••• The tennis court at Manning Park in Montecito is finally getting rebuilt, and when it’s done, it’ll be lined for both tennis and pickleball.
••• The landscaping of the Coast Village Road medians goes before the Architectural Board of Review today. (Coast Village Road is within Santa Barbara city limits.) I would have loved to run a slide from the submitted materials, but thanks to a misguided state law, doing so requires the permission of the company that created the slide, and I didn’t hear back from Earthform. The plans are posted here, but the city will remove them after the meeting.
•••• The November 6 meeting of the city’s Planning Commission includes the closing of the Los Patos Way freeway off-ramp and railroad underpass, which has been in the works for a long time: “The project consists of the removal of the Los Patos Underpass, owned and operated by Union Pacific Railroad, including its abutments, center pier, girders, and decking; installation of new solid fill material and ballast; and placement of new tracks on the fill, as well as temporary railroad tracks to maintain rail operations during construction. Los Patos Way, south of the railroad tracks, would be configured as a cul-de-sac.” (The plans are posted here; as described above, they won’t be there for long.) The part that gives me pause is this: “The project also includes the removal of approximately 100 trees. Replacement trees would be planted in the project vicinity within or near Andrée Clark Bird Refuge, or in empty tree wells near the project site and throughout the City.” One hundred trees? That stretch is maybe 300 feet long. And is the proposed design—rows of small native plants—better than trees? Moreover, because the railway overpass is considered historic, “an interpretive display […] shall be developed focusing on the significant historic themes associated with the Los Patos Rail Bridge, particularly its design and construction, and the history of the railroad and sandstone construction in the city of Santa Barbara. The interpretive display shall be installed at an appropriate site, such as the City-owned Andree Clark Bird Refuge […] and remain in public view for a minimum of 10 years.” What a waste of time and money.
••• Trainer Erika Lilley—who has completed 28 Ironman races—has opened the 2,000-square-foot Lilley Fitness gym at 111 Santa Barbara Street in the Funk Zone. Services offered include “semi-private group training, private training, Hyrox and Deka Team training, Marathon/Ironman Training, post- and pre-natal training, men’s-specific coaching, athlete sport-specific programing, nutrition programing….”
••• Vandenberg Space Force Base‘s launch emails are no longer helpful now that they give a four-hour window rather than an exact time. (I’d like to watch every now and them, but what am I supposed to do, stare at the sky for four hours?) Surely the folks in charge are able to share a more specific idea of when one might happen. Or perhaps launch fans know of some other way to find out? UPDATE: From Hunter: “For VSFB launch notifications, I use an iPhone app called Next Spaceflight which allows you to configure notifications per launch site and then pick 24-hour, 1-hour and 10-minute alerts depending on what you want to see. It also has all of the details of the stages of flight.
••• Rainbow Kitten Surprise returns to the Santa Barbara Bowl on July 19.
••• If, like me, you were dismayed to receive a Yellow Pages directory in 2025, you can opt out here, but you’re forced to register with a valid email address, which the company swears it won’t use for marketing. UPDATE 11/5: The company has told advertisers that this is the final edition.
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For VSFB launch notifications, I use an iPhone app called ‘Next Spaceflight’ which allows you to configure notifications per launch site and then pick 24-hour, 1-hour and 10-minute alerts depending on what you want to see. It also has all of the details of the stages of flight.
I use Twitter/X for launches – it has up to the minute changes in launches/countdowns and its easy peasy to check in to. Come on man!
I will go there. If you look at any of the other planting done on CVR, that’s over two years old, it’s 80% dead. Including the traffic circle. The design is hideous and generic, and even those plants the landscapers won’t be able to keep alive. No tea no shade. The guys have no skill. Or they have no time. It’s so sad that there is such a low bar for such public beautiful areas that if they had some skilled people maintaining them and some decent plants they would be beautiful.
It’s like the one01 median it had beautiful palm trees, and it used to be very nice and they just let it all die. Whatever they choose, it’ll be dead within a few years.
The offramp’s at SY are beautiful, take note. They will be dead by early 2027. If you have a garden at you know, there is no skill when it comes to gardening.
I’m sure we can all agree that closing another offramp where they already close an on-ramp is just a ridiculous idea. Let’s just close all the offramp and on ramp and then put everything under construction. Great job.
Tina, you’re funny. “there is no skill when it comes to gardening.”
I was actually pleased with the yellow pages in my mailbox. Finding providers online is not as simple as just searching. You have to have keen eye for scams and call centers and advertising sites fighting for your click. You then have to do significant research to verify each vendor or company. Opening up a book, taking 30 seconds to read and then making a telephone call may be a sign I am getting old, but it is much more efficient and accurate than any online search for local providers and takes a fraction of the time.
Do people know that most websites for services like plumbing, locksmithing, appliance repair, etc. are run by call center pay per click sites in some far away region? You see what looks like a local site, but it’s actually a guy in Estonia who then sells each lead to the highest bidder. Doesn’t matter what the area code of the phone number listed is… Anyway. Yelp is practically worthless as is Angie or any other online lead provider as they push fake reviews and paid placements. So these books are actually quite handy while the piles upon piles of local realtor ads that are shoved into my are anything but.
Can someone answer me how and why a rail bridge is considered “historical”? With you on this Erik, what a total waste of time and money and oxygen… So many locals conflate their personal nostalgia for historical significance. It’s ridiculous and it’s a big part of the bureaucratic nonsense that is killing Santa Barbara.
That “misguided state law” complies with federal intellectual property laws. Previously, planning departments, who are not experts in intellectual property law, would make architectural and engineering plans, which are copyrighted intellectual property of the architect and/or engineer, publicly available and able to be copied through Public Records Act requests, even though the Public Records Act made it clear that things protected by federal intellectual property laws should not be provided. Since public agencies weren’t following the laws that were already in place, the legislature helped them out by making it very clear how things were always supposed to work.
I tried to share your comment with a friend Paul, however, I needed your consent to share your comment in its original form and we have been trying to reach you.
I’m sorry that you or your friend may find it inconvenient to respect intellectual property rights, but, if you or your friend cares strongly about the particular project, you or they can go into the government office that has the plans, where you and your friend have always have been legally allowed to review them without taking photos or making copies of them.
The interpretive railway display feels like something added to the project to benefit a friend or family member who makes interpretive displays.
That said, I do regularly see people reading these types of displays around town so they aren’t all bad. This one feels like a stretch though.
a bit “south” of Los Patos Way is, soon to be was the Cabrillo underpass, my favorite entry to SB since 1967? I do understand but will miss both. there was a visual charm to them.
but I recall as a very young one the last gasp of the Southern Pacific roundhouse and new car dealerships along PCH near State Street.
How things were.
Regarding Los Patos exit, why don’t they just remove the exit by some paint and installing some flexible surface mount traffic delineators($43ea on Uline)? They can pay homage to the old overpass…by keeping the old overpass. It seems like the exit and not overpass is the issue. I don’t see why this warrants such a massive project.