Three iterations and nine months after California first introduced the ever-changing COVID-19 reopening tiers with the Blueprint for a Safer Economy, the state is kicking it to the curb.
And just as Santa Barbara County reaches out for the most minimal tier on it, too. So close! This county is itching to inch into the yellow tier, but does it matter? Public Health Officer Dr. Henning Ansorg seems to think that, yes, it does.
“We’ve never had such low infection rates, we’ve never had such low hospitalization rates, and that is just nice,” he said during a May 21 press briefing on COVID-19.
You know what? That is nice.
Vaccines and people following proper safety protocols and about 35,000 county residents getting COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic really helped put us “on the right path,” as Ansorg put it.
And I bet he can’t wait to step back from the spotlight, the media, and the crazy anti-COVID-19ers (who I’m sure have filled up his inbox with emails accusing him of all kinds of things) to serve in a somewhat normal capacity as an advisor.
In the next three weeks before the state plans to throw out the moving tier goalposts and quartile complications of the Blueprint, Ansorg is hopeful that more people will “take advantage of our outreach efforts to receive the COVID vaccine.”
And by that, I’m almost positive he’s referring to the North County holdouts with vaccination rates below 50 percent. I’m looking at all of you unvaccinated residents out there allowing South County to beat us with the vaccines! What the hell? Santa Barbara already acts like it’s better than we are. Now we want them to be COVID-free before us?
Get it together.
You know who else needs to get it together? Lompoc.
The Lompoc City Council needs to get the Lompoc Fire Department what it needs to not get cancer from diesel exhaust fumes. It’s the only department in the county that doesn’t have filtration equipment preventing idling fire truck fumes from being released into station living quarters! And one of the department’s personnel was diagnosed with cancer related to those diesel exhaust carcinogens.
It should have been done yesterday. These are public servants tasked with protecting the community. We should do what we can to prevent them from getting cancer, don’t you think?
We should also do what we can to prevent their building from collapsing in an earthquake—because, you know, we might need them during a natural disaster.
Meanwhile, Solvang City Council is ready for 24/7 tourism in the eyes of Councilmember Robert Clarke, who’s pushing for week-round transient occupancy taxes over more housing. Because the city has bills to pay, let’s build another hotel!
“It brings in more money, so I’m all for the development of a hotel,” he said about a project at the Old Lumber Yard property, which started as a housing development and is turning into something Four Seasons-like with a “wellness center” and a “really high-end restaurant,” according to development partner Jarret Gorin.
Are there no hotels with really high-end restaurants in Solvang? (There are.)
Meanwhile, people who serve the tourism industry don’t have affordable places to live in Solvang. But screw them, amirite? Tourists first; residents last!
The Canary believes COVID-19 taught Solvang nothing. Send comments to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 27 – Jun 3, 2021.
