Cover Story
Pride 2024
With this year’s annual Pride issue, we are taking a little time to focus on support systems for the LGBTQ-plus community—what exists and what needs to exist. Overdue breakthrough The Pride in Mental Health Act hopes to make accessible mental health care services for LGBTQ-plus youth the law BY BULBUL RAJAGOPAL Connection, socialization Pacific Pride…
The Idea of You is Notting Hill for boy band fanatics
THE IDEA OF YOU What’s it rated? RWhat’s it worth, Caleb? Rent itWhat’s it worth, Bulbul? Rent itWhere’s it showing? Amazon Prime Michael Showalter (The Big Sick) directs and co-writes this quirky romance based on the novel by Robinne Lee. Sparks fly between a world-famous pop singer (Nicholas Galitzine) and an art gallery owner and…
Connection, socialization: Pacific Pride Foundation’s Lavender Elders program is designed to bring older LGBTQ-plus folks together
Get together In San Luis Obispo County, Gala Pride and Diversity Center offers a Senior Advocacy Zoom meeting once a month. Visit galacc.org/resources for more information. Visit pacificpridefoundation.org to learn more about Lavender Elders in-person and online meetings and other programs that Pacific Pride Foundation offers in Santa Barbara County. While there are many options…
Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies, & Scandal
What’s it rated? TV-MA When? 2024 Where’s it showing? Netflix Netflix’s Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies, & Scandal docuseries covers the rise of a dating site for married people seeking other adults to have affairs with, the hack that exposed millions of users’ data to the public, the lives it wrecked in the process, and the…
Elbow room for all: Cal Poly’s Pride Center moved from a space the size of a closet to a large community room in the Student Center
Viewed as a safe space for expression and community, the Cal Poly Pride Center is a beacon of on-campus inclusivity for students and faculty. After the center was limited to a closet-sized space for years, Cal Poly community members advocated for a newer, bigger, and more accessible location to house the center, counselor and Pride…
Girls
What’s it rated? TV-MA When? 2012 Where’s it showing? Max Being both the main actor and the creator of HBO’s show, Girls, Lena Dunham (Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, American Horror Story) plays a 23-year-old freshly graduated college student who’s a little self-absorbed, awkward, and obsessed with becoming a writer—but she’s too lazy…
Hana’s Korean BBQ brings the traditional taste of Korea from the Bay Area to Paso Robles
Time-honored taste Find Hana Korean BBQ at 1477 Creston Road, Paso Robles. It’s open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., with the dining cutoff at 8:30 p.m. It’s open on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., with the dining cutoff at 7 p.m. Keep up with the restaurant or order online…
Permitting is not the point
Last week’s edition of the New Times (May 30) delves into the question of why the Cambria Community Services District (CCSD) seems to be having such a difficult time completing a coastal cevelopment permit application for the water treatment plant, currently called the Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) located on San Simeon Creek Road. It’s an…
Dictatorship
Like fellow opinion writer John Ashbaugh, I also like to take another look at some of our history’s heroes and to challenge some popular perceptions. The May 18, 2024, issue of The Economist reflected upon the vulnerability of the United States to becoming a dictatorship. But while the writer’s focus was on another Donald Trump…
Rejected, not dejected
If a city doesn’t like a voter petition to put something on the ballot, can it just reject it? Grover Beach and Paso Robles think they can. Morro Bay, not so much. In the grand scheme of axes to grind against city policy, a segment of Morro Bay residents have a big one—the proposed battery…
SLO City Council kicks off process to change city limits for Cal Poly housing
The city of San Luis Obispo could get smaller to make space for university faculty housing. On June 4, the SLO City Council unanimously greenlit the initiation of a detachment application filed by Cal Poly that requested reducing a sliver of city land by 25 feet. The request is part of the university’s plan to…
Grover H2O isn’t giving up on recalling Councilmember Daniel Rushing
From protests to lawsuits, the feud between Grover H2O and the city of Grover Beach hasn’t died down. On May 28, the San Luis Obispo Superior Court ruled that Grover Beach, City Clerk Wendi Sims, and City Attorney Robert Lomeli had unlawfully rejected Grover H2O’s recall petitions against Mayor Karen Bright and City Councilmembers Daniel…
Atascadero mulls over potential shopping cart ordinance
Atascadero City Councilmember Charles Bourbeau occasionally loads up his truck with shopping carts collected by the city and returns them to their respective stores. “I do weird things like that,” Bourbeau said during a June 5 phone call with New Times over the audible clang of metal on metal. “Just while we were talking, I…
SLO County native Emwyn Powers releases a novel set on the Central Coast about a woman’s personal and spiritual awakening
Take a journey For those interested in buying Emwyn Powers book 8 Stones on the Altar, visit amazon.com/8-Stones-Altar-Emwyn-Powers-ebook/dp/B0D5F3YB6H. A story rooted in personal pilgrimage and connecting to the mind, body, and soul, 8 Stones on the Altar is a unique take on how hardship can lead to a spiritual awakening. Written by San Luis Obispo…
British ska band The English Beat headlines June 15 at Live Oak Fest
Ever have one of those high school-era bands that just felt like the soundtrack to your life? Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello, The Clash, Sex Pistols, Billy Idol, Pet Shop Boys, The Specials, Talking Heads—they all held a cherished place, but none more so than The English Beat. They’re a band I’ve seen live probably more…
SLO business combats PCE contamination with soil remediation permit application
A San Luis Obispo business wants to remediate toxin-polluted soil at a former Higuera Street dry cleaning site it’s now located on. More than a year after the California Department of Toxic Substances Control and Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board identified four sites in SLO where perchloroethylene soil contamination exceeded 865 times the…
Cambria Nursery hosts fairy garden workshop weekend
Miniature houses, little gnomes, tiny fairies, and different shades of green. These are the components that build fairy gardens. Some people put those elements in trees or in a special section of their yard, but you can create a portable fairy world of your own at the upcoming Enchanted Fairy Garden Weekend hosted by Cambria…
The Pride flag will fly at Grover Beach City Hall this June
For the fourth year in a row, the Grover Beach City Council voted in favor of flying the Pride flag during the month of June. “I just want to give my full-hearted support of … the Pride flag and just honor what recognition of that means for marginalized communities to see a symbol of welcome…
Gallery at Marina Square displays photography, crafts, and fiber art in June exhibitions
The three artists currently featured at Gallery at Marina Square in Morro Bay are fiber artist Debbie Gedayloo, craft artist Kristina Albion, and photographer Cathy Russ, whose respective exhibits premiered in early June and will remain on display through Saturday, June 29. A joint reception to celebrate all three artists will be held at the…
Studios on the Park hosts flower painting workshop with Anne Laddon
Participants of an upcoming workshop at Studios on the Park in Paso Robles will have a floral arrangement of summer blooms in front of them to inspire their flower paintings. Resident artist Anne Laddon will lead the class, Summer Flowers in Oil, slated to be held on Saturday, June 15, from 1 to 3 p.m.…
Overdue breakthrough: The Pride in Mental Health Act hopes to make accessible mental health care services for LGBTQ-plus youth the law
A host of Democrats across the United States are trying to bolster access to mental health care and support for LGBTQ-plus youth. U.S. Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-California), the first Black and openly gay senator to serve in the Senate, introduced the Pride in Mental Health Act on March 14—a day after the Oklahoma medical examiner…
