Canary

This past year was a bit of a rough one. Starting in Guadalupe—the littlest city that could, but only if the deadline is tomorrow and staff has to overnight something to a state agency after City Council approves it tonight.  Talk about last minute! That city is flying by the seat of its pantaloons.  The […]

Old Town Lompoc is about to grow up. At the ripe age of 150 years old, the city is primed for a good ol’ fashioned growth spurt—from 45 feet to 50 feet tall. Lompoc is aiming for increasing its housing density, both to comply with state law and some city goals. To do that, the […]

In a first for Lompoc, the city now has an environmental justice element. City staff may have swung this one through the council in the nick of time!  Mayor Jenelle Osborne is on the way out and Mayor Elect Jim Mosby is on his way in. I can’t imagine any sort of environmental justice anything […]

Tourism is the answer to all of our budget woes!  Even if the economy tanks, tourists will still be here—oh wait, probably not.  But still, they should be paying for our needs! At least according to voters in the Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Barbara County, who voted to increase bed taxes in Solvang, Buellton, […]

In Lompoc, there are more than 2,700 children under 2 years old and only 186 child care spaces available in the city. “This translates to the potential unmet need for 93 percent of children ages 0 to 2,” according to a needs assessment from the local school district, adult school, and First 5 Santa Barbara […]

At least one person made a salient point at a recent Santa Barbara County ad-hoc committee meeting about farmworker conditions, specifically when it comes to the concept of implementing a $26 minimum wage for farmworkers in the county. “Say I’m Driscoll’s. I could buy from Santa Barbara County, I could buy from our neighboring counties, […]

Protecting seniors means discriminating against everyone else, according to Nick Ubaldi with Harmony Communities, the company that’s now managing Del Cielo Mobile Estates—the once 55-and-older mobile home park in Orcutt. I say once because Ubaldi said it is no longer. Not only is it now an all-ages community, Ubaldi said in a statement, the park […]

By the time you read this, you’ll either be crying, laughing, curled up in the fetal position, clapping, or losing your mind. It really depends on who wins and who you voted for in the presidential election.  I don’t know what’s going on yet, because it’s 3:30 p.m. on Election Day and we’re about to […]

There’s nothing like the feeling of turning a dream into reality, especially after a long wait. Allan Hancock College is right there, on the threshold of bringing a long-awaited goal to fruition for local students.  For the 12 years he’s been at Hancock’s helm, Kevin Walthers has worked to get a bachelor’s degree offered on […]

Wildwood in Solvang is getting wild before it’s even got roots in the ground.  The proposed 100-unit, multi-family, two-story apartment and condo development is running into ye ol’ “we want development, we just want it to be the right kind of development.” Which is code for “This development is going to bring in people who […]

If you’re a newspaper rack in Solvang, it might be time to clean yourself up.  The city’s about to crack down on cracked paint and collect overdue permit fees to keep sidewalk free speech alive and well. At least one City Council member thought it might be best to just do away with the racks […]

Senior mobile home parks across the county are getting protection from the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors to stay senior—forever and always.  Well, most of them should get that protection, if the board continues along its current path, which would put a moratorium on changing 55-and-older mobile home parks to all-ages and specify the […]