Cover Story
2 Ring Circus and other guest artists help bring PCPA’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ to life
Nearly 20 spinning hula hoops engulfed Ben Franklin—the circus performer, not the Founding Father—during a Wednesday afternoon warm-up session in Santa Maria’s Severson Theatre. His partner, Joshua Dean, stood at the opposite side of the arena with one hoop of his own, but its diameter was much larger than the others, even taller than Dean…
Local environmental groups battle against fracking leases
Local environmental advocates are fighting plans to expand or kickstart fracking on federal lands in California’s Central Valley and on the Central Coast. The directive to allow fracking and oil drilling on public land, which will impact about 725,000 acres on the Central Coast, comes from President Donald Trump. A final environmental impact statement released…
Political Watch: November 7, 2019
• At the end of October, U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) announced support for a House resolution that furthers the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. He said the vote will allow for more public hearings. “The House has collected strong evidence about the president’s misconduct, and we must be able to move forward…
Santa Ynez Valley weighs merits and costs of a master bike plan
The idea began with Matt van der Linden, the Solvang public works director. He’d been thinking about bike lanes, how to get more of them, and how any plan his city might come up with would fit the surrounding area. “It didn’t really make sense for us to make a bicycle plan that didn’t mesh…
County and city elected officials discuss solutions to homelessness
Despite comprising only 12 percent of the country’s total population, California is home to a quarter of the nation’s homeless residents. To combat this crisis, the state is opening up millions of dollars in funding, some of which will be available early next year. In Santa Barbara County, the number of residents living without a…
Planning commission chair asks for significant changes to cannabis project
After a nearly nine-hour meeting on Oct. 30, the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission delayed making a decision on an appeal of a land use permit for a cannabis farm in Buellton after the commission’s chair requested significant changes be made to the project. Commission Chair John Parke—who represents the county’s 3rd District, where the…
Santa Maria Bonita still sorting out school boundaries
The Santa Maria-Bonita School District is months away from re-establishing school boundaries that will determine which students attend which schools. Maggie White, the district’s spokesperson, said she expects parents and students to learn whether they’ll be moved to a new school in the early months of 2020. It’s a process that she said the district…
Residents appeal new Orcutt shopping center
A group of residents appealed the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission’s decision to approve a nearly 50,000-square-foot shopping center on Clark Avenue near Highway 101 in Orcutt. The county Planning Commission approved a permit for the Orcutt Gateway Retail Commercial Center project during its Aug. 14 meeting. About one week later, a group of residents…
CANARY: Clock’s ticking
How much time do you think Santa Barbara County has to waste on appeals to cannabis projects? If the county Planning Commission’s nine-hour hearing on Oct. 30 is any indication, apparently county staffers just have a ton of idle time to spend listening to people whine about cannabis. Yeah, guys. Nine hours. On one item. …
A family bachelorette weekend has us making many leaps of faith with Margarita Adventures
I’m grasping for the perfect metaphor, but the only words rushing through my brain are, “Uh-oh, uh-oh, are we supposed to be going this fast?” My daughter and I are coming in for a landing, and I’m convinced we’re going to get hurt. The guides had said we’d zip along with extra speed because we’re…
Orcutt-based painter Sheryl Knight focuses on the Central Coast’s signature sceneries
Having lived in Orcutt for the last 43 years, painter Sheryl Knight is no stranger to the Central Coast and its distinctive scenery. Currently represented at six galleries in California—including at Solvang Antiques through Nov. 17 and at three galleries throughout San Luis Obispo County—Knight’s artistic mark is multifaceted. Often working en plein air, Knight…
St. Mark’s-in-the-Valley hosts SYV Wind Ensemble and LA Chamber Orchestra guest artists
Do yourself a favor and get to the church on time this Sunday and Saturday, as St. Mark’s-in-the-Valley houses not one but two notable classical concerts this weekend: An Evening of Chamber Music on Saturday, Nov. 9, at 7 p.m., and the Santa Ynez Valley Wind Ensemble’s Fall 2019 Concert on Sunday, Nov. 10, at…
Home and Away exhibition opens in Los Olivos
A new duo show, Home and Away, opened at Gallery Los Olivos on Friday, Nov. 1. The exhibition features a collection of pastel and watercolor paintings, including landscapes, figuratives, and florals by Central Coast-based artists Kris Buck and Karen McLean. Both studio and plein air works are included, and the subject matter of the paintings…
SMCT Readers Theatre presents ’12 Angry Men’
The Santa Maria Civic Theatre (SMCT) presents a Readers Theatre production of 12 Angry Men on Friday, Nov. 8, and Saturday, Nov. 9, from 7 to 9 p.m. both evenings, and on Sunday, Nov. 10, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. The setting is New York City in 1957, and the story follows a jury determining…
Author Elayne Klasson signs debut novel in Solvang
The Book Loft in Solvang hosts a book signing with author Elayne Klasson on Saturday, Nov. 23, at 2 p.m. Klasson will be signing copies of her debut novel, Love is a Rebellious Bird, which is set to be released on Tuesday, Nov. 12. The book follows Judith, a woman in her 60s driven to…
A frugal look at the prices of organic milk, butter, eggs, and bread at local grocery stores, in the face of rising gasoline prices
If you’re like me, you look to the gas pumps to decipher what you’re going to spend on your food essentials—the simplified reason being that high oil prices contribute to soaring food prices. Since today’s gas prices are something out of a horror film, and AAA reports that Californians are paying the most expensive gas…
Catch the crooks, then implement judicial ‘catch and release’ punishment
Everyone in Lompoc who either lives in one of the gang-infested areas, reads the local newspapers, follows social media, or watches the evening news knows that there is a crime/gang problem in Lompoc. Two weeks ago, the Canary summed it up this way: “It sounds like a youth violence problem, one that the city of…
County and city elected officials discuss solutions to homelessness
While attending a Lompoc City Council meeting on Oct. 15, listening to concerns over the municipal budget in the wake of the city’s seventh homicide this year, Jamison Stagaard decided he needed to try to help. “You could just feel it in the air,” Stagaard said. “People were kind of frustrated and scared and nervous,…
