Curtains for Mardi Gras, officials
suggest
Mardi Gras may have met its Waterloo.
A pair of formidable foes to the future of the festival made their views known to the San Luis Obispo City Council this week, suggesting that the venerable but increasingly rowdy annual party be cancelled.
Police Chief Deb Linden and City Manager Ken Hampian said Mardi Gras has gotten out of hand and organizers should no longer be allowed to stage the event.
Council members want to give the event's sponsors a chance to respond, and City Attorney Jonathan Lowell has been asked to study legal alternatives.
Mardi Gras parade organizers cannot be prevented from holding the parade. A federal court has ruled such an action would run afoul of the First Amendment.
But Linden said she hoped that public pressure will prompt organizers to cancel the parade and predicted a backlash if the event is retained.
The last Mardi Gras was held Feb. 21, and was marked by riots among the nearly 5,000 revelers who took to the streets, in the view of police officials, to celebrate the rites of spring with alcohol-fueled violence.
Cost to government of the five-day activity was $483,600, said Hampian-$133,200 incurred by the city and the balance by a variety of law enforcement agencies called in to help. Linden said that total might go higher as additional data is received.
A crowd gathered at California and Foothill boulevards, and some hurled rocks and bottles at police. Officers made nearly 200 arrests, most for alcohol- or violence-related offenses. City officials have expressed concern about the expanding nature of the event-advertisements and notices in several national publications and on the Internet helped attract a record number of out-of-town visitors.
"We all agree," said Hampian, "that the end of the parade will not instantly end the excessive behavior. "But it signals a beginning to the end, we hope."
Crowd expected for Cal Poly open house
San Luis Obispo swells by more than 40,000 people this weekend as Cal Poly hosts its annual Open House.
The theme for this year's three-day event is "Spotlight: Cal Poly" and sponsors will emphasize academics, diversity, and community.
Police officials said they will add officers to the streets to help control the large influx.
The Poly Royal Parade is set for Saturday at 9 a.m. on campus and is open to the public.
Other events include a carnival, a robot competition, the traditional tractor pull, and musical performances Saturday night.
A Sunday golf tournament at Avila Beach Golf Resort concludes the weekend's festivities.
For more information on events, contact the Open House Committee at 756-7576, or visit the web site: www.orientation.calpoly.edu/openhouse.
EPA air pollution ruling might affect SLO county
Sometime after April 15 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will designate which counties across the country are not meeting the agency's eight-hour ozone standard.
While the EPA had not made a final decision before New Times went to press, San Luis Obispo County was not expected to be on that list. However, neighboring Kern County is expected to make the list.
And that, said Aeron Arlin Genet, the planning manager with the San Luis Air Pollution Control District, is something that her agency is paying close attention to. That's because Arlin Genet's agency recently conducted a study that showed that certain weather conditions will actually transport air pollution from the San Joaquin Valley to San Luis Obispo County.
"Their air quality is definitely a concern to us," Arlin Genet said. "The designation is one thing, but what I think is more important is what are the air districts doing to reduce pollution. Any actions that can be taken to reduce the air pollution in the San Joaquin Valley will help us in the long run as well."
According to the EPA, ground-level ozone is formed when pollutants from cars, power plants, refineries, and other sources react chemically with sunlight. Ozone can aggravate asthma, damage lung cells, and exacerbate chronic diseases like emphysema and bronchitis. Long-term exposure can also cause permanent lung damage.
Federal lawsuit challenges plover habitat
In conjunction with Friends of Oceano Dunes and other California and Oregon groups, the Pacific Legal Foundation has filed a federal lawsuit challenging "unlawful critical habitat designations" for the Western snowy plover.
The foundation made headlines earlier this year when a different lawsuit-alleging the federal government was sitting on more than 500 pages of scientific data that the validity of the plover listing-prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in March to start a review of the plover's place on the endangered species list. In response to that lawsuit, the court also ruled that the bird's habitat designations were unlawful, but allowed the service to keep the restrictions in place while it conducts an economic evaluation.
The foundation's spokesperson, Dawn Collier, said it could take the Fish and Wildlife Service as long as four years to complete that review.
"In the meantime, people are not allowed to use the beaches," she said. "So what we're saying is that the Fish and Wildlife Service admitted that [the designations] were illegal, the court acknowledged that they were illegal and yet the court let them stand.
"Whether or not the plover should be listed, these designations are illegal because the government didn't do their 1-2-3 checklist that they were supposed to do."
Slight progress in A.G. rape case
The first week of April, a middle-aged woman was abducted from in front of her Arroyo Grande apartment complex, dragged to Elm Street Park, and raped.
A week later, the Arroyo Grande Police Department said it's actively pursuing the early-morning assault but declined to provide details.
"We have two good leads," said Sgt. Dave Sanchez. "[But] there really isn't any information that we're passing along at this time. We're right in the middle of the lead that we're working on. And that's about it."
Department officials said the victim described her attacker as Latino; approximately 5 feet, 5 inches tall; about 180 pounds; and smelling strongly of alcohol and cologne. The department also said that while they have had reports of other rapes, this was the first time a stranger has attacked and raped in the city in the past decade.
The Arroyo Grande Police ask that anyone with information regarding the case contact them at 473-5100.
New news director at KCOY
Local television station KCOY/KKFX announced on April 6 that it had hired Marc Weiner as the outlet's news director. Weiner takes the place of King Harris, who left the station earlier this year.
Weiner comes to the Central Coast from Las Vegas where he was the news director of KVVU Fox 5. He's also been a news director in Raleigh, N.C.; an executive producer in Los Angeles; an executive producer/managing editor at KCOP in Los Angeles; and has held news management positions in Dallas and Minneapolis.
KCOY/KKFX produces and delivers news in the Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, and San Luis Obispo television markets.
Fire tax higher in Los Osos?
Residents of Los Osos are facing tripling of basic
fire service costs, South Bay Fire Department Chief Bruce Pickens said
this week.
Voters in the community will decide May 4 if they will approve local Measure G, which will hike the annual fire service tariff 213 percent, to $125. Eligible voters have until April 19 to register to vote in the election.
Inflation, property tax losses to the state, and rising costs have necessitated the increase, said Pickens.
The department currently has four full-time firefighters. ³
News Editor Daniel Blackburn and Staff Writer Abraham Hyatt compiled What's News from local and other news sources.
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