Cover Story
Not in my sports field
The battle between developers and proponents of slow growth may hinge on Prado Road, a small, bumpy, two-lane thoroughfare that runs from U.S. 101 and quickly dead ends in the fields near the South Hills in the middle of the city of San Luis Obispo. Though it’s like other meandering roads in the city that…
What’s your favorite summer pastime?
Sandy Diaz book keeper /full time mom “Sitting next to the pool or at the beach watching my kids have fun in the sun.” Jane Hansen sales associate “Hanging out with Sadie.” Andrew Okada unemployed “Bicycle touring.” Matt Yosgott student “Sleeping in.”
Senate hopefuls
A special election is right around the corner. Up for grabs? The 15th District Senate seat vacated by Abel Maldonado. The district extends south from Santa Clara County to the northern part of Santa Barbara County. Unless one candidate receives 50 percent of the votes plus one in the June 22 special election, all four…
Oceano: grounded?
On March 2, Los Osos developer Jeff Edwards made a pitch to San Luis Obispo County supervisors that still has them scratching their heads. Despite solid bureaucratic and public opposition, Edwards proposes closing the Oceano Airport and redeveloping it for residential and commercial purposes. So far, it’s a pipe dream. “It is not for sale,”…
Master and commander
His hands steady on the helm of a sleek Harbor Patrol boat as a stiff wind whipped up whitecaps, Harbor Director Rick Algert carefully backed the vessel into its slip, winning kudos from his staff for a “no-touchy.” After 20 years of steering the activities on Morro Bay’s harbor, Algert will soon give up the…
What’s next for a divisive dean?
Faculty have recently been discussing the future of the head of Cal Poly’s distinguished engineering college, and whether he’ll remain at the top or not. Engineering Dean Mohammad Noori has overseen the college for four years. In that time he has come under fire from faculty, many of whom allege misjudgment, poor staff relations, and…
Montebello bill sails through Assembly
The California Assembly on June 3 unanimously passed a bill authored by Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, which aims to kickstart an assessment of an underwater threat: the oil tanker Montebello, which sits less than seven miles off the coast of Cambria, just south of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and 900 feet below the ocean…
A community divided over PG&E
A vocal mix of local business owners, nonprofit reps, and P.R. people faced off against outraged residents and activists at a meeting by the state regulatory agency considering Pacific Gas & Electric’s requested rate hike, revealing a community polarized about the utility giant. The June 15 town hall-style gathering at the Meadow Park Building in…
Commission approves Los Osos sewer
It’s official: The Los Osos sewer project is moving forward. With a unanimous approval from the California Coastal Commission on June 11 and coastal development permit now in hand, San Luis Obispo County officials are moving on to the next steps to put the controversial project in motion. “It’s a major, major step,” said Supervisor…
SLO Council slashes and improves
Though the city of San Luis Obispo is facing a $3 million hole in its upcoming budget, the City Council decided to pull the trigger on a $640,000 improvement scheme for three downtown blocks and two art projects: one totaling $34,000 and another $125,000. The council voted unanimously at its June 15 meeting to approve…
You’ve got to be in it to win it!
There’s still time to enter the New Times Music Awards, and because of the six genres to enter, there’ll be more winners this year than ever before. First place winners will receive prizes and custom-made bronze awards, not to mention bragging rights for a year! Enter yourself or your band, combo, or ensemble under the…
The Man Who Inspired a Library
Henry Miller was a writer famous for forging his own literary path, creating a style that combines novel, autobiography, and social criticism, though he is also known for writing travel memoirs and literary criticism and analysis. His works include Tropic of Cancer (1934), Tropic of Capricorn (1939), Black Spring (1936), The Colossus of Maroussi (1941),…
Party people
The first thing you need to know is that tempeh is made from fermented soybeans. Does that sound horrible? Yes, it does, but it’s actually delicious! I know this because I have arrived at Linda Castellon’s art opening at 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 12 in Sustenance, and the very first thing I do is…
Sweet, sweet honey
This summer, travel across the seas and through the centuries with Vicki León’s new book How to Mellify a Corpse. Riveting stories of such ancient sciences as mathematics, medicine, and physics are interwoven with mythology and superstition. Modern society is tied to the ancient world by countless threads of knowledge that are taught as basic…
Nothing, and everything, happens
All the cool kids are collecting vinyl. It’s quirky, vintage, and has better sound, according to many. And it makes for a tactile and deliberate music listening experience: liberating a particular record from its sleeve, placing it on the player, and lowering the needle, awaiting the first belt of sound. Vinyl is poised on the…
Light up a life
United Cerebral Palsy of San Luis Obispo seeks volunteers to help run Camp Kelley Creek, a weeklong getaway in the Village of Arroyo Grande for adults who have cerebral palsy and other developmental disorders. “We urgently need at least six more volunteers, as well as a registered nurse,” Kristine Cleary, the camp organizer, said. The…
Ray Fields, President
NEW TIMES: What does the abalone farm contribute to the Central Coast? FIELDS: We are continuing a style of fishing that could have become extinct. Abalone’s popularity has been growing every year, so our farm is able to sustain and rise not only for the county but for other parts of the world. We’re also…
Not that special
Praise the powers that be! The election’s finally over and I can get back to my life. I guess you can get back to yours, too. Hold on, mail’s here. Graaaaw! Stick me in the left eye with a plastic spoon! Another sample ballot for another election? It’s not fair, I tells ya. Try as…
Legalizing marijuana makes no sense
The arguments for legalizing pot generally look like this: •Taking the drug off the black market will allow us to regulate and control it. This will eliminate the criminal element. We could tax it and use the money to educate against its use. •With so many people using the drug now we might as well…
Why don’t people have shelter?
