••• A large building could be coming to 2 N. Calle Cesar Chavez, in the industrial area between the Funk Zone and East Beach. From yesterday’s Architectural Board of Review agenda: “Proposal to demolish the existing 79-space surface parking lot [below] and construct a 32,877-square-foot warehouse/research and development building with 22 uncovered parking spaces. The first floor consists of a 20,046-square-foot warehouse with a 5,819-square-foot mezzanine. The second floor consists of a 7,011-square-foot research and development space. The project includes a roof deck” and some solar canopies. (Rendering courtesy Cearnal Collective.) The area is certainly in flux. The owner of 2 N. Calle Cesar Chavez, SB Velero Properties, paid $36.5 million for the Vercal Building across the street at 1 N. Calle Cesar Chavez in January 2025. Also, 2 N. Calle Cesar Chavez is on the same block of S. Quinientos, but across the street, as another Cearnal project, MarBorg Industries’s forthcoming 18,575-square-foot headquarters.
••• The Montecito Trails Foundation posted an open letter to the U.S. Forest Service expressing frustration over the lack of repairs to Old Romero Road—and urging people to take a moment to contact the Forest Service about the matter.
Old Romero Road has been closed since the devastating winter storms of 2023—and it doesn’t have to stay that way. […] The Montecito Trails Foundation has done the hard work. We’ve developed a fully funded restoration plan, ready to go this spring. But without Forest Service approval, this beloved trail will remain closed for at least another year—possibly longer. Currently, the trail is closed from mile 2.2 (the blue gate) all the way to the top at East Camino Cielo. […] Some trail users, eager to see the trail usable again, have gone in and done work on their own without authorization. While that spirit speaks to how deeply this community cares, unauthorized work does not meet Forest Service standards and the trail remains officially closed regardless. The only path to a real, lasting reopening runs through an approved restoration. […] Old Romero is one of eight trails currently closed on the Santa Barbara Ranger District—and in every case, it is not funding, not volunteers, and not community will that is lacking. Non-profits, donors, and trail stewards are lined up and waiting. The Forest Service is the sole obstacle to restoration.
There’s info here about how to email (with the hard part already done for you). Or email these folks directly: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected].
••• While checking out Jeff Shelton’s Pistachio House last week, I had a nice chat with Tish Lynn, who runs a two-hour tour of six Shelton buildings and his office. Add it to the list of fun activities for guests from out of town….
••• Flight of the Conchords play the Santa Barbara Bowl on May 7.
••• Opening March 14 at Separate Reality: Everything Led Here, works by Chet Taylor, who “works with coast live oak, eucalyptus, concrete, steel, and charcoal to create sculptures, drawings, and items of furniture that reflect the artist’s relationship to nature and attunement to impermanence. The works in Taylor’s debut solo exhibition highlight his range and material dexterity, along with reverence for natural forms. Anchoring the exhibition is a series of charcoal drawings, ‘Render 1-5,’ which trace the texture of rippling water.” Below: “Render 5.”
••• Tickets are available for the Santa Barbara Literary Festival (May 2-3), with participating authors like Susan Orlean (whose memoir, Joyride, is next on my list); Walter Mosley; Kim Michele Richardson; Chris Whitaker; and many more.
••• Hershey Felder—the hardest working pianist in show business—returns to Ensemble Theatre Company (April 30-May 10) for The Piano & Me, a one-man show about his own life. This replaces the previously announced show about Chopin.
••• Love the new (?) artwork on the front of 111 Santa Barbara Street in the Funk Zone.
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It makes sense they would want to be developing that area on Calle Cesar Chavez. It is so close to the beach, and they’re planning that huge development right there on the corner of Cabrillo as well as. I imagine they are banking that in some years this industrial area adjacent to the beach will be like State Street used to be derelict, and now is fully fixed up. In hindsight makes sense. This is prime real estate to have an industrial area, problem is it smells like sewage and really…. what is a warehouse/research and development building with outdoor areas.. it sounds like they’re building a huge building, calling it something that definitely will be something else another day. These people are obviously position and selves for what they see the future development to be in the area.