Cover Story
Officials eye roundabouts for Highway 227; residents ‘not convinced’
For six years, transportation planners have investigated solutions to the worsening traffic conditions on Highway 227, the popular commuter alternative to Highway 101, which cuts through Edna Valley and regularly bottenecks during rush hour. On Oct. 12, at a virtual public meeting, SLO County and Caltrans officials discussed the results of a recent traffic study…
SLO County selects a clerk-recorder
San Luis Obispo County will soon have a new top elections official following a tumultuous search. On Oct. 12, the SLO County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to appoint Elaina Cano, an election’s division manager with Santa Barbara County, to fill the clerk-recorder position left vacant by Tommy Gong’s resignation in July. The board tapped…
Cal Poly surveys Pismo clams for growth
The pandemic made sure people can find QR codes everywhere, from restaurant menus to billboards, and San Luis Obispo County just added them in an unusual new location—the shells of live Pismo clams. Cal Poly’s biology department organized a clam tagging session on Oct. 8 at Pismo Beach to monitor the growth, mortality, and migration…
SLO city, North County report more COVID-19 violations
Atascadero’s Food 4 Less was moderately busy with customers the afternoon of Oct. 12. While a majority were wearing masks, about a quarter of those inside weren’t. Posted to the inside of the automatic sliding entrance door, a crisp piece of white printer paper read “FACE MASK UPDATE,” stating that all customers must wear a…
Scared Scriptless tour brings comedy legends Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood to the Central Coast
Local lineup As part of the Scared Scriptless tour, improv comedians Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood will be performing at the Harold Miossi Hall at the Performing Arts Center in San Luis Obispo on Oct. 16 and the Granada Theatre in Santa Barbara on Oct. 30. Visit colinandbradshow.com for tickets and more info. Over a…
Exploration Discovery Center in Grover Beach is more than your typical children’s museum
Explore for yourself The Exploration Discovery Center, located at 867 Ramona Ave. in Grover Beach, is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Between an aquaponic garden, a 25-foot-tall ancient Egyptian pyramid replica, and an inventors’ lab with enough tactile treasures to fill a whole day of play, the Exploration Discovery…
SLO County artists open their studios to the public
Open Studio Art Tours are about connection—building a kinship between artists and the communities they live in—something that was missing last year, during the height of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. But your opportunity to take a peek behind the scenes is back this year, and you’ve got one weekend, Oct. 16 and 17, left to experience…
Quirky Americana troubadour Todd Snider plays the Fremont on Oct. 16
As a reminder of just how tenuous live music concerts remain in the COVID-19 era, the Fremont Theater canceled two scheduled show this week: Colter Wall on Friday, Oct. 15 and Tanya Tucker on Monday, Oct. 18. There’s still a fair amount of trepidation among concertgoers, especially the well-heeled boomers who are more at risk,…
Alone on a hill
Week after week, alone on her hill, a SLO County Supervisor with a furrowed brow is sitting perfectly still. And she can’t help but grandstand. But, this time, the fool on her hill saw her argument going down. And the eyes in her head see a new top county elections official stepping in. Any guess…
The oil next time
I’m writing this the day after the oil spill off the coast of Orange County hit the news. By the time you read this, I doubt I’ll be the only one to have drawn a straight line between what just happened off Orange County and what happened two days earlier at the Santa Barbara County…
Pandemic pressures are having lasting effects on the pet care system, including a shortage of local veterinary professionals
Atascadero couple Mark and Noreen Jewell knew they had to act fast when their beloved cat Ashley was dying of cancer in August. But with San Luis Obispo County’s pet hospitals full to capacity, they were given two difficult choices: wait a month for Ashley to get emergency crossover service, or pay the pandemic-inflated cost…
Caring for Cayucos
I read the article about the Cayucos Veterans Hall in the Sept. 23 edition of New Times (“Cayucos seeks more funding for Vets Hall restoration”) and the new community effort to raise money and send the county a message that this community wants its hall fixed. As a resident of Cayucos and a member of…
No Time to Die effectively ends Daniel Craig’s tenure as Bond
Cary Joji Fukunaga (Sin Nombre, Jane Eyre, Beasts of No Nation) directs the fifth and final James Bond film starring Daniel Craig. Now retired from active service, Bond is pulled back into the game when his friend and CIA agent Felix Leiter (Jeffery Wright) asks for help. Soon Bond is on the trail of a…
Passionate about pão de mel
Order or just say olá Visit the company at honeybeeslo.com or follow it on Facebook and Instagram @honeybee.slo. Place orders via direct message, email talkhoneybee@gmail.com, or text (805) 270-0722. If you’ve never had a Brazilian honey cake, or if you’re a transplant missing home, make a beeline for your local farmers’ market. Vanessa Higgins, originally…
Only Murders in the Building
When three unlikely strangers team up to solve a death in their shared building, the trio starts to unravel a web seemingly more complicated than a simple murder. Martin Short plays Oliver Putnam, an eccentric has-been theater director who’s secretly drowning in debt and concocts the plan to create a hit true crime podcast à…
Facing another drought and a teetering basin, Los Osos will investigate new water sources
Los Osos’ only source of drinking water is still threatened by seawater intrusion after six years of work trying to reverse the trend. Chloride (salt) levels in the coastal basin were 27 percent higher in 2020 compared to 2019, and 41 percent higher than in 2018. If the metric jumps another 25 percent, it would…
High Ground
What’s it rated? TV-MA When? 2021 Where’s it showing? Hulu Stephen Johnson directs this Australian film that opens in 1919 as sharpshooter Travis (Simon Baker) leads an operation that ends in the massacre of an extended Aboriginal family. Disgusted by his fellow soldiers’ actions, Travis leaves the service, but not before rescuing a young Aboriginal…
Nurses speak out in support of staffing ratios
On the corner of Santa Rosa Street and Murray Avenue in San Luis Obispo, people wearing red scrubs began to gather around noon on Oct. 7. A few had their kids with them, strapped into strollers, and others were holding red signs that read, “Safe Staffing Saves Lives.” These Central Coast registered nurses and California…
Grover Beach invests $50,000 in child care assistance
Roughly 20 families stand to de-stress financially because Grover Beach funneled $50,000 into child care support services. The Grover Beach City Council identified a growing need for more investment in child care during its Oct. 12 meeting, approving the funds to be split equally between the San Luis Obispo County YMCA and the Boys and…
