With San Luis Obispo pointing a finger at Cal Poly and Cal Poly pointing a finger right back at the city, the student party problem is never going to get solved.
When residents complain about their drunk, loud, obscene neighbors to Cal Poly, the university says it’s the city’s problem.
“The city is in charge of ensuring that they are staying within the city guidelines and policies,” said an email Cal Poly sent to Kathie Walker. “Community members that suspected that a property is operating outside of these guidelines are encouraged to contact SLO City Code Enforcement and/or SLOPD.”
Walker, who used to live in the troublesome Alta Vista neighborhood, said Cal Poly told her it’s “not Cal Poly’s problem because the fraternities are illegally operating within the city limits.”
But the university isn’t helping the city do its job, according to SLO, because it isn’t handing over the addresses of fraternities and sororities or their events. That information would help with enforcement.
And the City Council basically just told the grand jury—which released a report earlier this summer about how poorly the city is addressing the issue—to pound sand! City Councilmember Jan Marx, who also used to live in the Alta Vista area and complain about the student parties (she once said the noise they caused was “visceral”), said the grand jury handled resident’s complaints about the issue “uncritically.”
“Frankly, some of the people who were feeling so desperate and angry may just have to continue with those feelings, even though I would be love to be able to change reality,” she said.
Easy for her to say! She doesn’t live there anymore.
Even though the city rejected the grand jury report’s findings and lamented the fact that Cal Poly didn’t receive its share of blame in the report, it did implement a process to find unpermitted frats and force them into compliance. So, nothing to see here?
Meanwhile in Cambria, the skate park that residents have been consistently pushing and raising money for can’t catch a break with the Community Services District. For the last five years, Skate Cambria has rallied for the cause, raising more than $1 million to push forward with planning and build-out before being told at the beginning of the year that hundreds of thousands more dollars were needed in short order. Hurry!
After reaching that goal, pulling together more than $300,000 in less than six months, the issue went back before the board—but CSD General Manager Matthew McElhenie (ever the bad news bearer and staller-in-chief) said the skate park is still going to have to wait.
Now, the county needs to approve the restrooms that are planned as part of the park because they’re on a floodplain.
Board member Karen Dean said the district wanted to make sure “the restroom wouldn’t float down the street in a rainstorm.”
Why did we wait until now to get county approval? Delaying the project until next year is going to cost more.
Six months from now, is McElhenie going to tell Skate Cambria to raise a couple hundred more thousand dollars? My Magic 8 Ball says, “Signs point to yes.”
McElhenie even said, “Typically, these prices don’t go down.” They never go down.
Just like Oceano’s bitter political rivalries will never go away.
After a rough election season last year, there is a silver lining on the horizon. A track and field project at one of Oceano’s schools is becoming a reality for the town that feels forgotten by the county, largely thanks to one of its most controversial figures: Charles Varni.
The man got the Oceano Community Services District to create a parks and recreation committee through sheer willpower just so it could have access to some of the same safe recreational opportunities that neighboring cities have. It was a bumpy ride, because Varni is a bumpy man.
Tact is not his strength and neither is making friends, not enemies.
After losing his reelection campaign to continue serving on the CSD board, he applied to be a member of the committee. But he needs board approval for that, and he ain’t getting it.
Why? Vengeance, possibly. Or, maybe it’s his poor attitude in contentious situations.
CSD board members Shirley Gibson and Linda Austin have a hate-hate relationship with their former fellow board member. The sniping during meetings in 2023 and 2024 was popcorn-worthy, and Gibson even filed a restraining order against Varni after one particularly contentious meeting.
The ladies aren’t having Varni anywhere near them.
“I’ve seen Charles’ passion, and he was very instrumental in the track, but when he’s on this board, up here … it’s a constant battle with him,” Austin said at the Aug. 13 meeting where his application came up. “I know he can be pleasant, … but if he gets any authority, he will just browbeat the staff to do what he wants them to do.”
She’s not completely wrong.
Varni, for his part, dismissed the votes against him as residual “emotions … that have not gone away.” Hm. Is that a sexist remark?
I hope not. Either way, Varni made his bed, and now he has to lie in it. And, unfortunately for Oceano, that means losing a fierce advocate for something that’s sorely needed in the area: more safe recreational opportunities. ∆
The Shredder thinks everyone needs to grow up. Send tips on how to shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Sept 18-28, 2025.
Dear Shredder. Why aren’t you talking about that barrel-chested, right-wing, behemoth Al Fonzi anymore. I know he moved to his like-minded motherland recently, but he’s still publishing articles like the most recent one in the Atascadero News. Check it out and tell me if you just love that spew.