Classes continue despite power outage

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

When the power goes out for short periods of time, flashlights, candles and board games are often resurrected from closets and kitchen drawers to help pass the time.
But when Adams Elementary School Principal Marge Variano and Santa Barbara School District officials were informed early yesterday morning that the power at the school was out, portable restrooms were ordered, police were called to assist with traffic control and signs written in Spanish and English were placed on the road outside the school informing parents that school was on.


“Everybody really came on and did everything that needed to be done to make it work really smooth,” Variano said. “It’s a great school, everybody pulls together no matter what.”
The unusual and beautiful lightning show on Wednesday evening caused about 100 Southern California Edison Customers in Santa Barbara and Goleta to lose power, according to Jane Brown, Edison’s public affairs regional manager.
Brown said the power flicked back on at Adams Elementary just after 9 a.m., but about five customers on Foothill Road and Grove Avenue were expected to be without power until 9 last night.
Though the power outage at Adams Elementary didn’t cause much of a disturbance, it did showcase the quick response by the school and the district to ensure that students were safe and able to attend classes.
Barbara Keyani, a spokeswoman for the district, said swift, effective responses by district officials are a must during even the smallest glitch.
“When hundreds of students are due in, you have to take every step possible and work as quickly as possible to make sure their safety needs are met,” Keyani said. “Anytime there is an emergency you have to deal with whatever the specifics are and what’s in front of you.”
From the time Variano was informed of the lack of power just after 6 a.m. to the time students reported to school at about 8:15 a.m., arrangements had been made to switch from a hot lunch to a cold lunch format, restrooms were on the way and police were directing traffic.
Variano said the need for police stemmed from a traffic light that was out in front of the school.
Because several Edison trucks were parked in the bus unloading and loading lane, Variano said bus drivers were directed to drop off students on the opposite side of Los Positas Road. In order to get the kids across the street safely, police came and aided the on duty crossing guard.
Variano said the City of Santa Barbara’s Public Works Department provided a generator to operate the traffic light, while all of the school’s teachers were provided with Variano’s cell phone number because the school’s intercom system was down.
“Everybody really made it possible for it to be as smooth as it could possibly be,” Variano said.
According to Variano, the portable restrooms showed up just as the power turned back on and were not needed.
Throughout the morning, Keyani said she received calls from other district principals asking if there was anyway they could assist.
According to Keyani the gestures from other schools and the scene at Adams Elementary yesterday was typical for all schools in the elementary and secondary districts.
“That’s one thing I know I can always count on is that all the different schools will come together to help one another,” Keyani said. “They don’t bat an eye. That’s just part of what happens.”

August weather turns erratic

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

From lightning and thundershowers to intense heat waves, Southern California’s normally stable August weather turned erratic this week, prompting officials to issue a Stage 1 emergency to conserve energy and excessive heat watches.
While inland parts of Santa Barbara County soared into the high 90s yesterday, temperatures on the coast remained more mild, but still far above average.
“Although it’s hot at the coast, we’ve been spared the brunt of the heat wave,” said Alan Rose, meteorologist for KEYT Channel 3.


Rose said a high pressure system centered over Arizona has pushed hot, dry air west, which has forced temperatures to rise.
Accompanying the higher than normal temperatures was thunderstorms, which put on a rare lightning show for many on the South Coast, but sparked at least three brush fires.
Rose said the unstable air that made room for the thunderstorms was created as a result of storm energy that rotated around the base of the high pressure system.
The high temperature in Santa Barbara reached 84 degrees yesterday, six degrees higher than the norm for this time of year.
At some points yesterday, the temperature difference between Santa Ynez and Santa Barbara was as much as 20 degrees.
Rose said the variation in temperatures were aided by the high pressure system, but that a spell of weak onshore winds have failed to penetrate the scorching inland areas, which is contributing to the difference.
Aside from the usual heat precautions, like staying in air conditioned areas and remaining hydrated, the California ISO (Independent System Operation) issued a State 1 emergency yesterday when the state’s energy reserve levels fell below 7 percent.
Jane Brown, public affairs regional manager for Southern California Edison, said when temperatures soar, the power supply is like a bathtub with several faucets pouring into it. The only problem, according to Brown, is more water was draining from the tub Wednesday than was entering.
“When you have more water going out of the bathtub and going into the bathtub you’re in trouble,” Brown said.
According to the ISO web site, a Stage 2 emergency is called when the minimum operating reserve level falls below five percent, which can prompt the ISO to call on “interruptible” programs to conserve energy. Participants in the “interruptible” programs are typically commercial and industrial customers who receive a lower electricity rate in exchange for reducing their energy use by a specific amount during Stage 2 emergencies.
A Stage 3 emergency is called when reserves fall below the minimum requirement, which is about 3 percent. At this stage, the ISO can require utility providers to begin implementing rotating outages.
Aside from the headaches the heat has caused, Brown said the lightning damaged several transformers around Santa Barbara Wednesday night, leaving about 100 customers powerless. As of 2 p.m. yesterday, Brown said most of the power had been restored, but five customers served by a the most badly damaged transformer were not expected have power restored until 9 last night.
Stuart Seto, a weather specialist for the National Weather Service in Oxnard, said excessive heat watches, which were in effect yesterday for Los Angeles County, have been issued for parts of Ventura County today.
Seto said temperatures are expected to climb as high as 112 degrees in parts of Ventura County.
Rose said the thunderstorms aren’t expected to return over the weekend, but the high pressure that’s driving temperatures up will.
“This is just a very strong ridge of high pressure,” Rose said. “When it’s this strong you get a significant increase in temperatures.”

Fairness is key to campaign

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Although he plans to focus on a wide array of issues in his campaign for a Santa Barbara City Council seat this fall, Dale Francisco said his overarching goal is to bring fairness back to local government.
Too often, he said, current city leaders focus on issues with a one-sided approach and turn their back on any opposition. Francisco said he is dedicated to accommodating multiple viewpoints at City Hall if elected in November.

"We have a City Council that caters to its friends and ignores everyone else," Francisco said in a candidate video statement taped on Tuesday. "It's a City Council that is out of touch, poorly informed and yet arrogantly believes it knows best."
The quick, friendly smile that usually graces his face faded as he explained how he battled against the Council in recent months over transportation issues. As the secretary for Santa Barbara SAFE Streets, Francisco filed an appeal against mini-roundabouts and other traffic calming devices proposed by the city.
"I guess I shouldn't have been, but I was shocked when they just turned us down," Francisco said.
That's when he decided to run for one of three Council seats up for grabs this fall. Although the denial of his appeal certainly miffed him, Francisco said that experience merely highlighted what he feels is a larger problem at City Hall.
"The City Council is guided by ideology instead of facts," he said.
Another perfect example of that, Francisco said, is the latest firestorm over the lightblueline art project. He said the Council was blindsided by opposition to their proposal to paint blue waves on city streets because they never sought out a true public debate. As one of two people who spoke out against the project when it came up for Council approval, Francisco said he found out about the lightblueline by reading the city staff report attached to the Council agenda.
Too many of those staff reports are one-sided as well, he said, suggesting that there is a management disconnect between city leaders and staff. Francisco said his time as a manager at a software company in San Jose will give him an advantage in directing city staff to present both pro and con arguments.
"A good manager is going to demand a complete picture," Francisco said. "...You have to stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about others."
Transportation issues will be key in the Orange County native's campaign. Francisco moved to Santa Barbara in 1979 and after a five-year stint in San Jose ending in 2002, he returned and has been focused on his work with Santa Barbara SAFE Streets ever since.
In particular, Francisco said he wants to bring more engineering experience to the city transportation department, describing the current staff as largely composed of alternative transportation advocates who don't possess engineering degrees.
"It's an engineering and science discipline," Francisco said. "I'm all in favor of alternative transportation, but the people in charge of planning need to have an understanding of traffic engineering."
Plans to narrow streets and install curb bulb-outs are going to further congest city streets, he said, adding that massive housing complexes going up on Chapala Street are only worsening the problem. Francisco said he favors a height restriction on new buildings in Santa Barbara as well as setback requirements and increased landscaping.
"Reckless overdevelopment must be stopped before the town we love is lost forever," Francisco said in his video statement.
His solution for preventing overdevelopment is simply to follow existing zoning laws, he said, rather than granting modifications that let projects slip through in what he characterized as "piecemeal zoning."
As far as the current housing crunch, Francisco said eventually the city will have to limit the population and live within its resources, saying there is just no more room for development unless residents are willing to "completely change the look of Santa Barbara."
Francisco also plans to discuss public safety issues during the Council race, focusing on the homeless problem and gang violence currently plaguing the city. He described the Santa Barbara library on Anacapa Street as a "de facto homeless camp" where parents and children no longer feel comfortable visiting. He said he will press for an increased police presence downtown if elected, and work with local businesses to come up with viable solutions.
While he agreed that there are people living on local streets who have serious problems and can't take care of themselves, he said a large part of the homeless population needs to understand that getting help is not a one-way street.
"The majority of people on the streets can do something for themselves," Francisco said.
As far as the recent rise of gang violence in Santa Barbara, he called for a more visible police presence coupled with more police programs for young children explaining what will happen if they join a gang. Although he will need to delve deeper into the issue with gang officers and police officials, Francisco said his intuition tells him there is simply a need for more officers on the streets.
Francisco, 54, was born in Detroit and grew up in Garden Grove and Irvine, Calif. He lived on the East Coast for six years, holding down a number of jobs until he said he decided that getting a college education might not be such a bad idea. He moved to Santa Barbara and earned degrees at UC Santa Barbara in both computer science and English.
Francisco took various writing and computer programming jobs in the area and eventually left Santa Barbara to work for Cisco Systems, Inc., in San Jose. Since returning in 2002, he has only taken a few contract jobs, working mostly with Santa Barbara SAFE Streets and spending his free time hiking, taking history and music courses at UCSB, and learning to play cello.
For the next few months, however, Francisco said he will concentrate all his energy on running his campaign, meeting with local residents and debating community issues in candidate forums, hoping to outrun the seven other City Council hopefuls.

