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Residents back mural preservation
Phasing out oil extraction Gov. Newsom plans to ban fracking by 2024, oil extraction by 2045 By GRAYCE MCCORMICK
Community holds meeting to discuss fate of Ortega Park murals
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday that he is taking action to phase out oil extraction in California. He directed the Department of Conservation’s Geologic Energy Management Division to initiate regulatory action to end the issuance of new permits for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) by January 2024, and requested that the California Air Resources Board analyze pathways to phase out oil extraction across the state by no later than 2045. “The climate crisis is real, and we continue to see the signs every day,” Gov. Newsom said in a press release. “As we move to swiftly decarbonize our transportation sector and create a healthier future for our children, I’ve made it clear I don’t see a role for fracking in that future and, similarly, believe that California needs to move beyond oil.” Please see OIL on A8
NEWS-PRESS FILE PHOTO
Sen. Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara, issued a joint statement with Sen. Scott Weiner, D-San Francisco, on Friday and said that the governor’s plan to ban fracking by 2024 and oil extraction by 2045 would, “trigger the long-overdue conversation about what a transition away from oil looks like.”
When extended unemployment benefits turn off UCSB economics professor discusses future of extended UI By GRAYCE MCCORMICK NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
Several dozen community members gathered at Ortega Park Saturday to voice their input on the future of the Chicano murals.
By GRAYCE MCCORMICK NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
Several dozen residents of Santa Barbara’s Eastside and beyond gathered at Ortega Park Saturday afternoon to make their voices heard about the future of the park’s historic murals that celebrate Chicano culture and mythology. Since the multi-million Ortega Park renovation project was introduced to the community in November, residents have spoken up about their opposition to the original mural evaluation that was presented to the Historic Landmarks Commission. The report was prepared by an outside party, Site & Studio Conservation, LLC., which recommended destroying and replicating five of the murals and relocating two. Public commenters referred to destroying any of the murals as a “slap in the face to the Latino community,” and the strong opposition led to the formation of the Save Ortega Park Art Committee, which organized the community meeting Saturday afternoon. The committee called on meeting attendees to “honor our past, acknowledge our present and support our future,” and recommended all existing murals be recreated/repainted on new buildings by the original artists following the tradition of Chicana/o muralism in the city. Committee members also demanded the funds that would have been spent on the costly
The Save Ortega Park Art Committee educated attendees of the meeting about the history of the Chicano murals, dating back decades.
relocation of the murals be invested into the Santa Barbara Arts Alliance program to provide local youth with art training and mentoring. Some of the attendees of the gathering included Mayor Cathy Murillo, Eastside representative and City Council member Alejandra Gutierrez and the original artists who painted the murals in the 1979 Ortega Park Mural Project. FOLLOW US
Ms. Gutierrez addressed the crowd and apologized to them for not including them in the decision-making process earlier on. Her apology was met by a round of applause from the attendees. “Today is a huge day. It’s a historical day, because from now on, the way that the city communicates with the (community) will change,” she said. “I do want to apologize on
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Dr. Peter Rupert, an economics professor at UCSB and the director of UCSB’s Economic Forecast Project, said that coasting on unemployment benefits is risky because employers will likely be able to fill the positions eventually.
the unemployment rate to return to where it was beforehand. In its analysis, the California Policy Lab found that in many states, the extra weeks of extended unemployment benefits turned off despite historically high levels of unemployment. This means 300,000 Americans who have been receiving UI benefits are seeing their extended benefits cut short. “The COVID-19 pandemic has up-ended a lot of ways people have traditionally thought about unemployment insurance benefits, like who should be eligible and for how long, and laid bare important holes in our social safety net,” Alex Bell, a postdoctoral scholar Please see BENEFITS on A5
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behalf of the city for not doing the proper outreach, and I say it very sincerely. We’re going to do better, but we have to work together and we have to hold each other accountable.” Manuel Unzueta, a longtime Santa Barbara artist, teacher and community activist who painted multiple murals in Ortega Park, spoke at the event, saying that he and the other artists welcome the Please see MURALS on A5
Extended unemployment benefits have “turned off” in 33 states and territories, and while California is not one of those states, it soon will be. The California Policy Lab — a nonpartisan research institute — released an analysis last week finding that the reason these extended unemployment benefits have been turned off is not due to an improving labor market, but actually an incomplete way of measuring unemployment claims that does not include the longterm unemployed. Lawmakers are calling for reform of the federal-state extended benefits trigger system, and Dr. Peter Rupert, an economics professor at UCSB and the director of UCSB’s Economic Forecast Project, said that if times were normal, this conversation likely wouldn’t be happening. “Every state is different and manages their own unemployment insurance system,” he told the News-Press. “However, it’s one of those things that in normal times, it works pretty well. In times like the Great Recession and the pandemic — when things go completely haywire — the federal government has to come in and help things out.” Santa Barbara County’s current unemployment rate sits at a little over 7%, cutting the rate in half from what it was at the peak of the pandemic. Dr. Rupert said things are trending in a positive direction, and that in January of 2020, 10,000 county residents were unemployed, and the number is around 16,000 now. He added that, after the Great Recession, it took eight years for
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