Who Should Pay (Part III)

I believe you are off on this one (“Who Should Pay?” MJ #24/7). Most of the merchants I spoke with were paying their workers at least part of their wages. You might want to call around. After all these years, you would think a business could protect workers from their losses.

I don’t want to name people who told me they continued to pay their employees, but I was told that. I know Birnam Wood, for example, paid all employees throughout the two evacuations. I believe business interruption insurance policies have varying coverage for employee wages. I think it is worth a little investigation so the truth can be out. I also think it would help our merchants to know what their peers are doing. How about a 5 percent increase on all purchases to help replace lost wages?

Jamie Kellner
Montecito

(Editor’s note: Thank you for taking the time to further examine the issue of whether an employer should be required to keep employees – particularly hourly employees – on payroll, and for how long. It’s a tricky issue, but if continuing to pay employees while a business is forcibly shut down causes a small retail merchant or service provider to declare bankruptcy or simply close its doors for good, what has been gained? The shop mentioned was not only forced to close by a mandatory evacuation order, followed up by law enforcement barricading access routes, but the owner was also prohibited from entering the premises.

Perhaps there is an equitable solution out there, but the fairest way to deal with such an event, we believe, would have been to help the hourly employees find temporary work elsewhere. – J.B.)

Shame Game

After reading the letter from “A Montecito resident” (“Where’s the Shame,” MJ #24/8) I stopped by Jeannine’s on Coast Village Road and heard from one of the employees there that Jeannine’s was not the “bakery on Coast Village Road” that created a GoFundMe page in order to raise $60,000. Please let your readers know that it is Bree’osh, farther west on Coast Village Road that is seeking funding.

No name please
Montecito

(Editor’s note: Ah, the unintended consequence of removing the name of the business in order to avoid embarrassment for the establishment was to shift blame to Jeannine’s, a popular and long-standing Coast Village Road business. We apologize for not simply naming Bree’osh in the first place. Just to say though, if you are a fan of Bree’osh and wish to support their expansion plans with a donation, that is certainly your right. And heck, if you’d like to donate some extra tips to the help at Jeannine’s, by all means do it. Now. Everyone with a business in Montecito needs the help! – J.B.)

Be Early-Resource Heavy

I am not a firefighter but respect them immensely. Cory Iverson, the firefighter who drove up from San Diego and died in the fire, is constantly on my mind. His wife is pregnant. About that “army of more than 8,000 professional firefighters…” when the fire first broke out, they sent in a first-strike team; as the fire got bigger, they added more, each day or two, and so on, until it reached that “army” of 8,400 to 8,600 firefighters.

In the future, wouldn’t it make more sense to put way more personnel up front, before it gets out of hand? Anyone can look back and say, “We didn’t know the wind would blow that hard, for so long” – but it did, so it could. It would have cost way less in lives, wildlife, property, et cetera, had it been extinguished promptly. These fires are man-made. “The brush that hadn’t burned for up to 65 years” didn’t have to burn. 

D.R. Big
Santa Barbara

Bad Right Turn

Recently, at approximately 7:30 pm, I was about to make a right turn onto Cota Street from State Street (at Joe’s), when someone apparently tied to the 100-plus bicyclists that were freely roaming the streets held up his right hand while standing in the middle of the intersection and stopped traffic on State Street, so that his fellow bicyclists would make a left turn through a green, then red, light. Neither the man directing traffic to a halt nor the bicyclists have a permit to assemble, impede, and disrupt the flow of traffic and ride in the middle of the street.

As I patiently waited for the bicyclists to turn onto Cota, when there was a break in the flow of bikes, I carefully made my right turn onto Cota, but the bicyclists were all over the street behind me and in front of me, hoarding the entire street with no regard for safety or motor vehicles, only themselves. 

Essentially what they are doing is taking over our streets. They must get a permit to lawfully assemble, direct traffic, and impede or block traffic. Studies must then be done to determine the best and most suitable times to allow them to assemble. 

The Santa Barbara Police chief should direct her fine officers (who are doing an excellent job) to start citing these bicyclists. They are taking over our streets and city.

