This was a historic week for the Goleta and Santa Barbara chambers of commerce.
A month ago, the boards of directors of the two venerable business organizations voted unanimously to merge their operations. Although the discussions had been going on for almost a year, the talks took on a greater urgency with the economic catastrophe triggered by the worldwide coronavirus crisis.
As the Goleta chamber’s board chairman, I had the privilege of co-chairing the negotiating committee with my friend and counterpart, Santa Barbara board chairman Geoff Green, who has another full-time job as CEO of the SBCC Foundation.
Now, we’re co-chairing the 10-member transition committee, which includes Tyler Duncan of Rusty’s Pizza, Michael Fauver and Trevor Large of Fauver • Large • Archbald • Spray, Kirsten McLaughlin of Cox, Bibi Moezzi of Pacific Premier Bank, Anne Pazier of Santa Barbara Gift Baskets, Susan Rodriguez of Brown & Brown Insurance and Bill Shields of Armstrong Associates.
This week, the chambers held their first joint board meeting, with nearly 50 people in a Zoom conference. Despite some early interference and mute button fumbling, mostly by me, it went surprisingly smoothly.
More important, the unanimity of purpose and vision among board members was refreshing, especially after experiencing several months of business battering.
What unites us is a desire for a unified and more powerful voice of business and economic development and opportunity — which has never been more consequential for our communities and for Santa Barbara County.
We’ve set a July 1 timelime for the merger, and we may have some additional exciting news to announce in the next day or so.
While I’ve been spending a lot of my time looking forward to the merger of the chambers, the purpose of these Best of Bill columns is to look back at what you were reading on Noozhawk over the last week.
According to our Google Analytics, we had an audience of 125,973 of you, and what follows is my own take on the Top 5 stories you were reading.
This is my opinion column, which I write in my job as Noozhawk’s publisher. It’s intended to be newsy, and often sarcastically so, but it is not a news story.
1. Santa Barbara Woman Facing DUI, Auto Theft Charges Stemming from High-Speed Mesa Crash
A 19-year-old Santa Barbara woman was arrested and charged with multiple felonies May 20 after a high-speed SUV crash on the Mesa two weeks before. A passenger was severely injured in the wreck.
Santa Barbara police spokesman Anthony Wagner told our Tom Bolton that the alleged driver, Sofia Nichole Koch, turned herself in at SBPD headquarters.
Police say an intoxicated Koch was speeding eastbound on Cliff Drive about 1 a.m. May 7, driving a Land Rover Range Rover that had been reported stolen from a party earlier that night.
As the SUV topped 100 mph, investigators say, it clipped a parked Volvo station wagon in the 1500 block of the street, a few blocks east of Meigs Road, then slammed into a nearby Toyota Scion sedan. The collision’s impact propelled the mangled Scion more than 50 yards down the road.
The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office charged Koch with three felonies: driving under the influence causing injury, driving with a blood-alcohol level greater than .08 percent causing injury and vehicle theft.
She also faces a misdemeanor count of driving without a license, and charge enhancements of excess speed, refusing to take or complete a blood-alcohol/drug test, and being a habitual criminal.
Koch was released from County Jail on May 9 after posting $100,000 bail.
Wagner said both Koch and her passenger, 20-year-old Maesyn Fitzgibbons of Santa Barbara, were injured in the crash, but the harm to Fitzgibbons was horrific. According to a GoFundMe account established to assist with her medical expenses, she suffered a broken pelvis and other broken bones, excessive blood loss and the amputation of her lower left leg.
In spite of her ordeal, Fitzgibbons has been making remarkable progress since being transferred to Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital.
On May 24, her mom, Lynette Gaona, described her daughter’s determination and reported that she had managed to walk the length of the hallway with a walker — twice.
“Even when she is feeling terrible, she does the work,” she said. “I am with her every day. She has good moments and difficult ones.
“My heart aches for her and cheers for her.”
A Santa Barbara High School graduate, Fitzgibbons is a sophomore pre-med major at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
As of May 29, her GoFundMe account had raised more than $88,000. Click here to make an online donation.
