Nick Welsh

Heal the Ocean Appeals Miramar Expansion to Coastal Commission Santa Barbara Nonprofit Alleges Proposed Affordable Housing Unit Are Slated for Portions of Site Most Prone to Flooding and Debris Flow “You'd think they could move the Gucci shops to the higher flood risk areas and the affordable housing to the lower risk areas,” said Heal the Ocean's Hillary Hauser (left), who is appealing developer Rick Caruso's planned expansion of the Rosewood Miramar to the California Coastal Commission. | Credit: Paul Wellman File Photos Hillary Hauser, head of Heal the Ocean, announced that she and her Santa Barbara–based nonprofit have taken their case against developer Rick Caruso's proposed expansion of the Rosewood Miramar hotel to the Coastal Commission on appeal, alleging that the proposed units of affordable housing are slated for portions of the site most prone to flooding and debris flow. “There are social equity issues involved,” Hauser said in a recent interview. “You'd think they could move the Gucci shops to the higher-flood-risk areas and the affordable housing to the lower-risk areas.” In her appeal to the Coastal Commission, Hauser charged Caruso's development team relied on erroneous projections for the rate of sea-level rise and that further mitigations are required for the project to comply with the county Local Coastal Plan. The county supervisors saw it otherwise and unanimously approved the project this fall after many months of procedural, personal, and political melodrama and several appeals, including one filed by Heal the Ocean. The supervisors praised the most recent iteration of the project — two to three stories of 34 housing units and 12 new boutique shops — citing Caruso's commitment to set aside 76 percent of the housing units to locals and for increasing the percentage of below-market units from 14 to 26. The appeal poses the opportunity for further melodrama, with Caruso and Hauser — both well-known figures — assigned the role of unstoppable force and unmovable obstacle. The two have been wrangling over details of what's become the Rosewood Miramar Beach since 2018.

Santa Barbara's current Poet Laureate, Melinda Palacio, is fast approaching the end of her two-year term in office. | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom The Marines may still be looking for “a few good men,” but the City of Santa Barbara is looking for its next Poet Laureate, an official position currently occupied by Melinda Palacio, who is fast approaching the end of her two-year term in office. The position was created in 2005 as an ambassadorial vehicle by which access to and interest in the literary arts could be promoted. It's not enough merely to know the difference between free verse and iambic pentameter; applicants are being sought among the ranks of published authors who live in Santa Barbara, have “excellent public speaking skills,” and are committed to producing events that expand the public footprint of poetry among the populace. Although the Poet Laureate is technically a creature and creation of Santa Barbara City Hall, the county's Office of Arts and Culture is leading the search, recruitment, and screening effort, though in conjunction with City Hall and the Public Library. As public sinecures go, the pay is not enough to lift the title holder out of the ranks of so-called starving artists. The job pays $2,000 for a two-year commitment. The obligations are not especially rigorous either. The office holder is required to perform at least four occasions a year. Typically, the Poet Laureate is called upon to write a poem to commemorate the swearing-in of new city councilmembers. Otherwise, it's left up to the laureates to define the position as they see fit. Most put in considerably more time than what the job description calls for. (Palacio, for instance, writes a biweekly poetry column for the Santa Barbara Independent Poetry Connection , on her own time.) And no, there is no free parking.

Gary Fruin with (from left) his two granddaughters, wife Camille Cimini Fruin, and daughter Cara | Credit: Courtesy Gary Fruin who for 34-years held down the early morning shift for K-LITE radio station–along with his co-host Catherine Remak–died at age 68 earlier this week from complications arising from a relapse of the esophageal cancer he thought he had beaten a few years ago. As a radio host, Fruin was steady, calm, welcoming, and quietly playful; his role was to help listeners connect the dots between their lives and what their hometown—whether by birth or adoption—has to offer. As such, he and Remak functioned as a community bulletin board for organizations trying to get the word out, though with some friendly banter thrown in for good measure. Fruin—a certified sports nut originally from Connecticut–was honored last year with a proclamation of appreciation from Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse and the City Council as part of a celebration of National Radio Day. For Fruin, it was an ambush of love; the council chambers were filled to capacity and then some. His wife, Camille Cimini Fruin, has been an sales executive at the Santa Barbara Independent from its earliest days.

The action has no bearing upon Sable Offshore’s proposal to reactivate ExxonMobil’s former plant along Santa Barbara County’s Gaviota Coast.

The Air Force is seeking public comment for its environmental study on its increase in SpaceX rocket launches.