Local arrested at airport

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Authorities used a Taser gun to subdue a 20-year-old Santa Barbara man who ran onto the tarmac at Santa Barbara Municipal Airport Wednesday evening, booking him for trespassing and resisting arrest.
Airport and police officials said Justin Hill ran past security at the baggage claim near Skywest Airlines at 8:54 p.m.

"He ran toward an airplane, but the flight crew and employees prevented him from getting on the plane," Airport Operations Manager Tracy Lincoln said. "They stopped him at the steps."
Lincoln said passengers had just left the small, 30-seat commuter plane when Hill ran toward it and attempted to climb on board. After initially cooperating with airport police, he started to resist and officers Tasered and cuffed him, Lincoln said.
Santa Barbara police followed Hill to the hospital and booked him into County Jail after he received medical treatment.
"He had a knife in his possession at the time of the incident and at the hospital," Santa Barbara Police Lt. Armando Martel said, adding that Hill did not display or use the knife at any time and won't be charged for having it.
Lt. Martel said police officials believe the 20-year-old may suffer from mental illness, adding that Hill will receive attention from mental health workers at the jail. Airport officials said they don't recall any incidents similar to this in the recent past.
"We've had people who'll hop the fence and try to take a shortcut across the airfield," Lincoln said. "But no one running toward an airplane."

Candidates get free air time

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Whether a Santa Barbara City Council candidate is flush with cash or not this year, each of the eight hopefuls will have the opportunity to reach the public with a three-minute spot broadcast on public access television in the lead up to the Nov. 6 election.
The cost? Free.
It’s all part of the City Council’s effort to reform municipal elections and take the money card out of the deck.
“You’re always trying to take the idea of money out of the campaign,” said Councilman Brian Barnwell, who is up for reelection and filmed his three-minute spot on Tuesday. “You don’t want somebody winning just because they have money.”

All of the spots were filmed in The Santa Barbara Channels studio with an American flag and Santa Barbara City flag as a backdrop.
With the camera fixed on the candidates from the shoulders up, each one read their message from cue cards, or in the case of Frank Hotchkiss, had it memorized.
The format appeared to be simple, crisp and clear.
At least that’s the message Hap Freund, executive director of The Santa Barbara Channels hopes to get across.
“It doesn’t discriminate based on how much money has been raised,” Freund said. “It levels the playing field. Every candidate will have the opportunity to get their message out.
“It’s a pretty good deal.”
Aside from the simple setup, candidates were urged to stick to their own qualifications and not attack or mention other candidates.
City Council hopeful Michelle Giddens was the last of the eight candidates to film her spot yesterday.
Giddens said she hadn’t ever stood in front of the camera, but was well rehearsed reading her message.
Her biggest hiccup came before the filming began, when Director Josh Figatner told her that the cue cards she had prepared were too big.
Without hesitating, Giddens dug into her purse, pulled out a utility knife and promptly cut the poster-board into more manageable pieces.
During her filming, Giddens said “I love Santa Barbara and want to bring professional leadership to our small paradise.”
She said her top priority would be public safety and mentioned certain points in the city’s General Plan that she is particularly concerned with.
Giddens said looks forward to seeing her and the other candidates messages broadcast.
According to the Candidate Video Program pamphlet, the three-minute messages will be combined and broadcast as a 30-minute segment. The program will be shown on City owned TV Channel 18 a minimum of three times per week, and Santa Barbara Channels, Channel 21 a minimum of four times per week.
The segment will begin broadcasting about 30 days before the election and will also be available on the city’s web site.
Freund said this is the first year the individual format has been used. A candidate forum will also appear on public access TV before the election.
Bob Grissom, general manager for Cox Media, who oversees the production arm of Cox Communications, said calculating the cost of a three-minute segment is difficult.
He said candidates traditionally buy 30 second or one minute slots, which depending on a number of conditions, could cost as little as $2,500 or as much as $25,000.
Grissom did say if a candidate wanted Cox to produce their commercial, it would cost $500 for production alone. He said the candidate would then have the choice of airing the piece on their choice of 55 different cable channels.
If a candidate wanted to air their campaign commercials on local network channels, they would have to go directly through the the networks, Grissom said.
If nothing else, Freund said its been nice having all of the council hopefuls in the studio, seeing first hand what’s going on at the publicly funded station.
“It’s good for us and it’s good for them,” Freund said. “It’s a win, win deal. It’s good to have the candidates for city council know how many people watch public access television.”

Finding space for the mobile homeless

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

You might not notice them as you drive through the streets of Santa Barbara at night, but they are there.
Dozens of people spending the night in their car, van or recreational vehicle. And it's Shaw Talley's job to get them off those streets and into parking lots, at least until he can find them a spot in supportive housing.
As the case manager for New Beginnings Counseling Center's RV Safe Parking Program, Talley meets with the "mobile homeless" and tries to find a spot for them in designated church, nonprofit and city parking lots at night.

"These are my grandfather and grandmother, my brothers and sisters," Talley said. "I see someone living in their car and it rips my heart in two."
Sitting in his closet-like office at the Salvation Army Hospitality House, Talley points to two license plates hanging on the wall. One is from the first person he helped find permanent housing. The other is the first client he had that died.
Living in a vehicle isn't easy, he said. Buying gas, dealing with mechanical problems and worrying about someone breaking in keeps vehicle dwellers constantly on edge, not to mention trying to avoid the police, who inevitably come rapping on their windows in the early hours of the morning and order them to move along.
"Our program offers another way," Talley said.
Qualified participants get a safe parking space between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. and can take advantage of the other counseling and support services offered by New Beginnings. This year, Talley helped transition 23 adults and four children into supportive housing. He has his fingers crossed that he'll be able to get a 65-year-old woman who has lived in her car for eight years into senior housing at St. Vincent's Villa Caridad soon.
At last week’s City Council meeting, city leaders unanimously approved spending $36,420 for New Beginnings to hire a full-time parking specialist who will screen and select applicants, place them in an appropriate lot and make sure they enter and leave their lots on time. City staff said the funding is partly in response to concerns from residents that program participants need closer supervision.
Until the nonprofit counseling center gets that staff worker, Talley will continue to handle the 46 month-by-month permits currently on file, build trust with the participants and try to find them permanent housing.
"It's not the most ideal situation," Talley said. "You've got a parking lot and someone sleeping in a car. ... But these people have nowhere else to go."
Talley said although many permit holders live in their car alone, he does have a family of four and several couples who live out of their vehicles.
Their backgrounds are varied. Some have been evicted and can't afford another place to live. Others are victims of domestic violence. Still others struggle with mental illness. And although he agrees that there are valid reasons for having a law against sleeping in vehicles on the street, Talley likened the current system of ticketing and towing to a revolving door.
"The old way of giving them tickets and trying to push them out of Santa Barbara doesn't work," he said.
Dr. Gary Linker, executive director for New Beginnings, said the recent city funding will allow the program to expand. Linker has a goal of bringing in 34 new clients looking for a safe place to park at night and moving at least 15 into housing by June 2008.
After the city agreed to alter the municipal code to allow people to sleep overnight in certain commercial and industrial zones earlier this year, Linker has been trying to get local businesses to offer up spots in their parking lots.
Louis Weider owns an office building on Olive Street and said he recently agreed to open up a space in his lot for the New Beginnings program.
“By having someone on the property, that would provide a bit of security,” Weider said. “I also have security services, but if there is someone there with lights on, there hopefully will be less tagging or other nefarious activities.”
Weider said he’s known about the safe parking program for a while, and said as long as the person staying in his lot respects his property, he’s happy to offer up the space.
“There’s a very serious problem of recreational vehicles parked in the street at all hours of the day and night,” he said. “...I don’t mind having someone here if they are responsible.”
Frank Schipper said he heard about the parking program during a presentation by New Beginnings to the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce and volunteered an overnight spot at his construction company office lot on Cota Street.
“It’s so easy to kick these people out of town and say they don’t belong here,” Schipper said. “There are probably some good people who are just going through tough times. Everybody should give a helping hand every now and then.”
Linker said he plans to conduct outreach to other businesses and hopes an endorsement by the Chamber of Commerce will help him reach his goal of finding 25 spots in local commercial lots this year.
Prospective participants go through an extensive screening process, including background checks, Talley said. They are required to have a valid driver's license, registration and insurance. If they qualify, they are placed at a suitable site.
The RV Safe Parking Program grew out of a 2002 amendment to the municipal code that limited the on-street parking of RVs, especially during the night. Due to issues with enforcement and signage, the City Council further amended the code that same year to allow overnight RV parking on lots owned by local churches and nonprofits, as well as a small number of city lots.
Earlier this year, the Council adjusted the municipal code once again to allow overnight parking on private property within designated commercial and industrial zones, also requiring that anyone participating in the parking program receive a permit from New Beginnings.
Since August 2005, the city has allowed a limited number of people to sleep in their vehicle at the Carrillo Commuter Lot after being screened through the New Beginnings program. City officials expanded that agreement in April of this year to the Garden and Cota lots for a one-year test period.
“Other than one or two minor complaints from people who live near the Carrillo Commuter Lot, we’ve had no complaints from anybody who lives near churches or nonprofits,” Linker said.
Talley said his reward comes when participants call to tell him how glad they are that they don’t have to worry about finding a place to park or getting hassled by the cops. Instead, they can focus on getting counseling, finding work and finding a place to live.
“A lot of it is about support,” Talley said, adding, “I think 95 percent of my clients would get an apartment if they could.”

