Cover Story
Spring Arts 2021
The Sun’s annual Spring Arts issue brings you arts, music, and craft events from across the Central Coast. With the pandemic going but possibly waning, arts events are still mostly virtual, but some in-person events are happening too! Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood compiled all the creativity Northern Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties can…
Chef Antonio’s Italian Kitchen delivers fresh pasta for your dinner
Antonio Ramos III was helping to build a shed in his brother’s backyard during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when he had a vision. “This could be my pasta room, my little pasta laboratorio,” Ramos said. “So we built it out. … And by August, I was like, ‘Let’s just start doing dinners.’” So…
Cal Poly students and faculty collaborate on a new, interactive audio play and virtual dance concert
“We may ask you to walk around with us and dream with us. So, if you are in a house, home, or shelter and are able to participate, please do,” co-writer and cast member Bella Ramirez says during the opening scene of Shelter, a new original audio play produced by Cal Poly’s Theatre and Dance…
PCPA continues InterPlay programming with its next virtual play reading, ‘Into the Breeches!’
The Pacific Conservatory Theatre (PCPA) will stream two live readings of George Brant’s Into the Breeches!, the first on Friday, March 5, at 7 p.m., and the second on Saturday, March 5, at 1:30 p.m. The reading is roughly two hours in length, with one five-minute intermission, and both presentations will be followed with an…
Hancock holds virtual showcase for fine arts students, Making Marks in Creative Spaces
The Ann Foxworthy Gallery in Santa Maria will present a virtual iteration of its annual student showcase, Making Marks in Creative Spaces, starting on Monday, March 29. This exhibition will celebrate a variety of works from Allan Hancock College’s fine arts students and is scheduled to remain online through Monday, April 5. This year’s show…
Short-term fix
If there’s been one thing that COVID-19 is good for, it’s an influx of funding to tackle homelessness—kind of. It’s more like an influx of funding to make us feel temporarily better about not spreading a contagious virus among a population we’ve failed for decades. Homeless advocates like Good Samaritan Shelter Executive Director Sylvia Barnard…
Reassess Los Alamos project
Los Alamos is a small, unincorporated town. We don’t have our own elected government. We depend on county officials. We pay property taxes just like other county residents and expect fair and responsive treatment by these agencies. Recently, however, a Planning and Development issue has come to the fore after lying dormant for about two…
Dems need to examine their hypocrisy
Oh, you hypocrites! When Trump stopped “immigrants” from entering our country illegally, when he separated children from their parents rather than have them detained in cages built by Obama, the “righteous indignation” from the Democrats and the media was as thick as honey in a freezer. “We on the left would never do such a…
State Parks has failed the coastal community
Thank you to the California Coastal Commission for its futurist reimagining of the park in the newly released staff report for the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area. Due to the park’s closure to OHVs last year, many people have for the first time experienced the magnificence of the Oceano Dunes. This area is a…
Oso Flaco dunes project makes no sense
It is incomprehensible that State Parks, an agency tasked with conservation as well as recreation, would propose to place, within a few miles of each other, projects comprising 721 campsites, OHV staging and training areas, new OHV highways into the dunes, acres of parking, permanent administration buildings and staff residences, equestrian facilities, and, of all…
Government needs to be kept at arm’s length
I recently contacted our congressman, Salud Carbajal, asking that he cast a no vote for HR 1. I citied that it was an infringement of states’ rights set out in the 12th Amendment: The only job the federal government has is to set the date for voting and certification of the Electoral College vote. Our…
Our congressman is no help to local businesses
Salud Carbajal has never helped my business! Michael Smith writes on Feb. 18 (“Carbajal has acted in businesses’ favor”) that he was surprised to read a letter claiming Carbajal has been bad for business (“Dear Congressman Carbajal, now is your chance,” Feb. 4). Here are my two experiences with Carbajal’s office. I own a small…
Restaurants and nonprofits partner to deliver meals to those in need, keep restaurant workers employed
When the pandemic forced Bell’s Restaurant, a French-inspired bistro in Los Alamos, to close its doors in March 2020, owners Daisy and Greg Ryan were certain of one thing: None of their employees would be losing their jobs. “We made the decision that we weren’t going to furlough any of our staff, we were going…
COVID-19 relief funding offers Central Coast localities a chance to get creative in addressing homelessness
A Motel 6 that was turned into emergency homeless shelter space and supportive housing in Paso Robles is one of several fast-paced and unconventional efforts to address homelessness on the Central Coast amid the COVID-19 pandemic. But it’s one of the few that will remain when the pandemic is over. While the coronavirus and resulting…
Political Watch: March 4, 2021
• On Feb. 27, U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) voted with 218 House colleagues to pass the American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package. The funds will “help facilitate students’ safe return to the classroom, distribute more vaccines, support workers and hard-hit small businesses, and deliver another round of direct stimulus…
COVID-19 metrics, vaccine allocation improve in Santa Barbara County
Both COVID-19 metrics and the weekly vaccine allocation are improving in Santa Barbara County, opening up vaccination eligibility to additional community members. Santa Barbara County Public Health Director Dr. Van Do-Reynoso presented COVID-19 data from the last half of February at a March 2 Board of Supervisors meeting. Over the two-week period, active cases decreased…
Sheriff’s Office data shows spike in serious crimes in 2020
Serious crimes in Santa Barbara County jumped by 18 percent between 2019 and 2020, according to crime statistics recently released by the Sheriff’s Office. That means last year’s rates of serious crime were 3 percent higher than the preceding 10-year average. Although Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said it’s hard to know what factors…
Santa Barbara County successfully vaccinated nearly 500 farmworkers
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department launched its first trilingual, tri-cultural COVID-19 vaccine pilot program on Feb. 28, providing vaccinations to nearly 500 farmworkers in Santa Maria. Public Health Department spokesperson Jackie Ruiz told the Sun that the initial goals of the pilot program are to work through cultural and linguistic barriers and respond…
Some North County schools return to in-person, Santa Maria-Bonita isn’t yet
While Orcutt Union School District and Lompoc Unified School District are set to reopen for elementary grade level in-person instruction early next week, Santa Maria-Bonita School District (SMBSD) will remain at a distance for the time being. According to state guidelines, once a county brings its adjusted case rate per 100,000 population to under 25…
