Shop-Local Gift Guide, Part 3: The Shopkeepers and Garde

If you want Santa Barbara to have wonderful independent shops, you need to support them. So this holiday season—and year-round, really—make an effort to spend your money here.

Mountain Lion Spotted in Elings Park

Plus: The original Santa Barbara Polo Club is available to rent; new trails and repairs on Montecito Trails Foundation's list for 2020; meeting about Highway 154 safety; Eastside Library to be closed for renovations.

“One-Stop Shop” for High-End Home Design

While you can buy anything right off the floor at Birgit Klein's new Montecito space, the emphasis is on custom design, whether it's furniture, accessories like pillows and throws, light fixtures, rugs, or wallpaper. "We can do anything," she says.

Newsletter: December 12

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

A Pair of Brand-New Houses in San Antonio Creek

Highlights of this weekend's open-house lineup: Forty acres on Spyglass Ridge Road; Montecito midcentury mini-compound; 1895 Upper East house with a surprise upstairs.

George Lucas Has Now Spent $47 Million on Padaro Lane

Other recent news: Santa Barbara Airport finally got a Gate 3; photos of the Cave Fire burn area; downtown apartment buildings can now be three feet taller; another lawsuit over the city's vacation-rental ban; revised plans for Montecito Street hotel.

Mate Gallery’s Men’s Shop Debuts This Week

Plus: MarBorg's new textile recycling drop-off program; how to help the Los Padres Forest Association keep roadways clean; Montecito Planning Commission to meet in Montecito for the first time; names as destiny.

Shop-Local Gift Guide, Part 2: Mate Gallery and Santa Barbara Museum of Art

If you want Santa Barbara to have wonderful independent shops, you need to support them. So this holiday season—and year-round, really—make an effort to spend your money here.

The Los Agaves Spinoff on Cabrillo Has Opened

More food news: Checking out the old-school Onus Donuts on State Street; the former Breakfast Culture Club café may have been sold to another coffee shop; Fosters Freeze in Carpinteria is reportedly for rent.

A Tale of Two Upper East Grandes Dames

The centenarian houses of the Upper East don't come on the market all that often, but last week, we got two: 2014 Garden Street, built in 1895, and 16 E. Pedregosa Street, built in 1918. Let's compare and contrast....