Noozhawk is moving steadily forward with our expansion plans, and I’m excited to announce the latest addition to our growing team.
After nearly 40 years helping Central Coast businesses and nonprofit organizations tell their stories, Claudia Delgado is bringing her passion for community journalism to Noozhawk as our new sales and marketing manager.
Claudia started at the Santa Ynez Valley News in 1987, advancing from production roles to advertising sales executive, later becoming general manager.
Along the way — in senior sales and management roles with parent companies Lee Central Coast Newspapers and for the last five years Santa Maria Times News Media Inc. — she built lasting relationships with local advertisers and guided clients through the news industry’s digital transformation.
In her spare time, she even served three years as a Solvang Chamber of Commerce board member.
“After nearly four decades in print media, I’m excited to bring my experience to the digital world — helping businesses expand their reach, connect with customers online and achieve meaningful marketing results,” she told me.
Longtime Lompoc residents, Claudia and her husband, Ralph, have two adult daughters: Gabriella and Ana.
Her first public Noozhawk event will be Oct. 12 when she’ll be joining me, business development vice president Kim Clark and sales and marketing director Sheridan Taphorn for the Santa Ynez Valley Foundation’s presentation of its 2025 Champions of the Valley. We hope to see you there.
Please join me in welcoming Claudia to Team Noozhawk. We’re thrilled to have her helping us expand our reach, deepen our engagement, and sharpen our impact throughout Santa Barbara County.
Claudia can be reached at cdelgado@noozhawk.com or 805.456.7213.
While Claudia was settling in with us, Noozhawk was drawing an audience of 146,260 readers this past week, according to our WordPress analytics.
What follows is my own take on the Top Five most-read stories over that period, as compiled by our Google Analytics.
You should know by now that this is my opinion column. It is not a news story.
1. BizHawk: Erewhon Is Only Shipping to Santa Barbara for Now, Despite Internet Buzz
Social media erupted last week after luxury grocery chain Erewhon posted on Instagram that it was “coming soon” to Santa Barbara, but the Vernon-based company quickly clarified it would only be shipping to the area — not opening a physical store.
As our Josh Molina reported, the upscale market, known for $20 smoothies and $23 rotisserie chickens, sparked speculation about a possible location at the proposed Paseo Nuevo development at State and West Ortega streets.
However, that project remains years away and faces more immediate community pushback over building mass and other concerns.
For now, Santa Barbara residents wanting celebrity-endorsed smoothies — like Hailey Bieber’s Strawberry Glaze Skin Smoothie — will need to order delivery from Calabasas, the closest store, or make the trek themselves.
The chain’s Instagram post was updated to clarify the shipping-only arrangement after the initial announcement sparked widespread confusion locally.
2. Santa Barbara Moves Toward Pay-by-Plate Parking System at Waterfront Lots
The City of Santa Barbara’s waterfront parking lots are a step closer to a pay-by-plate system after the City Council’s Ordinance Committee voted 3-0 to advance the matter to the full council.
As our Josh Molina reported, the new system will install license plate readers, eliminating the need for confused motorists to walk back to their cars to display dashboard permits.
Drivers will simply pay once at kiosks after parking.
The change affects six of eight waterfront lots totaling about 2,580 parking spots.
The Stearns Wharf and Harbor Main lots, which are staffed, will maintain their current systems. Annual waterfront permits are unaffected.
Councilman Mike Jordan expressed concerns about the lack of mobile payment options at launch of the new system, a reasonable expectation and a quite common convenience in the year 2025.
Waterfront business manager Cesar Barrios said the city has been in contact with vendors to allow people to pay with an app — eventually.
In spite of that lack of advance planning, Jordan and fellow committee members Oscar Gutierrez and Kristen Sneddon voted for the change.
3. At 17, He Completed a Double Everest Cycling Challenge on a Santa Barbara Road
A 17-year-old Santa Barbara cyclist accomplished an extraordinary endurance feat last weekend, riding enough vertical elevation to equal two ascents of 29,032-foot Mount Everest — without leaving Santa Barbara County.
As our Ann Pieramici reported, Ray McPhee started at 4:50 a.m. Oct. 4 at the base of Old San Marcos Road and completed his challenge 48 hours later on Oct. 6, cycling roughly 58,000 feet of elevation gain over nearly 300 miles through 48 laps of the punishing climb.
The Olive Grove Charter School junior was inspired by local ultra-endurance athlete Daniel “Dirty Dan” Connell, whom he met during a Santa Barbara Middle School bike trip six years ago.
Connell joined numerous community cyclists who rode alongside McPhee throughout the challenge.
“I’m trying to find my personal limitations and see what is possible,” McPhee said.
The effort raised money for Santa Barbara Mountain Bike Club scholarships through an ongoing GoFundMe campaign to expand access to the sport.
