••• The Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s revamp of the Fiesta 5 multiplex (916 State Street, between Canon Perdido and Carrillo) is on track to open in February; it will be called the McHurley Film Center, after donors Nora McNeely Hurley and Michael Hurley. —Independent
••• “In an effort to save the proposed Paseo Nuevo redevelopment from collapsing, the city of Santa Barbara has decided not to give away a portion of land underneath the Nordstrom building, the site of a separate proposed 112-unit housing project.” City administrator Kelly “McAdoo removed the Nordstrom parcel because [Nordstrom building owner Shopoff Realty Investments] was upset that the land underneath its project would get transferred to a private investment firm. This move would essentially force Shopoff to negotiate directly with AB Commercial on the land. Although the land transfer underneath Nordstrom appears to be excluded from the deal, both Shopoff and McAdoo said on Monday that negotiations over the land and the housing must still take place. Shopoff told Noozhawk that it still would prefer a three-way deal with all parties, and as it stands right now, the city wants to cut a deal with AB Commercial now, and Shopoff later.” —Noozhawk
••• The Independent makes a convincing argument that the city council should vote against the Paseo Nuevo deal. It’s hard to shake the feeling that the city is getting outmaneuvered.
••• Zoe Bikini (429 State Street) will close at year end; everything is on sale. —John Palminteri
••• Noozhawk on potential new rules for massage therapists: “The City of Santa Barbara has proposed increasing annual fees, making annual inspections and requiring a new certification that would force some therapists to go back to school. The city is attempting to strengthen requirements for therapists as part of an effort to address human trafficking, prostitution and other illegal activities. […] Under the proposal, annual fees would jump from $25 to $275 for sole proprietors and to $375 for massage establishments. Therapists also would have to get certified by the California Massage Therapy Council, which includes training for 500 hours. Members of the Santa Barbara Police Department also would make annual inspections, either by surprise or appointment.” Good intentions, for sure, but won’t illegal operations just go underground?
••• An update from Edhat‘s owner announced some improvements—”Ventura and San Luis Obispo pages will be reopening once again [and] an exact timeline and specific details of this will be announced soon”—and acknowledged that “some of [its] writers aren’t local,” which is what I was talking about when I mentioned the other day that many posts are being written by people in India.
••• “A World War II Santa Barbara Airport hangar is getting a second life thanks to Marc Winnikoff, who is turning the structure into a research and development facility. […] Winnikoff is proposing relocating a 9,042-square-foot World War II squadron airplane hangar, known as Hangar 5, along with two World War II-era Quonset huts from Tri-County Produce to 135 Castilian Drive, off of Los Carneros Road.” —Noozhawk
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Thanks for the reminder to block Edhat on all platforms, lest our posts on IG, Threads, etc., become grist for the outsourced mill.
I really miss the original Edhat, I found it the same year Peter Sklar founded it and thanks to vision and kindness I became one of the regular contributing photographers. From 2003 to 2012 when he passed away I don’t think he refused more than five photos I submitted, and they were probably political. (remember if you posted a comment with the word “Obama” you would be banned for a while.). The format for local news was so simple, a page that looked like a page from a notebook. No advertising, no pop up windows. Just news stories contributed by anyone. The phrase, “viewer driven content,” summed it up. Since Peter passed and the format changed, not for the better, I haven’t seen any local site that comes close to being as good. Although this site is pretty cool. Here’s a true story, I was a habitual poster of photos. One time someone posted a comment, “This guy Seibert posts so often, what’s next, a photo of a pile of dirt?” It just so happened the owner of the property I live at was working on the driveway and there was a pile of dirt. I went outside, took a photo of it, uploaded it and within 15 minutes Peter had posted my reply. He had a great sense of humor.
It seems so wasteful to tear down the Macy’s building… and the city isn’t getting any public benefit from giving away the land and property taxes. Sets a bad precedent to subsidize developers for market rate housing. Surely there is some use for the Macy’s building as it is. Let the developers walk—I don’t like their arm twisting.
Who are the City of SB and the California Massage Therapy Council trying to kid? Raising the fees and inspections isn’t going to do squat to address human trafficking, prostitution and other illegal activities.
If the SB Police doesn’t already know which establishments are already doing these activities then there lies the problem. It’s often quite obvious.
Will they go underground? Probably not. They’ll still stay in their storefront establishments, advertise on Craiglists, and other sites, etc.
Dont overthink Paseo Nuevo being given away for housing. Residential development down there will make the biggest meaningful impact towards a State St turnaround. If AB walks, Paseo Nuevo will turn into yet another city run white elephant. The State St debaclle but on sterioids. More money spent on expensive out of area consultants and their reposrts that the city will not put into action. Asks made by the public and city council members that dont understand economics and development. A downward spiral blackhole. We can argue to open State St back up or not, but looking this gift horse in the mouth instead of looking at the greater good will be unrecoverable for at least a decade. There is no perfect, choose progress and keep moving forward one step at a time.
“Don’t overthink” giving away public land? The “greater good” of subsidizing market rate housing and paying the property taxes for this developer? Say what?