Jerry Droz
Santa Barbara City director

In Search of Community

The night before, the sheriff warned of a disaster heading toward Montecito. Rain, wind, flooding were certain; they just didn’t know how bad or where. As I walked down the driveway the next morning, the air was chilly and fresh. Instead of the morning paper, I saw a pick-up truck drive by. The kids sitting up in the bed asked if I needed rescuing. It seemed like a strange question. I slipped on my hiking boots and headed out for a look at the creek. This was exciting. I didn’t know then about the missing and the dead.

Being in a voluntary evacuation zone, we didn’t leave the night before the storm. Like most of Montecito, we were up repeatedly with sounds of wind, rain, and the force of the flood. There was a loud bang that woke us. When we looked out our bedroom window, Montecito was lit up like there was another fire. A 21-inch gas line had exploded and sent a torch 10 feet into the sky. In the morning, the sun rose to meet a clear sky.

For the next three days, we were on an island with debris and mayhem all around us. The houses along San Ysidro were mostly undamaged but bordered on both sides by mud-choked creeks. Rain, unimpeded by vegetation, stripped the soil from the fire-exposed hills above Montecito and tumbled down Olive Mill Road. The muddy stream took out everything in its path. At the intersection with the 101 freeway, the land levels out before it comes to the ocean and the remains from the flood settled. The debris brought down by the force of the muddy water included tires, balls, wood, tree branches, and rocks as large as the room of a house. The destruction was unbelievable. 

It was impossible to get out of our neighborhood, unless you walked and then you couldn’t get back in. Normally, we lived behind hedges, walls, and security systems. Now we were too bored without cable TV or Internet to stay at home. We were out and about to look at the damage. We were mingling with neighbors we rarely encountered on the streets. People were anxious to talk and swap stories about what they had seen and what they had heard. The death and loss had not yet penetrated our psyches. 

Eventually, the Army Core of Engineers took over and wanted everyone out of Montecito. The sheriff escorted us through the mud as we drove to Santa Barbara. Once at Geoff’s mother’s house, it was like seeing a satellite view of a hurricane. TV news and newspapers blasted us with images we hadn’t imaged. Uber drivers, store owners, the lady at the coffee shop talked about their connection with the catastrophe. One man at the barstool next to us owned a now-vacant restaurant and was holed up in Santa Barbara. He had to be rescued from his second-story apartment after he had helped a person off an outcropping on the beach. He told also of the naked body they had seen lying on the shore.

In Santa Barbara, we were able to grasp the impacts to the local businesses, as well as the personal trauma. The fire in December followed by the mudslide had closed restaurants and the 101. Seventy percent of the workforce weren’t getting paid, since they couldn’t get to work. Trucks couldn’t deliver inventory to builders or stores. The stories came out of everyone you met, each one seemingly more upsetting than the last. When I read the newspaper, I cried for the first time. Something about touching the paper finally made me feel the impact of the fire on my neighbors in Santa Barbara and in Montecito. 

In the aftermath, I follow the news and hope for the best. I had spent three days isolated by the mud-filled creeks. Being outside, talking with neighbors, was reminiscent of a time before computers and cell phones dominated our lives. Now I mourn the lives lost and worry about the rebuilding. But mostly, I long for the sense of community I had found when I was out from behind my hedge.

Dale Zurawski
Montecito

76 Station in Different Location

What a rough time it’s been in Montecito. Thank you for all the coverage and follow-up on this multi-event tragedy. Our community has pulled together in amazing ways, and the MJ is a big part of that local connection.

The picture on the bottom right of page 30 (MJ #24/8) caught my eye, living close to the corner of Olive Mill and Coast Village Road. The picture is actually the corner of San Ysidro and East Valley. It is now the park in front of Pierre Lafond where the proposed rock memorial would be built. You can see the San Ysidro Pharmacy and Pierre Lafond behind the 76 station. Easy mistake, since there was a 76 station at that location and we had one up until recently at Olive Mill and Coast Village.

These flood history pictures and stories are very revealing how easy we can forget. Unfortunately, I think this one will be much more difficult to ever leave our memories. 

Heartfelt wishes to all our families, friends, and neighbors in Montecito. Keep up the good work.

