Regarding Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen’s Nov. 1 column, “In Street Food Fight, Local Restaurants Say Illegal Vendors Are Cooking Up Trouble,” yes, street vendors are operating outside of laws set for restaurants, but Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse fails to acknowledge that he killed food trucks. (While operating a restaurant. Conflict of interest?)
Food trucks are great incubators for new chefs to hone their skills. Food trucks are fun places to eat when gathered in “pods.” And food trucks are so much cheaper for young chefs to make a living with.
If Rowse is going to demand that vendors cease and desist, he should have the decency to allow food trucks.
Katy McDaniel
Santa Barbara
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The Nov. 2 article, “Tearing Down Phillips 66 Santa Maria Refinery Will Have One ‘Unavoidable’ Impact, Report Says,” has been one of the most through articles I have read in Noozhawk.
I hope that you continue to follow the progress of the project.
In the same vein, I would like to see articles on the disposition of the decommissioned oil platforms in the Santa Barbara Channel. If properly curated, the platforms can be a valuable resource for both commercial and recreational purposes — and the news media can play a prominent part in achieving that end.
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo published a very informative article in a recent alumni magazine. This would be a good resource to start your research.
Ron Westerman
Santa Barbara
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Heads up to all subscribers to the defunct Santa Barbara News-Press: If you signed up years ago to autopay for the online edition, check your designated payment source.
Each November I have been charged that, luckily, I caught and was able to dispute and erase twice.
How is it that the News-Press can’t sell the presses but is able to charge subscribers?
Gerry Spurbeck
Los Olivos
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I note with interest the commentary by Noozhawk readers about nonenforcement of your stated 200-word limit for “From Our Inbox” submissions.
I admire brevity in writing, while rarely deploying it myself, but also enjoy the range of letters you publish, diverse both in duration and in ideology.
Data points from the Nov. 1 letters to the editor:
- Nine of the 16 published letters — 56% — exceeded 200 words.
- Seven letters — 44% — honored your guideline, although two of these were pleas for the editors to impose the alleged word limit on others.
- The average letter — at 216 words — exceeded your standard; the mean letter length (not to be confused with the length of mean letters) was 211 words.
If these measures apply week-to-week, for every writer for whom brevity is a virtue — e.g. Carol Redhead’s 19-word paean to a poem about autumn — Noozhawk would publish 1.3 favoring more prolix composition, i.e. Ali Brieske’s 496-word encomium for higher taxes.
A modest suggestion: Expand your word ceiling to 300, then actually apply it.
“To make laws that man cannot and will not obey,” Elizabeth Cady Stanton famously said, “serves to bring all law into contempt.”
Jerry Roberts
Santa Barbara
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Why Noozhawk continues to post Robert Sulnick’s commentaries is beyond me. I guess it’s just a sop for all the crazy environmentalists in the area to cheer about. He is the ecological disaster lawyers equivalent to an ambulance chaser.
It may be my opinion only but it seems to me that the local environmental movement goes too far. Pushing unsubstantiated “facts” and using misinformation is something they rail against most of the time.
I’m sure there’s some well-researched, free-thinking individuals who would agree.
Brian MacIsaac
Noleta
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Mail Calls
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