VALERIE GILBERT | MARTHA GRAHAM | GEORGE MAJOR | DENA PRICE | JAC CRAWFORD
JournalPLUS JULY 2014
MAGAZINE OF THE CENTRAL COAST
ROGER WARNES
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Wow!! What a spectacular city and hilltop view!! Comfortable custom 3 bed, 2 1/2 bath home. In the city but with a country feel. Living room and kitchen have vaulted ceilings, many windows and is flooded with color and light. Four distinct levels. Private jacuzzi off master bd. Numerous Upgrades! Don’t miss this one! $695,000
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Inviting, Large 3 bedroom 2 bath home in the quiet neighborhood of Majorca Homes. Private gated courtyard, Large living, family and formal dining rooms boast high vaulted ceilings. Beautiful views looking out on the landscaped front yard. Large side paved area with gate for your ‘toys’ or dog run! Don’t miss seeing this lovely home! $334,000
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CONTENTS
Journal PLUS MAGAZINE OF THE CENTRAL COAST
The People, Community, and Business of Our Beautiful Central Coast ADDRESS
654 Osos Street San Luis Obispo California 93401
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JUDGE JAC CRAWFORD
PHONE 805.546.0609 E-MAIL slojournal@fix.net WEBSITE www.slojournal.com
EDITOR & PUBLISHER Steve Owens ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Erin Mott GRAPHIC DESIGNER Dora Mountain COPY EDITOR Susan Stewart PHOTOGRAPHER Tom Meinhold DISTRIBUTION Keith Malcomson, Kyle Owens
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GEORGE MAJOR
VALERIE GILBERT
ADVERTISING Jan Owens CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Susan Stewart, Natasha Dalton, Joseph Carotenuti, Dr. Julian Crocker, Sarah Hedger, Maggie Cox, Will Jones, Deborah Cash, Ruth Starr, Heather Young, Patti Taylor, Jan Marx, Roxanne Carr and Gail Pruitt. Mail subscriptions are available at $20 per year. Back issues are $2 each. Inquires concerning advertising or other information made by writing to Steve Owens, JOURNAL PLUS MAGAZINE, 654 Osos Street, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401. You can call us at 546-0609, our fax line is 546-8827, and our e-mail is slojournal@fix.net. View the entire magazine on our website at www.slojournal.com JOURNAL PLUS MAGAZINE is a free monthly distributed to over 600 locations throughout the Central Coast and is also available online at slojournal.com Editorial submissions are welcome but are published at the discretion of the publisher. Submissions will be returned if accompanied by a stamped self addressed envelope. No material published in the magazine can be reproduced without written permission. Opinions expressed in the byline articles are those of the writers and not necessarily those of the JOURNAL PLUS MAGAZINE. Cover photo by Tom Meinhold
PEOPLE 8 10 12 14 16 18
MARTHA GRAHAM ROGER WARNES GEORGE MAJOR JUDGE JAC CRAWFORD DENA PRICE NANCY REID
HOME & OUTDOOR 20 VALERIE GILBERT AND WIND POWER 24 FOOD / AT THE MARKET 26 SLO ART SCENE
COMMUNITY 28 29 30 32 34 36 41 46
OUR SCHOOLS—Dr. Julian Crocker CALL TO THE COLORS HISTORY CENTER HONORS HISTORY: The Book Club HOSPICE CORNER / CROSSWORD PUZZLE PALM STREET SLO Mayor, Jan Marx COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD OPEN SPACE—PISMO PRESERVE
BUSINESS
37 DOWNTOWN SLO What’s Happening 41 MORTGAGE FACTS AND FICTION
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Journal PLUS
A proud tradition of serving our community for over 30 years
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Gorgeous four bedroom, three bath home in highly desirable San Luis Obispo neighborhood. Great floor plan with lots of light. Located at the end of a cul-de-sac, this beauty is close to parks and shopping. $739,000 #3207
SAN LUIS OBISPO – So much charm
Expansive View of San Luis Mountain and Bishop Peak
SAN LUIS OBISPO – A great house with an oversized lot. Awesome updated backyard with professional landscaping. Three bedrooms and bamboo flooring in one of the bedrooms. A great house for entertaining and an extra sun room that adds additional square footage with an indoor/outdoor feel. Wood burning fireplace, on demand water heater, two car garage and close to parks and across the street from Laguna Lake. $639,000 #3235
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Located on a cul-de-sac, this 3 bedroom 3 bath home has magnificent views and a large 19,000 sq ft lot. Open kitchen with breakfast nook and center island, master suite on lower living level and beautiful outdoor patio for outside entertaining. Downstairs library/den that could be used as 4th bedroom. Views from almost every room, cathedral ceilings, oversized 2 car garage, skylights & wood flooring. $865,000 #3234
and potential with the 3 bedroom, 1 bath Mediterranean style home. The way the interior is designed leaves your imagination running wild with possibilities. Large rear fenced yard and deck. Detached 2 car garage with extra long driveway. $495,000 #3208
PASO ROBLES – Great Paso west side
location. Just a few blocks from downtown, two story three bedroom two bath home with large view deck and attached two car garage. Bring your imagination and bring this home to the next level. Great entry level home or investment property. $399,999 #3232
Home in Arroyo Grande’s Very Desirable East Side ARROYO GRANDE – Beautiful single level just
PASO ROBLES – Immaculate home on over
one acre with fantastic views and privacy! This home features 3 spacious bedrooms, 2 and a half baths, open living room, formal dining room, loads of natural light and a large yard. $465,000 #3219
minutes from shopping, schools and the beautiful Pacific Ocean! This charming home has a great floor plan that includes both a family and living room, generous sized bedrooms with large closets, and an updated kitchen with granite counter tops, new stainless steel appliances, built in table, and updated light fixtures and flooring. New interior paint throughout allows you to simply move right in! Covered patio in backyard provides the perfect place to BBQ or relax with a good book. Come see why Robin Circle is such a special place. $549,999 #3233
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Broad Street Village commercial space. Development has grown into a very professional enclave located close to shopping center with business support, local coffee shop, wine bar and only minutes to the downtown business and shopping district. $194,000 #3192
For more information on these and other Real Estate Group of SLO listings call us at
805.541.2888
962 Mill Street • San Luis Obispo, California 93401 • www.RealEstateGroup.com
From the publisher
“
What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. JOSEPH ADDISON
”
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805-541-5800 to schedule an appointment NEW PATIENTS WELCOME!
O
ver the last 20 years publishing this magazine we have received thousands of comments and photos from locals and visitors alike. We always enjoy a photo with our magazine from exotic places. A couple of years ago we received a photo and note from a couple from Perth, Australia. They were traveling across the U.S. and picked up our magazine at the train station. After the trip they took the time to let us know that they considered our publication the best they had read in America. It made my day. This last month Deborah Cash (photo left) sent us a photo and note from Baja, Mexico. Another happy day. Thank you to all who have taken the time to send us a positive note and photo.
In this month’s issue we feature three men and three women who make a difference on the Central Coast, beginning with our cover story on Roger Warnes. Roger has become an icon in our runner’s world. You’ll enjoy his story and the other five inside. We also feature Valerie Gilbert and her quest to make wind power an effective form of green energy. Through wind power she can improve indoor air quality and cut building maintenance costs. Finally, July is filled with great events happening on the Central Coast. Three of our favorites are The Mid-State Fair, The Renaissance Festival and Festival Mozaic. Attend one or attend them all ... you won’t be disappointed. More information is inside. Enjoy the magazine,
FAMILY, COSMETIC, AND IMPLANT DENTISTRY
567 MARSH STREET · DOWNTOWN SLO
RyanRossDDS.com
Steve Owens
COMING UP AT THE
PERFORMING ARTS CENTER Beauty and the Beast July 11 - 12 • 7 p.m. • July 13 • 2 p.m. July 18 - 19 • 7 p.m. • July 20 • 2 p.m. Alex & Faye Spanos Theatre Presented by Kelrik Productions
Margaret Cho July 12 • 8 p.m. Christopher Cohan Center Presented by GALA
Festival Mozaic presents Beethoven & Schumann July 26 • 8 p.m. Christopher Cohan Center Presented by Festival Mozaic
Cal Poly Arts 2014-15 Season Subscriptions Available Call the Performing Arts Center Ticket Office at 805-756-4TIX (4849) for more information.
WWW.PACSLO.ORG | 805-756-4TIX (4849)
PEOPLE
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martha graham
Martha Graham photographing headstones at the SLO Mission Cemetery
...discovering histories; unraveling mysteries By Susan Stewart
M
ost people look forward to traveling more when they retire. Not Martha Graham. When she retired nine years ago, she couldn’t wait for all that extra time to do what she loves best: Helping others discover their histories and unravel their mysteries through researching genealogical resources, digging up hard-tofind facts, and then organizing and recording them for others to use. She’s so good at it, the San Luis Obispo History Center recently honored her with a Special Recognition Award for 2014.
“I guess all those Nancy Drew books paid off,” she remarked, admitting there is a definite detective quality in the work she does. Currently, Graham is the Chair of Publications for the Genealogy Society (SLOCGS), the Librarian for the SLO Genealogy Room in the City/County Library, and sits on the SLOCGS Board of Directors. Her cadre of 15-20 volunteers keeps the library room open three days a week, following up on family history research requests, and working with other library staff. She also teaches free monthly computer classes on beginning genealogy. And finally, Graham is the U.S. Genweb Project Coordinator for California,
and also for three counties in New Jersey, three in Indiana, and one in Pennsylvania. Born in Los Angeles, and raised in cities and towns all over Southern California, Graham lost her father at age 4 and was raised by her mother and stepfather, who was career Navy. That meant being separated from her paternal grandparents, moving around a lot, and feeling generally rootless. As an adult, Graham held a variety of jobs before finally returning to college when her three children were grown. She earned her BS in Human Development in 1988 from Cal Poly with a minor in Psychology. She retired from a 20-year career with Rite-Aid. Explaining her devotion to the work she now does, Graham said, “Because of the early death of my father, I had no solid information on my paternal family. I wanted to know more about them, and that led me to begin tracing my ancestors.” Joining a genealogical society was the next logical step. Graham said her childhood taught her how to find things. As a kid, she asked lots of questions but got few answers. “So I learned how to think outside the box in order to find information; I learned how to look in places one wouldn’t ordinarily think to look.” For example, Graham has discovered that investigating different spellings, looking for initials on census and probate records, birth and death certificates can lead to the discovery of women’s maiden names, or the missing link in an unsolved ancestral line. “Things get lost in the fine print,” she says. Walking our county’s cemeteries is a revealing and valuable part of her job. “I like the peace,” she says, “and visiting old friends that have gone from this life.” She also enjoys the discovery of information in old records, and her work has helped local cemetery managers to update and digitize their records.
Martha Graham’s High School Graduation photo, 1956 J U L Y
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Long before Ancestry.com came along (a for-profit business getting high exposure on television through clever advertising), the LDS church started Family Search, amassing records and offering help to people searching for their pasts. And for half a century, a local woman, Joyce Bayless, has been researching and gathering data. Now 92 years old, Bayless Journal PLUS
is still Graham’s most treasured mentor. Graham encourages people to seek out websites and research entities like GenWeb that are free of charge before spending lots of money on Ancestry.com. “There are so many surprises,” she says. “I never know what I’ll find.” Happy (or sometimes unhappy) facts and poignant discoveries happen all the time. And Graham enjoys the camaraderie among her own kind—those who, like her, love discovering facts others have a hard time finding. Graham’s reaction to the honor she recently received was typically humble. “I am just a facilitator,” she said. “Were it not for the great group of SLOCGS volunteers, the preservation work would not get done.” One of her own mentees is a retired Cal Fire man who works with Graham. Recently, he gave her the highest form of compliment when he announced he would be volunteering to work with a Heritage Project in his ancestor’s native home in Mexico. “I’m following in your footsteps,” he said. When she’s not working, Graham likes gardening, crafts, and—you guessed it—reading mysteries. As a girl, Graham liked Nancy Drew; today her favorite writers are Robert B. Parker, M.C. Beaton, Craig Johnson, and Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. And she does do a little traveling, though usually it’s to Salt Lake City for research. As Executive Coach Terry Musch often says, “Our life’s purpose and truest vocation lies in that sweet spot between what we love most and what we do best.” If that is accurate, then Martha Graham is living her life’s purpose in grand form. She loves what she does, and she’s darned good at it!
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PEOPLE
roger warnes
running and swimming coach
san luis obispo marathon hall of famer By Will Jones
O
n April 27th, 2014, the San Luis Obispo Marathon inducted coach Roger Warnes of the San Luis Obispo Roadrunners Running and Triathlon Club into its Hall of Fame for having “contributed significantly to the running community of San Luis Obispo through competition, initiative, generosity in education, coaching and personal passion for the sport.” Although unknown to many, if not for a debilitating running injury Roger might not have turned to coaching and ultimately shared his Hall of Fame honor with previous inductees Brian Waterbury, Pete Dorn and Greg Hind. The Warnes family moved to San Luis Obispo from Arroyo Grande in 1960 when Roger was five. His father worked for Myron Graham, “handling the paint aspect of Myron’s business, Graham’s Paint and Art, and eventually bought the paint side of the business about 1965. My dad’s business, Warnes Paints, was located where Boo Boo Records is today.” Roger’s parents emigrated from England on the Queen Mary in 1952. “They got off the boat with about $150. For seven years after the war my parents lived in what they called ‘rooms,’ boarding with other families because of the housing shortage after the bombings. When they arrived in America my mother cried in a grocery store because she hadn’t seen that much food in one place, due to rationing, in a long time. They worked hard, and I guess you can say they did pretty well. They lived the American dream.”