Eastside man stabbed

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

A gang-related stabbing on Santa Barbara’s Eastside sent a 19-year-old man to the hospital with serious injuries on Tuesday evening, police said.
Officers initially responded to the intersection of Mason and Voluntario streets for a call of possible shots fired at 9:49 p.m. Upon arrival, they found Roberto Amador leaning against a chain-link fence in the front yard at 14 N. Voluntario St.

“He had been stabbed several times in the abdomen and had several lacerations to his face,” Sgt. Todd Stoney said.
Authorities said there is no evidence of a gun being fired in the area. Police officials are not sure if Amador is a gang member, but did say that the incident is being considered gang-related.
Cottage Hospital Spokeswoman Janet O’Neill confirmed that Amador was admitted Tuesday evening, adding that the 19-year-old is listed in fair condition and remains under protection.
Police said detectives are currently working on several leads and declined to comment further.
Tuesday’s stabbing comes in the wake of a recent spate of gang violence in Santa Barbara, including two other stabbings earlier this year that resulted in the deaths of a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old.
In March, Luis Angel Linares, 15, died in a midday gang fight on State Street after being stabbed eight times. Ricardo Juarez, a 14-year-old charged with killing Linares, will be arraigned in September with his trial expected to take place next year. Juarez pleaded not guilty to murder charges.
In mid-July, a gang-related stabbing on the Westside resulted in the death of 16-year-old Lorenzo Valentin Carachure. Police have not made any arrests in connection with that case.

Pros and cons of Measure A

BY LORETTA REDD
The letter ‘A’ can certainly have diverse meanings. In the world of academics, an ‘A’ represents outstanding achievement; while in the world of brassieres, an ‘A’ indicates a less voluminous capacity.
Likewise, Measure A, appearing this November on ballots in the city of Santa Barbara, has two very different interpretations. For those in favor, this little shift to even-year elections saves taxpayer money, city staff time, and our democracy itself! For those in the other camp, Measure A had been described as a ‘power grab,’ a diversion tactic, and an affront to democracy.

How could one little 30 word amendment stir up such opposing hackles? In Charter speak, it goes like this: “Shall the City Charter be amended by amending Charter Section 1300 and adding a new charter section 1300.1 to provide for regular City elections in November even-numbered years instead of odd-numbered years?(sic).”
The proponents argue that elections in even-years (2008) brings greater voter turnout, because that’s when all candidates for County, Federal and State office as well as Judges and State propositions appear on the ballot. However, these same proponents have selected a non-even year (this November) on which to make the change, which seems a bit ironic.
Should Measure A pass in this election, current council members would sit for an additional year as your representatives. Is this self-serving and strategic, or simply necessary for enactment of even-year elections? I suppose they could be noble, and give up a year of elected office.
For the electorate who admire the efforts of the current Council, the Measure would allow a continuation of the changes and improvements made to our City. For those who are eager to have the Council makeup ‘revised,’ it represents an additional year of less than stellar decision-making and leadership.
Yet another suggestion, which may remove some of the suspicion, would be to delay Measure A’s starting date, so that it would not affect our current elected body, but rather let voters determine to whom they would entrust a five-year, rather than four-year term.
The supporters of Measure A project a taxpayer savings of over a million dollars after only ten years of election shifts, especially since this is the first year our Council voted to fund and manage the City election, rather than pay the County to do so. First, the City decides that using the County elections office is too expensive, but with Measure A, the city cost is now too great, so we’d be better off letting the County take over again in 2008.
I’m a bit confused, but then one blogger suggested an even more frugal solution: dissolve the Council, let the City Administrator run the place (he does anyway), and save a whole lotta taxpayer money. After all, some of the Measure A creators are the same folks who pushed for City Council pay raises in order to “attract more qualified and diverse candidates.”
The next pitch by the Measure A proponents is to reduce the “repetitive ads and junk mail of an election.” Their website suggests we “give a year off to Santa Barbara voters, making elections more convenient and efficient because voting only happens every two years.”
Wow, a year off without having to be bothered with focusing on the city where we live and the issues most important to residents and families. We could instead have the City Council candidates lost in the microscopic print of every misleading ‘slate’ mailer clogging your mailbox or doorstep. They could compete for radio and airtime during the same period that the President, Governor, Congress and Assembly buys up votes, and may be lucky to get their ten second message out on Sunday at 4 am.
The inference that voters don’t wish to be bothered with their very own community representation troubles me, because “all politics is local.” Low turnout has less to do with the inconvenience of voting, and more to do with the issues that candidates decide are important to their campaign managers, rather than those important to us.
If candidates had to appear in open forum answering questions mostly from the public, many of the self-promotional perennial folks would drop out, and voters might actually pay attention. I’m also projecting an upturn in voting with the promotion of absentee ballots, and the new interest in politics displayed by the ‘computer generation.’
After wasting hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars and ruining our global reputation supposedly to enable a country ruled by a dictator to be free to vote, I believe thirty-five grand and a little junk mail isn’t too great a burden for Santa Barbara voters. If we don’t show up at the ballot box, the end result of whether ‘A’ stands for Accomplished, or this Measure falls ‘flat,’ will be decided for us. See you in November.

E-mail Loretta Redd at letters@santabarbarafree.com

Voters to pick election cycle

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

After Santa Barbara city leaders decided to take on the responsibility of running city elections earlier this year, proponents of Measure A hope to switch municipal elections to an even-year cycle, thereby returning that responsibility to the County of Santa Barbara.
Supporters of the measure, which will appear on the ballot this November, say it will save the city close to $250,000 every election, significantly increase voter turnout and make voting in Santa Barbara more convenient and efficient.
Opponents call the ballot measure a calculated attempt by the current City Council to increase their terms another year and argue that the changeover will bury local issues and bring party politics into normally neutral local issues.

Measure A, if approved by a two-thirds majority, will change local elections from odd years to even years to coincide with county, state and federal elections. The proposed change will shift the 2009 city election to 2010 instead.
“Having served on the City Council for 18 years, I think we need to do everything we can to increase voter participation,” said Hal Conklin, a former Santa Barbara mayor who signed the Yes on A ballot argument. “...Democracy doesn’t work if people don’t participate.”
Standing in front of the Lower Westside Community Center yesterday, Conklin joined members of the Santa Barbara Clean Elections Working Group to voice support for the measure.
“It will increase voter turnout nearly double based on the past 12 years of elections in Santa Barbara,” said David Pritchett, cochairman of the Clean Elections group. Pritchett held up a graph comparing odd-year and even-year election turnout figures in Santa Barbara County.
“The odd-year elections are substantially lower every time,” he said.
Dale Francisco, who signed the ballot argument against Measure A, said he isn’t convinced that the switch to even years will bring more people to the polls to vote on regional issues.
“The gross turnout may be bigger,” Francisco said. “What I’d like to know is if the number of people who vote on local, city issues — is that bigger?”
James Kahan, another local resident who supports the No on A movement, also said an increase in voter turnout shouldn’t be automatically accepted as positive.
“Turnout figures don’t mean anything,” Kahan said. “Numbers don’t really do it. I think there are some issues in the city that have to stand out.”
Pritchett dismissed the concept that local issues will be diluted by federal and state issues on a combined ballot, calling it a “pessimistic theory” that doesn’t hold true.
“To say that the city needs to have its own stand-alone election because the people won’t get it otherwise is bunk,” Pritchett said.
Conklin agreed, saying that city issues get very few voters when they are on an odd-year ballot, and increasing the turnout is key in garnering more interest in local government.
Sharon Westby, another supporter for the argument against Measure A, disagreed, saying she believes combining the elections will fatigue voters and leave them less than enthusiastic about local ballot topics.
“I think having the elections for city officers at a time when we have the federal and state elections would really cloud the issue of our local interests and our local issues,” Westby said. “We all know when the presidential election is running there is a lot of focus on the state and national level, and it would be difficult to get to the issues we face here in Santa Barbara.”
Opponents have argued that voters will gradually lose interest in the voting booth as they wade through national and state proposals and propositions, leaving the city issues at the bottom of the ballot blank.
Measure A supporters said this “downballot dropoff” does exist, but only to a limited degree. They cite a 2007 report by Billie Alvarez, the County Deputy Registrar of Voters, that shows voters skipped ballot items only five percent of the time during even-year elections in Carpinteria, Lompoc and Santa Maria since 2000.
Proponents of the measure also argue that bringing municipal elections in line with federal and state elections will save the city a bundle of money, about $245,000 for each election.
City leaders voted earlier this year to have city staff run local elections at a cost of around $280,000 per election after deciding that the County of Santa Barbara charged too much for its election services. Measure A proponents say the city can lower that figure to $35,000 for each election if it aligns with the county, state and national governments.
Westby, however, argued that she isn’t convinced that the measure will save the city money.
“I haven’t seen any of the figures and I don’t think that even if it saved dollars, I don’t think that is a good enough reason,” Westby said. “I think having the right city officials and having people understand the issues, those are much more important than saving money.”
Measure A supporters said they have confirmed the potential savings with several county election officials. In his impartial analysis of Measure A, City Attorney Steve Wiley wrote that county officials said the city would pay between $30,000 and $60,000 for each election if the measure passes.
The move to an even-year cycle will also place the responsibility of running the elections back in the hands of county officials, something Francisco agreed is a good idea.
“I think it’s a huge problem that employees of the City Council are regulating the city election,” Francisco said.
Proponents decried arguments that the ballot measure is an attempt for current Councilmembers to extend their terms an additional year.
“I think that’s a smokescreen issue,” Conklin said. “We’re more concerned about the next 50 years than the next two years.”
Pritchett also agreed, saying that there is no conspiracy in place and that his group isn’t “any happier with the City Council than anyone else.”
However, opponents focus on that argument in their ballot argument against Measure A, arguing that local residents should not reward city leaders with an extra year in office.
“This is a calculated attempt by current City Council members to receive special treatment by increasing their terms of office from four to five years while masquerading as a measure to save money,” the argument states. Francisco, Kahan, Westby and John McKinney penned the No on A argument that will appear on ballots this fall.
Pritchett fired back at that attack yesterday, calling it shortsighted and a desperate attempt to distract local residents from the benefits of Measure A.
“I think the voters are smart enough to understand what is going on,” Pritchett said.
Sandy Stites, a charter member of the Santa Barbara Clean Elections Working Group, also dismissed the idea that Measure A is being backed by people who want the current City Council to stick around for a bonus year.
“It isn’t, oh, we love the City Council as it stands,” Stites said. “We just love democracy.”

