Cover Story
Redistricting politics: SLO County supervisors consider new districts that could reshape local politics for the next decade
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors’ conservative majority is mulling a significant redrawing of the county’s supervisorial map as part of redistricting—with an eye on reducing how many districts touch the city of SLO, according to the three board members. “In years past, the [Board of Supervisors] majority has always seemed to think…
Dawn Addis plans Assembly run after state releases draft district maps
Following her first attempt to capture the 35th Assembly District seat in 2020, Morro Bay City Councilmember Dawn Addis announced that she’ll be trying again in 2022—and this time around, the district’s boundaries and partisan breakdown may look quite different. Addis said her experience serving on City Council, co-founding Women’s March San Luis Obispo, being…
Paso continues waiting on school-closure decision
Paso Robles’ school district is delaying its final decision on the possible closure of Georgia Brown Elementary School to early 2022, leaving several students and their families waiting for more than a year since the proposal was first announced. The elementary school is a transitional K-5 with a dual-immersion program that community members said served…
SLO County hires detox center operator
San Luis Obispo County’s first-ever public detoxification center is a step closer to getting up and running. On Nov. 16, the Board of Supervisors approved a contract with Sun Street Centers, a Salinas-based nonprofit, to operate the 15-bed medically assisted withdrawal treatment center, located on the campus of the 40 Prado Homeless Services Center in…
NAACP hosts vaccine clinic
The NAACP San Luis Obispo County Branch hopes to get vaccines into the arms of hard-to-reach and hesitant community members at an upcoming vaccine clinic. The clinic is planned for Nov. 21 from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Paso Robles City Park gazebo, and NAACP is partnering with the SLO County Public Health Department…
Cayucos gets $3.5 million loan for Vets Hall
Cayucos’ “nerve center” leaped closer to receiving a jump-start on Nov. 16 when the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors approved a $3.5 million loan to rehabilitate the coastal town’s Veterans Hall. Usually somber, the board chamber erupted with applause from more than 15 people—all representing Cayucos or its Lions and Lioness Clubs—when the…
Dignity Health opens Monarch Village Health Center in Nipomo
After three years of planning and development, Dignity Health opened a new primary health care center in Nipomo. “We are very excited to have another office in a growing community on the Central Coast to provide primary care support and rotating specialists that allows us to do some additional outreach,” said Dr. Scott Robertson, president…
IWMA carries on without county
While San Luis Obispo County officially bailed as a member of the embattled Integrated Waste Management Authority (IWMA) on Nov. 15, all seven cities and various local special districts are sticking with it. Over the past several weeks, each city council has approved an amendment to the IWMA’s joint powers agreement (JPA), which lays the…
Reimagine, not rebrand
At the Nov. 2 SLO City Council meeting, there was a lot of discussion about “reimagining policing.” However, the proposal—doubling the size of the existing police station at a cost of more than $52 million—is anything but that. Calls to halt the expansion proposal began in the summer of 2020 amid a national protest movement…
Modern-day troubadour John Craigie plays the Clark Center on Nov. 20
Singer-songwriter John Craigie is no stranger to these parts. Though he was born and raised in LA, started his music career in Santa Cruz, and now calls Portland home, he’s become a regular on the Central Coast—a perennial favorite who gathers a crowd every time he returns. This time around, Numbskull and Good Medicine Presents…
Say ‘no’ to rhetoric
I have to admit to a bit of a flare-up of my PTSD while watching our troops’ last days in Afghanistan recently, what with my having piloted the last U.S. military helicopter out of Saigon on April 30, 1975. This current event was an instant replay of the American hubris from so long ago. It…
The 2021 New Times Music Awards brought great music and an energetic crowd to SLO Brew Rock on Nov. 12
Stream it If you want to see what you missed, find it here, courtesy of Paul Irving and Big Big SLO: youtube.com/watch?v=VrgLC19Ix3Y. It’s Friday, Nov. 12, and I’m at the place to be: SLO Brew Rock for the lucky 13th annual New Times Music Awards showcase. The crowd is buzzing as we await the beginning…
Let’s go, Brandon!
