New Times / News

Live from New York!

BY KATHY JOHNSTON

More than a thousand New Yorkers visited San Luis Obispo County’s website last month, marking the first time county officials have seen such high interest from outside the state.

But the attention from the Empire State is no surprise. While “Superstorm Sandy” raged on the East Coast, locals here enjoyed summerlike days with temperatures in the 80s.

“We had 1,257 visits to the county’s home page from New York, for the first time ever,” said Duane Inglish, a departmental automation specialist for SLO County who compiles monthly statistics on the website’s hits.

Most people who visit the county’s home page live in California, he said.

“We had great weather while Hurricane Sandy was destroying New York,” Inglish told New Times in a phone interview.

“The timing with Hurricane Sandy leads one to suspect that people were thinking, ‘Boy, it’s not that fun to live here,’” he added.

Inglish said he hasn’t run the numbers for website hits in November yet, but “it will be interesting to see if New York pops up again.”