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Funk Zone Murals Thwarted
PAU L WELLM AN F I LE PHOTO
What was supposed to be the swan song of the Funk Zone’s much-loved public mural project instead ended on a sour note when a building manager and police stopped dozens of artists from participating in the farewell event last Friday afternoon. Since 2009, members of AMASS (Artists Making a Street Scene) have SHUT DOWN: Laura Inks Bodine stands in front of a finished painted the boarded mural back when the work was allowed. windows of the vacant building on the corner of Mason and Helena streets, an old structure scheduled for demolition this week as the long-delayed La Entrada project begins construction. With contributions from more than 150 street artists over the years, the murals became a symbol of the Funk Zone’s rising popularity, adding a splash of expression to an otherwise blighted corner while fending off graffiti. AMASS leader Laura Inks Bodine received formal permission for the “renegade experiment” from the property’s former owner back in 2009 but not Next Century Associates, the Los Angeles firm that took over in 2011. Though Next Century let new murals go up every four months for nearly three years, Inks Bodine admitted, “It was a given that it could stop at any time.” So ahead of Friday’s final hurrah, she invited the full roster of past contributors, who planned to create murals not just in the window spaces but across the outside walls themselves. Instead, the artists were greeted by the property manager and four city police officers. Property manager Eloise Hardy initially told Inks Bodine the murals needed to be kept to the window spaces but then said no painting could take place at all. On Monday, Hardy referred all of this newspaper’s questions to an unnamed La Entrada project leader, who was unavailable as of press time; calls to Next Century Associates were not returned. Police spokesperson Sgt. Riley Harwood said Hardy called the station at 3:51 p.m. on Friday about vandalism. When officers arrived, they learned that the property owners were worried that if the building were painted, they would be compelled to repaint it because of city graffiti laws. “The police just said: ‘You had permission; now you don’t have permission,’” explained Inks Bodine, who said AMASS was left confused and demoralized but didn’t want to do anything illegally. “I just wanted to leave one last beautiful gift to Santa Barbara,” she said. “We had a great run, and we’re grateful they gave us permission — Tyler Hayden for that long.”
A free movie night program will debut at Bohnett Park as part of an ongoing campaign to make that park — long seen as a gang hangout — more inviting to neighborhood families. The kid-friendly series kicks off 7/9 with the screening of Frozen, followed by Free Willy and Finding Nemo. Mark Alvarado, neighborhood director with the City of Santa Barbara, said the program is part of a collective rehabilitation effort undertaken by City Hall, La Cumbre Foundation, United Way, and the Santa Barbara Rotary Club. It started in earnest last year with the installation of a new lighting system.
COUNTY Countywide, Santa Barbara’s unemployment rate dropped to 5 percent in May, the lowest since before the Great Recession struck in 2007. This April’s figure was 5.4 percent, and last May, it was 6.1 percent. Even though the biggest drops occurred in Santa Maria and Lompoc, these cities still have the county’s highest jobless rates at 8 and 9.1 percent, respectively. By contrast, Santa Barbara’s is 3.5 percent, Goleta’s 2.4 percent, and Carpinteria’s 2.5 percent. The majority of the new jobs were agricultural positions. Non-farm employment lost 200 jobs, with tourism losing 100.
