Noozhawk will be 14 years old on Oct. 16, and our last week at 13 has again demonstrated the value we bring to our readers. Our team excels at disaster coverage, and our round-the-clock reporting on the Alisal Fire has been a prime example of what we do best.
But there was another development that demonstrates the positive, deeper difference we’re making in our community, and that’s no less important in an age when Fossil Media sometimes seems to be going voluntarily extinct right before our eyes.
I’m excited to announce that our Jade Martinez-Pogue has earned a USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism 2021 Data Fellowship to explore Santa Barbara County’s safety net for those among us who are experiencing a mental health crisis.
A summer 2020 graduate of UC Santa Barbara, Jade started with Noozhawk soon afterward, in the middle of the then-out-of-control coronavirus crisis. Perpetually cheerful and absolutely fearless, she leaped right in and quickly established herself as not just a promising professional journalist but adept at data analysis.
The project she’ll be pursuing will investigate the reasons for the county’s enduring shortage of acute-care, inpatient beds for people experiencing mental health distress; how that scarcity has caused grueling, unproductive and dangerous emergency room holds for them; the creation of crisis stabilization units; and the millions of taxpayer dollars we spend to send patients elsewhere for care.
Jade will also be examining the county’s inexcusable absence of local facilities serving children and adolescents.
The COVID-19 crisis has exposed many of the inadequacies of our system of mental health care even as it pointed out the undeniable need for more support, not less.
I’m proud of Jade for earning this fellowship, and I’m looking forward to what she’ll uncover and explain. I expect our community to be able to use it to improve our local circumstances — both as we emerge from the shadows of COVID-19 and in the face of the chronic challenges that, unfortunately, will always be with us.
Noozhawk had an audience of 153,670 readers this past week, as recorded by our Google Analytics. Usually, my Best of Bill column is my own take on the Top 5 stories you were reading.
That’s not the case this week. Alisal Fire stories occupied all but the seventh spot on the Top 10 list of most-read stories, and accounted for several more in the Top 20. So I’ve put them all together in one top roundup.
And lest you forget, this is an opinion column and not a news story.
1. Wind-Driven Wildfire Spurs Evacuations, Closes Highway 101 Along Gaviota Coast
Since the Thomas Fire terrorized Santa Barbara County in December 2017, a lot of California has been burning. Continuously.
The county has been largely spared from a significant conflagration during that time, but we all knew our luck wouldn’t last. The afternoon of Oct. 11, it ran out.
The Alisal Fire ignited on Los Padres National Forest land around 2 p.m. that day near Alisal Reservoir not far from West Camino Cielo and several miles west of President Ronald Reagan’s beloved Rancho del Cielo at the top of Refugio Canyon.
Within three hours, it had burned up and over the ridgeline of the Santa Ynez Mountains and all the way down to Highway 101 on the Gaviota coast.
Fanned by powerful winds gusting to 60 mph, the flames raced through tinder-dry chaparral and brush, forcing immediate mandatory evacuations of ranches, residences and recreation areas between Dos Pueblos Canyon west of Goleta and the Gaviota Tunnel to the west.
Highway 101 and the Union Pacific railroad tracks were shut down between Winchester Canyon Road in Goleta and Highway 1 north of the Gaviota Tunnel after the fire swept across the highway in several locations.
For the next three days, the blockage created a massive parking lot on Highway 154 over San Marcos Pass above Santa Barbara and on Highway 246 through Santa Ynez, Solvang and Buellton. The roadblocks were lifted around 6 p.m. Oct. 14.
As the clock turned midnight on Oct. 15, authorities say, the fire had grown to 16,801 acres — more than 26 square miles — and was at 11% containment. Believe it or not, that was a significant improvement from two days before when containment was at just 5%.
By daybreak Oct. 15, another 100 acres was under control and containment was reported at 41%, mostly along Highway 101 and West Camino Cielo.
Although more than 100 homes and outbuildings remain threatened by the blaze, damage to structures and infrastructure has been surprisingly minimal so far. No serious injuries have been reported either.
Nearly 2,000 firefighters have been deployed to the scene and, as winds have abated, a growing number of water-dropping helicopters and fire retardant-dropping aircraft have been mounting an almost continuous aerial assault in the canyons and mountains during daylight hours.
Authorities say the cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Team Noozhawk — executive editor Tom Bolton, managing editor Giana Magnoli, North County editor Janene Scully, staff writers Jade Martinez-Pogue and Serena Guentz, associate editor Michelle Nelson, and contributors Ray Ford, Peter Hartmann, Ryan Cullom and Ray Navarro — has been working around the clock to make sure you have the most up-to-date news at all times.
We’re grateful for the additional photos that have been sent in to us by dozens of readers. You can share yours by emailing them to news@noozhawk.com.
» Click here for the latest information on Alisal Fire evacuations, road closures, air quality and other resources.
» Click here to sign up for free Noozhawk Breaking News text alerts to your cell phone.
2. BizHawk: Little Alex’s Restaurant Leaving Montecito Country Mart in Late November
With the economic toll from the COVID-19 crisis beginning to pile up, Little Alex’s in Montecito has announced that it’ll be calling it quits next month after more than three decades in business.
