Comments by aspiringdiva
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Posted on February 23 at 6:38 p.m.
Roger that, Huey, and vaya con dios, Paul Veblen - you and TM were two gents that I greatly admired as a young journalism student; still do...
Posted on February 20 at 3:14 p.m.
Pardon my laughter, but I have a great deal of difficulty believing that Ph.D "Big Ed" Schneider and his minions brought this project before County Planning and Development without knowing that it was subject to HLAC review. The landmark resolution which protects this public resource is a short piece of text so simple and direct that it's virtually impossibile to misinterpret. What is it about "historic design concept" that you folks don't understand?
Which brings me to the County: Who let this project slip through without HLAC review? If this had happened in the private sector, heads would be rolling.
Posted on February 20 at 1:10 p.m.
I worked at UCSB on two different occasions; once in the 1970s auditing capital equipment for the campus materiel management office, and later for the UCSB Foundation as assistant director of the Chancellor's Council. The jobs were interesting, and the monetary compensation - while not large - was enough for me to rent a decent apartment, clothe and feed myself, help support my child, and have a little left over. At the time, UCSB was considered one of the best places to work in Santa Barbara.
During my years away, I served in several management capacities at two regional museums, and I managed large and complex marketing events for a global tech company. Today I'm looking to downsize to a smaller assignment before I retire. I'd love to return to UCSB, but the salaries are appallingly low in comparison to other local employers.
Posted on January 7 at 4:07 p.m.
GANG ACTIVITY: "Eight_santa_barbara" seems skeptical re the level of gang activity in our community, but one doesn't have to get mugged to know that it's real. If you don't believe the media reports of knifings, beatings, and murders, or the blood stains on the sidewalk, you only have spend time in some of our less-affluent neighborhoods after dark; gangbangers are quite visible. I've been in SB since childhood, and I've lived east of Milpas on a couple of occasions. However, I've never seen such blatant and violent gang activity, or the level of gang visibility that there is now.
SBPD's PUBLIC INFORMATION FUNCTION: The SBPD's marketing strategy seems rather disingenuous - they concentrate mega-coverage on a few cases in order to draw attention from their failure to control gang violence. However, the department's shortcomings aren't going to be solved by installing a new PIO; the problem lies at the top of the food chain. There's a lot of grumbling in the neighborhood that the Chief - in his gargantuan effort to be PC - is failing to knock down the gangs. Meanwhile, law-abiding folks have to put up with the crime and violence that are the raison d'etre of these petty thugs.
Posted on January 3 at 12:15 p.m.
T.M. Storke's son Charlie was virtually banished from Santa Barbara by his father, and lived outside the U.S. for many years. Later in life after his return to Santa Barbara, Charlie was involved with the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, an organization perhaps best known for selling the historic landmark El Paseo to a developer.
Posted on May 1 at 7:06 p.m.
I'm confused; is someone grouping Tom Joad with Joe Hill? One's a fictional character, the other isn't.
Posted on May 1 at 6:20 p.m.
Menoliki scores again with his flawed assessment of me and my fellow "entitled Santa Barbarians." Meno seems to assume that I'm a whitebread guera who doesn't know my culo from a hole in the ground when it comes to poor folks with brown skin. Pues, senor, in the 1950s when I was very young, my parents were a couple of working class political activists; my mother labored in a packing house and was a grassroots union organizer. My dad worked for the railroad while my mom processed lemons and picked strawberries to help support the family. By the time I reached high school, she "moved up" to cleaning toilets and makiing beds at San Ysidro Ranch and the Biltmore. Our palatial home - an ancient railroad building ten feet from the tracks - had no bathroom when we moved in; we walked down two flights to use the public facilities. But at least it was better than the converted railroad car my family lived in before I was born. As a girl I wasn't wild about Elvis - my musical idol was el gran cantante, Miguel Aceves Mejia, whose movie posters today grace the walls of my small home. My friends and classmates were in the same boat, except that some of their parents spoke less English than miine. My life is different today, but "entitled" certainly isn't an accurate description. Judging me - or anyone else - by preconceived notions could leave Meno with with huevos on his face.
Posted on April 28 at 12:38 p.m.
Hey menoliki - Before you pontificate on labor issues, maybe you should know that "Joe Hill" is not just the name of a Joan Baez song.
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Posted on February 23 at 10:40 p.m.
Hardly - the distinguished Dr. Schneider couldn't even pass for a Santa Barbaran, much less a Chumash Santa Barbaran!
Quercus 68's assessment of Ed's lack of sensitivity to our heritage is spot on. He's lived here 10+ years, yet he's oblivious to what's around him. Not surprising; before the garden's development plans became a marketing issue, Ed Schneider was virtually invisible in his own community. Unlike the CEOs of the other 15-20 museums in our county, he was rarely seen at major events, or participating in other local activities on behalf of his institution.
But hey - maybe that's SOP when one's research (and accompanying political activities) supercede one's fiduciary duties as a working chief executive officer.
As Quercus pointed out, Schneider's obsession is to create a "world class" garden. If those tickey-tackey concrete pavers are any indication, he seems to define "world class" as substituting a junky knock-off of an urban-style botanic garden for an existing garden that is traditionally and purposely naturalistic - and in the process, destroying it's historic, much loved, and very Santa Barbarian design.
On Supes Terminate Terrace