SLO County supervisors consider extending a Paso Robles Groundwater Basin urgency ordinance
After making a tough 4-0 vote to approve a temporary urgency ordinance intended to slow water overdrafting from the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin, the SLO County Board of Supervisors is about to do it again and decide whether to continue the ordinance for two years or to leave it dead in the water. At their…
What was the last item you purchased?
Paul Mesko Research Associate at biotech lab “I bought an audio card so I could play music in my car.” Ali DeCenzo Declined to state “These shoes.” Eric Garner Youth Director/Pastoral Care “I suppose a book. It is called All Things Shining by Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly.” Kacia Burrell Tasting Room Assistant at…
James Conroy & The Mystery Boys release ‘Heart Searches’ in Harmony on Sept. 27
When performer James Conroy first moved to the Central Coast in 1989, his first gig was as a strolling musician at the now defunct Harmony Pasta Factory (sidenote: That’s where Christopher Moore was working just prior to the release of his first novel, Practical Demonkeeping). Harmony was a hip little spot, a dot of Shangri-La…
Changing the world, one poem at a time
We Earthlings are a cynical bunch, for the most part. So when a group comes forward that calls itself 100 Thousand Poets for Change, a flurry of questions comes to mind, most of them cynical: There aren’t really a hundred thousand, are there? What do they do, exactly? How do they bring about this supposed…
Turtle town! An Art Basher explores the Turtle, Tortoise, and Reptile Show
It’s around 10:30 a.m. on a Saturday, Sept. 21, and I spy a man walking a turtle on a pink leash down Grand Avenue All week, my boyfriend Chase and I have giddily looked forward to the Turtle Organization of San Luis Obispo’s 22nd annual Turtle, Tortoise, and Reptile Show. So the sight of the…
Hard Knock Rock, David Scheve’s animated series, uses humor to address controversial topics
David Scheve was watching a particularly bad kids’ Christmas special when the idea for Hard Knock Rock struck. A series of three-minute musical animated shorts produced by TDA Animation, Hard Knock Rock mimics the style of the Schoolhouse Rock educational videos—only this series takes on controversial subjects and cultural taboos. Interventions deals with substance abuse.…
‘This painting knows what it is’: Meet crime reporter and abstract painter Julia Hickey
Julia Hickey spends her days writing about kidnappings, murders, bank robberies, and prostitution stings. Her nights are quite another story. An abstract painter, Hickey has been quietly making, yet rarely exhibiting, art in San Luis Obispo for the past five years. If her name is familiar, it’s likely because the artist also holds a day…
Drink pink: Veris Cellars holds an event to fight breast cancer
In the ongoing fight against breast cancer, locals can add to their arsenal of weapons some lively acidity balanced by a touch of residual sugar, with strong strawberry overtones on the nose and ripe fruit flowing through the palate. Veris Cellars Winery is holding a Twilight Tasting on Oct. 3, as part of Breast Cancer…
Row 503 2012 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley and Refresh by Turning Leaf Pink Moscato
Row 503 2012 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley BevMo! wine critic Wilfred Wong rated this sleeper 92 points. I was further convinced to buy it when store manager Eric Tucker recommended it. It was an excellent surprise from the five-cent sale. This delicious pinot is ripe with wild berries, plums, and a long spicy finish, but…
Shell Beach Brewhouse and Ember hit the South County
I’ve questioned, whined about, and lamented my South County neighborhood for many years. Why don’t we have more upscale restaurants opening in South County? Why so many chains? Why are most of our upscale restaurants in hotels? Why does Paso Robles get all the good restaurants (after all, South County wine country is just as…
Pedego Electric Bikes in Avila Beach is fun on wheels
There are many good reasons to ride a bike: It’s good exercise, there’s no fuel cost, it’s better for the planet, and you don’t have to worry about finding parking. But if you head over to the recently opened Pedego Electric Bikes in Avila Beach and take one of their electric bikes for a spin,…
Cougars & Mustangs: A Horse-y Horizon
And thusly began the first week of Cal Poly. Those of you from out of the area—how did it feel? Was there a chill in the air as you took your first few steps toward the large, imposing architecture? Did you feel an unsettling symbolism as the reptilian trees shed their age-d scales, with a…
Cambria’s water schism(s)
Though the groundwater situation in Cambria may have prompted two special meetings in less than two weeks (that dragged on for over eight cumulative hours), the situation is pretty simple at its core. What remains—beyond all that sound and fury—is a classic supply and demand problem. In contemporary Cambria, the water supply is low, and…
Update for SLO City ‘constitution’ raises questions about process and neighborhood representation
