We've Got the Best Doc for That.

The Giving List 20-27 MAY 2021 VOL 27 ISSUE 21

SERVING MONTECITO AND SUMMERLAND

WE’VE GOT THE BEST DOC FOR THAT.

To avoid children getting lost in the system, CASA’s approach puts an emphasis on individualized attention through staff, volunteers, page 32

Viva la Fiesta!

With the South Coast beginning to reopen, Old Spanish Days kicks off its summer-long celebration with La Primavera, page 18

‘Larger Than Life’ Jim Clendenen, a Santa Barbara winemaking icon, had a personality beloved by wine aficionados around the world, page 27

Comeback Complete

Who needs to go elsewhere when cutting-edge medicine is available in our backyard? Gwyn Lurie sits down with Sansum Clinic President Kurt Ransohoff to talk about why the community has been the key to success and how collaboration is key. (story begins on page 5)

Home of the $38,500 bottle of wine, San Ysidro Ranch’s wine cellar is back to its premudslide strength, page 42

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Inside This Issue

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5 Editorial With collaboration as a backbone, Santa Barbara finds itself in a unique spot — the epicenter of medical innovation, benefitting the entire community 6 Village Beat Kate McMahon returns to a storefront in Montecito Country Mart, while Montecito Dental moves into two different locations 8 On the Record Third-party investigation clears Santa Barbara Police Department spokesperson of any wrongdoing over cannabis dispensary licenses 10 Letters to the Editor What has our community come to when threats are levied over parking along certain roads in Montecito?

One that needs more compassion.

11 Brilliant Thoughts Ashleigh Brilliant says if we are not, as a society, interested in promoting kindness, we are, at least, or have become, in relatively recent times, concerned with preventing cruelty 12 In the Know How do we focus on our health in a post-pandemic world? Are you willing to disconnect from your digital devices? Want to shed pandemic pounds but don’t know how? Two local organizations have some ideas.

14 Montecito on the Move Caring for the homeless in Montecito is taking on a proactive approach, one not normally matched elsewhere on the South Coast 16 On Entertainment As the urge to witness live music becomes a bit more palpable, the Lobero is taking the first leap with a June 19 tribute concert honoring Brian Wilson of Beach Boys fame 18 Montecito Miscellany Viva la Fiesta! Old Spanish Days returns after a virtual year away, with La Primavera kicking off the summer-long celebration 20 Seen Around Town Despite pandemic-driven restrictions, the Breast Cancer Resource Center found a way to empower survivors through annual fashion show 22 PERSPECTIVES

by Rinaldo S. Brutoco ‘It’s the Economy, Stupid!’: ‘Happy Days Are Here Again’

22 The Optimist Daily Future of Food: Michelin starred Eleven Madison Park to reopen with full plant-based menu 23 My Take James Buckley says don’t be fooled by the so-called Democratic “experts,” but instead focus on solutions that keep elections monitored and transparent 24 Hot Topics High fire season is officially underway for the South Coast. Hear how Montecito Fire is preparing for a potentially destructive time due to the drought.

26 Legal Advertisements 27 In Memoriam Jim Clendenen, a Santa Barbara winemaking icon, sported a largerthan-life personality in becoming a recognizable figure for worldwide wine aficionados 28 Travel Buzz An adventure to the North County to get vaccinated leads to a previously undiscovered Valley experience, complete with unique eats 30 Our Town Nicole Lamartine is the new UCSB Sorensen Director of Choral Music and brings a unique background to the position, including competitive power lifting 32 Giving List With plenty of children caught in the proverbial system, CASA takes a different approach, focused on individualized attention through staff and needed volunteers 34 Mini Meta Crossword Puzzles 42 SB By the Glass You in the market for a $38,500 bottle of wine? The San Ysidro Ranch’s Stonehouse Restaurant wine cellar is back to its pre-mudslide strength.

44 Nosh Town The South Coast has plenty of options if you’re looking for a good sandwich, either in Montecito or Santa Barbara 46 Classified Advertising Our own “Craigslist” of classified ads, in which sellers offer everything from summer rentals to estate sales 47 Local Business Directory Smart business owners place business cards here so readers know where to look when they need what those businesses offer

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20 – 27 May 2021

Editor’s Letter

by Gwyn Lurie CEO and Executive Editor of the Montecito Journal Media Group

Mayo of the West? Sansum President Explains Why Santa Barbara is on the Cutting Edge of Medicine

W

hen my husband and I moved our family from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara in search of a more congenial habitat, we were determined to hold on to one key big city perk — excellent medical care. So, we kept our L.A. doctors despite the time we knew it meant we’d spend in the car.

Unfortunately, hours in traffic turned into dreaded lost days and ultimately the putting off of important check-ups, dental appointments, etc. As it became clear that living in Montecito was not just a fleeting fancy, but the place we would call home, we began our search for local doctors — though we still worried that we’d have to compromise on quality, despite the fact that over the years I’d hear stories about the world class doctors at Sansum Clinic and Dr. Kurt Ransohoff is the medical director and president Cottage Hospital — stories about lives at Sansum Clinic saved, diseases successfully treated, and great outcomes from surgeries.

Then COVID hit, and from my vantage point at this newspaper I got a front row seat to the reality that despite the mixed messaging coming out of the Federal and State governments on how to deal with the pandemic, Sansum and Cottage seemed laser focused as they worked to pull our community through our unprecedented coronavirus nightmare – first by treating those infected with COVID (at great personal risk), and then by working vigilantly to vaccinate any and all willing residents as each group became eligible for the vaccine.

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“The Mayo of the West” is a term I’ve heard to describe the one-two punch of Cottage Hospital and Sansum Clinic, most recently from Santa Barbara’s former mayor Hal Conklin in a conversation I wrote about a few weeks back.

Recently treated for a serious condition that required brain surgery and a great deal of subsequent aftercare, Conklin spoke from personal experience when he strongly recommended Santa Barbara continue to invest heavily in its worldclass medical resources.

My husband’s parents recently relocated here from New York City for some medical rehabilitation. My father-in-law, Dr. Stephen Firestein, has been a doctor in New York City for 60-plus years, serving on the faculty of the Medical School at Columbia University. His father before him was a doctor, as was my mother-in-law’s father. One of the things my in-laws always enjoyed about New York was that they believed they would always get “the best” medical care available. Then they got here, and it turns out they both had a raft of issues that had been undiscovered and hence untreated by their experts in New York. Dr. Firestein insists that across the board the level of medical care and expertise he has experienced here, in what he describes as “a boutique medical experience” with his various medical specialists in Santa Barbara, has been superior to any care he ever received in New York City.

I wanted to more deeply understand the medical landscape of Santa Barbara, as well as the culture of our healthcare professionals, and was encouraged by Montecito resident and Sansum Clinic Public Trustee Vicki Hazard to spend some time with Sansum’s president and highly regarded physician, Kurt Ransohoff. Along with Sansum’s public information officer Jill Fonte, Dr. Ransohoff offered me a guided tour of Sansum Clinic, and I took them up on

20 – 27 May 2021

Editor’s Letter Page 384 • The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

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Village Beat

by Kelly Mahan Herrick Kelly has been editor at large for the Journal since 2007, reporting on news in Montecito and beyond. She is also a licensed realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, and is a member of Montecito and Santa Barbara’s top real estate team, Calcagno & Hamilton.

‘Craving Community’: Kate McMahon Returns to Coast Village Road

L

ocal fashion fixture Kate McMahon is back on Coast Village Road, opening a pop-up in Montecito Country Mart to offer her full clothing collection called Covet. McMahon took a multi-year hiatus from the brick-and-mortar retail scene, focusing instead on selling her luxury knitwear — including her famous sweaters — online.

“It felt like the right time to be back in a shop,” she told us earlier this week. “I was craving community and to be out in the world again.”

Kate had her original namesake store on Coast Village Road for 10 years before closing in 2011; a few years later she opened a smaller shop and studio in the space above Tre Lune, called Kakoon. Covet is what Kate calls a reflection of her own personal style, including a full line of pants, shirts, jackets, dresses, and her hand-knit sweaters. The easy-to-wear

Kate McMahon is back on Coast Village Road, this time at a pop-up shop in the Mart

line features natural fabrics with classic styling, all designed by Kate.

“They are things you would have in your wardrobe and wear every day,”

she said.

The designs are mostly neutral colored, with a mix of feminine and boyish style.

The store, which is located in the space formerly occupied by Sheryl Lowe’s jewelry pop-up, also features accessories including jewelry, scarves, and a handful of handmade ceramics.

“You can leave here with a few pieces of clothing, which will translate to many different looks; they are interchangeable with incredible jewelry,” Kate said about the line, which she launched in 2018.

Kate says the store has been well received in the first week or so, and she finds it energizing to see her loyal customer base as well as new clientele.

“I feel so supported by this community,” she said.

The shop is open Monday-Saturday 10 am to 6 pm, and Sunday 11 am to 5 pm, for a yet-to-be-determined length of time. For more information, visit www.covetbykate.com.

Montecito Country Mart is located on the corner of Coast Village Road and Hot Springs Road.

Montecito Dental Relocates

After nearly 25 years in business, Montecito Dental Group, the largest and longest running dental practice in the Santa Barbara area, has relocated

Montecito Dental Group partner Dr. Cris Shephard has overseen the relocation of the practice, as well as the remodel of the new digs at 1260 Coast Village Circle

to two different offices, after leaving their longstanding home in Paseo Mariposa on Coast Village Road. The practice has opened in Santa Barbara at 3714 State Street (in the new Estancia development), and in Montecito at 1260 Coast Village Circle, next to Montecito Pet Hospital. The practice includes doctors Lynda Benedetto, Cris Shepard, and Gregory Scarcello, along with their team of staff, hygienists, and assistants.

Dr. Scarcello will head up the State Street office, Dr. Shepard is at the Montecito office, and Dr. Benedetto will split her time between both offices. Dr. Shepard sat down with us earlier this week to discuss the move,

Village Beat Page 314 314

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• The Voice of the Village •

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Gardens Are for Living

On the Record

by Nicholas Schou

Nicholas Schou is an award-winning investigative journalist and author of several books, including Orange Sunshine and Kill the Messenger. If you have tips or stories about Montecito, please email him at newseditor@ montecitojournal.net

No Conflict of Interest Found in Cannabis Licensing Scandal; L.A. Magazine Stands by Story

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t’s now been two months since Los Angeles Magazine published a bombshell exposé by former Montecito Journal reporter Mitchell Kriegman claiming marijuana-related corruption inside Santa Barbara’s City Hall. At the center of Kriegman’s sprawling, roughly 4,000-word story, which the Journal declined to publish last year before Kriegman departed from the paper, was the contention that Anthony Wagner, an official spokesperson for the police department who also helped supervise the city’s cannabis dispensary licensing process, had an improper relationship with Adam Knopf, owner of Golden State Greens, a cannabis dispensary that won a lucrative permit from the city. After winning the license, Knopf flipped the license to another, out-of-state company, Jushi, Inc., reportedly for a seven-figure financial windfall.

Following Kriegman’s story, interim Santa Barbara Police Chief Barney Melekian placed Wagner on administrative leave, and City Attorney Ariel Calonne announced that the city would investigate the charges, outsourcing the investigation to the Sintra Group consulting firm.

On May 12, the Sintra Group came back with its report. “Based on the documents reviewed, the articles written, and the interviews conducted, it is our opinion that there was no conflict of interest between Anthony Wagner, Golden State Greens, or any of the other applicants that participated in the City of Santa Barbara process,” the report stated. “Golden State Greens was not given any preferential scoring treatment.”

Specifically, the report found, “Golden State Greens was not among the three applicants initially chosen to receive a license. However, one of the competitors, SGSB, Inc. was disqualified because their location was within 1,000 feet from another commercial cannabis storefront retailer,” something prohibited under the city’s municipal code. “As a result, Golden State Greens moved up into the final three and was issued the license.”

Digging deeper into the allegations raised in the L.A. Magazine story, the Sintra Group attempted to interview all the alleged key players Golden State Greens, including Micah Anderson, identified by Kriegman as Knopf’s partner in the dispensary. Although Anderson and Knopf had partnered together for a separate dispensary application in Pasadena, Anderson said he had nothing to do with Knopf’s bid to operate in Santa Barbara. And although Wagner, a former San Diego planning commissioner with a background in helping dispensaries obtain permits there, had met Anderson at a previous industry conference, he didn’t have “any contact with Anderson during the Santa Barbara application process.”

In his interview with the Sintra Group, Wagner claimed that he “had no contact with anyone from Golden State Greens prior to their application process in Santa Barbara,” according to the report. Although Wagner knew Knopf from San Diego when, as a planning commissioner, he approved an application by Knopf to operate a dispensary in the city, contrary to Kriegman’s characterization, the two men were never business partners.

The Sintra Group’s finding that Wagner hadn’t behaved unethically in his handling of Santa Barbara’s dispensary licensing process doesn’t seem surprising, a sentiment expressly stated by Melekian himself, when contacted by the Journal this week. “The report was quite clear that there was no conflict, a fact which I did not find surprising,” Melekian said.

Contacted by the Journal, Wagner said he was happy to be vindicated. “I’m extremely pleased with the expediency and thoroughness of the now-concluded independent third-party investigation, which yielded findings clearing me and others of the unsubstantiated allegations published by Los Angeles Magazine,” he said. “I’m working with counsel to determine next steps.”

However, Kriegman’s editor Maer Roshan said he was standing by Kriegman’s story. Despite having made corrections to the original version, L.A. Magazine hadn’t in any way “retracted” the journalist’s reporting, he said. “Correcting and acknowledging an error is very different from retracting a whole story,” said Roshan.

For now, Wagner’s future with the city is unclear; the Journal’s inquiries to Wagner’s superiors regarding his status weren’t answered by press time. But to one veteran City Hall observer, Pat McElroy, Santa Barbara’s former fire chief, the damage already done to Wagner is irreversible. “It never mattered if it was true or not,” he said of the allegations raised in the magazine story.

“It was designed to damage reputation. Unfortunately, it appears to have been successful.”

•MJ

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Letters to the Editor

If you have something you think Montecito should know about, or wish to respond to something you read in the Journal, we want to hear from you. Please send all such correspondence to: Montecito Journal, Letters to the Editor, 1206 Coast Village Circle, Suite H, Montecito, CA. 93108. You can also FAX such mail to: (805) 969-6654, or E-mail to letters@montecitojournal.net

Threat of Vandalism Near Hot Springs Trailhead

O

n May 17, 2021, a car was parked on Mountain Drive near the corner of East Mountain Drive and Hot Springs Road. It was barely sticking into the road, less than other hikers’ cars further west, near Ashley Road. A note was placed on it which said, “Park here again and you will be towed or a rock through your window.” Deputy Brian Dickey of the Sheriff’s department observed this note at 4:15 pm.

Who’s so angry?

At the corner of Mountain Drive and Riven Rock, the sign created by local artist and hiker Matthew O’Hanlon encouraging hikers to respect the neighbors was thrown into the ravine of Hot Springs Creek by the bridge. It has been retrieved but is now heavily damaged with a corner missing.

Hikers are angry, too, getting tickets after decades of parking on Riven Rock Road. Originally, warnings were put on the cars. It was promised that ticketing would begin on June 1, but that date was moved up. A lot of tickets were given when there were no signs warning against parking on the street. Very recently, two signs saying “no parking” have been put up on Riven Rock; that’s not enough. No warning signs were put on Mountain Drive, where hikers are also being ticketed. The ticketing of hikers continues; many of the victims are low income. Why didn’t the county put a notice at the trailhead warning hikers not to park over the white lines?

That’s the least they could have done since hikers’ longstanding parking was removed without even a public hearing.

I spoke to a California Highway Patrol officer giving tickets on Mountain Drive west of the bridge over the creek, and he told me that the CHP is only summoned when a resident complains.

When rich people hold events or parties, cars often stick way out in the road. Many gardener vehicles stick out into the roads in Montecito. At the same time the hiker’s car had a threat posted on it, around the corner a gardener’s car was sticking way out into upper Hot Springs Road. Cars sticking so far out into the road, whether belonging to hikers, residents, or gardeners, threaten access for emergency vehicles. If residents are calling the CHP on hikers, hikers can also call the CHP when residents are having an event or a gardener over.

10 MONTECITO JOURNAL

A threatening note was left on a vehicle parked on Mountain Drive

Where does it all end?

Is there no courtesy in the world anymore?

Bryan Rosen

Missing Piece?

Diversity.

After reading the Montecito Best Buys column, I am even happier about closing on my Montecito home purchase in April. The article cites the advantages of “land, privacy, views, amenities, location, climate, ease of living, the arts, the beach, etc.,” which I am finding to be very true. However, after moving up from L.A., there is something missing in Montecito. This town seems to completely lack diversity, and the associated cultural benefits. Perhaps I’m too new in town to find such experiences, but this is a stark contrast from the rest of multi-cultural California.

John Edmonston

It’s a Matter of Transparency

I have come up with what I feel is a very easy to understand analogy regarding what’s at the crux of the issue at Cold Spring School and the consternation so many of us have for not being given an appropriate and

legally required answer.

Suppose as a homeowner you received a report specifying work which needed to be done at your home along with a list of pricing to accomplish the work (2008 Bond Measure).

Next step was to hire a contractor from whom you’ve received an acceptable bid (Bond Approval). You open a bank account with the contractor able to sign the checks and pay for the labor, the materials, etc. needed to accomplish the work (Bond is funded). You also put in place an overseer to make sure the money is spent as agreed upon (Bond Oversight Committee).

After a very long time your contractor asks you to refill the bank account (2020 Bond Measure). You look and see his proposal for needing more money is almost exactly the same as the one you previously approved and funded and yet you don’t see anything having been done from the original proposal.

So, you very reasonably say that you wholeheartedly support the project but before putting in any more money you’d like to see a spreadsheet of how the previous money was spent.

According to the terms of the original agreement, the contractor (Cold Spring School) was informed that this spreadsheet information was to be public information.

You also remind the contractor (CSS) that there was also to be an Overseer (Oversight Committee of the CSS Board) and that this committee had not met in many, many years and that there wasn’t even an oversight committee in place when your request was being made.

AND THEN... the contractor refuses to give you a spreadsheet and starts a campaign to not only not provide this information, but also to start making it a personality issue and not one of just dollars and cents.

I’m a businessperson. I’m also a homeowner who is paying for two school bonds every year as a part of my property tax. This is, in small part, my money. I am asking to know where it has gone. This is in NO WAY a question of who likes Cold Spring School or its teachers. This is a matter of money and, above all, transparency.

I cannot come up with one justifiable answer as to why this information has not been immediately forthcoming.

It is not information to be doled out on what the school feels is a need-toknow basis.

We the taxpayers of the Cold Spring School District want to know how and where our previous bond money has been spent. Where has the $100,000 donation from Katy Perry gone?

If the school does not have all of this available on one or more spreadsheets, we want to know why. And please, please, please, don’t call me and say you want to explain things. This is not a topic of conversation. It is one of providing public information to the public.

Please, as Tom Cruise once said, “just show us the money.”

Sandy Stahl

Rocking Out With Plenty of Heart

If you are not a big fan of rock and roll you might want to stop reading.

If you are not a fan of Pearl Jam you might want to stop reading.

If you are not a fan of Jackson Browne you might want to stop reading.

If you are you not a fan Steve Van Zandt you might want to stop reading.

On May 8th, there was a global citizen concert to raise money and celebrate the hard work of our health care workers around our country.

Eddie Vedder did his version of “I Am A Patriot” that Jackson Browne has sung passionately for many years.

I know because I have listened to it hundreds of times.

His friend Little Steven of Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band wrote this gem.

If you’re still reading, Steven was Silvio Dante on The Sopranos.

If you missed this live performance in Inglewood with a live crowd, I can say you missed a masterpiece.

If you happened to have missed it, it is on YouTube.

Bada bing bada boom.

Steve Marko Santa Barbara •MJ

Montecito Tide Guide Day Low Hgt High Thurs, May 20 4:32 AM Fri, May 21 12:28 AM 2.2 5:54 AM Sat, May 22 1:19 AM 1.2 7:02 AM Sun, May 23 2:07 AM 0.4 8:03 AM Mon, May 24 2:53 AM -0.5 9:00 AM Tues, May 25 3:40 AM -1.1 9:56 AM Weds, May 26 4:27 AM -1.7 10:52 AM Thurs, May 27 5:17 AM -1.8 11:49 AM Fri, May 28 6:09 AM -1.7 12:51 PM

Hgt Low 4 11:43 AM 4.3 12:27 PM 4.1 01:05 PM 4.2 01:44 PM 4.2 02:22 PM 4.1 03:02 PM 4 03:43 PM 3.9 04:26 PM 3.7 05:14 PM

“Every year, many stupid people graduate from college. And if they can do it, so can you.” – John Green

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High 06:44 PM 07:09 PM 07:40 PM 08:11 PM 08:46 PM 09:24 PM 010:04 PM 010:47 PM 011:34 PM

Hgt Low 4.5 5.1 5.4 5.9 6.4 6.7 6.8 6.7 6.4

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20 – 27 May 2021

Brilliant Thoughts

by Ashleigh Brilliant Born London, 1933. Mother Canadian. Father a British civil servant. World War II childhood spent mostly in Toronto and Washington, D.C. Berkeley PhD. in American History, 1964. Living in Santa Barbara since 1973. No children.

Best-known for his illustrated epigrams, called “Pot-Shots”, now a series of 10,000. Email ashleigh@west.net or visit www.ashleighbrilliant.com

Not My Kind

I

t is no accident that the words “kin” and “kind” are related — quite apart from the fact that Hamlet’s first words, “A little more than kin, a little less than kind,” refer to his ambiguous relationship with the man who has murdered his father and taken his place. Even today, there is understood to be a broad commonality, or kinship, among all humans, which makes us essentially one family, and which, in consequence, obliges us to be decent — or may I say kind — to one another.

