Boy, did I identify with Judy Foreman’s March 10 column, “Driver’s License Renewal Tests Taker’s Resolve — But That Passes.” At 82, with a perfect driving record, I found it to be a challenge!
Yes, I did study the booklet and take the practice tests online (several times). Yes, I did need to pay the $45 fee to take it again. No, I was never aware there was an online test.
I finally passed the test, and was so HAPPY and relieved to have it behind me!
Hermine Gallup
Santa Barbara
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My wife and I both had to take the written test, having just moved to California from Washington.
I did a few DMV practice tests online and zipped through the in-person test (evidently, online isn’t an option for 70+ applicants).
My wife was a nervous wreck before and during the test — but passed the first time, too. But she “felt Foreman’s pain” when reading her column.
Kirk Greene
Santa Barbara
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Judy Foreman’s column should be picked up by every newspaper and magazine in the land.
We’ve moved to San Diego and, in the crush of readying our home for sale, shipping tons of things to our children on the East Coast and just the right amount of stuff for 1,400 square feet of space in our new home, I let my license lapse and face taking that test.
Although I’ve heard her story, no one has officially written about it. Kudos to Foreman for writing of the experience. Fair warning received! I’ll let you know how I do.
Importantly, I love Foreman’s columns. They are intelligently human, and I think she is a gifted writer/thinker.
Judy Egenolf
San Diego
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I read Judy Foreman’s column with a smile on my face. I had a similar experience last year but gave up.
Two things I have to say: I got my first driver’s license in 1958 or ’59 at the Santa Barbara DMV so many years earlier than Foreman. I have lived the majority of my life in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties when there were fewer people around.
Last year I went through the same thing with my driver’s license renewal. I did NOT pass the first time — a very few days before my license expired.
I went home to study AGAIN, then went back in a couple of weeks but the computer malfunctioned. I gave up and walked out. Maybe that is a good thing. The traffic here in Ventura County moves faster than my 80-plus-year-old brain can react.
But had I known about the online test, I might have passed it. Thank you to Foreman for sharing her experience. It brought back memories of my experiences a year ago and I can now laugh about them. How I miss the slower pace of northern Santa Barbara County.
Mary Shaw
Ventura
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There is an easier method. You can take a no-fail test at home, which takes about 40 minutes of multiple choice questions, and you can go back and correct any wrong answers. Print the certificate when you are finished and take it to the DMV. I made an appointment and was in and out of there in 45 minutes.
I think some people get confused between taking the test online, when I think there’s a time limit, and taking the no-fault test.
Marion Anderson
Santa Barbara
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Judy Foreman’s DMV story is hilarious. I’m planning to take the online test after being notified that I could do it; I was notified by mail one or two months ago and I’m STILL procrastinating.
A friend said the test is difficult; he knew of a few people who had failed. My husband says I probably don’t need to study because I got a speeding ticket last year on Highway 101 and took an online traffic class. That class had all the difficult, ridiculous subjects, as well, BUT after reading Foreman’s column, I think I better just suck it up, go over the books again and TRY to pass it.
I cannot believe I have to take the test again. A couple of years ago, in order to get that special emblem on our driver’s licenses, I KNOW I took the test (I passed the first time) and so did my husband (he had to take it twice).
Anyway, thanks for the laugh. I’m forwarding it to my friends.
Catherine Duvendeck
Camarillo
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My biggest “how smart are you” confidence level was completely destroyed after failing the DMV written test three times.
Yep, I paid the $45 and tried again and passed (I considered trying to bribe someone to let me pass). Like Foreman, I know I have intelligence — a 45-year career as a paralegal to judges!
None of the questions on the so-called practice tests were on the real test, so that was a waste of time. Studying and worrying almost sent me over the edge.
Jan Hawk Bertram
Santa Barbara
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I can commiserate with Judy Foreman’s story about failing her first attempt of the DMV written test!
Last November I turned 71 and was required to take the written test for the first time in three decades. I took home the 94-page booklet to study and highlight, and felt comfortable to take the computer test; while not remembering failing any test or assessments even when I was completing my BS and earning an MBA in my late 40s and early 50s.
I found the tests to be more “tricky versus hard,” and have been driving since age 16 and for 55 years with an impeccable driving record.
Also, there are many states that don’t charge seniors or charge just a few bucks for license renewals. California charges $45 to make up for the state’s deficit, and I feel it is onerous for seniors, especially those on fixed incomes!
Hopefully, the secretary of state will make an effort to ask fair questions on the written tests and reduce the minutiae of unnecessary, non sequitur questions that rarely occur when driving!
Just for pride, I aced the second attempt and don’t look forward to taking the test again at age 76!
Harry Strong
Goleta
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I must take the written DMV test by mid-August 2025. I am already scared and found some sample tests online and saved them on my desktop. There are five of them and I intend to read them twice a day about a month before I go.
I enjoyed Judy Foreman revealing what some of her questions were. I hope I don’t have to take the test every five years after that.
