THE GOLETA BEAT: Since September2007, The Independent has been covering the Good Land with our Goleta Grapevine column, posted every Monday at independent.com/goleta. Begun by Margaret Connell and now written by the trio of George Relles, Silvia Uribe, and Vic Cox, the column focuses on all aspects of the Goleta Valley. Cox, a 25-year Goleta resident and Santa Barbara native who wrote about whale watching this week, is working hard to fill in the gap of the now defunct Valley Voice. “There are more than 30,000 people out here, and they really don’t have a hometown newspaper anymore,” lamented Cox. “And that’s a crying shame.”