The Canary

It’s 2023. And with that big bad announcement, I’ve got another thing in store for you: Santa Barbara County needs to facilitate the building of more than 5,000 housing units by 2031. And that’s just in the unincorporated areas of the county. Santa Maria needs to coax developers to erect more than 5,400. Santa Barbara: […]

Nipomo’s $3-million and many-years-in-the-making skate park is two months away from completion, but some skaters just can’t wait.  The SLO County Parks and Recreation Department had to send out a warning to the public before Christmas because skateboard tracks are already appearing in the bottom of the recently poured skate bowls.  “Waiting just the few […]

It’s refreshing to see a county leader putting on the YIMBY hat and walking the talk. That’s “yes in my backyard,” as opposed to the more popular naysayers’ NIMBY acronym. Fifth District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino has been wearing his thinking cap since last January’s proposal to accept state money and turn a Motel 6 in […]

What’s the advantage of being labeled a disadvantaged unincorporated community? You might get a new fire station, but if you’re looking for water or sewer service, you might be out of luck. And if you desperately need flood control help, well, bonne chance!  While the county is required to catalog infrastructure deficiencies in certain unincorporated […]

Santa Barbara County 2nd District Supervisor Gregg Hart took his leave from the governing body on which he’s served for the past few years, stepping into the halls of the state Legislature during the first week of December and making room for Laura Capps to take his seat on the dais.  She was sworn in […]

Solvang is in deep doo-doo. Technically, it’s not deep yet, but it could be if it actually rains.  On Dec. 3, the city’s Julefest Parade hits the streets complete with horses and their accompanying excrement—a steamingly hot topic at the Nov. 28 City Council meeting, where they talked about the most boring topic of them […]

Pop quiz, readers.  When you read the statement: “The public figure did not respond before press time,” what do you perceive? How does that sound to you? Do you: a) shrug—public figures are busy and deadlines are tight. b) roll your eyes—it takes just a second to respond. c) lose faith—public figures should stop hiding.  […]

Guys! Teens are smoking pot.  Surprised? I’m not.  In a recent presentation to the Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Commission, Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley Programs Director Dawnette Kingsley-Smith vouched for an ordinance restricting public tobacco and marijuana use. She said it would help “denormalize” pot smoking among youth.  “The myths around the health of […]

Should we cry for ExxonMobil? The multi-national energy corporation sued Santa Barbara County over what’s known as a “takings” in May for the Board of Supervisors’ decision to deny an oil trucking project that would have enabled the company to restart its operations offshore near Santa Barbara. Recently, a judge ruled that a bunch of […]

Santa Maria City Council candidate Steven Funkhouser set the new bar for city politics in 2022. And that’s not a good thing.  How low is low? You have to come up with something that sinks beneath the level of altering photographs and featuring them in the dark, gritty campaign mailers delivered to the homes of […]

If the little notes the Sun has received are any indication of how people are feeling about the upcoming election, then Santa Maria is apprehensive, to say the least.  And, no surprises here, Etta Waterfield, who is seeing her way out of her Santa Maria City Council seat, is a favorite target of these, umm, […]

In a race that will determine who takes Etta Waterfield’s (I hope Montana doesn’t send her back!) seat on the Santa Maria City Council, we’ve got one candidate with very specific ideas about city issues and one candidate with somewhat specific ideas about education. Are they running for the same office?  I guess you’ll have […]