Cover Story
Cleaning up: Downtown SLO eyes new property district aimed at safety, cleanliness
Litter, graffiti, gum, needles, vomit, poop. Austin Bertucci has seen—and cleaned—it all and more working as San Luis Obispo’s “downtown ambassador” over the past few years. Donning a Downtown SLO cap, polo shirt, trash picker, and unflappable smile, Bertucci spends his weekdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. traversing Higuera, Marsh, and Monterey streets, his…
Hiring
Need some dough? Sprouts Farmers Market grocery store began a hiring push in early June. Jobs range from department managers and assistant department managers to cashiers, clerks, courtesy clerks, and backup receivers and scan coordinators. Sprouts is located in the old Forever 21 space on 313 Madonna Road, SLO. Begin with an online application at…
Brand consultancy group EMPATH opens local office to educate businesses on their image
A brand experience company opened its doors in San Luis Obispo, specializing in brand-focused management consulting, experience design, and creative content development. It’s called EMPATH, and it has a client portfolio that includes recognizable names such as American Express, Microsoft, Sony, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, and Vans shoes. These names come from the individual and collaborative efforts…
Rebelution kicks off the outdoor summer concert season with a June 20 show at Avila Beach Golf Resort
The mini heat wave we’ve been enjoying is coming to an end as we return to seasonal low-70s temps, but this week’s concert schedule has summertime written all over it. For starters, Otter Productions Inc. is bringing Rebelution on their Good Vibes Summer Tour to the Avila Beach Golf Resort next Thursday, June 20 (5…
Snob polisher
Don’t you wish downtown San Luis Obispo could be more like Zurich or Monte Carlo or Côte d’Azur instead of the grimy, homeless-infested shithole that it is? What a dump! “Downtown ambassador” Austin Bertucci is basically the only thing standing between livability and downtown SLO sliding into bombed-out Beirut-like squalor. Bertucci walks around downtown, keeping…
Hear for yourself
This is my personal invitation for you to come to my backyard and meet the citizens of Creston. Mark your calendar for Wednesday, June 19. Come to our Creston Advisory Body (CAB) meeting held at the Creston Community Church, 5170 O’Donovan Road in Creston. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. At this CAB meeting, two…
Food & Drink 2019
Sweet, salty, bitter, or indifferent, we think everyone’s taste buds have something to salivate over in New Times’ annual Food and Drink issue. For the cheese lover in all of us, San Luis Obispo creameries are churning out cheese in a very tough but delicious business; those with a sweet tooth can look forward to…
Ramen fuel
Ramen has achieved cult status as gamer food. I know this because I saw the Maruchan Ramen Noodle Soup logo on some Game Stop T-shirts recently. I’m not proud of this, but long ago I used to eat two packages a day after track and cross country practice in high school, and later, my portable…
What about the common welfare?
In “Right to choose” (May 30), Nicole Dorfman and Sara Semmes make an impassioned plea for a woman’s “right to make fundamental medical decisions regarding her family” and equate the right to abortion to the right to not vaccinate your child. They claim, “There is no place for such government intrusion in private health matters.”…
Back in: Hello, Dolly! comes to the SLO Rep stage
On stage Hello, Dolly! will show at the SLO Repertory Theatre through June 30. Tickets range from $20 to $39. The musical runs approximately two hours and 30 minutes, including one 15-minute intermission. Visit slorep.org for more information. If you added a bit more female empowerment and a dash less classism (just a dash less,…
Step outside of the echo chamber
I am writing in response to the demands by Roger Burton (“Dear New Times,” June 6) and others that your regular contributor Al Fonzi be barred from your pages. The opinions of those with whom we disagree are the opinions that we most need to hear. No one is well-served by limiting themselves to an…
Studios on the Park’s Heavenly Bodies art show takes inspiration from dance
On display Heavenly Bodies, which features the work of artist Deprise Brescia, will be on display at Studios on the Park in Paso Robles through June 30. Visit studiosonthepark.org for more information. It kept on happening. Even though she was a business major, Deprise Brescia continued falling asleep in her business classes. Oops. “It was…
The light of an alternative shines bright
Lt. Col. Al Fonzi did a responsible job of briefing us on potential power interruptions, “If the lights go out” (June 6). However, Fonzi included only some of the aftermath of 2012’s Superstorm Sandy. After Sandy, Connecticut legislators mandated that energy distribution systems be rebuilt with the capability to be “islanded,” or separated and operated…
American Farmer exhibit opens at SLO Library
American Farmer, a new exhibit showcasing rural photography by Paul Mobley, opens at the San Luis Obispo Library on Sunday, June 16. The featured photographs were taken while Mobley was traveling the country—from Alaska to Florida—and were published in his 2008 book, American Farmer: Portraits from the Heartland. The photos will be accompanied by anecdotes…
Thank you, Pacific Beach High
I want to acknowledge Pacific Beach High School (PBHS) for my son’s amazing success. He was struggling at San Luis Obispo High School. Then the SLOHS administration told me about PBHS. PBHS is a very small high school (about 40 students per grade) designed for under-performing students like him. Their classrooms have a much better…
GALA’s Queer Youth presents The Body Positivity Fashion Show
The Body Positivity Fashion Show, hosted by GALA’s Queer Youth program, takes place at the San Luis Obispo Guild Hall on Saturday, June 15. All ages are welcome to attend this free event celebrating diversity. A $5 donation, or $2.50 for guests under age 18, is encouraged. Donations can be made in advance at my805tix.com.…
Silencing Al Fonzi would be a mistake
I couldn’t help but notice two letters to the editor (“Valuable space” by Raoul Wise on May 30 and “Dear New Times” by Roger Burton on June 6) that call for silencing Al Fonzi. This may or may not be a coordinated effort, but character assassination is part and parcel of the strategy of the…
SLO Botanical Garden showcases floral paintings
Guests of the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden are welcome to view the Mayo Botanica Art Exhibit through Friday, July 12. This exhibit, located in the garden’s pavilion, features large-format expressionist paintings of floral subjects by various artists. The show is open to the public Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission…
Resuscitating recycling
About a month ago, an article in the Sacramento News & Review asked, “Is recycling still worth it?” Garbage has never been a sexy environmental issue. Glaciers calving spectacularly into the sea, polar bears stranded on bitty ice floes, sea birds suffocating on oil—these images can make you cry. These images are incontrovertible proof that…
SLO County Supervisor Lynn Compton is part of a lawsuit for failing to pay $5.3 million in debt
Simplot, an Idaho-based turf and horticulture business, claims that Peter Compton and SLO County 4th District Supervisor Lynn Compton, as trustees of Valley Farm Supply, owe it more than $5.3 million. Simplot alleged that the debt is from the four years prior to the June 7 complaint, which the company filed with the San Luis…
Sound off
New Times readers took to Facebook to share their thoughts on our June 6 news story, “Supervisors face mounting pressure to tighten cannabis ordinance.”