Measure A opponents blast rebuttal rule

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

As arguments over a city ballot measure in Santa Barbara heat up, some local residents are miffed that city staff won’t accept a rebuttal argument they want to appear on the ballot this November.
After submitting an initial argument against Measure A, which proposes to switch city elections to an even-year cycle, those campaigning against the measure attempted to file a rebuttal to the Yes on A argument, but were rebuffed by the City Clerk’s office.

City Attorney Steve Wiley explained that the state election code requires the city to pass a resolution allowing for rebuttals to ballot arguments and that it has been the policy of Santa Barbara leaders not to do so.
“At some point you have to cut off the arguments,” Wiley said. “I think we are like most cities in that respect. We just allow the pro and con arguments.”
James Kahan, who signed the No on A argument, said he finds that a weak argument against allowing rebuttals.
“I think it really transcends the election code,” Kahan said. “...This Council makes a big point about how they want discussion and dialogue. I wonder how much truth is in that.”
Sharon Westby, a Santa Barbara resident who also penned the No on A argument called the city’s decision not to accept their rebuttal “very frustrating.”
“The more information we get out to the people of Santa Barbara, the more aware they become,” Westby said.
City Administrator Jim Armstrong said the city isn’t discriminating against the No on A movement, and nobody on the City Council raised the issue when they discussed the upcoming city election a few months ago.
“It’s nothing new,” Armstrong said. “It’s just the Council has never allowed rebuttals. That’s just been the policy.”
Measure A supporters said they won’t be able to submit a rebuttal for the November ballot either, and view the furor being raised by the No on V campaign as an attempt to distract voters.
In addition to raising issues with the city’s refusal to accept rebuttals, Kahan also questioned the impartiality of Wiley’s analysis of the measure.
“How do you think I feel about an impartial analysis of the attorney who works for Councilmembers that will gain another year in their term?” Kahan asked.
If voters approve Measure A, four current City Council incumbents and three others elected this November will serve an additional year in office.
“This is a real nightmare,” said Dale Francisco, another signatory on the No on A argument. “You have the city attorney for the City Council writing the impartial analysis for a city ballot measure.”
Wiley dismissed those cries of concern, explaining that most cities run their own elections and he has no problem detaching himself from any ties of loyalty.
“The law requires me to prepare it,” Wiley said. “The law actually says the only time the city attorney doesn’t prepare an analysis is if the measure involves the city attorney’s salary. I think people will understand that this sort of thing happens.”

Island's feral pig eradication is complete

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

A controversial two-year program to eradicate feral pigs from Santa Cruz Island is complete, Nature Conservancy and National Park Service officials announced yesterday.
Calling it a “major step toward the ecological restoration” of the largest of the Channel Islands, park officials said the 96-square-mile island is now free of pigs.

“Based on extensive monitoring over the past year we believe the island is pig-free,” Dr. Lotus Vermeer, director of the Santa Cruz Island Preserve, said in a statement. “We are now well on our way to restoring the biological balance of the island and saving unique species found nowhere else on Earth.”
Officials decided to conduct the $5 million eradication program, which involved aerial hunting, walk-in corral traps and ground hunting with tracking dogs, in order to save the endangered island fox and nine rare plants from extinction.
The project raised the ire of animal rights activists, including In Defense of Animals (IDA), a national nonprofit organization that decried the eradication effort as a “bloody massacre.” IDA filed a joint lawsuit against the Nature Conservancy and the National Park Service in 2005, but failed to persuade a federal judge to grant a temporary or permanent injunction.
Park officials said they considered alternative options, such as bringing the pigs to the mainland, but said that risked spreading disease to domestic livestock. Contraceptives and sterilants have not been proven effective in the eradication of pigs, officials added.
A professional hunting firm from New Zealand killed 5,036 feral pigs using non-lead bullets, following euthanasia guidelines established by the American Medical Veterinary Association, Park Service authorities said.

Club's opening delayed

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

As construction workers were busy putting the finishing touches on the Coral Casino Beach & Cabana Club last Thursday, the day before its planned reopening, a fire sprinkler head burst in the main lobby, showering water onto a new computer system and flooding recently renovated areas.
“It did a lot of damage there [in the main lobby] and down in the basement,” said Greg Rice, a spokesman for Ty Warner Hotels and Resorts.


Rice said the sprinkler began pouring water into the lobby after an electrician lost his balance during a wiring project and grabbed hold of a sprinkler pipe near the ceiling, which then caused the sprinkler head to burst.
Rice said he didn’t know how long the sprinkler was on, but said it was long enough to cause damage to walls in the basement, the computer system and stone work in the lobby.
As of yesterday, Rice said he did not yet know the cost of the damage, but it was significant enough to thwart the opening of the members-only, seaside club for as long as one week.
Erinn Lynch, community relations manager for Ty Warner Hotels and Resorts, said the club’s more than 500 members were phoned after the incident and told that they would not be able to view the much anticipated phase-1 remodel, which is the front-end of a $60 million, multiyear renovation.
Rice said he hopes the Coral will be ready to open this weekend, but could not confirm a specific date.
When the doors do officially open, members will find a Coral Casino that is a throwback to its original, modern Scandinavian architecture. According to a statement issued by Rice, this architecture is defined by “horizontal lines, crisp minimal detailing, clean beach white color palettes and the overall sense of being aboard a luxury steam liner.”
Much of the remodel project, which forced the 80-year-old Coral Casino to close its doors for about about 15 months, was focused on “undoing” additions to the hotel, the statement said.
“Over the years the Coral Casino had lost much of its genuine character,” said Ty Warner in a prepared statement. “Simply put, our aim is to restore the original theme and purpose of the club while embracing the Coral Casino’s most beloved feature; namely its spectacular setting on one of the most beautiful beaches in California.”
Phase one of the project includes a renovated pool deck, locker rooms, exercise room, lobby, loggia and multipurpose room.
Warner employed the help of architect Peter Marino, who said he attempted to restore the design principles envisioned by the Coral’s original architect Gardner Dailey.
Because the Coral was built during the Depression, Marino said he used upgraded materials to enhance the durability and beauty of the building.
“Comfort, elegance and restrained glamour of the original design were all paramount considerations in the rebuilding,” Marino said.
In order to grasp the vintage feel of the Coral, Warner used photos of the original pool deck while selecting the new outdoor furniture, the statement said.
Rice said the extent to which the club needed renovations was so great, it would have been cheaper to tear it down, and erect a new building in its place.
“This rehabilitation does not only involve that which can tangibly be seen, but that which will allow the soul and character of the Coral Casino to continue for many generations to come,” Rice said.
Phase 2, which is expected to be completed sometime next year, will include a renovated second floor restaurant, new tower entrance, ballroom, rooftop sun deck and members’ living room.
The Coral will be operated by Four Seasons The Biltmore, which is across the street from the club and is also owned by Warner.
After the Coral renovation project was approved by the County Board of Supervisors on July 5, 2005, an appeal was filed by a woman named Cynthia Ziegler. After the appeals failed to stop the project, Ziegler filed a lawsuit in Santa Barbara County Superior Court on behalf of a group called The Preservation Committee.
When this lawsuit was resolved in favor of Warner, Ziegler filed an additional lawsuit in an appellate court, which was also thrown out.
In addition to the Coral Casino, Warner, the billionaire creator of Beanie Babies, owns the Montecito Country Club, the Sandpiper Golf Course, San Ysidro Ranch Montecito and Rancho San Marcos Golf Course on Highway 154.