Roger started running when he was thirteen to get in shape for playing baseball, his eventual sport at San Luis Obispo High School. “By the time I was sixteen I realized I was not a bad runner. At seventeen I met Rod MacDonald, a runner at SLOHS and fellow class of 1974 graduate who changed my whole thinking about sports. I was running on the track one day and Rod said, ‘Why are you running in circles? Come and run with us.’ I did and ended up running with some of the other guys like Ed Thoma and Roger Dilts.” MacDonald set the mile record at SLOHS and went on to run nearly thirty marathons. He passed away in 2010. Although he continued to play baseball, Roger trained hard with the intention of walking on as a runner at Cal Poly. Coach Brian Waterbury at SLOHS entered him in the Junior National Cross Country meet, but he severely injured his Achilles tendon, which effectively ended his running career. Ironically, one of the best coaches in his sport never competed in a high school or college race. Roger logged all of his workouts, and in 1974-75 he ran 5312 miles, succumbing to the wisdom at the time that distance runners had to run well over 100 miles a week to improve and succeed. His experience with overtraining and the injury that followed contributed to his understanding of how to coach. “In those days, that was the standard. If you wanted to run competitively, that’s what you had to do. That’s what everyone thought. I paid the price. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss that feeling that comes from running. I wish I could still run.”
Group photo of the Roadrunners on a workout day. J U L Y
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Journal PLUS
PEOPLE A candid of Roger timing runners.
If Rod MacDonald inspired Roger to run fast, it was Brian Waterbury who initially inspired his interest in coaching. Waterbury, who coached and taught math at San Luis Obispo until his death from melanoma in 2003, was a pioneer distance coach and runner on the Central Coast. Family, friends, students and the entire running community filled the San Luis Obispo High School gym for Brian’s memorial service. The annual Morro Rock to Cayucos Pier run is named after him. “We used to go into his room before school and at lunch time and he was the guy with new magazines like Runner’s World and Track and Field News. He’d talk and run with us. He had a summer camp at Hume Lake that we went to. He was the greatest guy to run with and to talk to about running. He tried to talk me out of the hundred mile weeks.” Roger studied physical education at Cal Poly and started coaching in 1976. “Steve Henderson of the SLO Recreation Department wanted to start a running class and club. He asked me if
I wanted to coach and I accepted. We met four days a week at the Laguna Fitness Trail set up by Dr. Paul Spangler. I was twenty. It was the beginning of the running boom, when all of the road races started, when people started running for health and fitness.” Named the SLO Recreation Department Roadrunners, initially there were about ten runners in the group. After graduating from Poly, Roger spent eighteen months in New Zealand where he taught, coached and learned from other distance coaches. He started the Roadrunners again when he returned, separate from the Recreation Department, and he has been coaching consistently ever since, mixed with teaching physical education, and, for eight years, working as a special agent for the Department of Defense at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Roger started teaching swimming in 1992, and now his club has about 120 members. Some of his runners, like Cathy Agler and Sue O’Sullivan, have been with him for over twenty-five years. Having learned from his own serious injury, his philosophy begins with “First do no harm. Coach them up, not wear them down. Overtraining is the source of most
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injuries. I believe in training people to run for life. I’m not about riding the big comet in the sky and then disappearing from the sport.” In addition to his work with the club, Roger is the head distance coach for track and the assistant cross country coach at Atascadero High School. He and his wife, Paula, have been married for thirty years. Their three children, Katie, and twins Cody and Kelly, are working on their college degrees. Roger has great respect for other running coaches in the area, like Mark Conover at Poly, Brian Locher at Cuesta and Steve Boaz at SLOHS, and also for pioneers like Stan Rosenfield, who started the San Luis Distance Club. “San Luis Obispo is a great running community. I miss the old-timers, but they started something that I get to continue. It was humbling to receive the Hall of Fame induction and I hope to be on the committee that nominates others in the future. San Luis Obispo may be the happiest place in America, but it also ranks high as one of the endurance training capitals of America. I hope the entire community will continue to support one of our finest traditions.”
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July 23, 2014 (Wednesday) San Luis Obispo Country Club 255 Country Club Drive San Luis Obispo 5:30pm - 7:00pm
Banners for Roger and Brian Waterbury at the Hall of Fame Ceremony.
To reserve your seat, call 1 (800) 483-6387 or visit SierraVistaRegional.com
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PEOPLE
Lds mission in ukraine
George Major “ukraine will always be a part of my heart” By Natasha Dalton
L
eaving the familiar behind is at the heart of traveling. It’s especially so when you’re going on your first trip abroad at 19.
For George Major, the first surprise came even before he packed his suitcases: the letter from LDS, assigning him to a mission in Donetsk, Ukraine, stated that speaking Russian was a requirement. Russian? “There’s only one Ukrainian-speaking area in Ukraine, and that’s Lviv,” George soon learned. In Donetsk, as well as the other two LDS Ukrainian missions (in Kyiv and Dnepropetrovsk), everyone speaks Russian. “I picked up a few words of Ukrainian (everybody does), but in all honesty, where I was, they didn’t speak Ukrainian,” George explains. After three months of training in Utah, he found himself in a group of ten young missionaries trying out their Russian on the streets of Donetsk. “It was incredibly hard at first,” George admits. Mormon missionaries work in pairs, and that’s also the way they’re housed. Walking for the first time into an apartment that would become his home for the next two years, George was pleased to discover that the place was nice and comfortable. The only odd thing was the comment from the church trainer that at the end of the week the apartment might not have hot water. Not knowing that municipal authorities in countries with central heating turn off hot water in summer for a few days of mandatory inspections and repair, George found the warning to be “kind of weird.”
Seeing tipsy men on city streets was a bit weird as well. When newlyarrived missionaries first stepped out of their apartment building, a drunk approached George with a hug. “Oh no,” George thought. But on that day he met some perfectly nice people as well. One of them even spoke English. “It was a miracle,” George felt: Not many in the outskirts of Donetsk speak English. Donetsk, a big industrial city in the eastern part of Ukraine, stunned George by its size and layout. In the US the tallest buildings tend to be located downtown and typically serve as headquarters for large companies. In Eastern Europe it’s the suburbs where tall buildings are clustered, forming blocks of large apartment complexes. At first, this slightly run-down city jungle, betraying the country’s current economic struggles, appeared pretty intimidating. But behind its castle-like walls, George found warm and friendly people. On that very first day in Donetsk, George visited a family living in a two-bedroom apartment, and everything about that place, from its furnishings to its smell, seemed strange, unusual. “These are going to be two interesting years,” he thought. “But, from that point it only got better,” George says now. What seemed odd at first became normal life. Today, George’s feels very emotionally attached to Ukraine. “I feel incredibly spoilt here,” he says. “We all have too many things, things that are completely unnecessary and extra. Ukrainians got it right: nobody needs so much stuff.” George says that even for him—a friendly and outgoing person with many interests and talents—typical missionaries’ techniques like stopping people on the streets or knocking on their doors weren’t always helpful.
George Major in Kharkov J U L Y
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“These very often turned into a very confrontational situation,” he admits. After hearing: “Why are you bothering me?” and “Stop fol-
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All year long, George witnessed changes in people’s attitudes brought about by political and economic instability. He recalls a conversation with his friend Sasha, a history professor from Kharkov, who was lamenting Ukraine’s growing problem with alcoholism. “We were sitting in his car, and he said, referring to a group of the drunkards hanging out outside a bar: ‘30 years ago it wasn’t so. In the Soviet Union, at this time of the day everyone would’ve been at work.’” “Some began to drink more; but the others became more accepting of us,” George observes. “It was an amazing transformation: people started looking at their lives and saying, ‘You know, I could die tomorrow.’”
View of the new walkway on the river in Donetsk
lowing me!”—he came to a conclusion that approaching strangers to discuss religion just “wasn’t the social norm.” But “being nice” and doing something that people didn’t expect you to do worked. George recalls a very cold December morning, when he and his partner helped a woman with heavy luggage to get to the nearest Metro stop. When they first noticed her, she was moving very slowly: the bags in her hands were wearing her down. The missionaries offered their help, but the woman wouldn’t hear of it. Eventually, the young men simply grabbed her bags and carried them to the Metro’s entrance.
George’s main city was Donetsk, but his mission also covered three other oblasts [as provinces are called in Russian], so he travelled as far as Kharkov and Sumy. “And in the Donetsk area we also had Lugansk, Mariupol, Makeyevka and Gorlovka, and were about to open in Slavyansk,” George says, naming the cities that have become the epicenter of confrontation. He was in Makeyevka on the day when president Yanukovich was ousted, and the unrest began to spread. “The media is making it look as if everything in Ukraine is up in flames,” George says. “Makeyevka is right outside of Donetsk. I was there right when the administration building was occupied by the protesters. I was on the street, I rode the bus, we all looked at that building and nothing much was going on there.” The same seemed to be true for Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. “When I was in Kyiv, I was told: ‘Don’t go to Maidan’ [the square where protests were held]. But then nothing was really happening there. I went all around it, and everything looked normal.”
“Then, she wouldn’t stop saying, ‘Thank you,’” George smiles. “We’ve got to talk to her later,” he adds. “I’ve noticed that people don’t expect help, but when you give it, they’re incredibly grateful.”
“It’s sad that the media makes things more sensational than they are,” George says, “Because people then interpret them as something really scary.”
And they’re quick to offer help, too. You can easily get a person’s attention if you simply ask for directions, George knows now. “Not only they’d tell you where the street is, they’d walk you there.”
When the interim government decided to move protesters out of the Donetsk’s administrative building, church authorities told missionaries to leave the area. “They wanted us out ‘now.’ Not tomorrow, not the next day—now,” says George, remembering the day he had to flee Donetsk. Two days after his sudden departure troops and armored vehicles began to pour into the city.
George’s family believes it has some Slavic roots going all the way back to the first Russian tsar Vladimir, who ruled from Kiev—and that might help to explain why at times he was taken for a Russian or an Ukrainian. “Or they’d think that I came from one of the Baltic nations,” George laughs, pleased to think that his Russian could fool some people. “It’s interesting to compare Ukrainians to Americans,” George says. “The idea of capitalism is instilled in us so deeply that we understand it instinctively. Any waitress here knows that if she smiles she’ll have a better chance for a higher tip. In Ukraine, even though it’s technically a capitalist country now, that notion is pretty suppressed.”
Leaving Ukraine behind was hard. “It will always be a part of my heart,” he says. George plans to study medicine, but wants to keep up his Russian and visit Russia or Ukraine in the future. “I’ve made some very good friends there,” he says.
“At a store, Americans say to each other, ‘Hi, how are you?’ This friendliness is common, but it’s superficial,” George continues. “We’re quick to call people friends, even when there’s no deeper connection. With Ukrainians, it’s just not that. If you’re a cashier, and you’re having a bad day, then you don’t smile: you don’t know these people; it’s just a business interaction. Nobody expects a conversation.” “But once you get to know someone, you truly invest in them,” George adds. “People suddenly open up. You reach the very depth of knowledge and understanding of their life; you hear stories about all these amazing things that happen; you have all these wonderful experiences of friendship—but you get there only after you break their shell.”
Maidan in January J U L Y
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honorable jac crawford, judge, superior court of ca., county of san luis obispo Working to keep justice efficient and accessible in uncertain times By Deborah Cash
“Be Prepared.” Having served years ago as a Scoutmaster of his son’s Boy Scout troop, Judge Jac Crawford is well familiar with the organization’s motto and believes those words, now as then, continue to prove valuable—including when it comes to ensuring the viability of the state Superior Court system, locally and throughout California. “Right now, the proposed 2014-15 governor’s budget allowance for the entire state court system is recommended to be supplemented by an additional 160 million dollars,” Crawford said, noting that there are efforts under way to counteract the proposal. “Even at that rate, we’re treading water,” he said, emphasizing that without the bump in funding, a shortfall is inevitable. While Crawford says the local court system is already preparing to go to bat for its funding needs during budget talks, he also said he feels it’s important to illustrate publicly that the courts, like any business or any state budget line item, are subject to cuts, cutbacks, takeaways and surprises. He said he welcomes the opportunity to talk about how community services and programs could be impacted should the dollars not materialize. As a rule, most people probably don’t often think about the state’s Superior court system (that includes the SLO central court downtown and the Paso Robles court where Crawford performs most of his judicial duties) unless they have to use it—but they expect it to be there and functioning efficiently when they do. So, for example, if program cuts create a backlog of civil cases facing hearing dates of up to five years away—and those cases become subject to possible dismissal under the statute of limitations—the impact on all the parties involved in the matter could be a “real burden,” according to Crawford. Nor would this be the first time state funding fell short, “We’ve dealt with this problem for five years now,” Crawford said. “We’ve cut 19 positions—mostly through attrition—and closed the Grover Beach
courthouse, sending all south county litigation to San Luis, creating travel and other additional costs and inconvenience. Crawford pointed out the impacts of the closure also affected the bottom line for a number of merchants that depended on the customers the court’s presence provided. “I know that businesses in that area have suffered,” Crawford sympathized, “but we’re hoping to repurpose the Grover Beach facility into another use and bring it back to life.” Perhaps not a courthouse, but ideas include developing a facility for converting the court’s system to electronic case management—a major undertaking and sorely needed. “It will change the way we do business,” he said, “but will save a lot of money in the long run.” Meanwhile, court administrative services aren’t sitting on their hands. They’re developing strategies to meet the challenges head on including assembling an effective management team and organizing an early summer visit to the state capitol to lobby for the court’s funding by presiding judge Dodie Harman. The good news is that locally, anyway, the sky’s not falling. “Even with the hits we’ve taken in the past few years, we’ve prudently managed our business here,” Crawford said. “In L.A. County, they’ve shuttered 34 court rooms with the impact being felt most heavily on civil departments.” For now, Crawford’s desire is to create access to justice for everyone—even though, as he points out, “criminal cases have priority”— and to keep the public apprised of developments in the local system. Crawford, who possesses a cool, calm and approachable temperament— and an obvious passion for his life’s work—says he understands how the budgetary difficulties came about and empathizes with the situation the Governor is in. “The economy in California was greatly affected by the
Jac and Wendy in Rome J U L Y
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says one of the greatest delights of his career unfolded. “I am so proud of my involvement there,” he said. “I helped set it up (he was assistant to County Counsel and good friend Jim Lindholm who, sadly, passed in 2007) and it was very fulfilling to be in on the ground floor, working with the county supervisors and having a role in county management.” In 2006, Crawford was approached to fill a vacancy on the bench; his appointment by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was finalized that year. Describing one activity that was forefront on his docket over the past few years, Crawford was quick to name the highly publicized Guth/Yaguda Financial case where “hundreds of people lost a lot of money.” Crawford sentenced Karen Guth to 12 years and her son Josh Yaguda to eight years in prison, but “it’s not over yet,” he said. “There’s still the management of distributing assets through a receivership to the victims. As a practical matter, it’s still ongoing,” he said.
