Santa Maria is no longer the only game in North County for skater kids looking for a place to play. First, Nipomo stepped up and built a skate park—it only took a decade to make it happen.
That park opened in 2022. Now, Guadalupe’s four-wheel fiends will soon get a spot they can walk to—skate to! Las Mujeres Park is transforming for the community with the help of a California State Parks grant by building a skate park, dog park, new playground, bocce ball court, and a picnic area.
Kudos! City Recreation and Parks Manager Arnulfo Navarro III said it was cool to be part of the park’s next chapter.
“I’m really excited because there’s not really anywhere to skate here in town,” Navarro said, adding that it should be done in 150 working days.
You know what’s not going to be done in a 150 days? Trump’s presidency. The dramatic outbursts and knee-jerk federal policy decisions that don’t really make anything better aren’t going away anytime soon.
What’s going to happen to the state’s child care facilities when the federal government freezes all child care funding because of Trump’s Truth Social proclamation alleging fraud and misconduct committed in California and other Democratic leaning states? Sounds suspiciously political.
Is that how we create sound federal policy? On a social media app owned by the president of the United States in ALL CAPS. I give that an extremely SLOW CLAP.
Well, Assemblymember Gregg Hart’s (D-Santa Barbara) on the case.
“All of the programs we run have federal funding threaded through them. Every single one. … And we don’t have the money ready to backfill it,” he said.
Cool. While Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill is saying that the $2.3 billion funding freeze will ensure confidence for families who “rely on child care and family assistance programs,” his department is trying to pull the funding that helps child care happen for those families. Cool.
Sounds like talking out of both sides of his mouth.
“As that applies to California, it means we are kind of out of the business of helping parents, kids, and providers until we can figure out a way to reconstruct our programs,” Hart said.
That’s rough. The state’s also facing a huge budget deficit, so it’s not like there’s extra money lying around. At least state Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the Trump administration over the policy, alleging that the proposal is unlawful and unconstitutional. And a judge paused the funding freeze.
Bonta said there’s no evidence to support the claims of widespread fraud.
“It is especially pathetic that [this] administration’s actions are inflicting harm on the most vulnerable among us,” Bonta said.
Well, duh! That’s his administration’s MO. Beat up on the little guy, support the guy who already has it all. It’s chaos with an agenda.
But even high school students are getting involved. Students across the Central Coast participated in a walk-out protesting the administration’s immigration enforcement tactics except for possibly in Santa Maria.
Seems strange, right?
The Canary is anti-chaos. Send your agenda to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in February 5 – February 12, 2026.