Cover Story
The long, storied history of San Luis Obispo’s historic Chinatown and the artifacts left behind
At the end of Dana Street in San Luis Obispo, there is a white, wooden fence. Behind that fence, there is a white building marked by a bronze-colored placard with the words, “Rosa Butrón de Canet de Simmler ADOBE c. 1845.” In the back of the Palm Street parking garage, there is a small window…
Discrimination consternation: A state policy is creating major issues for some Cal Poly clubs
All across California, church and state—familiar sparring partners—are once again at loggerheads. This time, though, their conflict is being fought on an unfamiliar battleground—collegiate clubs. When former California State University (CSU) Chairman Charles B. Reed first issued Executive Order 1068 in December 2011, the policy was meant to eliminate discrimination and encourage an “all comers”…
Trigger Hippy brings its soul-drenched sound to SLO Brew on Oct. 5
I’ve been checking out videos online of Trigger Hippy, the new soul-drenched collaboration by Jackie Greene (vocals, keys, guitars), multi-platinum recording artist Joan Osborne (remember her Top 5 hit “One of Us?”), Black Crowes co-founder Steve Gorman (drums), Nick Govrik (bass), and Tom Bukovac (guitar). Having just seen Jackie Greene a couple months ago when…
Field worker sexual harassment bill becomes law
On Sept. 28, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 1087 into law. The bill seeks to curb what some say is an epidemic of sexual harassment and violence among the state’s field workers. SB 1087 was penned by local Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel) in response to a 2013 investigation by Univision, UC Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting…
Molecular convergence: SLO County’s Drought Task Force to meet
If you’re all-too-familiar with the drought’s presence but want to know more about what’s being done, you’ll have an opportunity to hear about it at the upcoming Water Summit 2014, hosted by the San Luis Obispo county’s Drought Task Force. On Tuesday, Oct. 14, at 1:30 p.m., multiple county agencies will discuss the drought at…
What do you think of SLO’s Chinatown?
Karen Merriam retired social worker “I wish I had been here when it was flourishing.” David Orr musician “I fully support it expanding and becoming an actual entity.” Susie Velazquez human resource analysis aide “I didn’t know there was one.” Seth Wilkinson student “I didn’t know we had a Chinatown.”
Backyard chickens are no bargain!
It’s Sunday, Sept. 28, and I’m working in the backyard when I hear the dogs barking. I look through the sliding glass door and out the picture window and see a pregnant woman holding four chickens walking up the driveway. No, that’s not the beginning of some lame joke. When my wife told me she…
SLO Symphony features Elizabeth Pitcairn and her famous ‘red violin’ at Cal Poly’s Christopher Cohan Center
Red all about it In 1720, the famed instrument artisan Antonio Stradivari fashioned one of his impeccable violins. In total, he is estimated to have made well over a thousand of these prized instruments. But, for more than 200 years, the location and owner of this mysterious, 1720 violin remained unknown. In the late 20th…
Smart Studio in SLO debuts new exhibit, Girl: A Feminist Art Show
If you do a frequency search for the word “feminist” on the New York Times, you’ll see the graph spike for the year 2014. Compared to last year, use of the word has more than doubled, fully vindicating what many are calling a broad resurgence of the term, and its message of gender equality, across…
Cal Poly’s University Art Gallery exhibits modern photography with vintage feel in Photography Now
With all of the new photography technology that’s available—Instagram, Photoshop, phones that function as cameras—it seems like everyone fancies themselves a photographer. Just press a few buttons, and voila!—a digital photograph of your selfie that looks perfectly retro. But for seven photographers, Instagram filters just aren’t enough. Photography Now, the new exhibit at Cal Poly’s…
Clubs 10/2/14-10/9/14
Goin’ South … THE CLIFFS RESORT: 2757 Shell Beach Road, 773-5000 or cliffsresort.com. CUVEE BISTRO AND CHAMPAGNE BAR: 550 1st St., Avila Beach, 595-2245. Live music Thurs. and Sat. 6-9pm. F. MCLINTOCKS SALOON: Two locations: 750 Mattie Road in Pismo Beach and 133 Bridge St. in Arroyo Grande. 773-1892 or mclintocks.com. Live music at the…
SLO Creek Farm’s Cider and Re:Find’s Gin
