Tag archives: infrastructure

Utopia?
By Robert Bernstein   |   January 17, 2023

Men Like Gods is a 1923 Utopian novel by H. G. Wells, which I was delighted to come across by accident in the library as a teen. An ordinary Englishman is swept up by scientific accident, along with a cleric and other countrymen, to a parallel world where all of our Earthly problems have been […]

MUS Improvements
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   August 23, 2022

Just days before school goes back in session following summer break, Montecito Union School is busy getting classrooms rearranged in order to accommodate what will ultimately be two years of construction in order to modernize campus infrastructure.  The project, which is 15 years in the making, includes improving infrastructure and accessibility in Building D (over […]

An Update on the Montecito Wireline Resiliency Backup Power Project
By Kirsten McLaughlin   |   July 5, 2022

Living in Southern California can often feel like a dream. But as many can attest, it can quickly become a nightmare when you live in an area susceptible to natural disaster – even with the most calculated of emergency plans in place. It is critical we can communicate in these situations – to call 9-1-1 […]

MUS Improvements to Start Next Summer
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   October 26, 2021

Montecito Union School is moving forward with some much-needed – and long anticipated – improvements to campus next summer, which will take over a year to complete. “This project has been fifteen years in the making, and has gone through a huge number of changes,” said Superintendent Anthony Ranii, who sat down with us earlier […]

Montecito Is Leading the Way
By Sharon Byrne   |   October 26, 2021

Montecito always was a place of talent, care, resources, and community. There are a lot of smart, accomplished people making this beautiful place their home. It has also suffered its share of disaster, with the biggest fire in California history at the time — the Thomas Fire in December 2017. That fire has now dropped […]

What is Infrastructure?
By Robert Bernstein   |   August 24, 2021

When you hear the word “infrastructure” do your eyes glaze over? As I write this, Congress is debating an infrastructure bill that is on the order of a trillion dollars. Is that a lot or a little? Almost by definition, infrastructure is all the boring stuff that enables all the cool things in society to […]

Traffic? Yeah, Still a Pain. But the Cavalry IS Actually Coming.
By Nick Masuda   |   July 15, 2021

With housing opportunities limited in Santa Barbara, some 60,000 people — or 33% of the county’s workforce — commute from neighboring counties to work here. Lauren Bianchi Klemann has been there, rising before the sun, dropping off her infant daughter at daycare, and hitching a ride with her husband to work — knowing that she […]

Twelve-Story Building Collapses! Cloudy With a Chance of Chaos
By Rinaldo Brutoco   |   July 8, 2021

What on earth is going on in Miami? A 40-year-old, 12-story building named the Champlain Towers South (the “Towers”) collapsed into a heap of rubble without any advance warning, a mile from Miami Beach in Surfside, Florida. At this writing, there are at least 11 fatalities, many injuries, and more than 150 people still missing. […]

Cold Spring School Bond Measure Moves Forward
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   September 10, 2020

Earlier this summer, the Cold Spring School Board of Trustees approved a school bond measure on the upcoming November ballot, the first of its kind in 12 years. Measure L2020 is a $7.8M bond that will be used to fund much-needed infrastructure improvements and to fund a new classroom building to replace the dilapidated portables […]

The Death of an Electric Monopoly
By Rinaldo Brutoco   |   April 2, 2020

For the first time in memory, there is momentum in California to usher in the clean, decentralized energy future that a growing number of Californians believe is necessary to combat climate change and improve community resiliency. It begins with reimagining how electric utilities conduct business. After the 2019 fire season, Public Safety Power Shutoffs resulted […]

Our Priorities for 2020
By Sharon Byrne   |   March 12, 2020

At the end of February, we issued a survey electronically to our membership, and the response rate was pretty strong and super-informative. We did this same thing in 2019, and it informed our work for the year. In 2019, our community identified as their top three priorities: 1. Safety and security: evacuations, emergencies, crime, and […]

Season’s Greetings, and the Year in Review
By Sharon Byrne   |   December 26, 2019

We hope you’re enjoying some of the lovely holiday decorations in our community. On December 4, we lit the tree in the Upper Green in front of Pierre Lafond, during Hospice’s now second annual Light Up A Life in Montecito. The Hathaway tree was decorated at Upper Manning Park by some fabulous elves that also […]

Advocate. Preserve. Celebrate.
By Sharon Byrne   |   May 28, 2019

by Megan Orloff, President of the Montecito Association & Sharon Byrne, MA Executive Director In January, the Montecito Association welcomed a few new board members, a new executive team, and Board President. Our diverse backgrounds are unified by an ongoing and shared commitment to advocating for our community’s interests, while providing a breadth of skills […]

Poor Old Charlie
By Montecito Journal   |   November 29, 2018

For some reason the memory of silent-film star Charlie Chaplin is exploited with the fantastical myth that he “built” the Montecito Inn. Totally untrue. In David Myrick’s definitive history (“Santa Barbara & Montecito,” Volumes I and II), he explains the origin of the Montecito Inn in some detail. “Don B. Sebastian and William S. Seamans,” […]

California Blues
By Bob Hazard   |   November 22, 2018

With the Democratic sweep in the November 2018 statewide elections, the Republican Party in California continues its descent into oblivion. The GOP won no statewide office. Democrats now have a death grip on California’s two U.S. Senate seats, all but eight of the 53 California U.S. House seats and a supermajority in Sacramento in the […]