Cover Story
When the rains are not enough
# When record-breaking winter rains began pounding the parched Central Coast, sighs of relief quickly turned to chagrin, then alarm at the deluge’s intensity. The reaction was reminiscent of what happened last fall in Southern California, when the Santa Ana winds arrived as a warm breeze on the back of the neck, turned blistering, and…
Dalidio decision is on the way
Judge Roger Piquet is expected to make a decision on either Feb. 4 or 5 in a Dalidio-related lawsuit brought by Citizens for Planning Responsibly and ECOSLO against the county. Separate from the civil suit brought by the Dalidio family trust against the Downtown Association and numerous other unnamed defendants, this suit is to determine…
Crap flows to Morro Bay
On Jan. 27, 20,000 gallons of raw sewage from the California Men’s Colony spilled into Chorro Creek and ended up in the Morro Bay Estuary, according to the San Luis Obispo County Health Department. Because of the human waste polluting the bay, the health department has implemented a quarantine for all sport-harvested bi-valve shellfish from…
Organizers hope Mardi Gras parade will be back in 2009
For the last four years, Mardi Gras in San Luis Obispo has consisted of security enhancement zones and triple fines for active revelers. Although Mardi Gras weekend has remained calm in recent years, San Luis Obispo officials got spooked by a recent Facebook page and are emphasizing that the Mardi Gras party–and the family friendly…
Letters
Here’s my word on the raises Leave it to the city of San Luis Obispo to only think of the high-ranking administrators for pay raises and fuck the little guy. Randy Moses San Luis Obispo A $100-grand waste in Atascadero At their Jan. 22 meeting, the Atascadero City Council voted unanimously to…
Psst it was raining
Strong winds, heavy rains, overhead surf, power outages, massive sewage spills, and even snow: San Luis Obispo County has obviously been subject to some gnarly weather conditions lately. But did you know how gnarly? “These were some of the strongest winds we’ve had in 10 years,” said John Lindsey, Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant meteorologist.…
Fast facts
Steynberg Gallery, located at 1531 Monterey St., has expanded its menu from coffee, tea, and pastries to include breakfast burritos for $4. Peter Steynberg said that he will also be serving paninis for lunch to satisfy both carnivores and vegetarians. If you missed the first installment of Pecha Kucha–which plays with the exchange of ideas,…
Yogonna love the new Yoga Centre
Amy Swanson pulled down a pair of bean-bag pillows and folded into a casual sitting positing on the hard floor of her new yoga studio. With restrained excitement, she described her journey from the old studio on Santa Barbara Street to the new studio at 3422 Migelito Ct. in SLO, which she shares with the…
Meet the Central Coast’s celebrity chef
# I first heard about chef Budi Kazali from my friend Jim Adelman, winemaker at Au Bon Climat and Qupe in Santa Maria Valley. I was thrilled to learn of Kazali’s new restaurant: The chef had worked as sous chef to the Food Network celebrity chef Ming Tsai at Blue Ginger restaurant in Boston. Kazali…
Rents are on the rise
Housing in San Luis Obispo can be difficult to find, and it’s becoming even more difficult to afford. While home prices on the Central Coast continue to slide, rent prices are heading in the opposite direction. # In 2005, within a couple of days of searching, Cuesta College student Jefri Rios found a place to…
A Shredder’s got to live
Shhh. Please don’t make a sound. I have to be very quiet so I don’t get kicked out of these new digs. The Westfalia van I’d been living in since rents shot up has sprung a leak, and now I’m here. I’m just warning you. I may not have as many items in bold in…
Downward downtown spiral hits Law’s
# Barely eight months ago, the new employee-owners of Law’s Hobby Center, the iconic Marsh Street craft store, cut the footprint of the shop in half, sacrificing space for model trains and vintage crafts to slash costs. But those moves proved not enough to stave off the twin threats of big box competition and a…
Arrivederci, au revoir, and auf wiedersehen
Early performances hosted by the Pacific Repertory Opera generally entailed rolling a piano into Linnaea’s outdoor patio and performing for the lunch crowd. Then, in January of 1987–two years after Jill Anderson and Jean Cook founded the SLO-based performance group–they staged Hansel and Gretel, their first full-scale production. In those early years, PRO endeavored to…
Two’s enough
Combine two guys, looping equipment, and enough innovation to power a dot-com bubble and you’ll have EOTO, a duo comprised of Michael Travis (drummer for String Cheese Incident), and Jason Hann (percussionist for String Cheese Incident and Isaac Hayes, among others). # The two have announced a two-part tour across the United States throughout the…
Read the architecture
To young SLO County ex-pats like myself, who left town before turning 21, McCarthy’s Irish Pub serves as something of an embassy for locals in what is ostensibly our hometown, a place where we know we can find each other among the crowds of college-age extras from Marin and the OC. Coming home every six…
Can clean water be green?
In an age of rising oceans and hybrid SUVs, sustainability is a buzzword with implications far beyond the hippies of Humboldt County. Sustainability has found its way into popular building techniques and community planning, clothing, cars–even food. But what of it is actually sensible and what is placebo? That’s to say: Which new technologies will…