DA John Savrnoch spoke passionately in favor of resolution. | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom The first action taken by the new Board of Supervisors with Laura Capps as chair was a resolution of support for members of the LGBTQ+ community against threats, violence, or any form of discrimination. Capps and new supervisor Roy Lee sponsored the measure, which stated “that recent and potential threats to the rights and protections of LGBTQ+ individuals demand unequivocal and proactive reaffirmation of our values of inclusivity, equity, and justice for all.” It marked the first action taken by Supervisor Lee upon being sworn in. The resolution added that “hateful discriminatory language when perpetrated by political leaders of individuals in positions of influence must be condemned, as silence only enables harm and marginalization.” While representatives of Pacific Pride Foundation, Planned Parenthood, and Santa Barbara Transgender Advocacy Network spoke forcefully in favor of the measure, it was District Attorney John Savrnoch who provided the most personally dramatic testimony. Savrnoch recalled driving alone to Wisconsin in 1990 to visit a brother then dying of AIDS. His brother, he said, was “emaciated beyond recognition” by the time he arrived. The country had been slow to respond to AIDS, he added. “It was only a ‘gay disease.'” Worse yet, Savrnoch said, some family members “were more upset my brother was gay than he was about to die.” Given this experience, he stated, his department would vigorously prosecute acts and threats of violence that were the “result of who you are and who you love.” Only one person spoke against the resolution, stating that school officials should not be allowed to speak to her kids or anyone under 18 about their sexual orientation or gender identity. To allow this, she said, was akin to “normalizing bestiality” or targeting kids to “become future eunuchs.” The supervisors voted 5-0 in favor of the resolution after supervisors Capps and Lee posed for photos with six LGBTQ+ advocates by the speaker's podium while handing them a copy of the proclamation.

It was Supervisor Laura Capps's moment to shine. On Tuesday morning, January 7, Capps took the ceremonial gavel befitting her new role as the board's chair. Her mother — former Congressmember Lois Capps — was in the audience, taking it all in. And her son Oscar (Oskar), playing keyboards with the La Colina Jazz Band, delivered a respectable solo on a lesser-known jazz number, “The Lady Knows Her Cheese.” No wonder Laura Capps was smiling. Capps, who was born and raised in Santa Barbara, initially cut her teeth politically working for Bill Clinton's White House back when her father, Walter Capps, and then her mother represented the district in Congress. When returning to Santa Barbara, she served two terms on the Santa Barbara Unified School Board, and this year marks her second year representing voters of the 2nd Supervisorial District. It's a very different board than the one Capps joined a year ago. Gone is Supervisor Das Williams, a 21-year veteran of regional politics and standard bearer for environmental and progressive issues. He was defeated in a major upset by Roy Lee, a Carpinteria restaurant owner who served four years on the Carpinteria City Council. Lee is not one for speechifying and loud chest thumping, so what kind of supervisor he will be remains very much to be seen. But who Lee is not is Das Williams, which means the cannabis industry — long reviled in Carpinteria for its chronic and intrusive odors — is in for much tougher restrictions than Williams, a stalwart champion of the industry, would ever support. Capps, not Lee, announced that she would be introducing new such restrictions next week. Capps contrasted the harmonious and constructive congeniality of the county supervisors with the take-no-prisoners school of partisan politics practiced in Washington, D.C. She spoke about “results, not rules.” An excessive fealty to rules and process at the expensive of constructive results, Capps argued, undermined trust in government. Where rules got in the way, she vowed, she would move to change or eliminate them. “Children are my North Star,” she declared, adding that kids feel the pinch of the affordable housing crisis more acutely because their parents have to commute such long distances and they, as a result, experience longer periods of familial separation. With that in mind, Capps argued the county needed to do more to maximize the housing potential of undeveloped land the county currently owns for its own employees. The county's Housing Element, she noted, calls for the construction of 320 units of affordable units for county employees. She suggested the county could be more aggressive in achieving these goals. Independent of the Housing Element, the county has examined 20 sites where it owns the land and analyzed them for housing suitability. The supervisors will consider a report looking at the viability and ranking of these sites for housing opportunities sometime this February. Capps mentioned DignityMoves, which has built more than 300 units of temporary tiny homes for homeless people living in the rough over the past few years, but only because it figured out how to “hack” the county's rules and regulations. In this case, she said, DignityMoves got around the red tape by proposing temporary housing units instead of permanent units. Capps may wield the gavel, but she is still one of five votes, and housing is only one of many major challenges now confronting the Board of Supervisors. Right around the corner, on February 25, the supervisors are scheduled to address Sable Offshore Oil's proposal to reactivate Exxon's massive oil production facility off the Gaviota Coast. Closed down for the past 10 years after the Refugio pipeline spill of 2015, its new owner, Sable, is pressing to restart the flow of oil. While the supervisors' legal authority is narrowly circumscribed, the energy of Santa Barbara's environmental opposition is anything but. Whatever happens will be intense. The medical care contract for the county jail — long a festering problem with no obvious solutions in sight — comes up soon, as do massively expensive plans to build new inmate housing pods at the North County Jail while downsizing and streamlining the existing main jail, an improvised hodgepodge of dysfunctional design that most everyone agrees is beyond the pale of repair. In other words, it's a new board facing the same old problems. And none of them have gotten easier.

The president who brokered a Middle East peace and sang “Salt Peanuts” with Dizzy Gillespie.

