••• That Montecito property of two conjoined 18th-century English barns, 210 Miramar Avenue, was bought by Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi for $3.6 million. It’ll be fascinating to see what kind of value they can add and how they go about doing it. My feeling wasn’t that the house needed a style upgrade so much as that the quirky floor plan limited the buyer pool. Anyway, it was the serial flippers’ third recent purchase in the area: “Last summer, [DeGeneres and de Rossi] made an almost $1.4 million, under-the-radar purchase of a two-bedroom/two-bathroom condo in the heart of Montecito’s Upper Village, presumably for family or staff, and in the fall they plunked down almost $1.9 million in a clandestine, off-market deal for an approximately one-acre fixer upper next door to the sprawling, Balinese-inspired contemporary compound they acquired in early 2019 for $27 million.” —Dirt
••• “Uber is testing out a new feature that allows some drivers in California to choose how much they will charge customers. The pilot test, which is taking place at three California airports [Santa Barbara, Palm Springs, and Sacramento], is Uber’s latest response to a new California law known as AB5 that makes it more difficult for employers in the state to classify workers as independent contractors. The new feature will enable drivers […] to set a fair [sic] based on a multiple of Uber’s base, time and distance rates for UberX and UberXL trips.” —CNN via KEYT
••• “Santa Barbara County and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have issued notices of violation to Southern California Edison for its dumping of debris and rocks into Mission Creek near the Inspiration Point hiking trail. Edison committed grading that exceeded 50 cubic yards and caused a cut of fill that exceeded three feet in vertical distance, and caused a change in elevation to the natural contour without a permit, according to the county.” —Noozhawk
••• The Eastside Branch Library “reopened earlier this month after a roughly $235,000 makeover of the interior, furnishings and exterior painting to meet the needs of modern library-goers.” —Noozhawk
••• The Independent profiles StarCycle, the indoor-cycling studio at La Cumbre Plaza: “‘It’s a dance party on a bike, like when you’re at a wedding and your jam comes on and you don’t care what anybody thinks—you just get up there and move your body,’ is how co-owner Dani Stone describes the workout at StarCycle. The La Cumbre Plaza fitness center is part of a new breed of indoor cycling studios that use music and choreography for a physical and mental approach to cycling.”
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