The club has raised more than $3,600 as of Oct. 10. Click here to make an online donation.
McPhee now has his sights set on the Tour Divide, a 2,800-mile self-supported off-pavement race from Banff, Alberta, to Antelope Wells, New Mexico, on the border with Mexico.
4. Ex-Girlfriend Testifies Against Former UCSB Student Accused of Assault
A woman identified as Jane Doe H.O.C. testified Oct. 3 that she felt “pure panic and terror” when her then-boyfriend allegedly assaulted her during a June 2021 party at his Isla Vista apartment.
As our Rebecca Caraway has been reporting, Arian Eteghaei, a 23-year-old former UC Santa Barbara student from Dublin in Alameda County, faces multiple felony charges, including forcible rape, attempted rape, sexual penetration by foreign object, forcible oral copulation, false imprisonment, and battery connected to alleged assaults on six women.
Doe H.O.C. testified that Eteghaei blocked the door and pulled her hair to prevent her from leaving after she discovered he was cheating on her.
She described repeatedly saying no as he allegedly assaulted her.
“I never stopped saying no,” she told the Santa Barbara County Superior Court jury.
The jury heard a recorded phone call from two months after the alleged assault in which Eteghaei apologized for what he “put her through.”
His defense attorney, Encino-based Leonard Levine, has argued that all interactions were consensual.
Eteghaei, a UCSB freshman in 2020-2021, was arrested in August 2021 after three women reported assaults. Three additional women came forward during the investigation.
5. Construction Underway On Big UCSB Student Housing Project
Three large cranes now tower over the UCSB campus as construction advances on the San Benito housing project, which will add 2,224 student beds in seven apartment-style buildings by fall 2027.
As our Rebecca Caraway reported, the development replaces the controversial Munger Hall proposal, which faced backlash from students, staff and local architects over its nine-story, 3,500-bed design criticized for its mass, lack of windows and overcrowding concerns.
The California Coastal Commission approved San Benito in April, and San Francisco-based Webcor Builders began construction soon after on the five-acre site between Mesa Road and Stadium Road near Harder Stadium.
The project includes studios, two-bedroom and four-bedroom units arranged in towers with central common areas, a food market and student services.
UCSB will also build a Central Utility Plant and add bicycle parking and pedestrian paths.
San Benito represents the first phase of UCSB’s two-stage housing expansion. The second phase will add 1,400 beds to the existing Channel Islands Five community on the east side of campus.
UCSB spokeswoman Kiki Reyes told Rebecca the project remains on schedule.
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Good Reads
These six stories are also worth your while:
» How a Tiny Turtle Caused Large-Scale Search After Disappearing from Hook & Press Donuts — There’s no glazing over a recent shell game perpetrated against a popular Santa Barbara doughnut shop. But staff writer Pricila Flores reports on the happy ending for the reptilian representative whose heist left quite a hole in the operation.
» UCSB Professors Michel Devoret, John Martinis Awarded Nobel Prize in Physics — Staff writer Rebecca Caraway measures the impact of UCSB’s latest Nobel Prize laureates.
» Unborn Baby Dies in Crash on Highway 1 at Santa Lucia Canyon Road — North County editor Janene Scully is following another fatal wreck at a notoriously deadly intersection near Lompoc.
» Goleta Council Authorizes Citation Policy For People Living in Vehicles, Encampments — Pricila is tracking the City of Goleta’s plans to clean up the city.
» County Planning Commission OKs 99-Unit Apartment Complex in Orcutt — Staff writer Daniel Green has the nuts and bolts of a new apartment complex planned for Orcutt.
» Dan McCaslin: Escape to Goleta — ‘Travel’ to Suburbia — Outdoors columnist Dan McCaslin’s accounts of Santa Barbara County’s rugged backcountry are always a popular read. This time he’s writing about a much more accessible — and personal — adventure.
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Last Year on Noozhawk
What was our most-read story this time last year? Goleta Library to Close for Up to 2 Years; City Seeks Temporary Home.
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What I’m Up To
Although I’m not looking for a free meal, I occasionally do have free time if you’re looking for a speaker for your club, group or organization and want to hear more about Noozhawk. Email me at wmacfadyen@noozhawk.com.
Dec. 11 — The Channel City Club has asked me to emcee its Christmas brunch at the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort. I’m honored to be recruited, all the more so because I’m following the giant footsteps of my close friend, the late Erin Graffy.
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Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week
We’re gonna need a bigger boat: ‘Biggest Ever’ Great White Shark Surfaces Just Off Canada.
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Best of Bill’s Instagram
@sadiethealaskanmalamute goes to church and I go to Idaho. It’s all in my Instagram feed this past week.
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Watch It
If you really want to get confused, try the ’70s.
