their nesting habitat, even though biologists posted signage and roped off all the areas where nesting was attempted. That area is above the wrack line, an area where mounds of gnarled kelp wash up with the incoming tide, providing an import ant food source western snowy plovers depend on. Kelp flies and beach hoppers – small invertebrates – are on their menu.

The Broken Wing Display

Beachgoers aren’t the only threat to these tiny shorebirds. American crows, western gulls, dogs on or off leash, rac coons, opossums, striped skunks, and raptors are also in the mix. Spending several hours at a time with the plovers, I also observed them perform the broken wing display. It’s a strategic ploy to feign injury when a potential threat closes in on their nests, luring the threat away from their eggs or chicks. The adults dis

play what appears to be a broken wing, thrashing about, and even calling out to divert attention away from their nests.

On the Carpinteria State Beach, I saw plover parents display this survival tac tic with western gulls, crows, and even a small dog. The first time I witnessed these theatrics was in Nome, Alaska, in 1998. I saw a Pacific golden plover quickly feign injury when a marauding Arctic fox meandered nearby. The tactic worked, as the plover drew the fox away from its four speckled eggs.

According to the Audubon Society,

there are at least 285 avian species that perform the broken wing display. Not all of those are shorebirds, but it seems to be avian species where nests are camou flaged, but out in the open. For the west ern snowy plover, their nests are as simple as a depression in the sand, hidden by a flotsam of driftwood, or amongst hardy coastal flora like sand verbena, morning glory, or dune poppies.

Sharing the Beach

On the Carpinteria State Beach, active plover nests have taken up a huge swath of the beach that is roped off for months at a time, and over each active nest is a cage. All the cages are just big enough for a western snowy plover to come and go, but small enough to thwart predators.

However, western snowy plovers also must share the beach with semipalmated plovers and killdeer, fellow shorebirds trying to survive on a crowded beach. One morning I was watching a western

snowy plover sitting on its nest inside its cage, when an unbeknownst killdeer chick wandered just outside the cage. The western snowy plover was upset, took exception to it, and flew right at the chick. An adult killdeer immediately intervened and went right into its broken wing display.

The western snowy plover wasn’t fall ing for it, and still went after the fuzzy killdeer chick. The dust up lasted for over a minute with the adult killdeer and adult snowy plover chasing after each other through the air until the plo ver finally forced the killdeer outside of the roped off area. So much for sharing the same habitat.

The tiny killdeer chick survived the shorebird scrum, and the western snowy plover returned to its nest of three speck led eggs. Just another day at the beach.

Chuck Graham is a free lance writer and photogra pher based in Carpinteria, where he also leads kayak tours and backpacking trips in Channel Islands National Park

Interior Design Services also available

the best in the industry to manage your income property.

Please stop in and visit us 26 years serving the Santa Barbara community

Melissa M. Pierson, Owner

Coast Village Road #4

A western snowy plover chick full on kelp flies

The Pacific golden plover still practic ing its broken wing display

A western snowy plover deep in its broken wing display

the Lobero, its fourth recital in our Eden by the Beach since 2006.

The Fab Four, founded in 1946 and described by the Boston Globe as “the most important American quartet in history,” lived up to their deserved reputation of drawing on the classics while championing new works with Beethoven’s “Quartet No. 16 in F Major” and Dvořák’s “Quartet No. 14 in A-flat major,” sandwiching Jamaican Eleanor Alberga ’s 1994 work “Quartet No. 2.”

A heady mix...

Raising Roses

Gourmands and oenophiles were out in force when the Fund for Santa Barbara hosted its 29th annual Bread & Roses event for 500 guests at Elings Park, its second year at the locale after

many years at the QAD headquarters in Summerland.

The bountiful bash, co-hosted by Chelsea Lancaster and Wendy SimsMoten , raised around $200,000 for the 42-year-old nonprofit that sup ports organizations for progressive social change.

“We are super thankful to be back to normal,” gushed associate director Patricia Solorio. “We have nine food vendors and 12 wine and beer outlets, which is very, very positive.”

