And just like that, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home order magically disappeared, seven weeks after it was decreed.
I’ll have more on that in a moment, but in case Newsom changes his mind again in the time it takes you to read this, I want to be sure to refer you to Noozhawk’s newest section, Shop Local, where you can keep up with Santa Barbara County’s retail community.
The brainchild of Kim Clark, Noozhawk’s business development vice president, and her sales and marketing team, the section provides insight and locals only-type information about great area businesses, including sweet deals and custom items.
If you don’t see a listing for your favorite business, or your own business, click here for more information.
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According to our Google Analytics, Noozhawk had an audience of 140,916 readers this past week. This column is my own recap of the Top 5 stories you were reading, according to those same analytics.
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1. Gov. Gavin Newsom Lifts Stay-at-Home Orders Statewide
Gov. Gavin Newsom abruptly lifted his controversial statewide stay-at-home order on Jan. 25, just as our Tom Bolton had first reported he would the night before and even though none of his own conditions for reopening had been met.
The coronavirus-related lockdown had been in place for nearly seven weeks and was necessary, Newsom said, because of a surge in post-Thanksgiving COVID-19 hospitalizations and an even more alarming projection of hospitalizations related to the December holidays.
According to the California Department of Public Health, Santa Barbara and most of the state’s other 57 counties have now reverted to the color-coded tiers that control what we can and cannot do.
Santa Barbara County is back in the most-restrictive purple tier, and can move up to the next, slightly less-restrictive red tier if coronavirus testing and daily case rates improve.
What apparently is no longer the overriding factor is hospital intensive-care unit capacity, which had dropped to scary-low availability in the county earlier this month but has been loosening up over the last week. As of Jan. 28, it had rebounded to 12.8 percent.
In issuing his latest stay-at-home order in early December, Newsom had divided California into five regions. And instead of tracking testing and caseloads, he unexpectedly changed the threshold to a regional hospital ICU capacity of 15 percent or less.
For unexplained reasons, he placed Santa Barbara County in the Southern California region — a sprawling area the geographic size of Ohio and, at 23.2 million people, more than double Ohio’s entire population.
With the inclusion of Los Angeles County, the Southern California region’s ICU capacity has hovered around zero percent almost the entire time, and still is today — with or without Santa Barbara County’s improvement.
So what changed?
From the outset of the outbreak nearly a year ago, Newsom has loudly proclaimed that his COVID-19 decision-making is always based on SCIENCE. Curiously, his administration has refused to divulge what that SCIENCE is, laughably declaring that the public just wouldn’t understand it.
Maybe not, but what the public does understand is hypocrisy and arrogance, both of which Newsom possesses in spades.
The Recall Gavin Newsom campaign is on fire, with just a few thousand more petition signatures needed to reach the 1.5 million required to put a recall election on the ballot.
Organizers have a goal of collecting at least 2 million signatures by the March 15 deadline, and several of Newsom’s deep-pocketed Silicon Valley donors have switched sides and are now backing the undertaking.
Additionally, more and more questions are being raised about the massive unemployment insurance fraud scandal that has cost California taxpayers at least $11 billion to date, and may end up north of $31 billion. Typical of Newsom, he blames the federal government.
Businesses — including some of California’s most high-profile and historically innovative — are joining the Texodus that has become a stampede under his watch, and the private-school parent has been powerless to get the state’s public schools to reopen for on-campus teaching.
But I digress. To make expedient decisions based on that news would be playing politics, and Newsom is all about SCIENCE, remember?
Whatever he is, whatever he’s doing, glib responses are about all Newsom appears to have left in his tank.
California’s vaccine rollout has been a chaotic mess and his well-documented record of arbitrary, erratic and contradictory restrictions and shutdown orders has sapped the first-term Democrat’s credibility — even in this solidly one-party state.
Yet, while Californians struggle to figure out how to plan for or even understand Newsom’s ever-changing decrees, we can at least all celebrate the end of his ban on outdoor dining at restaurants. For now.
2. Storm Drenches Santa Barbara County With Heavy Rainfall
Two of our Top 5 stories and three of the Top 6 were storm-related, so I’m invoking publisher’s privilege and going with our Brooke Holland’s lead story on Jan. 28, which brought the wildest weather of the winter — so far.
An “atmospheric river” — a long, narrow plume of very moist water vapor stretching from off the coast of Oregon to San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties — pushed into Santa Barbara County in late morning.
By the time it moved on several hours later, the National Weather Service said, it had dumped 1 to 3 inches of rain across the county, with 3 to 5 inches in the western Santa Ynez Valley.
As of the night of Jan. 28, the previous 24-hour period saw significant rainfall, ranging from a little over an inch in Montecito to just under 7 inches in Celite, south of Lompoc, according to the county Public Works Department. Going back 48 hours, Celite recorded a staggering 11.95 inches.
Localized flooding, road closures and traffic crashes were reported all over the place, but there were no reports of any serious damage or injuries.
County firefighters rescued a woman in Refugio Canyon on the Gaviota coast after her car became stranded on high ground between fast-moving creek crossings about a half-mile up Refugio Road from Highway 101.
Heavy overnight rain, morning showers and an occasional thunderstorm were forecast for Jan. 29, but the weather service said sunny skies were expected to return for the weekend.
» Click here for the South Coast forecast.
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3. Pursuit of Stolen Vehicle Ends in Arrest at Gunpoint in Santa Barbara
I guess if you’re gonna drive a stolen car, it might as well be a luxury one. Too bad for the dumbass at the wheel that he wasn’t bright enough to disable the LoJack tracking device.