Unfortunately, such behavior is too often taken to be the exception, rather than the rule. That is probably why the New Testament parable of the “Good Samaritan” has such an enduring place among stories from the Bible (and there seems to be no comparable example in the Old Testament). The essence of the story is that three people in succession come upon a man lying at a roadside, in desperate need of assistance.

Two of the three pass him by.

But the third, who, because of ethnic and religious differences, might have been thought least likely to want to get involved, is the only one

who offers aid. As a result, all his fellow denizens of Samaria have to this day enjoyed such a good name that various institutions have been proud to apply it to their “Samaritan” hospitals, and even to their “Good Sam” RV clubs.

Yes, we must regret that a single bad deed is far more likely to be remembered and immortalized than a good one. I need hardly give you any examples.

But, if we are not, as a society, interested in promoting kindness, we are, at least, or have become, in relatively recent times, concerned with preventing cruelty. We now have widespread organizations devoted to preventing cruelty to animals, and even (though it took longer for a movement to arise) cruelty to children.

Cruelty is also mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, but in a way that has always puzzled me. First, it occurs only in an amendment (the Eighth) — i.e., as a kind of afterthought. Second, it is concerned only with legal punishments — which is why so many private individuals had to work so long on behalf of animals and children (to say noth-

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ing of slaves). Third, it cares only if the punishment is both “cruel and unusual” — with the implication that cruel punishment is O.K., so long as it’s not “unusual.” Lawyers have no doubt been arguing for centuries about just what those words mean.

But, of course, “kindness” doesn’t appear in the Constitution at all — nor does the word “love,” in any piece of legislation that I know of — even though these are supposedly revered values. The trouble is that, as soon as you start talking about people helping each other, you start getting into religious territory. Nevertheless, legal systems in various countries, including some American states, have begun to wrestle with this issue, by introducing what are sometimes called “Good Samaritan Laws.” The chief problem is that bystanders often hesitate to get involved, because they are afraid of doing more harm than good, and also of possibly incurring some kind of legal liability. Everybody has heard of cases in which the Good Samaritan became the Fall Guy. In a worst-case scenario, the victim dies, and the relatives sue the person who was trying to help.

So, these new laws are designed to protect people who want to help, in some kind of emergency, from suffering legal consequences, if they do intervene, but things go wrong.

But of course, we don’t have to wait for emergencies in order to perform what somebody termed “random acts of kindness” (inspired, no doubt, by the all-too-frequently-reported “random acts of violence”).

And you don’t have to read much history to realize that many cruel, but once socially approved, practices, such as gladiatorial combat, burning of “witches,” and bull-and-bearbaiting, are no longer tolerated in most parts of the civilized world. Yes, we still have massive unkindness in the form of bullets and bombs – but that is cruelty at a distance, which may, I suppose, be considered some form of progress.

But we have to thank Hamlet (once again) for the insight that sometimes one must “be cruel to be kind.” It was, however, that same proverbial concept which was claimed to have justified the instigators of the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre in Paris, which occurred when Shakespeare was 12 years old (1572) and took 50,000 innocent lives. •MJ

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In the Know

by Nick Masuda

Pandemic Purge:

How a Digital Cleanse and Self-Love Can Put You on a Path to Healthy Living

I

magine yourself sans that iPhone in your back pocket — ahem, permanently glued to the palm of your hand if we are being honest — or countless work Zoom meetings where you pray that no one requires you to click the “Start Video” button.

Imagine not being among the 18% increase in year-over-year in-home data usage from 2019 to 2020. Or the 75% spike in online gaming usage over the same time span, according to Statista.

Did you know that 53.6% of the world’s population uses social media, at an average of 2 hours and 25 minutes per day? That’s 52,925 minutes, or 36 days, per year.

Yes, you are throwing away more than a month per year on cat videos, connecting with high school classmates that really don’t remember you, and watching other people play video games on YouTube (this really is a thing).

Sounds like we are all in need of a good ol’ digital detox.

Enter AHA!, or the Healthy Attitudes, Emotional Harmony, and Lifelong Achievement for Teens (try to fit that into a tweet!).

AHA! co-founders Jennifer Freed and Rendy Freedman were inspired to create change after taking in The Social Dilemma, which was produced in part by Lynda Weinman and Natalie Orfalea, both of Montecito.

Freed and Freedman left the viewing of the documentary “devastated and heartbroken,” according to Freed, shocked at the harmful effects that social media can and will continue to have.

So, in the middle of the pandemic, the staff at AHA! went to work, planning a “digital cleanse,” even though they didn’t know when the event would actually occur.

Now ready for primetime, up to 20 teenagers (9th grade through college freshmen) — and associated adults — will be presented with an opportunity to unplug and reconnect with nature with a five-day event from June 21-25.

And, no, you won’t just be sitting in some conference room pining for a WiFi connection; AHA! is setting up camp at El Capitan Canyon, with horseback riding, kayaking, writing, theater improv, and art on the initial agenda.

Nature will indeed nurture.

“This is not meant to be a blackand-white thinking about devices and usage; we are all going to be digitally

“People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” – Isaac Asimov

dependent,” Freed said. “It’s about what it means to connect, soul to soul, physically, emotionally. We will all be connected, just not plugged in.”

There is an application process for both teens and associated parents that ends on May 31. If you’re interested in hearing more, contact Melissa at ahad igitalcleanse2021@gmail.com.

Pandemic Pounds: A Mindful Solution

Petra Beumer, owner of the Mindful Eating Institute in Santa Barbara, is also in the digital detox camp, but also knows that there are many in the South Coast community looking at themselves in the mirror and aren’t happy with the pandemic pounds they’ve added over the past 14 months.

According to the American Psychological Association, 61% of U.S. adults have reported undesired weight changes since the outset of the pandemic. The APA also reported that 40 percent of those surveyed gained an average of 29 pounds, while 10 percent added in excess of 50 pounds.

Beumer says it isn’t really about the weight, it’s about self-compassion and your intent on making sustainable changes to your lifestyle — but that only comes from a place of love and kindness, not penalizing yourself.

“Your emotions play a significant part in your physical appearance,” Beumer said.

To aid the community in attaining self-love, Beumer is kicking off a new program, Shed the Physical and Emotional Weight of the Pandemic.

In small groups of eight — Beumer will also take individuals — those who are looking to get control over their health will enter into group counseling sessions, with both threeand six-month options available.

The sessions will use both mindfulness-based stress reduction and meditation as the base of treatment, looking to make lifelong changes instead of short-term fixes.

For Beumer, it simply comes down to making self-care a priority, particularly post-pandemic, when nurturers naturally took care of those around them first.

“I ask so many people about whether or not they’ve made time for themselves, and they haven’t,” Beumer said. “Now is the time to do it.”

The program is slated to begin on June 1, with more information available at mindfuleatinginstitute.net. •MJ 20 – 27 May 2021

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Montecito on the Move

by Sharon Byrne, Executive Director, Montecito Association

Tackling Homelessness is Hard, Emotionally Exhausting Work

Kath Washburn does work at the Sea Meadow camp

has giving funds to various agencies and hoping they’ll magically team up to figure out solutions.

W

The Hands team at the Sea Meadow camp in April

hen we started the Hands Across Montecito project late last year, we counted 31 individuals living unsheltered along our railroad tracks and on beaches.

We took an approach now touted by Bakersfield: work cases individually, on a by-name basis.

Each person’s needs are different, so you have to find the solution that works for them. We have a monthly team meeting with Montecito neighbors that perform outreach, City Net, Behavioral Wellness Homeless Outreach, Montecito Fire, Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department, and, at times, a representative from the office of Assemblymember Steve Bennett. You can do a lot with a crew like that!

We’ve reunited some folks with family in other jurisdictions when that was the best answer. We’ve temporarily housed in hotel rooms or sober-living facilities. Montecitans raised the funds for this work, and are taking a direct, hands-on approach.

One of our team members, Andrea Hein, walks everywhere, and immediately refers individuals she encounters. Vicki Hazard, Lanny Sherwin, and Ron Sickafoose have personally taken on outreach to our most vulnerable individual. Lanny also engages

14 MONTECITO JOURNAL

new individuals that turn up, finds out their story and needs, and shares that to the team. Doug Black, our Montecito Association Board vice president, has been super helpful when we run into legal questions. Our sheriffs go on outreach with us. It’s a very hard-working team!

The goal is to get to “Functional Zero,” already achieved by Bakersfield, where you house and place everyone experiencing homelessness in your community. Eventually you get to a place where homelessness becomes rare and is turned around quickly.

This needs to be the overarching policy goal for Santa Barbara County.

Everything short of that is just managing the problem, which guarantees its persistence.

I sit on similar calls for the Waterfront and sometimes the Eastside, as well as County and City calls. There’s no passport check at the city line, so individuals migrate frequently along the tracks between Carpinteria, Montecito, and Santa Barbara. I don’t see the same approach in those teams that we’re using in Montecito. While there are many neighbors and businesses on the calls, they’re not taking a handson approach, perhaps believing agencies will solve these problems. That approach has not worked yet. Neither

The goal is to get to “Functional Zero,” already achieved by Bakersfield, where you house and place everyone experiencing homelessness in your community.

Eventually you get to a place where homelessness becomes rare and is turned around quickly.

About three weeks ago, we got to “Functional Zero” in Montecito; only three individuals remained unsheltered here. We were excited to place two individuals camping at the beach into hotels — one of them is a native Montecitan. Grocery trips were organized, with Hands volunteers making food deliveries. Andrea donated a computer for one of the Hands clients, so he could start classes at SBCC to become a teacher of English in foreign countries. Things were looking really good…

But setbacks can happen, especially when substances are involved. The majority of folks we’ve worked with are young and struggle with meth addiction. Meth is tough to kick, and medically assisted treatment is rare and expensive. We were saddened when the individual who wanted to go to SBCC exited himself out of sober

“It doesn’t matter that your dream came true if you spent your whole life sleeping.” – Jerry Zucker

living just six days later and returned to homelessness. Our local Montecitan in a hotel room was tossed out of that room the next night when a girlfriend turned up and waged a screaming session in the hallway at 3 am. Back to Hammond’s Meadow he went.

You have to take setbacks like these as they come and try again.

We see turnover in our City Net outreach team staff, and it’s starting to hurt our capacity to manage our cases and tackle new ones. The Los Angeles Times reported on this a week ago — L.A.’s outreach workers are also turning over at high rate. Outreach workers are the front line in the battle to end homelessness. Workers employed by cities or counties tend to be better compensated. It’s the contract workers, often paid far less, that burn out.

The job is emotionally demanding.

Montecito neighbors and I stepped up to backfill the loss of one of our City Net outreach workers, and it was an exhausting couple of weeks, to say the least. When you hit a setback, as is normal when working with people experiencing addiction, it’s hard not to feel depressed over it. I suggested on a county leadership call for homelessness this week that we raise the pay for City Net teams covering Montecito, as well as the city and county of Santa Barbara. We also need to emotionally support them in this work.

The Hands team would not be this successful if not for Montecito neighbors, both in their work with individuals experiencing homelessness, and the financial support from our community. The Hands team meets the first Wednesday of every month at 9:30 am. You’re welcome to join us!

•MJ 20 – 27 May 2021

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On Entertainment

by Steven Libowitz

Lobero Ready to Have to Fun, Fun, Fun All Over Again

The Lobero will host a Brian Wilson tribute, Songs of Summer, on June 19

D

avid Asbell has had it up to here with the pandemic.

The longtime general manager of the Lobero Theatre piloted the venue through a pandemic pivot along with everybody else to stay relevant during the last 14 months. For the Lobero, this meant partnering up with an indie producer to host live streaming shows from the stage of the former opera house featuring such local luminaries as Montecito residents Kenny Loggins and John Kay, among others. But for all its virtues, virtual music just doesn’t come close to the real thing. And Asbell is ready to prove it once again.

So, although quite a few protocols remain in place, on Monday, the Lobero Theatre became the first of the major venues in town to book a live concert at which the general public — and not just invited guests — will be able to be in the audience. The June 19 Songs of Summer show is a tribute to Beach Boys’ mastermind Brian Wilson, who will turn 79 one day later, with summer officially arriving the day after that.

Sal Leonardo’s Brother Sal and The Devil May Care band boasting L.A. session musicians will be the backing band for a roundup of guest vocalists performing favorites from Wilson’s vast catalog that stretches from early 1960s Beach Boys to his ongoing solo career. Locals Glen Phillips, The Brambles, and Will Breman will be joined by L.A.-based singers including Garrison Starr, Chris Pierce, Shane Alexander, Leslie Stevens, Todd OKeefe, Max Kasch, and others paying tribute to Wilson’s joyful songs that reek of summer, love, and fun fun fun.

The concert is the brainchild of the Santa Barbara Music Foundation, the nonprofit run by Polly and Steve Hoganson, who owned Ventura’s homegrown music club Zoey’s Cafe for eight years through 2013. They have since formed the foundation — and the associated Ones To Watch production company — with a similar mission of creating memorable experiences for both artists and audiences while earmarking a portion of the net profits for local charities.

“What better way to kick off summer and the first show in the beach town of Santa Barbara than to have a celebration of Brian Wilson music?” Polly Hoganson said earlier this week, noting that the Lobero was on board immediately.

For his part, Asbell said that as long as promoters are willing to follow whatever pandemic restrictions are in place at showtime, he’s all for getting shows back in the theater.

“If there are local entities like the Santa Barbara Music Foundation that want to do an event, and they’re prepared to do it with 200 people or less, well, I don’t want us to be the one saying ‘No, it’s not a good idea,’” Asbell said. “We’re going to take the protocols very, very seriously. We’re going to open up safely. But the fact is that when the community wants us to open, we will be there. We’ve got to

16 MONTECITO JOURNAL

get back to live music.”

The opening concert is anticipating no rollbacks in the current tier system, Hoganson said, as the plan is for all of the singers to be on stage offering harmonies before and after they take leads on a song or two each. Leonardo and his band are regulars at L.A.’s Hotel Cafe and will be providing the accompaniment for between 24-28 of Wilson’s classics, rehearsing either in person or online with each of the singers in advance before a run-through on the morning of the show.

“It’s going to be boom, boom, boom, helter skelter, just like you’re singing at the Grammys working with the same backing band,” she said. “We’re encouraging the audience to join in and make it a really fun celebration of great music, Brian Wilson, and having the Lobero and live music back.”

Like all of the local venues, the Lobero is a bit concerned about ramping back up again from a logistical point of view, having had to furlough more than twothirds of its staff as the lockdown dragged on, with most of its laid-off employees having moved on to other jobs, Asbell said. But the facility has enough of a staff to handle a show, and the volunteers who came to a meeting held outside in the courtyard in April have enthusiastically endorsed helping out with getting entertainment back on the hallowed stage.

“The ushers are generally an older demographic and almost all of them have been vaccinated by now,” Asbell said. “They’re feeling relatively comfortable in coming back, and that was even before the CDC’s latest announcements. Hearing it’s safe to be indoors without a mask on is obviously very good reinforcement.”

Even so, the Lobero will be strictly enforcing a requirement that all patrons must produce a vaccination card or proof of a negative COVID test in the previous 72 hours to attend the concert and keep masks on throughout the show. But the end of the pandemic and the restrictive protocols that restrict attendance can’t come soon enough for the theater manager.

“From a very selfish point of view, I need the coronavirus to get the f--- out of here so we can fully open up,” he said with not even a trace of an apology.

“There’s a lag time between what the CDC says and (changes to) the California health guidelines, and I’m OK with that, because the bottom line is we need to get open and stay open. The virus has to be at a certain level of control — a great deal of control, actually — before we’re allowed to play ball. I get it. But I want to start playing ball.”

The game gets going again on June 19. Visit www.lobero.org for details.

Lotus at the Luke

Back in the virtual world, the Marjorie Luke Theatre this weekend unveils its eighth video presentation in its virtual concert series spotlighting local musicians and others in highly produced digital productions shot with multiple cameras and professional sound on the stage of the historic venue.

All In For Love represents the live concert full-set debut for Dakota Lotus, the 16-year-old actor-musician who starred for three years on Disney Channel’s Coop and Cami Ask The World. But it’s not his first time performing at the Luke, as he was one of the soloists in the Emmy Award-winning Teens Sing for Santa Barbara post-Thomas Fire/Debris Flow concert at the theater in 2018, when he reprised belting out the Ed Sheeran song Thinking Out Loud that he’d used to audition for Disney that morning. He returned to the Luke in August 2019 as one of the Janet Adderley school alumni performing a concert version of the music from the film Footloose, with Kenny Loggins as musical director.

All In For Love, which begins on-demand streaming on the Luke’s website for free on May 21, features the young musician fronting an all-star band of Santa Barbara veteran artists, including Randy Tico (bass/arranger), Brian Mann (keyboards/accordion), Austin Beede (drums), Ray Pannell (guitar), and Lois Mahalia (vocals), all of whom developed and arrange Lotus’ original material that ranges from hard-driving pop to introspective ballads. The concert also represents the first show in the series to feature a live audience of invited guests (including Loggins) who can be heard whooping and hollering, marking a sort of soft transition back into the real world rather than the eerie silence that greeted song breaks in previous episodes.

Lotus answered a few questions via email to preview the 12-song concert.

Q. How did growing up with a mom who was part of Cirque du Soleil influence your own relationship with the arts and desire to be an artist? And how did your years with Janet Adderley shape you?

A. I was really lucky to have the opportunity to be brought up in an environment where there was a lot of storytelling expression through art. It helped me discover myself and I’ve always had a love for performing since I was very young. I started at the Adderley School when I was five years old and was so happy to be able to express myself through music and theater with people that also shared the love of music. Working with Janet really prepared me for working on Coop and Cami and I felt very comfortable on set.

“Be wise, because the world needs wisdom.” – Neil Gaiman

On Entertainment Page 404 404

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MONTECITO JOURNAL

17

Monte ito Miscellany

by Richard Mineards

Richard covered the Royal Family for Britain’s Daily Mirror and Daily Mail, and was an editor on New York Magazine. He was also a national anchor on CBS, a commentator on ABC Network News, gossip on The Joan Rivers Show and Geraldo Rivera, host on E! TV, a correspondent on the syndicated show Extra, a commentator on the KTLA Morning News and Entertainment Tonight. He moved to Montecito 14 years ago.

‘Fiesta Has Definitely Returned’:

La Primavera Kicks Off Summer-Long Party

A

Honorary directors Kathy Cota, Paula Bottiani, La Presidenta Stephanie Petlow, Louanne Mason, Debbie and Gary Petlow, and, in the carriage, Mark Bottiani and Michelle Petlow (Photo by Priscilla)

John Riccitiello, 63, has bought the 11.9-acre, 1927 Italian-Renaissance inspired George Washington Smith estate Sotto Il Monte for $32.3 million.

The property was formerly owned by venture capitalist Frank Caufield and auto entrepreneur Andy Granatelli.

The Sycamore Canyon Road property was originally listed for $39.75 million after Caufield, a co-founder of Silicon Valley’s Kleiner Perkins, died last year. It has several different structures, with an 18,000-square-foot main house, including eight bedrooms and 12 bathrooms.

There’s also a three-bedroom guest house, and a separate six-bedroom staff building for full-time gardeners, housekeepers, and security personnel.

And there’s more: A two-story pool house, garaging for 24 cars, including a climate-controlled 3,400-squarefoot garage that’s bigger than many American homes. There are also three wine cellars — one for white, one for red, and one for aging.

The estate gained some unwelcome notoriety as the setting for the televised wedding of Kim Kardashian, 38, to basketball star Kris Humphries, 34, which I covered for CNN in August 2011, which lasted all of 72 days.

Nancy Kogevinas of Berkshire Hathaway represented Riccitiello, who was an early investor in Oculus VR, which was sold to Facebook in 2014 for $2.3 billion.

Savannah Hoover, 9, is this year’s Junior Spirit (Photo by Priscilla)

fter Old Spanish Days was all but cancelled last year because of the pandemic, Fiesta fever was palpable at the Carriage and Western Art Museum with La Primavera, as the unveiling of the colorful festival’s new poster and pin helped kicked off the festivities in front of nearly 100 guests, led by gloriously attired La Presidenta Stephanie Petlow.

“Make no mistake, Fiesta has definitely returned,” declared Stephanie.

“So many people have worked so hard in a creative way to bring as much of this year’s 97th anniversary event to our community as possible. The light is definitely at the end of the tunnel!”

In keeping with this year’s theme, “Honoring Our Generations,” the impressive new poster was worked on originally years back by Stephanie’s artist mother, Sylvia Johns, and completed by her Texas-based granddaughter, Nadia, 14.

Santa Barbara High senior Mateo Dougin, 18, completed the graphic art. His mother, Adriana Rey Dougin, was Spirit of Fiesta in 1998.

Even the band entertaining, The Elements, was connected with the group leader’s daughter, Melissa Ornelas, having been a Junior Spirit and Spirit at the fun fest.

Fittingly, this year’s Spirit of Fiesta, Ysabella Grace Yturralde, 16, a junior at San Marcos High and daughter of Kelly and Yolanda Yturralde, and Junior Spirit, Savannah Hoover, 9, a

18 MONTECITO JOURNAL

Old Spanish Days Director Michelle Bischoff and El Segundo Vice Presidente y Secretario David Bolton (Photo by Priscilla)

Mystery Millionaire . . .

Ysabella Grace Yturralde, 16, is this year’s Spirit (Photo by Priscilla) La Presidenta Stephanie Petlow, right, with Josue Hernandez (Photo by Priscilla)

third grader at Hollister School and daughter of Tim and Kelly Hoover, also gave their first public performance, as the ubiquitous Drew Wakefield emceed.

Among those delighted to welcome in a whole new vaccinated and maskless era were Riley and Dacia Harwood, Fritz and Gretchen Olenberger, Tino and Barbara Munoz, Scott and Lisa

Burns, Rebecca Brand, David Bolton, fun-loving Franciscan friar Larry Gosselin, and mayor Cathy Murillo.

