Month: August 2006

Uncategorized By Russ Spencer

Living the Arctic Meltdown

An Inuit Community Struggles with Climate Change

When polar explorer Will Steger comes to town to visit Montecito philanthropist Virginia Castagnola-Hunter at her 1919 Reginald Johnson estate, he likes to sleep on the back lawn. Granted, it’s a pretty great lawn. But it’s nothing compared to the home’s posh interior. To Steger, though, maintaining a connection to the natural world is more important than luxury, largely because it represents humanity’s best hope for combating global warming.

By Indy Staff

YOUNG BLOOD

The new Hollywood sports movie The Gridiron Gang chronicles the efforts of former Santa Barbara resident Paul Higa to redirect the energies of hard-core juvenile offenders in Los Angeles from criminal behavior to the football field.

By Indy Staff

LAND AND SEA

In response to the discovery of Oriental fruit flies in the Hope Ranch area last month, the pesticide Dibrom (a trade name for naled) was applied for the third time to trees and telephone poles in the region.

Spins Art
Visual Arts By Darian Bleecher

Spins Art

You may have already seen the paper versions of these clever postcards around town. Iconic beach town images get the graffiti, mustache-on-the-“Mona Lisa” treatment. But it’s the virtual versions of these images currently displayed on the Santa Barbara Conference and Visitors Bureau Web site that really say it all. Through the miracle of modern digital animation, we see these wholesome images go cutting-edge as the animated overlay appears and spreads before our eyes: a 1940s-era sunbather appears and is then covered in tattoos. A clean-cut Gidget-era surfer sprouts a Mohawk and stylized licks of flame. The images were designed to promote Off-Axis, the big new contemporary art festival coming to town this month, and the caption for all of them reads the same: “Edgy. Progressive. Mind-blowing. Not the adjectives you’d necessarily expect from Santa Barbara.” Exactly.

By Indy Staff

LAW AND DISORDER

The attorney prosecuting Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Diana Hall before the California Commission on Judicial Performance is calling for Hall’s removal from the bench for laundering campaign contributions from her former lesbian lover.

By Indy Staff

ROADS MORE TRAVELED

Judge Denise de Bellefeuille brought the gavel down on Carpinteria City Councilmember Greg Gandrud, who challenged the ballot language describing and supporting Measure D 2006the $1.6 billion congestion relief and road repair sales-tax increaseas false and misleading.

Uncategorized By

The Letter of the Law

Levy Wins Intimidation Lawsuit

Embattled developer Bill Levy (pictured) won a high-stakes showdown before the California Supreme Court with longtime foe and onetime friend Richard Berti, who charged Levy had grossly abused the judicial process by using it as a cudgel to silence critics. The critic in question was Berti himself, who waged a nine-year legal campaign to find out how Levy spent his investors’ money on what’s since become the Ritz-Carlton time-share condo proposal slated for lower State Street.

By Shannon Kelley

Sightseeing Peeps

The Intentional Tourist

Once you’ve lived in S.B. for any length of time, there are certain things you come to avoid. But in the interest of dodging tourists, are we missing out on some of the best our town has to offer? It’s entirely possible, I discovered recently, when I decided to play tourist for a day.

By Indy Staff

UNDER ONE ROOF

Santa Barbara County won the dubious distinction of being the nation’s eighth least affordable county for potential homebuyers. San Luis Obispo came in 10th, and the Los Angeles/Long Beach area took top “honors.”

Uncategorized By Martha Sadler

Mollusk of the Moment

Will Abalone Harvesting Return to San Miguel?

In 1997, San Miguel Island was the last bastion of commercial California red abalone fishing. Decimated by overfishing, disease, voracious otters, and even an African parasite called a sabellid worm, all species of the once-abundant disk-shaped mollusks had practically disappeared from the California coast by the mid-1990s.

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