Patty Matsumaru
Santa Barbara
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I am 82 and recently returned to California. Since my out of state driver’s licence didn’t expire for several months after returning, my human instincts of putting things off kicked in.
But the month of reckoning approached. I was terrified, as was my wife. Like Judy Foreman, we studied, took the practice tests, bought additional learning tools. We were humbled by this experience, but most important, we didn’t want to tell each other that we didn’t pass.
After much studying, gnashing of teeth and some weight loss, we passed. Phew. In retrospect, that wasn’t so bad.
Foreman’s account of her DMV experience was spot on. Everyone scheduled for this event should take it seriously, if for no other reason than to avoid telling a child or a spouse, “I failed.”
No one likes entering the DMV for anything. Study and take this test with confidence.
Michael Diamant
Santa Barbara
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Congratulations, Roy Lee! So glad to read the March 13 article, “Latest Vote Tally Cements Roy Lee’s Victory Over Das Williams in First District Supervisor Race.”
Thank you, First District voters.
Kent Englert
Carpinteria
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The Roy Lee upset win reminds me of Gloria Ochoa beating David Yager, also for the First District seat, many years ago.
Ken Masuda
Santa Barbara
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Like Noozhawk South County editor Josh Molina, I watch every meeting of the Santa Barbara Planning Commission. Unlike him, I have some unconventional thoughts about the proposed hotel on lower Garden Street, as reported in his Feb. 29 article, “Despite Clash of Opinions, Santa Barbara Planning Commission Signs Off on Garden Street Hotel Project.”
Commissioner Brian Barnwell made some great points as to why the project is out of place, scale, impact, and on and on. But then he changed his position and was the swing vote for the project’s approval.
In the following meeting it was announced the project is being appealed to the full city council at some future date.
The project to build a 250-room hotel will now be considered by the city council … in 2024. But it was in 1983 when the Wright family gave a huge portion of land to the city in exchange to build a hotel at some future date.
The Wright family has had four decades to build something on this property and, I hate to say it, but they waited too long. I think the proposed hotel is wrong for the six parcels.
I also think housing is a really bad use. It won’t be affordable to almost everyone living here. The area has been wonderfully used by locals for decades now. The soil, I’m guessing here, is probably contaminated as much as the old Ambassador Cleaners site on Santa Barbara Street.
I’ll end by saying I hope the council supports the appeal. With due respect to the Wrights as the property owners, I think they should be able to develop their properties within the zoning conditions.
And these six parcels are some of the last in the Funk Zone. There are zoning restrictions everywhere in town, and I look at this area as having a Funk Zoning restriction. No hotel, no housing, keep the funk.
Dan Seibert
Santa Barbara
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Regarding the March 12 article, “Santa Barbara Council Moves Forward with New Fees for Outdoor Dining Parklets,” the City Council voted 6-1 to impose new fees on the restaurants that are still afloat after the COVID-19 pandemic and Bidenomics impacts. The council would like to see how quickly they can sink these businesses.
Councilwoman Meagan Harmon refers to this new tax as being for “safety,” “design,” “permanence” and “surety in this process.” Can someone tell me what “surety in this process” is and how it helps the city?
Mayor Randy Rowse said he supports the fees because the restaurants have had free rent for too long. I thought outdoor dining and street closures were the brainchild of the city council.
The idea was to help downtown business. It continued after the pandemic by a vote of the council. Was that all a ploy for this fee insurrection? I guess the eagle has landed and restaurants will pay or go to jail.
I have a suggestion: Why don’t we have a parklets fee on the City Council’s wages? Let’s say it’s for the safety, design, permanence and “surety in this process” to ensure the council doesn’t come up with another fee/tax on taxpayers.
Can any council member please tell me what the city is going to spend these new fees on?
Thanks to South County editor Josh Molina for the article and for giving the restaurants’ plight visibility to the public.
Bart Bader
Goleta
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Wondering how many electric cars are in California, I looked it up. In 2020, there were 420,000 in a state of 40 million people. So how many electric vehicles are there now? Maybe double or triple?
Since these vehicles pay no gas tax, what do you suppose the state will do to recoup the billions of dollars that are going away? Nonelectric vehicles pay 53 cents per gallon to the state!
Good luck making everything electric.
John Sween
Santa Barbara
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Regarding the March 6 article, “UCSB Multicultural Center Remains Closed After Posting of Antisemitic Signs, Targeting of Student Leader,” locking Jewish students out of the Multicultural Center at UC Santa Barbara is oxymoronic and counter productive to cultural understanding and peace.
While I do hope for peace in Palestine and acknowledge the Allies’ grave mistake in where and how they established a safe nation for Jews following World War II, I think any member of an educational institution that bars or denies any student of their educational rights and privileges should be summarily dismissed.
If they prefer to protest over academics, they should feel free to protest, but not at taxpayer funding nor at a cost to any student’s education.
I am not advocating for either side in this issue. I would and do believe the UC Board of Regents are remiss in their lack of discipline over the student body and those single-minded professors.
I hold no animosity to anyone involved but I can see the irony of this on so many basic levels. Protest as we did (but don’t burn Bank of America this time, though), and get back to work.