Jac with a big catch at 9-years-old.
real estate business a few years back,” he said. “I think the improving economy will solve it all in the end but meantime, there’re IOUs issued to the school system that must be paid. The justice system will to have to wait for recovery of financial health and it’s not just us. I can’t offer a prediction as to how all this will affect us here but I can say we have a very cooperative staff; we’re looking to save money and be functional. While we’re watching and waiting, we’ll do a good job with the resources we have.” Crawford came to the business of law and his eventual hizhonorship influenced by his attorney father, also named Jac. (His name’s spelling is for JAC, his grandfather’s initials.) Born to Jac and Velma and raised (mostly) in San Diego, Crawford graduated from Kearny High School and then, attaining his degree from University of California at San Diego, continued on to graduate from University of San Diego with a juris doctor in 1972. Fortuitously, about this same time, a friend introduced the law school grad to his future wife Wendy and in 1974, they moved to west Los Angeles where Crawford began a legal career as a tort defense attorney in a private firm; Wendy worked as an accountant for a restaurant. A position in the SLO District Attorney’s office brought the Crawfords and their infant son to the area in 1974 where they settled down in Los Osos and welcomed a baby girl into the family not long after. In 1977, Crawford had the opportunity to join the newly formed SLO County Counsel’s office where he
When not spending time with his family that now includes three grandchildren, and enjoying his home in Arroyo Grande where he and Wendy moved in 2008, Crawford says travel has been a memorable and enjoyable part of
Jac’s High School photo
life, particularly Italy and France. He did say that nowadays, however, the adventure of it all “isn’t what it used to be. I think I’d really like to do some travelling by car.” Which, if you think about it, road trips do have their advantages … as long you’re prepared.
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Elder Placement Professionals, Inc (805)546-8777 www.elderplacementprofessionals.com J U L Y
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PEOPLE
dena price:
collaboration with a cause By Heather Young
A
lthough Dena Price’s business and email address is “Dena with a Price,” that certainly does not describe her in the least. She opens her home several times a year to nonprofits and to host her own fundraiser, Collaboration with a Cause.
“What I do is put on a luncheon—I invite a bunch of people [and they invite people],” Price said. The luncheon includes the work of a featured artist, who chooses a nonprofit for the proceeds to go to. The artist and a representative from the nonprofit both give short presentations and 20 percent from the artist’s sales, the luncheon and Price’s own sales go to the selected nonprofit. “I just wanted to do something with our place and I really love art,” Price said. Collaboration with a Cause started when Price and her grandmother visited artist Steve Kalar’s mom, Fern. “Fern had some beautiful Hollyhocks,” Price said, and said as much to Fern, who then gave her some Hollyhock seeds. Price planted those flowers and started emailing photos of them to Kalar who started a series of paintings, “My Mother’s Garden,” from those photos. He sent one of those paintings to Price, which prompted her to bring her friends, and their friends, together for a catered luncheon in the barn that she and her husband, Steve, built in Edna Valley. The luncheon is catered by Ventana Grill in Pismo Beach, and includes wine for a donation and desserts from SLO Sugar Rush—with all proceeds going to the featured nonprofit. The proceeds of the first Collaboration for a Cause went to The Link. That inaugural luncheon was held in November 2013. The second, featuring George Karamitsos, was held in February. The most recent was held on May with artist Gay Melody Sullivan. Price said she is looking to have another fundraiser luncheon in October or November, but won’t start planning it until the fall, although she has an artist in mind.
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Steve and Dena Price A special event at the barn.
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The couple met in April 2008 after they were set up by one of Price’s customers. Their first date was to a Kiwanis fundraiser. It wasn’t long before they married. Price also has a party rental business, Small Price Party Rentals, where she rents out linens, glassware, vases, votive holders, etc. Items that she had purchased for her and Steve’s wedding. “I used to loan [the items] out, but people weren’t treating them well,” Price said. “So I decided to rent it out for a small price and give 20 percent to a charity of the renter’s choice.”
Steve and Dena Price, Eve Opinion, George Karamitsos and Chris Aho of the Food Bank Coalition.
“I don’t feel like I’m doing anything special,” Price said. “I’m just using a skill that I have—communicating to all my friends. Hopefully, it will inspire others.” Until then, however, she won’t be idle, she has non-stop houseguests this summer, some of them overlapping the others. Price and her husband, Steve, will host an EF student for a few weeks and an EF student they hosted in 2009 will come back from France to visit. But it doesn’t stop there. Price has friends coming to visit and then the Prices will head to Italy for a cousin’s wedding. In addition to hosting the fundraiser luncheons and other events for nonprofits, such as a Kiwanis Appreciation Night, the Prices have a vacation rental by owner. The VRBO allows them to rent out part of their home to visitors, and comply with all rules such as giving 11 percent to the county. They bought their property in December 2009. It was vacant land at the time, so they built their home, which is a barn. “We built the barn because the plans came included with the purchase of the property,” Price said. The only changes they had to make were to bring it up to code. They moved into their new home in 2011. Since then, they’ve planted many plants—both edible and decorative—and added chickens, rabbits, tortoises, dogs and cats to their family.
A view inside the barn. J U L Y
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Nancy Reid
A woman with a dream By Ruth Starr
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ancy Reid, operations supervisor for biological sciences at Cal Poly, has had a dream for 25 of the 35 years she’s worked at the university. Nancy’s office on the ground floor of the Fisher Science building faces a piece of land that has been unimproved since the day she started work. Her dream is the proposed building of an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant pathway with a terrace and garden beside the walkways. At the completion of Fisher Hall in 1978, the year Nancy graduated from Cal Poly, an exhausted construction budget left little support for landscaping. Junipers, as a temporary, cost-effective solution, were planted to cover approximately 15,000 square feet between the administration parking lot and the south-east side of Fisher Hall. Over the intervening 34 years, the junipers have struggled to survive in the poor, rocky soil while invasive weeds have grown abundantly. Landscaping staff routinely face the difficult job of hand weeding in an effort to maintain this area. Students, seeking a path to the center of campus, have carved a trail through the
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juniper, across the parking lot, down the lawn and over a low retaining wall. Since the addition of a walkway through the north mountain dorms in 2005, hundreds of students living in the Cerro Vista Apartments have added to the multitude that daily use this hazardous path as the most convenient route from the crosswalk at Mountain Lane to the main part of campus. The proposed science garden path and terrace will benefit the campus community by not only creating useful space from an inaccessible, concealed corner near the campus core, but more importantly, the path will provide a safe, beautiful, ADA compliant walkway connecting the northern campus housing areas to the center of campus, replacing a hazardous, student-carved dirt path. The terrace, in Nancy’s vision, will also create an outdoor gathering area for campus constituents. When used in conjunction with the adjacent conference room in Fisher Hall, this area will accommodate large groups for special events. The project will enhance and beautify this visitor- and student-centric area with a drought tolerant landscape and science-inspired art supporting the scientific component of every student’s curriculum.
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on seven acres where animals became a big part of her life. Her family property included horses, pigs, goats, chickens, ducks, cats, and dogs. Her mother was very tolerant and baby animals were always in the house when they didn’t feel well. She has often rescued animals herself—recently losing her beloved dog Lenny, a SLO Animal Shelter adoption. She continues to care for her dog, Duchess, two cats and a cockatiel. Voted Outstanding Staff of the Year in 2010, Nancy graduated from Cal Poly in 1978. She took her last biology final on her second day on the job. Over the years, Nancy has enjoyed her position at Cal Poly. Being in the Biology Department was exactly what she hoped to be doing. Science, for her, is understanding how things work. That understanding is what attracted her to the field.
The concept, according to Nancy, has no down side, and will improve the campus on a number of levels. The comprehensive redevelopment of this area will create two welcoming, functional spaces. The science garden path will address the safety issues by replacing the dirt trail with a well-lit, ADA compliant walkway through the upper level of the area of the junipers and across the lawn. A large science-inspired art installation will anchor and define the beginning of the walk while scholarly quotes embedded in the walkway will remind pedestrians of scientific progress and innovation. The end of the walkway will arrive at the intersection of the four science buildings—Fisher Hall, Science North, the Baker Center, and Faculty Offices East—at Polyview Drive. Native, drought tolerant landscaping will reduce erosion from the site and decrease the sediment reaching Stenner Creek. Suitable areas will be dedicated to plants with medicinal value and for those that attract and provide specific habitat for local birds and insects.
Nancy has two children, Audrey 24, who graduated with a Master’s Degree from Boston University and Wesley, 22 who is now in Columbus, Mississippi, after graduating from the Air Force Academy. Wes is currently in pilot training to fill his commitment with the Air Force. Nancy is looking forward to the day her dream of the Science Garden Path will be an integral part of Cal Poly. “I hope I can see this come to fruition,” says Nancy. “Looking out my window all these years has culminated in the seeds of this win-win project.” All things result from ideas. Nancy hopes her idea will blossom into reality in the near future.
Apple Pie Contest!
Nancy has the conceptual drawings already prepared. The next step is to get working drawings from a landscape architect. She estimates that the project will cost somewhere between $300,000 and $400,000 to complete. Born and raised in Orange County, Nancy’s move to San Luis Obispo was one she relishes. When Nancy was young she lived
Who makes the best apple pie on the central coast? We’ll find out Tuesday, July 22nd, when the Sands Inn & Suites presents the 8th annual apple pie baking contest at the California Mid-State Just bring your apple pie to the Main Administration building at the Fair anytime before 5:00p on Tuesday, July 22nd to enter - it’s FREE - and there are lots of prizes for the winners!
www.midstatefair.com 1-800-909-FAIR J U L Y
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VALERIE GILBERT: WIND POWER By Natasha Dalton “A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.” —James Dent
Valerie Gilbert is one of those people who doesn’t settle. Her dream of getting an engineering degree took her from her native Rochester, NY to San Luis Obispo, CA—and was more than two decades in the making. But when she graduated from Cal Poly’s Engineering Program with a focus on Building, her diploma became a compliment to her extensive work experience. “In my family, we have a history of picking up degrees later in life,” Gilbert says. Her parents got divorced when she was 11, and—to support her three children—Valerie’s mother went back to school. Her degree in Computer Programming helped her trade her telephone operator’s job for a more lucrative position as a computer specialist. As for Valerie, who was also interested in computers and science, the road to her professional success began with the Air Force. Valerie was disappointed when the Air Force Academy rejected her on the grounds of being a woman (fortunately for the younger generations of women, this ban has since been lifted); but, while in the Air Force, she was able to earn an Associate’s degree in Electronics, which later on led to a comfortable civilian career as a technical writer. It’s strange how the most important things in our lives happen in our absence. In Valerie’s case, it was the Challenger’s tragedy, and the subsequent changes in policies around shuttle launches, that caused Valerie to leave her job at the Johnson Space Center in Texas. “Challenger’s loss wasn’t the first space program catastrophe, but it was the first shuttle catastrophe,” Valerie says. “It was a big deal,” which shut down funding and urged Valerie to look for another job within the company. Moving to Newport Beach was Valerie’s first attempt to settle down in California, but the job involved work on portable missile launchers,
2890 S. Higuera, San Luis Obispo Located next to San Luis Cemetery
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and Valerie soon realized that working on kill rations wasn’t really her thing. After a few years in California, she moved to East Germany to try her hand at reconnaissance. She was in the middle of her training when the Berlin Wall fell, bringing down the old world order, and Valerie’s new job prospects. Still, this historic shift in global politics was good news for Valerie, after all. The world was entering the time of the computer boom, with big institutions beginning to invest heavily in telecommunications. Repurposing its knowhow, the recon company turned to telecom, and Valerie, once again, found herself working on the cutting edge of technology. “Facilitating teleconferences between clinics and medical colleges, digitizing data—it was telemedicine; it was all new, and I got to be a part of it,” Valerie says.
