••• Montecito Journal has a loooooong article on how to fix downtown Santa Barbara, and State Street in particular. (Here’s a thought: Make State Street pedestrian-only.) The piece is pegged to a “set of architectural designs created by a collective of local architects completed three years ago during a two-week charrette. The drawings were only marginally discussed in the public at the time, yet they offer a glimpse of a dynamic potential Downtown Santa Barbara; one filled with natural neighborhoods, meandering paseos, green plazas and courtyards, as well as blended residential housing and retail, bringing State Street to life.” The drawings are on the AIA Santa Barbara’s website; the article is not online yet.
••• “A new tally for Tuesday’s voting results in Santa Barbara County won’t come until next Monday [….] Joe Holland, who serves as registrar of voters in addition to Santa Barbara County clerk-recorder-assessor, said Wednesday that 38,400 vote-by-mail ballots remain to be counted. Elections Division staff also have approximately 800 uncounted ballots from the polls plus 1,000 provisional ballots that still need to be tallied.” —Noozhawk
••• Nonetheless, some races are basically decided. “In the 3rd District supervisorial race, incumbent Joan Hartmann beat conservative No Party Preference candidate Bruce Porter 52.26 percent to 35.71 percent,” thereby avoiding a runoff in November. In the 37th District Assembly race, 22-year-old Republican Charles Cole, a political neophyte who doesn’t believe in climate change, will face Democrat Steve Bennett, a five-term Ventura County supervisor, in a runoff. And Democrat Salud Carbajal (52.2 percent) will be in a runoff against Republican Andy Caldwell (44.1 percent), who supports Trump and thinks America has gone too far to the left. —Independent
••• As for the Das Williams/Laura Capps race, Williams leads by 735 votes. “There appear to be three basic scenarios for where the election goes from here,” says Newsmakers with Jerry Roberts.
••• “Cottage Health announced Tuesday that it is opening 10 urgent care clinics in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties this year, with the first one located in Goleta’s Hollister Village shopping center. These centers will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day to see patients who have minor injuries and illnesses [….] There will be two urgent care centers opened in Santa Barbara, two in Santa Maria, and more in Buellton, San Luis Obispo, Ventura and Camarillo.” —Noozhawk
••• In a letter to the Montecito Journal (not online yet), Dr. James Robb outlines ways to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. While “a professor of pathology at the University of San Diego, [he] was one of the first molecular virologists in the world to work on coronaviruses (the 1970s).”
••• “The Architectural Board of Review gave developer Ray Mahboob what appears to have been final approval with only a few minor tweaks for a major 12,000-square-foot facelift, reconstruction, and reinvention of an industrial warehouse [11 Anacapa] that runs from Helena Avenue to Anapamu streets in Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone neighborhood. […] Mahboob’s commitment to maintain [the folksy] facade was a key reason his project—which, among other things, will offer trendy new restaurants selling craft beers and artisanal sausages—garnered such uncharacteristically unanimous support from the council and Planning Commission.” —Noozhawk
••• The Independent investigates the history of the circa 1908 Craftsman house at 212 W. Valerio Street.
••• Reflections, a shop selling seashell art, has opened in Montecito’s Upper Village, next to the Montecito Village Grocery. —Montecito Journal (not online yet)
••• Another Edhat classic: “two people fighting over a parking spot in the 3000 block of State Street where one sprayed the other with a fire extinguisher.”
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