I believe our nation to be as just and lawful a society as is possible and individual rights are guaranteed. However, we have become lax in our responsibilities and, if not corrected, the chaos of late will spread and become infectious so as to imperil our grand democratic experiment.
It starts here and now. Correct this, Regents.
Brian Massey
Bow, Washington
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As a UCSB student, I am disappointed by Noozhawk’s journalism. Conflating anti-Zionism with anti-semitism is dangerous rhetoric that may help Noozhawk for clickbait, but it harms students who are trying to protest an ongoing genocide.
It poses an issue of free speech when students protesting genocide are labeled as anti-semitic.
I urge Noozhawk to edit the headline to reflect campus events accurately. Please do better.
Sarah Berg
UC Santa Barbara
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I just received my new annual City of Santa Barbara Business Permit and was surprised to see it coming from Birmingham, Alabama!
The return address listed Avenu Insights & Logistics as the sender. That company evidently provides analytics and integrated administrative solutions to local governments, such as revenue enhancement and payment software and solutions.
And now that company has been purchased by Arlington Capital Partners, an investment group that states that Avenu “helps governments recover revenue and manage day-to-day operations and administration.”
It appears that some of the “administration” of local City of Santa Barbara business has been farmed out to better and possibly cheaper “administrators.” Does that mean there has been a corresponding reduction of employee costs at City Hall to offset outside expenditures?
Perhaps there are other areas of city operations that could be contracted to private companies to help balance the budgets. And more money could be saved in the future.
Dave Blunk
Santa Barbara
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The new gym approved for Orcutt Academy will benefit the school as well as the community. It will relieve pressure from the consistent athletic usage now taking place at the Orcutt and Lakeview Junior High School gyms.
There are, however, questions to be asked about its origins.
The money for the gym came from a bond that Orcutt Union School District taxpayers approved in 2016. The irony is that, when passed, the specific bond legal language made no mention of funding for a gym.
Instead, there was $6.3 million allocated toward building new science labs at Orcutt, Lakeview and the academy.
In a Bond Oversight Committee meeting with current Superintendent Holly Edds attending, the money was “reallocated” away from building the science labs and put instead toward building the gym.
In other words, the bulk of the money for building the gym was taken from what should have been new science facilities. Rather than benefiting a majority of students throughout the district, the bond money now only benefits those who attend the academy.
While a new gym is an improvement for academy students, it’s hard to underestimate how much new science labs would mean for the larger student population in the district.
Students from other district schools may attend or participate in activities in the new gym, but that is not comparable to the improved academic benefits of having new modern science facilities that students would be using all year long, beginning with seventh grade.
Furthermore, the vast majority of eighth-grade Orcutt district graduates end up attending Righetti High School while almost all of the remaining students attend the academy or St. Joseph High School.
The final irony is that the district was aware of the excitement surrounding the creation of new science labs at the three schools involved. Science teachers were asked their opinions about outfitting the labs, including new technology.
Once the money was taken away, it felt like a stab in the back to the schools and teachers involved.
It was stated in an open board meeting that the science teachers actually approved of the funding “reallocation.” This is simply not true.
After the district eliminated the lab funding and felt the repercussions, as a panacea it decided to allot $200,000 to both Orcutt and Lakeview to build new storage rooms for their current science buildings.
At the end of the 2021-2022 school year, five veteran science teachers retired from those two junior highs, some of whom did so due to this controversy.
As of today, no construction has taken place on promised storage facilities. Why? The district has once again eliminated funding. That is totally unacceptable from a district that had more than $25 million in its ending balance last year.
Once again, there is no doubt that this gym is a necessary improvement, but it is important that the district be upfront about where it is going to spend the public’s bond money if it expects taxpayers to approve future bond measures.
Patrick Brickey
Lakeview Junior High School science teacher, 1988-2022
Keri Kirkland
Lakeview Junior High science teacher, 1997-2022
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I enjoyed Erin Graffy’s March 6 books column, “Rediscovering Santa Barbara Authors’ Hidden Literary Gems,” which recapped one of my local favorites, Never Tell Your Name by Josie Levy Martin.
As Graffy attests, the story is “wonderfully told” in the voice of Martin’s 5-year-old self: a hidden Jewish child in the Holocaust.
I sense Martin’s tragic innocence and nescient unease as she is put to bed wearing “the bulkiness of her blue wool jumper, the long-sleeved tricot chemise and her thick hand knitted gray socks with the red borders.” Her parents, afraid for her life, soon smuggled her to a Catholic orphanage.
Martin’s concise and insightful writing is a gift to the universe. She describes and helps the reader feel the same helplessness, bewilderment and fear that I imagine the children in Israel and Palestine, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Libya, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Colombia and Mali all share.
As Martin writes in her prologue, “I wanted to preach in huge billboard-sized letters that ‘war is bad for children and other living things.’ Every moment we lose precious and unique gifts: children’s lives disrupted, twisted, starving or killed in war.”
Karen Telleen-Lawton
Santa Barbara
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