Cover Story
The writing on the wall
He scrubbed so hard his knuckles turned white. Beads of sweat collected in his eyebrows and trickled down his cheeks, but he kept on scrubbing. He scrubbed until his arm couldn’t take it anymore. # Then he took a step back, wiped the sweat from his face, and examined his progress–the graffiti was still visible.…
Who’s king of the Central Coast waves?
Fifty of the Central Coast’s finest contest surfers of all time–and three wildcards from the local Triple Crown of Surfing–will battle it out on the beach at the second annual Central Coast Invitational on Feb. 24 at 8 a.m. The event is scheduled to be held at 24th St. in Cayucos, but is subject to…
Training wheels
There was a big to-do on Feb. 15, the day the newest portion of the Bob Jones bike trail opened. Guests were aptly dressed in spandex and fancy click-clacking shoes, and folding tables were laid out with the full snack spread: coffee cake, punch, little veggie turkey wraps. When the speeches were over, the ceremonial…
Hallelujah Shell Beach
When the Shell Beach Methodist Church was put on the real estate market a year ago, many developers and investors were drooling over the opportunity to acquire the longtime Central Coast house of worship and, more importantly, the valuable seaside property it was built on. # The land was divided into two lots and a…
Bending to pressure
San Luis Obispo County staff have abandoned efforts to challenge the rebuilding of billboards destroyed or damaged in recent storms. # One code official cited strong lobbying by outdoor advertising companies, unclear language in a county ordinance, and fears of a potential lawsuit as reasons. After eight or so billboards along the county’s scenic routes…
Straight outta South Central
I remember the first time I saw Fishbone in the mid-’80s, and nothing I knew about music prepared me for their hyperkinetic energy, pounding rhythms, and eclectic blend of genres pouring from the stage. # Formed on the mean streets of South Central in 1979–an already creatively explosive time in music–Fishbone set the bar even…
Longtime KCOY anchor departs for county job
After nine years on the air, Drew Sugars will no longer be the co-anchor of the Santa Maria-based KCOY nightly news with his wife, Nerissa. The change will take effect at the beginning of March. Drew is going work for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department, producing and editing the department’s in-house monthly DVD called…
Psst: Somebody’s investigating something
In a cryptic Feb. 15 press release that perhaps raised more questions than it answered, Atascadero City Attorney Brian Pierik announced “that the city is cooperating fully in a federal investigation of matters involving the city.” The release went on to say that, while the city was cooperating fully, officials didn’t know of any legal…
Corrections and clarifications
A Feb. 14 Strokes and Plugs feature on the Native lounge, should have said that the author, Kai Beech, tends bar there. Better yet, we should have had somebody unconnected with the business write the brief. A Feb. 14 news brief on increasing SLO City’s in-lieu parking fees (“Developers would pay just 40 percent of…
‘Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe’
Squeak Carnwath’s paintings are like messages from another planet or time. The repeating symbols and prisms of color could be hieroglyphs from ancient Egypt or even the pictorial musings of a graffiti artist. # Nine of Carnwath’s mammoth paintings currently reside at Cuesta College’s Art Gallery, creating a chorus line of records, faces, and vases.…
Is the enemy us?
Government reactions concerning the state of the economy and the budgets are almost hysterical these days. How can small-town people from California know anything about how to deal with the impending financial crisis or, indeed, to understand it? It is doubtful anybody really understands–economists aren’t much good at predicting the future. When outfits like Merrill…
Say aloha to the Galley
If you haven’t dined in Morro Bay lately, there’s a good reason to drive over: The Galley Seafood Grill & Bar. Reopened last December after being closed nearly three years, it underwent a complete rebuilding along the popular Embarcadero. Now the property features an impressive, modern boutique hotel named the new Anderson Inn and the…
County gets tough, personal with Dan DeVaul
Labeling him a “slumlord,” county code officials have launched a new series of fines and orders against Sunny Acres founder Dan DeVaul, telling him he must immediately remove as many as two dozen homeless and substance-addicted people who had been living in a converted barn on the property, which sits just west of San Luis…
Letters
Give Real Property Lenders a break This is in response to the article in New Times, titled “More hard luck with hard money” (Feb. 14). Our economy goes through cycles, usually about eight to 10 years of growth, then one to two years of slow down and catch up. Our last slow time was 1988…
Where did you come from?
It’s so hard to figure out which crimes I’m supposed to be against and which I’m supposed to be for these days. Sure, there’s the murder and the rape that will always be gauche, but I can’t manage to get a handle on where I’m supposed to fashionably fall on some of the less heinous…
Minuteman group meets on the Central Coast
Santa Maria is home to the latest chapter of the Minuteman Project, a group that has famously monitored the U.S.-Mexico border, standing against would-be illegal immigrants. Aside from its presence there, the group, founded by a man named Jim Gilchrist, has lobbied in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento for better enforcement of existing immigration laws, as…
Fast facts
Estate Landscapes, a San Luis Obispo-based landscape design, installation, and estate care company, opened its doors for business on Feb. 11. Founded by Shay Stewart, Evan Moffitt, Keith Sattler, and Jennifer Wolfe, Estate Landscapes specializes in a wide variety of landscaping tasks. Looking for work? The company plans to pay crews some of the highest…
Supes hear tax talk
County supervisors are testing the waters for tax hikes in response to the current budget crisis. The county is facing a deficit of $18 million. But they’ve delayed any decisions for the moment. At a Feb. 19 meeting of the Board of Supervisors, Auditor-Controller Gere Sibbach offered five “revenue enhancement” options. Any of them would…
