This is an opinion column.
Although I include that trigger warning in nearly every Best of Bill column, it appears that some readers continue to be hoodwinked regardless.
They could just stop reading what I write, but where’s the fun in that? One of my pen pals has sworn he’ll never read Noozhawk again because of me, but the guy has sent me that same message four or five times over the last decade.
I’ve been writing these weekly columns every Friday for almost as long as Noozhawk has been around, and we’ll be 14 next month.
The entire point of my columns is to recap the Top 5 stories that you were reading over the previous seven days as compiled by our Google Analytics — which reports there were 101,129 of you this past week, by the way.
The analytics can be unpredictable, and are sometimes unsettled right up to the end. It would be easier if I just plagiarized our reporters, but I prefer to summarize their stories in my own way and words.
For reasons that only my mom understands, the dreck I write is enormously popular; my columns are consistently among Noozhawk’s most-read features and frequently are in the weekly Top 5 in their own right.
But enough about me. Let’s get to the five reasons you’re here.
1. Residents of El Zoco Condos in Santa Barbara Turn to City for Help with Needed Repairs
Talk about deferred maintenance.
You’ve raced past the El Zoco condominiums for decades, even if you didn’t know what you were looking at while driving on Highway 101 through downtown Santa Barbara. Evidently, that’s a more apt description than anyone knew.
As our Josh Molina first reported, the four-story development — at 211 W. Gutierrez St., backing up to the freeway just before the northbound Bath Street exit ramp — was approved by the City of Santa Barbara in 1993.
Just as intended, the project houses local artists in a spartan live-work environment and is one of the few below-market, for-sale condo complexes in the city.
After 30 years, however, the place is falling apart.
Josh explained that the original project was undertaken as a partnership between the city and Homes For People, a now-defunct developer.
Today, the property apparently is the sole responsibility of the El Zoco Homeowners Association, which has shelled out $200,000 to fix water damage that wrecked one of the units, making it uninhabitable, and to repair other rather important things like plumbing, stucco and staircases.
A lot more refurbishments are needed but the HOA’s reserves are down to around $24,000. More problematic, association leaders say, is that bank loans are extremely difficult to obtain because the units are price-restricted so the owners can’t make a profit if they sell them.
“We want to preserve this,” association president Shelagh Royce told Josh. “There isn’t anything else like it in Santa Barbara.”
El Zoco homeowners appealed to the city for financial assistance, and the City Council’s Finance Committee last week agreed to provide $200,000 in affordable housing inclusionary funds to help.
The money will be delivered through amortized, 30-year loans to the condo owners at 3% interest. In exchange, they must sign 90-year affordability covenants to replace the current covenants that are due to sunset in 2023.
Regardless of the soundness of this specific, real-time solution, did no one responsible for the original project approval not foresee this exact scenario?
What did the proponents think would happen decades later when a substantial investment would be needed for the building even as the condo owners essentially would have built up the same amount of equity as they would have had they been renters?
And was there ever a contingency plan if the developer ceased to exist?
If taxpayers were always intended to be the sugar daddy, this after-the-fact result tastes pretty sour to me. It’s not fair to either the public or to El Zoco homeowners.
2. BizHawk: Cava Restaurant & Bar Closes After 25-Year Run on Coast Village Road in Montecito
Few people care enough to keep track of these COVID-19 statistics, but Montecito’s Cava Restaurant & Bar has become one of the latest coronavirus casualties. A 25-year mainstay at 1212 Coast Village Road, the restaurant served its last meal on Sept. 15.
Owner Carlos López-Hollis told our Josh Molina that he was grateful for all the support over the decades — including in the weeks and months after the 2017 Thomas Fire and the deadly 2018 flash flooding and debris flows that devastated nearby neighborhoods.
The restaurant stayed busy but the economic impacts from the coronavirus crisis were too steep of a mountain to climb.
López-Hollis and his wife, Amanda, opened Cava in 1997, and it immediately became a popular destination for its Nuevo Latino and Mediterranean cuisine.
Cava was a go-to place for my family, and we held several milestone celebrations in its La Cavita across the parking lot. The menu was one long #bestofbillrecommendation — Grilled Anaheim Chiles, Pozole, Grilled Churrasco Ribeye Steak, Paella — but the Steak Tacos al Carbon was my all-time favorite order.
The López-Hollis family also owns Carlitos Café y Cantina, at 1324 State St. in downtown Santa Barbara, and Dos Carlitos Restaurant & Tequila Bar, at 3544 Sagunto St. in Santa Ynez, both of which remain open.