As our Tom Bolton first reported, a Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputy following up on a theft alert spotted the rogue Cadillac DeVille around 10 a.m. Jan. 22 in the area of Outer State Street and Highway 154.
Santa Barbara police spokesman Anthony Wagner told Tom that the deputy tried to pull over the driver, but he sped east into Santa Barbara.
He said the driver ran several red lights as police vehicles and a county helicopter chased him around La Cumbre and Modoc roads, Mission Street and the Westside.
After all that, the driver ended up in a dead-end vacant lot in the 1800 block of San Pascual Street near West Islay Street and the railroad tracks along Highway 101.
Moments later, Wagner said, the suspect was taken into custody at gunpoint.
He identified him as 18-year-old Rupert Michael Gil of Santa Maria, and said he was booked into County Jail on suspicion of vehicle theft, felony evading arrest, possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.
4. Santa Barbara County Fire Chiefs Join Forces to Address Regional Areas of Concern
It’s no surprise to Noozhawk readers that fires at illegal homeless encampments are a growing public safety threat. It’s also not a surprise to the firefighters responsible for putting them out, hopefully before someone gets hurt.
The Santa Barbara County Fire Chiefs Association recently got together to compare notes on major fire safety concerns, and these ramshackle, unpermitted developments were among the top priorities.
“We came together as fire chiefs and realized that we’re all kind of working on these areas of concerns independently,” Santa Barbara County fire Chief Mark Hartwig told our Jade Martinez-Pogue.
“Unfortunately, when we come up with solutions independently, it puts unintended consequences or impacts on our neighboring jurisdictions.”
Led by Carpinteria-Summerland fire Chief Greg Fish, the collaboration drive included consultations with the public, stakeholders and the individual fire agencies. From there, the chiefs identified three main issues to tackle collectively, with hopes of establishing a regional set of standards:
» Fires and other safety issues at homeless encampments
» Dispersed camping
» Firefighter access and parking at trailheads and beaches throughout the county
According to county fire Division Chief Rob Hazard, between Jan. 1 and Dec. 1 last year, county firefighters alone rolled on 45 calls related to fires at homeless camps, with a dozen of those incidents wildfires. You read about a lot of them on Noozhawk.
But Jade said the chiefs quickly realized that dispersed camping — essentially overnight camping along roads — also is an escalating concern, particularly on land under Los Padres National Forest jurisdiction. So a working group is meeting with LPNF officials on a coordinated solution.
Montecito fire Chief Kevin Taylor is heading up the group working on trailhead access and parking. With the increased use of local trails during the coronavirus crisis, fire truck access has become more restricted by all the parked cars — as any of my neighbors on upper Riven Rock Road in Montecito can attest. Just as a big a problem is the evacuation of residents, not that that has ever happened in the last, say, 3½ years.
Early next month, Fish said, the groups will reconvene to consider objectives and recommendations for the three priority areas.
“We’ve found that the more closely we work together on common issues, the easier it is for everyone involved because the communities are so intertwined,” Taylor said.
5. Beachside Bar-Café in Goleta Becomes Latest Business Casualty of COVID-19 Pandemic
The mainstay Beachside Bar-Café has served its last meal after 36 years at Goleta Beach Park. As our Josh Molina reported Jan. 22, the restaurant has closed for good, the latest business to fall victim to the coronavirus crisis and the accompanying economic disaster.
Sadly, it won’t be the last, as Josh’s Jan. 28 BizHawk column notes.
The Beachside, at 5905 Sandspit Road at the base of the picturesque Goleta Pier, has been a popular place for families, business people, Goleta high-tech employees, and students and staff from nearby UC Santa Barbara.
“All the restaurants were suffering before the pandemic because of the increase in minimum wage, which does not work well in restaurants,” owner Dave Hardy told Josh. “Most of the people in restaurants earn tips and make about $25 an hour. They don’t need another $1 an hour to make it $38 an hour.
“There are a lot of business that are already going out of business because of that.”
The coronavirus was the final blow.
“Just selling sandwiches out the back door doesn’t work,” Hardy said. “We have lost a ton of money the past year. We just can’t afford to stay open any longer. … It was real sad.”
The Beachside had 100 employees before COVID-19 hit. It had 10 at the end, and Hardy noted, “we still can’t make it work.”
Santa Barbara County actually owns the building, and Second District Supervisor Gregg Hart said the county will solicit a new restaurant operator.
Good luck with that.
• • •
Last Year on Noozhawk
What was our most-read story this time last year? City of Santa Barbara Moves to Take a Bite Out of Chick-fil-A Traffic Congestion.
• • •
Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week
Let’s hear it for cyborg, doofus, golden oldie, rap sheet and wide receiver: What Words Entered the Lexicon in Your Birth Year?
• • •
Best of Bill’s Instagram
Clouds filled the sky in my Instagram feed this past week. And many of my followers saw the face of Jesus.
• • •
Watch It
I went to high school in Birmingham, Alabama, where the Atlanta Braves are considered the hometown team. In the spring of 1974, I was obsessively following Hank Aaron as he chased history but, as a diehard Los Angeles Dodgers fan, I was dreading the likely possibility that record-setting home run 715 could come against my team.
It did, and it would be years before I realized just how appreciative I was that it was Al Downing who threw the pitch and, more important, that Vin Scully was able to call it. With Hammerin’ Hank’s death on Jan. 22, you’ve probably seen the video of his emotion-filled trip around the bases, accompanied by Scully’s renowned and understated commentary.
But along with being the greatest hitter of all time, Hank Aaron was simply a class act — humble, grateful and with a heart of grace. Thank you, 44. Rest in peace.
(National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum 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.