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For 13 years she traveled from university to university, “connecting them to a hub, which, in turn, would be connected to a bigger hub in Saudi Arabia and provide assistance to some of those more difficult medical cases.”
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But once all the hardware was installed, the job became less exciting: “It was more maintenance now,” Valerie realized—not a thing that could keep her interested.
Cremation Care
She moved to Dayton, Ohio to take a job as a temperature applications engineer. “I’d never worked at a manufacturing company before,” was Valerie’s reasoning, “It was completely new and interesting.” In Dayton, Valerie bought a 100-year-old house that needed work, and trying to learn how to do stuff put her in touch with people involved in Habitat for Humanity. Soon, she was working for them. “I abso-
HOME/OUTDOOR lutely loved it,” Valerie remembers. “They were focused on giving women exposure to building and construction.” The group can probably take some credit for Valerie’s decision to go back to school. After obtaining another Associate’s degree—this time in Civil Engineering—Valerie applied for a Structural Engineering Program at Cal Poly. “This program was only offered at 13 colleges in the country,” Valerie says. “I was fortunate to get accepted.” By then she was 45. “It was one of the most painful things that I’ve ever done,” Valerie says now. “50% dropped out. It was incredibly hard, but I got through it.” Today, she runs Energy Omelette, a company that helps its customers harvest the natural powers of the wind to improve indoor air quality and cut building maintenance costs. The need for such services became evident to Valerie during her stint as Energy Solutions Manager at PG&E. “Offering incentives to construction projects doesn’t sound like a difficult job, but it turned out to be,” Valerie says about her work with PG&E. “Making smart adjustments at the early stages of the project, when you only have sketches, is the best time to improve the efficiency of the buildings and qualify their owners for rebates.” The problem is that people usually hear about the incentives when the process is well under way, and re-design becomes problematic. “But even small changes can make a difference,” Valerie says. “For example, everyone wants a window, but that’s where you have a lot of heat transfer. Still, you can keep your building cool by reducing the number of windows on the east and west side, where you get harsh sun. Using double panes, heat-resisting glass, tinting reduces heat absorption (and the cost of the building’s maintenance) even further.”
Gilbert’s goal is to help her customers maximize the effect of natural factors in order to improve comfort and air quality within a building. Californians have accepted solar as a great renewable source of energy, but the wonders of wind haven’t been embraced as widely. Gilbert wants to change that. She is a passionate advocate of natural ventilation and conversion, and is confident that most buildings, from small family residences to large offices, can do away with their airconditioners. Living what she preaches, she shuns energy-consuming appliances in favor of cooling techniques. Modern designs favor flexible air vents that allow for air circulation. Another crucial factor is the correct orientation of the building, especially in the ranch-type homes. “Your long axis should be oriented from east to west,” Gilbert insists. “Consider solar exposure and solar panels. If your site is in a wooded area, maybe you don’t want to cut your trees. A shaded porch is wonderful in summertime, when breeze kicks in. In Paso’s most miserable afternoon hours, when it’s 110 outside, temperatures in my house don’t exceed 78-80°F. To me, it’s bearable. Turn on your fan and, as you’ll walk in from the outside, you’ll feel great.”
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doors and walls inside older homes also help with the airflow. Valerie encourages her clients to consider net zero buildings, where—taking into account how much energy the house generates and how much it supplies—you end up with a zero (or a zero-plus) gain. “This concept is picking up momentum,” Valerie says. “It’s really possible to set up all systems within a building that allow for a good flow of energy” (and we’re not just talking Feng Shui here).” Those who’re not on the market for a new home can still take steps to increase their energy savings. Just remember that the energy triangle consists of conservation (turning off your energy sources, if you’re not using them); efficiency (using appliances with high energy ratings) and, if you can afford it, enveloping (insulating your house to minimize the air loss). “Instead of running to your AC every time it gets warmer, think long-term,” Valerie says. “Close the blinds, have a drink of water—and consider planting a couple of trees outside your window.” To learn more about using wind to improve a building’s air quality and comfort, visit www. energyomelette.com
“40 hours a year we wish we could use an airconditioner,” Valerie admits, “but if you have it, you’d use it more than those 40 hours. When we get up, we open all the windows to make sure the place is as cool as possible, and then—if you use whole house fans—you can raise your thermostat and still feel comfortable,” she says. There’re many new innovative ideas for greening up new buildings. You can use a reflective paint for your roof to keep the building cool or you can put a vegetable garden up there for even better effect (and an extension of your living space). Adding outdoor rooms and removing some of the
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HOME/OUTDOOR
at the market
Amazing dark choco bliss balls By Sarah Hedger
H
appy Summer! For those who have made it through the recent heat waves, there should indeed be some great reward in the form of chilled watermelon, peaches, apricots, berries, all things tomatoes, and nearly every colorful, delicious summer fruit at our local markets. Quenching for the tastebuds to say the least! What’s in season now is, for the most part, vibrant and colorful, and good enough to not need to be cooked (i.e. simple to prepare without turning the stove on much and/or the oven on at all). This month’s recipe is more along the lines of my desire to create a snack that is (marginally) healthy, being low in sugar, high in healthy protein, fibers, and fats. Without turning the oven on. There are a handful of ingredients/food items I incorporate into my diet on a regular basis and feel better for it and I thought it
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would be neat if they could all be conveniently located in one delicious snack food. The first that I can’t seem to get enough of lately is the mighty coconut. High in lauric acid, medium chain triglycerides, and fiber, the coconut (and its coconut oil) is extremely good for the body (and brain)! Chia seeds are a bit of a joke in my life as they are everywhere. I don’t really go a day without as they provide more omega’s (3 and 6) per gram than flax and salmon, while providing protein, iron, fiber, and calcium. They can be used straight up, but benefit from a little soak which activates them and contributes hydration to your system, rather than requiring hydration to get through your system. Enough said! Maca is the latest addition to my smoothies and snack foods as it is an incredibly dense, nourishing and revitalizing supplement. Claims for it include mood (and hormone) balancing, energy boosting, while being a good source of iron, fiber, protein, and Vitamins B and C.
amazing dark choco bliss balls Makes at least 15 good-size balls
1 T honey 2 T coconut oil 2 oz dark (70%+) chocolate, roughly chopped Pinch of sea salt 2 T good cacao powder (or good quality cocoa powder) 1 T chia seeds ¼ cup unsweetened dried coconut (threads) 1 cup dried (fine) coconut ½ cup ground nuts (hazelnuts or cashews or almonds) 1 T maca powder 1 T coconut flour 1 T ground flax *½ cup dark chocolate, roughly chopped Coconut or cacao powder for dusting Last and definitely not least on my list is dark chocolate. Not to be lumped in the category of any other chocolate, dark chocolate, which generally speaking is chocolate with a cacao content over 70% (think more high nutrients, less sugar), is nothing short of a miracle food in my book. Good dark chocolate is low in sugar, rich in healthy polyphenols and beneficial antioxidants. Recent research for dark chocolate is claiming that it actually helps to feed beneficial bacteria in our guts while promoting anti-inflammatory components in our bodies. Further benefits comparing raw cacao powder and standard cocoa powder are noticeable and worthy to mention. Raw cacao powder is rich in antioxidants, flavanoids, potassium, fiber, magnesium, iron and folate. It is a heavy hitter! Being it is raw, it leaves the majority of these beneficial components to be easily absorbed (and available) to our bodies. And, for what it’s worth, the antioxidant rating (measured in ORAC score) is three times higher (more beneficial) in raw cacao powder than standard cocoa powder. That leaves us to this month’s creation, Amazing Dark Choco Bliss Balls, as I wanted to come up with a semi-healthy snack that did not require the oven (or much heating for that matter), resulting in these delicious, heavy hitters. While I’ll refrain from (over) using the word superfoods (only once), these ingredients have affected my life and improved my health, in noticeable ways. Warning being, on these bliss balls, as they do provide a fair amount of energy it’s best to consume them before exercise (or 4pm to make sure they don’t affect your sleep)! Happy Summer treats!
Melt honey, coconut oil, chocolate, and salt in pan (or microwave) over low heat. Whisk in cacao powder and set aside. Mix remaining dry ingredients in medium bowl. Add melted chocolate mixture and mix well. Chill for 10 minutes. Roll into sub-golf ball size balls, finishing by rolling each ball into either coconut or cacao powder. Chill. Keep in refrigerator (or freeze if going for long-term storage, i.e. beyond a few days).
Find this recipe and more seasonal inspiration at http://www. seasonalalchemist.com
HOME/OUTDOOR slo county art scene 26
museum of art features the photographs of gary dwyer titled seeing, thinking, living By Rebecca Leduc
G
ary Dwyer carries around a small messenger bag wherever he goes, but with over twenty years of international experience working in forty-seven countries, he trails behind him a wealth of experiences worthy of a steamer trunk. Mr. Dwyer is an astute observer and a collector of experiences from which he has been assiduously capturing images on film (and, more recently, in digital format). A collection of his photographs will be on view at the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art from July 5 to August 31, 2014 in an exhibition titled Seeing, Thinking, Living. In 2010, Mr. Dwyer retired as Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture at Cal Poly. Though he holds degrees in both landscape architecture and sculpture, he was ultimately drawn to photography as a life calling. He has photographed two climbing expeditions in the Himalayas, documented the Botanical Survey Project on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, and shot World Heritage Sites for UNESCO in Vietnam. While a resident artist at the American Academy in Rome in 2005, he photographed architecture in danger of disappearing for The World Monuments Fund. His work has been exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC, the Oakland Museum in California and is in the collection of La Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. He has also self-published numerous books of his work. In his photographs, Mr. Dwyer seizes upon moments that examine and play with light, reflection, collage, color, and layers. He wants the viewer to look twice. “I enjoy being amazed,” he says. “I am amazed at how many points of view [there are], amazed at how we can see more than one thing at a time, amazed at how and where we live and how we present ourselves. More than anything else, I am amazed at how much wonder there is left in this world to see.” As an artist, Mr. Dwyer wants us to question what we see, to think about how we process, parse, combine and layer images
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based on consciousness and memory, and to understand how all of this creates an identity and a sense of place in the world in which we live. But mainly, he wants us to be curious. Seeing, Thinking, Living is about being curious about what we see, curious about the past, curious about life and about all that we carry with us. A public reception with the artist will take place on Saturday, July 5 from 3–5pm and on Friday, August 1 from 6–9pm in conjunction with Art After Dark. A Museum members-only artist talk will be held on Friday, August 1 at 5pm. ARTalks, a new series of lectures at the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, will feature Gary Dwyer on Sunday, July 6 at 2pm. Mr. Dwyer will discuss the art and creative process behind Seeing, Thinking, Living as well as his own artistic journey. Free and open to the public.
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750 Price Street, Pismo Beach 773-1922
The San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, dedicated to the education, presentation and preservation of the visual arts on the Central Coast, is located at 1010 Broad Street, on the west end of Mission Plaza. Hours are 11am – 5pm daily. Closed Tuesdays through July 4. Open daily from July 4 through Labor Day. Free admission, donations appreciated. For more info visit SLOMA.org.
817 Vista Del Brisa, San Luis Obispo A great house with an over sized lot. Awesome updated backyard with professional landscaping. Three bedrooms and bamboo flooring in one of the bedrooms. A great house for entertaining and an extra sun room that adds additional square footage with an indoor/outdoor feel. Wood burning fireplace, on demand water heater, two car garage and close to parks and across the street from Laguna Lake. Asking $577,000.
Johnny Hough Owner / Broker
(805) 801-5063
johnny@realestategroup.com 962 Mill Street, SLO See more listings at www.realestategroup.com
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COMMUNITY
Our Schools one more big change— Maybe the biggest
By Dr. Julian Crocker, County Superintendent of Schools
J
ust when we were taking a breath from a school year of great changes, here comes another one. And this one could be the biggest of all, and certainly the most controversial. This change deals with the very hot topic of teacher evaluation, seniority and “tenure” in our public schools. This may be the biggest change since it directly impacts classrooms and the most important school factor in student achievement—who is teaching. On June 10th, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled in Vergara v. State of California that a series of five state laws governing the three areas of permanent employment (i.e. “tenure”), teacher dismissal and teacher layoffs based on seniority are unconstitutional and deny equal access to quality education for students and especially those living in poverty and minority students. These are the students on the lower end of the achievement gap in our county and in the state. The court ruled that these statutes are in violation of the equal protection clause of the California State Constitution and follows much of the same reasoning of the landmark Serrano v. Priest decision from 1971, which has governed school funding in our state.
The case was brought on behalf of nine students (Plaintiffs) ranging in age from 7 to 16 and residing in Los Angeles, Oakland, Pasadena, San Jose and San Carlos and attending the public schools in these areas. The Defendants are the State of California, Governor Jerry Brown, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, the California Department of Education, the State Board of Education and three of the school districts the students attend. The Judge’s decision called for “injunctive relief” but suspended enforcement pending settlement of any appeal filed with the state Supreme Court, which the defendants say they will do. A final decision is probably at least a year away. The Court also called on the state legislature to “fulfill its mandated duty to enact legislation on the issues herein discussed that passes constitutional muster, thus providing each child in this state with a basically equal opportunity to achieve a quality education.”
Here is a summary of the three major issues.
