Letters to the Editor

Kardboard Kapers

It’s that time of year again: the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum’s 17th Annual Kardboard Kayak Races are coming to West Beach, Santa Barbara, on Saturday, July 6 from 12 noon to 3 pm. Get ready for some hilarity and family fun.

SBMM’s Kardboard Kayak Races challenge families and teams to participate in a battle of wits, creativity, design, and courage. Teams of up to four people each receive two sheets of cardboard, one roll of duct tape, a permanent marker, a utility knife, a yardstick, and just one hour to construct a functioning kayak out of only those materials.

Each of the assigned team paddlers will then be ready to race, and to find out whose design can hold up to the water and the pressure of paddling out to a buoy and back. The Kardboard Kayak Races are divided into separate heats to ensure fair competition: Family Fun is for paddlers 14 years old or younger, and Paddling Pros (paddler is a “skilled” competitor).

Let the races and fun begin!

Registration begins at 12 pm, kayak building at 1 pm, and racing begins at 2 pm.

I hope you will be able to join us on July 6th.

Rita Serotkin
Santa Barbara Maritime Museum

(Editor’s note: Not only will we be able to join you, but we are hoping our two grandsons Kessler and Deacon (ages 6 and 8) will be here to design, build, pilot, paddle, and win! – J.B.)

Digs the DMV

Had to comment on the very nice experience I had today at the Santa Barbara DMV getting my driver’s license renewed. Having heard horror stories and being very frightened of maybe not passing, I was amazed by the friendly and comforting staff and the promptness of my appointment. I’ll sleep well tonight now. I passed.

Jean von Wittenburg
Montecito

Ladybug Litany

In February of 2016, experts, using data from several taxpayer funded (National Science Foundation) studies, such as The Lost Ladybug Project, identified how the invasive European species, Coccinella septempunctata (the 7-spotted ladybug), and the Asian ladybug, Harmonia axyridis, may be the prime culprits in the disappearance of a certain type of ladybug, along with insecticides, big-chemical, big-agribusiness, volcanic ash, tectonic-subduction and plastic straws.

Then, on September 20, 2018, AP affiliates published a disturbing article using exactly the same title, which confirms the disappearance and reduced populations of hundreds of insect species, especially ladybugs. The “consensus” among experts was that global warming and light pollution were the culprits. 

Fast forward to June 6, 2019. The website, ScienceAlert, reports that an 80-mile “blob” seen on weather and ATC radar near San Bernardino, California may have been several trillion ladybugs migrating to points unknown. Conspiracy theorists suggest that these “ladies” may have been infiltrated with drone-bug-leaders guiding them towards Cuba or Russia or that they be lightly dusted with plutonium powder, carry tracking devices and dangling small copper wires designed to disrupt Mexico’s power grid.

How can such a large swarm exist if lady “beetle” populations have been declining for the past five years?

Shouldn’t entomologists have forewarned the aviation community that, after unseasonally heavy rains in California, such a “bug cloud” was possible? Are locusts next? Could a colossal cloud of beautiful (but deadly) monarch butterflies bring down a jumbo jet? Can lawmakers enact laws to save us from this potential disaster?

In 1984, “experts” in Montecito (Santa Barbara) dealt swiftly with a similar infestation of gypsy moths. Using attack helicopters (at night) about 20 square miles of heavily populated area (which included pregnant women, children and those with breathing disorders) were sprayed with a “nearly safe” pesticide. 

These procedures were done under cover of darkness, so the tiny white droplets wouldn’t ruin jackets or dresses, but everyone was advised to wash their cars ASAP so the paint wouldn’t be damaged.

Is it time for experts to begin a comprehensive, systematic, “precautionary-annihilation” spraying for infestations and future “blobs” of ladybugs?

Cautiously bugging the neighbors,

Dale Lowdermilk
Founder, MedFly Preservation Fund (defunct)

Santa Barbara

(Editor’s note: Count us as friends of bugs (birds gotta eat something), as we’ve always been alarmed at the reduction and near disappearance of bug splatter on our windshield over the years. This year’s proliferation of insects has been, if you’ll excuse my ignorance, a godsend. Love the idea and image of a ladybug cloud. – J.B.)