Mark Olson
Montecito

(Editor’s note: We stand corrected; thank you for noticing and thank you too for the kind words for Montecito Journal. – J.B.) 

MJ Gets Around

Thank you for publishing my letter. I had people tell me they liked it. None were Montecito folks, which tells me that the Journal gets around and seems to have a lot of readers.

We met recently with our Farmers Insurance agent. He said he has a business client on Coast Village Road, and not only did Farmers pay for damage but was also paying employee wages for the time the business was closed. He went by after it reopened and the workers were all thanking him. Also, he got a call from a Montecito client on the morning of January 9 (our agent didn’t even know about the debris flow at the time), concerned because she had hadn’t paid her flood insurance and was worried about coverage. Dave said he called Farmers about 9 or 10 am to inquire; they called him back by 1 pm and said all clients were covered as a fire-related disaster.

Makes us glad to have Farmers Insurance.

Judy Pearce
Carpinteria

Good Luck to Katy

I have little reason to doubt Richard Mineard‘s report that Katy Perry, after amassing an obscene fortune from crooning and warbling, has decided to grow up and become an adult at age 33.

What she is unconsciously saying here, of course, is that adulthood is associated with settling down, getting married, and raising children. Everything else she’s been doing, no matter how satisfying and profitable, has only been extending her adolescence (almost) to middle age. The real duty of life is giving yourself to something outside yourself – in her case, a husband and children.

These are the chores of adulthood. Everything else is extending immaturity indefinitely into the future. Some people in the 21st century don’t/never “grow up.”

That’s the major sadness connected to our current-day culture.

Suddenly, I wish Katy Perry much happiness!

David McCalmont
Santa Barbara

Time to Get Busy

Montecito cannot get to the next step of the restoration process until all mud debris is removed from private property. I was horrified, shaken, on our recent holiday weekend, after six weeks of avoidance, finally driving my usual route down Olive Mill to enter Southbound 101.

The cost of mud debris removal is a collective public responsibility, not the physical and financial burden of private property owner victim-survivors stuck in mud arriving from multiple sources both during and after 1/9.

Shame on government officials for passing the buck, the non-response, or choosing to be ostriches sticking their head in the sand versus removing the mud. Government creates roadblocks only we as a force can remove.

First, hundreds of us – starting with you and me – must immediately and intensely pressure supervisor Das Williams to explain why the successful debris removal program in Sonoma won’t work here. Hold accountable Das and Darcel, Das’s hand-picked organizational guru, to help your neighbor. Call now: (805) 568-2186.

Next, contact Matthew Pontes, deputy CEO of Santa Barbara County and head of all recovery efforts. 568-3400. Mpontes@countyofsb.org.

Then each of us needs decide how to best help the Bucket Brigade, and the hundreds of victim-survivors, if we don’t physically “Do mud.”

1) Pay your gardener(s) or a strong student to work a weekend for the Bucket Brigade or call Westmont, SBCC, or SBHS Athletics to hire a student; or 

2) today mail or call in to make a Bucket Brigade donation of any size: every dollar helps! No tax-deductible gift is too small. The Bucket Brigade/ SBCC Foundation 721 Cliff Drive, SB 93101. (805) 965-0581.

A $200 or larger gift will pay a now underemployed former Montecito gardener, whose client’s home was lost, $18/an hour to work a day assisting our prized Bucket Brigade volunteers, plus pay for some needed supplies. Added feel-good benefit: You’ll be helping a gardener pay his rent, besides contributing to restoration efforts. 

A larger gift to the Bucket Brigade will help patch the $70,000 or greater out-of-pocket checkbook gap of founding leaders buying essential supplies, and going forward pay for needs of highly valued volunteers from supplies, protective clothing, and critical meal breaks. Then after you drive through Montecito, reflect. Envision trading places with a suffering Montecito acquaintance, and your important role in our greater Santa Barbara community. 

Think how to restore Montecito. If nothing else, call again your supervisor, Assembly rep Monique Limone, senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, or congressman Salud Carbajal to demand action not side-stepping, double-talk. 

Denice Spangler Adams
Vista del Montecito (West)

Plan It Together

As a retired instructor of sustainable design and architecture, which, by definition, are regenerative and sustaining, may I offer some suggestions for our community as it begins to contemplate a public space memorial for victims of the recent mudslides? 