Local firm takes on Vick controversy

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Big Dog Sportswear, a Santa Barbara based company known for its witty apparel that often displays blunt messages, has released a new line of t-shirts that show admitted dogfight kingpin and NFL quarterback Michael Vick getting a taste of his own medicine by the Big Dog himself.
Four new graphics, one of which shows a crying Vick with his pants down being spanked by the Big Dog dressed in Uncle Sam attire, were created as a way to “bite back against Michael Vick,” according to a statement from Big Dog Holdings, Inc.


“We were all kind of appalled by [Vicks] acts as everyone was,” said Sean Toren, a marketing associate for Big Dog. “We’re a company of dog lovers and it kind of hit home for us and we thought we needed to make a statement about that.”
A portion of the proceeds from each shirt sold will be donated to charities that work to prevent dog abuse, the statement from the company said.
Another image shows Vick wrapped in a hot dog bun with the Big Dog preparing to take a bite. It is accompanied by the words “Hasta La Vista Vick!”
The third image portrays a frightened Vick clutching a football with the Big Dog’s paw swooping in to crush the quarterback, while the fourth image is a black and white drawing of Vick’s mug shot. Above Vick’s picture are the words: “Big Dog Public Enemy #1.”
Karen Lee Stevens, founder and president of ALL FOR ANIMALS, INC. and a pet columnist for this paper, said Vick’s plea of guilty to federal dogfighting charges has shined the spotlight on a rarely discussed topic.
“This may sound strange coming from an animal advocate,” Stevens said. “But I’m actually thankful to Michael Vick. In a very roundabout way, he’s done a big favor for animals. For years animal rights groups have attempted to shine the spotlight on the horrors of dog fighting and now because of the sports star’s major fumble, that has happened.”
Vick, who signed a $130 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons in 2004, was suspended indefinitely by the NFL after his written plea agreement was filed in court Friday, according the Associated Press.
The Falcons said they did not plan to cut Vick immediately.
Vick’s sentence is expected to be handed down on Dec. 10. Vick could be jailed for as little as one year or as much as five years, the Associated Press reported yesterday.
During a press conference on Monday, Vick apologized to the NFL, his team and his fans for his role in the dog fighting ring.
The Associated Press also reported that in his written plea, Vick admitted to helping kill as many as eight pit bulls and supplying money for gambling on the fights. He says he did not personally place any bets or receive any winnings.
“While everyone is appalled at Michael Vick’s actions, we at Big Dogs are particularly upset as most of our customers and employees are dog lovers,” a prepared statement by the company said. “We hope that people will wear these t-shirts as a reminder of Vick’s terrible acts and help to eliminate dog abuse and the brutal practice of dog fighting.”

Zaca firefighter seriously injured

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

A firefighter from Kern County sustained serious injuries after falling 30 feet while working on containment lines for the Zaca Fire in the Sisquoc River area on Sunday, fire officials said.
Josh Lee, 20, suffered an open compound fracture of his lower left leg, as well as other minor fractures, County Fire Spokesman Eli Iskow said.

“We hoisted him out with County Air Support Helicopter 309 with a rescue hoist and a county fire paramedic on board,” Iskow said. “He was flown to Cottage Hospital and he had his tibia pinned [Sunday] night.”
Lee, a first-year crew member with Democrat Crew 87 from Kern County, will remain under observation and treatment for his other injuries for the next few days, officials said.
“He’s doing really well,” Iskow said. “He might get out of there as early as [today] or Wednesday.”
Calls to the Kern County Fire Department for more information were not successful.
Yesterday also marked the anniversary of the death of Stephen Joseph Masto, a Santa Barbara firefighter who died in the Camuesa Wildland Fire in the Los Padres National Forest in 1999.
As fire crews bring the Zaca Fire closer to full containment, higher humidity kept the flames from spreading any noticeable amount yesterday, authorities said. With growing confidence in their ability to keep the fire at bay, officials opened Highway 33 and lifted the recommended evacuation for the area from Ozena to Brubaker Road west of Highway 33.
“We’re looking good,” Gutierrez said.
Crews continued to strengthen and build lines along the northeast and northwest edges of the fire. Officials said about two miles of fire line still need to be built.
“They know that temperatures are going to be going up in the next few days, so they definitely want to get this thing wrapped up,” Gutierrez said.
Fire officials said a Burnt Area Emergency Response Team is starting to assess damage and look at future effects of the blaze on rainfall runoff to the Cachuma and Gibraltar reservoirs. Rehabilitation efforts are already underway along the southern edge of the fire.
Gutierrez said assessment efforts should take a few weeks, after which the team will generate a report and discuss rehabilitation of the scorched land with cities that will be affected by erosion and silt loading in local water sources.
Acreage and containment figures for the Zaca Fire remained static yesterday as the cost of fighting the stubborn wildland fire grew to $106.5 million.

Hotchkiss vows common sense

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Bringing common sense back to Santa Barbara City Hall.
That’s a pretty succinct way to sum up the platform of Frank Hotchkiss, who hopes to unseat one of three incumbents in this November’s City Council election. Sitting in the study of his Riviera home, Hotchkiss kept coming back to that idea as he discussed the changes he plans to make if given the nod by Santa Barbara voters this fall.

“The best qualification I have is clear, common sense,” Hotchkiss said. “Wisdom, political or otherwise, is perceiving things as they are and then acting accordingly.”
Calling city leaders “out of touch” with the public, Hotchkiss further criticized the City Council for focusing on projects that are “in vogue, but don’t solve the problem they purport to.” He cited the lightblueline and pending legislation against the use of plastic bags in Santa Barbara as examples.
“I think the City Council has made so many mistakes, and the straw that broke the camel’s back was this lightblueline project,” Hotchkiss said. “...We can’t even predict the weather in three days and you are telling me this is accurate?”
Although the controversial art project has been withdrawn by its creator, Hotchkiss said he still finds fault among Councilmembers who supported the project and recently voiced their disappointment that it has been shelved.
While Hotchkiss has been publicly outspoken against the lightblueline project — even going so far as to announce his candidacy at the Cabrillo Arts Center because it is within the flood area designated by the line — he said he is not a one-trick pony.
“There is absolutely no business for us to have gangs here,” Hotchkiss said. Echoing an earlier campaign cry, he added, “If you live in Santa Barbara and you are in a gang, either get out of the gang or get out of Santa Barbara.”
If elected, he said he will push for more police officers on duty and get the city to work more closely with local schools to quash the gang problem. He also suggested using GPS tracking bracelets for gang offenders so authorities know where they are at all times.
Hotchkiss, a Realtor with Sotheby’s International Realty in Santa Barbara, also called for a new stance on transportation issues, saying current city leaders are focused on making it “more and more difficult to drive our cars.” He called public transportation such as city buses impractical.
“The city is not ever going to work that way,” he said.
Instead of “forcing people out of their cars,” Hotchkiss said Santa Barbara needs to plan for a future population that is going to have individual vehicles, regardless of their fuel source. Included in that vision, he said, is planning for two cars per apartment instead of one.
Hotchkiss said he also opposes mini-roundabouts and other traffic impediments that have raised the ire of local residents in recent months.
As far as the current concept of a commuter rail to Ventura County being kicked around by local government groups, Hotchkiss called the idea “too expensive and too unsure.” Instead, he suggested increasing bus service to Ventura, Lompoc and Buellton and working on improving the existing infrastructure.
Hotchkiss also supports the removal of Spanish translations from official city documents, explaining that he sees it as a way to bring foreign language speakers into the fold rather than excluding them.
“I think it’s unfair when the city encourages people to be linguistically segregated,” Hotchkiss said.
Although he is now fluent in French, Hotchkiss said he struggled for the first three months while living in France. As he started to get a grasp on the language, he said he found the local residents there looked at him with a whole new attitude.
“If you keep addressing them in Spanish, you are really being exclusive,” Hotchkiss said.
Originally from the East Coast, Hotchkiss grew up in Connecticut and graduated from Yale University. He served in the Navy during the Vietnam War, describing the experience as “mostly boring.” He even signed up for river patrols rather than remaining stationed off the coast, hoping to see a little action.
After leaving the Navy, he worked as a stage and television actor, first in San Francisco and then in Los Angeles, and also appeared in one film. Looking for more stable work in the early 1970s, he walked in off the street and got a job writing features for the Associated Press in Los Angeles.
After bouncing around from various news organizations, including City News Service and the Compton Herald-American, Hotchkiss eventually took the position as head of publications for the 1984 Olympics. After getting a publishing company to pay the Olympic committee for the privilege of creating a guide of Los Angeles, Hotchkiss said he thought, “Gee, maybe I have a head for business.”
After the Olympics, he started a public relations firm and held accounts with Adidas, Special Olympics and the Alzheimer’s Association, among others. In 1997, Hotchkiss moved to Santa Barbara with his wife, Sandra, “just when the market started to take off.”
About two weeks after arriving, he went down to City Hall, parked on the street, walked in and met the mayor, something he said he never could have done in Los Angeles.
“I thought, my God, this is the way it’s supposed to be,” Hotchkiss said. “This is a cool place.”
Although he is a member of the Riviera Association and served on a community advisory group while living in Pacific Palisades, Calif., he said that is the extent of his political experience.
“I’m not a politician,” Hotchkiss said, “and that’s a good thing in my book.”

