Well, here we are.
It has been nearly a month since Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statewide stay-at-home order and even longer since the country turned off the economy. Both actions were taken in a sincere attempt to ensure that hospitals and our health-care system would not be overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe.
Through social distancing and a remarkably broad voluntary compliance, California has largely succeeded in slowing the spread.
To be clear, we are not in the clear. There is far too much we don’t know about COVID-19, from the source of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, China, to its long-term health effects, threats and behavior. We’re just going to have to live with that.
The lockdowns, however, were never intended to eradicate the disease. Most likely that can’t happen without a vaccine, which could be months or even years away.
But this crisis is not solely a public health catastrophe; it is also a self-imposed economic disaster. Both must be addressed simultaneously and with the same urgency.
As if this were some perverse if/then proposition, some government officials — and Noozhawk’s betters in the news media — insist we must wait to declare victory over the former before we can tackle the latter.
We don’t have that kind of time.
The world is facing an economic collapse on a scale that we have never seen. Unemployment is skyrocketing. Businesses are teetering. So much of our everyday life and our future are now uncertain.
Earlier this week, Newsom issued a blueprint for “reopening” California. There’s far less there in his six-point plan than advertised, and it could yet be weeks before we’re allowed to return to our “new normal.”
But the parameters he set forth appear to provide a generational opportunity for Santa Barbara County — if we’re bold enough to seize it. Now is not the time for “business as usual” and hidebound decision-making that have been a hallmark around these parts for far too long.
Now is the time for true local leadership and informed, compassionate and innovative thinking to start reopening businesses and our economy while still balancing the ongoing needs and health protections that our most vulnerable neighbors require and deserve.
Not that long ago, Santa Barbara County’s unemployment rate was around 3 percent. Getting back to that point should be our relentless focus for the foreseeable future, and the collective “we” must start pressing our local politicians and policy makers to do everything they can to help, not hinder this cause.
As citizens, we must call on government to help people get back on their feet and then get out of their way. As Americans, that should be enough.
I’ll be exploring that further when Santa Barbara County Second District Supervior Gregg Hart joins me on April 24 for our second Noozhawk Talks, an exclusive Zoom livestream on our homepage, on our Facebook page and to our YouTube channel.
Details will be announced early next week, but you can click here to submit a question you’d like me to ask Hart via our Noozhawk Asks platform.
According to our Google Analytics, there were 164,760 of you reading Noozhawk this past week. Most of you know that these Best of Bill columns are my take on the Top 5 most-read stories during that period, but in case you don’t, this is an opinion column. It is not a news story.
(Noozhawk video via Facebook)
1. Brian Goebel: Now That California’s COVID-19 Hospitalization Curve Is Completely Bent, What’s Next?
My friend, Brian Goebel, has continued to stay ahead of the coronavirus curve with his columns scrutinizing the pandemic modeling and its effects on … everything. For the second week in a row, he’s outdistanced the field to claim Noozhawk’s top spot in our most-read articles of the previous week.
Brian’s April 11 report struck another nerve, mainly because it was one of the first to conclude — from state Department of Public Health data — that California not only had flattened the curve with hospitalization admissions, it had bent it completely. Now, he reasoned, it was time to start considering where we go from here, as a state and a community.
Of course, this column’s 22,000 readers are a far cry from the now-173,000 who read his Noozhawk-record April 5 column, “California Substantially Flattened the COVID-19 Curve in March,” but he’ll take it. And so will I.
In case you missed it — and thanks to me, everyone almost did — Brian and I talked modeling, methodology and outcomes in an April 13 Zoom webcast that was streamed to our Facebook page. It was our first-ever Noozhawk Talks webcast, and with my upcoming Gregg Hart interview on April 24, it won’t be the last.
2. 1 Dead, 3 Injured in Crash on Highway 154 Above Santa Barbara
It’s been a while, but a head-on collision on Highway 154 above Santa Barbara killed one man and left three other people injured. As is too often the case, a driver was arrested on suspicion of DUI.
