It’s hard to break my heart these days. I’ve become so inured to hateful remarks. To bad manners. I know I’m not the only one who feels exhausted by the toxically divisive politics of this moment. The hubris we all bring to every conversation that treads whatsoever into politics. It all feels so depressingly… normal. […]
If you live in or near Montecito or you consider it a part of your life, you likely appreciate what makes it such a special place. And while the credit for much of Montecito’s beauty and otherwise special qualities goes to Mother Nature, some of what we all treasure about this community, what makes it […]
I hope you enjoyed your July 4th holiday, celebrating America’s hard-won freedom from the imperious whims of a despot, as symbolized by the signing of the Declaration of Independence almost 250 years ago, on July 4, 1776. It’s also interesting to note that several distinguished historians have stated that democracies last for only 250 years. […]
Jimmy Stewart played a version of this character in the well-known classic, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. The difference is, our newly elected soon to be 1st District County Supervisor is for real. Or is he? Time will certainly tell. But for now, Roy Lee is on his way to the county to do what […]
This month a delegation of eight women who survived Hamas’ October 7th massacre, were brought to Santa Barbara as a delegation of “sisters” to share their accounts of what happened, and to feel the love, support and care of this community. I had the painful privilege of spending a few hours with Etti Koren, Sigal […]
For the first 11 years my family owned our home in Montecito this town was represented on the Board of Supervisors by then Supervisor, now Congressman, Salud Carbajal. Carbajal was and is a politician with the soul of a civil servant who prioritizes constituent services. Which is one of the reasons the MJ supported his […]
We at the Montecito Journal wish everyone in our local and world community a New Year filled with good health, movement toward world peace, and a willingness to see the shared humanity in us all. We thank you for your ongoing support, and we look forward to what promises to be an interesting and eventful […]
Have we no memory? Have we no leadership? Who in our local government is representing the interests of Montecito residents? Are we considered too privileged to merit concern? When the debris nets on the mountains above Montecito were taken down on November 1, I was beside myself. As photos came in of helicopters lifting the […]
More than a year ago, in “sleepy” Santa Barbara, long before Hamas ever slaughtered 1,400 innocents at a peace festival or Israel retaliated, a special group of Central Coast locals were incubating a project that could just very well help with this mess. Maybe a lot of messes. Ironically, we may owe a debt of […]
Gwyn Lurie Reflects on What We’ve Gained and Lost with Our New Roundabouts Let me start by saying I’m not anti-progress. But driving through Montecito’s recent road “improvements,” I have to admit to some feelings of nostalgia… and loss. For those not aware of the origin of our new roundabouts bookending Coast Village Road, and […]
Last week I wrote about the long demise of the Santa Barbara News-Press and the poignance that the final chapter of its tortured story turned out to be Chapter 7. And I touched on the irreplaceable role local news plays in a robust, functioning democracy. A recent piece in the notably not-local New York Times […]
We live in this time of great schadenfreude – consider the case of the OceanGate submersible. I’ve never seen so many posts online from random people gloating over the misfortune of a billionaire. However, I for one take no joy or comfort in the death of the Santa Barbara News-Press, our town’s only daily newspaper, […]
I don’t have many heroes. Maybe because I’m too easily disappointed. Or that just beneath my optimistic surface lives a somewhat jaded self. Or perhaps it’s simply that it’s hard to find heroes these days who stand up to the test of time, not to mention under the harsh glare of modern-day journalism. But when […]
In November 2020 2nd District County Supervisor Laura Capps, then School Board Member Capps, took a run for the 1st District County Supervisor seat challenging Supervisor Das Williams. Despite this paper’s strong endorsement of Capps for her refreshing perspective on campaign reform, the need for more transparency in the government (on issues like cannabis and […]
Anita Hill never wanted to testify before the Senate Judiciary committee. In fact, despite a stellar academic record, you probably would not know the name Anita Hill if not for veteran NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg. The same way you wouldn’t know the Watergate Hotel, if not for Woodward and Bernstein. How it came […]
I’m sure I’m not alone in being relieved that our community did not have to be evacuated during the storm this past weekend. Still, I was on pins and needles wondering whether that scary alarm would suddenly come blaring from my phone, informing me it was time to pile my family, my dogs, and a […]
In my end-of-year letter, I wrote about my habitual January dread. Or as I sometimes like to call it, Janu-scary. And then January 9th reared its ugly head. Again. The coincidence of Mother Nature’s repeat performance was, to say the least, eerie. Let’s just say this is one time I didn’t enjoy being prescient. As […]
Locally, we’re coming up on five years since California’s epic Thomas Fire led to Montecito’s deadly January 9, 2018 debris flow. Which this year got me to thinking about anniversaries, my love of Decembers, and my fear of Januarys, how quickly time flies, and Moore’s Law. They say March comes in like a lion and […]
This week, Montecito became a little safer. On page 14 you can read about the ALERTCalifornia camera just installed on TV Hill that will provide 24/7 “eyes” on the Santa Barbara Front Country and eventually alert firefighters to new fire starts using artificial intelligence technology. But before you read about this exciting and potentially lifesaving […]
“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” – John Wesley Of all the places I’ve lived or spent any significant […]
