Regarding the Nov. 17 article, “Montecito’s Coral Casino Plans to Reopen in January with New Facilities, Big Increase in Membership Dues,” it also should be noted that the membership is up in arms about the 500% increase in monthly fees.
There was a members meeting held Nov. 16 at the Montecito Club to discuss this. It was a packed house, including more than 50 additional members joining in by Zoom.
Numerous members, many of whom have been with the club for more than 40 years, spoke in opposition to the 500% rise in monthly dues.
In addition, no date could be verified by the Ty Warner Hotels & Resorts representatives on the opening of the new Thomas Keller restaurant, although rumors speculated it could be under construction for up to two additional years!
Responses to letters written by the Coral Casino Members Committee to Ty Warner indicated he was confident that the increase was “appropriate” and a value to members.
An anonymous vote was taken at the end of the meeting to see how many people would be continuing as members with monthly dues of $2,500. I don’t know the results of this vote yet, but after speaking with numerous members and listening to those who got up to speak, I’m assuming most will NOT be staying on.
A sad end of an era …
Sue Burk
25-year Coral Casino member
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Thank you to Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen for his comments about the Coral Casino in his Nov. 24 column.
I learned to swim in the casino pool as a young girl and have fond memories of visiting with my grandparents for many, many years after. When my mother moved to Montecito to take care of my grandmother after my grandfather died, she became a member herself and the tradition continued.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic and the construction, my mother has been shut out of the pool, which was an important part of her routine.
Now she is being told that, in order for her to return, she’ll be required to pay $2,500 a month just for dues alone. As a senior on a fixed income, this is not even remotely in her budget.
I don’t see how that figure can be justified, but I wonder if the goal is to replace members like my mother with new, younger members who can afford the exorbitant initiation fees and $2,50o monthly dues.
Macfadyen is right about crossing the Rubicon. It’s a sad ending to what had been a wonderful club.
W. Pittman
Pacific Palisades
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During the public comments portion of the Nov. 16 Santa Barbara Harbor Commission meeting, I had the privilege of speaking before the commission.
The staff was friendly and helpful in getting me ready to express my views. The subject of my statement was “swimming safely in the ocean at Leadbetter Beach.” My comments were accepted politely and in the due process of the commission’s business.
My comments were prompted by the removal of the buoys that “theoretically” separate the swimming area from other areas of the ocean. The removal of the buoys has allowed several people with sailboats to come to within unsafe distances from swimmers.
This sailing activity has prompted several verbal confrontations between swimmers and sailors, including profanity and threats.
This aggressive sailing activity has been reported to the Harbor Patrol and those reports have been received politely and in due process. Those reports also included the identifying boat numbers.
The purpose of my address to the Harbor Commission and of this letter to the editor is to emphasize the seriousness of the dangers involved by not keeping boaters and swimmers in their own separate and well-defined areas of the ocean, and to request that the community get involved in this important issue.
I ask ocean swimmers and others to join in requesting that the commission focus on keeping ocean swimmers safe.
Edward Cooper
Santa Barbara
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A few months ago, and published in Noozhawk, Santa Barbara City College interim President Kindred Murillo stepped aside to welcome incoming president Erika Endrijonas, but not before stating that she had never seen a higher level of racism than what exists at SBCC.
In stating this dubious charge, Murillo was promoting the DEI (Diversity-Equity-Inclusion) Guide that was created in 2020-2021 by a group of state college faculty, called the California Community College Committee, and charged with incorporating it into required curriculum for faculty to teach.
For all intents and purposes, this “guide” promotes collectivism not individualism, stresses the ongoing struggle between oppressors and oppressed groups in our society, emphasizes that a person from one group cannot understand the experience of someone in another group.
But worst of all, it asserts that free speech, academic freedom and meritocracy are merely tools that the powerful use to stay powerful.
Joseph Stalin used collectivism in Ukraine during the 1930s, replacing small farms with state-run collectives to deadly effect. Look up the Holodomor.
Aren’t colleges supposed to be centers of inquiry and curiosity? Places where people are tolerant of differences and learn about other points of view? Apparently not, and instead, adolescents and young adults are in truth channeled into an environment of a very specific and corrosive ideology.
Students have gotten the message that they are not on campus to primarily learn major studies but rather the “group think” ideology and that has newly become paramount for faculty to spread.
No more is there an emphasis on academic integrity and striving for a goal/career (outside of DEI counselors) while social justice issues reign supreme. Things need to change.
Instead, colleges must celebrate the fact that we live in one of the most diverse societies in history. The job of faculty is to help young people from different backgrounds learn to work and live together.
Pluralism, as opposed to collectivism, is a belief that one’s identity is complex and fluid, that most human beings shouldn’t be divided into good/evil categories, and that we become wise by considering different viewpoints.
Donors like myself, who give to the SBCC Foundation (which regrettably is losing CEO Geoff Green) but who are offended by what’s happening on campus today, shouldn’t stop funding colleges. They should fund pluralistic programs that offer an alternative to the currently prevailing ideology.
Now is the time for donors, faculty members, students, parents and everybody else involved in higher education to support the pluralistic counterweight, which actually practices inclusion, celebrates complexity, fosters cooperation and leads to real social justice.
J.W. Burk
Santa Barbara
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I am a huge proponent of recycling wastewater as a sustainable source of water. But I am a fierce opponent of thoughtless, irresponsible spending by government agencies.
The Central Coast Blue Project is great on theory for regional recycled water, but it is a financial disaster in its current implementation. Cost are grossly misstated (from 2015 engineering software), after eight years of planning design is only 60% complete.
Regulatory approval has not been acquired, applications for required permits have not been submitted. The site for the new treatment facility is just outside the 100-year floodplain.
My point is that the cities of Grover Beach and Arroyo Grande need to review, reanalyze and re-evaluate their participation in the Central Coast Blue Project before wasting tens of millions of ratepayer dollars on a misrepresented, overpriced, unproven project that will financially cripple our cities for the foreseeable future.
I am not recommending that member agencies bail out of the project. I am not recommending that they continue on.
I am not recommending anything but that those with fiduciary responsibilities more closely analyze and scrutinize project details. Demand professional design and accounting information.
John Clemons
Grover Beach
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