I’m in Austin, Texas, this week for the Independent News Sustainability Summit, billed as “a first-of-its-kind conference focused on revenue and sustainability for independent news businesses.”
The only quibble I have with the description is what I always tell my staff: “Noozhawk is not in the news business. We’re in the business of news.”
Since founding Noozhawk in 2007, the premise of profit has motivated almost every initiative we pursue. The independent, trusted news coverage we provide 24/7 may be indispensable but it’s not enough for us to keep our professional journalists covering the community. For that, we must be profitable.
Executive editor Tom Bolton, one of my business partners, and I learned the lesson the hard way when we reversed the order with our late South Coast Beacon, a weekly newspaper that won numerous journalism awards but never made a dime.
Henry Ford said that “failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” And that’s what we’ve done with Noozhawk.
Now 16 years later, we’re still pioneering our way in the online local news wilderness, but we’ve also earned a recognition among our peers that our model is worth emulating.
We’ll see if I can live up to that hype on Oct. 28 when I get to speak before several hundred of those peers as part of a panel of “three mature digital newsrooms” discussing how to keep growing after more than a decade in operation.
Our panel is led by my friend, Mary Walter-Brown, founder and CEO of News Revenue Hub, one of Noozhawk’s most important partnerships, and features two other close allies of mine: Tracey Taylor, a co-founder of Berkeleyside and now Cityside, and Angie Mock, publisher and CEO of the San Antonio Report.
So far, this conference — organized by News Revenue Hub, RevLab at the Texas Tribune and LION Publishers, which Noozhawk co-founded a dozen or so years ago — has been both educational and inspirational. I’ve already picked up several exciting ideas to propel Noozhawk in 2023, with the expectation that they’ll pay off, for us and for you.
If you’d like to help us continue to grow, please click here to join our Hawks Club with a financial donation. Almost every dollar we make goes right back into the news you’re reading. We can’t do this without you.
Thank you.
Noozhawk had an audience of 86,553 readers this past week, according to our Google Analytics. What follows is my recap of the Top 5 stories you were reading.
As a reminder, this recap is not a news story. It’s my opinion column, which I write in my civic capacity as Noozhawk’s publisher.
1. Five-Story Senior Housing Project Rises Quickly in South Santa Maria
That didn’t take long.
Fast-tracked by state law instead of the often-glacial local approval process, a new affordable housing project for seniors is rising fast in Santa Maria.
As our Janene Scully was first to report, the five-story, 160-unit Santa Maria Studios project is under construction at 2712 Santa Maria Way, near the intersection of South Miller Street to the east of Highway 135/Orcutt Expressway.
One of the reasons for the brisk building schedule is the project’s use of modular units constructed by PreFab Logic in Nampa, Idaho, and trucked to Santa Maria, where they’re stacked and assembled on site.
Once the blocks are completed, architectural features will be added and the building will be coated in stucco.
The project development group — The Pacific Companies of Eagle, Idaho, and AMG & Associates LLC of Encino — filed a permit request under state Senate Bill 35, which allows developers of affordable housing to bypass typical local reviews, including by municipal planning commissions and city councils.
The law is intended to streamline the construction process to help ease California’s chronic housing shortage, but controversy has erupted throughout the state over the loss of local oversight and input.
Chuen Ng, director of the Santa Maria Community Development Department, told Janene that the modular units “meet all of the state’s building codes,” as well as Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.
“The interiors are actually almost done — there are kitchen cabinets inside, even appliances inside,” he said. “By the time they stack there, it just allows for faster construction.”
The 160 units are just the first phase of the project. Officials say a 218-unit second phase has not yet started the permitting process.
PreFab Logic said rent estimates, including utilities, have been adjusted to between 30% and 60% of the area’s median income. The result is that more than half of the units would go for “at or under $1,000 per month,” company officials say.
What a novel concept: When the process and timeline of building housing is more affordable to the developer, the housing is … more affordable?
2. BizHawk: Soul Bites Brings Comfort Food to Downtown Santa Barbara
Authentic soul food has finally arrived in Santa Barbara, thanks to Stirling Nix-Bradley, an Oxnard native who opened Soul Bites downtown with his wife, Rose.
The two hospitality industry veterans took the former home of the Velvet Jones nightclub at 423 State St. and turned it into a homestyle restaurant.
I haven’t been there yet but the menu practically screams #bestofbillrecommendation. The comfort food includes shrimp and grits with crab gravy, maple brined fried chicken, fish and chips, fish po’ boys, collard greens and fried green tomatoes.
There’s even banana pudding with Nilla wafers — which is the only way to eat bananas, if you ask me.
Nix-Bradley told our Josh Molina that he came to appreciate soul food as a child spending summers with his grandmother in the small town of Taylor, Texas, northeast of Austin.
“We went to church from sunup to sundown, and somewhere in between there’d always be a potluck meal that we’d all eat,” he said. “Invariably, it was fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, potato salad — to me, that’s soul food.”
The Nix-Bradleys have plans to build out the bar, create a cold-prep station, and upgrade the sound and lighting system so they can host entertainment shows and comedy nights. They’ve put together a creative fundraising proposal for potential investors.
“We want all people to feel welcome coming here,” Rose said.
Soul Bites is open from noon to 10 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, noon to 1 a.m. Thursday through Saturday, and noon to 9 p.m. Sunday.