There were many big winners in Tuesday’s election, most importantly: democracy and grace. It made my heart sing to watch defeated candidates, red and blue, gracefully acknowledge that things had not gone their way, this time. Who knew that we still had the human capacityfor humility? Beyond that biggest of wins… a few local highlights: […]
At my core I’m an optimist. Not to be confused with a Pollyanna. I try to stay open to ideas and sources of inspiration and innovation that could lead us to a better place – no easy feat. Which is why I enjoyed (or more accurately, had the enriching experience of) reading Ian Bremmer’s book, […]
There were many COVID casualties, beyond the loss of precious life. Like ceremony. So many of us were forced to say goodbye to loved ones without the spiritual and emotional closure that comes with gathering closely with community to celebrate the lives that were lost. One such loss that hit hard here was the passing […]
This year the Montecito Journal co-hosted a handful of Zoom candidate forums, all involving local school board races for which Montecito residents will have a vote (the one exception is the SBUSD area #1 seat, for which a smaller portion of our readers will have the chance to weigh in). This is not to say […]
As an advisor to four U.S. Presidents, Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton, David Gergen had a front row seat to the highest levels of power and leadership in this country. As an editor for U.S. News and World Report, and a commentator on PBS and CNN, Mr. Gergen became a steady and rational voice on […]
From the day our children are born, we begin the process of teaching them everything they need to know so that one day they can leave home. And then, they do. Little ingrates! Like so many parents, I took my firstborn daughter to college last week. I flew across the country and dropped her off […]
Humor is often born of pain. So last month, when Justice Alito’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was leaked, sounding the death knell for the constitutional right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade, it was no surprise when Stephen Colbert joked of the irony that this decision was written by […]
As a world and as a county, we face monumental challenges: climate, poverty, education, income inequality, systemic racism and sexism, houselessness, mental health, inflation, access to healthcare, etc… It’s a too-long list of issues that are intersectional and deep. And the only way for our leaders to even begin to unpack such a multiverse of […]
Pierre Lafond passed away this past Sunday at the age of 92, after 60 years in Santa Barbara enterprise overlapping a 25-year career in architecture. Pierre Lafond and his wife, Wendy Foster, developed a number of shops in Montecito and in greater Santa Barbara. And they were vintners and early adopters of Central Coast viticulture, […]
This is the story of three Vlads. Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Volodymyr Palahniuk, whom you knew by his stage name: Jack Palance. I did not know until recently that Jack Palance died here in Montecito at the home of his daughter Holly. Nor did I know until fairly recently how much Holly Palance has […]
Remember the 2018 devastating debris flow that changed Montecito forever? Those of us who lived here at the time do. Like it happened yesterday, with all the pain and loss and destruction it brought. But for those who made Montecito their home post-debris flow (or PDF as I like to call it), the knowledge of […]
When I arrived at the Montecito Journal in 2019, my partner, Tim Buckley, said to me: “This might surprise you, but everything that happens everywhere else, also happens in here.” Tim’s apocryphal and prescient message, however, made it no less shocking for me when I learned that on Wednesday, February 16, smack in the […]
We love our pets. They’re family members. And the dozen or so years most of us get with our canine loved ones fly by too quickly. But when one dies prematurely and unexpectedly, it’s a whole other level of painful and tragic. No one understands this more than a local Montecito family, who brought their […]
The last time I sat face-to-face with Congressman Salud Carbajal was in September of 2020, when we were all optimistic that the pandemic’s end was in sight. That was three years into his stint in Congress. And as honored as he was to be representing this district in the People’s House, he nonetheless seemed burdened […]
Santa Barbara Schools Superintendent Super Intends to Get the Job Done Some jobs are just plain hard. Hard because no matter what choices you make, some people are bound to be disappointed. I sometimes felt that way when I served on the Montecito Union School District Board, because everyone wants what’s best for their children, […]
As we face the new year, it is lost on no one that those of us fortunate to have made it this far are heading into our third year living with COVID. At the same time, we are careening toward another all-important midterm election inside a nation seemingly as politically divided as ever. In addition, […]
In the movie version of this story, we open on a shot of Invictus, a sleek 215-foot yacht with sophisticated, timeless maritime beauty – all six decks of it – replete with a swimming pool, a gym, a theater, nine bedrooms, and an elevator. Of course. We pull out further to reveal Rick Caruso, the […]
It may have slipped by you with everything else that’s been going on lately — the new variant and two national murder cases — that this year was our country’s 400th Thanksgiving! And all was going well at my family’s annual Turkey Day celebration at my sister’s home in Los Angeles. Until my sister made […]
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of year. I love how the holiday allows us to reflect and give gratitude before we launch into the rest of the end-of-year holidays. Oh, and I love the food. This year I find Thanksgiving especially poignant. For those not felled by COVID, we’re coming up on the […]
How would you feel if you lived with Multiple Sclerosis for more than half a century and, in an unrelated incident, suffered an organ failure that necessitated a new kidney donated by your son? If you were Bruce Corwin, you’d feel overwhelmingly grateful. Corwin was grateful to have survived everything life threw at him, grateful […]