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What else is news in NoozWeek’s Top 5? A real life home-alone situation, Modoc Road residents go out on a limb over bike path plan, roller skaters get a shop of their own, and how we’re helping fight fires near Yosemite National Park
Phew. I’m so relieved that the eye-popping inflation we’ve been experiencing for the last six months is just “a transition into stable and steady growth.” Life may be easier when you’re delusional, but the bills are still bills in a recession by any other name.
According to our Google Analytics, Noozhawk had an audience of 83,386 readers this past week. What follows is my own take on the Top 5 stories you were reading.
Don’t be deluded: This is my opinion column, not a news story.
The mysterious murder of a 96-year-old Montecito woman in May has turned out to have an even more melancholic element. Apparently, authorities have been unable to find any of her relatives.
The woman — identified by the Santa Barbara County Coroner’s Bureau as Violet Evelyn Alberts — was found dead in her home in the 900 block of Park Lane the morning of May 27.
Deputies had been dispatched on a report of an unresponsive person at the relatively isolated house on a rugged ridge on upper Park Lane.
Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Raquel Zick said “suspicious circumstances” surrounded Alberts’ death, and an autopsy determined it was not natural. She said the cause is being withheld.
As our Giana Magnoli was first to report, the county Public Administrator’s Office has taken over the hunt for Alberts’ family.
The murder investigation is ongoing and may end up having an intriguing twist. With very little information shared with the public, friends of mine who live in the neighborhood told me back in May that detectives had been canvassing the area, asking to view any surveillance video they had.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact detectives at 805.681.4150, or click here to leave an anonymous tip.
We go from absence of relatives to absent parental supervision for the No. 2 story of the week.
As our Tom Bolton was first to report, a babysitter arrived at a Santa Barbara residence in the 800 block of Highland Drive, off Miramonte Drive on the backside of the Mesa, to find an unattended 5-year-old child alone in the home.
Santa Barbara police Sgt. Ethan Ragsdale said the babysitter, who was hired through a child-care website, called 9-1-1 around 7 p.m. July 23 after discovering the child alone and the mother “nowhere to be found.”
He said officers learned the child had been left alone without food for more than 24 hours.
Although the child had nothing to eat, Ragsdale said a “ghost gun” with ammunition had been left on the kitchen counter and another such weapon was in a bedroom. Both were within reach of the child.
Ragsdale said a search warrant was obtained from a judge, and officers tracked the mother to a residence in the 1100 block of Cliff Drive, a few blocks west of Santa Barbara City College. The woman was intoxicated, he added matter-of-factly.
The mother, identified as 46-year-old Lauren Tracy of Mammoth Lakes, was arrested and booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on suspicion of child endangerment, child neglect, possession of undetectable “ghost guns,” possession of a firearm with a prior misdemeanor conviction, unlawful possession of ammunition and criminal storage of a firearm — all felonies.
The child, who was unharmed, was turned over to county Child Welfare Services.
While few people object to the idea of an extensive network of bike paths around the South Coast, local governments can’t seem to grasp the concept of transparency and public awareness — in advance.
The City of Santa Barbara ran into buzz saws of neighborhood opposition after springing its bicycle master plans on actual residents of Micheltorena, Sola and Chino streets.
Evidently, the Santa Barbara County Transportation Division was oblivious to those brouhahas because it’s getting a big old raspberry from residents along Modoc Road near the Modoc Preserve adjacent to Hope Ranch. The circumstances are similar.
As our Josh Molina reported, the county has put together two options for an $8 million project that would connect Santa Barbara’s recently completed Las Positas and Modoc Road Multiuse Path to the Obern Trail to the west.
In addition to providing cyclists an alternative to Modoc Road’s unprotected bike lane, the multiuse path will be able to get them all the way to UC Santa Barbara and beyond.
About $5.4 million of the total cost is funded by a Caltans Active Transportation Program grant.
But the county’s plan also would remove between 40 and 61 trees — most of them Canary Island palms and eucalyptus — along Modoc between Via Senda and Encore Drive. That caught the attention of neighbors.
Although the county says it notified the neighborhood, residents say otherwise. Many insist a path can be created without removing the mature trees, and a petition to save them has collected nearly 2,000 signatures to date.
“We’re very confused about why we have to fight for the trees,” neighbor Shelly Cobb told Josh. “... There are so many birds and wildlife that use these trees as home.”
Josh has the fine print on the two proposed alternatives, but a county draft report says the impacts can be mitigated.
“We’re looking at all the options,” said Chris Sneddon, the county’s deputy director of transportation. “But there’s no scenario where we could protect all the trees.”
