••• “Two Years After Installation, Solar Arrays at Six Santa Barbara Unified [School District] Sites Generating Nothing but Shade […] Sites Are ‘Close to Going Online’ but Still Awaiting Utility’s Approval, Officials Say.” —Independent
••• “The Santa Barbara City Council will decide [today] whether to place a half-cent sales tax on the November ballot. […] The half-cent increase would bring Santa Barbara’s sales tax to 9.25%.” —Noozhawk
••• “The City of Santa Barbara has filed criminal charges against a property manager at 215 Bath St. alleging that he failed to comply with the just cause eviction ordinance.” Criminal charges? No one wants people to be unjustly evicted, but landlords must be allowed to do significant work to properties. —Independent
••• “Fish Die-Off at Leadbetter Beach Remains a Mystery.” —Independent
••• “The owner of Old Town Antiques announced it will be closing its downtown Santa Barbara storefront” (33 W. Anapamu Street) because the landlord raised the rent. —Edhat
••• The tree of the month: “The Brazilian Cedarwood […] was first introduced into California in 1900 by Dr. Francesco Franceschi, a pioneering horticulturist, at his nursery that was located at State Street and Gutierrez Street in Santa Barbara. The magnificent Brazilian Cedarwood trees that now grace Gutierrez Street (from Santa Barbara Street to Chapala Street) were planted in 1911 by Dr. Augustus Doremus, Santa Barbara’s first Parks Superintendent.” —Edhat
••• From a press release on Edhat: “The Ventura County and Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Offices announced today that they have filed a civil case against The Kroger Co. in Santa Barbara Superior Court alleging violations of California’s false advertising and unfair competition laws. […] The complaint alleges that Kroger falsely advertised the calorie content of its store-brand Carbmaster bread products from approximately November 2018 to at least June 2022. During that time, Kroger prominently advertised on the front-packaging of its Carbmaster Wheat and Carbmaster White breads that they contained 30 calories per slice, when in fact they are alleged to have contained 50 calories or more.” I know I feel safer now.
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The city suing an owner performing 30 years of neglected improvements on an apartment building sends a message… don’t upgrade your property but let it slide into disrepair in the name of tenant activism.
I have never owned an apartment building, but I have owned a couple rental properties in the past so I have some understanding of a landlord’s perspective. I agree that rental ordinances should be clearly written and upgrades should be allowed. But a simple search of “215 Bath St” on Google shows that there’s much more to this story than what is revealed in the Noozhawk article you linked. Maybe Knapp is right, the city is trying to send a message: Don’t be a d*ck.