Vandenberg Air Force Base reported that the kill vehicle launched from the Lompoc base (pictured above) successfully struck a long-range ballistic missile launched from the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific as part of an ongoing missile defense program that’s generated significant controversy over the high cost and high number of failures. It was the first successful launch for Raytheon’s most recent kill-vehicle design and the first successful launch after three successive misses. Of the past 16 tests, only eight have succeeded, each at a cost of $200 million. In a convoluted set of rulings, Judge James Rigali found against both sides in a lawsuit stemming from an attempt to have voters decide in November whether to change eleccont’d page 12 tions for Santa Maria
Jackson Floats Bill to Ban Offshore Drilling
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bill to ban offshore oil drilling in Tranquillon Ridge state waters was announced last week by State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson. Senate Bill was prompted by an assessment released last month from the Air Force Civil Engineer Center that reopened the possibility of drilling at Vandenberg Air Force Base — an idea that seemed just about dead for years. If it passes, the measure would mark another chapter in a controversial tale steeped with environmentalism, politics, and money. Tranquillon Ridge, or T-Ridge, is a deep-sea oil field beneath state and federal waters. Two decades ago, the California Coastal Sanctuary Act banned new offshore oil and gas leases three miles out (in state waters), but an exception exists when petroleum from state reserves is being drained by federal operations. Now, Jackson argues this “loophole” needs to be closed to protect an ecosystem so sensitive it was designated as a marine protected area in 2007. “The state can’t on the one hand say this warrants the top protection, but put this area at risk [on the other],” said Linda Krop, chief counsel for the Environmental Defense Center (EDC), which sponsored the bill. Bob Nunn, president of the most prominent player from the oil industry, Sunset Exploration, argued the exception is deliberately being mischaracterized as a backdoor “loophole” even though it was intentionally written into the law “so California could protect itself.” Nunn argued the state, not the feds, should be reaping the economic benefits of a project Sunset formally proposed in 2007 that was estimated to recover between 90 and 200 million barrels of oil. Though royalty rates are negotiated — onesixth is standard — Nunn estimated the state would receive $3 billion-$4 billion dollars in taxes, and Santa Barbara County would receive $300 million-$400 million over the project’s 20to 30-year lifespan. According to Kevin Drude, deputy director of the county’s Energy Division, the application was unable to be processed because the county requires a signature from the landowners — military officials — who were unwilling to do so at that time. Nunn is quick to point out that prior to her term as senator, Jackson was a paid consultant for EDC, when the environmental firm came extremely close to negotiating an unprecedented settlement agreement with Plains Exploration & Production, or PXP. The deal would have allowed PXP to tap the same reserves in T-Ridge in exchange for an “end date” on existing oil and gas operations and the donation of thousands of acres of land. “It wasn’t a loophole when they were strong supporters of a proliferation of offshore drilling from PXP’s [Platform] Irene,” Nunn asserted. In response, Krop nixed rumors that Jackson had been “working for PXP” and said EDC hired Jackson on behalf of two of its clients, Get Oil Out! and Citizens Planning Association of Santa Barbara. Jackson maintained the key distinction
PAU L WELLM AN F I LE PHOTO
BY K E L S E Y B R U G G E R
COU RTESY VAFB
Councilmember Bendy White suggested some disputes — involving projects 15,000 square feet or more — could be resolved sooner if the Planning Commission reviewed the projects.
Teeing Off on T-Ridge
ECO CONCERNS: State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson has argued that projects pursued by Sunset and Exxon to drill into T-Ridge would pose serious environmental risks.
is that the previous agreement included a termination date.“It’s like talking apples and oranges” because Sunset did not offer an end date or greenhouse-gas offsets, Jackson said. “They just want to drill.” Almost all Santa Barbara enviros and elected officials were on board at the time. But in a move that caught nearly everyone off guard, the California State Lands Commission narrowly denied the agreement. In any case, the feds may have mandated that platforms in federal waters would have to be drilled as long as they were economically viable. About a decade ago, Sunset, along with ExxonMobil, proposed to drill at Vandenberg using a technique called extended-reach drilling, which is based on land and reaches horizontally beneath the sea floor. Nunn contends slant drilling safeguards the underwater habitat.“For me, it’s a nonstarter,” said Nunn. “I wouldn’t be supporting this if there was interaction with the ocean.” A number of years ago, the county completed an environmental impact report and found onshore alternatives — similar, but not identical to the project outlined in Sunset’s application — had comparable impacts and risks to offshore drilling; neither was better than the other. On the federal level, the House of Representatives will hear a Republican bill this week that would expand offshore drilling nationwide and mandate oil and gas lease sales off the coast of Santa Barbara and Ventura. Similar legislation has been proposed in the House each year since 2011 but has gone nowhere in the Senate. Opposing the measure, Congressmember Lois Capps offered three amendments, one of which made it to the House floor and would require the secretary of the interior to notify all regulatory agencies and publicly disclose any new offshore oil and gas permits. The vote is scheduled to take ■ place Thursday. june 26, 2014
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