Although there are no parades or mercados scheduled this year, the rodeo, La Fiesta Pequeña, Las Noches de Ronda, and a handful of traditional parties are expected to go ahead.

Viva La Fiesta!

Welcome to the Neighborhood Powerhouse video game executive

“Well, I’m not usually one for speeches. So, goodbye.” – Ron Swanson

A 3,200-acre parcel of land in the foothills of Carpinteria is hitting the market for $75 million, with the listing agents saying it’s primed for the construction of a significant single-family compound.

While currently home to only a couple of airstream trailers, the site comes with plans to build a roughly 8,000-square-foot mansion by California architect Paul McClean, as well as permits to build additional guest houses throughout the property, says the agents Branden and Ryan

Miscellany Page 414 20 – 27 May 2021

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20 – 27 May 2021

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

19

Seen Around Town

BCRC Executive Director Silvana Kelly and sponsor Dariel Sidney from Global Philanthropy RevitaLash Cosmetics

‘I’m Back’: Breast Cancer Resource Center Empowers Through Fashion Show

by Lynda Millner

BCRC models: Maira Toscano, Tamara Everett, Miriam Dance, Charmian Tallman, Karen Mulhollen, and Carole Baral

B

reast Cancer Resource Center’s (BCRC) main word is “Thrive.”

“From the core of oneself, a Thriver taps deeply into innate courage so as to reshape and redefine life’s undesirable circumstances and emerge vibrantly anew.”

To thrive is like a plant; to grow vigorously.

Every year, BCRC gives a fashion show and luncheon with the models, all of which are female cancer survivors. This year was different, of course, with the pandemic, but beautiful still. It was filmed at the Belmond El Encanto’s Lily Pond on a white runway surrounded by water amid pink roses, green grass, and hot pink draperies. It was stunning, as were the

Ms Millner is the author of The Magic Makeover, Tricks for Looking Thinner, Younger and More Confident – Instantly.

If you have an event that belongs in this column, you are invited to call Lynda at 969-6164.

fashions from K. Frank in Montecito.

Music and commentary were brought to us by DJ Darla Bea, who managed to keep the energy up even though the entire event was virtual.

BCRC Executive Director Silvana Kelly (a survivor herself) says, “For the models it’s a way to share that they’re back to being a mom, a spouse,

Supporting you to aChieve your real eState goalS Care - CompetenCe - Credibility - Community

a caregiver, or whichever multiple role they have played. It’s a way to say, ‘I’m back.’” This year was also different because each model told her own story, as opposed to previous years, which featured a moderator retelling each cancer survivor’s journey to recovery. The ladies strutting their stuff were: Maira Toscano, Tamara Everett, Miriam Dance, Charmian Tallman, Karen Mulhollen, and Carole Baral.

So, just what does BCRC do? For starters, they have an office at 55 Hitchcock Way, Suite 101, which they’ve managed to keep open in spite of the pandemic. Their main service is to provide support through a lending library, peer groups, and programs such as reflexology and reiki treatments. BCRC fosters hope in those scary times of diagnosis and has been doing so for 23 years. As Silvana says, “It wasn’t a generally accepted concept. We were blazing a trail to provide patient services.”

Among the sponsors were: Belmond El Encanto, RevitaLash Cosmetics, Evie Sullivan, Joan Gaiser, Maris Goldberg, Joan Nordgren, Frederica Welch, Bonnie Bonfanti & Brooks London, Dr. Thomas & Ellen Fogel, Dede & Jim Nonn (Arnoldi’s Café),

and Sue dePonce.

Due to the pandemic, BCRC has had to go online even though the office is still open. Some support groups meet on Zoom or over the phone, but all the services are free. Currently, BCRC’s main fundraiser is virtual, and donations, both large and small, are welcome. You can call for information at 805-569-9693. See you by the runway next year!

Art in Action

As I was heading up to the Paseo Neuvo parking lot roof to go to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), I saw two artists painting a gigantic mural on the wall outside. Turns out it was due to be finished the following day in honor of Earth Day. Check it out the next time you’re downtown, and while you’re there, go see the free exhibit at the museum located just around the corner.

According to the brochure for the display of Shana Moulton’s work at MCA, “She works with video, installation, and performance to explore the anxiety, isolation, and mystical journeys of her alter-ego, Cynthia, as

Seen Page 364

it's All About the Service

Montecito | Santa Barbara | Goleta Hope Ranch | Beach Front Janet Caminite Associate Manager 805.896.7767 JanetCaminite@bhhscal.com www.SantaBarbaraLuxuryRealty.com www.BeachesofVentura.com DRE 01273668 DANA ZERTUCHE 805.403.5520 ·

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©2021 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties (BHHSCP) is a member of the franchise system of BHH Affiliates LLC. BHH Affiliates LLC and BHHSCP do not guarantee accuracy of all data including measurements, conditions, and features of property. Information is obtained from various sources and will not be verified by broker or MLS. Buyer is advised to independently verify the accuracy of that information.

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20 – 27 May 2021

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• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

21

Perspectives

by Rinaldo S. Brutoco

Rinaldo S. Brutoco is the Founding President and CEO of the Santa Barbara-based World Business Academy and a co-founder of JUST Capital. He’s a serial entrepreneur, executive, author, radio host, and futurist who’s published on the role of business in relation to pressing moral, environmental, and social concerns for over 35 years

‘It’s the Economy, Stupid!’: ‘Happy Days Are Here Again’

J

ames Carville famously coined this phrase in 1992 as candidate Bill Clinton campaigned for president. He hung it (together with two other “targeting” phrases) in the Clinton “War Room” where that campaign was planned and executed. It turned out that the recession of 1992 was just the boost that Clinton needed to unseat then-President George H.W. Bush as he reminded the voters how critical the economy should be with the votes to be cast.

Although Carville is not someone I personally admire, it seems he hit a “nerve” with the political forces at the time and left us with this lasting observation.

As the French observed so long ago, “The more things change, the more they remain the same.” We’re back at the economy as the principal “driver” behind the political “buzz” of the moment. This time the twin issues are a) employment and b) inflation fears.

Employment concerns of the moment are the result of the perceived “poor” job creation number of 266,000 released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (“BLS”) for April 2021. Generally, economists were predicting that up to 1,000,000 would be created after the robust gains of the last two months – particularly March’s 770,000 (“revised” down from 916,000). I have a few comments.

Let’s start with this concept of “revising” down the actual numbers. An interesting fact is that the actual raw number of new jobs created in April 2021 was approximately 1,000,0000. You can be forgiven if you didn’t know that as almost no one but professional economists have that information. You see, when the April jobs number was released, it was “seasonally adjusted” downward from 1,000,000 to 266,000. So, what is this “seasonal adjustment” all about? Turns out the BLS in its wisdom determined that a “normal” Spring 2021 number would have had a floor of roughly 750,000 new jobs automatically added as the economy “routinely” moved from winter to spring. Right! As if anything about 20202021 has been routine! To adjust the actual number down when we are climbing out of an epidemic-induced, deadly deep recession which destroyed more than a third of the economy, is simply absurd.

Even more absurd, as of today we are still “missing” 8,000,000 positions that were eliminated in the pandemic and which have yet to come back. How do you seasonally adjust for that? How do you seasonally adjust for a pandemic response that killed over 580,000 Americans and has left us struggling to find our social and economic footing? Even more significantly, how do you seasonally adjust the “normal” passage of winter into spring when our Capitol was almost overtaken by an armed insurrection, and 70 percent of Republicans claim to believe our current president is illegitimate because of the toxic “Big Lie” being perpetrated? If ever there was a year to resist the temptation to “normalize” our labor accounting standards, this is the year.

Do you feel better knowing that the economy created so many more jobs than BLS reported? You should. It is good news. Here’s a prediction: in raw numbers May will end with at least 500,000 more new jobs than April, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that hits over the 750,000 mark. I also feel confident that even more jobs will be added in each of June, July, August, and September. What happens after that is determined by how successful the Republicans will be in blocking President Biden’s $2.2 trillion (or whatever lesser number ends up passing) infrastructure or “Build Back Better” plan.

In fact, the level of job creation since Biden took office is the highest it’s been since the ‘70s. With so many jobs still “missing,” and the economy now growing so well, there’s high surety that GDP growth will continue upward. It’s currently pegged by Fed Vice-Chair Richard Clarida (who also sees the BLS jobs report based on “transitory factors”) at 4.2 percent annualized growth. The current economists’ consensus for GDP growth is a more “bullish” 6.2 percent annualized growth by the end of the year, and I personally believe it could be even a percentage point higher by then. If this last set of observations makes you feel good, you’re not alone. Consumer Confidence took a big jump in April from 109 to 121.7 – which is a significant indicator of both future economic activity and job growth.

But what about inflation? We remember Richard Nixon for at least four things: 1) Opening China, 2) Signing the Environmental Protection Agency into law; 3) massive stagflation (when inflation runs very high and the economy shrinks); and 4) Watergate – the last time we held a president accountable for his crimes.

22 MONTECITO JOURNAL

Future of Food:

Michelin starred Eleven Madison Park to reopen with full plant-based menu

I

n April of last year, famous New York restaurant Eleven Madison Park repurposed its kitchens to make meals for doctors, nurses, and first responders. Now, the restaurant is scheduled to once again open its doors to the public, but with a green upgrade. Owner and chef Daniel Humm has announced that the three-Michelin-starred restaurant will reopen with an entirely plant-based menu.

Slated to open June 10, Eleven Madison Park will make history as the first restaurant of its caliber to go meat-free in New York City and the first vegan three-Michelin-starred restaurant in the world.

“The way we have sourced our food, the way we’re consuming our food, the way we eat meat, it is not sustainable. And that is not an opinion. This is just a fact,” Humm said in an interview with NPR. “So, we decided that our restaurant will be 100 percent plant-based.”

The increased popularity of plant-based diets is driving this food revolution, even at the highest levels of dining. Back in January, French restaurant ONA became the first vegan restaurant in the country to be awarded a Michelin star. The transition of restaurants towards plant-based meals is highly encouraging as it offers an opportunity to introduce more people to the benefits and taste profiles of plant-based meals and provides dining options for those that choose to adopt a more sustainable diet.

In addition to plant-based diets, regenerative agriculture holds immense climate change mitigation potential. Just one dollar invested in regenerative agriculture yields $40 in improved resilience, water conservation, farmer prosperity, and carbon removal. San Francisco-based startup Zero Foodprint is catalyzing the regenerative movement by partnering with restaurants in what they call a “table-to-farm” model.

The organization takes a few cents from participating restaurants’ meals and uses them to fund regenerative agriculture grants for farms. Their hope is to grow this movement to revolutionize the food system into a more nutritious and prosperous carbon sink by returning to traditional farming strategies like crop diversification and rotational grazing.

These initiatives illustrate the growing momentum in the restaurant industry to use the power of food for improved climate resilience and raise awareness about the role of food systems in a sustainable future.

•MJ Let’s focus on number three. In the absence of a slowing economy, which we reported above is definitely not happening, a little inflation is absolutely no problem. We’ve been averaging just a tad over 2.2 percent for more than a decade and it probably won’t semi-permanently rise much above 3.5 percent.

If so, we have no problem whatsoever. Business could pass along that small amount of inflation to customers without any serious disruption. Further, it would permit banks and insurance companies to pay small interest fees to depositors and policyholders – that’s a good thing. It would also tamp down the overheated housing markets by bringing mortgages back down to traditional interest ratios.

Low by historical standards, a 3.5 percent inflation rate would make it easy for the government to continue borrowing with “cheap” dollars to implement a massive restructuring of our domestic infrastructure. The new infrastructure that will replace our decaying collective societal assets will last decades and, in some cases, centuries. That’s the time to build – when borrowing costs are cheap. It is too early to tell, and no one should ever predict long-term trends from one month’s data, but it is clear that the temporary supply chain breakdowns which are pushing prices up temporarily will likely abate as the economy re-starts following the national lockdown we’ve all withstood.

As one sage put it reflecting on the pandemic crisis now ending, “It is easier to put the economy into a coma than to awaken it.” The “kinks” have to work themselves out of the system and our trading partners (especially Europe) have to struggle free from their version of the pandemic in the months ahead as their vaccination rates climb, which they will in the developed world. So, no fear of inflation at this time, and if such fear becomes reasonable, you’ll read about it here first.

•MJ

“If you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is wise, and then just behave like they would.” – Neil Gaiman

20 – 27 May 2021

My Take

by James Buckley

W

Hooey on the Hustings

orried about “voter suppression” by the state of Georgia and other Republican-led legislatures? You shouldn’t be, as it has been the Democratic Party that, over the past 140 years or so, has suppressed voting, particularly in the South, but let’s not go there.

Instead, let’s go to this past Sunday, when “recognized experts” Marc Elias and Tiffany Muller held a virtual “conversation about voter rights, redistricting, and HR-1.” Their conversation was labeled “Fighting Voter Suppression.”

Why, you may wonder, were they so worked up? Is it because they viewed those images of bat-wielding Black Panthers standing in front of a voting district in Philadelphia and wanted to do something about it? Perhaps, but the reason as they explain it, is because “Republicans are working diligently to suppress the vote by all means available.”

Really?

The “experts” speak passionately and sincerely. Their goal, their vow, they say, is to “protect our Democracy”

and “to ensure that every citizen has access to voting.” Sounds logical, even needed. Certainly bi-partisan and objective, right?

Before we examine those particular claims, let’s take a glimpse at who these two champions of democracy — the “experts” Elias and Muller — are.

Marc Elias is the founder of Democracy Docket, a left-wing, oops, I mean “progressive” pressure group.

He is a prominent lawyer with Perkins Cole, the law firm that Hillary Clinton used as a front to cover her presidential campaign’s involvement and funding (through Fusion GPS) of the infamously scandalous and grossly inaccurate (yet immeasurably damaging) Steele dossier that played such a big role in the presidency of Donald Trump.

Elias served as general counsel to Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign as well as that of John Kerry in 2004.

So, he is not only an “expert,” but also an extremely partisan Democratic bigwig who works exclusively (as far as I know) for the Democratic Party.

Anything he may say or do to “pro-

tect the integrity of the vote” or “fight suppression of voters’ rights by (those dastardly) Republicans” would be, let me see, what’s the official term? Aah, that’s it: a lot of hooey.

Elias authored many of the techniques that arose in the 2020 election, such as mass mail-in balloting and unrestrained ballot harvesting, along with quickly assembled rules that worked to stymie the ability of anyone to conduct a fruitful audit — forensic or otherwise — of the results of various elections around the country, particularly those in the “battleground” states.

Just to say, he has every right to be a partisan and to do whatever it (lawfully, legally) takes to get his candidate across the finish line, but one should know if one is inclined to attend such “conversations” and is objective in any way, that Elias is a hired gun and represents his Democrat clients extremely effectively. He is definitely not a disinterested party, though he is an expert in compiling votes for his candidates through the use of election chaos and uncertainty.

Tiffany Muller is president of a group called End Citizens United/ Let America Vote Action Fund. She is also a fervent left-wing activist, particularly for the LBGT crowd, as she is gay herself. She contrib-

utes to Huffington Post and is glowingly described there as having “a record of empowering the progressive grassroots to achieve ambitious goals.” Muller served as Deputy Political Director at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

She is also a proponent of the “For the People Act” (Newspeak translation: “Rules for Ensuring Democrat Victories Every Time, All the Time”) currently wending its way through the Democrat-led House of Representatives.

Fake Outrage

What has gotten these folks’ panties in such a twist, you may wonder.

Actually, nothing.

Their panties are not twisted at all.

Their “outrage” is an orchestrated plan to seal into permanence the make-it-easier-to-cheat election components that Elias worked so hard (and so successfully, I must add) to introduce and then implement during the 2020 election. They’ve worked up a pseudo-righteous indignation (Jim Crow 2.0!) against Republicans in order to promote the continuation of the aforementioned ballot harvesting/ mass mail-in scheme, along with dayof-voting registration, unsupervised

My TakePage Take 344

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Hot Topics

by Christina Favuzzi

77 acres in the Santa Ynez Valley Breathtaking views & abundant oaks!

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Wildfire Season is Upon Us: Here’s How Montecito Fire Can Help You Prepare

igh fire season is officially underway for the South Coast.

It’s easy to feel worried when looking at the parched brush, dramatically lacking rainfall totals, and concerning forecasts for warmer temperatures and impending sundowner winds.

However, worry is not an effective method for survival.

Instead, your Montecito Fire Department is focused on educating and preparing our crews and our community for the potentially challenging months ahead.

First, let’s face the facts. The 2021 High Fire Season outlook is concerning, and with good reason.

The National Interagency Fire Center recently released its seasonal fire weather outlook for the Southern California region. The report suggests that drought conditions are intensifying across the area due to the warm

and dry weather we experienced in April.

The U.S. Drought Monitor now shows 73 percent of California in extreme drought. These grim drought conditions have not been so widespread across the state since February 2015. Currently, Santa Barbara County is one of few areas in the state that fall into the “severe drought” classification, just below the “extreme” level.

That may not be the case for much longer.

To understand what this means, simply step outside and notice the browning hillsides. Wildland firefighters refer to this metric as “fuel moisture” and use it to determine how quickly different types of vegetation will burn. Fuel moisture values have hit record low values across Southern California and there is no

Hot Topics Page 354

Thank you!

Transition House’s Auxiliary Mad Hatter fundraiser was hosted

virtually for the first time this year due to the pandemic, and yet during this time of social and personal crisis, the outpour of participation and support for our families raised over $244,000. Contributions from businesses, organizations, and individuals in the community allows us to continue our mission of addressing the needs of Santa Barbara’s homeless children and their families. From the families we all support and from the Auxiliary, thank you!

Transition House Auxiliary 2021 Mad Hatter

For information about Transition House, visit www.transitionhouse.com

24 MONTECITO JOURNAL

20 – 27 May 2021

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20 – 27 May 2021

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

25

PUBLIC NOTICE City of Santa Barbara

01-NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS CALLING FOR BIDS OWNER: Montecito Union School District PROJECT IDENTIFICATION NAME: 2021-2 Nature Lab Infrastructure Project PROJECT LOCATION: 385 San Ysidro Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93108

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PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Install underground infrastructure for the Nature Lab, a property owned by Montecito Union School. This infrastructure includes water, electric, gas, communications, and sewer.

• • • • •

Connect new water infrastructure to existing school point of connection. Concurrently run 12-gauge Paige Electric Decoder biwire in 1-inch conduit to all valve manifold locations. Bring electrical conduits to the location established by the designated, licensed electrician from the District’s concurrent project Bring transition fitting of the new gas line to District-designated location.

Bring communications conduits to junction/pull boxes for District personnel to connect.

Bring sewer pipes terminate to District-designated locations.

Translocate the displaced trench soil in a designated location per District staff (for future District use.)

Work to be performed and completed by: June 28-August 13 Not Included in this Project: ● The possible bathroom locations are for reference only: this project does not include the design or building of any bathrooms. ● The Photovoltaic system and PV corridor referenced in the diagram is the approximate location of a structure to be built June-August 2021. The design and building of this structure is not a part of this project. ● The kitchen referenced in the diagram is the approximate location of a structure to be built sometime in the future. The design and building of this structure is not a part of this project.

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BID DEADLINE: Bids are due on June 23, 2021 not later than 9 a.m.

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PLACE AND METHOD OF BID RECEIPT: All Bids must be sealed. Personal delivery, courier, or mailed via United States Postal Service and addressed to Montecito Union School District, 385 San Ysidro Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93108. ATTN: Virginia Alvarez

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PLACE PLANS ARE ON FILE: Montecito Union School District, Business Department, Second Floor, 385 San Ysidro Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93108, www.tricoblue.com

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ALTERNATES: If alternate bids are called for, the contract will be awarded to the lowest bid price on the base contract without consideration of the prices on the additive or deductive items.

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MANDATORY JOB WALK: Meet at Montecito Union School Front Office by the stairs, on Thursday, June 3, 2021 at 10 a.m. Attendance at the entire job walk is mandatory and failure to attend the entire job walk may result in your bid being rejected as non-responsive. Contact OWNER for details on required job walks and related documentation.

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This is a prevailing wage project. OWNER has ascertained the general prevailing rate of per diem wages in the locality in which this work is to be performed for each craft or type of worker needed to execute this contract. These rates are on file at OWNER’s office, and a copy may be obtained upon request, or at www.dir.ca.gov. Contractor shall post a copy of these rates at the job site. ALL PROJECTS OVER $1,000 ARE SUBJECT TO PREVAILING WAGE MONITORING AND ENFORCEMENT BY THE LABOR COMMISSIONER.

It shall be mandatory upon the contractor to whom the contract is awarded (CONTRACTOR), and upon any SUBCONTRACTOR, to pay not less than the specified rates to all workers employed by them in the execution of the contract.

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A Payment Bond for contracts over $25,000 and a Performance Bond for all contracts will be required prior to commencement of work. These bonds shall be in the amounts and form called for in the Contract Documents.

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Pursuant to the provisions of Public Contract Code Section 22300, CONTRACTOR may substitute certain securities for any funds withheld by OWNER to ensure CONTRACTOR’s performance under the contract. At the request and expense of CONTRACTOR, securities equivalent to any amount withheld shall be deposited, at the discretion of OWNER, with either OWNER or a state or federally chartered bank as the escrow agent, who shall then pay any funds otherwise subject to retention to CONTRACTOR. Upon satisfactory completion of the contract, the securities shall be returned to CONTRACTOR. Securities eligible for investment shall include those listed in Government Code Section 16430, bank and savings and loan certificates of deposit, interest bearing demand deposit accounts, standby letters of credit, or any other security mutually agreed to by CONTRACTOR and OWNER. CONTRACTOR shall be the beneficial owner of any securities substituted for funds withheld and shall receive any interest on them. The escrow agreement shall be in the form indicated in the Contract Documents.