Santa Barbara County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig and Kelly Hubbard of the Office of Emergency Planning gave the supervisors an update Tuesday on the county's fire preparations in response to the L.A. fires. | Credit: CSBTV20 In a briefing short on details about water pressure and water supply, but long on warnings about advance preparation and personal responsibility, the county supervisors got a sobering earful from Fire Chief Mark Hartwig and county emergency planning czar Kelly Hubbard in response to the wind-driven infernos now engulfing much of Los Angeles. The ominous news, Hartwig noted, was that no rain is forecast anytime in the next 10 days. Winds will soften and humidity levels will increase a bit, he said, but only somewhat. In its 100 years of existence, Hartwig said, the county fire department has learned a lot when it comes to pre-positioning resources before fires explode. Without going into detail, he said that's exactly what his department is doing now. “I can't tell you we will be exactly where we need to be when the next fire hits, but I will tell you we will be close,” he said. Fire protection, he stressed, was up to the individual as much as it was the fire departments charged with their protection. “Keep your head on the swivel,” he warned residents. People need to self-evacuate, he stressed. It's not realistic or even possible, he added, for first responders to knock on every door. Homes need to be cleared of flammable brush; defensible space needs to be maintained. Firewise practices need to be observed, he said, noting that neighborhood Firewise groups are now sprouting up and intervening in cases where neighbors are either unable or unwilling to do the clearing themselves. “Ready-Set-Go is not just a tag line,” he stressed. “If you are just getting ready when the evacuation order hits, it's too late.” Kelly Hubbard of the Office of Emergency Planning followed suit, detailing changes in the works for the county's system of alerts — both via text and phone calls, adding, “I'd prefer to over-alert than under-alert,” clearly a response to previous concerns expressed about oversaturation of such notices. She told the supervisors that both major utility companies have already shut off power at various times as a precautionary response to escalating winds and the increased risk live power lines pose in such circumstances. Residents are eligible for partial rebates from the power companies she said for mini-power packs — for phone and light charging — or even larger ones, should personal generators be needed for people who rely on medical devices for basic life functions. Both utilities offer discounted nights at hotels, she added, for those with special medical needs. Mostly, she detailed the “Six Ps” residents should keep in mind when packing their “Go Bags.” These include people, pets, prescriptions, plastics (as in credit cards), personal computers, and pictures. She also stressed the need to have multiple escape plans already in mind before evacuating. Most people take the same one or two routes to and from their homes. Those routes can be blocked. People need to know multiple ways in and out. With the supervisors' agenda choked with multiple time-consuming issues this Tuesday, there was little discussion and no questions from the supervisors. Supervisor Joan Hartmann took the moment to highlight the extent fire threats have escalated. Most major fires had occurred in what's known as the Urban Wildland Interface, she said. The ones in Los Angeles have attacked neighborhoods in their urban core, previously considered all but unimaginable. “We're seeing something different,” she said. “I think this is a wakeup call. It's not business as usual.” Supervisor Laura Capps noted that the recent fires have sparked renewed interest in preventative options, like the undergrounding of power lines that have been deemed prohibitively expensive. Capps said the supervisors will be discussing that option in the near future.

A new report by the county's Adult & Aging Network addresses elderly residents' growing need for housing and in-home care, among other issues. | Credit: Santa Barbara County Adult & Aging Network While the adventurous sexual agency of perimenopausal women has recently morphed into a lucrative literary subgenre, the Santa Barbara County Adult & Aging Network has found that the economic challenges facing the county's increasingly aging population is far more fraught than frisky. According to a 44-page bombshell of a draft report dropped on the county supervisors on Tuesday, people 60 years old or older will make up fully one-quarter of the county's population by the year 2030. When it comes to economically accessible housing and home care, the gap between supply and demand for this population has eclipsed the Grand Canyon. Many elderly people fortunate enough to own their properties sold their homes five years ago to cover the cost of care and have since outlived their money. The median cost of in-home care is $84,500 a year, but most in-home care workers make only $16 to $26 an hour, low enough for many to qualify for public assistance to get by. This, in turn, is responsible for a significant shortage in in-home care workers; the number of applicants for such job postings dropped has dropped 70 percent since 2018. Of those holding these jobs, the report found 80 percent are women, 74 percent are people of color, and 47 percent are immigrants. Roughly one-third of this 60-year-plus cohort report having some form of disability as well. The elderly, it turns out, make up the fastest growing segment of the county's homeless population. For 55 percent of older adults who live here, Social Security covers less than half their cost of living. For people seeking residency in in-home care facilities, the costs jumped from $128,000 a year in 2021 to $182,5000 last year. The report was released as part of a master planning process the Adult & Aging Network hopes to have finalized and submitted to the state this summer. It was also an invitation to the supervisors to endorse the effort to help encourage greater participation and involvement. The supervisors embraced the initiative with a unanimous 5-0 vote, with supervisors Joan Hartmann and Steve Lavagnino weighing in most heavily. Hartmann termed the report “a wake-up call,” citing the case of an elderly woman with dementia who wound up in county jail for shoplifting. “If we don't have systems in place,” Hartmann said, “it all goes kaflooyie.” After the report gets refined during the public process in the months ahead, it will be brought back to the supervisors for further action.