According to the California Highway Patrol, 22-year-old Brian Watana Dul of Goleta was driving a Mazda 3 east on the highway about 6 p.m. on April 9 when he crossed the center lane directly into the path of an oncoming Toyota 4-Runner about a mile below Painted Cave Road.
The car veered left and the SUV slammed into the sedan’s passenger side, collapsing it inward.
Santa Barbara County fire Capt. Daniel Bertucelli told our Tom Bolton that the front-seat passenger required extensive extrication from the mangled wreckage.
CHP Capt. Cindy Pontes said the passenger — identified as 21-year-old Cole DeBortoli of Santa Barbara — was rushed by an American Medical Response ambulance to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital with major injuries, but he died at the hospital.
Authorities say Dul had moderate injuries while the occupants of the Toyota — driver Mitchell Summer, 59, of Long Beach, and passenger Kelly Summer, 52, also of Long Beach — suffered minor injuries. They were all transported by AMR ambulances to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, although Mitchell Summer did not require hospitalization.
Pontes told Tom that Dul was subsequently arrested on suspicion of felony DUI and vehicular manslaughter.
The crash remains under CHP investigation.
DeBortoli attended Santa Barbara City College after graduating from Dos Pueblos High School. Funeral services are pending.
Friends established a GoFundMe account to assist his family with funeral expenses, and their efforts have raised nearly $9,000 as of April 17. Click here to make an online donation.
3. Shelter-in-Place Order Issued for Neighborhood Near Stow Grove in Goleta
The Santa Barbara Police Department was almost loquacious following a successful April 14 SWAT operation in neighboring Goleta. The show of force quickly resulted in the arrest of a suspect in an Easter Sunday drive-by shooting on Santa Barbara’s Lower Eastside.
Noozhawk readers have become accustomed to SBPD’s nonanswers after the recent escalation in mysterious stabbings, shootings and other violence in the city. Surprisingly, that was not the case this time.
Police spokesman Anthony Wagner told our Tom Bolton that police SWAT officers and crisis negotiators had gone to Covington Way, bordering Stow Grove Park, to serve high-risk arrest and search warrants at a residence.
A shelter-in-place order was issued for the neighborhood just before 7:30 p.m., but Wagner said the suspect — whom he identified as 24-year-old Daniel Djamali-Kahi of Goleta — was taken into custody without incident. The shelter-in-place order was lifted about a half-hour later.
Because the operation was conducted outside SBPD’s jurisdiction, Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputies assisted with the case.
Djamali-Kahi was booked into County Jail on suspicion of assault with a firearm and shooting into an occupied vehicle. As of April 16, he was still jailed in lieu of $250,000 bail.
No one was injured in the midafternoon April 12 shooting at Punta Gorda and Salinas streets in Santa Barbara, but 9-1-1 callers reported numerous shots fired. Responding officers found multiple spent shell casings at the scene, Wagner said.
Not long after, he said, a high-risk traffic stop was conducted in the 1500 block of Santa Barbara Street after police spotted a BMW SUV that had been struck by gunfire. The three occupants were questioned but not arrested, he added.
Djamali-Kahi allegedly was in a second vehicle that got away after the shooting, but police have offered no motive for the incident.
Wagner said the search of Djamali-Kahi’s home turned up a 9mm semi-automatic pistol, an AR-15 rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
4. Woman to Be Arraigned on Homicide Charges in Westside Santa Barbara Killing of Her Mother
A 41-year-old Santa Barbara woman was arrested as a suspect in the brutal stabbing death of her mother. The body of the 76-year-old victim was found in a home near Harding University Partnership School on the Westside.
You didn’t hear any of that from the Santa Barbara Police Department, though.
Just after 9 a.m. April 8, police were called to a residence in the 1500 block of Kowalski Avenue, behind Harding School near the intersection of West Micheltorena Street.
