Oil Drilling, Fire Season, and NP Drama

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CAN’T BELIEVE SHE SAID THAT: As if Mayor Marty Blum isn’t taking enough heat, USA Today quoted her: “The people of Santa Barbara don’t want any more oil drilling. That’s just pretty plain. But everybody’s got a price, and at a certain price per gallon, we’re all going to want more drilling.”

Excuse me, but even if they sunk their drills down today and coated every inch of county beaches with gunk, it would be years and years before the gas hit the pumps. And who believes it would be any cheaper than it is today as a result?

On the Beat

BARRY WILL SUE: News-Press attorney A. Barry Cappello said he’s going to court over what he calls the Teamsters’ “illegal secondary boycott.” The Teamsters are urging advertisers to pull their ads from the News-Press and telling shoppers to boycott merchants who advertise. “He is wrong,” Teamster attorney Ira Gottlieb told me. “The law protects and does not prohibit the activity in which the union is engaged. There is ample case law supporting the constitutional and statutory right to do what the union is doing.”

THIN SPORTS DESK: News-Press sportswriter John Dvorak gave notice Monday and there may be another sports desk departure soon, according to blogger Craig Smith. Meanwhile, Smith said, the sports section is getting thinner and thinner.

GOLETA POLI-TRICKS: It’s widely believed in the Good Land that would-be developers of the Bishop Ranch pulled their rezoning application so as not to put the pro-growth Goleta City Council on the hot seat before the November election. But it’s also suspected that the housing project will be right back after the vote, when the pro-development camp hopes to elect its kind of people. (I keep hearing about the ranch’s lack of enough water, so how do you vote your way out of that?) Challengers on the November ballot to the pro-growth, developer-backed candidates are Margaret Connell, Goleta’s first mayor, who was unseated two years ago by developer money, and Ed Easton, member of the Planning Commission.

CONVENIENT HOSTEL: Fess Parker’s required hostel is going up far faster than his beach area hotel. The hostel is conveniently (or not) located across from the Spearmint Rhino “gentlemen’s club.” But I’m assured by Parker’s folks that his East Cabrillo hotel is going well. The $90 million, 150-room hotel is a far larger project than a $5 million hostel.

SAD NEWS: A wake at Dargan’s is planned for 3 p.m. today, Thursday, July 17, for Jim Zant, brother of Independent sports columnist John Zant. Jim, L.A. County teacher of the year in 1993-94 at Rosemead High, died in an auto accident.

AMRITA NOT SAYING: With their attempt to recall two members of the Carpinteria School Board thwarted by having insufficient signatures, opponents have zeroed in on the third trustee who voted to do away with offensive American Indian imagery, Amrita Salm. But Salm may not be available as a target for their arrows. “I am not ready to declare whether I will seek reelection at this time,” she emailed me.

THE CRUELEST MONTH: So in which month is a wildfire most likely to break out? Attorney Rob Egenolf did some historical work. “For those of you who may be thinking that the past two years’ fires were early in the historical ‘fire season’ in Santa Barbara, this data could be of interest. Historically, July (with four fires) appears to be the worst month in Santa Barbara for fires, followed by a tie (three fires each) between June and September. Interestingly, the last four fires we have had all started within a one-week period from June 27 to July 4.”

RUMORS: Want to get away from it all? Two hours at Santa Barbara City College’s Garvin Theatre taking in Neil Simon’s gag-filled comedy Rumors should do it. Santa Barbara favorite Nancy Nufer and the gang gather in tuxes and evening gowns for an evening of mixed-up identities involving a gunshot. One of the best bits is when Joseph Beck, playing Officer Welch, shows up to try to make sense of the craziness and listens oh-so-patiently to an unbelievable explanation. Thanks to director Judy Garey for expert handling of Simon’s wit.

EAST VS. WEST: He’d just blown into L.A. from New York after landing a magazine job. So what difference, I asked, do you see between life in the Big Apple and SoCal? “People in L.A. don’t wear black as much. People here really want to look sexy. New Yorkers want to look sophisticated and chic. Here, I’ve got so many closets I feel like subletting them.” (New York apartments tend to be small, he said.) “New Yorkers don’t cook,” an East Coast woman just visiting L.A. chimed in. “They pick up food for the day. We never entertain at home. Southern California people invite others over for a cookout.” She told of N.Y. preschools that charge $20,000 a year. “I have no idea what they teach” for that price, she said.

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