Year: 2006

Tenants Lost Gentrification Showdown

Council Approves Condos, Promises New Rental Protections

Despite tearful entreaties by tenants to save their moderately priced homes from demolition at an older 10-unit apartment complex on north La Cumbre Road, members of the Santa Barbara City Council denied their appeal and approved plans-by a vote of 4-1-to replace the apartments with eight new condominiums, which will sell from $700,000 to $850,000, plus one affordable unit priced at $216,000. Throughout the council’s three-hour deliberations, many of the tenants urgently addressed the councilmembers in Spanish, describing through an interpreter how many jobs they already work and the hardships they anticipate in finding new accommodations they can afford.

SCHOOL BOARD SHUFFLE

Four-year veteran of the Santa Barbara School Board Lynn Rodriguez announced this week that she will not seek reelection this November. Citing personal reasonsspecifically, her two childrenthe former president of the board officially removed herself from the race for two seats on the five-member board. The other seat up for grabs belongs to eight-year boardmember Dr. Bob Noel, who also recently declared himself ready to fight for a third term, despite indicating last month that he was inclined not to run.

Recycling Life

Green Waste Solutions to Help Heal the Planet

Waste not, want not is a good axiom for all aspects of life. In the natural world, nothing goes to waste. Plants and animals live, grow, and die only to join the cycle of life, returning elements to their ecosystem to be “recycled” into new forms. As humans, we’ve cut into that cycle with almost all of our modern enterprises. We’ve been piling up our waste in artificial mountains, towing it out to sea on barges or incinerating it, just to get it out of the way. The light is slowly dawning that this is just not good for the environment and it’s high time we started cleaning up our act.

ALPHA’S OMEGA

Sean Dunn closes the doors of Alpha Thrift’s downtown digs for the last time Sunday evening, bringing to an abrupt conclusion Alpha’s 39-year presence on State Street. According to Dunn, Alpha was chased out of downtown by prohibitive rents, and will soon open a new and bigger space in Goleta on Hollister Avenue near Kellogg.

BIG FISH STORY

After nearly two-and-a-half hours of battling with the rod and reel, a woman from Rancho Palos Verdes caught a record-breaking shark off Anacapa Island last week.

Castles and Ruins

Doug Varone and Dancers, presented by Summerdance

At the Lobero Theatre, Thursday, July 20.
Doug Varone’s work is many things: challenging, beautiful, surprising, emotive, gut-wrenching, sublime, compelling, and lyrical. In his fourth visit to Santa Barbara, Varone and his company performed two pieces, “Castles” and “The Ruins of Language,” both of which explored the multiple aspects of relationships through dance.

Sweaty Peeps

It’s a Hot Time at the Black & Blue Ball

Sunday evening, after a blazing hot weekend spent jockeying for position in front of our overworked fan, my husband and I peeled ourselves off the couch, poured ourselves into our party clothes, and prayed for cooler temps seaside, in preparation for the granddaddy of all Santa Barbara fundraisers: the Black & Blue Ball. The B&B, which benefits the Muscular Dystrophy Association, is an over-the-top affair, where pretty much anything goes, which is a good thing, as, if you ask me, this weather’s been making everyone a little bit crazy.