Well, here we are.
It has actually been almost a month given that Gov. Gavin Newsom provided a statewide stay-at-home order and even longer considering that the country switched off the economy. Both actions were taken in a sincere attempt to make sure that healthcare facilities and our health-care system would not be overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe.
Through social distancing and an incredibly broad voluntary compliance, California has mostly succeeded in slowing the spread.
To be clear, we are not in the clear. There is far excessive we don’t learn about COVID-19, from the source of the preliminary outbreak in Wuhan, China, to its long-lasting health impacts, threats and behavior. We’re just going to need to deal with that.
The lockdowns, nevertheless, were never planned to eliminate the disease. Probably that can’t happen without a vaccine, which might be months or perhaps years away.
But this crisis is not exclusively a public health disaster; it is likewise a self-imposed economic disaster. Both need to be addressed simultaneously and with the same seriousness.
As if this were some perverse if/then proposition, some government authorities– and Noozhawk’s betters in the news media– insist we must wait to declare success over the previous before we can tackle the latter.
We do not have that sort of time.
The world is facing a financial collapse on a scale that we have never seen.
Earlier this week, Newsom provided a plan for “resuming” California. There’s far less there in his six-point plan than promoted, and it could yet be weeks prior to we’re enabled to go back to our “brand-new typical.”
But the specifications he set forth appear to supply a generational chance for Santa Barbara County– if we’re bold enough to seize it. Now is not the time for “company as usual” and hidebound decision-making that have actually been a trademark around these parts for far too long.
Now is the time for real regional management and informed, thoughtful and innovative thinking to begin resuming businesses and our economy while still balancing the ongoing needs and health care that our most vulnerable neighbors require and deserve.
Not that long ago, Santa Barbara County’s joblessness rate was around 3 percent. Getting back to that point ought to be our ruthless focus for the foreseeable future, and the collective “we” should begin pushing our local political leaders and policy makers to do everything they can to assist, not impede this cause.
As residents, we should contact government to assist people return on their feet and then leave their method. As Americans, that should suffice.
I’ll be exploring that even more when Santa Barbara County Second District Supervior Gregg Hart joins me on April 24 for our 2nd Noozhawk Talks, a special Zoom livestream on our homepage, on our Facebook page and to our YouTube channel.
Information will be announced early next week, but you can click on this link to send a concern you ‘d like me to ask Hart by means of our Noozhawk Asks platform.
According to our Google Analytics, there were 164,760 of you reading Noozhawk this previous week. The majority of you know that these Finest of Costs columns are my take on the Top 5 most-read stories during that period, however in case you do not, this is a viewpoint column. It is not a newspaper article.
( Noozhawk video through Facebook)
1. Brian Goebel: Now That California’s COVID-19 Hospitalization Curve Is Totally Bent, What’s Next?
My buddy, Brian Goebel, has continued to stay ahead of the coronavirus curve with his columns scrutinizing the pandemic modeling and its results on … whatever. For the 2nd week in a row, he’s outdistanced the field to claim Noozhawk’s top area in our most-read articles of the previous week.
Brian’s April 11 report struck another nerve, primarily due to the fact that it was among the first to conclude– from state Department of Public Health data– that California not only had actually flattened the curve with hospitalization admissions, it had bent it completely. Now, he reasoned, it was time to start thinking about where we go from here, as a state and a neighborhood.
Naturally, this column’s 22,000 readers are a far cry from the now-173,000 who read his Noozhawk-record April 5 column, “California Significantly Flattened the COVID-19 Curve in March,” however he’ll take it. And so will I.
In case you missed it– and thanks to me, everyone practically did– Brian and I talked modeling, approach and results in an April 13 Zoom webcast that was streamed to our Facebook page. It was our first-ever Noozhawk Talks webcast, and with my upcoming Gregg Hart interview on April 24, it will not be the last.
2. 1 Dead, 3 Injured in Crash on Highway 154 Above Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara County firefighters battle to liberate a guest caught in a the wreckage of an April 9 head-on accident on Highway 154 above Santa Barbara. (Santa Barbara County Fire Department image)
It’s been a while, but a head-on accident on Highway 154 above Santa Barbara eliminated one man and left 3 other people hurt. As is frequently the case, a driver was jailed on suspicion of DUI.