Beyond the confirmation of the dispatch time and location, details were typically nonexistent. Police spokesman Anthony Wagner told our Tom Bolton that officers had found “a deceased person” in an apparent homicide and that a suspect was in custody.
SBPD was still sticking to its no-story story two days later so Tom called Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley, who was far more helpful.
She identified the victim as Hiilani Mikaitis and said her daughter, Leinani Nalani McClintic, had been arrested and was to be arraigned April 13 on a first-degree murder charge.
Mikaitis reportedly died of multiple stab wounds.
The criminal complaint filed against McClintic also accuses her of using a deadly weapon, a knife, in commission of the crime. She faces a special allegation that the offense is a serious felony, which makes her ineligible to serve a state prison sentence in county jail.
As of April 17, McClintic remains in County Jail with bail set at $2 million.
5. BizHawk: Los Agaves Among Restaurants Laying Off Employees Amid Coronavirus
Since the coronavirus crisis started coursing through the economy, restaurants have been the proverbial canary in the coal mine. When two of Santa Barbara’s most popular eateries are starting to feel the pinch, it doesn’t bode well for their sector — or for the rest of us, to be honest.
Los Agaves has been a remarkable successs story since my friend, Carlos Luna, opened his first Mexican restaurant on North Milpas Street in 2008. Since then, he’s had a deft touch and vision as he launched four sister stores, on De la Vina Street in Santa Barbara, Camino Real Marketplace in Goleta, Oxnard and Westlake Village.
He also started three other Mexican-themed restaurants under different brands and concepts.
As of now, only De la Vina, Goleta and Westlake Village are continuing to operate with takeout and delivery services. Worse, he had to lay off a staggering 300 employees.
“We never imagined that something like this could happen,” Luna told our Josh Molina, adding that many restaurant employees typically “live paycheck to paycheck.”
On April 16, Luna and I had a long talk as I was leaving the De la Vina restaurant with a couple of orders of Chile Poblano Campestre, a perpetual #bestofbillrecommendation.
He’s one of the most optimistic people I know, but you could see the frustration on his face and feel the pain in his heart when he was describing how dedicated his laid-off employees are, offering to drive to any location to do anything.
They’re family and they want to work, not be unemployed, but there’s little anyone can do to help them.
One option, however, is a GoFundMe account that Luna established so Los Agaves fans can pitch in on their behalf. The campaign has raised nearly $7,000 so far, and all donations received will go directly to the laid-off employees and their families, he said. Click here to make an online donation.
Los Arroyos, my other favorite Mexican restaurant, is facing the same challenge.
Owner Tony Arroyo and I have been friends for years. He gave my son, Will, his first job, and several of his employees — I’m talking about you, Stephanie Borrayo — are like my own family.
Arroyo, too, started a GoFundMe account for his staff as long as his now-three locations — downtown Santa Barbara, Goleta and Montecito — are operating with fewer employees and reduced hours. More than $7,000 has been raised to date, and you can click here to make an online donation.
But all restaurants are struggling, and they all need our help — to the extent that we can.
Click here for Noozhawk’s Open for Business Directory of Santa Barbara County restaurants and their hours and details of their takeout, curbside pickup and delivery services.
• • •
Last Year on Noozhawk
What was our most-read story this time last year? Couple Robbed at Gunpoint in Rural Area Near Goleta.
• • •
Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week
Birds of a feather, self-quarantine together: How To Get Really Into Birdwatching While You’re Stuck At Home.
• • •
Best of Bill’s Instagram
My Instagram feed put the squeeze on some Charmin last week.
• • •
Watch It
This is a piece of cake, in case you’re running out of things to do under the stay-at-home order.
(Joseph’s Machines video)
• • •
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— Bill Macfadyen is Noozhawk’s founder and publisher. Contact him at wmacfadyen@noozhawk.com, follow him on Twitter: @noozhawk and Instagram: @bill.macfadyen, or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
