Randy Rowse admits he had left it all behind – the politics, the late nights watching City Council meetings, the rigors of owning a business. The former Santa Barbara City Council representative was retired, and his wife loved it. But, over the past 18 months or so, monitoring City Council meetings became commonplace. He questioned […]
There are several bills pending in the California legislature, including Senate Bill 556 and Assembly Bill 537, that will severely limit our right to determine where new wireless antennas for 5G service will be placed in Santa Barbara County. Corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Verizon wrote these wireless broadband bills. ALEC rewrites state […]
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I came to the Montecito Association in September of 2018, brought over from the Coast Village Association by then-president Charlene Nagel. The Montecito community was hard hit by the first giga-fire in California – Thomas — and resultant Debris Flow. I had disaster recovery experience, from finding my missing parents in the aftermath of Hurricane […]
The Santa Barbara community is mourning the loss of Hal Conklin, the city’s former mayor and a beloved community activist for decades up and down the South Coast.
On May 4 — a day already close to her heart as a self-proclaimed Star Wars “nerd”— Meagan Harmon did something that many local political pundits didn’t think was possible when she received a call that a handful of other veteran politicos were waiting for. The call was from the governor’s office inviting Harmon to […]
Readers of this column may have noticed that the Montecito Journal has in the past few months published a series of stories highlighting three candidates running for the office of Mayor of Santa Barbara: James Joyce, Deborah Schwartz, and last week, Randy Rowse. Noticeably absent on that list is the mayor herself, Cathy Murillo, who […]
As a 66-year-old downtown businessman Randy Rowse is no stranger to Santa Barbara city politics. In 1983, Rowse opened the Paradise Café across the street from the Santa Barbara News-Press; last year he sold the joint, which has now been re-christened La Paloma Café. A longtime Democrat, Rowse dropped his party affiliation in the 1990s, […]
There are two particularly bad bills wending through the legislature, proposed by Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins (Senate District 39, San Diego) and Scott Wiener (Senate District 11, San Francisco). They are determined to fulfill Governor Newsom’s pledge to build 3.5 million units of housing in California. Prior attempts that have failed to date: –Wiener’s […]
Hannah-Beth Jackson may have run out of time as State Senator, but she never ran out of the fierce will that got her to Sacramento. She looks back on a legacy of fighting for disaster relief and equal rights for all. Q. Which superhero do you visualize yourself as? A. “I love Wonder Woman – […]
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On Tuesday, October 20, a few dozen teenagers held a protest outside the Santa Barbara Unified School District’s headquarters on Santa Barbara Street. Carrying signs bearing messages such as “We Want to Go Back to School” and “Give Us a Choice,” the group had a clear message for local school officials: After more than a […]
The results for the Santa Barbara County Election are trickling in! Click the links below to be in the know. Nationally, the race to the presidency has yet to be called. Mail-in ballots in crucial states are still being counted to determine our next president, which may take some time to complete. But in the […]
If any sentient being has been in doubt as to which side virtually all the major media and social media companies are on, non-coverage of both the Hunter Biden laptop e-mails and the Great Barrington Declaration should be proof positive of which side they’ve taken. When presidential candidate Joe Biden tells the debate moderator (in […]
In an effort to connect the community and keep the conversation going, James Joyce III, founder of Coffee with a Black Guy, has scheduled one of his signature events over Zoom for 7 pm to 8 pm Thursday evening, October 22, three days after Dr. Kendi’s event. “It’s great that Arts & Lectures has stepped […]
There’s a long history in Montecito of well-intentioned yet pricey local school bond measures that have failed to win at the ballot box. In 2012, Montecito Union School unsuccessfully sought to raise $27 million for various campus improvements, an effort that collapsed under the weight of criticism by property tax paying opponents who viewed it […]
