Canary

Buellton’s about to get one of the only art deco Arco’s in the United States.  After seven long years of fighting the city over its Avenue of Flags design requirements, Arco gave in!  “I think you guys know me very well by now. We’ve been here many times,” Alex Cuevas told the Planning Commission, which […]

Sable Offshore Corporation is heading for troubled waters—giant waves that most of us could see from a few miles away. The California Coastal Commission is pissed at the oil company for work it’s been doing to fix its old, janky pipeline that spilled oil all over Refugio Beach in 2015, work the company insists it […]

I’m so confused.  Why didn’t we build the Northern Branch Jail bigger the first time around? The original project—originally set to cost $80 million in 2012 but ballooned to $120 million by the time it was finished in 2021—built a jail with 376 beds and space for 32 medical and mental health beds. Now, just […]

If you were a legal resident of the U.S.—not a citizen—and had to choose between flying a drone over Vandenberg Space Force Base or being a pro-Palestinian protester on a college campus, which would you choose? One is illegal and the other riles up the delicate sensibilities of the Trump administration but is legal under […]

Sniff, sniff.  Do you smell that? Of course not. You need a Nasal Ranger to really get a good whiff of odorific cannabis. I don’t mean to make light of the plight of Carpinteria’s cannabis-odor-plagued residents, but tying a Santa Barbara County ordinance to something you wear on your nose is simply too much.  Especially […]

It looks like Allan Hancock College is reaping the rewards of its long-standing effort to bring a four-year-degree program to Santa Maria.  The school launched a partnership with Cal Poly at the beginning of this school year on its first bachelor’s degree program in sociology and just added a business major with two more as-yet-to-be-decided […]

Our North County Supervisors are looking to my waterfowl cousins for wisdom these days, drawing upon the adage, “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.” Instead of benefitting the area’s feathered friends, 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino is crying fowl, I mean foul, about battery energy storage system (BESS) facilities being subjected […]

Raising your own salary is never a good look.  But it’s something we task many elected decision-making bodies with, from city councils and community services districts to boards of supervisors and sometimes even the Legislature—although not in California. In California, our legislators’ salaries are determined by an independent commission. I bet that the Santa Barbara […]

Droves of local residents are speaking up in fear of the past repeating itself, in opposition to a present danger, and in defense of the future. They’re speaking out at local government meetings, making demands and expressing concerns. Their public comments and protests are not falling on deaf ears, but local leaders’ hands are tied.  […]

Is re-encampment the same as an oil pipeline restart?  Can’t unhoused people just get a waiver to restart their lives in the Santa Maria Riverbed? After all, the system that aims to provide resources, housing, and help to these folks isn’t quite working for them.  So we should all collectively shrug, right? Live and let […]

There were no literal weapons in the recent skirmishes on battlefields at the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors hearing room and Superior Court. Just sharp words, pointed memos, unassailable lawsuits. This was “lawfare.”  Fourth District Supervisor Bob Nelson used that term to describe what American Medical Response (AMR) “deployed” to get its new four-year […]

Testy and zesty. That’s a good way to describe some of 3rd District county Planning Commissioner John Parke’s exchanges on Jan. 29.  With cannabis odor on the agenda and potential ordinance changes set to come back—again—to the commission, he managed to take over the entire discussion. His insistences left commission chair, 2nd District Commissioner Laura […]