It gets tiresome sitting in the proverbial coalmine. I get to hear what sources say off the record, the arguments in the halls following public meetings, and the incompetence that runs throughout local government, business, and even media.
I don’t need to beat CalCoastNews and its owners Karen Velie and Daniel Blackburn into the ground any more than they’ve already done to themselves—but still, if you haven’t checked out this week’s cover story yet, do that, I’ll be waiting. That’s just one example of when a media outlet can get careless.
Maybe that’s the rationale for the woefully misguided attempt by attorneys Tom Allen and Stephen Dunkle to try and gag local news media—along with local officials and witnesses—from discussing the ongoing case of 12 alleged MS-13 gang members for a string of murders that happened in Santa Maria.
They even went as far as to cite the Michael Jackson trial, which happened at the same courthouse in Santa Maria, as a precedent. Well, the idea of barring news media from covering that case is a little more than laughable.
Oddly enough, the gag order doesn’t name the Sun, even though it references reporting we broke—you know, the fake press release the Santa Maria Police Department and Chief Ralph Martin released as part of the investigation.
Even in gag orders we get no respect!
And on the subject of respect, how much do you think Santa Maria’s arts community is getting from the Santa Maria Planning Commission?
At the commission’s latest meeting, a proposed “master plan” for public art became a point of contention for local developers, including a local planning commissioner, because of a 1 percent earmark on new developments for a public art fund.
Planning Commissioner Tim Seifert, who is also vice president of Dan Blough Construction, said that he didn’t “like where the money is coming from,” and that the commission should “figure out a better way to pay for it.”
Hello! Conflict of interest much?
Anyone who’s serving as a city official needs to put the interest of who they’re serving first, not their company or pocketbook.
Are local developers really hurting that much? I see new construction all around town, like the gargantuan Betteravia Plaza project. Can you imagine how much 1 percent of that development would help support public art projects?
Santa Maria is openly derided by the more pretentious from cities like Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo for its lack of culture, and public art is a big part of that. You can’t throw a rock without hitting a sculpture or mural in those cities, so why is Santa Maria, the most populous city on the Central Coast, left with slim pickings?
Call me naïve, but I think developers will do just fine, especially if they’re building housing tracks and businesses in a city that people are excited to move to for its beauty, not one that nickel and dimes the residents before big, successful companies.
The Canary can pose as a subject for the next public art project. Send your thoughts to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 13-20, 2017.