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The project is to go before the county Board of Supervisors in September.
Our outdoors writer, Ray Ford, weighs in with his separate opinion column on the project, but his photographs really illustrate the challenge. Many of the Canary Island palms are inches away from the existing roadway pavement so any solution is likely to be unsatisfactory — and initially obvious — on some level.
All the more reason for comprehensive neighborhood outreach before the chainsaws crank up in the early morning fog.
Xanadu Skate Boutique has opened in Santa Barbara’s Paseo Nuevo to provide roller skaters with skates, apparel and accessories, along with custom orders and equipment repairs.
As our Josh Molina reported, the shop at 207 Paseo Nuevo is owned by Val Selvaggio, a lifelong skater and a member of the SB Rollers skate club.
“We all need stuff, but there’s nowhere in town to buy anything,” she told Josh. “The closest roller street store is in Long Beach.”
Skating is Selvaggio’s passion, but it’s also an escape. She’s a great ambassador for the sport.
“When we are skating, it’s all positive,” she said. “No one is having a bad day.”
Dozens of local firefighters have been deployed to two wildfires raging in the Sierra Nevada, both uncomfortably close to Yosemite National Park.
As our Tom Bolton reported, 40 Santa Barbara County firefighters are helping battle the Oak Fire northeast of Mariposa. The blaze broke out July 22 and, as of July 29, had burned more than 19,100 acres and was 42% contained. To date, 135 structures have been destroyed and another 10 damaged.
Among the personnel are a strike team with five “type 3” brush trucks, a hand crew and a 24/7 bulldozer, fire Capt. Scott Safechuck told Tom.
Additional county fire personnel and crews from the Carpinteria-Summerland and Montecito fire protection districts and the Santa Barbara Fire Department were assigned to the Washburn Fire, which ignited July 7 east of Wawona. As of July 29, the 4,900-acre fire was 95% contained.
The causes of the two fires are under investigation.
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Here are a half-dozen stories I recommend:
» Santa Barbara Woman and Crew Break Rowing Record to Hawai‘i — They did it! Santa Barbara residents Adrienne Smith and Sophia “D.J.” Denison-Johnston and their two crew mates rowed their way into the record books by traversing the Pacific Ocean from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to the Waikiki Yacht Club in Honolulu in 34 days, 14 hours and 11 minutes. As our Mark Patton first reported, their July 25 arrival was a full day faster than the previous record.
» Victims’ Families Share Grief During Sentencing Hearing for MS-13 Murder Case Defendants — Three Santa Maria gang members were sentenced to multiple life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole. Our Janene Scully puts the focus where it belongs, on the grieving families of their victims.
» Santa Barbara Foresters Look to Defend Title at 2022 NBC World Series — The Santa Barbara Foresters are one of the country’s greatest baseball dynasties, but what makes them truly special is that each year’s roster is almost 100% different from the season before. Our Diego Sandoval has the advance story as the Foresters look to go back-to-back-to-back as NBC World Series champions beginning July 29 in Wichita, Kansas.
» Los Alamos Community Steps Up to Help Victims of Mobile Home Park Fire — Janene Scully reports on the Los Alamos community rallying around the families displaced in a devastating fire at a mobile home park that destroyed two residences and severely damaged a third.
» Pedal the Pacific Cyclists Learn of Local Anti-Trafficking Efforts During Santa Barbara Stop — A team of 11 college-age women riding their bikes from Seattle to San Diego talked sex trafficking at both ends of Santa Barbara County. Our Grace Kitayama and Janene Scully were there as they raised awareness of their cause, but also learned what our community is doing about it. In fact, we’re doing a lot locally.
» Mark Patton: Football Star Booker Brown Completes a Life of Giving — Our Mark Patton wrote a touching tribute to the late Booker Brown, a football legend at Santa Barbara High School, Santa Barbara City College and USC who was a fierce competitor with a godly heart.
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What was our most-read story this time last year? New Tsunami Hazard Maps Show Santa Barbara County Areas Most At-Risk in ‘Worst-Case Scenario.’
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Beware the Fin Club: Unprecedented Number of Young Great White Sharks Spotted in Monterey Bay.
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What do Edward Borein, @joelphillipspaintings and @jacksonphillipsleathergoods have in common? Me. And the fact that they’re all brilliant Western artists in my Instagram feed this past week.
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It’s now been 335 days since the U.S. government abandoned thousands of American citizens and green-card holders to the merciless Taliban in Afghanistan.
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— Bill Macfadyen is Noozhawk’s founder and publisher. Contact him at [email protected] , follow him on Instagram: @bill.macfadyen, or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
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