Thank you for all of the congratulations about the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce honoring me with the 2024 Man of the Year Award at the recent Goleta’s Finest gala.
I think I’ve just about answered all of your messages and notes, but I want you to know how appreciative I am. Thank you.
You can click here to read our Ann Pieramici’s coverage of the evening at The Ritz-Carlton Bacara, but a number of you asked me for a link to my speech. I’m posting it below since the audio of the video versions I’ve seen is not great.
As I was given a three-minute limit, the parts I skipped on the fly are in parentheses.
“Good evening. Thank you.
(I think in the nearly 20 years I’ve served on the nominating committee for this event, this was the first year I missed the meeting. Had I known …)
Thank you, Laurel (Sykes), for your very kind words. I’m grateful.
That was a warm introduction, but it’s not as warm as the welcome I get every time I enter American Riviera Bank. As soon as I walk through the door, I’m greeted with a resounding chorus of ‘SADIE! SADIE’S HERE!’
For the 12 of you who don’t know, Sadie is my Instagram-famous Alaskan malamute sidekick. She’s not here tonight, but she wanted me to tell you that that was not her choice.
Thank you to Kristen (Miller) and the chamber. You know, for the longest time I couldn’t unwind where the chamber ended and where I began. More than 20 years, probably.
But now I’m no longer on the board!
(It’s pretty impressive to reflect on what we accomplished over these decades. In my first term as Goleta Valley chamber board chairman — in the Great Recession glory years of 2008-2009, I almost put us out of business.
Fortunately, I was followed by Jim Knight and Joanne Funari, who knew what they were doing and got us back in the black. But Kristen and I came up with the then-unheard-of idea to ditch our bricks-and-mortar office and put the chamber entirely online.
For years, we pursued Southwest Airlines. It wasn’t until we had the force of the newly merged Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce behind us that we closed that deal.
And that merger was a longtime project of ours. Kristen and I had seen firsthand the value and policy power of a unified organization from our time with the Regional Legislative Alliance.
We believed a merger of the Carpinteria Valley, Goleta and Santa Barbara chambers would better benefit our business community, which is too-often an afterthought for elected officials and local government agencies.
It took us a while — until the 2019 COVID-19 lockdowns, in fact — and it still wasn’t easy to convince everyone, but we did it. For the most part, it’s worked out just as we had envisioned.)
I am so thankful for this honor, and I first must thank my wife, Missy, who for 18 years has allowed me to pursue this dream of mine — with cheerfulness and patience.
She desperately wants me to get my own office somewhere that’s not our house, though.
I also want to thank our son, Will, who I get to work with every day; and our other son and daughter, Colin and Kirsten, who have worked for Noozhawk, too.
And I want to give a shoutout to our daughter-in-law, Colleen, who is at home in Santa Ynez with our grandsons, Nico, and his baby brother, Wes, who just turned 6 weeks old.
While my name is on this award, it actually is a direct result of my team at Noozhawk, a lot of whom are right here in front.
Yes, this whole online-only, professional local news thing was my cockamamie idea, and God blessed me with the most ideal opening and opportunity any new business could imagine, but I would not be up here without my colleagues — past and present.
There are no better teammates — anywhere — than my business partners, Tom Bolton and Kim Clark, who are so much smarter and more talented than I am. I just pointed them in the right direction and got out of their way.
Thanks to them, the result is what you know today. Noozhawk is THE No. 1 source for local news and information, not just in Goleta, in Santa Barbara or in Montecito, but all of Santa Barbara County — 24/7.
Thank you.
Tom and Kim’s deft handling of our news, sales and marketing are what allow me the freedom to work on the entrepreneurial side of our business, to serve in civic leadership roles, and to be the face of Noozhawk in our community.
And I’m sorry it’s not a better looking face. As my close friend and my biggest cheerleader, the late Larry Crandell, never tired of telling me, ‘You have a face for radio … and a voice for typing.’
But I digress.
From our start in 2007, it has been Noozhawk’s privilege to cover Goleta, which as each of you know, has been on an exciting adventure for nearly a quarter-century.
