Cover Story
Live Oak returns: After a two-year hiatus, the beloved local music festival is in full swing
Buy your tickets! The Live Oak Music Festival returns to El Chorro Regional Park June 17 through 19. RV hookups and large vehicle (22-feet and bigger) passes are sold out. Camping passes for tent and smaller than 22-foot vehicles are going fast, but there are still plenty of day passes available. Visit liveoakfest.org for availability…
NAACP’s Juneteenth Celebration includes film screening and music from local artists
The NAACP San Luis Obispo County Branch will host its fifth annual Juneteenth Celebration and Resource Fair, a two-day celebration of the emancipation of those who had been enslaved in the U.S., on Saturday, June 18 and Sunday, June 19. The theme of this year’s event is Emotional Competency: The Next Frontier of Human Development,…
Dayspring sentenced to 22 months for bribery, tax fraud
Central Coast cannabis magnate Helios Dayspring received a 22-month prison sentence on May 27, putting a capstone on a public corruption case that shook San Luis Obispo County for a year. Federal judge André Birotte Jr. handed down the sentence at a hearing in downtown Los Angeles. He sided with U.S. prosecutors that Dayspring deserved…
Gallery at Marina Square announces featured artists for June exhibits
On Saturday, June 11, Gallery at Marina Square in Morro Bay will hold an opening reception to celebrate its three featured artists for the month of June. The gallery will be showcasing artworks by fiber artist Debbie Gedayloo, acrylic painter Ji Li, and mixed media painter Stevie Chun through Thursday, June 30. Gedayloo’s primary medium…
Atascadero looks to stimulate affordable housing development
Atascadero needs to generate approximately $800,000 a year in matching funds for affordable development projects to keep up with the state’s housing goals for the city. That would help developers and nonprofits build an average of 32 low- to very low-income housing units per year, according to Ashleigh Kanat, a city-contracted consultant with Economic and…
OCSD appoints Steve Montes as new board member
Having one eye on the AGP Video camera and an ear on City Council meetings across southern San Luis Obispo County proved to be the winning combination for Oceano Community Services District (OCSD) resident Steve Montes. On May 20, Montes beat two other candidates—April Dury and Gary Hamel—vying for a position on the OCSD board…
Late donations bolster SLO County supervisor campaigns
San Luis Obispo County’s three supervisor contests are flush with cash for the home stretch of the June 7 primary election. A surge in late donations brought $210,621 to the nine candidates during the last month and pushed their fundraising totals to more than $1.3 million. South County rivals Lynn Compton and Jimmy Paulding, competing…
Nipomo-based pilates and barre studio creates a new sense of community
When Shannon Mako moved to Nipomo from San Clemente four years ago, she knew no one and found it really hard to make new friends, she said. “The nature of the Central Coast is that it’s very small town. Properties are spread out, people have their houses sit further back in their land. You don’t…
Now is the time
Rather than being a rehash of what most know about homelessness locally, Kevin Buchanan’s piece (“A housing problem,” May 26) is quite insightful and informative. He writes that “even ‘housing first’ solutions to homelessness remain a reactive solution.” And he goes on to say that “legalizing basic varieties of housing, even duplexes and accessory dwelling…
I’m voting for Dawn Addis. Are you?
