Santa Barbara Is Getting a Professional Soccer Team

••• “A professional soccer club is building a home in Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara Sky Football Club, an expansion team of the United Soccer League, is laying a foundation and getting all the framework in place before taking the field for its first game in the spring of 2024. […] Sky FC will play their home matches at SBCC’s La Playa Stadium.” —Noozhawk

••• “The Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, which for the better part of five decades has served as the city’s premier contemporary art-focused venue, announced it is closing August 28. […] One of the city’s conditions for approving the mall at the time was that it include a black box theater (Center Stage Theater currently fills that role) and visual arts venue. With MCASB’s imminent departure, Paseo Nuevo must now find a new museum tenant, said Jason Harris, the city’s economic development manager.” —Independent

••• “Deep cleaning of the sidewalks lining both sides of the downtown pedestrian promenade will begin this week, as well as the installation of additional lighting on lower State Street and adjoining side streets, city officials said. […] All told, there will be 39 new strings of lights on State Street and adjoining blocks.” —Santa Barbara News-Press

••• “New fencing has been going up in areas where homeless camps have been problematic throughout the Santa Barbara corridor of Highway 101. The locations have also been sites where fires have broken out multiple times.” —KEYT

••• Screenwriter/director David Koepp sold his Hedgerow house to “retired Olympic figure skater and ‘Dancing with the Stars’ alum Evan Lysacek and his Thai heiress wife Dang Bodiratnangkura, who doled out $9.8 million for the place.” —Dirt

••• “Barney Melekian’s final day as interim Santa Barbara police chief—and as a law enforcement officer—is this Friday. Melekian, 72, was appointed as the interim chief on March 1, 2021, following the departure of Lori Luhnow as the city’s top cop. […] Santa Barbara is currently in the final stages of hiring a new police chief.” —Noozhawk

••• “Santa Barbara County’s ReadySBC emergency alert notification system will be tested across all of Montecito on July 21. The purpose of the test, which will occur at 11 a.m., is to make sure that all residents and community members have their contact information updated so that they can receive the emergency alerts without any issue.” —KEYT

••• “The state of California has awarded $7.2 million to the Ventura Land Trust to complete the acquisition and preservation of the 1,645-acre Mariano Rancho property in the Ventura hillsides [….] The scenic Mariano Rancho property overlooks downtown and midtown Ventura. […] The Ventura Land Trust said it will engage in a two- to three-year planning process before opening Mariano Rancho to the public. The land trust plans to commission a conceptual trail plan for the property and a trailhead parking enclosure will be constructed.” —Pacific Coast Business Times

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