One year ago today, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued his first stay-at-home order intended to slow the rapidly spreading coronavirus before California’s hospital capacity was overwhelmed.
The goal was accomplished but it would be months before the lockdown was lifted. As if COVID-19’s devastation and death toll weren’t dreadful enough, the self-inflicted shutdown of the economy and our public schools unleashed consequences that will be with us for years to come.
But you know this.
Like all of you, Noozhawk had to feel our way — safely — through the biggest public health and economic challenge of our lives. Our small team of professional journalists worked almost around the clock to keep you informed about every aspect of the crisis. The pace was exhausting.
My partners — executive editor Tom Bolton and business development vice president Kim Clark — and I had plans to expand our staff in the fourth quarter last year. Instead, we moved up our timeline to midyear.
Amid all the chaos and uncertainties of the catastrophe, we were able to count on the generosity and enthusiasm of our readers. That financial commitment by our Hawks Club members enabled us to grow our news staff at the exact moment we — and you — needed it most.
Our first new hire was staff writer Jade Martinez-Pogue, who joined us in June after graduating remotely from UC Santa Barbara.
Surely, you remember how difficult your first “adult” job was, but I’ll bet few of you started in the middle of a global calamity. I never saw Jade sweat — on Zoom — and her impact was almost immediate.
She has been a very welcome addition to our team, and I’m enormously proud of her growth as a journalist in not even a year’s time. Click here for a Q&A with Jade.
I’m also eternally grateful to our Hawks Club members for making that happen. It was your investment in us that provided Jade with this opportunity.
At a time when consumers face a myriad of choices and unprecedented challenges in evaluating the credibility of even basic news coverage, all of us at Noozhawk are committed to providing you with local news and information you can rely on.
We strive to produce fair, accurate and unbiased local journalism that holds power to account while providing you with the facts you need to be an informed, engaged citizen of Santa Barbara County — without a pay wall or other reader restrictions.
That has been our mission since our founding in 2007, and we’re proud to continue that tradition in service to our readers now nearly 14 years later.
Will you help us continue to grow by becoming a Hawks Club member today? With your membership, you’re helping us make a positive impact in the community we love as much as you do, and you just may be helping us hire our next Jade Martinez-Pogue.
From all of us at Noozhawk, thank you.
According to our Google Analytics, Noozhawk had an audience of 103,767 readers this past week. What follows is my own take on the Top 5 stories you were reading during the period.
Please remember that this is my opinion column. It is not a news story.
1. Santa Barbara County Expected to Advance to Less-Restrictive COVID-19 Red Tier on Tuesday
Just as our Brooke Holland reported March 12, Santa Barbara County officially has advanced to a less-restrictive tier in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Byzantine, four-level coronavirus “reopening” plan for California.
With declining daily COVID-19 cases locally and expanded vaccine distribution statewide, the county has clawed back to the red tier after nearly two months in the most-restrictive purple tier. Small businesses are finally exhaling.
As our Jade Martinez-Pogue reported March 16, the new level permits indoor dining at restaurants at the still-paltry 25 percent capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer. The same goes for churches, movie theaters and the Santa Barbara Zoo, while retail stores and shopping centers are allowed to open at 50 percent capacity indoors.
Perhaps most timely, all K-12 schools are allowed to reopen to in-person instruction without submitting a waiver application — as long as they’ve posted a safety plan on their website five days before. Huh? What’s the SCIENCE behind that?!
The red tier comes with miles more red tape like that, but we’ll take it while we all wait for the vaccines to do their thing and herd immunity to kick in.
2. Santa Barbara Police Department Puts Spokesman Anthony Wagner on Leave
As if there’s nothing to write about in its own front, back and side yards, Los Angeles magazine ranged fairly far afield to publish an exposé on Anthony Wagner, the Santa Barbara Police Department’s public engagement officer and civilian spokesman.
Under the headline, “In Sleepy Santa Barbara, a City Hall Insider Is Raising Eyebrows,” the nearly 4,000-word piece by freelance writer Mitchell Kriegman recounted a number of anecdotes about Wagner, who frequently appears in Noozhawk stories not commenting on crimes the SBPD is investigating.
But Kriegman, a former writer for Saturday Night Live and an Emmy-winning children’s TV show writer, also leveled some serious accusations at Wagner, who was among the City of Santa Barbara officials involved in the cannabis dispensary licensing process.
According to the magazine, Wagner, a San Diego native, was a former business associate of the owner of San Diego-based Golden State Greens, which was one of just three cannabis companies to secure a coveted license in Santa Barbara.
Before Golden State Greens had even opened its retail dispensary at 3516 State St., it turned around and flipped the license to Jushi, a Boca Raton, Florida, operator, in a deal whose undisclosed but estimated value was between $9 million and $11 million.
Our Josh Molina, who has been covering Santa Barbara City Hall for more than 20 years, had previously reported the Jushi deal and many other parts of Kriegman’s story, but he had never tied it all together with a bow.
Kriegman’s specific allegations about deeper “insider” shenanigans among the San Diegans and between Wagner and other current and former city officials had not been reported by Noozhawk, however.