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To bid on or perform the work stated in this Notice, CONTRACTOR must possess a valid and active contractor's license of the following classification(s) B No CONTRACTOR or subcontractor shall be qualified to bid on, be listed in a bid proposal, subject to the requirements of § 4104 of the Public Contract Code, for a public works project (submitted on or after March 1, 2015) unless currently registered with the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) and qualified to perform public work pursuant to Labor Code § 1725.5. No CONTRACTOR or subcontractor may be awarded a contract for public work on a public works project (awarded after April 1, 2015) unless registered with the DIR. DIR’s web registration portal is: www.dir.ca.gov/Public-Works/Contractors.html CONTRACTOR and all subcontractors must furnish electronic certified payroll records (eCPR) to the Labor Commissioner monthly in PDF format. Registration at www.dir.ca.gov/Public-Works/Certified-Payroll-Reporting.html is required to use the eCPR system.

The following notice is given as required by Labor Code Section 1771.5(b)(1): CONTRACTOR and any subcontractors are required to review and comply with the provisions of the California Labor Code, Part 7, Chapter 1, beginning with Section 1720, as more fully discussed in the Contract Documents. These sections contain specific requirements concerning, for example, determination and payment of prevailing wages, retention, inspection, and auditing payroll records, use of apprentices, payment of overtime compensation, securing workers’ compensation insurance, and various criminal penalties or fines which may be imposed for violations of the requirements of the chapter. Submission of a bid constitutes CONTRACTOR’s representation that CONTRACTOR has thoroughly reviewed these requirements.

15. OWNER will retain 5% of the amount of any progress payments.

16. This Project does not require prequalification pursuant to AB 1565 of all general contractors and all mechanical, electrical and plumbing subcontractors 17. BID PACKET will be available at www.tricoblue.com and provided at the job walk to attendees.

Advertisement Dates: May 17 – May 28, 2021

26 MONTECITO JOURNAL

Virginia Alvarez 805-969-3249 x 420

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the City Council of the City of Santa Barbara will conduct a Public Hearing on Tuesday, May 25, 2021, during the afternoon session of the meeting, which begins at 2:00 p.m. The meeting will be conducted electronically. On Thursday, May, 20, 2021 an Agenda with all items to be heard on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 will be available online at www.SantaBarbaraCA.gov/CAP. The Agenda includes instructions for participation in the meeting. If you wish to participate in the public hearing, please follow the instructions on the posted Agenda.

The hearing is to consider the adoption of the City of Santa Barbara 2020 Enhanced Urban Water Management Plan, addendum to the 2015 Urban Water Management Plan, and 2021 Water Shortage Contingency Plan, according to the requirements of California Water Code Division 6, Part 2.6, Chapter 3, commencing with § 10620. A copy of the proposed Enhanced Urban Water Management Plan is available for public review online at www.SantaBarbaraCA.gov/WaterVision. The preparation and adoption of the Enhanced Urban Water Management Plan is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act under California Water Code § 10652.

You are invited to attend this public hearing and address your verbal comments to the City Council. Written comments are also welcome up to the time of the hearing, and should be addressed to the City Council via the City Clerk’s Office by sending them electronically to Clerk@SantaBarbaraCA.gov.

In order to promote social distancing and prioritize the public’s health and well-being, the City Council currently holds all meetings electronically. As a public health and safety precaution, the council chambers will not be open to the general public. Councilmembers and the public may participate electronically.

(SEAL)

Sarah Gorman, MMC City Clerk Services Manager 5/12/2021 Published May 12 and May 19, 2021 Montecito Journal

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/ are doing business as: Events By Georges, 3793 Hope Terrace, Santa Barbara, CA 93110. Georges Bitar, 3793 Hope Terrace, Santa Barbara, CA 93110. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on May 14, 2021.

This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk.

I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 20210001430. Published May 19, 26, June 2, 9, 2021

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/ are doing business as: Bonilla Trucking, 4755 Garret St., Guadalupe, CA 93434. Victor Bonilla Cuellar, 4755 Garret St., Guadalupe, CA 93434. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on May 4, 2021.

This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk.

I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 20210001288. Published May 12, 19, 26, June 2, 2021

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Jack May Therapy, 1187 Coast Village Road Suite 1-360, Santa Barbara, CA 93108.

Capricorn Counseling Center, A Marriage and Family Corporation, 1187 Coast Village Road Suite 1-360, Santa Barbara, CA 93108. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on May 7, 2021. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office.

Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2021-0001332. Published May 19, 26, June 2, 9, 2021

STATEMENT OF WITHDRAWAL FROM PARTNERSHIP OPERATING UNDER A FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME: Fictitious Business Name of the Partnership: Harmony Interior Design, 528 San Blas Place, Santa Barbara, CA 93111. Name of Person Withdrawing: Anneli Helena Clavering, 11 San Marcos Trout Club, Santa Barbara, CA 93105.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on April 7, 2021. Original FBN No. 2019-0000805, filed April 2, 2019.

I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 20210000995. Published April 28, May 5, 12, 19, 2021

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Teeny Bikini, 19 East Canon Perdido, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. Christina Menchaca, 515 West Valerio, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on May 5, 2021. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office.

Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2021-0001298. Published May 12, 19, 26, June 2, 2021

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Currently Welding, 318 South H St, Lompoc, CA, 93436. Dylan T Shelly, 20 Stanford Cir, Lompoc, CA, 93436. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on March 4, 2021. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 20210000602. Published April 28, May 5, 12, 19, 2021

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/ are doing business as: MOTO DESIGN; MOTO TATOO; MOTO Design Studio, 4467 La Paloma, Santa Barbara, CA 93105. Kimberly Mather Neill, 4467 La Paloma, Santa Barbara, CA 93105. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on April 26, 2021.

This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk.

I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 20210001194. Published May 12, 19, 26, June 2, 2021

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SBMIDMOD, 223 Anacapa Street #C, Santa Barbara, CA, 93101.

Tracey Strobel, 1311 West Valerio Street, Santa Barbara, CA, 93101. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on April 16, 2021. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 20210001072. Published April 28, May 5, 12, 19, 2021

“You are about to enter the most uncertain and thrilling period of your lives.” – Lin-Manuel Miranda

20 – 27 May 2021

In Memoriam

by Gabe Saglie

Jim Clendenen, Au Bon Climat Wine Legend, Remembered as ‘Larger Than Life’

T

he Santa Barbara wine industry — and the wine world as a whole — lost one of its superstars when Jim Clendenen died over the weekend. He passed away at his home in Buellton, in his sleep. He was 68.

Wine aficionados who did not know him personally certainly knew his wine, especially his flagship brand, Au Bon Climat. Loosely translated to “a well exposed vineyard,” the label was the prime vehicle for his unapologetic approach to winemaking, especially to making pinot noir and chardonnay.

His wines were influenced by his admiration of Burgundian techniques and were consistently fresh, balanced, and restrained.

Those who did know him, though, would say that the man behind the wines — or “The Mind Behind” as he dubbed himself — was anything but restrained. When Jim Clendenen walked into a room, people noticed.

He was ebullient and exuberant, enthusiastic and energetic. His loud shirts and flowing hair, in fact, were extensions of a wonderfully dynamic personality.

“It’s funny, I always think that winemakers are their wine,” says fellow winemaker and Montecito resident Doug Margerum. “But Jim wasn’t. If his wines were more reserved, he was certainly larger than life.”

He calls Clendenen, who was godfather to his son, Evan, a mentor. The two men were also business partners in the wine project Vita Nova.

That was one of Clendenen’s trademarks, actually — his imaginative approach expanded his creative horizons, and he pushed out various boutique endeavors, like Barham Mendelsohn, under which he crafted pinot noirs from Sonoma’s Anderson Valley, and Clendenen Family Vineyards, for which he made artisan-style versions of varieties like gewurztraminer, chenin blanc, and petit verdot. His nebbiolo was barrel aged for five years.

But it was Au Bon Climat, or ABC, that became his most famous calling card. It made him — and by extension, his home base of Santa Maria Valley and all of Santa Barbara County — recognizable in wine drinking circles both domestically and around the world. The various “Winemaker of the Year”-type accolades he won over the years came from publications like the Los Angeles Times, Food & 20 – 27 May 2021

Jim Clendenen died at his home in Buellton at 68 (Bob Dickey photo)

Wine Magazine, and Germany’s Wein Gourmet. The latter, actually, called him “Winemaker of the World.”

“He did a magnificent job at spreading our message,” says winemaker and Montecito resident Fred Brander, who became fast friends with Clendenen in 1978, before either would become a torch bearer for Santa Barbara County wines. “If Robert Mondavi can be credited with championing Napa, then Jim was his counterpart down here in Santa Barbara.”

It was Clendenen’s friend and fellow culinarian Frank Ostini, of Hitching Post II fame, who discovered Clendenen Saturday night, after several calls to Clendenen from family had gone unanswered.

“We were so blessed to have him a part of our lives,” says Ostini, who enjoyed a 40-year friendship with Clendenen. “I will dearly, dearly miss him.”

When Ostini moved the Hitching Post wine production to the Au Bon Climat facility in 2019, it was “a homecoming,” he says, since the HP label produced wines there back in the 1990s and moved out only when space became tight. (Clendenen’s good friend Bob Lindquist also made wine at ABC for many years, until he sold his Qupé wine brand in 2018.)

What’s remained the same at Au Bon Climat, says Ostini, are the faces of the employees — a team of close to 30 people, many of whom have worked at ABC for decades. That’s a testament to Clendenen’s professional generosity.

“These are such great people who’ve now lost their leader,” says Ostini.

“We’re here to hug them and hold them, and to be a part of keeping the whole thing going.”

Clendenen’s daughter, Isabelle, who works in sales at ABC, confirms that the world of Au Bon Climat will live on. It is, after all, “a family business through and through,” she says.

“Even if you’re not related by blood, you’re still a member of our family.”

In a conversation with the Montecito Journal on Monday, Isabelle, 26, shared personal insights into the man so many consider a superstar: “A lot of people are focusing on what he did for the wine industry, but he was also devoted to charity work.

He supported charities in places as far away as Atlanta and North Carolina and Alabama. He was really focused on children, because children were the most important thing to him.

“People say he was loud and strong, but he was also a very sensitive person. He cried as easily as anyone.

“And he had a hatred for social media. Especially Facebook — that one was the worst. He was such an emotional person that all he wanted was a physical connection with people.”

“If Robert Mondavi can be credited with championing Napa, then Jim was his counterpart down here in Santa Barbara.”

— Fred Brander, winemaker Isabelle’s brother, Knox, 21, resides in Japan. Jim Clendenen married and divorced twice, most recently to Morgan Clendenen, a winemaker of viognier for many years under the Cold Heaven label.

“I know how Isabelle and Knox feel,” says Drake Whitcraft, who took over Whitcraft Winery when his father, the legend Chris Whitcraft, passed away in 2014. Drake, too, was in his 20s. “It’s indescribable how deep a void is created, losing your dad. You only get one.

“Jim is a force to be reckoned with in the wine industry — not was — is, even posthumously,” said Drake Whitcraft. “Jim was not only a great winemaker… he had the business savvy, too. And anyone who met him knows how he could captivate a room with stories told with precise details, as if he were experiencing them right then.”

Jim Clendenen was born in Ohio and graduated with high honors in prelaw from UCSB in 1976. He’d already been to Burgundy and Champagne, though — he turned 21 in France, in fact — and the allure of pinot noir and chardonnay would eventually

• The Voice of the Village •

win out.

A stint at Zaca Mesa Winery in 1978, under the tutelage of winemaker Ken Brown, led to Clendenen working three global harvests, an amazing feat, in 1981 — Santa Barbara, Australia, and France. He founded Au Bon Climat in 1982 with friend Adam Tolmach, who’d leave in 1990 to launch Ojai Vineyard. Clendenen would go on to grow Au Bon Climat by using European-inspired, Old World techniques, a course to which he stayed true even when California winemaking, especially in the 1990s and early 2000s, leaned toward bigger, richer wines.

“That’s to be admired,” adds Brander. “He didn’t get caught up in fads or styles. He kept true to Burgundy, to winemaking that was not modern or popular. He let the vineyards do the talking.”

Clendenen took his winery, which has a tasting room in downtown Santa Barbara, to a yearly production of some 50,000 cases. He sourced grapes from a variety of vineyards, including Sanford & Benedict and his own sustainably farmed Le Bon Climat.

He was one of the biggest fruit purchasers at the famous Bien Nacido Vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley, which is owned by Santa Barbara’s Miller family.

“I’ll remember him for always sticking to his guns,” says Nicholas Miller, who runs sales and marketing for the family’s wine enterprises. While Bien Nacido is best known for its pinot noir and chardonnay, “we were growing things like merlot and nebbiolo for Jim — he definitely pushed the limits at Bien Nacido.”

Clendenen was also known for his hospitality. Lunches he hosted regularly at ABC, in fact, became legendary.

“You never knew who’d show up or which wines would be poured,” recalls Miller. Actually, Clendenen was known for one of the most extensive libraries of older vintages on the Central Coast, many of which would get poured at his lunches. And the cooking — homegrown but always gourmet, and plentiful — was done by the Mind Behind himself.

Those who knew him well will say that the pandemic took its toll on Clendenen in various ways. The threat to his compromised health meant, by necessity, that he had to become more reclusive. And a lifestyle defined by endless wine dinners, meet-and-greets and journeys around the globe to promote wine coming to a sudden halt — that was not an easy new reality for someone who thrived on the human connection.

“Him passing away — that was something he was afraid was going to happen soon,” admits Isabelle.

A memorial for Clendenen is being planned.

•MJ MONTECITO JOURNAL

27

Travel Buzz

by Leslie A. Westbrook

A third-generation Californian, Leslie, currently resides in Carpinteria but called Summerland home for 30 years. She can be reached at LeslieAWestbrook@gmail.com

Taking the Long Road Home:

A Vaccine Journey and the Road to Dominion A day trip to Santa Maria: encounters with the good, the bad, the ugly, and more on re-entering the human race.

M

y “first outside adventure” in a year (a trip to L.A. to visit my hermetically sealed mom on display for her 90th birthday doesn’t count) was on February 20, 2021.

My fellow community activist, board member, and civically minded neighbor John Nicoli texted me a message: “You still looking for a shot?” he wrote, “Available in Santa Maria.”

I replied in the affirmative, and he emailed me a link that read, signup genius.com. I wondered if it was legit and signed up for my first appointment. It had felt like a cross between a drug deal and winning the lottery.

(My second trip was a repast for Pfizer vaccination #2 on March 13, 2021.)

I guess you can call me an early adopter.

I woke up at a little before five in the morning, with anticipation of the day ahead. I turned on the TV for news, but landed on PBS travel host Rick Steves walking through markets in Alexandria, Egypt, and taking a felucca ride up the Nile.

“On the Nile,” he said in his annoyingly nasal, yet informative voice, “tourists leave their cares behind.”

I dreamed of following suit.

While the Pharaohs had been prepared for eternity, buried with their valuables for the afterlife, I’d been waiting an eternity to get out of my hovel.

A Dolly Parton public service announcement appeared, and the

Matthew Pifer, MD

country star crooned her reimagined “Jolene” vaccine song, wearing an outfit with cut out sleeves for easy shot access. I wondered if I should cut holes in one of my T-shirts.

“Don’t be such a chicken squat,” Dolly chided, in response to vaccine deniers and slaggers, as she crooned me into the mood while I dressed for my big day out.

I hadn’t driven up and over the bucolic San Marcos Pass Road (Highway 154) in more than a year.

My first stop was Bob’s Well Bread Bakery in Los Alamos — a 40-minute wait in line. Luckily, I’d gauged enough time before my appointment, and spent the waiting period chatting up two fellows in line ahead of me: a Los Angeles-based architect with a home in Los Alamos, and a very young federal judge from Atlanta, who was loading up on Bob’s great bakery items to bring on his flight home after visiting his ailing father in SLO. I bought bread for myself, recommended to me by a Santa Barbara friend who had spent the past year bringing me Trader Joe’s groceries during my pandemic paranoia (he did an almost perfect job).

A bag filled with two of Bob’s fantastic baguettes, a couple of bagels, a lovely croissant with cheese and tomato that I eventually devoured on

Getting the Pfizer vaccine in the North County came with great spirit via cheerleading medical personnel

the drive up to Santa Maria, a sourdough loaf to freeze, and I was loaded for bear!

The vaccination center at Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria resembled a country fair attended by old people (65+). The air was filled with excitement and positivity. Attractive young people manned the booths, and bright white tents adorned with colorful balloons closely resembled a 1950s themed rock ‘n’ roll

Travel Buzz Page 434

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20 – 27 May 2021

Save San Marcos Foothills Forever

FOOTHILLS FOREVER

Together, we are making this happen… but we have a lot more to do!

We have met the developer’s first two milestones with a combination of cash, pledges and loans. A big thank you to our supporters!

Act now!

More than 4,000 people have made contributions, but we still need to meet our June 1st milestone of $18,000,000 to acquire the San Marcos Foothills West Mesa. This will permanently preserve and protect the land for future generations. Our intent is to add it to the 200 acre San Marcos Foothills Preserve.

Please join us!

How to help: Make a tax-deductible contribution to the Foothills Forever Fund, a fiscal sponsorship fund at the Santa Barbara Foundation. Please make checks payable to: Santa Barbara Foundation, with Foothills Forever Fund in the memo line.

Mail to: 1111 Chapala St. #200 Santa Barbara, CA 93101

For more information and to donate online:

FoothillsForever.org

To donate gifts of stock or other assets, please contact info@foothillsforever.org

ACT NOW! DEADLINE: JUNE 1ST! Visit the San Marcos Foothills West Mesa at the end of Via Gaitero Road. Docent led tours of the property are offered every Sat. & Sun. at 10 am or by special arrangement. Email Julia Laraway at: a1fyr516@gmail.com

20 – 27 May 2021

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

29

Our Town

by Joanne A. Calitri

Joanne is a professional international photographer and journalist.

Contact her at: artraks@yahoo.com

Arts in Lockdown #28: Nicole Lamartine, PhD,

is the New Sorensen Director of Choral Music at UCSB News correspondent Joanne Calitri interviewing Nicole Lamartine, UCSB’s Sorensen Director of Choral Music

N

icole Lamartine, PhD, is the new Sorenson Director of Choral Music at UCSB, filling a position vacant since Michel Marc Gervais retired in 2016, and will oversee all UCSB’s choruses and ensembles. Originally from New Mexico, she comes to Santa Barbara from the University of Wyoming Department of Music faculty (2008-2020), where she won the university’s highest

teaching award: the Ellbogen Award for Meritorious Classroom Teaching.

A professional vocalist and recording artist of 30 years, her experience includes backup vocals for Barry Manilow and Linda Ronstadt; a regular singer with Conspirare, the Grammy nominated professional choir based in Austin, Texas, with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Colorado Bach Ensemble and the Carnegie Hall

Choral Masterworks; and a guest conductor of international honors choirs in Germany, Oman, United Arab Emirates and nine U.S. all-state choirs.

Trained classically as a soprano, with a 3½-octave range, she easily transitions from opera to blues and jazz.

She holds a B.M. from New Mexico State University in Vocal Performance; an M.M. from the University of Arizona in Vocal Performance; and a D.M.A. from University of Arizona in Choral Conducting, with a minor in Vocal Performance.

Nicole is also a top-tier power lifter with personal bests of 281 pounds in back squat, 151 pounds on the bench, and 353 pounds on deadlift. She also enjoys poetry and acrylic painting.

Here is our interview ahead of the UCSB Chamber Choir concert: Q. Let’s start with the livestream UCSB Chamber Choir Concert on May 26: A. The concert will be streamed on UCSB’s YouTube Channel and is free for all to enjoy. The theme is “resilience” — our spirits through last year, our ability to make music, and our human connection through singing.

Program highlights are songs from the Justice Choir Songbook, to send a message of hope and positive change.

Other pieces are “Earth Song” by Frank Ticheli, “Peace Flows into Me”

by Jake Runestad, “When the Earth Stands Still” by Don MacDonald, and “The Tide Rises” by Kirby Shaw.

It will be an a cappella concert with the exception of “Autumn Leaves,” which will be backed by Jon Nathan’s UCSB Jazz Ensemble playing bass, drums, piano, sax, trumpet, and trombone. On May 27, five members from our Chamber Chorus will join the Jazz Ensemble’s Concert in Paris Rutherford’s arrangement of “Autumn Leaves.”

Key to the concert is Jon and I meet-

ing with Jim Mooy, Santa Barbara City College Assistant Music Professor and conductor of the SBCC Symphony Orchestra and the Lunch Break Jazz Ensemble, regarding his expertise to set up the Jamulus online programming hardware and software for our chorus and ensembles. It is remarkable to use and provides the necessary technical tools to teach, rehearse, and stream live music without noise artifact and delay; the quality of the sound and overall experience was like being in the same room to rehearse!

Each student received a JAMBOX, the Pi computer, cables, and a gaming headset with microphone.

Jim will be on board remotely to program each chorus and band member into the sound mix for the May 26- 27 concerts, with a touch of reverb to emulate a larger acoustic space, and Zoom for the visuals.

How are you teaching music and vocals virtually?

All instruction is over Zoom and Jamulus, and I’ve grown immensely in my technological abilities. One of my main goals is to create community, and I’ve found ways to create routine and engage members of the choir. We always begin with a physical warm-up, passing the leadership from student to student. We use Slido or Kahoot, for the “Question of the Day” or interactive quizzes/polls/ word clouds and interactive real time whiteboards. We record and practice audio engineering skills in BandLab and hone sightreading skills with Sight Reading Factory.

In my conducting classes, I use Flipgrid for students to submit videos of their conducting assignments and I can comment back with a video demonstration. I’ve used Coach’s Eye,

Our Town Page 374

In trying times, overcome fear and uncertainty with the peace and security of a solid meditation practice.

Radhule Weininger, PhD, MD, is a local in Montecito offering individualized, and customized meditation teaching, using mindfulness, compassion and advanced awareness practices to help you cultivate inner calm, awakeness and freedom as well as emotional balance.

Dr. Weininger uses her training as psychologist as well as her 40 years of intensive Meditation training to help you upgrade your life, your relationships and your sense of meaning.