Permanent Employment Laws for Teachers The current law gives a newly employed teacher “probationary” status for the first two years of employment. During this time, school districts can dismiss the teacher with a minimum of cause and documentation. However, the notice to not re-employ a probationary teacher must be given to the teacher by March 15th of the second year, which gives school administrators about 16 months to make a decision about the long term effectiveness of the teacher. Unless notified in the second year, a teacher achieves “permanent” status, which is often referred to as “tenure,” although not technically accurate. The Plaintiffs contend that this is not sufficient time to make such a judgment and, in combination with the other statutes, contribute to having ineffective teachers in classrooms. It is interesting to note that until the early ’80s, California had a threeyear probationary period.
Dismissal Laws for Teachers The suit alleges that the process for the dismissal of permanent teachers, especially for poor performance or unprofessional conduct, requires too much time and demands excessive procedural steps and documentation to make it overly difficult for school administrators to act on the dismissal of ineffective teachers. The Plaintiffs state that the current requirements for dismissing a permanent teacher takes years of extensive documentation, costs thousands of dollars and is often stopped because of minor procedural missteps. The Defendants argue that the present system only provides for a teacher to be guaranteed due process and to be treated fairly. To these arguments, the Court stated: “There is no question that teachers should be afforded reasonable due process when their dismissals are sought. However, based on the evidence before the Court, it finds the current system required by the Dismissal Statutes to be so complex, time consuming and expensive as to make an effective, efficient, yet fair dismissal of a grossly ineffective teacher illusory.”
Seniority Based Layoff Laws for Teachers The issue here is the current system that requires that the least senior teachers be the first subject to being laid off due to budget and/or enrollment issues with no consideration of classroom performance. This is often called the “Last In, First Out (LIFO)” law. The Court stated that this law results in an effective teacher who is less senior losing a job to a more senior, but less, effective teacher. The combination of current law in these three areas has been accepted as almost unchangeable for many years and the prospect of these changes is indeed very significant.
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Upcoming centennial observance of the start of world war I By Jack B. Jones, COL., USA (Ret.) “The world is getting ready to commemorate the start of the war that shaped the last century, killed 16 million people and has become synonymous with the futile loss of life and the onset of industrial warfare, where the individual counted for nothing in the face of artillery, machine guns, poison gas, flamethrowers, tanks and mud.” Der Spiegel ONLINE International http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/ europe-prepares-for-100th-anniversary-ofworld-war-i-a-930655.html This July the world will reflect upon the beginning, 100 years ago, of World War I, often called “the war to end all wars.” It began on July 28, 1914 and lasted just over four years ending at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918: November 11, 1918. Because the United States did not enter the war until 1917, we were spared the horror of the first two years of that conflict. Visits with family, family friends, and neighbors form my earliest memories of U.S. soldiers and veterans who fought in World War I. A few were still in the army in the 1930s, stationed at Ft. Bliss near El Paso, Texas where we lived at the time. Over the years I
came to know and work with many of those veterans; they always seemed to be around. As years went by, however, more and more of them were passing away. By 2009 there was just one left. His name was Frank W. Buckles. He was the last living American World War I veteran. I met Frank several times at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. He died February 27, 2011. Even though one hundred years have passed, it seems a short time ago that the world was plunged into that horrendous conflagration. Never had so many countries been at war with each other at the same time. Then many people did not grasp the underlying history leading so inevitably to the eruption of that war. Much less could they predict the coming carnage—the monstrosity and horror of huge artillery guns combined with the “efficiency” of the new machine gun and the evil potency of poison gases. The world witnessed death on the battlefields of France, Belgium, and the Slavic countries on a scale never before experienced by humankind. We Americans paid dearly in the deaths of our soldiers; the Europeans paid dearly in the deaths of their citizens and soldiers and in the destruction of their lands. The tragedy that was World War I, followed by the “total war” of World War II, changed the world forever. Special World War I Exhibit To acknowledge the World War I centennial, the Central Coast Veterans Memorial Museum is creating a new display set to open in late June. This special exhibit will focus on the beginning of the conflict. It will pay particular attention to the German, British, and French military because they, along with the Russians bore the brunt of the battles in the early years of the war.
Frank W. Buckles
The exhibit will be centered in the Museum’s Armory where vintage weapons will be displayed along with photographs, letters, poems, and books. Visitors will gain insight into the soldiers’ life in the trenches through examples of trench “art” depicting trench “misery.” The displays will feature items which literally were picked up off the battlefields and out of the trenches.
This special exhibit is not the only display of World War I artifacts in the Museum. On the main Museum floor there are several exhibits from that war that include uniforms, head gear, official documents, and soldiers’ personal items. These exhibits, part of the permanent Museum collection, shed more light on the conflict and the individuals who lived it. As always, Museum Staff and the Docents strive to give Museum visitors a memorable experience. We hope visitors will become members of the Museum and return many times over to see what is new and exciting. We are a non-profit organization. Admission to the Museum is free. Of course, donations are always welcome and always needed. Please plan to come and visit. The Museum is here for YOU.
“The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can make them.... It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts— for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.” President Woodrow Wilson Address to Congress, 2 April 1917 J U L Y
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history center honors
a little history—past and present —both for the future By Patti Taylor photos by Bill Cotnam
T
he Past: The San Luis Obispo County History Center’s historic preservation awards program was created in 2007 when a Board member, Alex Gough, developed an idea after admiring Obispo Beautiful’s preservation award program. While he strongly supported this recognition of excellence in restoration, he had begun to wonder if maybe there might also be a possible way to honor the people who actually did the work or caused it to be completed. So instead of using buildings and landscapes, he modified the focus for a new award program to be based primarily upon the contributions of individuals and how their efforts served to restore, promote and preserve local history. The Board welcomed Alex’s proposal and the first preservation awards event was held at Sycamore Springs in Avila Beach. Making history themselves that day in 2007, the History Center’s first preservationist awardees were: Dan & Liz Krieger, Charles & Wanda Porter, Wilmar Tognazzini, Nathan Mass, Dan Sharron, Luther & Betsy Bertrando, Andrew Merriam, Susan Vessely, Dr. Jack Jones, Harry Hoover, Rob Rossi, Vince Fonte and Dr. Brendan McAdams. Alex recently commented: “That year, I believe, all of the recipients attended and the youth group was particularly heart warming because both of their teacher awardees spoke of how they had been inspired by early exposures to local history. In the case of one of them, it was his repeated visits to the old Historical Society; in the case of the other, it was sparked by classes he took at Cal Poly from Dan Krieger.” Historic preservation itself has a past and hopefully it continues to grow and develop. In 1850, the Washington Headquarters in Newburgh, New York, became the first U.S. officially designated State Historical Site. Out on the west coast, in 1850, the first preservation organization, the Society of California Pioneers, was founded to preserve records of early California. The first California HisChuck Crotser with honorees Charles Desmond and Gene Reis
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Honorees Jeff Hook and Phil Dunsmore with Chuck Crotser
torical Society was established in 1871. It was not until 1992 that the State Legislature designated the popular California Register of Historical Resources. Central Coast historian & writer, Darlene Roth wrote in an recent article: “We know it is not the past by itself that matters, but what people remember about it, say about it, how they use it, and what meaning they give it, that makes the difference. That’s where history comes in.” The Present: Today historic preservation is happening all over, even in downtown SLO. Every time you walk around town and take a moment to Honoree Jan Scott admire an interesting architectural feature on an historic building or when you take out-of-town guests to the History Museum or tour the Jack House or you help your fourth grader complete a Mission building project—you become a part of historic preservation in the present. You’re in the present, passing on the recognition of history—a study of the past.
from local history books and then presents to the community. Hoyt Fields, Museum Director/Curator at Hearst Castle, for managing the care and maintenance of the extraordinary mansion (56 bedrooms & 96,000 sq ft) built by William Randolph Hearst. Phil Dunsmore, SLO City Planner & liaison to the City’s Cultural Heritage Committee, for management of the City’s Historic Preservation Program, for working to acquire and establish a City Historical Context State-
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ment & being instrumental in developing and expanding the City’s interest in historic preservation and restoration. Jeff Hook, for his passion and dedication in the development of important historic preservation policies and programs within the City of SLO. David Middlecamp, senior photographer with The Tribune, for his beloved photos and articles that document and contribute to the preservation and promotion of SLO City and County history.
Honoree David Middlecamp
The words, historic preservation, floated easily through many conversations on May 18th, 2014, when the SLO County History Center honored nine community members, from throughout the County for their historic preservation contributions. The lovely Dallidet Gardens provided the setting for an afternoon awards presentation. It was a celebration full of festive ambiance, colorful decorations and great food by local Chef Pete Kelley. Historic preservation offers to all the opportunity to experience a part of real history that has taken place or is taking place. It helps create our wonderful sense of community and it should always be celebrated and preserved for the future. 2014 Award winners include: Charles Desmond, for the many contributions he has made to maintain and improve the Paso Robles Pioneer Museum. Alex Gough, for his devoted service to the City of SLO & the SLO History Center, plus his preservation and hospitable sharing of the Sauer-Adams Adobe. Martha A. Crosley Graham, for her work as Chair of Publications & Projects for the Genealogy Society and Librarian for the SLO Genealogy Room in the City/ County Library. Gene Reis, for sharing with the community his personal collection of memorabilia and his creation of the Good Ole Days Museum in SLO. Jan Scott, playwright, for generating interest in local history through plays she creates J U L Y
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history
the book club
Margaret Chase- Courtesy photo: University Archives Cal Poly University
By Joe Carotenuti
T
here are many faces to a community, some expected: governance, finances, education, religion, commerce, saints and sinners and—most often forgotten— leisure. What did our civic predecessors do when the business and busy-ness of life allowed for recreation? There were the familiar fraternal organizations, public performances of various sorts, horse racing, and gambling among others. Saloons were popular as were some less licit activities. However, one of the oldest continuous gatherings dedicated to enlightenment was the Book Club. A small collection of memorabilia in the Library Archives opens a window to this mostly forgotten organization. Certainly, defining a community requires a look at its leaders, laws, business affairs, and revenue but so often, the “quality” of community life is its most important, if often unnoticed, characteristic. The ladies of the Book Club understood this quite well. Here’s the story.
Founded in 1907, membership was limited to 25 (always ladies) and addressed much more than books. The original 12 members represented some of the leading families in the 4000 resident community. With a young community library—founded in 1894—some champions of culture and learning as exemplified by the group took a decidedly erudite and serious turn toward expanding literacy. Charter members provide some clues as to the community leadership. With family names familiar to local history buffs—Angel, Brooks, Chase, Jack, Kemper and Venable—the ladies pursued leisure time in more than dilatory fashion. Members were not interested in reading the latest novel as there was no common reading choice offered for discussion. A quick review of
books and topics of discussion emphasize the serious literary and social interests of an amazingly stable group. With agendas akin to graduate seminar topics, the first year’s assignments included the classics penned by Dante, Plato, Goethe, Milton and Shakespeare. There were individual assignments for instance when Ethel Jack presented Dante’s political life. Poetry readings were common as were discussions about the life and times of various authors. Musical performances by members celebrated the vocal arts. A newspaper article noting their 50th anniversary described the group as involved in “a serious study of literature, current events, music, art and drama.” The literate gatherings were planned and conducted as important opportunities for the informed exchange of ideas as well as learning. The intention was not to have a casual meeting to discuss some written work or author. A constitution provided for officers, yearly elections, meetings (“second Wednesday of each month at half-past two o’clock”), dues, and committees. Participation was expected as all intended to underscore the group’s dedication to important contemporary as well as traditional writings. Nor was membership casual as a potential new member was first recommended by the membership committee. The members then voted on extending an invitation to join. Two negative votes excluded an offer to join. Openings were not common. A 1964 listing of all members from 1907 indicated 7 of the 25 members had joined before 1940 with Margaret Chase as one of the charter members. Among her many accomplishments, Chase is the only female to serve as president (acting) of Cal Poly. Both the County and City Librarians were often members. In its entire 56 year history, only 96 women were members.
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The five surviving Minute Books provide a remarkable narrative of activities and annual yearbooks detailed topics, books, and discussion leaders for the year. In one year, not only did the ladies decide to pursue a course of study of drama but also performed a one act play The Piper’s Pay by Margaret Cameron. Modestly, the choice was explained as suiting the limitations of the “lack of scenery, of adequate stage facilities, and of previous theatrical experience.”
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Today’s library the book prospect discussion group has Not unmindful of the larger political issues, Even though of moving m a rewarding—if different—focus. While when asked to join the Federated Women’s owe itandtoconversation yourself oftoa learn h sharingyou impressions Club of California, another group, the Mon- future, specific novel, there are no dues orhome a constiday Club, was formed with many of the same carefree living in your own for man tution. The monthly meeting of both men members. Louise Kirtland, president of the and women continue the tradition of searchBook Club, was also the first president of the ing the inanimate pages of print for some of Monday Club and half of the Charter Memthe secrets of the universe. They welcome bers were also participants in the Book Club. It’s a fact of life that asyour weparticipation. get older, Pristine is fully Finally, in 1964, stating the Book Club’s efsome day-to-day tasksContact: become too licensed and insu jacarotenuti@gmail.com forts were now being “carried out by others,” much to handle All of our worker well over a half-century of addressing bothon our own. That the past and present quietly dissolved doesn’t mean itself. you have to move away are carefully scre
You Don’t Have to Move
SLO Reference Librarian, Pat Clark – 1957-1979 and Book Club member
Additionally, members did not allow themselves to be bound by the arts. Every meeting included time for any current business—usually of a charitable nature—and for current events. Some meetings had invited speakers. A trip anywhere, especially abroad, was part of the member’s duty to relate. Charitable efforts included donations to the newly formed county chapter of the American Red Cross, a camp for blind children and war relief efforts. At one point, they even asked the Board of Supervisors to appoint a committee to look into the county’s mental health issues. The group was not unmindful of social activities. A yearly picnic was held at various county locations, and yearly open meetings allowed for spouses and non-members to attend a special program (and meal). These became opportunities to present one-act plays, operettas, scenes from movies, a vaudeville skit, and poetry readings … in other words, whatever the creativity of the members could develop.