Goleta tweaks General Plan meeting schedule

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

The City of Goleta is counting down the days until it jumps into the first of several public workshops, where amendments to the city’s controversial General Plan will be the sole topic of discussion.
But before the first date could arrive, some jostling with the meeting schedule occurred yesterday at City Hall, where the City Council made a couple of changes.
The first change was made to the second of three General Plan public workshops that was scheduled for Sept. 22, which is the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur. This meeting will now take place on Sept. 27, while an additional workshop, scheduled for Oct. 17, was added to the list.

The council contemplated making an additional change to an Oct. 5 workshop that will focus on the General Plan’s housing element. This meeting, scheduled to take place on a Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., has spawned charges from some members of the public, as well as Councilman Roger Aceves and Councilwoman Jonny Wallis, that the time and date will automatically exclude people who have to work during those hours.
The council voted 3-2, with Aceves and Wallis dissenting, to keep the Oct. 5 meeting scheduled as is.
While the council and city staff have insisted that the General Plan amendment process will accommodate ample public input, some have claimed that the meeting schedule, and the manner in which pervious meetings have been held, don’t have the public in mind.
“It’s public process and the public’s got to be involved in the public process,” said Cecilia Brown, the county’s second district planning commissioner, who has been a vocal proponent for a more open process in Goleta politicking.
When told the council meeting yesterday was not broadcast on T.V., Brown said that this is one example of the council not being as open with the public as she believes they need to be.
“Again, that’s a missed opportunity,” Brown said. “The public should know what’s going on.”
Councilman Eric Onnen said the meeting was supposed to be broadcast, but the film crew couldn’t be located.
Brown commended the council for scheduling an additional workshop, but worried that few residents will be able to attend the Oct. 5 meeting.
“Are we doing this for the public? Who are we doing this for?” Brown asked yesterday during an interview with the Daily Sound. “The community needs to participate in this too and you can’t do this if people are working.”
Steve Chase, the city’s planning & environmental services director, said the Oct. 5 meeting was scheduled during the work day in order to accommodate Lynn Jacobs, director of California’s Department of Housing & Community Development, who will be in attendance.
Though Wallis said she’s not sure about the time frame of the Oct. 5 housing element meeting, she noted that overall she is pleased with staff’s effort thus far.
“I wanted that meeting to be particularly welcoming to the public, and on Friday, in the middle of the day, I’m not sure it does that,” Wallis said. “Other than that I’m pleased with the way staff has formatted the workshops.”
The General Plan’s housing element, which stipulates that 55 percent of most new housing in Goleta needs to be classified affordable, has been a hotbed of controversy since the General Plan’s approval last October.
To date, it has been sent to the state for review three times, and sent back to the city in each instance without a stamp of approval.
The majority of the council has made it clear since the General Election last November that they intended to make changes to the General Plan, with the affordable housing mandate at the top of the list.
Chase urged those critical of the process to keep in mind that the first set of meetings will likely lead to several more meetings -- all of which he said will be open to the public.
“I can appreciate the folks that feel emotional,” Chase said. “I have committed myself both to the public as well as the city council that we will do as many public workshops as prudent to get a firm understanding and grasp of the public’s interest in these issues.”
Onnen also emphasized the need for the public to keep in mind that the process is in its early stages.
“It’s just a start,” Onnen said. “The end point will be really when we think we understand and we’ve got the input to make a decision that represents the community.”
Chase said another topic sure to undergo lengthy discussion during the meetings are conservation standards.
One example Chase said he predicts will arise during the meetings are required setbacks for developments near creeks and designated wetland areas.
According to Chase, the current stipulation states that development near a wetland must be setback to the nearest “overhanging riparian vegetation.” One possible change could put a structure much closer to the wetland, near the creek channel -- a difference of 25 to 30-feet in some cases.
“That could make all the difference in the world as to whether or not a piece of property that today is vacant can be built on for a light industrial building in old town,” Chase said.
Though there is not a sure timeline on when General Plan amendments will be approved by the planning commission and the council, Chase said some of the less complex issues could be up from approval in the next couple months, while the more complex issues could go up for a vote as early as next Summer.
Onnen also didn’t put a strict timeline on the process, but said it will not take as long as the years-long process of drafting the original document.
“I don’t envision this process as being as detailed perhaps as the entire General Plan was,” Onnen said. “These are just some updates to the General Plan, not a complete redo of the General Plan.”
But no matter how much time it takes, Onnen said its in everyone’s best interest to keep the process open.
“We’ll just go through the process,” he said. “And if we’re faithful to it, we’ll have a very open and inclusive process and that’s what everybody wants.”

A list of the meetings, all of which will be held at city hall, is printed below:
Sept. 4, at 6 p.m., a sphere of influence discussion.
Sept. 15, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., the first General Plan workshop.
Sept. 27, from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., the second General Plan workshop.
Oct. 5 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., General Plan housing element workshop.
Oct. 17 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. the third General Plan workshop.

Blood supplies run low

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Blood. It’s one of those things that rarely crosses a person’s mind, until they need some.
And with the Labor Day holiday looming, officials at United Blood Services estimate they are going to need 1,500 pints before Friday in order have a full stock.
“That will allow us to have all the different blood products and blood types on the shelf as needed,” said Scott Edward, donor recruitment director for United Blood Services. “That’s our responsibility, to make sure there’s enough blood ready to go.”


Edward said United Blood Services provides blood to 20 hospitals between Thousand Oaks and Salinas, the biggest customer being Cottage Health System and its locations in Santa Barbara, Goleta and Santa Ynez.
That being the case, Edward said blood donations in the Santa Barbara area have dipped drastically during the latter part of summer -- an occurrence that’s not unusual, but tough on those in the blood business.
“Usually what happens is through the summer months, normal things become harder,” Edward said of maintaining a full inventory.
In order to offset the dip in summertime donations, United Blood Services initiated a 4,000 pint challenge on Aug. 13, which ends this Friday. So far, Edward said 2,465 donations have been collected, leaving the need for 1,500 more pints, which Edward said will require roughly 1,500 people.
But with only six appointments scheduled yesterday at the local United Blood Services branch at 902 Laguna St., things are still looking slow.
“It’s been pretty darn quiet in here,” said MaryAnne Bittle, community relations representative for the Laguna Street location. “It’s been quiet again today. We’re just hoping that we don’t have any terrible tragedies over the weekend.”
In order to meet local demand for blood, Bittle said an average of 25 to 30 donors need to come through the door each day.
Bittle and Edward said the predictable drop in donations during the summer months correlates with people being on vacation and other events, such as preparing to go back to school.
But Bittle hopes a blood drive held from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. today and tomorrow at the Camino Real Marketplace at Hollister Avenue and Storke Road in Goleta will help bolster the number of donations.
Those who donate blood will receive a gift certificate for a 24-ounce smoothie from Blenders In The Grass.
Edward said they try to take everything into consideration when pinning down a goal for donations, from the cost of gas over a holiday weekend, to the weather.
He said the combination of lower than usual gas prices and sunny weather over the Labor Day weekend doesn’t directly translate into more accidents, but it does mean more people are recreating and driving.
Edward said the average blood usage on a summer day on the Central Coast is 260 pints, with lows around 50 pints and highs near 600 pints.
The holiday increase, combined with the usual daily need, can be daunting.
“Specifically in Santa barbara, we seem to be struggling the most right now,” Edward said. “We’re hoping we can get things centered there.”
Appointments can be made to give blood at one of United Blood Service’s six Central Coast locations by calling 965-7037, or visiting their web site at www.UnitedBloodServices.org. Walk-ins are also welcome.
“Once it’s gone it’s gone,” Bittle said. “We rely completely on volunteer blood donors to make sure that supply is there for the community.”

Pilgrim sails into harbor

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

When Santa Barbara residents stepped aboard the Pilgrim this past weekend, they stepped back in time to an age of hardtack and salt beef, deck swabbing and high seas.
A 130-foot snow brig designed as a replica of the original 1825 schooner, the Pilgrim entered the Santa Barbara Harbor on Friday evening and left this morning for the Channel Islands. While in port, the ship opened its deck to visitors, giving them a firsthand glimpse into the living and working conditions of a 19th century sailor.

