A Hostel Has Opened Near the Train Station

••• Like any good know-it-all, I tend to disagree with travel advice about my own town. But the New York Times‘s recent “36 Hours” feature on Santa Barbara went beyond the usual suspects, suggesting visitors check out Corazón Comedor, Tondi Gelato, Domicíl, Folly, Sullivan Goss, Alessia Patisserie & Cafe, La Paloma, The Good Lion, and more.

••• “The Santa Barbara Beach Hostel opened this week at 134 Chapala St. […] across the street train tracks and near the Santa Barbara Amtrak Station. […] The rooms include multiple beds for females or mixed rooms, shared bathrooms, showers, lockers, washer and dryer. Breakfast is included along with free WiFi. The starting rate for the shared rooms is about $60 while the private rooms start at $200.” —Noozhawk

••• The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office put out an alert for “an armed suspect that attempted to gain access to a Summerland home Tuesday morning. At 9:08 a.m., Santa Barbara County Deputies responded to the 800 block of Sand Point Road for report of a male intruder at a residence who had a knife and told workers at the residence not to call 911” (Edhat). Later that day, “an alert community member spotted the suspect in a recent burglary after officials released surveillance photos of the incident, and deputies were able to quickly make an arrest” (KSBY).

••• Noozhawk has more on the Montecito Association’s push to block “new corporate stores.” The article also uses the phrase “big box stores,” but I think the point is more anti-chain than about size (and there aren’t many large spaces in Montecito, anyway). Regardless, the nut of the matter is where to draw the line. For instance, how does someone like Thomas Keller—10 establishments nationwide so far, and now he’s taking over the Coral Casino food operations—fit in to this? Or are restaurants less of a concern than shops? What about franchised services like Drybar? P.S. I wonder whether a majority of Montecito residents support the ordinance.

••• “To avoid conflicts of interest within the county supervisors’ offices with Santa Barbara County’s business, the five supervisors voted on Tuesday to require all their staff members to fill out Form 700, which discloses investment interests, business positions, sources of income, and gifts, loans, and travel payments.” —Independent

••• “Real estate management software technology company Yardi Systems wants to […] convert an existing 100,000-square-foot commercial office building into 374 apartments and a childcare center. The building is at 490 S. Fairview Avenue. […] Yardi intends to set aside 60 units as below-market for low-income residents and another 25 as affordable for moderate-income residents. The units will be available to the community at large, not just Yardi employees.” —Noozhawk

••• “A criminal arrest warrant has been served on long time Santa Barbara private investigator Craig Case relating to embezzlement allegations. Case was outside of Santa Barbara Superior Court at the time. He had just appeared on unrelated charges that appear to send his business Case Detective Agency into the hands of someone else while felony forgery and other related identity charges are resolved. […]. Case is also a TV personality who appeared with privately purchase airtime for his show called the Inn Crowd which aired on weekend evenings on KEYT. It featured prominent chefs, winemakers, cooking demonstrations and food tastings.” —KEYT

••• “Santa Barbara Hives has announced the closing of its location at 3328 State St. The company plans to move online,” reports Noozhawk. “People are invited to purchase excess inventory and fixtures at a discounted price until July 30.” I’ll try to find out what this means for the Carpinteria location. UPDATE: The Carp store will remain open.

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