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710 FIERO LANE, UNIT 16 SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA 93401 H O U S E K E E P I N G · YA R D M A I N T E N A N C E · H A N D Y M A N S E R V I C E S · P E R S O N A L C A R E J U L Y
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hospice corner Brave last days By Mark Wilson
I
’m one of those people who mistrust social media. It’s probably a ridiculous fear, but I, like millions of other baby boomers, just don’t quite get it and I’m not sure what they’re up to yet. I put all kinds of information about myself out into space … and that’s a good thing? And yet, for all my misgivings about social media, I do have Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts, and I must admit that, while I almost never post anything, I do look at what others are posting almost every day. I’ve now reached an age where many of the friends I went to high school with are experiencing the death of close relatives—parents mostly—and, my social-media-savvy friends often post messages about their losses online. There’s a common theme to many of the posts—BRAVERY, as in, “he fought bravely until his final breath.” It’s about the fight, the survival instinct, the courage. My father was brave during his last days of life, too. He fought hard to live. He took advantage of every single last treatment made available to him. He did it, more than anything, to keep from disappointing his family. He fought because he thought we wanted him to. He was brave until the very painful end. In hindsight, I wish he’d been a “different” kind of brave—the kind of brave that would have given my father a way to let us know he was really interested in quality of life for the time he had left; just a little more time to be himself; a few more months to enjoy his family on his own terms. In reality, he spent most of his time in the hospital, hooked up to tubes and wires with an endless number of people poking and prodding him. Brave? Certainly. Just not brave enough to disappoint his family. Research shows that most Americans do not die well, which is to say they don’t die in the way they say they want to—at home, surrounded by the people who love them. Data from Medicare says only a third of patients die this way. More than fifty percent spend their final days in hospitals, intensive care units or in nursing homes. And, there is a high price for all this bravery. The Dartmouth Atlas Project, which gathers and analyzes healthcare data, found that seventeen percent of Medicare’s $550 billion annual budget is spent on patients’ last six months of life. The amount spent in the intensive care unit is climbing, too. Between 2007 and 2010, Medicare spending on patients in the last two years of life jumped thirteen percent, to nearly $70,000 per patient. Alright, I know what you’re thinking. Putting a price on life and death? Actually, no I’m not. What I am saying is that perhaps we ought to spend at least a small portion of the billions in government healthcare dollars on teaching people about treatment choices and respect for patient preference. Did I hear you yell, “death panel!”? Not in the least, my friends. No mere mortal should decide whether you live or die. I’m just advocating for access to more and better information to determine the path that’s
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best for you and your family. We gladly pay for another day in the ICU, but have a problem paying to help people understand what their own goals are for their end-of-life care. We don’t pay healthcare professionals to help patients think about their own values and to develop a plan. Shouldn’t we, though?
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In all fairness, the end-of-life choices we as Americans make are slowly shifting. Fewer people are dying in hospitals and there’s been a modest increase in hospice care. Hospice care is about quality of life while you have life. We’re able to make the transition from life to death much more comfortably, out of the hospital, and at home, the very place most of you say you’d like to be when it’s your time. Mark Wilson is Vice President of Business Development at Wilshire Health & Community Services, a local not-forprofit organization. Wilshire Hospice is an agency of Wilshire Health & Community Services. Reach out to mark at mwilson@ wilshirehcs.org.
STATEPOINT CROSSWORD THEME: FAMILY MOVIES ACROSS 1. Move smoothly 6. *What Horton heard (2008) 9. *Lost clownfish (2003) 13. Kind of sentence 14. Reporter’s question 15. Become established 16. Bring upon oneself 17. Long fish 18. Past or present 19. *Sherman’s dad (2014) 21. Swelling, pl. 23. “___ bad!” 24. At the summit of 25. Overall part 28. Pressure unit named after Torricelli 30. *”The ___ ___,” squirrel’s adventure (2014) 35. *Sandler of “Big Daddy” (1999) 37. Nabisco cracker 39. One of excessive propriety
40. ___ Verde National Park 41. *”Flushed Away” underworld (2006) 43. Icelandic epic 44. Pesto ingredient 46. Piercing spot 47. They’re often hidden 48. Chemical cousin 50. Frill around collar 52. Public hanging? 53. Data holder 55. Aggravate 57. *”How to Train Your ______” (2010) 60. Lured with a decoy 64. Canine foe 65. Freudian topic 67. Former Belgian Congo 68. Ahead in years 69. Go wrong 70. Spritelike 71. Not guilty, e.g. 72. Hard to escape routine 73. Nathaniels, familiarly
DOWN 1. On a golf club 2. Crescent 3. Ancient Peruvian 4. Skeptic’s MO 5. Drill into brain 6. Little Miss Muffet’s meal ingredient 7. Garden cultivator 8. Baby owl 9. Indian Lilac tree 10. Europe’s highest volcano 11. *Piggy’s title 12. Single 15. Work promotion 20. “The _____,” classic rock band 22. Knotts or McLean 24. MoMa’s display 25. *Orphaned after forest fire (1942) 26. Content of cognition, pl. 27. _____ profundo 29. Cambodian currency 31. Not kosher 32. Succeeded kingdom of Judah 33. More eccentric J U L Y
34. *Beauty’s true love (1991) 36. Cripple 38. Domesticated ox having humped back 42. Fit out again 45. Accounting journal 49. *A story of Blu (2011) 51. *It featured the hit song “Let it Go” (2013) 54. Curl one’s lip 56. Aussie bear 57. *Raggedy Ann is one 58. Boorish 59. Away from port 60. Database command 61. Pick-me-up 62. Buffalo’s lake 63. Hibernation stations 64. Chop off 66. *He was despicable (2010)
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palm street perspective
implementing a neighborhood stabilization program By SLO City Mayor, Jan Marx
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
collaborative relationships with the University … outside of the specific dorm issue.
It has been said many times that Cal Poly and the City of San Luis Obispo are in a marriage, with no possibility of divorce. But, any marriage has its stressful moments, even a vital, long term, mutually beneficial one like that between Cal Poly and the City. The current stressful moment concerns Cal Poly’s decision to build seven new dorms for 1475 freshmen at the corner of Slack Street and Grand Avenue, adjacent to the established Alta Vista residential neighborhood. Residents, while in favor of more on campus housing, want the dorms in an alternate on-campus location. They are petitioning the City Council to take action to protect their quality of life from impacts they fear would arise from having a concentration of that many eighteen-year-olds right next door. However, the whole City Council will not be able to make decisions on this issue. I must step down on this issue because my home is within 500 feet of Cal Poly land. This means that I have a “conflict of interest” under the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) rules, and must recuse myself, as advised by our City Attorney. I was dismayed at this news, so, with the City Attorney’s encouragement, I sought advice from the FPPC Help Line attorney, who gave me exactly the same advice. In a last ditch effort, I have requested a formal, written opinion from the FPPC. As I write this column (June 10), I have not yet received that opinion. If the FPPC allows me to participate, I am ready, willing and able to do so. If the formal opinion confirms the advice I have received so far, does this mean I am prohibited from representing the City at all, regarding Cal Poly issues? The answer is decidedly NO. I will continue to be a zealous advocate for City residents in negotiations with Cal Poly regarding existing and future contractual and J U L Y
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Existing relationships which Council must oversee include the City’s provision of Transit Service, Fire Service, Water Distribution and Waste Water Service, and management of Whale Rock Reservoir (Cal Poly’s only source of water), as well as law enforcement cooperation and Student Neighborhood Assistance Program (SNAP). The City, Cal Poly and the Foundation for the Performing Arts are partners in the Performing Arts Center (PAC) on the Cal Poly campus. The City collaborates with Cal Poly and the business community to operate the SLO HotHouse, a student-oriented new business incubation facility, the Fiber Optic Infrastructure, and SLO Solutions dispute resolution service. The City and University also participate in regular meetings of the Student Community Liaison Committee, Neighborhood Wellness/Community Civility Effort, Planning Meetings and the International Town-Gown Association. Future relationships will be based on existing and new City and Cal Poly written commitments, including policies prioritizing Neighborhood Wellness in areas near the University. As an example, after City staff and Council negotiations with Cal Poly, in a letter dated May 14, 2014 President Armstrong confirmed, “…Cal Poly’s commitment to provide these important good neighbor policies and activities remains solid … Cal Poly is fully prepared to work in partnership with the City leadership and our neighbors, as briefly outlined in the … document (entitled) future partnership agreements.” Some of the action items Dr. Armstrong cited include increasing public safety enforcement, rental inspection, parking initiatives, bicycle and pedestrian circulation enhancement, including sidewalks and lighting, traffic monitoring, city participation in the Campus Master Plan and Design Guidelines, collaboration with the City’s Greenbelt and Natural Resources Management plans, and last but not least, Neighborhood Stabilization programs.
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I believe that a strong Neighborhood Stabilization program is crucial to preventing the northern areas of the City from becoming Isla Vistas or student “ghettos.” Twenty-six years ago, when my husband was a beginning professor at Cal Poly, he and I decided to buy an affordable home within easy biking distance to Cal Poly, so we could be closely involved with the University and host student/faculty events in our home. We have enjoyed living in this diverse, balanced neighborhood, and getting to know neighbors of various ages, backgrounds and interests. However, increasingly, when permanent residents move out, their homes are purchased by investors and turned into student rentals. In the past six months, this process has accelerated in the Alta Vista and Monterey Heights areas. At the tipping point, when permanent residents become a tiny minority, impacted neighborhoods become segregated by age, and experience high turnover, increased crime and instability. International sociologists have termed this widespread phenomenon in college cities “studentification.” Neighborhood stabilization means the University and the City will implement programs not only to retain permanent residents in the neighborhoods, but, if they move out, to facilitate replacing them with other permanent residents, including Cal Poly Faculty and staff. Now, most people working at Cal Poly live far away from the University for economic reasons. If Cal Poly faculty and staff could afford to buy or rent homes close to the University, that would not only further the educational goals of the University, it would also reduce vehicle miles traveled, and restore stability and balance to impacted neighborhoods. Many other Universities in our country and abroad create financial incentives and programs to attract faculty and staff to move into college-adjacent neighborhoods. The City and the University are researching such programs which have worked well elsewhere to determine what could best work in San Luis Obispo. In my opinion, implementing Neighborhood Stabilization programs would be the best way Cal Poly could demonstrate its genuine commitment to Neighborhood Wellness. Alta Vista must not become Isla Vista! Do not hesitate to contact me about this or any other city issue, jmarx@slocity.org Enjoy the summer, Mayor Jan
Downtown
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The Magazine of Downtown San Luis Obispo
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July 2014
W hat ’s U p Downtown B usiness Spo tlights
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an economically vibrant downtown. We also have nnovation is what sets great businesses apart been looking at everything from using standing from good businesses. At the San Luis Obispo desks to the way that we patrol the streets of our Downtown Association we are privileged to district on a daily basis. When it comes to finding represent some of the greatest businesses in new approaches to take our Downtown to the next America and as I work with our current Board level, we are not leaving any stones unturned and of Directors, I am constantly made aware that as a part of those efforts we will be looking to the they will be the people that kick off the next public to be a part of this process. evolution of the Downtown Association. They are 14 members of the community who are the most Dominic Tartaglia, ver the course of this summer we will be dedicated and innovative business owners in each Executive Director asking members of our district as well as of their respective industries and when they walk visitors to help us take a look at the Thursday Night into board meetings their energy is palpable. At times, the Promotions that we host every week on Higuera Street. energy is so high that the ideas and questions start flying What has become known by so many people as "Farmers’" into the realm that many would call “blue sky.” In those is an event that we have proudly produced and managed moments it’s apparent why these folks are trendsetters; for over 30 years now and it continues to grow in size and they are brilliant and not afraid to ask important questions. popularity. We have noticed many people love the market, however there are some people who are interested in ver the last couple of months we have been seeing more—more diverse food offerings, more diverse examining the various events we host with the entertainment, more diverse produce, more people objective of ensuring that we are putting on the best events watching and more room to move about. As our internal possible and our guests are pleased with the end product. dialogue played out among our energetic and brilliant In short, we are making sure customer service stays a Board of Directors, the consensus became that we should priority for us. Making sure our membership is happy with quantify the requests we have heard and establish a our events and that the public is excited to participate in our long-standing events is one way we continue to foster
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On the Cover: Downtown Brown proudly supports the American Flag on a Thursday night in recognition of the 4th of July and our upcoming summer evenings on Higuera Street. Photo by Dominic Tartaglia.
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process to indicate where we can improve and continue to be the industry leader in producing Farmers’ Markets for the public.
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n our plans we will be reaching out to our member businesses and vendors to hear their thoughts on our strengths at the Market or if they have any concerns we can address. The process will likely begin with a brief survey and progress into follow up discussions so we can have a complete understanding of our membership and their requests. After the first phase of research, we will reach out to the public and start picking the brains of our loyal attendees as well as the folks who discover our Market while here on vacation. The second phase will consist of a mix of survey approaches including an online survey, social media and a giant suggestion box at the Market where visitors can drop us a note.
