Cover Story
Building blocks: As population grows in SLO County, the housing supply struggles to keep up
View a slideshow of housing developments currently in progress in SLO County. This year is the sixth that hundreds of movers and shakers in San Luis Obispo County gathered to hear the Central Coast Economic Forecast. The event, which is put on by an organization that formed to fund and present an in-depth look at…
SLO County seeks restraining order against man who allegedly bit librarian
The SLO County Library is asking for a restraining order against a man allegedly who attacked and bit one of its employees earlier this month. According to court records, a SLO County Superior Court judge has already granted a temporary restraining order against the man, identified as 60-year-old Dirk Daniel Anderson. The petition for a…
How would you solve the SLO housing problem?
Chris Burd Cal Poly student “Develop more apartment complexes.” Geoff Schaller retail “Improve the ease of regional commuting.” Austin McLaggan Cal Poly student “Build more apartments downtown and add a transportation system.” Jared Heinemann local business owner “There’s no fix to the problem if our elected officials won’t allow more development.”
We are family: Big Brothers Big Sisters exists to serve at-risk children
Big Brothers Big Sisters provides the mentoring connection between big and little, whether that “big” is in high school or is 88 years old and that “little” is a 6- or 18-year-old. “Our vision is that all children achieve success in life,” Anna Boyd-Bucy, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters in SLO, said. Big…
Cougars & Mustangs
Cal Poly College Republicans, in honor of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, constructed a “Free Speech Wall,” to allow anyone to write what they wished in celebration of the beautiful right that is our freedom of speech. Amazing how short of a time ago the fall of the wall really was, isn’t…
Pismo BeachWalk Hotel will pay less to mitigate lack of low-cost accomodations
With two major obstacles now out of the way, plans to build the BeachWalk Hotel on the shores of Pismo Beach can once again move forward. As a bonus, the withdrawal of a challenge to the project’s developer, Palm Springs-based Nexus Development, will pay far less to mitigate the planned 128-room hotel’s lack of low-cost…
SLO Solidarity movement takes on diversity issues at Cal Poly
Propelled by national events and a recent incident on campus, a group of Cal Poly students is saying “enough is enough” when it comes to a lack of student diversity and an intolerant campus culture. Roughly 100 Cal Poly students gathered in the rain on Nov. 15 for a rally to protest hateful comments written…
Corrections
• The Nov. 12 article “Beyond boxes” incorrectly characterized the titles of the Cardboard Guys’ two executive officers. Justin Farr is chief executive officer, and Jake Disraeli is chief marketing officer. • In the Nov. 12 cover story “It’s never been easy,” New Times incorrectly stated the number of times the Los Osos Community Services…
Pismo might hop on the Styrofoam ban wagon
Looking to follow in the footsteps of the city of San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach’s City Council is moving forward with banning expanded polystyrene food containers within the city limits. The council heard a first reading of the proposed ordinance during its Nov. 17 regular meeting. The council voted unanimously to place the ordinance on…
SLO County experiences two homicides in three days
The SLO County Sheriff’s Office is investigating two unrelated homicides that occurred in the county within days of each other, leaving two people dead and two others in custody. The first of the two deaths was discovered on Nov. 14 during a standoff between sheriff’s deputies and Nicole Honait Luxor, 61, of Paso Robles. Deputies…
Rezoning request for children’s cancer hospital east of Morro Bay withdrawn
Sunil Kayal dreamt of building a large children’s cancer hospital near Morro Bay. The facility, called The Global Village, was planned for a 253-acre property on Highway 41 just east of Morro Bay, with space for 300 children, who could have enjoyed the area’s scenic beauty and natural environment. Most of the land was supposed…
SLO strikes gold for its cycling ways
On the long road to becoming more bike-friendly, SLO received some national recognition Nov. 16 for its bike improvements and policies The League of American Bicyclists elevated the city of SLO from “silver” to “gold” status as a bike-friendly city in a biannual evaluation of the national organization’s rankings. SLO joins 24 other communities around…
SLO Children’s Museum offers tiny turkey craft workshop
Sometimes that tired hand-traced turkey art project just won’t cut it. Breath some three-dimensional life into your seasonal art project that salutes the flightless bird this year. Stop by the San Luis Obispo Children’s Museum Art Center and make yourself (or mom or dad or grandma or grandpa) a tiny turkey! Participants will glue feathers,…
Art of Jose Arevelo featured at Nautical Bean
Do you ever feel like Dia de los Muertos gets shortchanged with only one measly day out of the whole year? Well now you can get your fill of the celebration of the living dead all month long at Nautical Bean Bistro & Coffee House in San Luis Obispo. Jose Arevelo of Nipomo is the…
Once Upon a Time in the West chronicles SLO County history at the History Center
It’s Sunday, Nov. 15, and I’m dodging much-needed raindrops on my way to the History Center housed in the old Carnegie Library on Monterey Street. A new exhibition—a series of photo collages—tells the story of our county from its first people to our modern times, and everything in-between: the early explorers, the mission system, the…
