One of the unexpected gifts of the twin tragedies of the Thomas Fire, the largest recorded wildfire in California’s history, and the subsequent Montecito mudslide that engulfed our small village, has been the outpouring of sympathy, compassion, and support from our neighbors in the City of Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Summerland, Goleta, the rest of Santa […]
Please, let’s keep as many boulders that have clobbered our community as possible; place them someplace in Montecito (Manning Park, Toro Canyon Park, the Cold Spring area, the lot we traded with the Y next to MUS) and build a big, big awesome (think Awahnee) community stone house recreation center. Have several big outdoor stone […]
Recently Trending
More from Montecito
The catastrophic fire and flood of 2017-18 has changed the face of a number of parts of Montecito for years to come. The mud and debris flow that came down the mountains behind us tossed cars around like Tinker toys and ripped homes off their foundations, filling the landscape with toxic mud and mold. Many […]
Peter Walker Hunt‘s letter (“Put the Fires Out!” MJ #23/51) brings out the stunning reality of what our communities have just gone through. Current federal policy on wildfire management is choking us in the smoke of burned tax dollars. The devastation and death of wildlife is a by-product of the “goal line” set within a […]
(photos courtesy MFPD chief Chip Hickman) Most in Montecito have no idea how close we came to community decimation two weeks before Christmas. At 6 am Saturday, December 16, 2017, sundowner winds of 30 mph, gusting up to 60 mph, drove the Thomas wildfire, the largest in California history, past the firefighter containment lines on […]
I have a couple ideas to help our local economy in regards to the recent tragic Thomas Fire. My suggestion is to have a Holiday Re-Do on February 25. This gives all the businesses, companies, nonprofits, clubs, and individuals an opportunity to re-do their parties and events that were canceled due to the Thomas Fire. This […]
We only had a little over an hour with Montecito Fire chief Chip Hickman, as he had to escort some of the people who’d lost their homes back to their property, but we made the most of our time. No Montecito firefighters were lost or even hurt throughout the ordeal. There was one death, that […]
What a ride this has been for us all. While we are not yet out of the woods of what will probably turn out to be the worst wildfire in California’s history, I write this letter with a cautious sense of optimism. There are still over 8,000 firefighters on this fire. On 12-hour shifts, there […]
Bob Hazard‘s debunking of tax reform Myth #3 (Guest Editorial, MJ #23/48) was revelatory, but not debunking. His Myth #3 is “Removing the Federal Deduction for State and Local Taxes is Unfair to High-Tax States such as California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Illinois.” Unfortunately, Mr. Hazard did not address a fundamental issue of […]
Read more...
After a weekend of Thanksgiving gobbling and gorging, most of us are more interested in waist cuts than tax cuts, but the Senate is about to make its move on tax reform… and Californians are nervous. Voter registration in the State of California runs 44% Democrat versus 29% Republican; California is definitely a dark-blue state, […]
Climate change is happening whether one “believes” in it or not, and 97 percent of climate scientists agree that human activity is the cause. Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have dug up past living things and burned them, something that has thrown off the balance under which life as we know it has evolved. Carbon […]
Congratulations to Ms Diana Starr Langley for serving as publisher of the beautiful new issue of your glossy magazine, her first. However, there is an egregious error in the issue, which suggests carelessness or ignorance on the author’s or caption-writer’s part. This error must be appalling to the informed music lovers in this community and […]
The recent two-part editorials on Coast Village Road (MJ #23/43 & 23/45) was very interesting. You did, however, have an error in the recent Part 2. You said that it was the City of Santa Barbara that caused the closure of the southbound 101 on-ramp and that it was Santa Barbara city officials’ contention that […]
Readers – customers and window shoppers alike – will be sad to learn that Mike and Carole Ridding‘s iconic one-of-a-kind jewelry emporium at 1155 Coast Village Road is closing. Their lease isn’t up until mid-February but, beginning Thursday, November 16, at 10 am, there will be what the Riddings are calling a “multimillion-dollar Going Out […]
