Archive | August, 2010

A recent report on msnbc.com inked out America’s top ten most tattoo friendly cities. Consider the following:

City Tattoo Shops per capita

10. Los Angeles 4-100,000
9. Kansas City, MO 6-100,000
8. Honolulu 6.5-100,000
7. San Francisco 7-100,000
6. Austin, TX 7.5-100,000
5. Portland, OR 12-100,000
4. Flint, MI 14-100,000
3. Richmond, VA 14.5-100,000
2. Las Vegas 16-100,000
1. Miami Beach 24-100,000

And where does Santa Barbara rank? With the local area population at just about 100,000 and nine local shops listed in the Yellow Pages, another six listed in the Tattoo Yellow Pages, and who knows how many more; you do the math. America’s Riviera—with its large population college students, beach-y artsy community—inks in somewhere between Richmond, VA and Las Vegas in per capita numbers. Call us Inka Barbara, a top spot when it comes to decorating every body with America’s most popular—and permanent—fashion accessory. – Anna Kappa

What ever happened to Santa Barbara beautiful?
(Click to enlarge image)

Beautification at the corner of Sola and Olive Streets.

- Anna Kappa

Among the hundreds of properties for sale in Santa Barbara is the historic campus of Fielding Graduate Institute University – 2112 Santa Barbara Street. The listing price is $4,200,000. A note on their website says they are looking for a larger location and that, “we will miss this beautiful, historic space.”

Update: Letter to the Editor – “Thank you running the article about Fielding selling our buildings on Santa Barbara and De La Vina so that we can house our 100+ local employees under one accommodating roof. We will definitely keep our administrative headquarters in the greater Santa Barbara area.

Fielding has had two name changes since being founded in Santa Barbara 35 years ago, and I appreciate that not everyone has incorporated the most recent. Let me take this opportunity to point out that our full name is Fielding Graduate University.” – Sylvia Williams, Director of Communications & Community Relations

The building was designed by noted architect, Winsor Soule, in 1921 for Caroline and Walter Hodges of the Santa Fe Railway, in the Spanish Classical Revival style.

Both a wooden stairway and a ramp lead from the steep bluffs to the sandy beach. The park provides access to Rincon Point, one of the best places to surf on the entire California Coast. East of the point, surfers catch the swells refracted around the point and ride them near-parallel to the shore. Some of Southern California’s best waves break here in a foamy maelstrom, a true challenge for skilled kayakers and surfers. Check out the tide pools at the point and the sandy beach extending up-coast. – Santa Barbara County beaches by the TrailMaster.

GPS Coordinates: N 34 22 553

W 119 28 762

Facilities: Picnic facilities, including picnic areas available by reservation, restrooms, outdoor shower,  cool wooden tilted beach chairs, lots of parking.

Costs: Free

Directions: From Highway 101, about 12 miles up-coast from Ventura and 12 miles down-coast from Santa Barbara, exit on Bates Road. Head briefly toward the beach; down-coast to the left there is a public parking lot N 34 22 522 W 119 28 514 in Ventura County, with a restroom and a footpath to the beach. To the right, up-coast is Rincon Beach County Park.

Information: 805-568-2460

Watch the surfers from the shade of the beach shack.

The Surfers Code: Keeping surfers civil.

Ever since planners closed the 101 southbound freeway on-ramp at Hot Springs Road – under the guise of “operational improvements” – one lane of Coast Village Road has become a parking lot. Commuters are now forced to use Coast Village Road in order to access the next available on-ramp, creating quite a mess.

Phoebe Alexiades has supported the Santa Barbara View since April with a listing in the Realtor® Guide – here’s a little about her:

Phoebe  has been a resident of Santa Barbara for forty years and thus, has extensive knowledge and information on all details one needs and wants about the area and buying or selling a home here. She recognizes that looking at photos of homes online is a good way to start, but then the time comes when it’s necessary, and rewarding, to walk away from the computer and finally meet with a real person, in real life and actually see, feel and experience real properties. Phoebe is an expert at narrowing the time to only those homes that come closest to what a client is looking for. Enjoy the rapport and know that you will have the best expert representation all the way through. You can contact Phoebe at (805) 455-6999.