I recently read that a young woman was killed while walking in traffic on Highway 101 near Tefft Street in Nipomo. I immediately guessed who she was. I never knew her name but saw her hundreds of times. She was tall, slender, blond, disheveled. Sometimes she accompanied homeless men who’d beg on the off-ramp. Over…
Syllogism:
San Luis Obispo is a green city. Bicycling is green transportation. Green city builds green transportation highway from Cal Poly to Foothill. First, though, green city cuts down nice grove of trees, then buries little creek where frogs croaked. Impermeable black highway replaces trees and frogs. Great celebration and warm talk and feelings of greenness…
Russ Hodin and Helen Thomas are two of a kind
Regarding the cartoon by Russell Hodin about the Gaza flotilla raid (June 10): Good timing—between Hodin and another ugly, Helen Thomas, I have a “clear” picture of the far- left stance on the Middle East. How has the left’s view become so upside-down? Incompetence is now competence; below-average performance is now above average; immorality as…
Buy locally, think globally
I’m writing about Gary Gall’s thoughtful letter: “Cannabis is a safe, effective medicine” (June 10). Suppose that half, or even more than half, of the people who purchase medical marijuana don’t really need it for medical reasons. That means they are not buying their marijuana from drug dealers who get their marijuana via Mexican drug…
Why doesn’t the union pay union wages?
Let’s see if I can get this right. A Camarillo-based carpenters’ union is having a labor dispute because some businesses in Arroyo Grande and Santa Maria had some building modifications done using non-union carpenters. So to protest they have banners saying “Labor Dispute” and “Shame on You” at various locations in Santa Maria and Arroyo…
Who has the guts to stop the econuts?
Go ahead environuts—ban plastic bags and make us pay for paper ones. I don’t care; I am buying more and more of our groceries from Amazon, where non-perishables are cheaper by the dozen than in groceries and two-day shipping is free with my Amzon Prime annual shipping fee of just $79. Soon we will need…
A suggestion to help save the planet
I frequent a particular chain of Chinese restaurants in SLO County, and have observed something puzzling and dismaying. About half of the customers order food for takeout, but eat it in the restaurants. Then their Styrofoam container and plastic grocery bag go into the trash. Styrofoam is not recyclable; plastic bags are, but won’t be…
Worse is yet to come
We are looking at modern man’s final act of habitat destruction. The spreading oil rig blowout will whiplash back, destroying human beings who are arrogant to drill so deeply into the belly of Mother Earth. Through this arrogance, we may have just set in motion events that will ultimately destroy civilization. In the future, we…
Don’t blame the president
People want to hold the president responsible for things they know he doesn’t control: oil gushing from the sea bottom, for example. And it doesn’t help that the president claims he has control. All the laws our Congress could pass could not stop the gusher. People need to take responsibility to do that. When private…
War is peace; lies are truth
Bob Blair parroted Sarah Palin (“Blame environmentalists for the gusher in the gulf,” June 3) in placing partial responsibility for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on liberals and environmentalists because, “Had they allowed the oil companies to drill onshore in the lower 48 states and offshore in shallow waters off California and Alaska, the…
Sierra Club thanks Rush Limbaugh
Bob Blair’s letter (“Blame environmentalists for the gusher in the gulf,” June 3) is part of a campaign that sprang up last month after Rush Limbaugh told his dittoheads that the Sierra Club should pay for the Gulf Coast disaster. (The presumption being that we “forced” oil companies to go drilling for oil in places…
Residents, not buildings, define community
After reading James Duenow’s letter (“SLO city community environment must be preserved,” June 10) and briefly participating in his group Save Our Downtown, I realize that he and the group really don’t understand what makes a community. As someone who has lived in both small and large cities, including Chicago, San Diego, and now in…
CLUBS
Goin’ South … CAFÉ ANDREINI: 131 E. Branch St., Arroyo Grande, 481-6117. Thurs.: Live music at 6pm. COFFEE BEAN AND TEA LEAF: 750 Five Cities Dr., Pismo Beach, 773-6420. Music Night every Sat., 6:30-8:30pm. DOLPHIN BAY/LIDO: 2727 Shell Beach Road, Shell Beach, 773-4300 or TheDolphinBay.com. ELMO’S NIPOMO SALOON: 131 South Thompson Road, Nipomo, 929-5362.…
Stephen Ross 2007 Pinot Noir Edna Valley
Sometimes a wine can surprise you, even when you have high expectations. This wine did just that when I tasted it. Impressive in its forward fruit flavors of cherry, plums, and blackberries, it all weaves together with notes of raspberry and fine spices. Beautifully balanced, it has fine tannins and a silky feel, making it…
Marquis de Caceres 2009 Rosé Rioja
This is my favorite bargain Rose from Spain at only $6.99 at Trader Joe’s. And you won’t find it this cheaply priced anywhere else. This one is for sitting on the patio or beach, enjoying a refreshing, pink-hued wine with bright flavors of cherry, strawberry and cranberry. It’s perfect for the picnic basket, too.
Pismo Beach gains two new wine bars
When word got out the owners of Tastes of the Valleys (TOTV) in Solvang were opening a clone of their popular wine bar in Pismo Beach, I was excited. If you’re into wine like I am, wine bars are great for discovering new brands, new varietals and new blends, and for meeting like-minded wine lovers.…