I first heard Dawn Addis speak at a candidates forum, and I was immediately impressed that she knew the issues of our Central Coast. She listens, her heart is in our entire Assembly District, and she won’t go to Sacramento and forget about us. Please join me in voting for Dawn Addis, someone with integrity,…
Downtown parking rules need to change
As a longtime downtown businessperson since the 1970s, it has been thoroughly discouraging to hear deserved complaints about the parking rules put in place since August 2021. Does everyone know that you can be ticketed up to 9 p.m., seven days a week? Numerous patrons have complained that the pay kiosks are hard to understand…
Joe Jackson plays the Fremont Theater on June 7
Excuse me while I age myself. When Joe Jackson released his debut album Look Sharp! in 1979, I was a high school junior, and the album was a revelation. I listened to it more times than I could count. “Is She Really Going Out with Him?” “Fools in Love.” What teenage boy didn’t know and…
Do your homework, find the right answers
The ballots have arrived. It’s time to vote for those who we will choose to represent us. Some have already cast their ballot, some have not. How do we know who is the most qualified to address the issues we are most concerned with? JFK once stated, “Let us not seek the Republican answer or…
Misleading and false campaigning
Earlier this week, a candidate for SLO County 2nd District supervisor named Dr. Bruce Jones sent a flyer purporting to be supported by local law enforcement. It seems that this is totally and 100 percent false. Dr. Jones used a photo of himself with the police chief without the police chief’s permission. He is not…
Time to vote for change
Republicans are willing to fall on their sword to support the “sanctity of life” and outlaw a woman’s right to choose. Contrarily, they have vowed their fealty to the NRA and refuse to support gun control measures, universal background checks, and an assault weapons ban because they believe new laws would threaten a constitutional right…
Vote for Dawn Addis
Leadership is important. I support Dawn Addis for state Assembly because she is the experienced, thoughtful, and principled leader needed. Dawn is a city council member, teacher, and mother, with a 20-year record of leadership in our Central Coast communities. Her priorities—lowering housing costs, reducing gun violence, protecting women’s reproductive rights, safeguarding California’s coast, and…
Diablo’s long goodbye
May 19 was the deadline for PG&E to apply for a portion of the $6 billion in federal funds allocated to propping up distressed nuclear power plants. It came and went, but the fate of the Diablo Canyon plant—clouded by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s sudden about-face on its closure—lingers on in the form of a 45-day…
Jay Bird’s brings Nashville hot chicken to San Luis Obispo
Find your spice level Visit Jay Bird’s Chicken in the San Luis Obispo Public Market at 3845 S. Higuera from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Jay Bird’s Chicken owner and chef Jay Bogsinske had two major cooking influences throughout his childhood growing up in Chicago: his mother and grandmother. They taught him all their…
Basslines
The scourge of San Luis Obispo is at it again, folks! “Cal Poly students are terrorizing local residents with their constant partying and vulgar language,” according to Kye Martin, who wrote an email to New Times expressing his displeasure with his neighbors. “Packed with disrespectful young men, who constantly party at all hours of the…
Top Gun: Maverick is ridiculous and awesome!
TOP GUN: MAVERICK What’s it rated? PG-13 What’s it worth, Anna? Full price What’s it worth, Glen? Full price Where’s it showing? Bay, Downtown Centre, Galaxy, Park, Stadium 10, Sunset Drive-In Joseph Kosinski (Oblivion, Only the Brave) directs this sequel to Top Gun (1986), which was about Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise), a gifted but…
Public Health opens up grant applications for pandemic relief
San Luis Obispo County presented another chance for local nonprofits to secure much-needed dollars for pandemic relief, but some are concerned that the rules of eligibility will make the process inequitable. On May 27, the county issued a call for applications through the Public Health Department. With $5.9 million up for grabs, 12 organizations would…
Minx
What’s it rated? TV-MA When? 2022 Where’s it showing? HBO Max The things we do to keep feminism alive, am I right? Joyce has wished and dreamed of publishing her own women’s liberation magazine since she was a wee tot; her pages and pages (and pages and pages!) of essays, diatribes, and rants are waiting…
Water fight: Cuyama Valley landowners face an adjudication lawsuit as they try to sustainably manage their groundwater basin
Cuyama Valley’s water woes dominated Santa Barbara County 1st District Supervisor Das Williams’ comments during a recent hearing about the future of water well permits in his county. “I just have some concerns about how this is going to impact high-priority basins, particularly Cuyama,” Williams said during the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors’ May…
George Carlin’s American Dream
What’s it rated? TV-MA When? 2022 Where’s it showing? HBO Max Directed by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio, this George Carlin biography mixes interviews with Carlin’s family members and contemporary comics such as Stephen Colbert, Patton Oswalt, Bill Burr, Chris Rock, and Jerry Seinfeld, as well as archival material from his long career. It’s an…
Nuisance on the block: SLO’s long-term residents and students struggle to see eye-to-eye
Longtime San Luis Obispo resident Kye Martin’s kids have a few more years before they graduate high school, but their dad is already counting down the days. “The last three years have been awful. I look at real estate all the time. I have three more years so that our kids can get out of…
