Did Ellen and Portia Get Cold Feet?

Plus: Channel Islands reopening strategy in the works; house asking for twice the rent it asked for three years ago; new fire restrictions in Los Padres National Forest; Highway 101 median trees cut down; free rocks.

Newsletter: May 13

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Santa Barbara Wants Restaurants to Expand Into Sidewalks, Streets, and Parking Lots

Other local news: There's talk of closing 13 blocks of State Street to cars; the state released guidelines for restaurant dining rooms; county reopening being slowed by Lompoc prison outbreak; pot-delivery business doing well; Botanik has a new greenhouse; Republican house candidate Andy Caldwell.

What Are These Black Beetles That Are Everywhere This Spring?

"I don't remember them from previous years, at least not in these numbers," asks R. "And does nothing eat them? They would seem to be easy prey, since they meander around so slowly and often end up on their backs with their legs wriggling." The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History has the answer. 1

Two Former Loquita Chefs Are Selling Weekly Asian Dinners

More food news: Loquita, The Blue Owl, and Jeannine's on Coast Village Road have reopened; Rusty's Pizza in Summerland opened; profile of Organic Soup Kitchen.

In the Heart of the Golden Quadrangle

The streets northwest of Montecito's Upper Village are home to impressive estates, storybook cottages, a Richard Neutra house, and an indignant French bulldog.

Updates on Two Other Big Funk Zone Projects

Plus: Lotusland reopens to the public soon; food drive today will exchange toilet paper for non-perishable food; Mate Gallery photography is on sale; marketing real estate during a pandemic.

Newsletter: May 9

The Siteline newsletter is the best way to follow the website. To subscribe, click the link at the bottom of this post. And you can unsubscribe at any time.

Nordstrom Will Close Its Santa Barbara Store

Given the state of retail even before the Covid-19 nightmare, this can hardly come as a shock—except perhaps to Paseo Nuevo, which assured everyone just last week that "Nordstrom isn't going anywhere."

Montecito Compound With a Dreamy Garden

The week's other top price reductions: Half of a historic 1930s building downtown that got split into condos; 10,000-square-foot property now $2 million less; sweet house with freeway issues; what $2.5 million buys in central Montecito; one of the cooler houses in Hope Ranch.