“It gives us a chance to pass on a message to the public that people don’t get to experience anywhere else,” deckhand Jen Condit said.
Kids and adults alike clambered on board to ring the bell, spin the wooden wheel and stare in awe at the maze of rigging lines that stretched to the top of the 98-foot mainmast.
“There is reason to it,” chief mate Bob Ross said of the tangle of lines. Ross has been working on the Pilgrim for 18 years, and knows every inch of the 147 lines that hold the ship’s 14 sails in place.
“This is a labor of love,” Ross said. “This has been all of my vacation time for the past 18 years.”
From the original 1945 diesel engine to the “Windless,” a 750-pound anchor that has to be hand-cranked by a four-member team, often leaving them short of breath, the Pilgrim is under the command of Captain Jim Wehan and belongs to the Ocean Institute in Dana Point, Calif.
In the midst of a two-week trip up the coast, the Pilgrim will wind its way back down through the Channel Islands to its home port, where it is used throughout the year as a learning tool for visiting school children.
About 18,000 kids visit the ship yearly, sometimes staying overnight with volunteers and staff who dress up in period-appropriate costumes. Condit said she usually plays the cook and doctor.
“I’m usually the goofy character,” Condit said. “It gives them a chance to learn not only about sailing ... but they also get to experience a piece of history.”
While today’s version of the Pilgrim dates back to 1945, when it served as a working merchant ship out of Denmark, the original Pilgrim sailed the oceans during the 19th century.
Built in 1825, the Pilgrim plied American waters, bringing England’s manufactured goods such as shoes and ironware to the California coast, where it picked up cattle hides and returned to its port in Boston.
Condit described how Richard Henry Dana, Jr., joined the crew of the original Pilgrim in 1834 against his father’s wishes, using his experiences as the basis of his seafaring classic “Two Years Before the Mast.” Dana went on to become a lawyer, developing much of the legal protections for sailors that evolved into today’s maritime law.
Although details are sketchy, the original Pilgrim is believed to have been lost in a fire at sea in 1856.
Ross said today’s Pilgrim crew tries to follow many of the same rites that the 19th century sailors did, from using the signaling cannon when raising the morning colors to hoisting the Blue Peter, a blue flag with a white square in the center that signals to the crew that the schooner will be leaving port soon.
“We try to keep a lot of the maritime traditions preserved,” Ross said.
While others focus on the historic elements of the brig, 72-year-old Charlie Bell, the Pilgrim’s boatswain, makes sure the ship is in working order. After a lifetime in a Naval shipyard, caulking decks on aircraft carriers and other vessels, Bell keeps an eye on the Pilgrim’s moving parts.
Two years ago, Bell said, the topsail blew out in 30-knot winds. After pulling it down, Bell and his crew stitched it up and reattached its rigging, repairing the torn cloth just as the original crew would have done in the 1800s.
Bell said the Pilgrim has reached speeds of 10 knots during his decade on board, and others have told him they’ve seen it go up to 12 knots.
“Anything above seven or eight knots is a real thrill,” Bell said.
Although the Pilgrim sailed out of Santa Barbara waters this morning, the crew hopes to be back next year to continue passing on the traditions of tall ships.
“We want to come back,” Ross said. “The crew and I definitely love Santa Barbara as a port of call.”

Group honors Latino youth

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first in a three-part series on the achievements of Latino youth in the Santa Barbara Community.

BY RON SOBLE
DAILY SOUND CORRESPONDENT
Wrongdoing by a few individuals translates into misery for entire neighborhoods.
Following the March fatal stabbing in downtown Santa Barbara of a 15-year-old boy by a 14-year-old youth during a gang clash, the city’s Hispanic population endured a hard-to-swallow court hearing for a Latino charged with the homicide, and yet another gang murder in July of a 16-year-old Latino boy.

Police Chief Cam Sanchez is concerned that the violence is criminalizing entire neighborhoods of Latinos.
“I am really irked a bit because it comes down to this Latino thing…Many times all Latino kids are painted with the same brush,” Sanchez said in a June interview with the Sound.
Following the July murder, Sanchez, a Latino, spoke to the City Council about his concern — that Hispanics are stigmatized by a small number of thugs.
“Most young people in our community are doing positive things whether they are gang members, former gang members or not,” he told councilmembers. “It is a smaller percentage that causes a majority of our problems.”
This, then, is an intermittent series focusing on a dozen Latino teenagers who recently graduated from high schools in southern Santa Barbara County. They are pursuing dreams of “positive things” in higher education.
The Santa Barbara Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, at its annual awards banquet in May, honored the 12 students. Here are three snapshots.
Jason Ford, 18, of Goleta, enters Stanford University in September. Vanessa Estrada, 18, of Santa Barbara, became a freshman last Friday at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Both are graduates of Bishop Garcia Diego High School in Santa Barbara, a private school. Felipe Villegas, 17, of Carpinteria, a graduate of Carpinteria High School, begins classes at UCSB in September.

Jason Ford

Don’t misjudge Jason Ford of Goleta. Sure, he’s of average build, 5-feet, 10-inches, 150 pounds. But, hey, he’s one fit hombre.
At Bishop Garcia Diego High, Jason was a triple varsity guy – playing free safety and wide receiver on the school’s football team, goalkeeper on the soccer squad and second baseman and centerfielder on the baseball team. He’s strong and he’s fast, says Jay, his father.
Jason’s scholastic record is equally imposing – an A student who, in addition, took a fistful of honors classes.
All 53 students who graduated from Bishop in June were accepted into an institution of higher learning, says the Rev. Tom Elewaut, the principal. Thirty-seven percent of the 2007 graduation class is Hispanic, he said. The school’s enrollment in June was 270 students.
Jason, will be moving into a freshman dorm at Stanford University next month.
On its Web site, Bishop posted that since 2002, “100 percent of our graduates” have gone on to college.
“Bishop is pretty good about that,” Jason says with a bit of understatement in a recent telephone interview.
A well-rounded education was Jason’s goal in high school, and he will continue on that path at Stanford.
English literature and engineering may sound like disparate subjects to the casual observer of academe, but they work for Jason, who combined his love of English literature at Bishop with a penchant for, as he puts it, “engineering and making stuff” at home in Goleta.
“My favorite class (in high school) was English literature, which is kind of odd for an engineer, I guess,” he says. “My favorite book is (Ernest Hemingway’s) “The Sun Also Rises.” He adds that he read a lot of poetry in high school. On the science side, Jason has a passion for engineering. He says he’s “drawn to designs in alternative energies for electricity, converting ocean swells into usable electricity. It’s the next step in renewable energies.”
Stanford, he suggests, should be a seamless transition because of its emphasis on encouraging “students to be well-rounded in the humanities even if pursuing a technical major,” he wrote for his high school councilor.
“He’s a tinkerer,” says Jay, his father. “He’s always designing things.”
Jason says his parents “were involved in our lives,” referring to his two younger brothers, ages 13 and 17, and a sister, 21, who attends Pepperdine University in southern California.
His mother, Martha, whose maiden surname is Ruiz, emigrated to the U.S., at age 16, from Mexico, in the early 1970s, along with her family. She learned English at Santa Barbara High School and went on to gain a teaching credential from UCSB, Jason says. She currently is a Spanish tutor.
His father, Jay, a financial investor, grew up in Texas, and attended the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. He married Martha in 1985.
The parents teamed up to home school their children from the 4th grade to the start of high school. Actually, Jason says, he taught himself through grades 7 and 8.
Jason has set some lofty goals for himself. On the questionnaire he filled out for his high school councilor, he says, “My ultimate goal is to establish an engineering company geared toward innovating and inventing to improve the lives of disadvantaged peoples.
“In this way my company would invent more than just machines, we would introduce processes that produce life – such things as water purification and affordable/cheap-to-donate shelter for the most needy.”

Vanessa Estrada

We experience life-changing epiphanies at different ages and at all sorts of places. Consider Vanessa Estrada’s epiphany at age 14. Of all places, it occurred at the Santa Barbara Zoo.
Vanessa was a day-camp counselor –in-training one summer at the zoo, working with youngsters, ages 5 and 6. She loved it.
“I like working with children, “ she recalls, taking kids around the zoo, interacting with other children and the animals.
Indeed, the experience set the course for her high school and, now, college years. Since then, for example, she says, “I have been involved with tutoring young people in math and English.”
Vanessa, of Santa Barbara, nearly an A student at Bishop Garcia Diego High, is sharing a freshman dorm room with another Bishop coed from her graduating class.
Her proud parents drove her last Friday in a two-vehicle caravan, her mother leading the way in a packed SUV, to Loyola Marymount University on the far west side of Los Angeles.
“I’m excited and nervous at the same time,” she said during a telephone interview.
Like Jason Ford, she says she greatly enjoyed English literature at Bishop. One of her favorite novels, she says, is “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
The curriculum in her first few years at Loyola, also like Jason’s at Stanford, will be heavy in liberal arts subjects. Then, she will enter the major of her choice, elementary education, to prepare for a career as a schoolteacher. First grade youths, in their formative years, are the children she most wants to instruct.
A pre-school teacher, Linda James, at Notre Dame School in Santa Barbara, which Vanessa attended, inspired her.
“She is always looking out for the best for me,” she says. “I consider her family.”
Vanessa credits her mother, Martha, with keeping her focused on studies and goals.
Martha Estrada was divorced from her husband, Ricardo, when Vanessa was 4 years old. An 8-year old half-sister lives with her father, who works for a Goleta company.
For all these years, Vanessa says, she and her mother regularly had dinner together at their upper State Street area residence.
“Mother always asks how my day went. Then, when she was done, it was my turn to ask her how her day went.”
Ricardo takes a big interest in her life, too. “We talk every night and he goes to all of my sports,” Vanessa says.
Vanessa was co-captain of Bishop’s women’s varsity soccer team on which she played halfback, and a setter on the women’s varsity volleyball team.
Ricardo, who lives in Santa Maria, says he is “in awe of Martha and what a great job she’s done” in raising Vanessa.
Martha emigrated to the U.S. from Mexico when she was 4 years old; Ricardo emigrated from Mexico, too, when he was about 11.They married in Mexico in the mid-1980s.
“My mother and father taught me Spanish,” Vanessa says. Both parents now speak English. However, she says, “my father speaks to me in Spanish so I don’t forget the language.”
Ricardo, in a separate telephone conversation, said his daughter was practically bilingual as soon as she talked as a baby. “With me, sometimes she (slips and) says a word in English. I remind her what the word is in Spanish.”
Both parents contribute toward the cost of Vanessa’s education.
“I’ve been working two jobs to put Vanessa through school,” Martha Estrada says.

