City

Santa Barbara City Councilmember Dale Francisco carved out a unique procedural niche when he declined to vote for, against, or even to abstain last week on a motion designed to create a new taskforce to study homelessness. The motion passed and Francisco’s non-position was not strategically pivotal. Afterward he explained that he had concerns about the taskforce’s lack of direction and that it should be chalked up as an abstention.

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The I Madonnari Italian street painting festival on 5/24 and 5/25 at the Santa Barbara Mission will happen without the free opera concert it has had previously: Mission officials opted to enforce the rule that “only music of sacred nature is allowed”a regulation they say has been in place for years.

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Drivers can now check the Highway 101 traffic conditions at Milpas Street courtesy of a live video feed viewable online at sbroads.com, Caltrans announced 5/16. The cameras are to help travelers during soon-to-start construction of 101 operational improvements south of Milpas. Caltrans also has a traffic cam at the 101’s Patterson Avenue exit.