NEW DEVELOPMENTS

Despite indications to the contrary, Whitefoot Meat Market and
six adjoining Milpas Street businesses will not be replaced by a
Longs Drugs in the foreseeable future. Longs notified property
owner Edward Unterman on January 15 that it was opting out, despite
the city’s approval of the project. Besides the 38-year-old
family-owned butcher shop, the corner is also home to Mariscos Boca
de Rio, La Gloria Taquería, Panadería Verónica, El Pollo Norteño,
Milpas Nails and Spa, and A-1 Cleaners, several of which have been
there for close to 25 years. Unterman said the building they occupy
is “old and tired.”

The Goleta-based LaunchPoint Technologies has confirmed its
progress on a project that could change the way objects are sent
into outer space. Once complete, the new technology will use
magnetism to accelerate an object around a circular track before
launching it into the sky. LaunchPoint is currently seeking test
sites. The U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research has granted
approximately $600,000 to the project, which may be used for combat
as well as space exploration.