The new conservative meme “Let’s Go, Brandon!” is notable for not only being an ostensibly inoffensive expression of contempt for an unpopular president, but also as the watershed moment when the media abandoned even the pretense of truth and objectivity in their reporting, and voluntarily outed themselves as political cheerleaders. To those of you who…
SLO Rep presents radio play iteration of It’s A Wonderful Life
Tickets are now on sale for the San Luis Obispo Repertory Theatre’s next production, It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, which is scheduled to premiere on Friday, Dec. 10, and run through Saturday, Dec. 18. Performances will be held on Fridays (at 7 p.m.) and Saturdays (at 2 and 7 p.m.). Adapted as…
‘Special’ education
The Paso Robles Joint Unified School District really knows how to make a mess of things. Whether it’s descending into hysteria over the non-issue of critical race theory or responding in a mind-bogglingly stupid way to a gay pride flag being stolen and vandalized or grossly mismanaging its budget, the district’s made itself the laughingstock…
Women’s Extemporaneous Writing Group holds monthly meetings in Avila Beach
The Women’s Extemporaneous Writing Group holds its next meeting on Saturday, Nov. 20, at 9:30 a.m., at Mulligan’s Bar and Grill in Avila Beach. This monthly gathering starts with breakfast and a meet-and-greet for members and first-time attendees. At 10 a.m., the writing segment of the meeting starts. Each participant is given a word or…
13th annual New Times Music Awards winners for 2021
Video Courtesy Of Paul Irving And Big Big SLO Read Glen Starkey’s story here! And the winners are … Best Album • Graybill, High Tide/Low Tide • The Tipsy Gypsies, Ten • About Time, About Time Best Songwriter • The Tipsy Gypsies, “Old Together” • Bob and Wendy, “When I Needed You” • Miss Leo,…
A young wheelchair user wants more local businesses to think of disability access, starting with a beach-friendly route to the ocean
When chronic illness demanded Shell Beach teenager Mia Armstrong become a wheelchair user, she found herself perplexed by once-mundane activities as soon as her parents brought her home from the hospital. “The first wheelchair I was given was quite large and bulky. None of the door frames I could fit through because it’s such an…
The Harder They Fall mashes ’70s blaxploitation homage with revisionist Western panache
THE HARDER THEY FALL What’s it rated? R What’s it worth, Anna? Full price What’s it worth, Glen? Full price Where’s it showing? Netflix Co-writer/director Jeymes Samuel (They Die By Dawn) helms this revisionist Western populated by fictionalized characters based on historical Black people of the Old West. At the center of the revenge story…
Finch
What’s it rated? PG-13 When? 2021 Where’s it showing? Apple TV Plus Miguel Sapochnik (Repo Men) directs this family-friendly charmer about an ailing robotics engineer named Finch Weinberg, who lives with his dog, Goodyear (Seamus), and a robot (voiced by Caleb Landry Jones) that he created to take care of the dog after his inevitable…
Red Notice
What’s it rated? PG-13 When? 2021 Where’s it showing? Netflix Writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber (Skyscraper, Central Intelligence, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) helms this old fashioned action heist comedy about FBI Agent John Hartley (Dwayne Johnson) who’s brought in by Interpol Inspector Urvashi Das (Ritu Arya) to help capture one of the world’s greatest art…
Food-and-wine powerhouse takes the reins at SLO’s Central Coast Wines
Meet Miya Central Coast Wines, located at 712 Higuera St. in SLO, is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. For more details, visit ccwines.com, call (805) 785-9463, or email info@ccwines.com. Follow the company on Instagram and Facebook @centralcoastwines. Reach Gold Land BBQ at goldlandbbq.com or on Facebook and Instagram @goldlandbbq. The…