Books:

“Heartwork: The Path of Self-compassion” (Shambala Publications) Her forthcoming book: “Heartmedicine: How to Stop Painful Patterns and Find Freedom and Peace-At Last” (Shambala)

“There is no healing without heartwork, intimately tending to the wounds we’ve been avoiding for so long. In this powerful and beautiful book, Radhule Weininger will help you find the courage, pathways, and clarity needed to embrace this life with love.”

— Ta R a B R a c h , P h D , author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge

heartwork The Path of SelfCompassion

9 Simple Practices for a Joyful, Wholehearted Life

Radhule WeiningeR, Foreword by Jack Kornfield

30 MONTECITO JOURNAL

m d, P h d

Also see free daily meditations at: mindfulheartprograms.org mindfulheartprograms.org/elders radhuleweiningerphd.com radhule@gmail.com | 805-455-6205

“The best advice I can give about going out into the world: Don’t do it. It is a mess.” – Russell Baker

20 – 27 May 2021

Village Beat (Continued from page 6) which he calls an exciting next chapter for the practice.

“It was important for us to stay in Montecito,” Dr. Shepard said about purchasing the long-vacant building in 2018 after deciding to move from Paseo Mariposa. “This is a convenient location for our patients who come from Montecito, Carpinteria, Ventura, and Ojai to see us,” he said.

Originally the plan was to expand the older building, which was once the longtime home of Enrico & Associates Accountants, but it was ultimately decided to work within the footprint of the space and remodel the interior.

“It’s simple, clean, and private,” Dr. Shepard said of the space, noting that with seven private treatment rooms, patients will have more privacy than the previous location, which was an open-bay type of dental office.

Founded in 1997, Montecito Dental Group specializes in general and family dentistry, including aesthetic dentistry, Invisalign, and children’s dentistry. The practice uses metal free fillings, and its technology has adapted over the years to keep up with the ever-changing world of dentistry.

Dr. Scarcello founded the practice with Dr. Benedetto and Dr. Craig Downen, who eventually sold his share to Dr. Shepard nearly a decade ago. What sets the practice apart is that the trio of doctors each have their own patients, rather than a clinic-type atmosphere in which the doctors are interchangeable. The doctors consider the practice family friendly and treatment rates are competitive with nearby dental offices.

“We hope patients continue to be comfortable here,” Dr. Shepard said.

For more information, visit www. montecitodentalgroup.com. The office is located at 1260 Coast Village Circle in Montecito.

TBCF Plans In-Person Picnic

With fingers crossed that California will “reopen” on June 15, the team at Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation (TBCF) is planning their first in-person event in over a year. Like all local nonprofits in 2020, TBCF cancelled numerous fundraising events, held a virtual event, and pivoted at every turn, all while providing more support than ever before in their 19-year history.

Saturday, June 26, TBCF will host the Teddy Bear Picnic, a beautiful outdoor picnic lunch on the upper lawn of the newly reopened Montecito Club.

Tickets are $200 for two guests, and each couple will receive their own picnic blanket and parasol and be encouraged to spread out their blankets to enjoy their lunch that will include paninis, salads, wine, snacks, and dessert. Activities will include croquet, bocce, corn hole, horseshoes, balloon artists, and music, as well as access to 20 – 27 May 2021

SBMM Santa Barbara Maritime Museum

Grand Re-Opening with Four New Exhibits Thursday - Sunday • 10am - 5pm Last year’s Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation Picnic was hosted as a “to-go” picnic where attendees did not stay to eat. This year the nonprofit is thrilled to announce their first in-person event since the beginning of the pandemic, a much-anticipated picnic at Montecito Club.

Montecito Club’s sledding hill, pickleball, basketball, and volleyball courts.

Co-chairing the Teddy Bear Picnic is Maria Wilson and Sofie Langhorne, both of whom are event sponsors and sit on the nonprofit’s board of directors.

Ginni Dreier will serve as honorary chair. The event committee includes Matt Fish, Jamie Hansen, Sheela Hunt, Maria Long, Debbie Neer, and Tara Zanecki. Additional event sponsors include Mad Fitness, Drs. Jon and Karen Tammela, and sponsors who wish to remain anonymous.

“We’re absolutely thrilled to be able to host a safe in-person event again,” said Wilson. “We’ve really missed this.

Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation supporters have been wonderful this past year and we can’t wait to thank them in person.”

In 2020, TBCF reduced their operating budget in response to the pandemic; however, the need for services significantly increased.

“Our supporters and donors really came through for our families last year with gift cards, grocery cards, deliveries, financial support, and increased volunteerism. It was really inspiring,” said Langhorne.

Despite its reduced budget, TBCF was able to continue to serve every family that requested support.

TBCF’s mission is to advocate for families living in the tri-counties who have a child with cancer by providing financial, emotional, and educational support. Since 2002, TBCF has provided more than $2 million to families through direct financial aid.

The beloved nonprofit also provides emotional support groups for parents, children, and teens in both English and Spanish. Their educational program assists children who are re-entering the school system by offering post-chemo tutoring and neuropsychological assessments.

For more information about all of the services offered by TBCF, please visit www.TeddyBearCancerFoundation. org. A limited number of tickets to the picnic will be sold in order to ensure safe social distancing, and this event is expected to sell out quickly. Tickets are available at www.

TeddyBearCancerFoundation.org/ Events.

•MJ

Arthur Beaumont: Art of the Sea An exhibit of 53 paintings chronicling the accomplishments of the US Navy from the USS Constitution to atomic bomb tests and expeditions to the North and South Poles. On display until May 30, 2021.

SCARF (Santa Cruz Acoustic Range Facility) The onshore facility was located on the south side of Santa Cruz Island on land leased from the Santa Cruz Island Company. SCARF supported hundreds of U.S. Navy development and test programs, many of them classified.

On This Spot Through History by Erin Graffy de Garcia

For centuries, the coastline of Santa Barbara featured a prominent landmark — a natural structure called “Castle Rock.”

Follow the 100 years that led from Castle Rock to the Santa Barbara Harbor and Maritime Museum.

Love Letters to the Sea This new innovative letterwriting project, developed

by Art Educator/ Founder, Sondra Weiss, enables children working alone or with family members or friends to create artistic and persuasive letters and envelopes in support of ocean protection.

113 Harbor Way, Ste 190, Santa Barbara, CA 93109 • sbmm.org • 805 962-8404

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

31

The Giving List

by Steven Libowitz

‘A Caseload of One’:

CASA Puts the Focus on Individualized Attention for Children

court-appointed advocate.

“There’s been a real increase in the number of children in need,” Colby Davis said. “We are serving more children than ever, but we still have far too many on a waiting list because there aren’t enough volunteers.”

Not surprisingly, the pandemic provided even more challenges as increases in both domestic violence situations and drug abuse among parents coincided with closures of schools, churches, and other places that would normally report abuse situations before they escalate, Colby Davis said. At the same time, CASA volunteers were hesitating to take on new cases to protect their own health.

“There’s been a real increase in the number of children in need.

We are serving more children than ever, but we still have far too many on a waiting list because there aren’t enough volunteers.”

— Kim Colby Davis, CASA executive director Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Santa Barbara is looking for volunteers, with the time commitment ranging from 10-15 hours per month after a six-week training

T

he mission of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Santa Barbara County is to assure a safe, permanent, and nurturing home for all abused and/or neglected children by providing a highly trained volunteer to advocate for them in the court system. When a child is removed from their home due to abuse or neglect, they are faced with something no youngster should ever have to go through: Navigating a confusing world of court proceedings amid competing interests with their future hanging in the balance.

The children are provided a lawyer, but their attorney likely has hundreds of other cases to handle simultaneously. The child’s social worker is also burdened with a full caseload that prevents much focused attention, and even the judge — whose goal is to issue ruling that is best for the child — sees the child too infrequently and only in a courtroom setting.

That’s where CASA volunteers come in. The advocates — who are paired with just one child at a time, or perhaps a couple of siblings — have one simple goal, which is to make sure the child is getting everything they need to survive and thrive during the transition period after being removed from the home, whether they eventually end up back in their biological parents’ home or elsewhere.

32 MONTECITO JOURNAL

It’s a system that fills a hole in children’s lives right when they are most vulnerable, having had to be removed from the home in order to be protected after all other efforts had failed.

“The volunteer advocates develop the type of trusting relationship that comes from spending time with and getting to know the child. They really become the expert on the case,” explained Kim Colby Davis, CASA’s executive director. “The beauty of CASA is that our volunteers have a caseload of one.”

They work with child welfare and the child’s attorney to collect information and make sure that the court knows everything that might be helpful to determine what’s in the best interest of the child to keep them safe and help them thrive.

The child might need anything from tutoring to clothes while they’re in care — “the things we advocate for just runs the gamut.”

The county’s CASA has done a remarkable job in caring for the kids as they endure the tough time that comes after already undergoing abuse or neglect. Indeed, in the decade between 2009-19, the nonprofit tripled in size in both volunteers and children served. But even before the pandemic hit, the need had outgrown CASA’s current capabilities, leaving up to 200 kids without a

“The kids lost their safety net, so the cases that were coming in were really the scary ones, the worst-case scenarios,” she said. “We didn’t stop operations, but given the uptick in cases, we just couldn’t keep up with the pace. We kept working all the way through the pandemic, but we had to slow the pace of training new volunteers. It was like a perfect storm — an increase in the number of children we needed to serve while we had a temporary decrease in the number of volunteers.”

CASA, like everyone, did its best to adapt, pivoting to an online platform for the majority of volunteer training — a protocol that might continue in part even after the pandemic comes to a close.

“It’s actually been such an improvement in our overall training efficiency that we’re keeping it,” Colby Davis explained. “But we still have to do some in-person training because you just can’t bring a person who you don’t know and never met and place them so deeply into the life of a fragile child. So, we decided to simply do whatever size class we can safely handle through the pandemic, which meant we had to cut down on the numbers, maybe just six as an average.”

More funds and more volunteers are needed as CASA anticipates expanding to training 12 volunteers at a time in June, putting it on the path to

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” – Mark Twain

pre-pandemic size classes.

The numbers don’t lie: The average CASA volunteer spends about 52 months working with the nonprofit — which translates to more than four years.

“What that means is that most volunteers stay and take at least a second or third case,” Colby Davis said.

“That’s been part of our success on our strategic plan for growth. And it’s not surprising, because it is just so dramatic to see the difference it makes on a case when they’ve got this person who’s deeply invested in this one child’s wellbeing.”

But lest she lose any potential volunteers, Colby Davis wanted to bust a couple of myths about serving as an advocate to make sure nobody unnecessarily disqualifies themselves from participating in the program. First is that just because the number on CASA’s website of children in need of an advocate in Santa Barbara is often at zero, it doesn’t mean that every local kid has an advocate. It’s more that the children are being housed in Lompoc or Santa Maria, which means the advocate has to be willing to make the drive.

“But you can take the 101, put your car on cruise control, and listen to a book on tape while you drive,” Colby Davis said, noting that CASA is expanding its Lompoc office to create a kids hangout room with crafts and games or simply a quiet place to do homework in a really nice environment as well as an upstairs “coffee bar” for the older kids to meet with their advocate.

Another misnomer is the belief that you need to speak Spanish to get assigned as an advocate.

“We always appreciate our bilingual volunteers because there are certainly cases in which that’s helpful, but the majority of our cases are for Englishspeaking kids and usually even their parents speak English, too,” Colby Davis said. “That’s definitely not a barrier to serving as a volunteer.”

Also inaccurate is the thought that it’s better to wait until retirement to serve as an advocate because of the time commitment. While training does take some focused attention over a six-week span, the average amount of volunteer time is 10-12 hours per month, maybe 15 at the most, Colby Davis said.

“It’s a very doable role for a community member who works full time — so you don’t have to wait until you’re not working. I think half or even more of our volunteers work full time. We’re always willing to give people the information and show how it could work within your schedule.”

Perhaps the biggest fear among potential volunteers is the idea that they aren’t up to the task, the execu-

The Giving List Page 354 20 – 27 May 2021

EYC PRESENTS:

KALYAN BALAVEN

INCLUSION AS A MODEL FOR A MORE RESILIENT COMMUNITY:

A PRIVATE/PUBLIC COLLABORATION

Kalyan (Kal) Balaven, the incoming new Head of Dunn School, a private day and boarding middle and high school, located on the Central Coast of California in the Santa Ynez Valley.

MODERATOR:

JAMES JOYCE III

COFFEE WITH A BLACK GUY

THURSDAY, MAY 20, 2021 5:30-7:00

ZOOM BROADCAST FROM THE LOBERO THEATER REGISTER HERE: http://bit.ly/EYCPresentsKalyanBalaven

SUPPORTED BY SCHOOL

20 – 27 May 2021

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

33

My Take (Continued from page 23) ballot drop boxes, and, probably most importantly, no Voter ID requirement, either by mail or during in-person voting.

Here is what ostensibly these groups are so upset about: Georgia’s new voter integrity protection law, which, among other things, tightens restriction on the use of drop boxes that in 2020 allowed anyone at any time to stuff them with ballots. The new law reduces the number of them and requires each drop box to be placed in a voting location, open and available only during in-person voting. Another requirement in the new law for absentee or by-mail voting is that “In order to confirm the identity of the voter, such form shall require the elector to provide his or her name, date of birth, address as registered, address where the elector wishes the ballot to be mailed, and the number of his or her Georgia driver’s license or identification card…”

If the idea of “Voter ID” makes you tremble in disgust or opine that

it would be too much to ask of your largest voting bloc to acquire some kind of photo identification, you should know that in, say, Norway, in order to vote one must present a

photo ID; in Northern Ireland you’ll need a photo ID to vote; Germany insists you show your state-issued voter ID. France, Israel, Mexico, Iceland, and a host of other countries require some form of photo identification in order to cast a ballot. And why not? Voter integrity is at stake as is an honest result.

Why would anyone resist this simple requirement unless they wanted their constituency to vote more than

about is that the Georgia Republican legislature tried its best to reduce the ability of individuals and/or groups to cheat without detection.

An Election Weekend

In any case, much of this hooey could be dispensed with by simply holding an “Election Day” as we once did in the good old days More time is needed, you say?

Last Week’s Solution:

By Pete Muller & Andrew White For each of the first five mini crosswords, one of the entries also serves as part of a five-word meta clue. The answer to the meta is a word or phrase (five letters or longer) hidden within the sixth mini crossword. The hidden meta answer starts in one of the squares and snakes through the grid vertically and horizontally from there (no diagonals!) without revisiting any squares.

PUZZLE #1 2

Well then, how about an “Election Weekend?” Three days of voting should be enough for even the most immobile to get themselves to the polls by foot, bicycle, wheelchair, horse, car, bus, plane, taxi, tractor, or mule-driven plough. That would reduce the number of “absentee” votes to a bare minimum and those same requirements could then stay in place to protect the integrity of those votes.

So, don’t be fooled that you’ll be involved in some kind of “conversation” about voter integrity when you respond to such invitations. You are responding to an indoctrination/ advocacy session, pure and simple. If that’s what you want or need so that your side wins, great, but otherwise, let the voter beware.

I’m no expert, but what would be even better than a “conversation” about voter “suppression” would be a push for simpler and shorter in-person voting. Oh, and a requirement to identify oneself with a photo ID. And the creation of an indestructible paper trail for each vote…

•MJ

Their “outrage” is an orchestrated plan to seal into permanence the make-it-easier-to-cheat election components that Marc Elias worked so hard (and so successfully, I must add) to introduce and then implement during the 2020 election.

Mini Meta

1

once and/or also plot to include non-eligible resident votes?

Can you say unmonitored ballot drop boxes and untraceable ballot harvesting?

The only thing this group is angry

3

4

5

1 6

R O B S

T A H O E

A D M I N

G I A N T

S O N G

RADIO

S A M E

A D A G E

S H O R T

S O R E S

C I T Y

M E S S

CITY

A S H E

M U S I C

E V E N T

H E X E S

W A S H

MUSC

K E S H A

6

7 9

3

4

Down 1 Air drops?

2 Play the role of 3 Japanese poem / that uses a specific / syllable structure 4 Word before demons or peace 6 Worker's pre-weekend whoop

PUZZLE #5 1

2

3

1 4

7

6

6

8

7

7

9

8

34 MONTECITO JOURNAL

Across 1 "Sit tight!"

5 Nada 6 Skateboarding jump 7 Forebodings 8 Skin problem for dogs

3

S A L T

R A C E R

E R O D E

P A R T Y

O H N O

ARTDECO

4

Down 1 Division in a long poem, like Dante's "Inferno" 2 Speak 3 Wash really hard 4 Participates in Black Friday, say 5 Hip-hop artist with the 2008 hit "Paper Planes"

META PUZZLE 4

5

Down 1 Shows concern, in a way 2 Source of tequila 3 Herb used in pesto 4 Shrimpy or scanty 5 "___ of the d'Urbervilles"

2

Across 1 Be foul-mouthed 5 Potential flame on Tinder 6 Starter course?

7 Wolfed down 8 Crystal balls, e.g.

6

Across 1 Blue Ribbon brewer 6 Peak performance, informally 7 Houses, to José 8 Lesser of two ___ 9 Be a successful pitcher?

STYLE

H A N D S

8

Across 1 Hawaiian fish, informally 5 "All booked up, sorry" 7 Police setup ... or the lead singer of the Police 8 George who played Sulu on "Star Trek" 9 Browse, as the internet

5

S T Y L E

5

8

PUZZLE #4

A L G A E

PUZZLE #3

4

8

2

G A B O N

1

3

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1

M O R K

PUZZLE #2

7

Down 1 Sports team VIPs 2 Standard sans-serif font 3 Toy truck maker 4 Handbags often made of canvas 6 A lot, but not all

P Y R E

HALL

7

Across 1 Actor Damon of "Ford v Ferrari" 5 Sound effect for a 3-Down 7 Bean variety in Mexican cuisine 8 "For goodness' ___!"

9 Place for trailers?

O D E L L

2

5

9

P E T A L

2

3 5

8

Down 1 "The Flintstones" mother 2 British singer Lily of "Smile" 3 Cake topper 4 "___ Boots Are Made for Walkin'" 5 Online video chat platform popularized in 2020

“Big pay and little responsibility are circumstances seldom found together.” – Napoleon Hill

Across 1 Bit of finger-lickin' barbecue 4 Matisse who painted "Goldfish" 6 President of Palestine 7 Crack up 8 Map lines: Abbr.

Down 1 Concrete strengthener 2 Like trees that are about to bloom 3 Boasts 4 Evil computer in "2001" 5 Book end?

20 – 27 May 2021

Hot Topics (Continued from page 24) rain in sight to reverse the inauspicious trend.

Armed with the dire facts of this year’s fire season, fuel reduction and prevention efforts are Montecito Fire’s top priorities to protect and prepare our community. Our Prevention Bureau continues its work to help community members improve defensible space at homes throughout Montecito.

One of our primary, ongoing prevention efforts is the Neighborhood Chipping Program. Take a short drive through the district and you are likely to notice roll-off dumpsters filled with yard clippings and piles of branches and brush at the end of driveways waiting for our chipping crew to come through.

Since late February, we have been spending two weeks in 11 designated neighborhood areas. We ask residents to cut dead and/or excessive vegetation from their properties in an effort to increase defensible space. Then, our contractor comes through with a chipping machine to chip the brush and haul the chips to a local chip recycling facility in Santa Barbara County.

In the past, we have given the chips to residents for landscaping, but an important change to the state fire code has caused us to instead opt to dispose of the chips at a local recycling center. We’ve made this change with the safety of our community and our environment at heart. Using chips and mulch may lead to the spread of invasive species that could harm our natural environment. Additionally, new research shows that in the event of a wind-driven wildfire, chips and mulch can become showers of fiery embers and lead to devastating structure loss.

As of January 1, the California Public Resource Code requires an “ember-resistant zone,” meaning all homes need five feet of space between the structure and any materials that could catch fire. Many homeowner’s insurance companies are scheduling inspections across Santa Barbara County to enforce this update to the fire code. To bring your property into compliance, our Montecito Wildfire Specialists suggest alternatives such as gravel, drought-tolerant landscaping, pavers, sand, and other non-combustible materials.

At present, we have successfully cleared excess dead, dying, and dry brush from more than half of the neighborhoods in Montecito. The free service is a simple, yet highly effective way to make our community safer in the event of a wildfire.

Chipping will continue through the end of June.

If you were unable to participate in the program during your neighborhood’s designated week, please con20 – 27 May 2021

The Giving List (Continued from page 32) tact our Prevention Bureau to discuss available options. Additionally, we encourage all Montecito residents to schedule a complimentary defensible space survey now by calling 805-9697762. Starting June 1, the Montecito Fire Department will begin annual property inspections.

Another fundamental way we prepare for fire season is by elevating our response capabilities. While we are prepared with a full wildland response year-round, during high fire season the Montecito Fire Department increases staffing ahead of critical fire weather conditions and dispatches additional resources to all wildland fire incidents.

All of our firefighters have completed their annual wildland firefighting refresher training. This training is designed to prepare our crews to be mentally and physically fit to face the challenges of battling a wildfire. While Montecito firefighters will inevitably be called upon to help other California communities dealing with wildfire incidents this season, our stations within the Montecito Fire District will be fully staffed and ready to respond to community needs at all times.

At this early point in fire season, we ask every member of our outstanding community to join us in a collective effort to be ready for wildfire. Take a moment to review our updated “Ready! Set! Go!” educational guide, outlining what actions to take now to be prepared for wildfire. This guide and other wildfire preparedness materials are available at montecitofire.com.

Let’s not worry. Let’s be ready.

Together, our community will be educated and prepared to ensure that your family, home, and neighborhood are ready for wildfire.

•MJ

WINDOW CLEANING PRESSURE WASHING

tive director said.

“It is a very complicated system to work through, but the important thing is that you’re not in it alone,” Colby Davis stressed. “That is what our professional staff is for. They come alongside you, as your assistant in a sense as you work with that child.”