As our Josh Molina was first to report, the popular Mexican restaurant at 1024 Coast Village Road in the Montecito Country Mart may not have been given much choice.
According to an announcement on its website, “We have been given notice to vacate our location and will be closing Nov. 22.”
That’s a real shame, because the No. 6 — the Chile Relleno and Carne Asada Enchilada — is a #bestofbillrecommendation, but the extra hot chicken and rice soup has gotten my family through just about every cold we’ve had over the last 30 years. Hint: I’m convinced it’s the cilantro that’s the curative ingredient.
With deep, deep roots in Santa Barbara, the Briner family opened Little Alex’s in 1989, and it’s been a family operation ever since. Son Aaron, who started working in the business as a kid, is still a regular as a battalion chief with the Montecito Fire Protection District.
I’m not alone when I say this one really hurts. My kids are devastated, and nearly everyone I’ve talked to and heard from has expressed a uniform disappointment. Thanks for the memories.
3. Man Arrested on Multiple Charges After Allegedly Accosting 4 Women in Santa Barbara
A Santa Barbara man with a nasty, spit-ful attitude has been arrested on multiple felony charges after allegedly spitting in the faces of four women and violently resisting arrest.
As our Tom Bolton first reported, 39-year-old Terrance Nathan Hunter was arrested Oct. 7 after getting into a violent confrontation with Santa Barbara police near downtown.
Sgt. Ethan Ragsdale told Tom that Hunter’s alleged slime wave started earlier that week when he aggressively accosted a 21-year-old woman in the municipal parking lot of the Amtrak station at 209 State St.
“The victim began to move away from the subject, who allegedly spat in the victim’s face,” Ragsdale said of the Oct. 4 encounter. “After investigating this incident further, it was determined an attempted robbery had occurred, and the suspect was identified by the victim as Hunter.”
Early the next morning, Ragsdale said, Hunter allegedly gave a 24-year-old woman the same treatment under similar circumstances. A half-hour later, he said, Hunter spit again, this time on the car of a 24-year-old woman after he “grabbed her by the arm, and shoved her into a vehicle she was preparing to enter.”
Soon after, an officer spotted a man matching the victims’ description and he — Hunter — was arrested on misdemeanor battery charges, Ragsdale said.
Evidently, Hunter’s very brief time in custody wasn’t much of a deterrent because, at 6 a.m. Oct. 7, yet another police officer saw him standing near the intersection of Bath and West Carrillo streets, blocking the car of a woman with whom he appeared to be in a confrontation, Ragsdale said.
“The officer attempted to verbally direct Hunter out of the street from a distance,” he said. “Hunter challenged the officer to fight, threatened him and began approaching.”
Ragsdale said other officers arrived and Hunter violently resisted as they arrested him, with two officers suffering minor abrasions in the process.
Hunter was booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on suspicion of multiple counts of battery, assault with a deadly weapon, attempted robbery and resisting arrest, Ragsdale said. As of Oct. 15, he was still there with his bail revoked.
Santa Barbara police no longer release mug-shot photos of crime suspects — so as not to injure their self-esteem or some such nonsense — but I’m pretty sure I know who this guy is and witnessed, and reported, a similar incident several years ago. Oh, well.
4. Sheriff’s Deputies Investigating Attempted Murder in Vandenberg Village
A domestic disturbance apparently preceded a Vandenberg Village incident that landed one man in the hospital and another in jail on Oct. 12.
As our Janene Scully reported, Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputies, county firefighters and an American Medical Response ambulance were dispatched about 9 a.m. to a condominium complex in the 200 block of Burton Mesa Boulevard, just east of Sirius Avenue.
According to sheriff’s spokeswoman Raquel Zick, deputies arrived to find a man outside a residence with a “serious laceration to his upper torso.”
The victim reportedly suffered nonlife-threatening injuries and was transported to Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria. His identity and age were not disclosed.
A second man — identified by Zick as 26-year-old Edgar Ayala — was detained after being identifed as a suspect in the altercation. She said he was arrested and booked into County Jail on suspicion of attempted murder and domestic violence.
As of Oct. 15, Ayala remains jailed with bail set at $2 million.
The incident remains under investigation.
5. Rochelle Rose of Goleta, 1949-2021
I wrote about my friend, Noozhawk iSociety columnist Rochelle Rose, in last week’s Best of Bill column after her death at age 72.
Her obituary that same day drew enormous readership, and I’m heartened to see that it maintained a strong audience all week, even with major breaking news grabbing the attention of our readers.
Rochelle deserved that, and I’m glad you agree. Rest in peace.
• • •
Last Year on Noozhawk
What was our most-read story this time last year? Montecito’s Historic Rancho San Carlos Sold After 6 Years on Market.
• • •
Americans Held Hostage: Day 45
It’s now been 45 days since the United States stranded Americans — and dozens of Californians — in Afghanistan. Most of them are still there.
• • •
Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week
There may be a method to the oak tree’s majesty: Tons of Acorns? It Must Be a Mast Year. HT to Mike McPhate of the California Sun.
• • •
Best of Bill’s Instagram
Followers of my Instagram feed love to like photos of @sadiethealaskanmalamute when she puts in an appearance. I don’t blame them.
• • •
Watch It
This is just bizarre.
(Sky News 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.