The Firebrand Award went to Kavya Suresh, a junior at San Marcos High, who serves as the student board member for the Santa Barbara Unified School District, and the Founder’s Award to Lawanda Lyons-Pruitt, president of the Santa Maria-Lompoc Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The ubiquitous Geoff Green of the

City College Foundation was auction eer, with lots including a Pine Mountain Cabin Club getaway for ten, a stay in the Cuyama Valley, a Carpinteria cannabis farm tour for ten, and a weekend trip to Los Alamos.

Music was supplied by Mezcal Martini and DJ Suz, with vendors including Opal, The Lark, Lazy Acres Bakery, Fiddlehead Cellars, and The Blue Owl.

A blooming good show that raised a lot of dough!

A Birnam Birthday

Social gridlock reigned at the Birnam Wood Club when real estate investor and inventor Ray Winn, 88, hosted a birthday bash for his partner of 34 years Peter Kavoian, who was celebrating the 16th anniversary of his half century, and Peter’s mother Anna who is 92.

The tony twosome, who split their time between their antiques-filled home in Birnam Wood and Las Vegas, invit ed more than 50 guests to share the moment on a perfect summer night.

Writer Erin Graffy and husband Jim

Garcia performed a witty duet to the birthday boys.

Among the glitterati were Morrie and Irma Jurkowitz, Robert and Robin Fell, author Fannie Flagg, Condor Express supremo Hiroko Benko, Anne Towbes, David Selberg, Wayne and Sharol Siemens, Robert and Marlene Veloz, former district attorney Joyce Dudley, and interior designer John Saladino, whose former Montecito estate, Villa Di Lemma, was bought by TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres.

Lords Question Working Status of Dukes

Prince Harry and his uncle Prince Andrew may lose their right to perform official duties for King Charles III after peers in the House of Lords asked if they should resign as Counselors of State who can act as stand-ins for the monarch as they are no longer working royals.

It is the first time the status of the dukes of York and Sussex as counselors has been raised in the U.K.’s Parliament. Buckingham Palace has come under

“The ballot is stronger than the bullet.” – Abraham Lincoln

Seated: Mike Hackett, Marylove Thralls, and Richard Mazess, with (standing) David Selberg and Diane T. (photo by Priscilla)

Geoff Green, Wendy Sims-Moten, Chelsea Lancaster, and Marcos Vargas (photo by Priscilla)

Peter Kavoian coming around for greetings and interesting con versations (photo by Alma Rose Middleton)

Kavya Suresh, Mignon Bradley, Lawanda LyonsPruitt, and Oscar Gutierrez (photo by Priscilla)

Anna Kavoian toasting the guests (photo by Alma Rose Middleton)

Entertainment for the evening (photo by Alma Rose Middleton)

pressure to relieve the pair of their roles since Harry moved to California and Andrew was embroiled in a sexual harass ment lawsuit in the U.S., which he dis puted but later settled.

Charles reportedly wants the law amended so his counsellors are all work ing royals, but it would require a change in legislation to the 1937 Regency Act.

A Challenging Year

Montecito actor Michael J. Fox has been reflecting on a painful past year which saw him suffer myriad broken bones and the loss of his mother, amid his 30-year battle with Parkinson’s Disease.

The Back to the Future actor says his condition “got worse” and he became uncharacteristically “short with people” after he broke his cheek, hand, shoulder, and arm bones, and his mother Phyllis died aged 92.

“I’m 61 years old and I’m feeling it a little bit worse,” he told People. “I was never a cranky guy... I try to nip it in the bud.”

Fox was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s, a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system, in 1991. He went public with the diagnosis in 1998 and continued his acting career.

A Blooming Birthday Wish

Orlando Bloom, British actor fiancé of Santa Barbara warbler Katy Perry for the past three years, has wished the for mer Dos Pueblos high student a happy 38th birthday.

“Each time we take a trip around the sun and get to celebrate you, I’m remind ed that we’re on this trip together,” the 45-year-old Lord of the Rings actor – who boasts 9.5 million Instagram-Facebook followers – wrote. “And whatever the weather, we’re always shining!”

A Spectacle to See

Meadow Walker, 24, the only daugh ter of the late Santa Barbara actor Paul Walker, is making a spectacle of herself! She is a model in a new Tiffany & Co. eyewear campaign showcasing

$439 ‘Tiffany T’ sunglasses from the New York jewelry company founded in 1837. Meadow also wears a $412 pair of ‘Tiffany HardWear’ shades.