3. New State Housing Law Strips Parking Requirement From Santa Barbara, Local Control
As with our top story, another new state law is further tying the hands of local planning overseers, this one removing parking requirements for projects located near public transportation stops.
Assembly Bill 2097, recently signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and taking effect Jan. 1, prohibits public agencies from mandating minimum parking for any residential, commercial or other development project within a half-mile of transit access.
Our Josh Molina reported that municipal officials are scrambling to evaluate the local impacts.
“We’re trying to understand it, including where it applies,” said Dan Gullett, a City of Santa Barbara planner, who cited downtown, the Funk Zone and the Eastside.
“We are also hoping for some of the grayness of the legislation to be cleared up by the California Department of Housing and Community Development.”
Even already approved projects could be affected.
“Potentially, existing residential and commercial developments and pending projects could be altered to eliminate parking,” Gullett said.
Under the law, a “major transit stop” is defined as a bus rapid transit or rail station, a ferry terminal, and the intersection of major bus routes with service frequency of 15 minutes or less during peak commute periods.
According to the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments, the county has six such locations.
Local developer Ed St. George has chafed at parking requirements in the past, especially the added development costs they bring with them, but he calls the new law “purely common sense.”
“Not that I’m a fan of Newsom, but he really has hired some smart people to help solve some real issues cities can’t seem to understand,” he said. “2097 is designed to encourage development to areas that already have public transportation and will help alleviate traffic congestion.
“It’s purely common sense.”
4. Motorcyclist Seriously Injured in Highway 101 Crash in Santa Barbara
A motorcyclist was seriously injured in an Oct. 21 crash on Highway 101 in downtown Santa Barbara, further snarling always-slow Friday afternoon traffic through the area.
Santa Barbara fire Battalion Chief Mike De Ponce told our Tom Bolton that the wreck was reported around 3:20 p.m. in the southbound lanes near Castillo Street.
Authorities said an American Medical Response ambulance transported the man to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital with serious leg injuries.
The motorcyclist’s identity was not disclosed, but the California Highway Patrol was investigating the circumstances of the crash.
I crawled through the area as the ambulance was leaving the scene so there wasn’t much to see, but it looked like a box truck may have been involved.
5. Rollover Crashes Send 2 People to Cottage Hospital with Major Injuries
Separate rollover wrecks sent two pickup truck drivers to the hospital in the early morning hours of Oct. 22.
North County Editor Janene Scully was busy chasing the two crashes, with the first reported just before 7 a.m. in the 5000 block of Santa Rosa Road, about five miles west of Buellton.
Mike Eliason, a Santa Barbara County Fire Department spokesman, told Janene that county and Lompoc firefighters and California Highway Patrol officers arrived to find that the driver had been ejected when his midsize Toyota Tacoma overturned.
He said the man was transported by American Medical Response ambulance to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital with major injuries.
About a half-hour later, Eliason said, county firefighters, CHP officers and an AMR ambulance were dispatched to the southbound side of Highway 101 west of Goleta.
Just east of Dos Pueblos Canyon, he said, they found the driver of a full-size pickup trapped inside the overturned vehicle. It took about 25 minutes for them to cut off the roof of the truck cab so they could extricate the man, who was said to be in his 30s.
He, too, was taken by AMR ambulance to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital with major injuries.
The identies and medical conditions of the two men were not available.
The CHP is investigating the circumstances of both crashes.
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Good Reads
Don’t leave without reading these six stories, too:
» Officials Stay Mum on Situation Involving Santa Barbara City Attorney Ariel Calonne — Staff writer Josh Molina tries to find out whatever happened to Santa Barbara City Attorney Ariel Calonne, but nobody’s talking.
» Randall Road Basin Project Completed Nearly 5 Years After Deadly Montecito Debris Flows — Staff writer Grace Kitayama reports that the Randall Road debris basin project is now complete, closing another tragic chapter from Montecito’s deadly 2018 flash flooding and debris flows.
» Santa Barbara Auto Group Looking to Expand Showroom, Maintenance Space — Josh finds that the animating issue of an automobile dealer’s expansion is not cars or commerce. It’s bicycle parking.
» Construction of Olive Mill Road Roundabout in Montecito to Begin Next Month — After a long runaround, work on the Olive Mill Road roundabout is about to begin at the intersection with Coast Village Road. Grace circles back.
» Santa Barbara Talks Podcast: Martinez-Pogue Explains Mental Health Series, Journalism — Josh helps us bid farewell to former Noozhawk staff writer and KEYT News assignment editor Jade Martinez-Pogue, who is off to a new gig in New York.
» Mark Patton: Gabe Vincent Keeps the Faith Given by a Dying Boy — Sports columnist Mark Patton catches up with the Miami Heat’s Gabe Vincent, who shares the driving force he’s had since he was starring for UC Santa Barbara.
• • •
Last Year on Noozhawk
What was our most-read story this time last year? 2 People Killed in Multivehicle Crash on Cathedral Oaks Road in Goleta.
• • •
Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week
This feature was too interesting a read to leave buried: How Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, a Star-Studded Cemetery in Los Angeles, Corporatized Mourning in America.
• • •
Best of Bill’s Instagram
I pay tribute to the culinary genius who first combined two of my three favorite #foodgroups: Brisket and Tacos. Also, Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken. It’s all in my Instagram feed this past week.
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Watch It
Panda-monium. HT to Best of Bill reader Terri King.
(iPanda 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.
