I’m not sure what’s weirder, the fact that CAUSE (Central Coast Alliance United for A Sustainable Economy) is actually being CALM about a recent Santa Maria Police Department use-of-force incident or the fact that Solvang politics seems to be full of people who don’t know how to act their age.
Honestly, CAUSE Santa Maria organizer Abraham Melendrez’s reaction to this video of the police punching a suspect and spraying him with pepper balls as they yell at him to stay on the ground is befuddling.
“We’re trying to maintain a neutral look until we get the details,” he told a Sun reporter.
What? You guys are waiting until the full story comes out. Uhh. I’m having a hard time comprehending. Aren’t you activists supposed to be flying off the handle about police brutality and pushing the public into a lather of outrage about illegal use-of-force? You know, kind of like the environmentalists do every time an oil company talks about drilling for oil in Santa Barbara County.
At least the Environmental Defense Center (EDC) usually stays true to form, feeding my need for drama in tense situations that don’t really need any more tension. Unfortunately, though, that didn’t happen this week either! All that EDC Staff Attorney Tara Messing said about Aera Energy’s reduction in the number of oil wells it wants to drill in Cat Canyon was that if they aren’t reducing overall production, you have the “same impacts.”
Boo! That’s boring.
It also isn’t quite true. Aera reduced its well counts by almost 100 wells. That definitely makes a difference in on-the-ground, visible environmental impacts. You know, the company is only going to kill 107 trees to drill their oil wells. They were going to kill 300!
But Aera is still a tree killer! Amirite? The least Messing could have said was that all oil companies like Aera want to do is rape the environment at the expense of our children’s future. Then, I would have had something good to work with.
How the hell am I supposed to do my job with all of you activists behaving like normal people?
You know what though? I’ll always have Solvang.
The now defunct Solvang Conference & Visitors Bureau (SCVB) is up to its old tricks—and is as passive-aggressive as ever. The people who are still associated with the unfunded, unhoused, closed, former tourist arm of the city are like little imps, making City Attorney Chip Wullbrandt jump through hoops and look under rocks to get Solvang’s money and assets back.
He was so tired of dealing with the mess that he actually wore a bowling shirt to a City Council meeting. A bowling shirt!
I’m guessing that chocolate shop owner SCVB President Kim Jensen has something to do with all of the weird little shenanigans that have Wullbrandt running around like a chicken with his head cut off.
The City Council wants to get $42,000 in city funds back from the bureau, as well as a handful of computers and other technology, and it disappeared. You know what happened to part of it? Jensen donated $16,000 and four iMacs to the Central Coast Film Society!
Wow. That’s ballsy. It also explains a lot, such as why the City Council terminated the SCVB’s contract.
The Canary is ready for more drama. Send tips to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 31 – Nov 6, 2019.