SLO Creek Farm’s Cider It is fall, and apples are on my mind. Maybe that’s because I’m looking at a flat of about 10 pounds of fresh-picked Braeburn apples currently sitting on my kitchen counter, beckoning me to transform them into pies, turnovers, and canned goods (If I ascertain the know-how, maybe even hard cider).…
Everything apple: Take a bite out of the first-ever Avila Apple Festival
What could be more uniquely American than watching a SLO County Sherriff’s Department officer consume copious amounts of apple pie as quickly as possible in a family-oriented street fair-type setting? Give up? How about watching that very officer battle it out against the best—and hungriest—at CAL Fire? This scene is not brought to us by…
Hot news
What we drink around here: Fans of NorCal’s Russian River Brewing Company, listen up. While Russian River awaits the opening of its new brewhouse in February, Firestone Walker Brewing Company will be picking up the slack. Word on the street is Firestone has offered to brew several batches of Russian River’s popular Pliny the Elder…
Tip of the hat: Hats for Hope throws annuual benefit
A cancer diagnosis must be one of the worst things a person can be confronted with. On top of possible mortality, a cancer patient also has to deal with a million little horrible details, from breaking the news to friends and family, to the exorbitant medical costs, to the ravaging process of chemotherapy. Cancer is…
Cougars & Mustangs
October has only just begun, but already beings across the Central Coast are terrified. Students are terrified of school having begun. Citizens are terrified of the roads now that students are here. Existentialists are terrified at the possibility of lack of meaning and lack of reality, but no one wants to talk to them anyway.…
Moving time: The Templeton Livestock Market will close in October, leaving local cattle ranchers wondering if they’ll be left in the dust
Behind the big red building that houses the Templeton Livestock Market, a much bigger yard lined with metal pipes and wooden boards holds hundreds, if not thousands, of head of cattle most Saturdays. The smell is strong, and the mooing plentiful. A few women on horseback ride up and down and around the partitioned rows,…
The 9th Circuit grants a Vandenberg protester’s rehearing petition
The gears of the judicial system keep turning in the case of John Dennis Apel, a local man who’s seen legal proceedings against him slowly make their way up to the U.S. Supreme Court—and now, as of Sept. 22, back down. Apel’s long legal ride most visibly began in 2003 when he threw some of…
San Luis Obispo man sentenced for pimping a minor
On Sept. 30, 20-year-old Douglas James Stephens of San Luis Obispo was sentenced to three years in state prison after entering a plea of no contest to a felony charge of pimping of a minor. As New Times previously reported, Stephens was one of nine people arrested in a prostitution sting the San Luis Obispo…
The De Groot Nursing Home for Children in San Luis Obispo will forfeit its license to bill for services
The De Groot Nursing Home for Children is forfeiting its license to bill Medicaid effective Oct. 9. According to a notification obtained Sept. 25, the home’s operator, Sjany de Groot, informed officials with the California Department of Public Health that she would forfeit the license due to federal and state licensing requirements “that have never…
Paving goodbye
So I finally watched the movie with the talking dog. You know the one? With the house with the balloons and the dog that rambles on about his master? Also, why have there been so many movies about talking dogs? Anyway, the movie really surprised me, but in a good way, you know? I’d always…
There is no debate
On Sunday, Sept. 21, a Peoples’ Climate March took place in San Luis Obispo in support of climate change efforts being discussed at the UN Climate Summit. To their credit, a local news broadcast covered the event. The newscaster describing the march said, “Critics counter that global temperatures have dropped every year since 1999, and…
Don’t keep art for adults
I was reading an invitation to “Girl—A Feminist Art Show,” when I noticed it was not allowing those under 18 years of age on opening night. I find it rather ironic that a show with such a muse would choose not to include teenagers. What a great opportunity it would be to open up dialogue…
‘I have decided to pursue new opportunities elsewhere’
It is with regret that I announce my plans to step down as city manager with the city of Arroyo Grande. After much deliberation, I have determined that the current events have created too much distraction for me to lead the future of our organization as effectively as I would like. To be involved in…
