Tag archives: covid 19
Montecito Water District’s Board of Directors held its regular monthly meeting this week as scheduled. The agenda included updates on the status of a Water Supply Agreement with the City of Santa Barbara and the Rate Study. “These projects remain on schedule to be completed and ready for Board consideration in June,” said General Manager […]
Despite the inability to fully open and seat and serve diners, Dario Furlati, owner of the Ca’ Dario restaurants, has softly opened his newest location on Coast Village Road, offering dinner for takeout. “It’s been a long time coming, and I’m happy I can finally open the doors,” he told us earlier this week, behind […]
“We’re itching to get open and…” said Kyle Irwin, “Welcome everybody back!” business partner Susie Bechtel chimed in, finishing her business partner’s sentence. The duo opened their highly anticipated Field + Fort design shop and café in Summerland just this past November to great acclaim – only to shutter the doors some four months later, […]
Tristan Harrison, founder of the Center for Humane Technology; Nichol Bradford, CEO and founder of the Willow Group and co-founder of Transformative Technology Lab; Liana Sananda Gillooly, development officer, MAPS; and Jamie Wheal, co-author of global bestseller Stealing Fire and co-founder of the Flow Genome Project are among a dozen thought-leaders, researchers, academics and entrepreneurs […]
Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks’ Ojai-based Foundation for Conscious Living has created a number of new resources for meeting the coronavirus crisis on the home page of the organization’s website, where visitors are able to connect with its Restoring Resourcefulness faculty for coaching and education about how to shift from fear to create wellbeing and creative […]
Can the Mind Be Quiet? That’s the timeless and perhaps uber-timely theme in the novel coronavirus era for Krishnamurti Foundation America’s annual May Gathering, which in our “old normal” times would draw hundreds of higher-consciousness seekers to the KFA’s bucolic grounds in Ojai, reminiscent of the days when the Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti himself would […]
When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Go Shopping – Remotely In these tough times, it’s important to support local businesses while also practicing social distancing. To that end, when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit California and changed life as we know it, the Montecito Journal changed its local events listing page to a Grab […]
Earlier this year, before the COVID-19 emergency, I took a tour of the Montecito Sanitary District’s waste treatment facility, where the town’s collective fecal matter is slowly bio-engineered into top-notch soil fertilizer that ends up on the shelves of our local gardening emporiums (see “Montecito’s Most Unusual Harvest,” Montecito Journal, February 12). Part of my […]
Much has been made lately in news articles about the effort to provide masks and other emergency preparedness gear to first responders in Santa Barbara. But not all such gear is wearable. To wit: One805, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting first responders, emergency preparedness and response, has just announced the purchase of 45 electric […]
Ever since March 17, the Santa Barbara Zoo has been off limits to the public. That’s not surprising, given California’s stay-at-home restrictions, but it’s a disaster for the Zoo, its employees, and animals. In fact, the 57-year-old institution is facing the most dire financial crisis in its history. For that reason, on Saturday, April 25, […]
When I first met Montecito Fire Chief Kevin Taylor last year, I remember asking him what the biggest challenge was facing his department. “The weather,” he told me, quickly adding that the sheer unpredictability of Montecito’s weather threats, be they fire or rain, made his job uniquely worrisome. This week, I caught up with Taylor […]
On Wednesday, April 22, hundreds of Montecito Union School students, Montecito residents, and members of the community came outside their homes and businesses to wave to dozens of MUS teachers and administrators, who drove their cars in a “parade” throughout Montecito. “Our teachers and staff miss seeing the students’ faces on a daily basis, and […]
I am pleased to share joint authorship today with my good friend, Attorney Jan Larson. Coincidentally, she and her husband, Rock Rockenbach, soon will be moving back to Montecito. Jan and I both represent policy holders against insurance companies. In this article, we discuss how first party property insurance policies should be examined to determine […]
Years from now we may look back on the Santa Barbara City Council meeting of April 21 as a time capsule of how prepared or not we were during the economic collapse of the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic. In that meeting, City Administrator Paul Casey introduced his new hire Economic Development Manager Jason Harris to the […]
Sarah Boggs likes to reminisce about living out her formative years in New Orleans. “People were constantly outside, constantly enjoying neighbors and friends, constantly going to festivals,” she recalls. “And they were always drinking!” Her move to Santa Barbara provided much of the same: an outdoor-driven lifestyle and plenty of good wine to drink. “We’re […]
STOP I believe it is ABSOLUTELY SCANDALOUS during the COVID CRISIS to have all five Board Members of the Montecito Water District, during the next 60 days to: 1. Mail a Public Board Notice2. Hold a Public Open House3. Hold a Public Hearing to Massively Raise its New Rates4. Approve its New Rates for Desal […]
These days, there’s no shortage of things to get emotional about. Like most of us, other than essential workers for whom I feel deep gratitude, I’ve been home for almost six weeks. Reading and watching the nightly news is painful, but I do it. I worry about my elderly mother. I feel horrible for my […]
In the Times of Dis-Ease I am generally described as a cheerful person who tends toward optimism. But lately I find myself lingering over any mention of grief or fear or loss. Rather than turning away and protecting myself… I find that I am, in the face of this pandemic, turning toward the dark, unpleasant […]
Responders Eligible for Affordable Child Care Families of first responders are the heroes behind the scenes, those supporting loved ones as they leave to do essential work. Thankfully, the Emergency Child Care Initiative (ECCI) is offering free and affordable child care to first, second, and third responders. Scholarships and opportunities for tuition reduction are available […]
Just in time for the coronavirus lockdown, Belgian-born Pierre Nizet, the first medical director of Casa Dorinda, has come up with a series of fiendishly difficult cryptic clues to while away the stultifying boredom. Each clue has two parts, one a normal definition of the answer, the other an additional hint using wordplay. “During my […]