Those parts evidently jumped out at interim police Chief Barney Melekian, too. As Josh reported March 15, he placed Wagner on temporary paid administrative leave while an independent investigation could be conducted.
“Most of these allegations have been previously investigated, either within the police department or by the city attorney’s office,” Melekian said in a statement. “In addition, the city prevailed in a federal lawsuit by one of the unsuccessful cannabis permit applicants, which was dismissed in December 2019.
“Nevertheless, the Los Angeles magazine article makes new allegations concerning the nature of Mr. Wagner’s role in the process of the awarding cannabis licenses that support further investigation. To that end, the department will be retaining an outside firm to conduct that investigation for the Police Department.”
Wagner has denied any wrongdoing, and he accused Kriegman and Los Angeles magazine of shoddy reporting and fact-checking. Melekian told Josh that Wagner “has been fully cooperative with this inquiry and welcomes the involvement of an outside reviewer.”
Meanwhile, I want to thank the more than 120 friends, acquaintances and other readers who forwarded or texted me the magazine link.
I think I responded to most of you, but I wanted to say again that we’re not likely to ask other publications for permission to republish their copyrighted work, especially when our own journalists have already reported substantial portions of it.
3. Female Pedestrian Struck and Killed by Amtrak Train in Summerland
A woman who reportedly tried to run across the railroad tracks ahead of an Amtrak passenger train didn’t make it. She was struck and killed by the northbound Pacific Surfliner the afternoon of March 16 just west of Summerland’s Lookout Park.
As our Tom Bolton was first to report, Carpinteria-Summerland fire Battalion Chief Mike Gallagher said the woman was declared dead at the scene.
Witnesses told Tom that they saw her run across the Union Pacific tracks and into the train’s path.
The identity of the woman, who appeared to be in her mid- to late 30s, was not disclosed pending notification of relatives.
The Santa Barbara County sheriff’s Coroner’s Bureau is investigating the circumstances of the incident, which is one more in a way-too-long list of pedestrian-train fatalities on the South Coast.
4. Lompoc Man Critically Injured in Single-Vehicle Crash on Highway 246
A rollover wreck on Highway 246 near Buellton left a Lompoc man in critical condition March 14 after he was ejected from the mangled car.
Santa Barbara County fire Capt. Daniel Bertucelli told our Janene Scully that the single-vehicle crash was reported around 4:30 p.m. in the grassy median about a half-mile west of Buellton.
He said firefighters, California Highway Patrol officers and an American Medical Response ambulance converged on the scene and found the victim with major injuries. A CalStar helicopter flew him to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, but his medical condition was not available.
On March 15, CHP Officer Keith Rogers identified the victim as 35-year-old Keith Parker.
The CHP is investigating the cause and circumstances of the crash, but Rogers said alcohol does not appear to have been a factor.
5. Former Macy’s Building Being Converted to Offices in Downtown Santa Barbara
Macy’s in downtown Santa Barbara was a dead man walking even before the 2017 closure of the department store at the corner of State and West Ortega streets.
But the death set off intense speculation about the resurrection of the hulking, 132,500-square-foot building anchoring the southeast corner of Paseo Nuevo.
Workforce housing. A new police station. A public marketplace. A center for nonprofit organizations. A mixture of housing, offices and retail. A grocery store. Homeless housing. Noozhawk World Headquarters. Tear it down and start over.
No idea, no matter how well-meaning or far out, was off limits, as Noozhawk reporters frequently wrote about as part of our Reimagine: Santa Barbara series.
As our Brooke Holland reported March 14, however, the building’s owner has decided its future, and some of the guesswork was not far off.
According to Hayes Commercial Group, the bulk of the building — the top two of its three floors — will be converted to office space, the “largest office floor plates” downtown, in fact.
Hayes, which will be listing the space, says the venture will offer 40,000 square feet on each floor, or half-floor suites in the 20,000-square-foot range.
“Frankly, there aren’t a lot of tenants in our area looking for 20,000 or 40,000 square feet of office,” said my friend, Francois DeJohn, a Hayes partner. “So we are marketing to companies in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and beyond to consider adding an office location in Santa Barbara.”
Plans for the street-level ground floor include potentially retail, restaurant and grocery tenants.
Architects for the building’s owner, El Segundo-based Pacific Retail Capital Partners, which also owns Paseo Nuevo, had determined that the structure was not suitable to convert into apartments or condos.
• • •
Last Year on Noozhawk
What was our most-read story this time last year? 1st Confirmed Case of Coronavirus Reported in Santa Barbara County.
• • •
Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week
That’s some A+ work: World’s First 3-D Printed School May Soon Be a Reality.
• • •
Best of Bill’s Instagram
@sadiethealaskanmalamute took a stand and drew record views for her video in my Instagram feed this past week.
• • •
Watch It
That eye roll, though.
(OceanX video)
• • •
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— Bill Macfadyen is Noozhawk’s founder and publisher. Contact him at wmacfadyen@noozhawk.com, follow him on Instagram: @bill.macfadyen, or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