Good vibes at Oso Flaco: Birds and families galore at this Guadalupe oasis on a sunny Sunday
The landscape glows on this balmy Sunday evening as I drive through Oceano, Nipomo, and then the farmland that straddles Highway 1 into Guadalupe. Car windows down and in no rush, I notice that everything—from the ocean, to the mounds of sand dunes, to the towering eucalyptus trees, to the rows and rows of green…
The Biggest Little Farm inspires and instills hope for a sustainable future
THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM What’s it rated? PG What’s it worth, Anna? Full price What’s it worth, Glen? Full price Where’s it showing? The Palm John Chester (Lost in Woonsocket, Rock Prophecies) directs this documentary about his and his wife’s developing a sustainable farm on a 200-acre patch of depleted ground in Ventura County. They…
Supervisors to consider moratorium on hemp grows
Less than two months after San Luis Obispo County joined the U.S. and California in lifting a prohibition on commercial hemp production, SLO County supervisors will consider banning the crop again at a June 18 meeting. First District Supervisor John Peschong said some county residents have expressed concerns about the community impacts of growing hemp,…
Bingeable: Green Porno
When? 2008-09 What’s it rated? Not rated Where’s it available? Sundance TV, YouTube Did you know that hamster mothers often eat their babies? That male bedbugs stab their mates with knife-like penises and then ejaculate into the bloodstream? Or that snails have both vaginas and penises? Those unusual facts are the main focus Green Porno,…
Cuesta students will see increased parking permit prices
Parking fees at Cuesta College will start increasing in the fall 2019 semester to help fund the school’s Public Safety Department. Cuesta’s board of trustees unanimously voted on June 5 to bump up the cost of student and staff parking fees for two years starting this fall. The current fee for a student permit is…
Film Listings, 6/13/19 – 6/20/19
All theater listings are as of Friday, June 14. ALADDIN What’s it rated? PG What’s it worth? Full price Where’s it showing? Downtown Centre, Galaxy, Park, Stadium 10 Pick Co-writer and director Guy Richie (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword) helms this live-action remake of Disney’s animated 1992…
SLO hires investigator to review employee who hit woman at bar
The city of San Luis Obispo is turning to outside help in its ongoing investigation of a building inspector who sparked recent public outrage for his 2016 assault of a couple in an Avila Beach bar. In February, Chris Olcott, 39, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge in the incident, which was caught on…
The new 1865 Craft House and Kitchen serves fresh, modern American cuisine in an upbeat atmosphere
Now open 1865 Craft House and Kitchen’s chef, Bernard Livingston—formerly of Vegetable Butcher and Libertine Brewing Company—has created a menu you’ll want to try. And thanks to his experience at Vegetable Butcher, even the veggies are elevated here. Restaurateur Brendan Searls (of Viva Modern Mexican in Santa Barbara), friend Brian Hill, and former Viva GM…
Cyclist sues SLO County airport for being knocked off his bike
A bicyclist claims that he was injured when a jet engine blast threw him off his bike while he was cycling past the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport. In a lawsuit filed on June 7 against the airport, San Luis Obispo County, California Department of Transportation, and the Federal Aviation Administration, Ross Pepper alleges…
Give thanks
It’s his day: Is your dad the best? Mine is too. My dad, who fathered six of us, is a morning person. After the gym he used to always bring back one jelly donut in the dozen just for me. If my dad lived close, I might treat him to the buffet Father’s Day Brunch…
Paso Robles and Grover Beach create different short-term rental ordinances for their communities
Paso Robles and Grover Beach don’t have a short-term rental ordinance quite yet, and creating one has been a contentious issue since day one. On June 5, the City Council approved the first reading of a short-term rental ordinance that will phase out non-hosted short-term rentals in the R-1 (single-family residential) zone and will set…
Newbs
Get outside: Are you worried your teen might grow roots under the Xbox this summer? Cover that video screen with parchment paper, hand them a pair of clogs, and wave them off with a spatula. The very first of four ongoing teen hands-on cooking classes will be held on Thursday, June 13, at The Wellness…
