One of the key lending institutions keeping alive developer Bill Levy’s dream of building 62 Ritz-Carlton time-share condos on the lower two blocks of State Street has filed legal documents alleging that Levy has defaulted on his loan.
The Santa Barbara City Council voted unanimously for enforceable regulations rather than permissive guidelines to limit the “mansionization” sweeping certain neighborhoods. The vote came despite an impressive organizing effort undertaken by architects, real-estate agents, homeowners, and many children, who packed the council chambers to argue in favor of guidelines, insisting that the problem posed by a few large remodels was one of bad design rather than square footage.
Santa Barbara city administrators have launched a facts-and-figures counterattack designed to refute claims made by the Police Officers Association (POA) in its recent media campaign to generate public support for its position in labor negotiations with City Hall. The POA declared an impasse two weeks ago, and mediation is scheduled to begin this week. Last week, the POA ran full-page ads in the Independent and Santa Barbara News-Press headlined, “Crisis at the Santa Barbara Police Department.” Those ads contended that Santa Barbara police officers were the worst paid of 12 comparable California departments, and warned that if present trends continue, the department could shrink from its current roster of 125 sworn officers to 100. In addition, the POA claims low pay has contributed to poor morale, which has fueled an alarming degree of turnover among experienced officers.
Potential Democratic presidential candidate Russ Feingold (pictured)-the outspoken senator from Wisconsin-pressed the flesh in Santa Barbara last weekend, warning that continued political caution by Democratic candidates could spell certain defeat in the upcoming November elections. Speaking first at a Montecito fundraiser and later at a Democratic Women’s luncheon, Feingold said some leaders are “too timid” about standing up for what they believe. The only senator to oppose the PATRIOT Act, Feingold also voted against giving President George W. Bush war authorization powers and, more recently, introduced a bill to censure Bush for authorizing wiretaps on the telephones of American citizens. This latter effort caused much embarrassment among Democratic moderates and failed.
ODDZ-n-ENDZ: In dire days such as these, I make a point to aim for the capillary. If I lunged for the jugular-and actually connected-chances are good I’d drown in the ensuing flood. That’s why I rejoice in the arrival of silly season, in which political campaign managers lob verbal scuds at each other’s candidates when few people are paying attention and even fewer care.
At a time when high-profile Democratic Party warhorses such as Hillary Clinton are hewing aggressively to the middle, Wisconsin senator and possible presidential aspirant Russell Feingold is warning the party might be in need of more organ transplants than the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion combined. “Democrats need to stand up and say what we believe and show some guts,” said Feingold, 53, during a hurried phone interview that took place as he waited to board his plane from Milwaukee to Washington, D.C.
Bayard Stockton, the international journalist and onetime CIA employee who served as one of Santa Barbara’s better known civic activists and personalities for the last 20 years, died in his home last Friday. At 75, he was felled by the persistent emphysema that dogged him in recent years.
The clash between News-Press owner-and co-publisher-Wendy McCaw and her newsroom got a lot more intense last Friday afternoon, as Teamsters union organizer Marty Keegan (pictured) announced the beginning of a public campaign to pressure McCaw to bargain with her workers and to restore the so-called wall separating news reporting from interference by the owner and publishers of the South Coast’s oldest daily. Keegan and News-Press employees, along with community supporters, have begun distributing brightly colored cancellation pledges to be activated if McCaw refuses to meet their demands by September 5.
Despite tearful entreaties by tenants to save their moderately priced homes from demolition at an older 10-unit apartment complex on north La Cumbre Road, members of the Santa Barbara City Council denied their appeal and approved plans-by a vote of 4-1-to replace the apartments with eight new condominiums, which will sell from $700,000 to $850,000, plus one affordable unit priced at $216,000. Throughout the council’s three-hour deliberations, many of the tenants urgently addressed the councilmembers in Spanish, describing through an interpreter how many jobs they already work and the hardships they anticipate in finding new accommodations they can afford.
TOO HOT FOR WOIDS: I know a lot of you are whining about it, but I for one am trying to enjoy our current heat wave. But then, I actually like the humidity-it makes me feel alive. Having been born in Washington, D.C., I grew up with it. Here, I find myself forced to skulk around the back of Laundromats to get my hit of hot wet air, soaking in the thick moisture emitted by the machines inside. Now, it’s everywhere.