2. 22 New COVID-19 Cases Reported in Santa Barbara County Over the Weekend
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department reported 22 COVID-19 cases to the state Department of Public Health over the Memorial Day weekend, bringing the county’s total to 1,573.
By May 29, that figure had risen to 1,636 cases. There have been 13 coronavirus-related deaths in the county, three of them inmates at the radioactive Lompoc Federal Correctional Complex.
Public health officials acknowledge that at least 86 percent of infected county residents — roughly 1,407 people — have made a full recovery.
3. Santa Barbara’s State Street Pedestrian Promenade Could Be a Step in the Right Direction
(Louise Palanker video)
Years — no, decades — in the making, Santa Barbara finally has a downtown promenade. All it took was a health pandemic that forced the overnight closure of the global economy.
City officials, acting at a speed no local permit applicant has ever seen, closed off block after block of State Street between Haley and Sola streets in an attempt to reintroduce a sense of energy and vitality to the long neglected neighborhood.
It worked. Our Josh Molina was among the thousands of people who took advantage of the vehicle-free zone on May 23. What he found was a festive atmosphere with pedestrians, bicyclists, skateboarders, diners, waiters, chalk artists, street musicians and police officers all mingling in a mostly delightful chaos.
“This is a game-changer for downtown,” said Nina Johnson, senior assistant to City Administrator Paul Casey. “We’re really happy with how it’s been working so far.”
Johnson, who has been pretty much a one-woman State Street champion at City Hall, was meandering along on her bike when Josh spotted her. And that’s kind of the small-town charm of the concept.
Officially, it’s just an experiment, and the look is decidedly slapdash with orange traffic cones and temporary wooden barriers at each cross street, along with large fan palms in their wooden shipping crates.
But allowing restaurants to spread outside into sidewalk seating not only accommodates required social distancing but also gets them back in business at, hopefully, a level that can sustain them.
“It’s amazing,” said Aron Ashland, owner of The Cruisery, a brew pub at 501 State St. “It’s what the city should have done 20 years ago. The energy and liveliness that is going on downtown is amazing.”
My friend, Louise Palanker, and her husband, Ron, took their bikes for a cruise down State Street on Memorial Day afternoon. She shot the above video with a cell phone mounted on her handlebars. The ride provides a good sense of the scene, including a couple of close encounters with small groups of oncoming bicyclists.
But in watching her video, I found myself imagining what a more permanent State Street promenade might look like: a cross between a Mediterranean village, a Mexican zócalo and — dare I say it? — Disneyland’s Main Street U.S.A.
An oversized two-way bike lane down the middle would keep the cyclists and pedicabs mostly away from unsuspecting pedestrians while still allowing entry for fire trucks, police cars, ambulances and delivery vehicles. Public art installations and small vendor kiosks would complement the outdoor dining.
What to do with the pavement might be more of a challenge, especially for parades and the State Street Mile, but maybe the bike lane section is all that remains of asphalt, with bricks or cobblestones flanking it.
Look at me all acting like an urban planner now! But I really am unexpectedly excited about the possibilities, and I know I’m not alone.
4. Firefighters Respond to Fire at Church on Turnpike Road Near Goleta
A preschool at a Goleta-area church was badly damaged by an attic fire late on the night of May 25. A boy was arrested as a suspect in the case after investigators determined that the incident — along with two other nearby fires — was arson.
Santa Barbara County fire Capt. Daniel Bertucelli said a fire was reported at 11:40 p.m. in a building at Center of the Heart at 487 N. Turnpike Road.
He said it took firefighters about an hour to extinguish the flames burning in the Growing Babies Infant Center and Here We Grow! Early Learning Center on the campus, about a quarter-mile north of Calle Real. Santa Barbara fire crews joined the battle after a second alarm was issued.
No injuries were reported, but the damage was extensive, Bertucelli said.