In other words, the desire and willingness to be of service is the most important thing. Which also holds true even if a commitment to volunteering isn’t in the cards, especially through CASA’s Sponsor a Child program that asks for a donation commensurate with CASA’s cost of a single case — including keeping donors connected with the progress of an individual case as it works its way through the system.

“We’re up to about 75 people who aren’t quite ready to volunteer, but they’re thrilled to be sponsoring a child,” Colby Davis said, who added the program provides frequent updates and regular conversations with staff “where they can actually learn how their donation works in real time and hear about everything that’s going on with the child.

The myriad ways to support CASA include helping to arrange corporate support, donating gift cards to retail outlets that can help

provide birthday gifts for the kids, or simply spreading the word about CASA at your place of business, church, club, or organization as well as on social media. Whatever the method, it seems it could hardly be more rewarding than to be a part of a program that serves abused or neglected kids whose ages range from newborn to 21.

“They’re just kids and they haven’t done anything wrong,” Colby Davis emphasized. “The babies who come from addicted mothers are so innocent, and even most of the older kids are just so normal. They just want to be a normal kid. We try to help that happen.”

What could be more important than that?

•MJ

FREE Film Screening

This uplifting documentary follows students from across Oakland as they hone speeches inspired by the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and hope for a coveted spot in the MLK Oratorical Fest finals. (70 min.)

Thu, Jun 3 / 8:30 PM Pacific / West Wind Drive-in Gates open at 7 PM. First come, first served. Arrive early for food trucks, concessions and entertainment!

Starting at $5 per window

805-259-5255 5on Google and Yelp

Masks and social distancing required.

Distanced parking includes room to put chairs in front of your car.

Special Thanks:

Community Partners: Natalie Orfalea Foundation & Lou Buglioli

• The Voice of the Village •

(805) 893-3535 www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu

MONTECITO JOURNAL

35

Seen (Continued from page 20 20)) Shana Moulton with one of her pieces at the Museum of Contemporary Art

Artist Thomas Van Stein with some of his nocturne pieces

Artists at work on the Paseo Nuevo mural

she traverses an evolving, yet cyclical loop of self-diagnosis and treatment.”

Shana’s video series is entitled Whispering Pines after the mobile home park located near Yosemite (where she grew up) and run by her parents. The show was curated by Alexandra Terry and needs to be seen in order to be appreciated.

I walked down the street to La Arcada Court to see the latest at the Waterhouse Gallery — Diane and Ralph’s place for the last 30 years.

They are featuring local artists Wyllis Heaton and Thomas Van Stein. For information, call 805-962-8885.

Wyllis has two careers: an award

Ralph and Diane Waterhouse in their art gallery

Sina Omidi

805.689.7700 Sina@SinaOmidi.com DRE #01944430

www.RealEstateInSantaBarbara.com

©2021 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties is a member of the franchise system of BHH Affiliates LLC. DRE 01944430

winning plein air landscape painter and a licensed landscaping designer based here in Santa Barbara. He grew up in Pasadena with an interesting neighbor, famous illustrator William Stout, and visited his art studio often.

He studied at UCSB and loved the region. He went on to teach for six years at the California Art Academy in San Gabriel. Wyllis travels but has a permanent home here and often exhibits.

Thomas was born in Pasadena and earned his master’s degree in Art from Cal State University, Northridge. He has been in more than 160 exhibitions (both one-man and group shows) and has won many awards.

Most of Thomas’s work is done on location in daylight, but his forte is painting nightscapes or nocturnes en plein air. He has often been featured in magazines including Southwest Art magazine, as one of six American artists who are focused on painting nocturnes.

Thomas has taught art through the local SBCC Continuing Ed Program for 30 years, and has also done workshops in Mexico. He worked at the Scottsdale Artists’ School and has

MCA chief curator Alexandra Terry

been a member of the O.A.K. group for 30 years — the list goes on just like the energizer bunny.

You don’t have to travel to find fine art. Just drive downtown and do your own art walk.

•MJ

Health Insurance Enrollment DEADLINE EXTENDED

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Call Today: 805-683-3636

36 MONTECITO JOURNAL

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Customer Service

www.stevensinsurance.com 3412 State St. Santa Barbara, CA 93105

Available to care for our neighbors and accepting new patients.

1483 E. Valley Road, Suite M | 805.969.6090

“When they hand you your diploma, keep moving. Just in case they try to take it back.” – Unknown

20 – 27 May 2021

Our Town (Continued from page 30 30)) Nicole Lamartine is a competitive power lifter (Courtesy of Nicole Lamartine)

Nicole Lamartine teaching vocals virtually to her students (Courtesy of Nicole Lamartine)

Hudl Technic, and ForScore apps on my iPad for physical demonstrations and music score projections/annotations. For voice lessons, we remain fairly low tech — on Zoom and Jamulus.

What is your role as the new Sorenson Director?

I was hired to build and re-invigorate the choral program at UCSB. My mission for the choral area is to provide an inclusive place where any singer can grow in their abilities and talents, connect to others through making and performing music, and to build relationships through innovation of programming and performance.

The UCSB Chamber Choir is the flagship choral ensemble at UCSB, representing excellence in vocal talent, musicianship, and professionalism.

The training choruses are the Singing Gauchos and the Lumina Chorus, which will be conducted by my graduate teaching assistants. The Gospel Choir and the Middle East Ensemble are under the Ethnomusicology umbrella and provide unique opportunities for students. The goal with all the ensembles is to work together. At some point, I want to create a University Community Chorus that includes students and anyone in the local community who wishes to join.

All the UCSB choirs provide any singer an opportunity to access music, connect, innovate, and grow as musicians.

What are the audition requirements?

My goal is to place students in the correct choir that will meet their abilities and goals.

All UCSB choirs, with the exception of Chamber Choir, do not require experience or an audition, and anyone can participate, regardless of major. The choral singing experience is inclusive.

I look for a winning combination of vocal talent, attitude, and enthusiasm, and solid musicianship. Membership is not limited. In Spring 2020, the Chamber Choir had 15 members. I 20 – 27 May 2021

volunteered with them throughout the spring, and by Fall 2020, I took 30 out of 33 students who auditioned.

Is new original music for the UCSB Chamber Choir being composed?

I am working with a composer in Portland, Tim Ribner — we are exploring improvisatory soundscapes illuminating the idea of self and place in a post-pandemic world. We hope to premiere it in the fall of 2021.

What is unique about chorus music for you?

The experience is deeply personal and connective for so many. It creates community and a family. It provides a respite from the daily grind. We honor and recognize each other’s beings. We learn trust and teamwork, working together for something that is much greater than any person. We create a safe space to be who we are, feel what we feel, and love who we love.

How does singing influence the human condition?

I believe that singing, because it is a human sound, connects to humans in ways that are deep and meaningful and beyond instrumental music.

There is something so special about humans listening to human sound; it connects directly to our beings and our emotions. It allows us to recognize our common vulnerabilities and speak to our common emotions. There is unbelievable power in connecting through singing. I also believe that people want to feel something — anything. When we sing, we also have words — and those words travel to the heart, allowing us to feel more deeply and meaningfully.

What personal music projects are you working on?

I am preparing for many gigs that were rescheduled for the next two years: Conducting All-State and honor choirs in Oregon, Montana, and Idaho. Through the online teaching adventure, I’ve compiled much of my content and philosophy of choral

conducting into what could be a book in the near future. I’d like to get back to my YouTube channel content on The Choral Eye and am fleshing out my business plan for professional development opportunities (workshops and retreats) for choral music educators in public schools and churches.

I am starting the Santa Barbara Gay Men’s Chorus with rehearsals slated to begin in the fall and teaching high school singers private lessons.

Your personal vocal exercise routine?

I like to get the body going before the voice. Once I’ve exercised in the morning, I start with some easy humsighs to get my voice placed high and resonantly for a day of teaching.

You are a CrossFit and Power Lifting Pro? In 2011, my husband discovered the CrossFit gym in our small town. He and I became coaches. As part of our training, we did a six-week back squat cycle to gain more strength. At the end of the cycle, I found that I was lifting as much as the men in the gym. From there, I entered the state competition and just shy of my 40th birthday, I qualified for World Championships.

My coaches have included amazing men who pushed me to gain more strength than I ever thought possible — Don Robbins, Tom DeLong, Marten Bauer, and Joe O’Leary. My personal bests in competition are (at 114-123 pounds body weight): back squat: 281 pounds; bench: 151 pounds; and deadlift: 353 pounds. I have a full set of weights in the garage and am easing back into a training regimen that will get me on the platform within a year, albeit in an older age group!

What is your experience on diversity, equity, and inclusion in your field?

There has been incredible movement in the choral world to recognize, identify, value, and increase

• The Voice of the Village •

access and inclusion to all people.

As a female conductor, not even five feet tall, I’ve encountered lots of disbelief that I do what I do. People comment on my height all the time, as if they are surprised that a short person could have my energy, ability, or strength. Somehow, being short is equated with youth, inexperience, vulnerability, or other descriptors.

Being short is simply a physical attribute. As an expert on conducting men’s choirs, I started out as a sheer novelty. When people observe me conducting a choir of 150 men, they are often surprised — but I hope that I’ve inspired them as well.

How do you give back or pay it forward?

Giving to my community is paramount to belonging. I was part of the organizing and performing the fundraisers for Interfaith in Laramie, Wyoming. My husband, Jeff Selden, and I often perform for fundraisers and other events (he plays guitar, I sing and play some percussion).

What advice do you give to students?

I invite anyone who is curious about singing to join a choir — you won’t be disappointed. Music teaches us how to be humans together, off the screens of technology. Music teaches us how to be flexible, work together with other people, strive for a common goal, share, and communicate.

These are all attributes that are slipping away from us in this world. The community we build through music making is a sacred portal to our positive mental health. I believe singing can bring joy to the world, and I hope every person can be a part of the experience.

•MJ 411: May 26 – Live Virtual Concert: https://music. ucsb.edu/news/event/2210 https://music.ucsb.edu/people/nicole-lamartine MONTECITO JOURNAL

37

Editor’s Letter (Continued from page 5) their offer.

This interview is a result of the time we spent together and just the beginning of us sharing with our readers what’s happening in the healthcare realm right in our backyard.

Gwyn Lurie: Is it unusual for a community of this size to have this level of healthcare?

Kurt Ransohoff: To have the quality of healthcare that a community of this size has is really unusual. It’s just not that many other places that are this size that have the array of services and the sophistication of the medical care. And it’s not just Sansum. It’s Cottage, and it’s other doctors in this community. It’s the whole compilation of stuff.

GL: You’ve been the medical director of Sansum since ‘97, and the president since 1998, so you’ve seen a lot of change over the years in Santa Barbara, I would imagine.

KR: I think that there’s been really significant change in the healthcare industry in the last 25 years. Some of it is just an understanding of science that has allowed for the technological advances that we’ve seen. The vaccine is a perfect example. Twenty-five years ago, if you had said to somebody, “A new illness will come out, and we’ll invent an mRNA vaccine,” people would just say that’s impossible. You can’t even remotely do that. So, in that sense, any place that’s a current provider and is hiring up-to-date people is going to experience big change just over that period of time.

GL: But Santa Barbara has changed, right? It seems to me that there was a time that most people would never stay here for important procedures and now people are going through cancer from soup to nuts right here in Santa Barbara and heart disease and other major illnesses. So, to what do you attribute those leaps and bounds?

KR: I think there’s been a big investment by this community in the healthcare here. If you think about what we raised from the community for Ridley-Tree Cancer Center, and what was raised by the community for the new hospital, this community has indicated that it wants high quality healthcare here, and that it wants things that can be done here to be done here. I think that providers at Sansum, Cottage, and the independent doctors have all responded to that.

Also, just over time, and this is now a big picture thing like the mRNA vaccines, so many highly trained specialists are generated by institutions over the last 25 years that there are just more super smart people out there. It was funny.

I don’t know if you’re familiar with Mohs surgery.

GL: For skin cancer?

KR: Yes. When I got here, there was maybe one or two docs in town that did it. And I’m not sure anybody had done a fellowship in it. Now there’s probably six or seven people who do it in town… I think that the investment in the community and again, just the whole level of expertise that’s out there… I mean just to brag for a moment, we’ve gone out of our way to bring people in who are the first of their kind in this community. The first board-certified Oncological surgeon we’ve just brought in, for example, he’s capable of doing operations that just couldn’t be done here before… We have surgeons that go through the six or seven years of training, and they do a couple of extra years in just doing very specific, complicated cancer operations.

GL: Is it challenging to recruit the best to come to Santa Barbara? What are your obstacles?

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Ridley-Tree Cancer Center at 540 West Pueblo Street in Santa Barbara

KR: The answer is yes, it is challenging. The biggest obstacle is the cost of housing. You just have to find somebody who either really wants to be here or who was here before. A lot of times we’ll get people like “I went to UCSB, and then I went to medical school in Massachusetts, and I did my residency at Atlanta, and my fellowship in Baltimore, but I’ve always wanted to get back.”

And sometimes the size of the town can be a selling point because it’s such a great place to live; but it can also be a problem because if your spouse has a job that really requires you to be in a big city…

GL: Are the salaries you offer competitive?

KR: I’d say that we’re close. It can be a challenge because of the fact that we’re independent. So sometimes we’re just up against institutions that just have much deeper pockets… On this the community has been very helpful. We’ve received a lot of donations over the years to help elevate the level of care in the community and we are able to help with housing like most other big nonprofits in Santa Barbara do. You have to do it because it’s so hard.

GL: How do you help with housing?

KR: Many years ago, we went to Westmont and asked, “How is it that they are able to bring professors here?” They were really nice about sharing the sort of model that they had used; something called a Shared Appreciation Loan.

Where we will invest in somebody’s house, and then we have an equity stake in the house. Then years later, and it can be many, many years later, we finally get paid back. Then we just recycle it for the next doctor. It’s a really great program that’s allowed us to bring a lot of doctors into the community.

GL: Can you explain to me the relationship between Sansum, Cottage, and Ridley-Tree and how they’re interconnected and work together?

KR: So, Cottage and Sansum are separate entities. But we work really closely together on community problems. Cottage has been a partner in the Shared Appreciation Loan program. So sometimes Cottage and Sansum will bring doctors in together. It’s actually interesting. That program started because of a generous donation from somebody who lives in Montecito who many, many years ago said that they wanted to make a donation that would result in Cottage and Sansum working together.

So, we’re separate, but we work very closely together. For instance, right now we’ve been talking a lot with them about if we should combine our vaccine operations. We haven’t to this point because there wasn’t enough vaccine for that to make sense, but that’s the kind of community thing that we will cooperate, work really closely with Cottage on.

GL: Is it a competitive relationship?

KR: Yes, we also are competitors in a lot of things. We are competitors and cooperators. We cooperate because we should on a lot of things, and then we are also competitors. They have an urgent care. We have an urgent care. We have outpatient surgery. They have outpatient surgery. We have radiology.

They have radiology. So, it’s just the way it is. We are both nonprofits with boards that are deeply concerned about the level of care in the community.

GL: So, a member of the community gets sick. Why would you go to Sansum urgent care versus Cottage emergency room? What’s the difference?

KR: Oh, that’s a good question. So, there are times when patients will call me

“Life is my college. May I graduate well, and earn some honors!” – Louisa May Alcott

20 – 27 May 2021

who’s really good and highly skilled at what they do, and they want to have it done in a facility that’s as good as anywhere. Most of the time, that can happen here in Santa Barbara either at Sansum or at Cottage, or at Sansum and Cottage together, or with the great doctors in the community. Occasionally, we as physicians will recommend that somebody needs to go out just because it’s so unusual there may really be a doctor, and maybe that person is at Cedars or MD Anderson... but those incidents are very, very rare in proportion to the times when people like my dad think there’s got to be one person somewhere where I should specifically go to.

GL: Do all of the doctors at Sansum have visiting privileges at Cottage?

KR: Yes, they all do. You know, hospital medicine has gotten so specialized now that we have a group of doctors who only do hospital work. So, they will admit those patients, but the doctor can go visit them and all of the specialists, or virtually all of the specialists, too.

I think one of the real benefits of Santa Barbara is the sharing and the cooperative nature. I mean the MRI prostate fusion thing is a good example…

Cottage, Sansum, competitors, sharing the information needed to take care of the patient right here. I think that’s really true in Santa Barbara. It’s particularly true because we use EPIC, the same computer system that Cottage uses. It’s also the same computer system that UCLA uses and UC San Francisco and Stanford and Cedars; we all use the same computer systems.

Ridley-Tree Cancer Center is a go-to provider of radiation oncology in Santa Barbara County, offering patients an accredited program which includes radiation oncologists who are board-certified and trained at world-renowned institutions, and the latest treatments using cutting-edge linear accelerators

and I’ll say you should go to the emergency room because if I think with what you have, you’re going to wind up in the hospital anyway, you might as well just start at the emergency room. Or if I think that they truly have something that might be life-threatening. Well then, you’ll usually call the fire department, and they’ll take them to the emergency room. For other patients, when I don’t think you need to be admitted, you need some things done, maybe you should just go to our urgent care. Sometimes it can be less crowded and less frightening than going to the ER. It can be a lot less costly to go to urgent care than it would be to go to the emergency room, which is a real issue if you don’t really need an ER. So, we’ve put the urgent care right next to the CT scanner. Ten years ago, if somebody had fallen off their bike and had a headache, they’d have to go to the hospital because they need a CAT scan. Now, if the person’s fine. They’re walking around. They’re just complaining I fell off my bike and I got a headache, but they’re okay, they really need a CAT scan, but they probably don’t need to go to the emergency room. We can get the CAT scan here, and the visit will be shorter, and it will be a lot less expensive. At the end of the day, the acuity really is the main driver.

GL: What are some other cooperative efforts?

KR: So, if somebody has an abnormal PSA let’s say, or an abnormal rectal scan, and this person needs a biopsy. Sometimes what will happen nowadays is that you’ll do an MRI of their prostate to see if it looks abnormal or not. If something looks abnormal, the problem is you can’t do a prostate biopsy inside an MRI. So, we are able to take that MRI image and run it through computer software, and then it will show up on an ultrasound, so that when the ultrasound is looking at the prostate, the MRI image is more or less fused into the ultrasound image… So, yeah, this is a really good example. Before, everybody had to go to Los Angeles for that because we just didn’t have it. You need a 3 Tesla MRI, not a car, but “3 Tesla” are the units by which you measure the strength of the electromagnetic field. You need a 3 Tesla MRI to do a prostate MRI comfortably.

We don’t have one of those, but Cottage has one. This is a good example of cooperation. Cottage does the MRI; they ship it over electronically to us. We do the ultrasound… So, you have two different institutions basically working together so a patient doesn’t have to drive to L.A. for that technology.

GL: Still, many people are under the impression that they need to travel somewhere else to get the “top person” in a certain area of medicine.

KR: Well, my dad was always of the opinion that there was only one doctor in the country for any condition that he had... I remember he had a cataract, and he is asking, “Who’s the best guy in the country?” I said “Dad, there’s no best guy in the country for that. There are dozens of people who are probably 100 miles from where you live. There’s literally dozens of people who could do it as well as anywhere else” because it was a simple thing. So, there are occasional people like that who just believe that there’s only one person wherever who can do what they need. But, for most people, they want to see somebody 20 – 27 May 2021

“My late husband, Jack, and I saw a need for infrastructure to bring up the physical quality of the Clinic to the incredible quality of our committed doctors. So we started some renovations and slowly other donors felt the same way… lo and behold the Foothill Surgery and Eye Clinic buildings were developed.”

— Julie Nadel, donor

GL: We are going to do a deeper dive into the various departments at Sansum, but is there anything else you’d like to say generally about Sansum?

Jill Fonte: One of the things I think is really important about Sansum is that we have doubled the number of female providers in the last 20 years, and we have some incredibly talented female surgeons and it’s just a really neat thing for people to know. We have a female colorectal surgeon…

KR: We have an ENT, an orthopedist, two general surgeons, and all the gynecologists. Two eye surgeons… there’s a lot to talk about.

GL: That’s a good story on its own: The female doctors at Sansum.

GL: Can you talk about what role Sansum has played in the COVID crisis?

KR: We’ve done a lot in the COVID arena. We were the first (in Santa Barbara) to do a mass testing operation… I think we’ve done at least 25,000 COVID tests over the last many months. It was interesting how that happened. We needed a trailer because we were going to do testing outside. So, we called MarBorg and said, “Do you have a trailer we can borrow to COVID test people?” They said, “It’ll be there in half an hour.” Which was, again, sort of emblematic of the cooperative nature of the whole community… So, the testing’s been huge.

And we provide at least half the ICU doctors… So, when somebody gets really sick, there’s at least a 50% chance that it’ll be a Sansum ICU doctor.

Then we were pretty fast into the vaccine. Cottage was great. They vaccinated their staff, but we started vaccinating the community... I think we’ve vaccinated at least around about 15,000 or 16,000 at this point. That’s dwarfed by what Cottage has done and they need real credit. The Public Health Department has done amazing in terms of volume, but we’ve been in it with them all right from the beginning.

GL: Has Sansum taken a financial hit from COVID? KR: Yes, last April/May our revenues dropped 50% at least. We had to furlough around 500 people. It was horrible. I think we laid off one. So, everybody else was offered their job back… but a substantial number of people did not come back because their kids didn’t go to school or some other COVID-related thing intervened in their personal life. There’s nobody to take care of their kids

• The Voice of the Village •

Editor’s Letter Page 474 MONTECITO JOURNAL

39

On Entertainment (Continued from page 16 16))

Dakota Lotus, 16, is a product of the Adderley School and his 12-song virtual concert from the Marjorie Luke Theatre will debut on May 21

The Luke show was your first full concert as a solo artist. How was the experience compared to what you might have imagined in advance?

