Shift—a new 1,200-pound, three-story sculpture—now graces the San Luis Ranch roundabout
The city of San Luis Obispo’s impressive public art collection just got bigger. Shift, a new 1,200-pound, three-story sculpture by local artist and architect Warren Hamrick and a team of artists and fabricators, was installed in the roundabout at Froom Ranch Road and Heirloom Place. The San Luis Obispo Museum of Art (SLOMA) collaborates on…
How much is too much to pay a city elected official?
There was a time in the not-too-distant past when people in San Luis Obispo who wished to serve in the city government showed some interest by learning about the policies, players, and processes. Some sought appointments to an advisory body, while others attended city meetings, shared opinions, and joined public debate. Then came the time…
Community action is our antidote
“Action is the antidote to despair.” —Joan Baez On the evening of Nov. 5, 2024, the sound of clinking dishes lingered in our typically bustling six-person San Luis Obispo rental house. Slowly the conversation picked up, emotions poured out, and one thing was certain—holding the grief of the election results was better together. We began…
Who do you trust?
ICE agent morale is plummeting over their long hours, quotas they’re required to meet, and public hatred, according to reporting by The Independent. Even agents who support the Trump administration’s goals are “disillusioned” with their leadership’s tactics, the report claimed. Well boo-freaking-hoo. Finally, some ICE agents are rediscovering their ethics. Many Americans are fed up…
Highway 1 reopens ahead of schedule, but economic damage lingers in coastal communities
Highway 1 is the kind of road that makes people plan vacations around a single line on a map. The portion of the coastal route between Monterey and San Luis Obispo is built into the landscape, a narrow strip of asphalt clinging to cliffs and winding past beaches, where the ocean is always in the…
Lucia Mar Unified School District and its teachers’ union are embroiled in heated contract negotiations
Lucia Mar Unified School District and its teachers union are struggling to see eye to eye. The union’s currently working with a contract—protecting the work time, compensation, and benefits of 530 certificated teachers, regular part-time teachers, credentialed school nurses, speech and language specialists, and credentialed librarians, among others—that expired in June 2025. An update reflecting…
Musician Craig Coffman will give online chord-based piano and guitar lessons with the help of Cuesta College
An Arizona-based professional pianist and music director is bringing his guitar and piano lessons to Cuesta College as a community education class, and all students have to do is tune in online with their instruments. “It doesn’t matter how much you pay for private instruction. If you don’t do the work, it’s not going to…
SLO County should be an ICE-free zone
Why should the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors get involved with the actions of ICE agents in our community? Do they have the authority? Is it necessary? The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agencies enforce immigration laws and executive orders. Their interactions with county residents are…
Scores of residents gather to hear report on SLO County Sheriff’s contact with ICE
San Luis Obispo County is split by disputes over whether Sheriff Ian Parkinson was truthful during the Jan. 27 TRUTH Act forum before the Board of Supervisors. Under the annual requirement of the Transparent Review of Unjust Transfers and Holds (TRUTH) Act, Parkinson laid out the nature of interactions between his office and Immigration and…
CaliPaso expands along the Central Coast with a tasting room in Solvang
The giant television screen inside CaliPaso Winery’s Solvang tasting room became an exciting way to watch the World Series last fall, especially for Dodgers fans. Some traveled north from LA ahead of their team’s championship win, and the place was packed. Assistant manager Haden Peterson said the tasting room stayed open until almost midnight instead…
San Luis Obispo County volunteers take to the streets for the 2026 homeless count
San Luis Obispo County’s streets were busier than usual early on Jan. 27, but not with rush-hour traffic. At 5:30 a.m., more than 240 volunteers fanned out across the county from San Miguel to the Santa Maria Riverbed, as part of the 2026 countywide Point-in-Time (PIT) Count—a biennial effort to tally individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness. …
The Earls of Tuesday bring three-part-harmonies to The Siren on Jan. 31
Singer and guitarist Chester “Chet” Hogoboom is a real staple of the local music scene, starting way back in 1975 with an acoustic group called Cooncreek that played places like The Dark Room, The Network, 1865, Sebastian’s, and The Outside Inn. Later he sang with the Fat and Sassy Band, a 7-to-9-piece horn band. When…
Morro Bay City Council OKs paid parking pilot program at Embarcadero launch ramp
On Jan. 27, Morro Bay City Council voted 3-2 to approve paid parking for single-vehicle spaces at the boat launch ramp at the end of the Embarcadero, advancing a long-planned policy Mayor Carla Wixom said has been four years in the making. “Paid parking at the launch ramp will increase space availability and reduce parking…
Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials is a throwback whodunit with old-school charm
Created by Chris Chibnall (Doctor Who, Broadchurch) and directed by Chris Sweeney (Back to Life, The Tourist, Apples Never Fall), this British three-part miniseries is based on Christie’s 1929 novel The Mystery of the Seven Dials. Mia McKenna-Bruce stars as Lady Eileen “Bundle” Brent, who lives with her mother, Lady Caterham (Helena Bonham Carter), on…
Corrections:
• In the Jan. 22 news brief “SLO switches to single-vote method after settling voting rights lawsuit,” New Times misstated the frequency of City Council elections under the new single-vote system. Starting November 2026, all eligible voters in SLO will only cast one vote for City Council every two years. • In the Jan. 15…
His & Hers is a hardboiled whodunit pitting a journalist against her estranged detective husband
Small town Dahlonega, Georgia, has plenty of secrets to hide. Anna (Tessa Thompson) grew up there but has moved on to Atlanta where she works as a news anchor. When she catches wind that her hometown is the scene of a murder, she’s drawn back to the community, and inadvertently back into the life of…
Netflix’ new action cop drama The Rip keeps you guessing
Joe Carnahan (Smokin’ Aces, The Grey) directs this script he co-wrote about a team of Miami cops tipped off to a house full of millions in cash. They’re tasked with counting the money on-site, and suspicion and paranoia grow in the wake of an earlier murder of the team’s captain, Jackie Velez (Lina Esco), and…
Ephraim Pottery celebrates 14 years on the Central Coast and three decades in the making
For 30 years, Ephraim Pottery has created handmade pieces with love, focusing on human craftsmanship. Now in a more modern and technology-driven world, Ephraim continues to celebrate the “hand of the maker,” straying away from anything that could replace an artist’s hands. “[The world] just keeps on becoming more modern and less hands-on,” said Ephraim…
Chicago artist Olivia Zubko’s Gargaphie on display at Left Field Gallery through March 1
In Gargaphie, Chicago artist Olivia Zubko’s new body of work on display at Left Field Gallery through March 1, she explores intimate spaces and how they interact with viewers’ memories. “This body of work, thematically centered around the bathroom and other private or domestic environments, employs cast replicas of fixtures and found materials to create…