Pace and process are crucial. The grief and agony of victims’ families coming to terms with the reality and specific horror of their loss, and coping with the uncertainty of their future, all require time and emotional equilibrium that can neither be rushed nor prodded. Therefore, prior to any decision regarding a memorial, the concerns, feelings, and pace of recovery of these families should be first and foremost, as their participation in that design process and ultimate outcome is crucial.

Let’s not relinquish a design decision to a select panel without considering first the wishes of the families, and thereafter of the community at large – for this is a community heartbreak as well. Developed proposals from artists in all fields, designers of landscapes, graphics, structures, urban planners – as this will be a public space – should require inquiry and input from victims’ families prior to executing a final presentation. As a public space, of course, safety codes and other issues will prevail; but these are part of the creative process that any designer must confront and resolve. Finally, allow our community to also participate in a final decision, as it will encourage our healing as well.

Much research has confirmed natural elements that suggest flow and regeneration provide comfort, induce contemplation, and encourage hope. Most obvious are tranquil water elements, the play of light, meandering access, and areas of stillness. Less soothing would be objects or imagery that recall the tragedy or directly caused it. These are best archived for historical reference. Let’s not forget that the families of the victims might frequently visit a memorial site, where their loved ones are remembered publicly. Their sensitivity and concerns must be respected, as their loss is most grievous. 

Angela Marasco Gresser
Santa Barbara

Saving the Stories

The whole world has seen photos of the wounded village of Montecito in the aftermath of the devastating fires and mudslides. But photos don’t fully capture the spirit of compassion and strength of those who are determined to make our village whole again. Many of us have experienced the thoughtfulness of friends and the kindness of strangers. 

It is deeply satisfying to remember these stories. 

After weeks of evacuation, it was time to go home. Coast Village Road was opening for business, and I stopped for breakfast at Jeannine’s before driving up the mountain. But then, as I walked back to my car, suddenly, with no apparent cause, my right knee failed me and I was headed for the cement. I don’t even remember what I grabbed that broke my fall. The pain was excruciating. “Let me help you!” a woman said. In moments, someone brought a chair from a store, someone else offered to call an ambulance or a friend. You might find that kind of response anywhere, but it was just the beginning of this story.

The problem was clear: I couldn’t put any weight on my right leg, much less drive my car. I live with my family, but my daughter and son-in-law were in Australia on vacation. My closest friends had evacuated, many left town, some lost their homes completely, some still couldn’t get through the mud and debris and didn’t know if their houses stood or were demolished. Mine was a small problem compared to theirs, but clearly I needed help. 

I’m 83 years old and until the moment I fell, I was confidently independent. I still write books, lead workshops, serve on the Board of Hospice of Santa Barbara, travel alone, and live as I did decades ago, usually pain-free. But now…

Now, I was vulnerable and overwhelmed. I wanted to remember the name of the woman who was so helpful. “Nicole Daniels,” she said.

“I can get you home, but you obviously can’t stay there by yourself.” I have never seen a gentler face. You know, the kind that radiates compassion and could pass for an angel, except she doesn’t have wings?

 “I know someone who can help you,” she said. “My mother has two caregivers and could spare one for a few days.” She made the call and, within moments, a caregiver appeared in a Jaguar with a well-groomed Pomeranian in the passenger seat.

Well, this is Montecito – why was I surprised?

A man who was passing by came to help me into the car, but my right leg was useless, so it was a bit awkward. They put me in the Jaguar and the driver said, “I’m Stella, this is Bourgeois. ” She introduced the well-groomed pooch that was determined to sit in my lap.

“I’ll take you home.”

 “But what about my car!” How would I get it home? Would it be impounded?

“Don’t worry about that,” Nicole said, “Give me your keys and I’ll follow you home.” Remember, I met this woman only moments ago, but I handed her my car key (house key, mailbox key, safety deposit key, all linked together.) 

“My car is about a block from here. It’s an Infiniti, the color of pinot noir,” I said, looking in the direction where I left it.