I have always dreamed of writing songs that I can perform live, but this concert exceeded my expectations. I truly had a great time, and I was very blessed to have amazingly talented artists accompanying me. Everyone was so supportive, and I’ve known them for a while, so it was like a reunion. I love working with the crew at the Luke.

From what I saw you didn’t seem at all intimidated by working with the band of local luminaries who have been making music together and playing behind legends like Kenny Loggins since long before you were even born. Where do you get your confidence? And how did they influence the shaping of your songs?

Well, I’ve known the band since I was seven years old, so it was really great to get back together with them for my own solo concert. It felt very natural, and they are like family to me. They are all so talented and professional and made me feel very welcome. They all brought amazing ideas to each of my songs that made them all the better and really made them come to life.

You are just 16 but have written a bunch of original songs about love and relationships. With such relatively limited life experience, what do you draw on for inspiration?

I always try to incorporate my personal life experiences into my songwriting so writing about loving or losing someone is usually true to me. I’m very passionate about storytelling and music has always been an outlet for me to express myself.

You starred in the Disney Channel’s Coop and Cami Ask the World for three years. What do you have in common with your character, and how, if at all, does that experience show up in your music?

Cooper and I have much in common. We both care for our families and always try to do what’s right, even if it means getting stuck in a tough situation, and also go through similar teenage experiences.

Going forward, how do you plan to divide your time between acting and singing?

Moving forward I hope to be working on set again soon and I will also be writing more music that will hopefully come out in the near future.

Launch Pad: Navigating War — and Life — in WWII-era Shanghai

UCSB’s Theatre’s innovative Launch Pad program — which has supported newer playwrights and their plays on a journey from incubation to professional world premiere for more than 17 years — is ready to unleash its annual Preview Production for the 2020-2021 academic year. Given the ongoing pandemic, the production takes place over Zoom, so it won’t be as fully realized as previous years, when the writer gets to watch performances and audience reactions to inform re-writes throughout the run and beyond. Still, the unofficial premiere of a significant new work is something to celebrate.

Linda Alper’s Shanghai centers around a nearly forgotten piece of World War II history of the 20,000 European Jews who were refused entry to the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, and Australia between 1937 and 1947. Only Shanghai, the city that was both colorful and corrupt, and teeming with displaced persons from around the world, accepted them without visas. Originally allowed to roam free, the Jewish refugees were eventually forced into an impoverished ghetto covering just a square mile, which they shared with 100,000 Chinese

40 MONTECITO JOURNAL

citizens. The play follows Eva Broder, an adolescent girl who grows to maturity during that decade in Shanghai, discovering how her life is interwoven with that of her Chinese neighbors, and learning what kind of responsibilities, even under extreme adversity, she has the courage to embrace. Intertwining a coming-of-age story with historical exploration gives the work its edge.

Alper, a former actress that has previously co-written adaptations and translations of Great Expectations; The Three Musketeers; William Saroyan’s Tracy’s Tiger; Eduardo De Filippo’s Saturday, Sunday, Monday; and Napoli Milionaria!, all produced at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, as well as Talk/No Talk, a play about cultural misunderstanding, which earned a Visiting Science and Artist Grant. In a press release, Alper said that she hopes audiences will see how a piece of history from 75 years ago can inform today’s world, saying, “It’s possible for two very different cultures, who are all under their own stresses and restrictions, to come together and live together and improve one another’s lives. Differences can make us stronger.”

Director Sara Rademacher, the co-founder and former artistic director of Elements Theatre Collective, co-creator of The Outlet Project, and producing director of On The Verge Reads SB and The Home Project, had the unenviable task of trying to convey actions, connections, dancing, and even lovemaking in the isolated world of Zoom. But the staging shenanigans don’t detract from the story, she said in a video.

“I was fascinated by the history and the scale that the play covered along with the simplicity of the story. It’s always important for us to hear stories that are about the really human relatable change that everybody who grows up goes through.”

Shanghai will be performed at 7 pm on May 19 and 21-22, plus 1 pm on May 23. Q&A sessions with the author, director and cast follows the May 21-22 shows. The viewing link is accessible at https://bit.ly/3bzGBSF. Visit www. theaterdance.ucsb.edu for more details.

Simpsons to Second City to Sleuthing Satire

Tune in later on May 23 for a Launch Pad-connected Pop Up, a one-off reading of a professional playwright’s newest play — in this case The Long Isolation, written and directed by Deb Lacusta and Dan Castellaneta, longtime writers for The Simpsons. (Yes, the same Dan Castellaneta who also voices Homer, Grampa Simpson, Krusty the Clown, Barney Gumble, Mayor Quimby, and others in the animated series.) The play finds Marlowe Phillips, private detective, setting out to solve the case of a missing man, only to encounter a duplicitous, dubious cast of characters — and murder. Classic noir collides with the remote technology and green screen of these socially distanced times to result in a deadpan homage to The Lady and the Lake, shot from the detective’s point of view. The piece will be performed by improvisational comedy company The Immediate Theater in L.A., whose members include alumni of The Second City, The Groundlings, and The Spolin Players. Music is by Laura Hall of Whose Line Is It Anyway? fame. A Q&A follows the 5 pm screening. Register at launchpad. theaterdance.ucsb.edu.

ACT Write Now for Relief

Local author and psychologist Dr. Diana Hill

ACT Daily Journal: Get Unstuck and Live Fully with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, the latest book from local author/psychologists Dr. Diana Hill and Denver-based Dr. Debbie Sorensen, offers readers an introduction to the six core processes of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) — including mindfulness, acceptance, and values-based living. The book also introduces a seventh: self-compassion, making this proven approach even more valuable at a time when society is on the brink of rebuilding and re-creating our lives in the wake of the pandemic.

The book’s premise is that by applying ACT to life’s daily issues through journaling, people can learn how to roll with the punches and stay in contact with the present moment even amid unpleasant thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. ACT Daily Journal offers a practical, guided eight-week program for integrating ACT practices into our daily routines. Hill, who is also co-host with Sorensen of the popular podcast, Psychologists Off the Clock, which has more than 1 million downloads, will talk about the book and the ACT approach with Santa Barbara-based clinical psychologist Megan Donahue in a Chaucer’s Virtual Author Discussion at 7 pm on May 27. Access via Zoom at https://zoom.us/j/91984010952 or get more info online at www.chaucers books.com/event.

•MJ

“Follow your passion, stay true to yourself.” – Ellen DeGeneres

20 – 27 May 2021

Miscellany (Continued from page 18)

Williams of Beverly Hills Estates.

The property, which overlooks the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club, includes natural creeks, waterfalls, private hiking and horse trails, avocado groves and a yoga center.

The seller, according to the Wall Street Journal, is a company led by Mark Osgood, president of real estate investment firm MDO Capital, whose original plans included developing the land into 16 separate homes.

He says he changed tack after receiving several unsolicited queries about the property from high-networth individuals who had designs on building a large private estate.

Records show Osgood’s company bought the land for just $11.52 million in 2019, but the agents note the organization has invested tens of millions of dollars into getting the property entitled and graded for construction.

Stay tuned...

Honeymoon Avenue is Next for Ariana

Grammy winner Ariana Grande secretly married her beau Dalton Gomez at her Montecito home over the weekend.

The 27-year-old singer, who bought the 5,000-square-foot, Tudor-style property, The Porter House, for $6.75 million from TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres last summer, tied the knot with luxury home realtor Gomez, 25, in an intimate ceremony with just a few invited guests, according to TMZ. The tony twosome got engaged just before Christmas and have been sharing their romance on social media.

Grande had a number of highly publicized romances, including a relationship with Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson, after first spending time together in 2018.

They got engaged just weeks after getting together but split just months later.

Plenty of Challenges Ahead

Montecito TV talk host Ellen DeGeneres may be leaving her Burbank-based show next year after 19 seasons and more than 3,000 episodes, but she still has a bright financial future.

Despite losing a reported $50 million annually for hosting 174 episodes a year, Ellen, 63, has built up a lucrative business over the years as a serial real estate flipper, host of NBC’s Games of Games since 2017 and has also had a lifestyle brand ED by Ellen for six years.

She also has a dog collection at PetSmart since 2017 and added a cat collection recently.

Ellen’s all-important Nielsen rating plummeted after it was alleged that she fostered a toxic work environment, with a 40% drop in viewership in 20 – 27 May 2021

New York and Chicago, 50% in San Francisco, and 59% in the Big Orange.

She told the Hollywood Reporter: “You certainly need to be challenged. And, as great as the show is and the fun that it is, it’s just not a challenge anymore.”

Ellen, who has hosted the Oscars, Grammys, Primetime Emmys, as well as winning an impressive 30 Emmys and a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, is expected to be replaced by Eritrean American comedienne and actress Tiffany Haddish, 41, who has been a guest host a number of times.

Kneading the Dough

An online baking class led by Meichelle Arntz, founder of Angels Foster Care and Recipes Bakery, raised funds for infants and toddlers and the Angels Lionheart Legacy Fund.

The fund, established in memory of Ezra Lionheart Fernandez, provides intensive medical, educational, and behavioral services for Angels Foster Care children.

In addition to Sunday’s virtual baking class, participants also received a package with all the non-perishable ingredients for baking along with Meichelle as she prepared her famous Monkey Bread, a recipe card, a foil Bundt cake pan, and a raffle ticket.

Those purchasing higher-priced tickets also received a bottle of wine, a designer apron, five raffle tickets, and a copy of Baking with Kim-Joy. Motivated by her conviction that “every baby deserves a safe, stable, loving family on their very own,” she launched Angels Foster Care in 2006.

Hopefully the event made a lot of dough.

Taking the Gamble

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Archewell Foundation is now in a multi-year global partnership with U.S. consumer giant Procter & Gamble, makers of Crest, Oral B, Gillette, and Pampers, whose annual sales in 2019 were $67.7 billion.

The affiliation will focus on gender equality, more inclusive online spaces and resilience, and impact through sports.

The Montecito tony twosome say they will be working to “build more compassionate communities” as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are on a mission “to bring a more just future for women and girls.”

But the new alliance has raised eyebrows given the company’s checkered history, with links to child and forced labor, animal testing, and price fixing.

A Return to Oz?

Former Montecito resident and Australian actor Paul Hogan, 81, says he is “desperate” to return to the antipodes.

The Crocodile Dundee star says he

and his son, Chance, 23, are trapped in “a living nightmare” in the once elite Los Angeles suburb of Venice, where a vast increase in homelessness has seen hundreds of tents line the beach’s famous boardwalk and resulted in a sharp increase in crime.

Hogan, who used to live on Parra Grande Lane, is now reportedly holed up inside his “fortress-like” $4.5 million mansion with his musician son, eagerly awaiting a return to Oz. He moved to the U.S. permanently in 2005 after growing up in a Sydney suburb. But now he says: “I feel like a kangaroo in a Russian zoo. I don’t belong here!”

Hogan shares Chance with Crocodile Dundee co-star Linda Kozlowski, whom he married in 1991 before divorcing in 2014.

“I’m here out of paternal duty because my kid is American,” he says.

“He’s a Yaussie, a yank Aussie. He went to school here, his friends are here, his band is here.”

Violent crime in the area is up a staggering 177 percent since last year.

She’s Bustered

Montecito actress Gwyneth Paltrow indulged in “multiple drinks seven nights a week” during the last year as she quarantined with her family.

The Oscar winner turned Goop entrepreneur, 48, dubbed her tipple of choice a “Buster Paltrow,” which is named after her grandfather and contains “great quinoa whiskey.”

“I drank alcohol during quarantine,” she admits.

“I was drinking seven nights a week and making pasta and eating bread. I went totally off the rails. I mean, who drinks multiple drinks a week? Like that’s not healthy.

“I love whiskey and I make this fantastic drink called the Buster Paltrow, which I named after my grandfather, who loved whiskey sours. It’s this great quinoa whiskey from a distillery in Tennessee with maple syrup and lemon juice. It’s just heaven.

“I would have two of these every night of quarantine.”

If You Have a Few Bucks Laying Around . . .

The palatial Manhattan triplex penthouse that was home to the legendary comedienne Joan Rivers for more than a quarter of a century is up for grabs for $38 million.

The impressive pad, which Joan always joked Marie Antoinette would have bought “if she’d had money,” is just a tiara’s toss from The Pierre Hotel with panoramic views of Central Park.

The pricey home, where Joan entertained the late Princess Diana as well as yours truly when I was gossip for many years on her syndicated TV talk show, is perched atop a 42-foot-wide

• The Voice of the Village •

limestone sheathed mansion and designed by noted architect Horace Trumbauer in the Neo-French Classic style.

It was sold after Joan’s tragic death in 2014 for $28 million to an unnamed member of a Middle Eastern royal family.

The 11-room apartment, which features four bedrooms and four and a half bathrooms, encompasses 5,200 square feet, with two terraces offering another 430 square feet.

The reception rooms have soaring 23-foot ceilings and elegant parquet, Versailles style flooring.

Fond memories...

Off the Market

Santa Barbara warbler Katy Perry has sold her Beverly Hills Post Office home, which she bought in 2018 for a breakeven $7.5 million.

The 1960-built, 4,410-square-foot property was put on the market in the fall of last year for $8 million but underwent a price snip or two.

The one-acre estate has four bedrooms and five bathrooms.

The former Dos Pueblos High student’s residency at Resorts World Las Vegas, dubbed Katy Perry: Play, kicks off December 29.

Getting its Piece

Ensemble Theatre Company has been awarded a $10,000 Grants for Arts Projects to support The Young Playwrights’ Festival, which is now in its fourth year.

The popular program introduces middle and high school students to the art of playwriting and has been developed to fill a gap in quality playwriting programs in the region for this age group.

Unlike other literary genres, dramatic writing has unique language and stylistic characteristics. A good script draws on a playwright’s passions, history, cultural connections and views about life, while requiring a mastery of language, character, and performance.

The Young Playwrights’ Festival project is among more than 1,100 projects across the U.S., totaling nearly $27 million, that were selected.

This year’s festival of new 10-minute plays will be held on May 22 at The New Vic for a limited invited audience and viewable online via YouTube LIVE. Sightings Actor Christopher Lloyd picking up his New York Times at Pierre Lafond... Antonio Banderas noshing at Olio e Limone.... Modern Family actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson checking out the Honor Bar Pip! Pip! Be safe, wear a mask, and get vaccinated •MJ MONTECITO JOURNAL

41

Santa Barbara by the Glass

by Gabe Saglie Gabe Saglie has been covering the Santa Barbara wine scene for more than 15 years through columns, TV and radio. He’s a senior editor with Travelzoo and is a leading expert on travel deals, tips and trends. Gabe and wife Renee have 3 children and one Golden Retriever named Milo

‘Patience and Persistence Paid Off’: San Ysidro Ranch’s Wine Collection Returns to its Glory The 2018 Montecito mudslides completely destroyed the Stonehouse Restaurant wine cellar at the San Ysidro Ranch

F

or the wine program at the San Ysidro Ranch, 2021 has been a very good year.

The lucrative wine selection at the landmark luxury resort was completely destroyed when mudslides roared across the Montecito foothills in 2018.

Millions of dollars in some of the world’s very best wine — more than 12,000 bottles and a list that had won several coveted Grand Awards from Wine Spectator — annihilated in minutes. The endeavor to return that collection to its former glory — to rebuild it into something bigger and better, even — began right away.

Three years later, the job is done, and the Ranch’s Stonehouse Restaurant can now claim, without exaggeration, one of the most coveted wine lists on the planet.

The crowning jewel of this very personal project for owner Ty Warner and his team, including Wine Collections Manager and sommelier Tristan Pitre, arrived just last month: the largest restaurant offering of Chateau Petrus in the United States, and one of the very few of its kind anywhere.

“Patience and persistence paid off,” says Pitre.

Indeed, this acquisition, which includes every single bottle of Petrus from the legendary 1945 Victory vintage to the chateau’s latest 2017 release — 70 vintages in all — was its

42 MONTECITO JOURNAL

own journey.

The hunt was led by The Wine Source, an L.A.-based importer-distributor that locates and authenticates rare wines for discerning clients from around the world. By 2019, they’d located the rare vertical collection in Bordeaux, the home of Petrus, the legendary brand that, from a mere 28 acres of mostly merlot in the heart of the Pomerol appellation, consistently produces what most oenophiles consider the best red wine in the world.

The wines had sat with just two original purchasers who had obtained the bottles directly from Petrus upon their releases.

“The wines were in remarkable condition,” says Tom Wark, a spokesperson for the Ranch, who adds that the identity of the original owners is being kept confidential. “But then the big question: were they real?”

In the world of fine wine acquisition, where fraud has been known to fool even the most astute collector, authenticity and provenance reign supreme. In procuring this Petrus collection for the San Ysidro Ranch, those were achieved, says Wark, “beyond question.”

Buying the bottles was one thing.

Getting them to the Ranch was another story.

The Trump administration slapped import taxes on European wine in

The newly rebuilt subterranean wine cellar at the Ranch is temperature- and humidity-controlled and holds more than 12,000 bottles

The 1945 Chateau Petrus is considered one of the best, and most rare, wines of the 20th century. It’s on the Stonehouse wine list for $38,500.

October 2019, a retaliation for subsidies that the EU had placed on American-made Airbus aircraft.

“That would have forced the Ranch to pay a whopping 25% in tariffs,” says Wark. “So, they stayed in Bordeaux for an extra year.”

The Biden administration paused the tariffs this past March.

So last month, finally, the 70 vintages of Chateau Petrus — 119 bottles in all, with most of the early vintages, starting with 1945, as single bottlings and most of the older vintages, from 1966 onward, as duplicates, arrived at their new home inside the subterranean cellar of the Stonehouse Restaurant. Three years — 1956, 1965, and 1991 — are not represented.

“The only gaps in the collection are poor vintages where wine was not produced by Petrus,” says Pitre.

The Stonehouse wine list has already been updated. The Petrus lot takes up two pages, and the price points definitely match its rarity and distinctiveness. The one bottle of the 1945, for example, which is considered a superlative 20th century vintage in Bordeaux, is listed at $38,500. Tasting notes for this wine are rare, and those that exist are many years old.

“Part of the excitement is not knowing exactly what you’re going to get,” says Pitre. What you’re paying for is more about having “a once in a lifetime experience.”

In fact, once that 1945 is ordered, as with so many of the vintages, especially the early ones, “restocking it will be pretty much impossible,” adds Pitre.

“It’s priced to make it a big sale — a big moment both for us selling it to you and for you buying it.”

Other vintages of note, most oneoffs in the Ranch’s Petrus collection, include the 1947 ($31,500), the 1959 ($13,500), the 1961 ($25,000), the 1982 ($12,500), and the 2000 ($14,500). Of the more current vintages, the 2016 “is probably one of the most exciting and age-worthy,” says Pitre. It’s on the list

for $9,500.

The lowest-priced Petrus on the list? The 1977, a growing season in Bordeaux wrought by severe frosts in the spring and a cold, sunless summer. It’s yours for $5,300.

Pitre says that the ceremony around ordering any of the Petrus wines will be dictated by the patron themselves, of course.

“We’ll probably bring them into the cellar, and the wine will go into a cradle. And to get the cork out perfectly and precisely, we’ll use the Durand,” he said of the patented device often preferred by oenophiles for the removal of fragile corks.

Pitre would likely not recommend immediately decanting the older vintages but, rather, pouring some of the wine straight into the glass first.

“That’s a way to gauge where the wine is, and then they can decide if it’s worth decanting the rest.” Whatever the guest decides, though, he jests: “I might invest in wide receiver gloves — those white, sticky ones,” to transport the wine as steadily and as securely as possible to the table.

A special display case to house the 119 bottles is currently under construction and should be installed in a few weeks. That’s when even those who may not be in the market for a Petrus will get a chance to view this extraordinary anthology.

Since the Ranch reopened post-pandemic, Pitre has been offering private tours of the cellar, which once again houses more than 12,000 bottles. The 30-minute experience, which includes champagne and individually plated canapés made with herbs from the onsite organic garden, is available to Stonehouse diners with advance reservation and priced at $125 per person. The three time slots — 5 pm, 5:45 pm, and 6:15 pm — allow for 15 minutes between showings for sanitation.

•MJ

“Fifteen minutes: the afterlife of a graduation speech.” – Art Buchwald

For more, visit sanysidroranch.com.

20 – 27 May 2021

Travel Buzz (Continued from page 43) party. A staff member with pom poms cheered everyone on.

Who would have imagined that senior citizens, heck, folks of any age, would be this happy about getting a shot in the arm?

As everyone agrees, it’s not easy recognizing old friends and neighbors when wearing masks and sunglasses, but I thought I spotted Summerland artist Richard Aber.

“Is that you, Richard?” I asked.

“Nope,” was the reply.

“Oh, sorry! I thought you were my old Summerland neighbor that I profiled in the Montecito Journal,” I replied.

“My wife and I just moved from Summerland, but we lived there a long time, up on Whitney,” said the man who introduced himself as Peter Treadwell.

Turns out that Peter is the brother-inlaw of my old pal Steven Gilbar, who lives in Montecito and just released his new book, Published & Perished.

“So how are you feeling about the vaccine?” I asked, as we waited out our 15-minute “safety time,” under a tent stocked with water, coffee, goldfish snacks, and a very nice, young volunteer fireman checking in on everyone.

“It was nice to be shot,” the retired builder and photographer said. “It was very easy and very rewarding.”

Safe to go, we bid adieu and I said, “See you in three weeks, same time next month!”

I got in my car and began my return journey, anticipating a stop to pick up to-go lunch at Industrial Eats in Buellton.

Sometimes Siri steers you wrong on your phone; sometimes she does you right. Because I had my settings on “avoid highways,” I didn’t notice that “it” (an Australian male voice directing me) was navigating me through an unknown road which turned out to be absolutely beautiful. It was the most happy and divine accident I’d had all year: a drive through my California, the California of yesteryear.

I drove out of town towards the east, passing fields of wild yellow mustard and the east-west traversing Santa Ynez mountain range. The road out of town hooked up briefly with Foxen Canyon Road (I hadn’t realized it went that far north) and then Sir Siri told me to take a right turn onto Dominion Road.