Watching a new city reach adulthood has been fascinating to a policy nerd like me, and I’m proud of the work our journalists have done to keep the community informed with every tentative step, unexpected stumble and now-confident stride.
I know you know that. Most of you in this room are our loyal readers, many of you are our longtime advertisers and Hawks Club members. I thank you for that, and I feel like you deserve a share of this award, as well.
I’m keeping the cash prize, though. There is a cash prize, right? Mark Ingalls and Eric Onnen told me there was a cash prize.
Thank you again.”
In spite of my speech, or because of it, Noozhawk drew an audience of 120,072 readers this past week, according to our WordPress analytics.
What follows is my own take on the Top 5 stories you were reading over that period, as tracked by our Google Analytics.
As has often been the case the last month or so, it’s heavy on car crashes. I wish it were not so, but the analytics don’t lie.
Oh, and please remember that this is my opinion column. It is not a news story.
1. 2 People Extricated from Vehicles After Late-Night Crash in Santa Barbara
Two people were hospitalized after being extricated from the wreckage of a Dec. 6 late-night collision in downtown Santa Barbara.
As our Josh Molina reported, a Toyota Camry and a Chevy Suburban slammed into each other in the intersection of East Carrillo and Santa Barbara streets just after 11:30 p.m.
Santa Barbara fire Battalion Chief Cory Cloud said the two drivers — the vehicles’ only occupants — both required extrication before being transported by American Medical Response ambulances to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
Their identities and medical conditions were not released.
The crash shut down the intersection for four hours while Santa Barbara police gathered evidence and investigated the circumstances of the collision.
“It is hard to determine what direction people were traveling because vehicles get turned around,” Cloud said.
2. Collision on Highway 154 Near Santa Barbara Causes Traffic Backup
Two people suffered minor injuries Dec. 8 in a two-vehicle collision on Highway 154, about 1½ miles north of Cathedral Oaks/Foothill roads in Santa Barbara.
As our Janene Scully reported, the wreck occurred around 12:30 p.m. near Maria Ygnacia Lane, just north of San Antonio Creek Road.
Santa Barbara County fire Capt. Scott Safechuck said two people were transported by American Medical Response ambulance to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital with minor injuries.
Their identities were not released.
The wreckage initially blocked both lanes of the roadway before the California Highway Patrol implemented alternating traffic flow while crews removed the damaged vehicles and cleaned up the mess.
The CHP is investigating the circumstances of the crash.
3. Late-Night Fire Displaces 5 Residents of Victorian Home in Santa Barbara
Five residents were displaced in an early morning house fire near downtown Santa Barbara on Dec. 7.
As our Josh Molina reported, the fire ignited around 12:25 a.m. in a historic Victorian in the 1200 block of De la Vina Street, behind an apartment building across the street from the Santa Barbara Lawn Bowls Club at Spencer Adams Park.
Santa Barbara fire Battalion Chief Cory Cloud told Josh that firefighters arrived to find heavy black smoke pouring from the two-story building, which recently had been converted to apartments.
He noted that the fire, which started near a wall heater, could have been more severe given the building’s age.
No injuries were reported, but five residents were evacuated, with four receiving temporary hotel lodging assistance from the local American Red Cross.
Cloud said the cause of the fire is under investigation.
4. BizHawk: Finney’s Crafthouse a New Hot Spot in Goleta’s Camino Real Marketplace
Finney’s Crafthouse has officially opened at Camino Real Marketplace in Goleta, responding to long-standing community interest.
As our Josh Molina reported, the restaurant is at 6980 Marketplace Drive in the former Hollister Brewing Co. space.
It features craft cocktails, 30 local beers on tap, and what Finney’s fans call “highly addictive food.”
Brad Finefrock, Finney’s director of finance and development, praised the marketplace location, citing the presence of major retailers like Costco and The Home Depot.
“Anytime you can have Costco, Home Depot and Best Buy as your co-tenants, you sign the lease,” he said.
“Camino Real is the premier community center in Santa Barbara County, and we are lucky to be alongside so many great businesses.”
