Good Sport Leaving the N-P
Sportswriter Mike Traphagen joins the News-Press exodus
Year: 2006
Strange Bedfellows
Elected officials representing the often acrimonious polarities of Santa Barbara County-both geographical and ideological-gathered on Tuesday for an unprecedented display of political unity on behalf of Measure D, the sales tax surcharge meant to help ameliorate local freeway congestion. Joining the usual coterie of slow-growth, predominantly liberal South Coast politicians at a press conference held at Santa Barbara City Hall were a handful of conservative North County politicos: 4th District Supervisor Joni Gray, Santa Maria City Councilmembers Marty Mariscal and Alice Patino, and Guadalupe Mayor Lupe Alvarez. Together the group expressed support for the extension of the original Measure D-a half-cent tax surcharge approved by voters countywide in 1989-and called for a quarter-cent addition to the tax. If approved by voters in November, the new Measure D is expected to generate $1.5 billion over the next 30 years, the great bulk of which will go toward funding freeway decongestion projects. The existing Measure D-which won’t expire until 2009-has raised $350 million thus far.
IT’S the LAW
Sheriff Jim Anderson visited Mount Carmel School in Montecito to kick off his department’s new student-oriented Life Skills Training program. In the same vein as the nationwide DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) programwhich the Sheriff’s Department was forced to toss overboard three years ago due to a budget crunchLife Skills Training will be taught by two deputies in schools throughout the district this year.
GAUCHO GOSSIP
This year’s incoming first-year class at UCSB is expected to be the largest in the university’s 62-year history. Given that high GPAs and SAT scores are no longer sure tickets to admission, the 4,100 new students accepted are likely to be more than just smart cookies. Both phenomenagreater numbers of students and a more selective admissions processmirror statewide trends.
Hair Don’t (Quiz)
Hair Don’t Quiz
I.V. Uprooted
More than 50 Isla Vista families will be scrambling for new lodgings in the next few weeks, having received 30-day notices to vacate the Cedarwood Apartments. The notices were issued by Dennis P. Block and Associates of Los Angeles, a law firm specializing in evictions. Claiming at least 100,000 evictions in 30 years of business, Block bragged that his firm has “evicted more tenants than any other firm on the planet Earth.” Asked whether the tenants would receive relocation assistance, Block responded that his client would “follow the law-nothing less, and nothing more.” His client is a limited liability corporation known only as 6626 Picasso-Cedarwood’s address.
Concentric Circles
After a brief rain in Santa Fe Springs, the black remains of oil previously splattered across asphalt gather to form perfectly concentric circles. Shigemi Uyeda, a Japanese-American photographer, takes notice, but the lighting is not right. He waits, and checks back the next morning, hoping the arrangement has not been destroyed. With a stroke of luck and the help of the sun, the circles are still there, looking up and nearly glowing. The image is so perfect that it seems prearranged. It is abstract enough as a photo that the viewer may even wonder what the subject is. Click.
Chihuahuas in the Microwave
SUPERSIZE THIS: Should I get a notice that my water bill’s a couple months past due and they’re thinking about shutting off my spigot, my palms would sweat, my eyes would twitch, and I would go into gastrointestinal overdrive. But when developer Bill Levy is notified by his lender that he has defaulted on his $35 million loan-$10 million of which is the interest that accrued in just one year-he’s cool as a cucumber. That money was due, by the way, in July. Say what you want about Bad Boy Bill, the man is pucker proof. For those tuning in late, Levy is attempting to transform the portion of lowest State Street-around the Californian Hotel-into a beehive of Ritz-Carlton time-share condos, each fetching a modest $350,000 per three-week use. In his own ingenious and determined way, Levy’s been pursuing this Levytown dream for more than 30 years.
Live Music Peeps
How do I love Legends? Let me count the ways. For starters, it’s not on State Street, reason enough to venture in for one of Raul’s very stiff drinks, which are also a potent draw, in and of themselves. But the main reason I’ve been digging the scene at the Milpas Street lounge is the music. As live music junkies are well aware, Santa Barbara offers precious few downtown watering holes at which to get your fix, but Legends is looking to change all that, scouring the earth and cyberspace for hot new acts, and managing to bring them to our town. Cover charges are minimal, and, given the square footage of the joint, you’re pretty much guaranteed one of those legendary (apologies for the pun), intimate performances you’ll brag to your friends about years later, “Oh, yeah, well I saw them back in 2006 at Legends!” Such was the case last Friday, when I set out to peep the scene, and proceeded to have my mind blown by the inimitable K23 Orchestra, a genre-free San Diego-based jam band that’s developed some serious cred among festival devotees.
Arthur Schwartz: 1924-2006
As a young teenager, Arthur Schwartz was arrested for handing out pro-labor literature. At 17, he joined the military to fight fascism in WWII and survived 12 D-Day invasions in the South Pacific. As a young lieutenant, Arthur challenged a commander-and congressional candidate-who had jeopardized the flotilla in a move designed to gain public recognition. Art was swiftly discharged.
So when sheriff’s deputies tried to remove Art from the Goleta Farmers Market, Art’s undaunted reply was, “Let me get this straight. You are going to arrest an 80-year-old combat veteran on Memorial Day for registering Americans to vote?” They went away.