It’s not easy taking notes while driving, so I tried to the best of my ability to remember what called to me so strongly. I went on and on about this newly discovered side route to my friends, who may have thought I was nuts, but they probably think that anyhow. Was it because I hadn’t been out of my cage for a year? Were the blues bluer? Or is the landscape more picturesque than I remembered? Were 20 – 27 May 2021

the huge, ancient palm trees that I met and called my new friends, more awesome?

After staring at four white walls for most of the year, I savored the green landscape, grazing horses, tractors in the fields, and red-tail hawks floating effortlessly overhead. I passed a recreational open space called Los Flores Ranch, which I decided I would visit on my return for a second vaccination.

I stopped to photograph a few majestic palm trees that I dubbed my “new, old friends,” and listened to the wind as it whipped and rustled through the serrated leaves. I vowed to return to this undiscovered road that felt like a long-lost friend. After a few miles, the road eventually circled back to the 101, where I made a left and headed south to Buellton.

Dominion Road

Sadly, my revelry was ruined by an unfortunate happenstance. Not all travel, including day trips, goes smoothly. Perhaps I had tried to re-enter “society” too quickly.

Perhaps the name of the road that I discovered accidentally, Dominion, which circles from Santa Maria back to the 101 South, just north of Los Alamos, had something to do with it.

It felt like the pandemic was non-existent. The restaurant, which had long been my favorite in the Valley, was bustling with people waiting both inside and out for their orders, along with a few sitting at a handful of outdoor tables set up in the parking lot.

A darling Latino man took my order at the inside counter. After I paid, he said it would be about 25 minutes — which was neither music to my ears nor my empty stomach. I wandered back to my car to wait and a 92-yearold friend (who is hard of hearing) called. I told him I was wearing my mask and to hold until I could get to my car, which had been blocked by a group of people, one of them without a mask.

Suddenly, the family surrounding my car verbally pounced.

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“We’re not blocking your car! We’re wearing masks!” The one next to my door was not.

I really hadn’t been speaking to them but was talking loudly to my friend so he could hear me through my muffled mask.

“Are you from L.A.?” I asked, as I knew people in the Valley didn’t act like this. We’re mellow in Santa Barbara County, right?

Dead silence. (No offense intended, dear Angeleno readers, as I grew up in Santa Monica, which means I know how people from a city of almost 10 million can behave.)

By now, my joyous mood had soured, so I went in to find out what was happening with my order.

Another unhappy encounter (I’ll spare you the details), and I told the rude gal, whose name I won’t mention in print, to please donate my order to a homeless person.

Despite not assuaging my hunger pangs, the drive back through the Gaviota tunnel and coast was bucolic.

I’d lost my appetite by now and decided to just focus on Dominion Road.

Back in the Saddle at Last

My return trip three weeks later was a much happier affair. This time, I drove up with my best friend as I wanted to show her Dominion Road.

We ran into Peter Treadwell again, along with his family members, and had a lovely celebratory chat. We were all excited about getting our second shots.

I guided my friend along the back route, and she was equally impressed.

We stopped for a short stroll at the lovely Los Flores Ranch, which included a brief chat with the swell fella manning the kiosk.

I had made lunch reservations at Pico back in Los Alamos, where we ran into Indy columnist Starshine Roshell and her husband, John. It was so nice to see an old colleague after the year of lockdown.

Our lunch, while mostly enjoyable and a great treat, seemed a bit pricey at $130 considering what we had.

Real Estate Appraiser Greg Brashears California Certified General Appraiser Serving Santa Barbara County and beyond for 30 years V 805-650-9340 EM gb@gregbrashears.com

• The Voice of the Village •

But I would have been happy to pay twice as much just for the excitement of dining out again (yes, we cheated a bit, but we did wear our masks, and only removed them while eating and sipping).

The chef came out to check on everyone and kindly made a small fix on one of our dishes: the undercooked local black cod ($33). Truffle fries were swimming in oil, but I did enjoy my Baja roast quail ($27). We both liked the red blend wine so much ($15/ glass) — Cavo Real, from the great wine growing state of Guanajuato — that we each bought a bottle ($20) to take home.

A smooth drive home, a very long four-hour nap the following day, and a slightly sore arm was the only hangover from my vaccination day journey.

Synonyms for the word dominion, a word famously used in the Bible for having power over animals, include authority, command, control, jurisdiction, power, and sway. While all these words mean “the right to govern or rule or determine,” dominion stresses sovereign power or supreme authority.

This road did all of this and more. It took command of my senses, control of my feelings, and swayed me to love my birth state even more.

Just as Queen Elizabeth II has dominion over her kingdom, for one short afternoon, I gratefully felt like I was beginning to have dominion over my life again.

All hail to California, rumored to have been named for a black moor queen in a fictional novel (more on this debate at a later date).

Whether that’s fact or fiction, for one short afternoon, I felt like Queen Califia, the fictional queen of the island of California, in our very own backyard.

•MJ

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MONTECITO JOURNAL

43

NOSH TOWN

by Claudia Schou

FROM CURED MEATS TO SAVORY SOUPS, LOCAL DELI OWNERS STACK IT UP

S

ome of Santa Barbara’s finest takeout options aren’t coming from established restaurants. The best gourmet grocers, delis, and bodegas are sprinkled throughout Santa Barbara’s diverse culinary neighborhoods. From classic sammies, subs, grinders, heroes, and hoagies (the subs’ Italian cousins), local deli owners continued to serve beleaguered foodies during the pandemic, combining the traditional art of sandwich making with locally sourced meats and produce and savory sauces. Because of their size or limited seating capacities, their focus has been to provide food lovers with a new take on takeout.

PIERRE LAFOND MARKET & DELI

Deli and bakery with produce, cheese, wine, pantry items, and a nice selection of cookbooks. Traditional deli sandwiches come with your choice of cold cuts, tuna, chicken salad, or egg salad on freshly baked bread. Popular specialty sandwiches include The Torpedo, with ham, salami, provolone, pepperoncini, tomato, lettuce, and vinaigrette on a baguette; and the Black Bean Torta with jack cheese, avocado, roasted poblanos, red bell peppers, and mayo on a lightly toasted French roll. Prices: $7.50-$11.95. Enjoy patio seating or find a spot on the spacious lawn adjacent to the market.

Open: 6 am-7 pm daily. 516 San Ysidro Road. Montecitoshopping.com.

MONTECITO DELI

This no-frills delicatessen offers a straightforward selection of tasty subs, sandwiches, wraps, piadinas (made with a thick tortilla-shaped flat bread popular in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy), savory soups, and chopped salads made fresh daily. For the ultimate deli breakfast, try the bagel sandwich served hot from the broiler, slathered in mayo and topped with a fried egg, deli meat or vegetarian, red onion, lettuce, and tomato. Patio seating is available for breakfast and lunch. Prices range from $8-$12.

Open: 7:30 am-2 pm, Monday- Friday; 9 am-2 pm, Saturday. 1150 Coast Village Road, #B. Montecitodeli.us.

OLIO BOTTEGA

Located in the spot previously known as Olio Crudo Bar, owners Alberto and Elaine Morello pivoted during the pandemic with a new concept, Olio Bottega, now downtown Santa Barbara’s newest Italian breakfast, lunch, and retail spot. Olio Bottega serves up house-made, oven-baked olive oil focaccia bread paninis, cured meats such as prosciutto, coppa, and bresaola, small bites, and pantry items. Priced from $11 -$14, paninis abound here such as pork belly with sweet Olio Bottega offers cured meats, specialty paninis, and onion roulade, provolone, roasted peppers small plates and lemon Dijon; mortadella with pistachio cream stracciatella cheese; and cured Italian beef, provolone, arugula and artichoke spread. The breakfast menu consists mostly of buttery and delectable pastries and egg dishes. There is also a nice selection of juices, espresso drinks, and cocktails.

“Delis and bottegas provide a cultural and culinary home to food lovers looking for familiar and traditional meals, as well as provide cuisine inspired by the immigrant experience,” said Morello.

Open: 9:30 am-3 pm, Tuesday-Sunday. 11 West Victoria Street, Suite 18. Oliobottega.com.

NORTON’S PASTRAMI & DELI

Established in 2004, Norton’s Deli is known for its towering old-school, East Coast-style sandwiches. A few years back the deli’s famous pastrami sandwich was featured by Guy Fieri on the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Other popular sandwich selections include Philly steak, tuna melt, corned beef, and all-beef franks. Each order comes with sour pickles. Customers can order sides like fries, onion rings, and potato salad à la carte. Prices range from $11-$13 and The grilled sandwich line up at Norton’s Deli

44 MONTECITO JOURNAL

around $17 for sandwich, side, and a drink.

“As soon as the pandemic started and the takeout-only ordinance was out, I set up an online order platform,” explained owner Filippo Giordano. “It’s easy to use and it speeds up the checkout process to avoid crowding outside the deli.”

Open: 10 am-4 pm, Monday-Saturday. 18 West Figueroa Street. Nortonsdeli.com.

METROPULOS FINE FOODS MERCHANT

Nicknamed the Funk Zone’s “little food mecca,” this friendly, open spot facing Yanonali Street offers a tasty selection of gourmet sandwiches, charcuterie, cheeses, artisanal salads, specialty wines and beers, and imported pantry items. The gourmet shop sells taramasalata, a pinkish Greek spread made from salted and cured fish roe mixed with olive oil, lemon juice, and almonds or a starch such as bread or potatoes. Made with cod or salmon roe (depending on the season), the spread is salty and delightfully fishy – giving caviar a whole new dimension.

Craveable sandwiches include Harissa Bomb with smoked turkey, homemade harissa olive oil spread, chipotle aioli, thinly sliced red onions, mixed greens, tomatoes, pepperoncinis and melted jack cheese, served hot and melty on toasted baguette; and The Rooster with roast beef, sriracha aioli, jalapenos, grilled onions, tomatoes, mixed greens and provolone cheese, served on toasted ciabatta. Here’s Okeydokey Artichokey with artichoke hearts, lemony-artichoke aioli, roasted turkey breast, garlic aioli, mixed greens, goat cheese, and roasted red peppers on lightly toasted ciabatta bread. Prices range from $5.50 for a half sandwich to $11.95 for a whole sandwich.

“During the initial hard-close, we started selling MREs, our take on the military term for Meals Ready to Eat. Every day we prepared dinners that people could take home and reheat,” explained Ann Addis, co-owner. “We made Indonesian skewers, roast chicken, baked zitis, grilled chicken and mash potatoes, ratatouille with polenta, khalua pork, spaghetti and meatballs, meatloaf, mac and cheese. Our chef David Jimenez is very talented and can cook anything. Between the two of us, we kept it interesting and brainstormed for ideas and complementary side dishes that would reheat well. It was fun to create new things, and our customers were so grateful to have hot food to eat at home.”

Open: 9 am-4 pm, Monday-Saturday. 216 East Yanonali Street, Santa Barbara.

Metrofinefoods.com.

SOUTH COAST DELI

Founded in 1991, South Coast Deli is known for its towering Cali-style sammies and veggie-packed salads. Local favorites include When in Rome with roasted chicken breast, toasted almond and sage pesto, lemon mayo, pecorino cheese and arugula on a toasted Italian roll; Viet Nom Nom made with house marinated and roasted pork shoulder, sriracha mayo, cilantro, cucumber, mirin vinaigrette, and pickled veggies on a toasted Italian roll; Eggplant Sammie with fried eggplant, melted pro- South Coast Deli dabbles in cultural favorites such volone, mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomato, as the Viet Nom Nom – a Santa Barbara version of pepperoncinis, red onion, and Italian vinai- the banh mi grette; MMMM Balls made with all-natural beef and sausage meatballs and provolone, smothered in a zesty tomato sauce (the deli recommends pesto as an alternative sauce); and Tall, Dark, and Vegan with seasoned and grilled Hungry Planet Chicken (premium plant-based meat), vegan cheese, vegan mayo, caramelized onions, and sundried tomatoes served on sourdough or wheat.

Keep Calm, Kale On, is a popular salad with chopped kale, hearts of palm, sundried tomato, toasted pine nuts, red onion, parmesan, and pecorino tossed in garlic dressing. Prices range from $6.95-$13.95.

“We were predominantly a takeout restaurant before the pandemic,” said owner Jim St. John, adding that the eatery’s approach to survival was to reduce hours and eliminate menu items that were not selling. “It was always our goal to stay true to who we were; we didn’t feel it was necessary to pivot to a new model. We allowed customers to order in-store from the start, which felt almost normal.”

Open: Monday- Saturday. Four locations in Santa Barbara and Goleta. Hours vary per location. Southcoastdeli.com.

CANTWELL’S GROCERY MARKET DELI

Cantwell’s sells specialty grocery goods plus deli items like roasted chickens, fresh-batch soups, pizzas, and hot and cold sandwiches — all made to order. The New Yorker, made with Angus hot pastrami, spicy mustard, sauerkraut, and melted Swiss cheese served on grilled rye or your choice of bread; and the Tandoori Chicken Salad made with mixed greens, carrots, cucumber, tomato, cilantro, tandoori-seasoned chicken breast, lime and tamarind are two house favorites. There’s fresh brewed coffee and morning baked goods, burgers, ribs, and fresh salads. And, of course, there’s Cantwell’s excellent pasta, including

“The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces.” – Will Rogers

20 – 27 May 2021

its lasagna. You can eat at the outdoor seating areas, or anything can be packed to take out. Prices range from $7.50-$10.

Open: 6 am-9 pm, Monday-Friday; 7 am-9 pm, Saturday; 7 am-8 pm, Sunday. 1533 State Street. Cantwellsmarket.com.

TASTING NOTES

If you’re planning to spend more time outdoors, start thinking about the perfect beer and wine to pair with your al fresco culinary adventures. We caught up with a few local beer and wine lovers to get their recommendations.

GREER SHULL, THIRD WINDOW BREWERY Third Window Brewing’s pilsner, The Light, is a delicious pairing for summer fare such as sandwiches (hot or cold), sausage, and burgers. This light lager is brewed with heirloom pilsner malt and hopped to provide balance. It’s then fermented cold for eight weeks. Just before packaging, it is dry hopped, creating floral, citrus, and straw aromas. On the palate, you’ll find notes of honey, biscuit, and lemon zest.

Chef Dario Furlati

Serving pizza & authentic Northern Italian Cuisine in Montecito, Santa Barbara and Goleta

Lunch Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily Dinner Hours: Sunday - Thursday 4 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Friday - Saturday 4 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. offering online ordering at cadariorestaurants.com or call 805-884-9419 ext 2.

We are grateful for the support of our wonderful community.

Third Window Brewing’s The Light

MITCHELL SJERVEN, BOUCHON PROPRIETOR

We have a few wines in mind for summer fruit desserts. For sweeter, dense fruit like mango or pineapple we recommend the Margerum Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc from Santa Ynez Valley, as it’s not so sweet that it would be sugar overload.

For stone fruit, like peaches or nectarines, we recommend Foxen’s Sweet Ending, a Viognier-Sauvignon Blanc blend from Happy Canyon that has great fruit tree blossom floral notes on the nose and a pleasant viscosity that lines up with traditional dessert wine sticky vibes.

•MJ

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• The Voice of the Village •

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46 MONTECITO JOURNAL

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MONTECITO MONTECITO MONTECITO ELECTRIC ELECTRIC ELECTRIC

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(805) 969-1575 969-1575 (805) 969-1575 (805) STATE LICENSE STATE LICENSENo. No.485353 485353

STATE LICENSE No. 485353 MAXWELLL. HAILSTONE MAXWELLL. HAILSTONE MAXWELL L. HAILSTONE East Valley Road, Suit 147 1482 East Valley Road, Suit 147 1482 East Valley Road, Suite 147 Montecito, California 93108 Montecito, California 93108 Montecito, California 93108

www.montecitoelectric.com www.montecitoelectric.com 20 – 27 May 2021

Editor’s Letter (Continued from page 39) and that kind of stuff. But we brought everybody back. In addition to continuing insurance coverage for those furloughed, we paid the premiums they would ordinarily have to pay, for those who were furloughed more than 50%.

We were just trying to help them as we all weathered the storm.

GL: So, what do you guys need to help you recover?

KR: Mostly we’ve been asking for help around what we call the Pandemic Relief Fund... It’s two parts: One is that there was a lot of missing revenue and two is that there’s ongoing expenses that we’re still dealing with. For example, tonight there’s a vaccine clinic going on. So, we’re probably paying 20 people overtime, nurses and other support staff, to vaccinate. They’re not necessarily Sansum Clinic patients anymore. Just whoever signs up on the state website, and if they give their insurance information, we have a chance of billing an insurance company. If they don’t provide insurance information, they have zero chance of billing anybody for it. I don’t know, we do about 1,500 of those a week.

GL: Sansum is a not-for-profit, correct?

KR: Yes. It has been since the ‘70s.

JF: We were really early in the group model in believing that medicine is better when you specialize, and that’s still the model that we have today. So, when people call us the Mayo Clinic of the West, Kurt, don’t you think it sort of ties into that?

KR: Yeah, I think the premise upon which both organizations were founded was that if you could get doctors working together that you could provide a better outcome for patients. And that’s true today both at Sansum and at the Ridley-Tree Cancer Center.

GL: Let’s talk a little about the Ridley-Tree Cancer Center.

KR: The Ridley-Tree Cancer Center is actually part of Sansum Clinic. We branded it separately to acknowledge the incredible generosity of Leslie Ridley-Tree, and also to indicate this is the community cancer center. If you’re not a Sansum Clinic patient, it’s okay. One hundred percent you’re welcome to come. It’s really a gem on the Central Coast and in all of California. Again because of the level of expertise… Our linear accelerators that we saw on our tour with the really thick cement (for radiation oncology treatment), those are state-of-the-art machines; and then you have highly trained doctors. Then you get into, why do you need to go somewhere else for radiation?

Then we have excellent surgeons. We have some breast surgeons who specialize only in breast cancer. That’s again something that you often don’t find in a community this size. We have surgical oncologists. A palliative care program with palliative care specialists. Then medical oncologists, of course, are the core of a cancer operation. And again, the community has provided so many great services. We have music therapy services, yoga, and nutrition classes and just a whole panoply of services. I think also a really unique thing at Ridley-Tree

Cancer Center is our commitment to genetics. We have three genetic counselors; I’m sure that’s the most anywhere between L.A. and San Francisco (with the exception of Stanford).

JF: The music therapy program was a gift from a specific donor. Julie Nadel is a local Montecito resident who has been incredibly generous.

KR: Yes, Julie Nadel has been incredibly generous and helpful to us… She and her late husband established the Elly Nadel Music Therapy Program, helped establish the Prescription Navigator Program, Julie started a Women’s Council (along with local resident Bobbie Rosenblatt), and so Sansum Clinic Hitchcock Branch Manager Randi Rossi, RN, much more.

And I remember when we laid off gives COVID-19 vaccine everybody, another of my very special patients sent me a letter and just said “I bet you can use this,” and it was a $250,000 donation. When you have people do stuff like that, that’s pretty wonderful. We had a couple of people actually.

We had somebody else who contacted us and said, “I suspect you need some help,” and that individual also gave us $250,000. So that’s pretty special when you have people just reading something in the newspaper and saying, I need to help those guys. (By the way, our mailing address is Sansum Philanthropy, PO BOX 1200, Santa Barbara, CA 93102-1200.)

GL: It sounds like you’ve got good friends out there who know that you’re doing good work.

KR: Yeah. To get to live in a community like this and not have to worry about the quality of medical care is really something.

•MJ

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• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

47

TA K E A V I R T U A L T O U R T O D AY

© 2021 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties (BHHSCP) is a member of the franchise system of BHH Affiliates LLC. BHHS and the BHHS symbol are registered service marks of Columbia Insurance Company a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate. BHH Affiliates LLC and BHHSCP do not guarantee accuracy of all data including measurements, conditions, and features of property. Information is obtained from various sources and will not be verified by broker or MLS. Buyer is advised to independently verify the accuracy of that information.

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296 LAS ENTRADAS DR, MONTECITO UPPER 6BD/11BA • $26,500,000 Nancy Kogevinas, 805.450.6233 LIC# 01209514

663 LILAC DR, MONTECITO 5BD/9BA • $7,950,000 Cristal Clarke, 805.886.9378 LIC# 00968247

820 CIMA LINDA LN, MONTECITO LOWER 4BD/7BA • $6,795,000 Cristal Clarke, 805.886.9378 LIC# 00968247

920 CAMINO VIEJO, MONTECITO 4BD/4½BA • $6,250,000 Daniel Encell, 805.565.4896 LIC# 00976141

700 ROMERO CANYON RD, MONTECITO 4BD/4½BA • $5,995,000 Nancy Kogevinas, 805.450.6233 LIC# 01209514

513 CROCKER SPERRY DR, MONTECITO UPPER 4BD/5BA • $5,795,000 Nancy Kogevinas, 805.450.6233 LIC# 01209514

3589 TORO CANYON PARK RD, SANTA BARBARA 121.12± acs • $5,500,000 Kerry Mormann, 805.682.3242 LIC# 00598625

1770 JELINDA DR, MONTECITO LOWER 4BD+office/4BA • $5,300,000 Marsha Kotlyar Estate Group, 805.565.4014 LIC# 01426886

1100 MESA RD, MONTECITO UPPER 3BD/2½BA • $4,995,000 Nancy Kogevinas, 805.450.6233 LIC# 01209514

2350 BELLA VISTA DR, MONTECITO UPPER 3BD/2½BA • $3,900,000 Rachael Douglas, 805.318.0900 LIC# 02024147

1382 PLAZA PACIFICA, MONTECITO LOWER 2BD/2½BA • $2,795,000 Cristal Clarke, 805.886.9378 LIC# 00968247

1094 TORO CANYON RD, MONTECITO UPPER 45±acs • $850,000 Jody Neal / Kathy Strand Spieler, 805.252.9267 LIC# 01995725 / 00851281

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