One of the hardest lessons an entrepreneur must learn is knowing when to fire himself and turn over key responsibilities to smarter and more talented leaders.
The best decision I ever made with Noozhawk was taking on my two partners, now-editor in chief Tom Bolton and Kim Clark, our business development vice president.
From that point in 2012, there’s a clear correlation with the growth of our readership and revenue. To be honest, you wouldn’t be reading this without them.
I know that, they know that, and our team knows that — but it’s always exciting when others know that.
I’m very proud to say that NAWBO Santa Barbara, the local chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners, has recognized Kim’s importance, not just to Noozhawk but to local women entrepreneurs.
Fittingly, she was honored on March 21 with the inaugural Kim Clark Leadership Award for the time she spent 10 years ago as NAWBO’s president, reinvigorating the then-moribund organization and establishing the annual BRAVO Awards, a signature event celebrating the achievements of the local sisterhood.
In addition to Kim’s acceptance speech and her wonderful introduction by one of Noozhawk’s biggest champions, Montecito Bank & Trust chairwoman and CEO Janet Garufis, the luncheon featured a truly inspiring keynote speech from Kristen Miller, president and CEO of the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce.
More than 100 guests hosted by the Hilton Garden Inn Santa Barbara/Goleta also heard from seven other well-deserving women:
- Public Policy Advocate Award — Linda Krop, Environmental Defense Center chief counsel
- Education Advocate Award — Kellie Pearson, Mountain View School second-grade teacher
- Philanthropic Champion Award — Jen Gamble, co-founder of Lights Up! Theatre Company
- Entrepreneur to Watch Award — Julie Schneiderman, EcoStiks founder and CEO
- Rising Star Award — Charlotte Choi, Dos Pueblos High School senior
- Lifetime Achievement Award — Julie Phillips, owner and esthetician at Skin Essentials Montecito
- Woman Business Owner of the Year Award — Gretchen Lieff, founder and president of La Lieff Wines and founder of the Davey’s Voice anti-animal abuse group
Look for a complete Noozhawk story on the event in the next several days.
Over the last seven days, meanwhile, Noozhawk drew an audience of 132,546 readers, according to our WordPress analytics.
What follows is my recap of the Top 5 stories you were reading over the last week. To be clear, this is my opinion column and not a news story.
1. New Sketches Outline Latest Vision for Santa Barbara’s State Street
Local architects — on their own time and dimes — have unveiled sketches portraying their vision to revitalize three blocks of State Street in downtown Santa Barbara.
As our Josh Molina reported, the color renderings were presented at the March 18 State Street Advisory Committee meeting. They illustrated concepts like widened sidewalks, landscaping, public art, a fountain, and spaces for markets and events.
“It needs to feel like Santa Barbara,” said Anthony Grumbine, principal architect at Harrison Design and chairman of the Historic Landmarks Commission.
“That was our big push and what we were going for.”
The drawings for the 400, 800 and 1100 blocks of State Street, along with several paseos, were not specific.
They also did not address whether the street would remain closed to vehicles or would continue as a “pedestrian promenade” terrorized by speeding e-bikes and scooters.
The architects — Grumbine, Qing Xue and Alexis Stypa from Harrison Design; Marc Appleton and John Margolis from Appleton Partners; Justin Manuel of Arcadia Studios; Thomas Sekula of DMHA; and Fred Sweeney — called them a “design strategy” and “toolkit” for reimagining the moldering street that most locals avoid like the plague.
The drawings resonated with committee members.
Nadra Ehrman, sustainability director at The Towbes Group, praised the architects for “bringing the poetry back” to the conversation, stating the city is “on the right track” based on the new visuals.
Robin Elander, executive director of Downtown Santa Barbara, expressed excitement about the “meaningful, thoughtful sense of discovery” the renderings depicted.
“I was very thankful to see really how the street treatments, the sense of arrival, the placemaking, the tree scale, the meaningful, thoughtful sense of discovery can create a vibrate economic space,” she said.
While the overall feedback was positive, some committee members raised concerns about funding such an ambitious redesign.