Aside from modeling, she keeps busy as President of the Paul Walker Foundation.

Todd A. Amspoker Joins CAMA Board

Todd A. Amspoker has joined the board of directors of the Community Arts Music Association of Santa Barbara, which is celebrating its 104th concert season.

He is a partner at the local law firm of Price, Postel & Parma LLP, which involves public agency and real estate matters, focusing on eminent domain and real estate litigation, natural resourc es litigation and water rights issues, and land use matters.

Amspoker has represented major pub lic agencies throughout California. He has also conducted a substantial number of jury trials in his legal career.

He has been a pianist since childhood, focusing on the classical repertoire. He is also an avid tennis player.

Sightings

Meghan Markle shopping at Wendy Foster in the Upper Village... Controversial rapper Kanye West nosh ing at the FisHouse... Behati Prinsloo, Namibian supermodel wife of Maroon Five rocker Adam Levine, picking up a smoothie at Pierre Lafond.

Pip! Pip! Be safe, wear a mask when necessary, and get vaccinated.

From musings on the Royals to celebrity real estate deals, Richard Mineards is our man on the society scene and has been for more than a decade

Birthday boy Ray Winn at the event (photo by Alma Rose Middleton)

HALLOWEEN ROUNDUP

Our Town’s 20th Annual Ghost Village Road

The Ghost Village Road event took off without any hitches as local retailers par ticipated with massive decorations, goodies, and costumes!

The Ghost Village retail win goes to the Richie’s Barber Shop team, who donned costumes to look like Richie, much to his surprise when he showed up, and a full-on DJ. The cloudy, overcast skies lent to the atmosphere for the throngs of local school kids from MUS, Laguna Blanca, Crane Country Day School, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Summerland School, and Providence School. Popular costumes included Tom Cruise/Top Gun, Star Wars, fantasy heroes, princesses, and overtime on inflatables – with candy still being a top priority.

“One of the penalties for refusing to participate

politics

that

end

being governed by

inferiors.”

Story and photos by Joanne A Calitri

HALLOWEEN ROUNDUP

Our Town El Montecito Early School Fall Festival

Story and photos by Joanne A Calitri

El Montecito Early School (ELMO) hosted a Fall Festival event for the preschool children and their parents on Monday, October 31, outside at the school. It featured a live animal petting zoo, hula hoop toss, and bullseye target contest. The event volunteers were Sarah Hanacek, Carol Kelly, Sarah Perez, Susan Lombardi, David Herrera, Virginia Gonzalez, Nathan Woods, Darlene Bierig, Terry Foil, and Stephanie and Jack Theimer. Heading the festival was the newly hired ELMO Director Christine Hale and Assistant Director Sara Leggieri Hale follows the leave of Meika Mosby McCrindle, a much loved and respect ed interim director, assistant director to Suzy Dobreski and Jeannine Morgan, and teacher for over 10 years at ELMO, who initiated student outreach programs for local charities.

Spirits of Lotusland

by Zach Rosen

The intricate gardens of Lotusland were transformed this past weekend for a mid-afternoon soirée to kick off the night. Perusing the gardens, guests walked past webbed flora, dancing witches, and the occasional jumping spider, until they found the Bromeliad and Theatre Garden, set as a speakeasy. Some soft, moving tunes by Professor Watson of Swingtronic added a thematic note and Gene Urban brought a dash of magic to the enchanting space. Costumed company snacked on sliders and other bites with spirits flowing, both between the guests and across the bar. The Lotus Potion was a hypnotic concoction of vodka and St. Germain, accented with kaffir lime and a limoncello foam floating on top, to form a lush yet light blend of sweet and citrus. The Nectar Injection had a more focused direction with a blend of sparkling wine and syringe-applied Aperol. Tarot cards or palm readings by psychic Madame Rosinka were given in the mystique of Madame Ganna Walska’s bedroom – a vogue offering as the sessions were fully booked. With the afternoon wrapping up, guests were given a Venus flytrap on their departure – a future Halloween garden in the making.

Full

Glenn Novack, Owner.