Fake News Alert

In the recent Guest Editorial (MJ # 25/23), Bob Hazard once again repeats the incorrect story (“fake news,” as it is called these days) that the City of Santa Barbara was behind the removal of the 101 southbound on-ramp from Cabrillo Blvd.

And once again I will try to correct the misstatement with some facts.

First, Caltrans – not cities and counties – controls, designs, builds and maintains on- and off-ramps from major roadways such as Highway 101. So, even if those terrible people in the city wanted to create problems for their neighbors – perhaps in response to their neighbors blocking previous 101 widening attempts? – they would be unable to do it since Caltrans is completely in charge of that piece of real estate.

Second, when the project that included the elimination of the unsafe, uphill, left-side, fast-lane on-ramp came before the City Planning Commission we did not agree with Caltrans’ position. While we all knew that a fast-lane on-ramp was not safe, we wanted a replacement on-ramp if the existing one was to be removed. Caltrans was adamant that their new enhanced southbound on-ramp at Milpas would handle all the traffic. When we asked how/why they thought that traffic would take that option, their response was that we were going to have enough signs to direct traffic to that on-ramp. The PC did not agree with them but couldn’t hold up the project over that since Caltrans would proceed regardless. Time has proven us correct, but Bob still thinks that we were the culprits and not Caltrans.

And I’ll add an observation – the traffic on CVR and other streets through Montecito are all trying to find a better route to avoid the backup caused by the three-lane-to-two-lane bottleneck that is the result of the obstructions raised decades ago as Bob points out in his Guest Editorial. So, in a way, it’s karma or the law of unintended consequences. We have to live with the result of our decisions.

As to that Olive Mill roundabout, Bob states, “If the City decides that a new Olive Mill roundabout is needed at ‘the Gateway to Montecito,’ that’s it.” That has to be surprising news to the all the City, County, and Montecito members of the working group, including staff members and various board-commission members from both communities currently working collaboratively to design that roundabout. And once again, Caltrans requirements dictate the need and many of the design parameters.

So, in the future, perhaps you might realize that the City isn’t made up of bad actors who are always trying to make life miserable for our neighbors in Montecito.

Addison Thompson
Santa Barbara

(Editor’s note: That may be an accurate retelling of the history of this colossal Caltrans blunder, but our recollection is that no one on the Santa Barbara City Council nor with SBCAG objected to the plan; only J’Amy Brown and yours truly voiced any skepticism at all. – J.B.)

The Tree Lives

Here’s another story of renewal in the San Ysidro creek debris flow. In the 1700 block of East Valley road there is a private road, on some maps (apps to you younger folks) named East Valley Lane. At the end of East Valley Lane is, or was, a cul-de-sac, with a beautiful sycamore tree that provided a shady canopy. This spot took a direct hit in the debris flow. My first photo shows it in April of 2017. Pastoral, the sun shining through the tree branches. 

The second photo is from December 11, the area is intact but covered with white ash from the Thomas Fire.

Then the event of January 9, 2018. On January 28 I saw the area for the first time. I saw some shredded limbs sticking out of the mud, so destroyed that I thought it was debris. Two months later buds started forming, followed by leaves. It was apparent the tree was alive.

Around this time my arborist told me the tree should be removed. Saying the stump wouldn’t offer the same structural support, and other dismal advice. I ignored the arborist’s advice, as I had a vision from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. As King Arthur slices the Black Knight’s arms off, the Black Knight kicks him and says, “Tis but a flesh wound.” And I swear, the tree stump was saying the same thing to me.

The tree wanted to live. 

Now, in June of 2019 the tree is surviving and doing just fine. 

Dan Seibert
Santa Barbara

Fact not Fiction

“Is Montecito the last perfect place?” was another masterpiece by Bob Hazard. Maybe because I was required to take statistics in graduate school (urban planning), that I appreciate the numbers stated on home ownership and renters. Ditto “the top 5 issues” and community profile, etc. He has a wonderful way of reporting the facts, which I find helpful.

Thank you.

Leon “Lee” Juskalian
Santa Barbara