Of course, the City of Santa Barbara has breezily shelled out $378,000 of a $780,000 contract it signed with an out-of-town consultant, Berkeley-based MIG, to oversee a State Street Master Plan.
MIG’s own previous renderings were met with ridicule from the public, leading Dave Davis, the chairman of the State Street Advisory Committee, to ask Grumbine for help creating a “wow factor” for the street.
While the master plan process plods on at the speed of a herd of turtles, I’ll remind readers — again — that architect Cass Ensberg proposed a straightforward, common-sense and affordable conceptual solution to fix State Street almost a year ago.
Ensberg also did all of her work for free. Maybe if she had attached an invoice for three-quarters of a million dollars it would have been taken more seriously by city officials.
2. 3 People Injured in Head-On Crash on Highway 101 Near Montecito
A devastating head-on collision on Highway 101 near Montecito injured three individuals, two of them seriously, in the early morning hours of March 16.
As our Josh Molina reported, the 2:45 a.m. crash occurred on the southbound side of the freeway west of the Hot Springs Road and Los Patos Way exits.
Santa Barbara fire Battalion Chief Jeremy Denton told Josh that the drivers of a Chevy Silverado pickup truck and a Chevy Suburban suffered severe injuries in the collision and had to be extricated from their mangled vehicles.
He said a passenger in one of the vehicles also was hurt, although not as badly.
According to Denton, investigators were not sure whether the wreck was the result of wrong-way driving or if one of the drivers lost control and the vehicle flipped over the center divider and into oncoming traffic.
The injured were taken by American Medical Response ambulances to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. Their identities and details on their medical condition were not disclosed.
The California Highway Patrol is investigating the circumstances of the crash.
3. Cal Poly Dorms Damaged, Students Evacuated After Unsanctioned Party
At one time, Isla Vista’s old Deltopia street party was the end all, be all of bacchanalia.
To that, St. Fratty’s Day revelers in San Luis Obispo apparently reply: “Hold my (green) beer.”
As reported by staff writers Kaytlyn Leslie and John Lynch of our partner, the San Luis Obispo Tribune, thousands of St. Patrick’s Day partiers ran amok on and around the Cal Poly campus early on March 16, trashing school buildings and dorms and robbing dining facilities and markets blind.
Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong condemned the behavior in unusually harsh terms for a college administrator in today’s overly indulgent university environment.
“I’m disappointed and disgusted as I write to you today about the behavior that some of our students and campus visitors displayed when they took part in early morning St. Patrick’s Day partying that caused significant damage to Muir Hall and several other University Housing facilities,” he wrote in an email to the campus community.
“These selfish and harmful actions are unacceptable for individuals who have been granted the privilege to study, live and work in the Cal Poly community,” he said.
Armstrong wasn’t finished.
“It is confounding and deeply disturbing that a portion of our own students so ignorantly and callously destroyed parts of our campus — including the very places they and so many other students live,” he said.
Armstrong said school officials and Cal Poly police will be investigating the incident. Those responsible will be held accountable, he added.
“Our expectation … is that students act like responsible young adults,” he said. “If that basic respect is too much to ask of some of you, then this university is not the right fit for you.”
“Learn By Doing” doesn’t get much more fundamental than that.
San Luis Obispo police estimated that 6,000 to 7,000 people — most in various states of intoxication — jammed the residential neighborhood south of campus in the wee hours of the morning.
Police said numerous citations were issued for noise, unruly gatherings, open containers, public urination and public intoxication.
4. Doctor Convicted in Brutal Attack on Child-Custody Supervisor Released After 4+ Years in Jail
A 60-year-old San José orthopedic surgeon has been released from Santa Barbara County Jail after serving a five-year sentence for brutally attacking a court-appointed child custody supervisor who was trying to prevent her from kidnapping her then-12-year-old son in 2019.
As our Tom Bolton reported, Dr. Theresa Lynn Colosi pleaded guilty in 2023 to assault with a deadly weapon and causing great bodily injury.
She had attacked the supervisor, Cindy Hann, on Dec. 8, 2019, during a court-ordered visitation with her son at the Goleta bowling alley now known as Bowlero.