We Buy, Sell and Broker Important Estate Jewelry. Located in the upper village of Montecito. Graduate Gemologists with 30 years of experience. We do free evaluations and private consultation. 1470 East Valley Rd Suite V. 805 969-0888

POSITION WANTED

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT Organize receipts for taxes, pay bills, write checks, reserva tions, scheduling. Confidential. Semi-retired professional. Excellent references. Sandra (805) 636-3089

Trusted, Experienced Caregiver, CA State registered and background checked. Vacci nated. Loving and caring provides transpor tation, medications, etc. Lina 650-281-6492

Trusted experienced live in – caregiver Background checked, excellent references, vaccinated, UCLA Grad. Cheri - 760-898-2732

Reading/Learning Specialist

Research based approach for measurable improvement. Individual only, Grades K-3 805 801 6374

POSITION AVAILABLE

Assistant required to assist executive. Handle business correspondence, Insurance claims, etc. Computers literacy and typing ability necessary. Tony 805-969-6687

PHYSICAL TRAINING & THERAPY

Stillwell Fitness of Santa Barbara In Home Personal Training Sessions for 65+ Help with: Strength, Flexibility, Balance, Moti vation, and Consistency John Stillwell, CPT, Specialist in Senior Fitness 805-705-2014 StillwellFitness.com

Want to improve the way you move? House calls for person alized exercise sessions for those with PARKIN SON’s DISEASE and SENIORS. Certified in PD spe cific exercises (PWR! Moves-Parkinson’s Well ness Recovery)-evidenced-based moves which target the key areas affected by PD. Josette Fast, Physical Therapist 805-722-8035

WRITING SERVICES

THE MOST SPLENDID GIFT Honor your spouse or your parents with the ultimate expression of love and admi ration. I will work with your special person to research, write and publish a stirring biography or autobiography. The published book will be professional, impressive, thorough and entertaining. Give this as a holiday present this year and we’ll have the book finished by next December. David Wilk (805) 455-5980. Great references. www.BiographyDavidWilk.com

FOR SALE

Santa Barbara Cemetery upper hillside Companion Side by Side grave site for 2 persons overlooking Montecito Country Club and mountains. Lot 113 located in Central Block B. For inquiries or to make an offer Telephone or Text 309-368-0224

NONPROFIT CENTER

The Coast Village Nonprofit Center is coming soon. 8 nonprofits including Coast Village Clean ers, BellosGuardo, a Fire Prevention Program, Afford able Housing & The Zoo. 4 new B.O.Ds in process. Vast details are available. Contact clint@yahoo.com or call me at (805) 280-2999

LOOKING FOR A MIRACLE

Professional married couple who are getting ready to retire from 37 years in health services, are looking for a possible miracle. Would you or do you know anyone who would sell us a house considerably below market value? We just can’t afford market prices and our greatest wish is to stay in the community we love and have served instead of being forced to make the choice to leave the area. Please call Mark at 820 587 4314.

INVESTORS WANTED

Need $25K working capital for visitors piano concert series at the Lobero Theatre featuring Star Wars and other Cinema Classics. Have track record and collateral. Brokers welcome. Email at bryantari@gmail.com

Seeking Equity partner or loan to market multi-million dollar art collection. Minimum $50,000. Established deceased artist. Bro kers welcome. Call 805-364-1526. Huge potential, high returns.

DANCE INSTRUCTOR NEEDED

Interested in private Argentine Tango dance lessons. Can do it at my home or in studio. Teachers please call Christine Anderson 805-689-4897

AUTOMOBILES WANTED

We buy Classic Cars Running or not. Foreign/Domestic Porsche/Mercedes

We come to you. Call Steven - 805-699-0684

DONATIONS NEEDED

Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary Menagerie 2430 Lillie Avenue Summerland CA 93067 (805) 969-1944

Donate to the Parrot Pantry!

At SB Bird Sanctuary, backyard farmer’s bounty is our birds best bowl of food! The flock goes bananas for your apples, orang es & other homegrown fruits & veggies.

Volunteers

Do you have a special talent or skill? Do you need community service hours? The flock at SB Bird Sanctuary could always use some extra love and socialization. Call us and let’s talk about how you can help. (805) 969-1944

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

K-9 PALS need volunteers to be foster par ents for our dogs while they are waiting for

“The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.” – John F. Kennedy