Royal Nostalgia: Cal Poly brings classic book ‘The Little Prince’ to the stage
When I was 10 years old, my mom and I started reading The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry together every night before bedtime. It had everything I wanted in a bedtime story: royalty, adventure, a strange and exotic land, a love interest, and an unlikely friendship. As exciting as the story of The Little…
East of Middle art exhibit at Cuesta zeroes in on spatial relationships through Dec. 4
Location, location, location. That’s the thing, it’s all about where you’re at in proximity to everything else: friends, the space between home and work, or even the space between nature and the urban jungle. Sara Frantz, a new drawing professor at Cal Poly, has always been fascinated by spatial relationships. Her exhibit, East of Middle…
Immortal Technique brings his politically charged rap to SLO Brew on Nov. 19
Maybe I have terrorism fatigue, but I’m starting to wonder about rapper Immortal Technique, who plays a Numbskull and Good Medicine Presents show at SLO Brew on Thursday, Nov. 19 (8p.m.; all ages; $20 presale or $22 at the door). “The purpose of life is a life with purpose,” he’s rapped, “so I’d rather die…
Clubs 11/19/15 – 11/26/15
Goin’ South THE CLIFFS RESORT: 2757 Shell Beach Rd., Shell Beach, 773-5000, cliffsresort.com. F. MCLINTOCKS SALOON: Two locations: 750 Mattie Rd. in Pismo Beach and 133 Bridge St. in Arroyo Grande. 773-1892 or mclintocks.com. Live music at the Pismo Beach location every Fri. and Sat. from 6-9pm. Tennessee Jimmy Harrell and Doc Stoltey play on…
Jackhammer’s 2013 Pinot Noir and Niner Wine Estate’s 2013 Reserve Syrah
We can thank a partnership between Stephen Dooley of Stephen Ross Winery (Santa Maria) and Sandy Garber, owner and founder of Garber & Co Wine (Topanga Canyon), for the greatest holiday gift ever: affordable, delicious pinot noir! That was exactly the radical idea on their minds when the pair came up with the concept for…
Sweater weather
Baby, it’s sorta cold outside: Madonna Inn is turning into a winter wonderland! Check out the hotel’s Cowgirl Christmas Trade show featuring 75 gift-worthy vendors this Nov. 27 through Christmas Eve at the expo center and be sure to get those ice skates in working condition (the Winter WonderSLO Jiffy Lube Ice Skating rink will…
Cluckin’ on the run: SLO Provisions’ to-go rotisserie meals offer unfettered freedom
The calls flood in around 5 p.m. They’re from young professionals, busy moms, and starving college students strapped for time. Whether driving southbound over the grade or picking up their kids from dance practice, these callers all have one thing in common: a carnal desire for slow-roasted, rotisserie meats paired with farm-fresh fixin’s. Oh, and…
The American way?
I hate to pick on Justin “The Debate Skipper” Fareed for two weeks in a row, but if the 24th District Congressional candidate’s going to jump on the xenophobic anti-refugee Republican bandwagon, I’m going to have to call him out with the rest of the hypocritical, un-American knuckle-draggers who are now demanding a cessation of…
Thanks for the Veterans Day help
For Veterans Day, the Historical Society of Morro Bay and Veterans Helping Veterans in Need hosted lunch for 100 veterans, family members, and friends to network and celebrate military contributions to Morro Bay’s history. Thank you to community members, individuals and organizations who helped make this event a huge success. Help came from many groups,…
We need community brainstorming to address climate change
In his talk Nov. 13 at the Grange Hall in SLO, David Barsamian of Alternative Radio stressed the urgency of getting off fossil fuels in the few years we have before climate change becomes irreversible. He exhorted the audience to work in our own community here and now, not to wait for government action, which…
SLO’s judges will never be anything but local
It should come as no surprise to anyone having found themselves the victim of the injustices dealt out daily by our local branch of the Superior Courts of California: Our local authorities are crooked. Corrupt. Unable or unwilling to be impartial, and fraught with unsound judgments. But that doesn’t mean that John Trice is any…
Bullet train or water?
As the drought worsens, I wonder how committed our state politicians and law makers are to our health and well-being. If concerned as they say WE should be, then they should be doing some SERIOUS planning. It seems to me that they aren’t focused on water or a drought that will not only affect California,…
Investing in oil doesn’t make sense
We must not allow the expansion of the refinery in Nipomo. Photovoltaic markets are expanding 50 percent per year world wide. Many nations get substantial electricity from wind, Denmark averaging 34 percent. This, while oil industries have higher costs of exploration and extraction, and lower demand and product price. Shell Oil just abandoned an $8…
Public spaces belong to everyone
I enjoy hiking on Ontario Ridge every other day. It is a magnificent, wide open space we can all share in peace. Unfortunately, someone has placed a huge religious symbol, a cross, right on the top of the mountain. A plaque under the cross incites people “to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome…
The fourth option
I read Mr. Eric Michielssen’s commentary, “Water basin fixit” in the Nov. 12 issue of New Times. There are a number of errors in his account of the status of the Paso Robles groundwater basin. First, his stated annual basin deficit of 2,400 acre-feet is a contested figure. If he was following the issue, he…
