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Celebrating generations of fathers Carpinteria resident reflects on a father’s bond with his children
Spreading knowledge, history, culture By GRAYCE MCCORMICK
Ryan Zick takes a selfie with his two adopted sons, Isaac, left, and Joshie.
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
Several dozens of passersby and community members enjoying the sunshine Saturday afternoon stopped by at a pop-up black artisan market on the 800 block of State Street. The market was coordinated by Juneteenth Santa Barbara, celebrating Saturday as the first ever federally recognized Juneteenth — the day marking the end of legal slavery. To honor the new federal holiday, black artisans set up eight different tables on the street, selling items such as traditional African clothing, baked goods,
essential oils, Juneteenth T-shirts and much more. “The theme is ‘united for true black liberation,’ because, as we all know, black people truly aren’t free yet,” said Mariah JonesBisquera, organizer and lead of administration for Healing Justice Santa Barbara and a co-organizer of the Juneteenth event. “But, we are great at creating spaces and joy for ourselves, so I’m really excited to be out here today celebrating.” She told the News-Press that she believes it’s “really performative” to say that Juneteenth is now celebrated nationally as a holiday with a day Please see JUNETEENTH on A3
COURTESY PHOTOS
By GRAYCE MCCORMICK NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
This year, Ryan Zick is experiencing his fourth Father’s Day with children of his own. The Carpinteria resident and associate attorney at Price, Postel & Parma law firm reflected on his journey into fatherhood with nothing but sincere love for his family of four. Mr. Zick and his wife Raquel — whom many in the city know as the spokeswoman of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office — always had the goal of adopting kids. “My father was adopted from Ireland, and adoption was always something I was interested in because of the experience my father had,” Mr. Zick told the News-Press. “He came to a really great family and had a lot of opportunities he wouldn’t have otherwise had if he wasn’t adopted, and that was really important to us.” A few years ago, the Zicks began doing their research, and they determined that fostering was the way to go, because “there were a lot of kids who needed safe homes to go to.” After becoming certified as foster parents, the Zicks had to wait a long year before their first foster children were placed with them. Brothers Isaac and Josue (Joshie) — then 6 and 4 years old respectively — were placed with the Zicks in 2018, and it wasn’t long before they found a permanent home with Ryan and Raquel, and got adopted. Mr. Zick said that ever since, “it’s just been an absolutely outstanding and wild ride.” “As you can imagine, we had no real parenting experience before having two kids at our house. We didn’t raise them as little babies like most people do with their biological kids — we just kind of got thrown into it and had to figure it all out as we went, and that experience has just been remarkable,” the father said. The brothers are two peas in a pod
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according to their father, and they help and push each other in school, sports and growing up. To Mr. Zick’s delight, he got to see their bond firsthand when the pandemic hit. With the ability to work remotely, he was the primary caretaker for the boys over the course of the lockdown. The Zicks went above and beyond to ensure their children — as students at Aliso Elementary School in Carpinteria — continued to work hard in school while continuing to be kids as well, even though they had to stay home. From setting up timers on their Alexa devices to resemble daily school bells to taking his kids on a bike ride at the same time every single day, Mr. Zick saw the importance of maintaining structure for Isaac and Joshie. The boys’ father gave them the majority of the credit for their success. He added that
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KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS
Jordan Killebrew, left, and his husband York Shingle sell t-shirts, with proceeds going to Healing Justice Santa Barbara’s efforts to maintein the nearby “Melanin” art gallery at the corner of State and Canon Perdido Streets in Santa Barbara on Saturday.
Regulating outdoor parklets Santa Barbara City Council to consider rigorous guidelines on parklets By GRAYCE MCCORMICK NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
The Zick family, from left, consists of Joshie, Ryan, Isaac and Raquel.
This Tuesday, members of the Santa Barbara City Council will consider adopting more rigorous guidelines for parklets in the State Street promenade. Currently, restaurants and bars on State Street are permitted to use the public right-of-way for outdoor seating until March 8, 2022. While the question of a permanent promenade remains, city staff is recommending modifications to the guidelines for parklets to improve management of them. The item comes to council
due to concerns from the public regarding equity of access for all people, impacts to retail businesses and balancing the use of the right-of-way with the city’s aesthetic standards, according to the staff report. A couple of recommendations are proposed to be effective immediately: no new fixed outdoor business enclosures and no new construction or installation of parklets in the public right-of-way. A proposed guideline to be effective July 9 includes clearing all sidewalks of tables and other fixtures not approved pre-pandemic. Please see COUNCIL on A2
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i n s i de Classified.............. A8 Life..................... B1-4 Obituaries............. A4
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being able to watch his sons first hand each and every day gave him a new perspective as a dad. “For me, one of the biggest things I learned is to kind of get down on the ground with your kids, and see and do things from their perspective,” Mr. Zick said. “I think a lot of times as parents, we can get wrapped up in our own lives either professionally or personally, and it’s easy to just get through life one day at a time and push through without pausing for a second and taking that extra five or 10 minutes to get on the ground and play Legos with your kids or open up their homework and look at it with them.” This extra involvement pushed Mr. Zick to set aside more quality time specifically to spend with Isaac and Joshie. While he Please see FATHER on A8
Sudoku................. B3 Weather................ A4
Saturday’s SUPER LOTTO: 4-7-8-19-36 Mega: 3
Saturday’s DAILY 4: 2-6-0-3
Friday’s MEGA MILLIONS: 14-36-44-46-53 Mega: 18
Saturday’s FANTASY 5: 14-17-25-29-33
Saturday’s DAILY DERBY: 03-04-05 Time: 1:43.78
Saturday’s POWERBALL: 4-22-35-38-39 Meganumber: 20
Saturday’s DAILY 3: 8-4-2 / Midday 7-9-1