In the 2010 book Thrive—the book “that put SLO on the map as the happiest city in America”—author Jim Buettner recounts how in the ’70s the city transformed a stagnant “reactionary” business community controlled by just a few powerful land owners and business leaders into an “American planning renaissance.” Buettner uses this period of transition…
California clamps down on fracking (sort of)
Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law Sept. 20 what some lawmakers called the toughest fracking regulations in the country. In a measure of just how polarized the debate over the controversial oil-well-stimulation practice has become, the bill encountered opposition from both the oil industry and some environmental groups. Authored by State Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Thousand…
Amid strife, Atascadero approves ECHO as its official homeless shelter
After almost three hours of public comment, the Atascadero City Council voted 3-1 to name the El Camino Homeless Organization (ECHO) as the city’s official homeless shelter during its Sept. 24 meeting. The council voted to allow the meal program and shelter—which provides dinners for 60 to 70 people and beds for roughly 35—to operate…
Morro Bay City Council to hire outside legal council to consult in personnel matters
Morro Bay continued to move forward on a controversial personnel matter with a vote on Sept. 24 that may lead to the firing of the city’s two highest paid employees: the city manager and city attorney. A dust storm kicked up after Mayor Jamie Irons called a special meeting for Sept. 12, where the council…
‘Plagues of SLO’ descend, but are fixed
There was no storm cloud of locusts and the frogs and pestilence remained at bay, but this past week saw a pair of events that were as close as San Luis Obispo will likely ever get to Biblical Egypt. On the afternoon of Sept. 21, a water main on Monterey Street ruptured, causing water to…
Help Morro Bay’s new council get things done
People have asked me what happened on Sept. 12 at the special meeting because they were appalled at the mob behavior that they saw on TV. There was so much hatred and abuse and threats that could have turned to violence. This did not have to happen, but I suspect the city attorney and city…
Dear North County neighbors
Do you want an oligarchy to rule the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin, where those who own the most acres get the most votes? If so, sign on to PRAAGS’ petition to create a water district, a one-acre/one-vote system. If you prefer a more representative form of groundwater government, support the efforts of PRO Water Equity…
Get back to decent wages
No, we are not a Third World country. As we move forward with the new health-care rules/regulations, the following needs to apply: 1) Provide employee with a decent working wage. 2) Provide employee with the insurance for employee, plus family members, regardless of total weekly hours. 3) Do not cut back on employee’s hours; provide…
Thanks, you lovely WOWies!
A big thank you to the organizers of Cal Poly’s WOW (Week of Welcome). Meade Canine Rescue enjoyed three days of visits from six groups of hardworking and enthusiastic students, happy to be in SLO County starting new chapters of their lives. They were organized (two junior team leaders per group), on time, capable, and…
Feel good about local services for homeless people
In reply to the letter by Rachel Hough (“Enough with the blaming,” Aug. 15), did it ever occur to you that a lot of homeless people want to be homeless? It is their chosen lifestyle. I spent three months at the Maxine Lewis shelter and another two-plus years in the Transitions-Mental Health program, so I…
Don’t settle for empty sexual calories
Please allow me to comment on views expressed by four not-so-bright adults in the Sept. 19 New Times “Street Talk” regarding legalizing prostitution. No! Prostitution should not be legalized! More is at stake than the convenience of some horny people. When women and children are kidnapped and forced to be whores, their civil liberties are…
3:10 to Bako
Like most whiny, entitled residents of San Luis Obispo, I’ve spent the better part of the last week holed up in my plagues of Egypt shelter with all nine seasons of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Small-minded realists are inclined to insist there were only six, but I contend if you mix in just the right…
Long live wrestling
In February 2013, the wrestling and sporting world was dumbfounded when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) removed the sport of wrestling as one of the “core 25 sports” in the Olympic Games. Wrestling—along with eight other sports—was being forced to plead its way back into the Olympic games lineup. The morning I learned of this…
Save our Central Coast
Editorialize the sunrise. Learn our latest and always California lifestyle trend. Go back to Disneyland or Silicon-Implant Valley and into your sunset. Speaking of the dry heat, why don’t all the 250-plus-or-minus good Christian vintners have their savior come back to the Central Coast and turn that wine back into a more valuable liquid: water?…