He said fire investigators and sheriff’s detectives determined that the preschool fire was started intentionally, as were two other blazes set between midnight and 3:30 a.m. May 26 in the same area, around North Turnpike Road and Vala Drive. Those fires destroyed several trash receptacles and a portable toilet.
As our Giana Magnoli reported May 27, authorities identified and arrested a male juvenile as a suspect. The boy’s identity was not disclosed because he is a minor.
5. County Allowing Hair Salons, Places of Worship to Open; Face Coverings Mandate Goes Into Effect
At last.
I need a haircut and I need to go to church. Apparently, Sacramento and Santa Barbara County are granting me permission to do both.
While California’s erratic COVID-19 reopening plan continues to boomerang all over the place, those were the two key takeaways for me this past week.
Gov. Gavin Newsom issued his statewide stay-at-home order on March 19, with the goal of checking the spread of the coronavirus so hospital emergency rooms and intensive-care units would be less likely to be overwhelmed. That necessary objective was achieved weeks ago, but the plan to reverse course has been without rhyme, reason or urgency.
As our Giana Magnoli reported May 26, the county Public Health Department has now issued a new “Health Officer Order” that permits in-person services at churches, synagogues and mosques, albeit at a fraction of their capacity.
Interestingly, the state backed off after the Justice Department challenged the “unequal treatment of faith communities.”
Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband, head of the Civil Rights Division, put it bluntly in a three-page letter to Newsom: “There is no pandemic exception to the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights.”
The Constitution contains no Free Exercise Clause for barbershops and hair salons, but Public Health Department spokeswoman Jackie Ruiz said that they, too, would be permitted to reopen. Everyone just has to wear face coverings the entire time and there must be no touching of a customer’s face.
I can live with the precision of those rules, but I’m dubious of the seven-page mandatory masks decree — complete with $1,000 fines, imprisonment, “or both” — issued by the county’s health officer, Dr. Henning Ansorg, and lasting through at least June 30.
This is America, man. Good luck with that.
• • •
Last Year on Noozhawk
What was our most-read story this time last year? Paralyzed Santa Barbara Man Remains on Road to Recovery.
• • •
Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week
If we’re all going to be disguised as surgeons and bank robbers, we should remember to keep an eye on the rest of our face guard: The Masked but Unconquered Smile.
• • •
Best of Bill’s Instagram
Goats butted in in last week’s Best of Bill column, so I went searching for a herd of my own in my Instagram feed this past week.
• • •
Watch It
This is really long, but if you’re bedeviled by squirrelly adversaries like I am, you’ll watch until they get their comeuppance. HT to Noozhawk’s Tom Bolton.
(Mark Rober video)
• • •
How You Can Help Noozhawk
Noozhawk is proud to be the go-to source of news for locals like yourself. You trust and rely on us to provide timely, relevant and thorough coverage of the issues that shape Santa Barbara County.
And we get up early — and stay up late — excited to report what’s going on in our community so we can keep you informed and engaged.
While most of Noozhawk’s revenue comes from advertising and sponsorships, we believe that reader contributions are a vital source of support — financially and fundamentally. We believe that if we ask our readers to contribute what you think we’re worth, we can build a sustainable business model for local news.
Yes, I’ll set up a monthly donation today!
Yes, I’ll set up a monthly donation today!
Yes, I’ll set up a monthly donation today!
Yes, I’ll set up a monthly donation today!
Yes, I’ll set up a monthly donation today!
Yes, I’ll set up a monthly donation today!
Yes, I’ll set up a monthly donation today!
Yes, I’ll set up a monthly donation today!
Yes, I’ll set up a monthly donation today! Yes, I’ll set up a monthly donation today!
Your loyalty membership helps us continue to provide you with unmatched local news and in-depth reporting on the issues that you care about.
Please note that personal contributions to Noozhawk are not deductible as charitable donations.
Thank you for your support.
— Bill Macfadyen is Noozhawk’s founder and publisher. Contact him at wmacfadyen@noozhawk.com, follow him on Twitter: @noozhawk and Instagram: @bill.macfadyen, or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
