Border Line Disorder
By Les Firestein   |   May 26, 2026

So much talk these days about our southern border. Not to mention Mexico has challenges with its own southern border. At least in our all new Riv mag you can see some positive interventions to the border space. Ronald Rael’s pink seesaws through the border wall may have created the perfect metaphor. What happens here […]

The Constant of Change
By Gwyn Lurie   |   April 22, 2021

Why do people who can live anywhere so often choose to live here? With its recent influx of newcomers, some fear Montecito is changing. I suppose it’s true that every new resident – even every new visitor – puts a mark on a place, bringing with them their unique story, their aspirations, their values. It […]

 

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Native Roots
By Eileen Read   |   April 2, 2021

Sustainable landscaping doyenne Susan Van Atta is healing the local ecosystem one acre at a time… It was Susan Van Atta’s birthday just after the presidential inauguration and she wanted to spend it quietly riding her bike on a nostalgic tour through “her” Carpinteria. She set off along the paths of the Salt Marsh Reserve (she helped designed […]

Animal Planet
By Zach Rosen   |   April 2, 2021

Kristina McKean’s passion project is saving one elephant at a time in the United States and abroad Kristina McKean has funneled her lifetime passion for helping animals into a full-time profession by creating The Elephant Project. McKean had always felt drawn to animals and their related causes but it wasn’t until her honeymoon to Thailand with her […]

Pure Gold
By Nick Schou   |   April 2, 2021

ARA 24K Collection is part of a family tradition that goes all the way back to ancient Turkey La Hoya If it wasn’t for a simple spelling misunderstanding, Cuneyt (pronounced “June eight”) Akdolu, owner of ARA 24K Collection on Coast Village Road, might never have arrived in Montecito. It was early 2004, and Akdolu, who at […]

Bon Voyage: The Travel Comeback with AmaWaterways
By James Buckley   |   April 2, 2021

Two years – and a century (it seems) – ago, I had the pleasure of taking my wife, Helen, our son, Tim, his wife, Jacqueline, and their two boys, Deacon and Kessler (then five and seven years old) on a glorious seven-day Christmas Market cruise on AmaWaterways’ 164-passenger river cruise ship, AmaCerto. We traveled down […]

An Experience in Search of a Moment
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 1, 2020

With a little help from his friends, Alan Kozlowski looks back on a luminous life Climb the stairs to Alan Kozlowski’s spacious downtown loft and you’ll arrive at a living room that doubles as an acoustic music den. Here an entire wall is taken up by two rows of rare guitars, including pre-war Martins, and […]

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