Cover Story
Can we talk?
I took my family to a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event at a San Luis Obispo church this year. The polite way to describe the size of the crowd would be “a smattering.” There was some music when we first showed up, but it quickly devolved into a forum for speeches about control of…
Nipomo CSD considers alternate water sources
When the Nipomo Community Services District learned last November that a pipeline to Santa Maria would cost $24 million four times the original estimate it made sense to send the consultants back to the drawing board. The effort came about as a result of a court order, but the area had already been searching for…
Beach warning signs to be posted
Public Works Director Dennis Delzeit said the city of Pismo Beach will install four of the county’s 20 new permanent beach health advisory signs by June 22. Signs in Pismo Beach will be located at the end of Park Street, south of the Pier Plaza, by the volleyball courts at the Wadsworth staircase, and at…
Will stairway kill party spot?
There will soon be better ways to reach a pair of South County surf and beach spots, though not everybody’s happy about the news. The city of Pismo Beach has already begun replacing the Wilmar Street beach access stairway and is scheduled to construct an entirely new staircase on Beachcomber Street in Shell Beach sometime…
Water bills to rise sharply
After a last-minute attempt to stop them failed, the SLO City Council voted 4-1 June 19 in favor of sewer and water rate hikes for city ratepayers. The changes include a sewer rate hike of about 20 percent over the next two years and water rate hikes to the tune of 26 percent over the…
Fast facts
Simone Smith, the owner of the Educated Gardener nursery in Santa Margarita (22210 El Camino, 438-4250), has helped launch a new Western gardening section in the latest issue of the popular Cowboys and Indians magazine. Smith who has a degree in landscape architecture from Cal Poly is the featured expert in a six-page, full-color article…
SLO rising
Crowded into a well-decorated space in the back of Steynberg Gallery in San Luis Obispo, an assortment of residents, perhaps 30 strong, filled the room’s folding chairs, with stragglers peeking in from the doorway. Turnout was more than the organizers had hoped for, but not surprising. Many of the people there knew each other some…
Good eats abound
In the past, all the best wine and food festivals have taken place in spring and fall. No more there are tasty events to attend year-round. But it’s not just special events that keep getting better. Our local wineries and restaurants continually work at improving everything they do and now we don’t have to wait…
The whole enchilada
Cool that’s the best way to describe Amy LaVere’s approach to music. She’s like a glittering, breakable piece of glass that when rubbed the right way delivers a perfect sound like a Tibetan prayer bell. She’s fragile and glorious-sounding. # The veteran performer recently released her newest album, Anchors & Anvils, a stunning collection of…
Manorexia
Baggy clothes might have been the bomb for boys back when people still said “the bomb,” but now it’s becoming more common to see guys dressed in tightly tapered pants, wearing shirts so close-fitting they look as if they were borrowed from their little brother’s closet. Society’s new emphasis on male slimness is having repercussions…
County kids fare fair
Compared to the wellbeing of children in California’s other 57 counties, San Luis Obispo County kids are smarter in math and English and have more health insurance. According to a recent report by Children Now, entitled the “2007 California County Data Book,” SLO County ranks: 4th in the percentage of elementary school students meeting state…
Letters
Missing Boo Boo in Grover I will certainly miss Boo Boo Records in Grover Beach (“Boohoo for Boo Boo,” June 7). They always gave me personal service by finding the CDs I was looking for, not waving me toward a vague area of the business. If they didn’t have it in stock, they ordered it…
Surf’s up downtown
A surfer has got to be able to get to exactly the right location to catch good waves. Now the hands-on owners of a new local surf store are placing a high-dollar bet on the value the right spot can have on retail. # San Luis Surf Co., an offshoot of the Morro Bay Surf…
Templeton dispensary decision delayed
A new measurement attempt may help open what would be the county’s only medical marijuana dispensary, though the decision concerning its minor-use permit was handed off to another government entity at a June 15 meeting. County senior planner Bill Robeson said the hearing officer passed the power of decision for the Templeton-based cannabis co-op from…
Sixteen days in Iran
Out of touch with reality. A term we use almost without thinking. It might describe our demented old-maid aunt or a person with whom we seriously disagree about politics, religion, or the like. One never thinks it applies to oneself. The realization that it does comes as a shock. # Although I have traveled extensively…
The song heard ’round the world
Dozens of plantains. Seven choirs. Four days of singing. Three esteemed judges. And a partridge in a pear tree. Just kidding (about the partridge in a pear tree, not the plantains). After years of competing in choral festivals around the world, San Luis Obispo’s Vocal Arts Ensemble finally decided that it was time to host…
Tossing the f-salad
The hills have completed their annual alchemy, that impossible conversion from green to gold, and the afternoon winds bring the scents of sage and lavender. California summer is on the wing, and so naturally I find myself obsessed with the f-word. Ever since Christy Heron wrote a commentary about the closing of her favorite record…