It wasn’t long before Nicole pulled up behind us and stayed close as we moved to the freeway and then to the winding road that leads to my home. We ignored the sign that said Road Closed and drove slowly past the boulders that were larger than the car. Huge trees lay fallen with roots still attached. We drove slowly, around fallen debris. High on the hill, my wooden house was still standing, like a tough old woman who refused to be displaced.

Stella was with me for three days, and I don’t know how I would have managed without her help. My knee is healing nicely. I’m grateful.

 “It takes a village,” as they say. Neighbors help neighbors and strangers help anyone in need. We are a strong community and a compassionate one. We have seen and heard the stories of others with heart-wrenching tragedies and heroes who risked their lives for strangers. It’s important to remember them. But I think we also need to weave the small stories of thoughtfulness into the larger tapestry that forms our memory of this tragedy. When the houses are rebuilt and the bridges restored, when the rivers of mud are carried away, we need to remember what we learned from this disaster. We are more than a town that has suffered.

We are a village that is healing, one story at a time.

Marilee Zdenek
Montecito

Heroin and Guns

We would never have gained our freedom from England without guns. Realizing this, our founders made the possession of firearms a right of citizens to preserve and protect our lives and our freedom from any threat, domestic or foreign. Given the rightful presence of guns in our country, we can never legislate our way to school safety through gun control. Even if guns could be legally banned, they’d become like heroin, illegal everywhere and available anywhere.

I propose a trial. For a year, let those who would prey on defenseless children in our schools know that they are no longer defenseless. For one year, any teacher willing to be trained in its operation, would be allowed to carry a firearm. Doing this on a trial basis for a year will help to determine if it’s the worst idea in history, as some will say, or if it is a workable answer to deterring school shooters.

Protecting schools with enough guards armed to do so would be cost-prohibitive. Teachers are always with their students and should be given the option of becoming the first line of defense. Those who would decry arming teachers in schools should ask which is the greater threat to the lives of our children: teachers with the ability to defend them, or shooters with the ability to end them?

The purpose of this proposal is not to put teachers in shootouts with shooters. It is to offer a deterrent to prevent shooters from acting at all.

A former Montecito resident

Build the Wall

The plans by President Trump to ”build the wall” is the present day continuation of this effort to control the very porous 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican border which began in 1994 with the George H.W. Bush administration. It was continued by the 1996 Republican Congress and president Bill Clinton. At that time, three walls were funded for control in California, Arizona, and New Mexico. This was a piecemeal program and resulted in poor quality and incomplete protection, so in 2006, president George W. Bush and Congress passed the bi-partisan Secure Fence Act, HR 6061. This provided for uniform quality fencing from the Pacific Ocean in San Diego to Brownsville, Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico.

By 2010, 700 miles of construction have been built from San Diego to the Texas Border at a cost of $3.5 million per mile. Some fencing has been built at Brownsville, but the longest unbuilt section of the proposed wall is from New Mexico through Texas along the Rio Grande River, which defines the border in Texas. Forty-seven miles of the original Act are still to be built.

In 2017, President Trump signed Executive Order 13767 to continue the wall development and to deal with this longest unbuilt section of the border wall while improving sections that needed rebuilding. These improved walls may cost $15 billion.

In addition to the walls, the Border Patrol has increased to 20,000 agents, and there have been 8,000 added cameras, 11,000 ground sensors, 107 aircraft, and 84 boats. Plans for the Trump Wall include adding 5,000 more border agents. 

Since beginning the wall projects, the illegal alien incursions have gone from 1,189,000 in 2005 to around 170,000 today, except for 2015, in which President Obama allowed 800,000 undocumented children and women from Mexico and Central America to enter the U.S.

The border is being intruded every day by drug and illegal aliens, and more needs to be done to get it totally under control. Trump’s wall will help end these problems and clearly mark our sovereign border. 

Mexico has complained about the wall plan, but the U.S. has had walls for over 20 years. Mexico has its own walls to stop hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens from crossing from Guatemala. At this border, Mexico has built 541 miles of walls and has guards. Colombia is building a fence to control the thousands of illegal aliens escaping from the failed socialist government of Venezuela. 

So, it is necessary to complete Trump’s wall if we are to stem the flow of illegals and drug intrusions.

Justin M. Ruhge
Lompoc