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he process is meant to be a fun way for members of the community to be engaged in their local market and to offer beneficial feedback for our Downtown. We hope to take those comments and deduce what the tastes and preferences have evolved into over the last thirty years. Questions like, “What brings you back to the market each week?” and “Why do you buy your fresh veggies here instead of at the market?” are just the tip of the iceberg for
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us as we go forward. As we drill deeper we want to know how we can make the event easier for families to bring their young kids with them and what people do before and after the Market. For us, understanding how people spend their time Downtown on Thursday nights and how they commute here is a big concern. If people are spending their Thursday nights Downtown people watching and enjoying dinner, that is a good sign that our Market is vibrant and that we are doing our jobs in providing a public benefit.
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s we move forward please keep an eye out for a chance to be a part of the discussion to take Thursday Night Promotions into the next stage. Further exploration of our Market will undoubtedly include some sort of game and fun marketing to keep our plans fresh in the minds of anybody with a great idea. The whole premise of this analysis is to make sure our Market continues to be the crown jewel of the city for another 30 years and that just won’t happen if we can’t have some fun with it. I’m sure if you polled our board members they would tell you that their businesses excel because they enjoy what they are doing. If their happiness is any indicator of how true that concept is, I’ll take a page out of their book. See you at the market!
N MacB EW In sto ook Pro ck no w!
N MacB EW In sto ook Pro ck no w!
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of the community feel, the short Nicole Radakovich, Owner walk to the 1124 Nipomo Street, Suite B courthouse and (805) 242-8304 to be in “the heartbeat of the RadakovichLaw.com town.” Her main emories of playing in the creek as a child brought focus is family Nicole Radakovich and her family back to the area to law and her raise her 10-month-old son and move her law firm from the services range heart of San Francisco to Downtown San Luis Obispo. from mediation of divorce disputes, fter the birth of her son, Ms. Radakovich and her litigation, and representing minors in child custody disputes. husband decided it was time to return to San Luis Ms. Radakovich chose to practice family law because of Obispo to be with family and to raise their son in a smaller her genuine care for the wellbeing of others. “It’s important community. She is excited to be back in a small town, to be with an attorney who won’t let you lose perspective especially with San Luis Obispo’s plethora of hiking trails, during a divorce,” Ms. Radakovich said. She takes pride farmers’ markets and beautiful sun-filled days. It’s a joy for in having clients come out of the process of a divorce not Ms. Radakovich to raise her son in the community that she feeling as if they have lost themselves, which can often be grew up in with its slower pace of life and friendly citizens. the case in family law matters. To learn more about Ms. Radakovich’s services, visit her website at s. Radakovich began her practice in San Francisco RadakovichLaw.com. where she stayed for five years until moving to her new office in January at 1124 Nipomo Street, Suite B. Ms. By Emily Seropian Radakovich moved her office to Downtown SLO because
Law Offices of Nicole Radakovich
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Resource Engineering Group
David Houghton, Principal Engineer, Founder 1075 Court Street, Suite 209 (805) 706-0700 www.REGInc.com Houghton@reginc.com
commissioning.
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nother reason for expanding his firm out to California was the state’s growing focus on the big picture of making stop in San Luis Obispo on a camping trip with his buildings more wife was all it took for David Houghton, Founder and energy efficient. Principal Engineer of Resource Engineering Group (REG), Cal Poly’s to return to California after living in Colorado for much of presence also had an impact on bringing REG out west. his professional career. Growing up in Berkeley, he never visited the Central Coast. “It was like a little treasure waiting The resources available from professors and students as potential interns were an influence on Houghton’s selection for me to find,” Houghton said. of the city. oughton founded REG in Crested Butte, Colorado oughton has been impressed by the business in 1997. It has grown into a firm of ten engineers, community of Downtown SLO and has found everyone nine of whom still work at the Colorado office, while to be very welcoming. If you see him riding his bike to Houghton runs the San Luis Obispo division from his office work, as he does every day, make sure to give him a wave on Court Street. The firm focuses on building systems and a welcome to the neighborhood he says is “the best engineering and works for architects, building owners place to be.” and building developers. Houghton described the firm as having a “diverse platform of services” including traditional By Emily Seropian engineering, research & building science, and building
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For more information on Downtown Association events, programs and activities, or to sign up for our weekly Deliver-E newsletter, visit www.DowntownSLO.com
MORTGAGE FACTS AND FICTION
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UNRAVELING THE MYTHS OF THE MORTGAGE MAZE By Roxanne Carr
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thought it might be interesting this time to talk about little-known mortgage facts or things that we run into that often surprise our clients. In this crazy, complicated mortgage financing world, there are often misquoted guidelines or misunderstood rules that could stand in the way of someone trying to buy or refinance a home. I will start with down payments. You may often read that 20% in cash down payment is needed for good financing and 5% must be from the borrower’s own funds. I will cite just two instances of this not being the case: • FHA loans require only 3.5% in down payment (and this can all be from a family gift!). • In Conventional financing, it is not true that at least 5% of the borrower’s down payment must come from their own funds—and I just saw this in print from a mortgage “expert” online last week. For a principal residence or even a second home transaction, no minimum borrower contribution is required at 80% loan-to-value or less if the funds are coming from a gift. Of course, any basic facts noted herein are always centered on the proposed borrower qualifying for the proposed loan. In the area of loan qualification, people are often surprised by: • A person’s unreimbursed business-related expenses are often reported in Form 2106 on their tax return. We are generally required to subtract these expenses from an applicant’s gross income because they are considered job-related expenses unless it can be proved they are unusual, one-time expenses not expected to recur. • Most people think that a solid two-year history of self-employment is required to qualify for a mortgage. However, there are many instances when only one year, a full 12 months, can be used. This, of course, depends on several things, including the variety of programs offered by the lender and the lender’s expertise. • In cases where a two-year history of self-employment may be required, a person might think that just averaging those two years’ income is sufficient. However, that conclusion can change when the most recent year shows a decline in net income, even if the person has been in business several years. The new rules under the Dodd-Frank Act enforced since January 2014 have stiffened many guidelines. • A person owns 50% of a small corporation and expects that his net income from that corporation may be used for qualifying—not true (and really never has been). A proposed borrower’s portion of the after-tax profits can be used only if ownership is 100%. • Whenever tax returns are used to qualify applicants, not only must they submit complete copies, but the lender must wait for what is known as “4506T transcripts” from the IRS before it can close the loan. These transcripts are required to validate that the information provided to the lender is true and correct. You can imagine that these rules came about because of the high incidence of fraud in mortgage lending. Today it is just
too easy for unscrupulous people to prepare and submit erroneous data. • A VA loan can be obtained with any qualified co-borrower—not really true. A VA loan can only be made to qualified veterans and their spouses. There is a special provision for unmarried veterans wishing to purchase a property. It is considered a “joint” VA loan and each must have adequate VA loan eligibility. These are unusual cases and must be submitted to the VA regional office for approval. • Married veterans can apply for a VA loan on their own, yes, as sole and separate property, but in a community property state, the spouse’s credit will be evaluated and any individual debts charged against the veteran-applicant. • A veteran may use the entitlement for a home loan more than once! Rules apply, of course, and an experienced lender is helpful. There are often little-known things that can kill a mortgage at the last minute. To name a few: • A person changes employment or quits their job … the one that was used for qualification. Yes, this happens, and more frequently than you might imagine. Sometimes a borrower thinks nothing can affect their mortgage after they have signed final loan documents. Not true. Employment is checked and so is credit. A change in either one can cause the loan to be pulled and re-evaluation of the borrower required. Imagine how this could affect a daisy-chain of home purchases that depend on this one mortgage closing … everyone depending on the success of each person’s financing closing on time. • On the subject of last-minute credit being checked, it is very important that mortgage applicants check with their loan officer before making any additional credit purchases after their loan is in process. In a recent case, a person just could not resist a great sale on new furniture and their purchase put them over the top for qualifying. The loan had to be completely reevaluated and reworked, causing unforeseen delays in closing. • Funds to close the transaction come from a source not expected or verified by the lender. All funds to close are closely scrutinized and must be confirmed by the lender. I am out of room, but definitely not out of interesting facts or fictionbusters. I’ll continue further next time. Meanwhile, you can see why it is critically important to choose a very knowledgeable and experienced lender for any mortgage transaction. Copyright © 2014 Roxanne Carr Roxanne Carr is division president of The Mortgage House, Inc. She has over 35 years’ experience in the mortgage banking industry. Your e-mailed questions are welcomed through her website at: www.themortgagehouse. com or call her at 1-800-644-4030. This article is a forum to explore real estate principles. It is not intended to provide tax, legal, insurance or investment advice and should not be relied upon for any of these purposes. J U L Y
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caballeros de san luis obispo 2014 ride
The Caballeros de San Luis Obispo held its annual ride over the Memorial Day weekend. This year’s ride was held on the 22,000-acre Porter Ranch in south county. President George Kardashian presided over the event. More than 225 riders participated in this special event. This year’s saddle winner was Mike Commins (pictured center) with Caballeros board member Larry Shupnick and Caballeros President, George Kardashian.
senior citizen of the year
The Central Coast Commission for Senior Citizens and Area Agency on Aging honored SLO Police Department volunteer Mary Schlotterbeck as “Senior Citizen of the Year” at their 30th annual Celebration Tea held recently. Mary has been volunteering with the Police Department for 23 years. During her long tenure, Mary has done everything from answering phones and direct calls to scanning documents for archive to maintaining the staff training files. She actively developed computer skills to be able to assist with data entry. Over the past year, Mary has performed 1,525 individual data entries. Mary’s help with clerical tasks helps immensely with staff workloads and helps keep the files up-to-date. Mary (pictured) shared the honor of “Senior Citizen of the Year” with Loretta Scholfield of the Cayucos Senior Citizens Club.
slo High Math teacher receives sesloc grant
SESLOC Federal Credit Union is proud to announce the most recent recipient of a SESLOC Education Grant. Nathan Meinert, a math teacher at SLO High School, was chosen to receive a grant that will be used to buy a tablet computer which he says will be part of his efforts to create a more student-centered learning environment.
rotary club of slo gives 27 scholarships
The Rotary Club of SLO recently presented 27 scholarships totaling $21,000 to students from San Luis Obispo High School, Pacific Beach High School, Cuesta Community College and the Cuesta Community College Independent Living Program. Scholarships were awarded to: Jacey Behl, Baeden Cortez, Amber Davis, Alejandro Dealba, Justin Doty, Selena Flores, Tiara Francisco, Kaesha Freyaldenhoven, Taylor Gator, Alexandra Goodison, Kelsey Harper, Ryan Hsieh, Daniel Jennings, Jessica Judge, Shaina Levin, Lily McCann, Ruby McCann, Timothy Maas, Mark Mendez, Rhianna Ruiz, Mardell Stackhouse, Caitlin Stanton, Austen Trout, David White, Austin Wright, and Nora Zakaria.
foundation for the pac receives $382,074
The Foundation for the Performing Arts Center is grateful to acknowledge Messrs. William F. Mooney and Wilbur Wurster for their generous bequest of over $382,000 in support of the Performing Arts Center SLO. Messrs. Mooney and Wurster joined the Foundation’s Legacy Society in 1995. The Legacy Society is a passionate group of performing arts lovers who have included the Foundation for the Performing Arts Center in their estate plans or
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have made arrangements for other planned gifts. The Foundation routinely places bequests in its endowment to support the operations of the Performing Arts Center. As a result, the hall is made available to community groups at a greatly reduced cost and it’s one of the reasons that the arts flourish in San Luis Obispo. Thank you to all of our current Legacy Members for taking care of the long-range plans and needs of our very special hall.
new casa volunteer advocates and mentors
Juvenile Court Judge Linda Hurst recently swore in seven new CASA volunteer advocates and mentors who will be assigned to an abused, neglected or abandoned child or sibling group, or to a youth transitioning to adulthood, in San Luis Obispo County. CASA provided the new volunteers with 30 hours of initial training; each volunteer completed a thorough screening and background check. Volunteers are recruited from all areas of San Luis Obispo County. For more information, visit www.slocasa.org. Photo, left to right: Diane Denman, Cathy Carrigan, Judge Linda Hurst, Lous Heshusius, Lauri Harris, Melanie Aranda, Sue Klempner, Rudy Bachmann
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You” letter and photo for their $2500 scholarships. The Club also donated funds for books for the First grade class at Hawthorne School. A “Thank You” photo (below) was also sent. Funds generated for the scholarships come from a Drive-Thru BBQ held each May at the SLO Veterans Hall. Close to $50,000 in scholarships have been given out by the Night-Time Kiwanis Club during the last six years.
slo night-time kiwanis annual scholarships
Kiwanis de Tolosa (Night-Time) of SLO recently presented scholarships totaling $7500 to three SLO High School seniors. Riley Shannon, Casey Mackenzie and Theo Boettcher, pictured above, sent the club a “Thank
C rossword S O L U T I O N S
“lighthouse jubilee”
The Point San Luis Lighthouse Keepers Signature Event series for 2014—“Lighthouse Jubilee!” Running through October on the 3rd Sunday of each month from 12pm – 5pm, with tickets on sale now at our website www.sanluislighthouse.org. There is music, lunch and a local featured winery will pour as well. This event is not to be missed! Tickets are on sale now on our website www.sanluislighthouse.org or by calling our toll free reservation line at 1-855-533-7843—just $65 per person, $25 for kids 3-12, and free for kids under 3.