The Goleta venue joins Finney’s growing collection of locations, including establishments in Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone, Camarillo, Westlake Village and several other Southern California cities.
5. Housing Researcher Warns Santa Barbara to Learn From L.A.’s Mistakes
A UCLA housing researcher urged Santa Barbara to avoid repeating Los Angeles’ housing failures during his keynote speech at the 2024 Santa Barbara Housing Conference.
Shane Phillips, the housing initiative project manager at UCLA’s Randall Lewis Housing Initiative, addressed local officials, real estate professionals and housing advocates at the Dec. 5 event held at the Carrillo Recreation Center.
“We’re imposing a level of hardship on millions of households that should make us feel ashamed,” he said, critiquing Los Angeles’ housing catastrophe.
Phillips said Los Angeles should be a wakeup call for what happens when cities don’t build housing, warning against resistance to change.
“We made the mistake of believing that we could build a great place and freeze it in time, and that no one else could ever want to be a part of that thing that we had built,” he said.
Phillips emphasized that Santa Barbara’s population decline has led to reduced municipal revenue and weakened public services.
He argued that housing scarcity actually is a sign of a city’s desirability, and he encouraged embracing growth and new residents.
Craig Minus, the Coastal Housing Coalition’s executive director, praised Phillips’ fresh perspective, particularly his concept of “supply, stability and subsidy” as pillars of a healthy housing market.
“We need to ensure that our workforce can live here,” he said, stressing the importance of housing affordability for essential workers like firefighters and teachers.
I don’t disagree but, as I did during the ridiculous COVID-19 lockdowns, would argue that every local business — like Noozhawk, for instance — thinks of its employees as “essential.”
The conference also featured panels on housing trends for 2025, with insights from policy experts Michael Gunning, chief strategy officer for Lighthouse Public Affairs in Sacramento, and Steven Stenzler, a Sacramento-based senior policy adviser at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.
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Good Reads
Here are six more stories you must read:
» Sheriff’s Deputies Arrest Santa Barbara Man in Theft of Christmas Trees, Wreaths — Staff writer Rebecca Caraway tells the tale of a real-life Grinch who tried to steal Christmas. The alleged perp just didn’t count on Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputies reprising the role of Cindy-Lou Who.
» Deaths of Birds, Bats Linked to Lompoc Wind Farm Lead to Plan Revisions — North County editor Janene Scully tallies the mounting death toll from the windmills that supposedly will be helping power our all-electric future. But what’s a bunch of dead wildlife while we’re saving the environment?
» Santa Barbara Puts Polar Dip on Ice Over Safety, Crowd Rules — Staff writer Daniel Green makes a splash with his story on the City of Santa Barbara fun police pouring cold water on a popular New Year’s Day tradition.
» Chinese Citizen Arrested for Allegedly Flying Drone Over Vandenberg Space Force Base — A Chinese citizen’s suspicious aerial infiltration of Vandenberg Space Force Base is on Janene’s radar.
» Laurie Jervis: Another Cool Season Means Better Quality, Lower Tonnage for Vintners — Wine columnist Laurie Jervis decants some good news for Santa Barbara County’s wine industry.
» Monarch Butterfly Population Plummets at Goleta’s Ellwood Mesa — Rebecca reports on an alarming decline in Goleta’s monarch butterfly population.
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Last Year on Noozhawk
What was our most-read story this time last year? Santa Maria Police Investigating Fatal Shooting at Oakley Park.
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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.
- Jan. 7 — I’ll be sharing Noozhawk’s story and discussing the future of local news — and local news in Santa Barbara County — with my friends at the Minerva Club of Santa Maria. The Minerva is one of the oldest, continuously operating women’s clubs in California and a community treasure since 1894.
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Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week
Help Wanted — and it comes with housing: East Brother Light Station in San Francisco Bay Seeks New Keepers.
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Best of Bill’s Instagram
I came across a guard jaguar while out and about but my Instagram feed is still riding tall from the Goleta’s Finest gala.
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Watch It
Getting in tune with nature. HT to Best of Bill reader Anne Randall.
