One affordable housing project for Santa Barbara Unified School District teachers and staff is now underway, and a couple are in the works — including a land donation — according to the school board’s ad hoc housing committee update on Tuesday, April 23.  The committee, led by boardmembers Wendy Sims-Moten and Gabe Escobedo, has been meeting for more than a year to explore affordable rental opportunities for teachers and staff on district-owned property.  “In view of the challenges in recruiting and retaining district staff due to exorbitant housing costs — among the highest in the s ..read more

By generalizing standards of the high-low cultural spectrum, the worlds of comic books and grand opera are worlds apart, one pulpy fun and the other lofty by nature. Or are they? The implied question came into focus with Opera Santa Barbara’s (OSB) sharply realized and roundly entertaining production of Zorro, which closed out OSB’s season with great crowd-pleasing gusto last weekend at the Lobero Theatre. Both realms, after all, innately indulge in irrationality of dramatic means, free-range melodrama and overstated conflicts of good and evil. Villains and heroes often arrive without shades o ..read more

It’s budget season, and in the City of Santa Barbara, the forecast for 2025 is gloomy. Despite a $12.5 million increase in revenues from 2024, the city is projecting a $16.7 bump in expenditures in 2025, leaving the city with an operating deficit of $7.1 million — worse than the operating deficits of the past two years combined and a far cry from the $12.7 million surplus the city reported in 2022. And that’s a hopeful estimate, assuming the city takes $4.1 million in budget cuts. As Councilmember Eric Friedman warned during a council review on Tuesday, April 23, if the city decides not to mak ..read more

The sound of a thousand plastic sporks clattering onto the linoleum floor of Kellogg Elementary’s cafeteria on Thursday morning signaled the beginning of a new era of sustainability for the school. Beginning on Monday, April 22 — Earth Day — Kellogg became the first school in the Goleta Union School District (GUSD) and one of the first in the state to replace single-use plastic utensils with reusable metal sporks for its students. To commemorate the launch of the sustainable utensil initiative, Kellogg’s Ocean Guardians, the Community Environmental Council, and Santa Barbara Channelkeeper host ..read more

Here’s the good news: In the past year, no fewer than 1,400 homeless people managed to secure permanent housing in Santa Barbara County. Here’s the bad news: In the past year, 4,333 homeless county residents sought out services from one of 45 government agencies or nonprofits that focus on the challenges confronted by this population. That number is up by roughly 1,000 from two years prior. Of these 4,333 individuals seeking services, half found themselves reaching out for help for the very first time. Here’s more good news: Three years ago, the county supervisors embraced a plan to build 563 ..read more

The original version of this newsletter was sent out on Tuesday, April 23 Sign up for All Booked, our bi-monthly newsletter exclusively for book lovers.  Hello, book lovelies! I have some bittersweet news to share: This will be my last All Booked newsletter. I am leaving the Independent to explore a new opportunity in town. This decision was so tough to make, but I know it’s the right one. I have absolutely loved my time at the paper and I will always look back at this time in my life with nothing but love and gratitude. The Indy staff has become my family and my work ..read more

I recently attended the Montecito Association meeting discussing the Miramar plan, and I regret not having had the opportunity to voice my support for the plan. Having worked at a homeless shelter in Santa Barbara for eight years, I witnessed the life-changing impact of affordable housing for families. Thus, I fully support the Miramar’s planned addition of affordable employee housing. I fell in love with Montecito when I first laid eyes on it in the late ’70s), and I cherish Montecito’s idyllic charm. Yet I recognize the inevitability of change. The current status quo of exorbitant housing co ..read more

An additional eight beds are being prepped for residents suffering a mental-health crisis, with the approval Tuesday morning by Santa Barbara County supervisors of $22.1 million for Crestwood Behavioral Health, Inc., to staff and manage a Crisis Stabilization Unit on the county’s Calle Real campus. The eight new beds “bring us closer to a number the state has identified as appropriate for our population,” said Toni Navarro, director of county Behavioral Wellness. The funding approved by the Board of Supervisors runs through June 2027, of which $17.3 million is estimated to come from Medi-Cal r ..read more

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