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www.CrushedGrape.com 805.544.4449 J U L Y
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County since July 1999. The majority of those so honored have been WWII veterans. When new Marines earn their dress blue uniform in boot camp they are advised “they can’t wear them, till they earn them.” The members of the Honor Guard earned the right in such places as Iwo Jima, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and other theaters of combat. Those wishing more information about including this special acknowledgement during a memorial service for a loved one, or becoming involved with the Honor Guard, please call Jim Brenton at 805-400-5340 or see: www.Leatherneckhonorguard.org
festival mozaic summer festival
arroyo grande rotary successful year
The Arroyo Grande Rotary Club recently celebrated another year of giving back to the community at its annual awards dinner where it was announced the Club’s accomplishment of donating nearly $30,000 to a variety of local non-profits and youth organizations. At that event, the Club also awarded “Rotarian of the Year” to Club member Kristy Wood for her hard work, dedication and loyalty to the Club.
All tickets are now on sale for the Festival Mozaic Summer Festival—July 17-27, 2014! Events will soon begin to sell out, so act fast. You can now purchase tickets to any of the 20 events at more than a dozen venues around San Luis Obispo County. And don’t forget—new for 2014, try the FESTIVAL FLIGHT. Sample and SAVE! Pick one of EACH of the Festival’s Four signature series— Fringe; Wine Glasses Piano Orchestra; Chamber; and Notable Encounter Insight to experience all the unique flavors of the Festival. General seating only/does not include Chapel Hill or dinner events. $120 - only $30 per event! The summer kicks off with an evening of camaraderie and chamber music at Mission San Miguel. Our Festival artists—some familiar friends and some faces—will again perform at the magical setting of Chapel Hill in Shandon, Old Mission San Luis Obispo, the Cuesta College Cultural and Performing Arts Center, and a tantalizing variety of other beautiful and historic venues. All the musical masters will be on display— Mozart, Brahms, Beethoven and Bach. Visit our website to purchase tickets at www.FestivalMozaic.com.
Mortgage House welcomes rudy madrid
local marine honor guard 1000th ceremony
Shortly following World War I, the United States Government granted all Honorably Discharged Veterans the right to receive Full Military Honors upon their death. On May 3, 2014 the Central Coast Leatherneck Honor Guard rendered its one thousandth Memorial Ceremony for a veteran. This dedicated group of local Marines has been voluntarily conducting honor ceremonies throughout SLO
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Rudy Madrid has joined The Mortgage House, Inc., an established mortgage banking firm in San Luis Obispo and Northern Santa Barbara County for the last 19 years. A graduate of Cal Poly, Rudy is highly regarded in the TriCounties for his depth of experience in all phases of mortgage banking and his superior customer service covering more than 35 years. He and his wife, Susan, enjoy their four children (one daughter in high school, another at Cal Poly, one older son owns Mitch Madrid Construction and another son owns Thompson Landscaping) and their horses, and he loves gardening when he can spare the time.
THE BULLETIN BOARD assistance league advisory council members
Assistance League of SLO County announced that Kathleen Maas, owner of Pear Valley Vineyards, will serve on the organization’s advisory council for 2014-2015. Maas joins nine other community leaders in this important capacity: Roxanne Carr, president, the Mortgage House; Dr. Julian Crocker, superintendent, SLO County Office of Education; Reese Davies, president, Founders Community Bank; Stephen K. Hall, Esq., Stephen K. Hall and Associates; Garret Matsuura, owner, Arclight Media; Steve Owens, publisher, Journal Plus Magazine; Julie Rodewald, SLO County Clerk Recorder; Lori Thomas-Hicks, principal, Atascadero Junior High School; and Mary Verdin, president, Verdin Marketing. Assistance League is an all-volunteer, national non-profit organization dedicated to philanthropic programs benefitting children in need within the local community. For more information about Assistance League of SLO County, visit www.alslocounty.org
Free senior health care screening
Community Action Partnership, Adult Wellness & Prevention Screening for adults and seniors is available throughout San Luis Obispo County. Free services include: screening for high blood pressure, weight and pulse. Finger prick screening tests for: high cholesterol, anemia and blood sugar. Counseling and referrals as needed. Please call 544-2484 ext. 1 for dates, times and locations.
help our local veterans
VA clinic in San Luis is asking for volunteers to serve our Veterans as shuttle drivers. To help pay tribute and express your appreciation for
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their service, learn about volunteering at your local VA clinic. For more information contact your local VA volunteer representative Mr. Larry Foster at 805-354-6004 or send an email to Lawrence.Foster@va.gov .
tribute to jim hayes now available
ViVACE Literary Magazine, published and edited by former SLO newspaper journalist Christine Neilson, celebrates Jim Hayes, Journalism Professor Emeritus who is Neilson’s mentor and friend. His influence on journalists is far reaching as an educator and LA Times writing coach. Hayes was 88 when he passed away last month. V i V A C E (pronounced ve va chee) Literary Magazine is a selected collection of art, photography, poetry and prose by contributors. Featured in the newly released ViVACE 4, are San Luis Obispo County writers Glenna Luschei, Susane Rotalo, Robert Reynolds, Dawn R. Starr and former Cambria resident Emma Duncan Went along with former Cal Poly journalism students, colleagues, and friends of Jim Hayes. Included are a collection of short stories by Hayes published in ViVACE: Tribute to Jim Hayes is available for purchase at Volumes of Pleasure Bookshoppe in Los Osos and online at Amazon.com and CreateSpace.com.
slo history center presents:
The Evolution of the Horse in SLO at The Dallidet Adobe & Gardens, 1185 Pacific Street, Sunday, July 13, 12–5pm. This free and family-friendly event will provide exhibits of SLO County’s equine history during Spanish, Mexican, and American periods of California history. Several horse-drawn vehicles used in SLO will be on display, including a horse-drawn railcar, rural mail wagon, democrat wagon, a Dallidet family sulky and an O’Connor family carriage. Jennifer Berg, is a graduating Cal Poly senior (history major). Her two loves, horses and history, motivated the theme of her senior project—this exhibit.
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COMMUNITY
open space
Pismo preserve awarded $4 million from state coastal conservancy
T
he California State Coastal Conservancy (SCC) awards generous grants to fund projects proposed by public agencies and nonprofit organizations. From creating coastal access trails to restoring coastal zones, the Coastal Conservancy is a frontrunner in contributing financial support to a variety of projects. Recently, the seven-member SCC Board voted to unanimously award $4 million to The Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County to fund the creation of Pismo Preserve. The Land Conservancy’s proposed Pismo Preserve would transform a 900-acre private ranch above Pismo Beach into a public open space for outdoor recreation opportunities including hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, and bird watching. “The purchase of the 900-acre Pismo Preserve in San Luis Obispo County is the kind of project the Coastal Conservancy loves to support,” said Sam Schuchat, Executive Officer of the California State Coastal Conservancy. “A spectacular slice of the California coast in close proximity to urban populations, including disadvantaged communities in need of more parks. A massive groundswell of local support that results in over $3.5 million in local funding. And a local land trust partner with a proven track record of owning and operating parkland with its own funding. It’s a win-win for everyone and, on behalf of the State Coastal Conservancy Board, we could not be more pleased to be a part of making it happen.” Since The Land Conservancy’s inception, the SCC has been an integral partner for the organization. The countywide land trust was founded in part through a partnership with the SCC that created an innovative Transfer of Development Credit program in Cambria in the late 1980s which continues to advance local conservation today. Over the last 30 years, The Land Conservancy and SCC have collaborated on over half of the organization’s suite of land
conservation projects that benefit people and wildlife in San Luis Obispo County. To successfully create Pismo Preserve, The Land Conservancy must raise $12 million by July 2014. Since it went public with the project in January, The Land Conservancy has raised $5.6 million with a pending request for $4 million from the Wildlife Conservation Board and the remaining $2.4 million expected to come from local government, agencies, and community contributions. The sellers are also contributing $1.6 million towards the effort through a bargain sale. “The community has really come together to support this project. We have had private donations ranging from $2 to $100,000. We had a unanimous vote of support from our County Supervisors who pledged $1.1 million, and now we have secured $4 million from our partners at the State Coastal Conservancy. We are thrilled to share today’s news with our community supporters,” said Kaila Dettman, Executive Director of The Land Conservancy. “However, there is much work left to do. Our staff remains focused on rallying local residents, businesses, and visitors to personally contribute and to advocate during public meetings.” With world-class outdoor recreation opportunities for locals and tourists, preservation of sweeping scenic vistas, protection of drinking water and runoff onto beaches, an alternative land-use to balance the adjacent proposed developments in Price Canyon, and as a destination for active lifestyles—the proposed Pismo Preserve project has received no opposition. As a regional public park, Pismo Preserve will provide many benefits to residents and visitors throughout the county. But the project will most significantly impact the 5-Cities Area which is the most densely populated region in San Luis Obispo County but has no significant upland trails for hiking, horseback riding, or mountain biking. Further, the two communities adjacent to Pismo Beach—Grover Beach and Oceano—are classified as disadvantaged communities (those having median household incomes at or under 80% of the California Median Household Income of $61,400 according to the 2008-2012 census) that will directly benefit from the recreation, health, and environmental benefits provided by the permanent protection of this open space. As a free amenity for the public, the Pismo Preserve is likely to improve the overall quality of life for all San Luis Obispo County residents. More information is available at The Land Conservancy’s website with a video tour of the proposed Pismo Preserve www.LCSLO. org/pismopreserve.
J U L Y
2014
Journal PLUS
Avila Beach, Arroyo Grande, Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, San Simeon & Shell Beach, California
July 10-13, 2014
www.centralcoastwineclassic.org
Please contact Archie McLaren for further information and advance registration: email: archie@slonet.org; Telephone 805-544-1285.
“California Wine & Cuisine at its Finest”
Celebrating the Wineries of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Monterey, Santa Cruz & Sonoma Counties & the Napa Valley Thursday, July 10 3 PM to 5 PM – Barrel Tasting, featuring yet-to-be-released Wines from an array of California wineries, at the Avila Lighthouse Suites in Avila Beach – $35.00 per person 5 PM – Dinner at Hearst Castle in San Simeon, featuring the culinary artistry of renowned Chefs from throughout California, Carmel (Cal stamenov of Marinus at Bernardus & Wendy Brodie, Television Chef), Monterey (Kurt Grasing of Grasing’s), Napa (Ken Frank of la Toque), Buellton (Frank Ostini of The hitching Post), Carpinteria (James sly of sly’s), Santa Barbara (Michael hutchings of Michael’s Catering), gourmet appetizers and Champagne by the Neptune Pool, followed by six courses with matching Wines from Vintner Dignitaries – $1250.00 per person Patron Sponsorship Required, which includes the Barrel Tasting, Auction, Auction Luncheon and Reserve Tasting *Luxury Coach Transportation departing from & returning to the Avila Lighthouse Suites and Dolphin Bay Resort & Spa in Shell Beach is included.
Friday, July 11 8:30 AM to 1:30 PM – Cycling Classic with Carissa Chappellet, transportation from the Avila Lighthouse Suites into the Edna Valley and cycling among area wineries – $75.00 per person 10 AM to 11:30 AM – California Pinot Noir Terroir Symposium, featuring au Bon Climat, domaine anderson, domaine de la Cote, Foxen, Kutch, laetitia, Pisoni, shadowbox Cellars, Talbott, Talley, Wind Gap & Windward, at the Avila Lighthouse Suites – $50.00 per person 2 PM to 3:30 PM – Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Symposium, “The Venerable, the Relatively New & the New,” featuring Chappellet, Continuum, dunn, harbison, heitz, J. davies, Padis, Purlieu & Tor, at the Avila Lighthouse Suites – $75.00 per person 7 PM to 10 PM – Château Pavie, St.-émilion, Vertical Tasting Dinner presenting the 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 & 2005 Vintages at the Home of Maurice & Susie Wedell in Arroyo Grande or at a nearby exceptional restaurant – $750.00 per person 7 PM to 10 PM – Winemaker Dinners including Justin Vineyards & Winery at Lido Restaurant at Dolphin Bay Resort & Spa in Shell Beach and Talley Vineyards at the winery in the Arroyo Grande Valley – $115.00 per person 7 PM to 10 PM – VIP Outdoor Winery Dinner Dance, hosted by au Bon Climat, hitching Post /hartley-Ostini, Qupé and Margerum, featuring the Cuisine of Chef Maegen loring of Maegen Loring Catering and the eclectic, rhythmic music of soul sauce – $125.00 per person
saTurday, July 12 10 AM to 11:30 AM – Schramsberg Vineyards Méthode Champenoise Symposium, at the Avila Beach Golf Resort – $50.00 per person Noon to 5 PM – Rare & Fine Wine & Lifestyle Live Auction (honoring our late dear friend, Auctioneer David Reynolds) Silent Auction and Luncheon All Auction activities are at the Official Host Auction Venue, the Avila Beach Golf Resort. *Silent & Live Auctions, Luncheon & Live Auction Catalog are included – $125.00 per person
sunday, July 13 11 AM to 12:30 PM – Central Coast White Rhône Varietal Symposium, featuring Beckmen, Bonny doon, Booker, derby Estates, Eberle, hearst ranch, l’aventure, Qupé, Tablas Creek & Tercero, at the Avila Beach Golf Resort – $50.00 per person 1 PM to 3:30 PM – Reserve Wine Tasting, featuring the Most Special Wines of 50 California Wineries, with culinary samplings from fine Central Coast restaurants and the soulful, rhythmic music of louie Ortega & Friends, at the Avila Beach Golf Resort – $50.00 per person