3. Santa Barbara Council Clears Way for 60 New Apartments Near Downtown
The Santa Barbara commuter parking lot at the corner of Castillo and West Carrillo streets, the gateway to downtown, has figured in more than a few kooky proposals over the years.
It recently was mentioned as a possible location for a tent city for homeless individuals being rousted out of illegal encampments in freeway landscaping. An earlier iteration had it destined to become a “tiny homes” development for that same clientele — before neighborhood opposition rose up and roared and state funding fell through.
But the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara’s plan for 60 workforce apartments seems to have legs, and the project at 400 W. Carrillo St. got an enthusiastic reception at the City Council on Sept. 21.
As our Josh Molina reported previously, the project is aimed at the “missing middle,” those local workers who can’t afford market-rate apartments but earn too much for a housing subsidy. Nurses, law-enforcement officers and other first responders are among those the city has in mind.
“We’ve seen a great need in addressing the missing middle,” said Rob Fredericks, the Housing Authority’s executive director. “The city needs more housing across all income levels.”
According to the Housing Authority, rents for the studios are projected at $1,600 a month for individuals making $75,684 or less; one-bedroom apartments would go for $1,900 for those making $97,308 or less; and two-bedroom units would be $2,200 for those making $108,120 or less.
Designed by the Cearnal Collective, the proposal originally had 103 total units but that figure has since been whacked to 60.
The project still must undergo design approval and win the council’s official endorsement, but council members were uncharacteristically thinking big — for once.
“It’s just such an example of creativity and ingenuity,” remarked Councilwoman Meagan Harmon, who suggested that the city create an equity investment fund to purchase land or help fund similar kinds of housing projects.
“Building missing middle housing, even when the land is donated, is an incredible challenge,” she added. “We don’t have access to grants. We don’t have access to federal funding in the same way we might for other types of affordable housing.”
4. Bill Macfadyen: Resident with Right Connections Captures Dumb Suspect in Smart Home
Santa Barbara County Fire Department public information officer Mike Eliason and I were close colleagues in another life that neither of us cares to revisit, and his photography skills always made me look good at my job.
Once again, he’s helped me out, this time with his very own burglar in residence story that was a big hit among Best of Bill readers.
Thanks, Mike. I owe you lunch at the Santa Barbara Club, #myhomeawayfromhome.
5. Motorcyclist, Passenger Critically Injured in Santa Ynez Valley Collision
Two people were critically injured the afternoon of Sept. 19 when their motorcycle collided with a car on Highway 246 in the Santa Ynez Valley.
As our Tom Bolton was first to report, the wreck occurred around 4:30 p.m. near the Gainey Vineyard and the Santa Ynez Airport, west of Highway 154.
Santa Barbara County Fire Department spokesman Mike Eliason told Tom that the male motorcyclist and his female passenger suffered major injuries in the collision with a Honda sedan.
He said the victims were transported by American Medical Response ambulance to the Santa Ynez Airport, then flown by a CalStar medical helicopter and the county’s Copter 4 to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
Their identities were not available.
The Honda driver was not hurt, Eliason said.
The California Highway Patrol is investigating the crash.
• • •
Last Year on Noozhawk
What was our most-read story this time last year? Man Arrested in Rash of Thefts from Downtown Santa Barbara Residences.
• • •
Americans Held Hostage: Day 24
It’s now been 24 days since the United States surrendered Afghanistan to the Taliban, abandoning at least hundreds of U.S. citizens — dozens of them Californians — and U.S. green-card holders and more than 100,000 critical Afghan allies with or eligible for Special Immigrant Visas.
• • •
Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week
Tracking the ancients across a vast sea: DNA Offers a New Look at How Polynesia Was Settled.
• • •
Best of Bill’s Instagram
@womenseconomicventures open house new World HQ downtown Santa Barbara El Centro Building stop. I elaborate in my Instagram feed this past week. If telegrams aren’t your thing, our Ann Pieramici has the full story: For Women’s Economic Ventures, New Downtown Home a ‘Game-Changer’ for Its Mission.
• • •
Watch It
Isn’t it odd that today’s “popular” music industry, so quick to man the outrage ramparts over the slightest slight, cares not a whit about barbaric troglodytes murdering musicians for the crime of … creating music? Or those who have restored them to power? Thank you, John Ondrasik.
(John Ondrasik 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.