Felipe Villegas

He was anxious to jump-start his university career. As a result, Felipe Villegas already has 20 advanced credits awaiting him when he enters UCSB in September.
Felipe, a June graduate of Carpinteria High School, is fascinated by computers and computer animation.
“It’s something like I just do,” he says. “A lot of what I know about computers is self-taught.” He says he’s aiming for a graduate degree in computer engineering.
Of the 172 students in Felipe’s graduating class, 58 percent were Hispanic, says Gerardo Cornejo, the Carpinteria High principal. Approximately 95 percent of the graduates indicated they intended to go on to college, he says.
As of last June, the school had 820 students, of which 60 percent were Hispanic, Cornejo says.
If you visit Felipe at his house in Carpinteria, you just might find him totally focused on what, for the layman, appears to be an incomprehensible pile of computer parts.
“I build computers. I find parts online, “ he said in a telephone interview. About 90 minutes is the time he says he can piece together a Windows-based computer.
“I can build it for friends,” if they provide him with the parts, he says. But not laptops, which he calls “messy” to construct.
His mother, Consuelo, and his father, with the same first name, Felipe, emigrated from Mexico about two decades ago. Felipe Villegas owns a masonry business, and Consuelo manages it.
His father can be very creative, Felipe says, building fountains and gates. Much of his work can be seen in Montecito.
Both parents speak English, but Spanish is spoken in the house. Besides Felipe, there is another son, 12 years old, who also speaks Spanish and English.
“They don’t want me to lose it,” Felipe says of his parents decision to speak their native language while at home.
Actually, Felipe knows three languages, having taken French in high school. He had a chance to practice his French last April when his language teacher took 15 students in his class to Paris. “It was fun,” he says.
The Villegas family has lived in their Carpinteria home for about 14 years. Recently, using the elder Felipe’s talent, the house was remodeled so that now, the son suggests, it has a million-dollar image. Given the town’s zooming property values, the younger Felipe’s description may not be far-fetched.
Much of Felipe’s high school work involved science courses, including biology, advanced biology and physics. His overall grade average was almost straight A.
Felipe talks about his academic excellence almost as if it was as easy as, well, piecing together a computer.
“In biology, I didn’t need to take notes,“ he says. “They really didn’t help me.”
Of course, it didn’t hurt to have Rob Lindsay for a biology teacher.
Lindsay immediately springs to his mind when a reporter asks about instructors he won’t soon forget.
Felipe had Lindsay twice, once as a freshman, and again a few years later, in advanced biology.
“One thing, for sure,” he says, “students didn’t fall asleep in Lindsay’s class.” It wasn’t that the teacher was so strict, it was that he was so funny.
“His style of (humor) is like a comic on a stage. (Students) don’t go to sleep cause they’ll miss a joke.”
A schoolteacher who sprinkles stand-up comedy into biology lectures? Talk about subliminal learning!
Felipe’s narrow focus on outdoor activities and reading habits suggest he is economical in parceling his time.
With the exception of neighborhood soccer games, he says he doesn’t participate much in outdoor activities.
As for reading, he appears to lean toward nonfiction. “I’m the kind of person who has to find reason and logic” in a book, he says. “It’s not a made up story that I can wrap my head around.”
Still, he understands that liberal arts form a big part of the learning process. In his senior year, he took an advanced college-level course in government and politics. He also recognizes that at UCSB he will be immersed in a humanities curriculum while advancing into computer engineering.
At the end of the day, the family gathers around the dinner table. Soccer is their national pastime. A television set is nearby. The evening news is another TV attraction.
There are times, though, when the TV is dark. Supper-talk turns from the daily routine to what’s happening in distant places. No surprise, Iraq surfaces.
”We all share the same opinion (on the Iraq conflict),” Felipe says. “It is a distraction from what we should be doing - going after the (terrorists) we should be going after.”

THIS & THAT: A new shoe test drive

BY LESLIE A. WESTBROOK
Today, thousands of little feet can be seen and heard dashing across the land, as it’s back to school time. For the fortunate (since a sturdy pair of kids shoes these days averages $50) that means a new pair of foot coverings. ’Tis the season, according to my inside sources, to say: “Good bye flip-flops, hello closed-toe” shoes.
Shopping for shoes for children, as I recently learned, is quite a different experience than grown-up shopping: just hang-out in the 3rd floor children’s shoe department of Nordstrom. That’s what I did a couple of Saturday mornings ago. I accompanied Nicolas, 6, who will be a first grader at Montecito Union School, his sister Isabel, a pre-schooler age 4, and their (very tired), shopping savvy mom, Lisa, on this expedition.

My, my what a selection was in store: for the lads, there were shoes with lights (why don’t they make light-up running shoes in my size, I want to know?), Nikes with the famous swoosh and heels that looked like springs for the boys and a brand called DC (not the comic book company I would learn, but a skateboard company that makes skateboard shoes). In the little girls section, there were shoes with buttons and bows and animal prints: pint-size versions of the latest fashion statements, at equally appalling prices.
Nicolas selected no less than seven designs that he wanted to try on, while Isabel honed her choices down to just three or four styles, mostly pink. Then the fun began. While Isabel climbed over the seats like a monkey, Nicolas dawdled over picking the perfect new pair for the school year.
Behind us, I watched a sweet, five-year-old customer named Jaia, with the face and demeanor of a gentle, shy poet, transform into Superman after trying on a pair of light up Geox sneakers. Jaia was soon nowhere to be found: he streaked through the other departments as if his feet were on fire! Needless to say, his dad purchased these life-altering shoes, which included incentive items of a coloring book and a green balloon.
Soon after, Nicolas followed suit and disappeared through the aisles, racing faster than a speeding comet.
Monkey see, monkey do: Isabel joined in!
Who knew department store shopping (I’d actually rather get my teeth cleaned) could be so much fun?
What excitement! One wobbly little guy, apparently a new walker in his first pair of shoes (who I estimated to be about a year or so old), took a tumble when he was accidentally knocked over by a shopping mother. Was no one safe?
Then Nicolas returned and began jumping up and down to “test drive” the Nikes.
He fell to the ground with a crash. He did a somersault. Then, with a mixture of glee and seriousness, he made his decision:
“Yes,” he said, at last, “I want THESE!”
Later, I was wonder wondering what the sales staff would do if I climbed over chairs, did a 50 yard dash in a $600 dollar pair of Manolo Blahnik heels or several somersaults in a pair of UGG boots —just to see how they “worked”?
Guess they’d peg me crazy. However, I think any woman, whether she walks, runs or charges an amount that would support a small African village to her credit card to wobble on 5” heels is mad anyway. But then, what do I know? I’m sticking to my flip-flops, as long as the weather holds out.

Questions? Comments? Contact Leslie Westbrook via e-mail at ThisAndThat@SantaBarbaraFree.com

Locals return from Arctic expedition

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Upon his return from a reconnaissance trip to the Arctic Archipelago, Ed Cassano painted a picture of dramatic change.
Inuit leaders pointed out to him areas of green grass where frozen tundra once existed, tall trees where none had grown before, grizzly bears on Victoria Island and ravens in Cambridge Bay.

Only a few chunks of ice floated in the Northwest Passage, seas above Canada historically choked with ice and rarely navigated.
“It’s open now,” Cassano said. “Wide open.”
While Cassano visited with elders and planned for a 2009 expedition on an icebreaker ship through the once-elusive Northwest Passage, news came through from the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center that this year now has the minimum amount of ice in the Arctic on record, breaking the previous record set in 2005.
“It’s pretty crazy,” Cassano said.
Rather than feeling overwhelmed by the scope of the problem, Cassano said he feels energized and that the mission of InMER — his nonprofit organization with the stated goal of initiating social change and creating a sustainable future — has never been more important.
Although Cassano feels a sense of urgency over the issue of climate change and admits that it is unknown at what point it might have an irreversible effect on the planet, he said he believes there is still time to change the course “if we act aggressively and decisively.”
When asked if he feels that individuals and government will actually do that, he said, “I have to believe that.”
“Go to the Arctic,” Cassano said. “Look at the changes the Inuit people are seeing. This is not a hypothetical situation. This is real.”
There is a small group in the scientific community that aren’t convinced climate change is an issue, Cassano admitted. He declined to say what he believes motivates them to oppose his viewpoint, but described the group as very small.
“It’s like five people,” he said.
This winter, Cassano plans to return to the Arctic to spend more time with Inuit elders and to study the changing environment. Then, in 2009, he will take an icebreaker ship through the Northwest Passage with a group he hopes will consist of politicians, athletes, religious leaders, scholars and youth.
He said he is “highly confident” in what those messengers will relay to the public upon their return. He also plans to approach local and national media, beef up his website — www.inmer.org — with daily logs, pictures and articles, and give lectures on the topic of his experience with climate change in the Arctic.
Cassano also gave a laundry list of things for the average person to do that he said will help slow climate change impacts. Among those are walking to work, carpooling, using alternative-fuel vehicles, asking power companies for alternative energy options, and buying local produce.
“Live a sustainable life,” Cassano said. “Take a simple act of doing something and do it consistently.”
He called Santa Barbara a “great municipal example,” but stressed that the city can still do much more to be sustainable.
“Even if the idea of climate change turns out to be wrong, which it isn’t,” he said, “what is the down side?”