According to the California Highway Patrol, 22- year-old Brian Watana Dul of Goleta was driving a Mazda 3 east on the highway about 6 p.m. on April 9 when he crossed the center lane directly into the path of an approaching Toyota 4-Runner about a mile listed below Painted Cave Roadway.
Traveler Cole DeBortoli, 21, of Santa Barbara, died of his injuries. (Debortoli family photo)
The car diverted left and the SUV slammed into the sedan’s traveler side, collapsing it inward.
Santa Barbara County fire Capt. Daniel Bertucelli told our Tom Bolton that the front-seat traveler required extensive extrication from the mangled wreckage.
CHP Capt. Cindy Pontes said the guest– identified as 21- year-old Cole DeBortoli of Santa Barbara– was rushed by an American Medical Reaction ambulance to Santa Barbara Cottage Healthcare facility with significant injuries, however he passed away at the hospital.
Authorities state Dul had moderate injuries while the occupants of the Toyota– chauffeur Mitchell Summer season, 59, of Long Beach, and guest Kelly Summer, 52, likewise of Long Beach– suffered small injuries. They were all transferred by AMR ambulances to Santa Barbara Home Healthcare Facility, although Mitchell Summertime did not need hospitalization.
Pontes told Tom that Dul was subsequently apprehended on suspicion of felony DUI and car manslaughter.
The crash remains under CHP investigation.
DeBortoli attended Santa Barbara City College after graduating from Dos Pueblos High School. Funeral services are pending.
Friends established a GoFundMe account to help his family with funeral costs, and their efforts have actually raised nearly $9,000 as of April17 Click here to make an online contribution.
3. Shelter-in-Place Order Released for Neighborhood Near Stow Grove in Goleta
A suspect vehicle with bullet holes triggered Santa Barbara police to make a high-risk traffic stop on the Upper Eastside the afternoon of Easter Sunday. (Peter Hartmann/ Noozhawk image)
The Santa Barbara Authorities Department was practically chatty following an effective April 14 SWAT operation in neighboring Goleta. The show of force quickly resulted in the arrest of a suspect in an Easter Sunday drive-by shooting on Santa Barbara’s Lower Eastside.
Noozhawk readers have become familiar with SBPD’s nonanswers after the current escalation in mystical stabbings, shootings and other violence in the city. Surprisingly, that was not the case this time.
Daniel Djamali-Kahi, 24, of Goleta, was arrested as a suspect in the April 12 shooting spree on Santa Barbara’s Lower Eastside. (Santa Barbara Police Department picture)
Cops representative Anthony Wagner informed our Tom Bolton that authorities SWAT officers and crisis mediators had gone to Covington Method, surrounding Stow Grove Park, to serve high-risk arrest and search warrants at a home.
A shelter-in-place order was released for the area right before 7: 30 p.m., however Wagner said the suspect– whom he recognized as 24- year-old Daniel Djamali-Kahi of Goleta– was nabbed without event. The shelter-in-place order was lifted about a half-hour later.
Because the operation was conducted outside SBPD’s jurisdiction, Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputies helped with the case.
Djamali-Kahi was booked into County Jail on suspicion of attack with a gun and shooting into an occupied car. As of April 16, he was still jailed in lieu of $250,000 bail.
Nobody was injured in the midafternoon April 12 shooting at Punta Gorda and Salinas streets in Santa Barbara, however 9-1-1 callers reported various shots fired. Responding officers discovered multiple invested shell casings at the scene, Wagner said.
Not long after, he said, a high-risk traffic stop was carried out in the 1500 block of Santa Barbara Street after authorities identified a BMW SUV that had actually been struck by gunfire. The three occupants were questioned however not jailed, he included.
Djamali-Kahi presumably remained in a 2nd vehicle that escaped after the shooting, but police have provided no intention for the occurrence.
Wagner stated the search of Djamali-Kahi’s house turned up a 9mm semi-automatic pistol, an AR-15 rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammo.
4. Female to Be Arraigned on Murder Charges in Westside Santa Barbara Killing of Her Mom
Santa Barbara authorities detectives and officers give after a 76- year-old lady was discovered stabbed to death inside a Kowalski Opportunity house behind Harding University Collaboration School. (Peter Hartmann/ Noozhawk photo)
A 41- year-old Santa Barbara woman was apprehended as a suspect in the brutal stabbing death of her mother. The body of the 76- year-old victim was discovered in a home near Harding University Collaboration School on the Westside.