Profile by Anna Kappa: Simon Taylor, Left Coast Books, 5877 Hollister Ave., Goleta; www.leftcoastbooks.us

Rising triumphantly in the space where a fire drove Yoli’s Mexican Restaurant out of business, Left Coast Books promises to be something special in the community of independent booksellers. And owner Simon Taylor has a lot to say about books, community and independence—not necessarily in that order.

The one-time museum curator (pictured left) with a passion for books found himself out of options when his severance ran out, and he happened upon his new career. “All I had was my collection of 7,000 books,” he noted, “and while I can be sentimental about books, I realized what goes around comes around.” Taylor began selling his personal collection on the Internet—and made a fairly good living at it. “I like being independent, especially not having to work for some asshole who doesn’t know what’s going on.”

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Column by Barbara Hirsch

The recent recall of over 500 million (!) eggs by Iowa egg producers begs an examination of the egg industry, clearly, but also our choices as consumers. Most of the U.S.’s 300 million people eat eggs. In fact, there is about one laying hen per person in the U.S., each producing a couple of hundred eggs per year, about their laying life. No question (to those who eat them) they taste good, are a good source of protein, they’re cheap, they’re extremely versatile. With so many eggs needed, the business of producing them has become more and more efficient, which is not so good for the chicken, as with other “livestock”.

I will not pursue the gruesome issues here, but a few facts about the industry might be helpful when shopping for eggs. Millions of new laying hens are being born every year. The male chicks (half of those born) are useless in this business, and so are killed and disposed of. Most laying hens live in tight quarters, in cages surrounded by conveyor belts. Their waste is automatically carried away, as are their eggs. In recent years the term “cage free” has become increasingly common in grocery store egg racks. This means that they live indoors their entire brief lives free to walk around with hundreds or thousands of other chickens. The conditions are not sanitary (they may even be more so in the cages). “Free range” means that they must have access to outdoors, so that they can roam and peck, as chickens are wont to do. Now, you may find “pastured” eggs. The implication is that these birds eat what they normally would – insects and worms – in their lives outdoors. It is a proven truth, that eggs are healthier for us, when they come from healthier birds who have better lives.

Regulations are appearing around the U.S. and in many other countries towards a healthier business, but large scale production probably can not ever be humane, as it requires such economy of means. Buying locally farmed and pastured eggs is the best choice, if you are lucky enough to have it.
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Emmie is a 5 year old spayed female lab mix, (perhaps with Vizsla or Weimaraner?), 60 poundd.  Good with kids, adults, cats, and other dogs. The absolutely perfect dog except for separation anxiety, so she needs to be with her person(s) a majority of the time. A well behaved girl at work. She’d love to have the company of another dog in the household.

Emmie is awaiting a home at DAWG (Dog Adoption and Welfare Group), 5480 Overpass Rd, Goleta. For more information call,  805-681-0561 or visit, www.sbdawg.com.

Earlier this week, Ventura Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell, ruled that residents of southern Santa Barbara County will serve as jurors on the upcoming trial of 16-year-old Brandon McInerney. The defendant is being tried as an adult on charges of first-degree murder with a hate crime enhancement in the case of the shooting death of classmate, Lawrence “Larry” King.

Campbell determined that due to massive media attention about the case in the Ventura area, the defendant’s right to a fair trial was at risk with a jury selected from local jurors. At a hearing yesterday, the judge noted that details about the Santa Barbara jury selection logistics, as well as housing the defendant in Santa Barbara during that time still have to be worked out for the trial expected to begin in mid-November.

- Anna Kappa

Letter to the Editor:

The principal of SBHS has killed/ eliminated a very successful AP Chemistry class. This was done before the start of the school year when, as we know, the schedules for students continue to be adjusted, revised, changed and corrected due to multiple errors, omissions, and mistakes caused by poorly trained and apparently unaccountable administrators.

Does SBHS want to be known as the school which can only fill up its weaker classes? Who is setting policy?

While finances are blamed for dumb decisions like this one, the SBHS Educational Foundation appears to have lots of money – where is it going if not to keep in place proven educations programs?

What has the Site Council done about this? Did it meet and vote? Did it approve? Where is its agenda and minutes, etc?

A movegreen truck and crew provides complimentary hedge trimming.