Prosecutors say Colosi struck Hann in the head multiple times with a metal CO2 canister in the parking lot.
Hann told the boy to run for help while Colosi fled the scene.
In preparation for her getaway, Sheriff’s Department detectives said, Colosi had given away her belongings, withdrawn $900,000 in cash from her bank accounts, and had chartered a private jet to Montana under fictitious names for herself, her son and her dog.
Colosi was arrested in Whitefish, Montana, and extradited back to Santa Barbara County.
After taking a plea deal that dropped attempted murder and kidnapping charges, she was sentenced to five years in jail.
Released last week after serving 85% of her sentence, Colosi is now on a three-year supervised parole.
Superior Court Judge Clifford Anderson also issued a restraining order prohibiting contact with her son. The youth, whose identity has never been disclosed, is now 16 and living with his father.
A restitution hearing is still pending.
Tom could not reach Colosi for comment, and was not able to determine her whereabouts.
5. Santa Barbara Health Leaders Hear About Latest Long COVID Research
Getting the COVID-19 gang back together, local physicians and public health workers gathered recently to talk about the long-range health aspects of the infection that destroyed lives, economies, businesses, schools, freedoms, opportunities, relationships, reputations and so much more.
Our Giana Magnoli was on hand for the dinner lecture at Santa Barbara’s Mar Monte Hotel, which was hosted by the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department and the nonprofit Chesley Initiative.
Leading the discussion was Dr. David Putrino of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and an expert on Long COVID and other post-acute infection syndromes.
According to Putrino, there are more than 200 presenting symptoms of Long COVID, which is attributed to victims who survived an acute COVID-19 infection but still have symptoms at least three months later.
“It presents in any way you can imagine,” he said.
Giana has a full recap of the evening so I don’t have to reopen that Pandora’s box myself.
Exactly four years ago, the COVID-19 public health emergency declarations shut down the county, California and much of — but not all — the country. We’ll be paying for it for generations to come.
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Good Reads
Here are six more stories that are well worth the read:
» Center at Dos Pueblos High School Invests in Next Generation of Media Professionals — Congratulations to my friend, John Dent, Dos Pueblos High School’s popular DPNews and yearbook teacher and Career Technical Education Department chairman, on the new Virgil Elings Media Arts & Communications Center. Staff writer Rebecca Caraway is there for the ribbon cutting.
» County Getting First Look at Developer Proposals for Potential Housing Rezone Sites — Executive editor Giana Magnoli has an advance on Santa Barbara County’s first in-depth public look at proposed housing sites. South County editor Josh Molina follows up with the initial reaction from the Board of Supervisors.
» Joyce Dudley: His Final Gift Was the Greatest of All — My friend, retired Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley, lost her husband, John, to pancreatic cancer. On the fifth anniversary of his untimely death, she shares some touching and still-raw reflections on that last awful day.
» Erin Graffy: State Street Has a Sweet History as Santa Barbara’s Main Street — Talk of the Town columnist Erin Graffy takes a stroll down Memory Lane, aka State Street.
» Viva El Centenario! Old Spanish Days El Presidente Unveils Theme, Plans for 100th Fiesta Celebration — Rebecca previews plans for the 100th anniversary of Old Spanish Days Fiesta.
» John Charles Tremblay of Santa Barbara, 1952-2024 — John Tremblay was a legend in Santa Barbara sports as a high school and college athlete, but he matched that success with a life well lived. #rip to the Tremblay family.
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Last Year on Noozhawk
What was our most-read story this time last year? Authorities Release Name of Santa Barbara Diver Who Died at San Miguel Island.
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Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week
In a battle between a mountain lion and a group of bicyclists, do not bet against these five women: Cyclists Fight Off Cougar with Rocks, Sticks and Hands to Save Friend’s Life.
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Best of Bill’s Instagram
My Instagram feed had some impressive, sky-high moments this past week, along with some looking back and looking forward.
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Watch It
Bear with me for this home video. HT to Best of Bill reader Jane Morris.