You didn’t hear any of that from the Santa Barbara Authorities Department.
Leinani Nalani McClintic, 41, was apprehended as a suspect in the stabbing death of her motheron Santa Barbara’s Westside. (Santa Barbara Police Department image)
Simply after 9 a.m. April 8, cops were contacted us to a residence in the 1500 block of Kowalski Avenue, behind Harding School near the crossway of West Micheltorena Street.
Beyond the verification of the dispatch time and area, details were generally nonexistent. Authorities spokesperson Anthony Wagner told our Tom Bolton that officers had actually discovered “a deceased person” in an apparent murder which a suspect was in custody.
SBPD was still staying with its no-story story two days later on so Tom called Santa Barbara County District Lawyer Joyce Dudley, who was far more valuable.
She recognized the victim as Hiilani Mikaitis and said her child, Leinani Nalani McClintic, had been detained and was to be arraigned April 13 on a first-degree murder charge.
Mikaitis supposedly died of multiple stab injuries.
The criminal problem filed against McClintic also accuses her of using a lethal weapon, a knife, in commission of the criminal activity. She deals with a special allegation that the offense is a serious felony, which makes her disqualified to serve a state jail sentence in county jail.
As of April 17, McClintic stays in County Prison with bail set at $2 million.
5. BizHawk: Los Agaves Among Restaurants Laying Off Personnel In The Middle Of Coronavirus
Los Agaves owner Carlos Luna, inside his De la Vina Street restaurant in Santa Barbara, has had to shutter two of his 5 Los Agaves places given that the coronavirus shutdown began. (Joshua Molina/ Noozhawk photo)
Considering that the coronavirus crisis began flowing through the economy, restaurants have been the proverbial canary in the coal mine. When two of Santa Barbara’s most popular dining establishments are beginning to feel the pinch, it does not bode well for their sector– or for the rest people, to be sincere.
Los Agaves has been a remarkable successs story given that my pal, Carlos Luna, opened his first Mexican restaurant on North Milpas Street in2008 Since then, he’s had a deft touch and vision as he launched four sister shops, on De la Vina Street in Santa Barbara, Camino Real Market in Goleta, Oxnard and Westlake Village.
He likewise started 3 other Mexican-themed restaurants under different brand names and principles.
Currently, just De la Vina, Goleta and Westlake Town are continuing to operate with takeout and delivery services. Worse, he needed to lay off a shocking 300 workers.
” We never envisioned that something like this might occur,” Luna told our Josh Molina, including that many dining establishment employees normally “live paycheck to paycheck.”
On April 16, Luna and I had a long talk as I was leaving the De la Vina dining establishment with a number of orders of Chile Poblano Campestre, a perpetual #bestofbillrecommendation.
He’s one of the most optimistic people I know, but you might see the aggravation on his face and feel the discomfort in his heart when he was explaining how devoted his laid-off staff members are, providing to drive to any area to do anything.
They’re family and they want to work, not be out of work, but there’s little anybody can do to help them.
One choice, nevertheless, is a GoFundMe account that Luna established so Los Agaves fans can pitch in on their behalf. The project has actually raised nearly $7,000 so far, and all donations received will go straight to the laid-off employees and their households, he stated. Click here to make an online donation.
Los Arroyos, my other preferred Mexican dining establishment, is dealing with the same challenge.
Owner Tony Arroyo and I have been good friends for several years. He gave my kid, Will, his first job, and numerous of his employees– I’m discussing you, Stephanie Borrayo– resemble my own household.
Arroyo, too, began a GoFundMe represent his personnel as long as his now-three areas– downtown Santa Barbara, Goleta and Montecito– are running with fewer employees and decreased hours. More than $7,000 has actually been raised to date, and you can click on this link to make an online donation.
But all dining establishments are struggling, and they all require our aid– to the degree that we can.
Click here for Noozhawk’s Open for Company Directory of Santa Barbara County dining establishments and their hours and details of their takeout, curbside pickup and delivery services.
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— Bill Macfadyen is Noozhawk’s creator and publisher. Contact him at [email protected], follow him on Twitter: @noozhawk and Instagram: @bill. macfadyen
, or click on this link to check out previous columns. The viewpoints revealed are his own.
