I would like to offer a few inadequate words about Ron Shlensky, this complicated, unpredictable, infuriating, gifted, tormented, deeply loving man who has been taken from us suddenly, with no warning whatsoever, in an apparent hit-and-run accident. In telling the story of Ron’s life, there are some important facts to set forth, and then there is the mystery of this man. Let me start with the facts.
After nearly a year of researching and polling local teachers, UniDev finally presented the draft results of a controversial feasibility study to the Santa Barbara School Board about the possibility of building high-density affordable homes for school employees on two district-held properties. The presentation was attended by nearly 75 neighbors of the Hidden Valley and Tatum properties, all of whom-despite living in Santa Barbara and Goleta, respectively-expressed their concern and upset over the possibility of increased density in their neighborhoods.
The first reported armed robbery of a medical marijuana distribution center took place at Santa Barbara Hydroponics, 3128 State Street.
One of the key lending institutions keeping alive developer Bill Levy’s dream of building 62 Ritz-Carlton time-share condos on the lower two blocks of State Street has filed legal documents alleging that Levy has defaulted on his loan.
According to a recently released state-of-the-beaches report, the sandy shores of Santa Barbara County were stricken with alarming levels of bacteria last year, resulting in several hundred no-swimming days for ocean enthusiasts.
Plans for a 90-unit affordable housing project on a vacant lot at Montecito Street and Calle Cesar Ch¡vez were knocked down a story and cut almost in half by the Santa Barbara City Council. The council acted after the developers revealed they could not provide the degree of affordability they initially promised.
The Santa Barbara City Council voted unanimously for enforceable regulations rather than permissive guidelines to limit the “mansionization” sweeping certain neighborhoods. The vote came despite an impressive organizing effort undertaken by architects, real-estate agents, homeowners, and many children, who packed the council chambers to argue in favor of guidelines, insisting that the problem posed by a few large remodels was one of bad design rather than square footage.
Santa Barbara’s Environmental Defense Center (EDC) derided the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) change of heart toward a liquefied natural gas port off the Ventura coast.
-Santa Barbara City Councilmember Iya Falcone, on creating a new category of affordable price-restricted housing targeting households earning as much as $170,000 per year.
Few locales scream storybook more than Santa Barbara County, where urban sophistication and extravagant wealth smash into colorful California history and the rural realities of cowboy-land.
