••• Dirt reports that Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi were the buyers of a midcentury house on Hill Road back in December. This is in addition to the Picacho Lane compound ($49 million) and Ennisbrook hacienda ($14.3 million). And I can’t shake the suspicion that they’re the recent buyers of another Montecito property, but we’ll have to wait and see.
••• “Every member of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors supported a proposal Tuesday by 2nd District Supervisor Gregg Hart to provide $2 million to the Forever Foothills fund to save the San Marcos Preserve from development. The board plans to vote on the funding at its meeting on June 8, the day before the deadline for Foothills Forever to buy the property.” (As of Wednesday evening, the amount needed is down to $699,000.) —Santa Barbara News-Press
••• Noozhawk‘s report on a Santa Barbara City Council’s public works budget hearing included an update on the bike-rental program: “Since the program launched on Jan. 28, there have been 8,678 e-bike trips, 6,125 passes sold, 42,090 trips completed and 39,941 tons of carbon dioxide reduced from the atmosphere.” I’m not sure what the difference is between “trips” and “trips completed,” and the carbon-dioxide number must assume that the cyclists would otherwise be driving, but they might have chosen to walk. “Eventually, the city wants to install more than 500 docks and 250 pedal-assist bikes. Currently, there are 85 bikes on the streets, with 178 docks.”
••• “Construction on a new multi-use coastal bike path connecting Santa Claus Lane to Carpinteria will begin in 2022, closing the gap on the California Coastal Trail and giving bicyclists better access to the coast.” Below is a rendering of how Santa Claus Lane will look—nicer, but without the sleepy charm. —Noozhawk
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