Cover Story
Point and Shoot
San Luis Obispo Police Detective Victor Nunez set up the paper target on a plastic chair, handed me a canary yellow Taser, and gave the signal: “Fire away.” As the fishhook-like prongs deployed, I felt a definite kick–a good one, like I was shooting a fireball out of my hand just like Ken or Ryu…
Commission seeks to protect historic buildings
At the Cultural Heritage Committee’s Nov. 26 meeting, the seven-person advisory body made a recommendation to the Planning Commission–and ultimately the City Council–that two historic buildings slated for demolition should somehow be incorporated into the new construction instead. The Planning Commission was slated to take it up Nov. 28. The Sauer Bakery building–commonly referred to…
See what’s cooking
# If home is where the heart is, the kitchen must shelter the soul. On Nov. 8, award-winning cabinet contractor Richard Jess opened SieMatic, a luxury kitchen showroom, at 75 Higuera St. in San Luis Obispo. The 1,200-square-foot space in the Pacific Coast Center offers visitors an inspiring design experience from the moment they step…
Supervisors opt for minimum in North Coast views protection
In a rebuke to both the County Planning Commission and preservationists, the SLO County Board of Supervisors once again approved the least restrictive of several options intended to protect views along the county’s nationally heralded scenic North Coast. The 3-1 vote on Nov. 27–which saw Jerry Lenthall, Katcho Achadjian, and Harry Ovitt carrying the vote…
100-percent lickable
# Juliette Lewis sounds like a screaming kitten on “Smash and Grab,” the lead track on her new Juliette & The Licks album Four on the Floor, a 12-track collection of delectable punk nuggets. “Hit it killer eeoow!” she screeches before launching into the song’s lyrics: “Smash and grab I stole your heart/ Burnin rubber…
Fast facts
People who think San Luis Obispo needed more raw fish, rejoice! Hanabi Sushi recently celebrated its grand opening. The restaurant, located at 1065 Olive St., offers a variety of daily lunch and dinner specials. Grab a $2.50 hand roll on Monday through Wednesday nights. Get saucy for cheap on Friday and Saturday nights with 99-cent…
On the auction block
It sounds almost too good to be true: a public Internet auction of local properties owned by people who neglected to pay their property taxes. Finally, a chance to luck out and buy an affordable home here? # The SLO County Board of Supervisors on Nov. 20 approved an eBay-style auction for 21 properties, all…
Fire season’s not over yet
While recent low temperatures have begun frosting over native plant life each morning in San Luis Obispo County, the cold isn’t enough for officials to call off fire season. At about noon on Nov. 26, five separate fires erupted along South Higuera Street and Highway 101 in San Luis Obispo. The blazes scorched several acres…
Previously on Shredder…
I’m mostly a fan of reality TV–I really like watching people choke down stinkbugs and fat grubs in the hopes of winning a new car–so I didn’t notice until recently that there’s been a writers’ strike. The union action seems to be limited to scribes who pen scripts for television programs, including Heroes and Lost…
Painting the pavement
# Apple pie is dated and simple, and these days you’re as likely to find someone who wants to spit on the American flag as salute it. But the open road remains quintessentially American–a metaphor for freedom,interconn-ectedness, and all that lies ahead. Los Osos resident Tom Shultz has dedicated the past few years of his…
Go the extra mile
# What would make a winemaker who spent more than two decades in Napa and Sonoma leave California’s most acclaimed wine growing regions behind to make wine in Paso Robles? A special place five miles west of the town of Santa Margarita where they’re growing extraordinary winegrapes, according to Vance Rose, winemaker and general manager…
Letters
We need leftish shows like Dave Congalton’s Local radio station KVEC, 920 AM, has been sold. I hope the new owners keep “local talk”–e.g. Dave Congalton. We have too many national “talk” programs like Rush and Monica Crowley, which are too loud and right. We need local leftish talk programs like Dave Congalton. Bill Denneen…
Dinner’s on Mom
In the stockroom of the pizza chain where I work, an employee training poster depicts a young man dressed in medieval peasant’s attire behind the wheel of a late-model sedan, delivering our company’s product. He is shown doing everything we drivers should not: speeding, listening to loud music, drinking coffee, dangling novelties from his rearview…
Mission Plaza tree finds new life–in the form of clones
The troublesome silk floss tree in San Luis Obispo’s Mission Plaza has been dealt a death sentence, but, in true Catholic form, it could find life after death. # Members of the city tree committee voted unanimously on Nov. 26 to remove the tree, which stands at the historic Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa’s…
County property owners may be asked to pay for a new mosquito control program
SLO County property owners may be asked to approve a new tax assessment to pay for controlling disease-spreading insects and rodents. The Board of Supervisors on Nov. 27 approved the idea of a survey to determine whether a new tax would win approval from property owners. The extra assessment for a county-run vector control program…
The Reclamator will rise again
Tom Murphy is a man of small stature and huge ideas. A bachelor who got his start in the sewer business 40 years ago by pumping cesspools in Alaska, he lives and works in a 40-foot motor coach that’s painted gold–the same color as his watch and necklace. Murphy is the man behind the Reclamator…
Shark sightings won’t keep swimmers ashore as long
On Nov. 27, the Port San Luis Harbor District Board of Commissioners approved a revision of their shark policy. Now, after a credible shark sighting within a mile of the harbor, the policy will close the waters of Port San Luis and Avila Beach to swimmers for three days, down from five in the previous…
