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SLO City News

2016 Through The Looking Glass

By Camas Frank

As is customary over here at the SLO City News, we spent the last few days of 2016 secluded in a bungalow with a hot drink examining the year that’s gone before.
The important stories covered range from the absurd to the sublime, and while it’s tempting to judge a year based on recent memory, there was a heck of a lot that was overshadowed by a showy finish. And as it turns out the City of SLO still has much to be thankful for, mostly resting on the shoulders of an engaged and active citizenry with an involved business community. Presented here are 12 months of stories that formed the themes we saw play out, occurrences of the bizarre, and hopefully an interesting record of life on the Central Coast.

January

The Sub, an iconic curio shop or “cultural gift store” specializing in music and memorabilia on Higuera Street was gutted in a Dec. 26 fire that took more than 6-hours to extinguish. Owner Richard Ferris reportedly maintained into the New Year that he thought the shop could have been saved if firefighters had taken a different approach. That’s an argument SLO Fire Chief Garret Olson declined to have publically, saying that, “He [Ferris] had every right to be upset about a lot of things that day. We try to handle that interaction with as much compassion and grace as possible.” The building’s remains were handed back over to Ferris’ custody and in 2017 the place still sits fenced off, gutted and empty.

They say that lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place, but folks at the SLO County Regional Airport have come to know better, after the airport was hit by lightning three times in one day. SLO County’s Director of Airports, Kevin Bumen, said he had been surprised at the three lightening strikes that took the airport out of commission during a fierce thunderstorm Jan. 6. That was until he realized that it had also been a lightening strike that caused the Tank Farm oil field fire, some 90 years before.
“You don’t expect lightening strikes at an airport,” he said, “Our affected equipment wasn’t designed for it.” While there was some fizzling in the control tower wall, field equipment was replaced within the week and they were back in business.

Actor turned troubadour, Jeff Bridges, and his partner in crime, fellow Santa Barbaran, Chris Pelonis, entertained a sold-out crowd on Jan. 16 at the historic Fremont Theater.

The Cal Poly administration announced that it was, “considering the possibility of a proposed public-private partnership to build a work- force housing complex.” The proposed project would be built near the northeast intersection of Grand Avenue and Slack Street. Plans started for 420 housing units on a 10-acre parcel already in the Campus Master Plan with positive statements coming from then-SLO City Vice Mayor, Dan Carpenter, SLO City Councilmember, Dan Rivoire, and SLO County Supervisors, Adam Hill and Debbie Arnold.
“We don’t have land use jurisdiction but through CEQA [the California Environmental Quality Act], we have the ability to identify and mitigate negative impacts,” said SLO City’s Community Development Director, Michael Codron.

February

Officials of the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, the lead agency overseeing the investigation of groundwater contamination in the Buckley Road Area, said they were “surprised” by a Feb. 1 SLO County press release.
Dated three days before a public information meeting on the topic held at the Water Board office, the release gave information about the meeting but also all but ruled out the County Airport as the source of trichloroethene or TCE in area groundwater.
SLO County Director of Airports, Kevin Bumen, said in the statement, “We’re very concerned about water contamination near the airport and are trying to uncover the source. But we do not believe that the airport is the source of contamination.”
That surprised the Water Board since the technical side of the investigation was only just beginning. Heading into 2017 the precise source remains a mystery.

The crown jewel of the agency that runs the City’s bus network, SLO Transit’s $844,000 double-decker bus, was put out out of action for 8 months in 2016.

SLO Transit Manager, Gamaliel Anguiano, said the 14-foot high vehicle has been sent to a special facility in Las Vegas for retrofit after 2 feet were sheered off its top in a Jan. 25 accident attributed to, “pure human error.” Anguiano said he didn’t know how much the repairs would cost but that First Transit Inc., the City’s contractor for “bus service solutions” was responsible for the work under its insurance policy.

The SLO County Planning Commission received feedback from as many members of the public as they could accommodate regarding a Phillips 66 Co. plan to receive crude oil via a new rail spur to its refinery on the Nipomo Mesa.
Only about half of the nearly 400 people who signed up to speak in front of the Commission were able to do so over the two days. The commission carried on with the issue for months amidst repeated protests until finally rejecting the project later in 2016. It’s since been appealed to County supervisors.

March

Ten years after it was first conceived, the City of San Luis Obispo’s Skate Park hosted three days of celebration for it’s first anniversary. The skate park, located in Santa Rosa Park, drew close to 1,000 people to its inaugural event in 2015, so the City spread out the festivities a bit in 2016, with food trucks, a DJ and games.
A blood drive with United Blood Services of California was also part of the event. For those wondering, they used needles, cookies and a behind the scenes screening for Zika virus, and did not go searching for scraped knees.
While organizers prided themselves on safety regulations being strictly implemented at the park, including use of helmets, knee and elbow pads, eagle eyed readers noticed that the young man pictured on the cover of the SLO City News, performing tricks, had none of those precautions in place.

While past party nominees publically bickered with the then current Republican Party presidential frontrunner on a national stage, a more “progressive” minded audience in SLO settled in to hear some alternatives to the dominant economic model.
Dr. Richard Wolff, professor emeritus of the University of Massachusetts, Hampshire College stopped at SLO’s Ludwick Community Center for a 2-hour talk. The third in a series of lectures hosted by SLO Speaks, the local organizers teamed up with Wolff’s nonprofit organization, Democracy at Work, to illustrate alternatives to capitalist ownership models. His supporters may not have proven willing to give up capitalism but an energized base may have played a role in the close mayoral race that emerged in November.

With a slim majority of City Council support, San Luis Obispo started to take a deeper look at the legal and operational issues that might come of a “democracy voucher system,” i.e. public campaign financing.
With Mayor Jan Marx and Councilwoman Carlyn Christianson dissenting, the Council voted 3-2 on March 15 to have the City Attorney’s office keep working on the details of what the proposed public financing option for municipal elections would mean in the 2018 election. Assistant City Attorney, Jon Ansolabehere, narrated a presentation on the bare framework of an ordinance that was brought to the Council in August 2015 by congressional candidate, William Ostrander, and his nonprofit democracy advocacy group, Citizens Congress. Then-Councilman Dan Carpenter took the unorthodox step of asking for a re-vote to kill the plan, less than 2 weeks later, as his conservative supporters in the County Board of Supervisors race voiced concerns.

Locals who had gotten used to avoiding the Los Osos Valley Road intersection at South Higuera Street breathed a sigh of relief in March.
Traffic over the interchange had already started to ease as workers finished on the newly minted 4-lane bridge in early March, but a ribbon cutting ceremony March 29 wrapped things up.
Well almost, said the City’s project manager, Kyle Rowland, some shiny new decorative rails waited to be installed later in the year. At $24.5 million, the project was not only the largest “capital improvement” in the City’s history; it even came in under budget.

April

San Luis Obispo’s Sports Authority store was among 140 nationwide sold or closed by the chain. Clearance racks went up ranging from 10 to 30-percent off, as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan. The chain is headquartered in Colorado but is owned by Leonard Green & Partners, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm. They cited $1.1 billion in debt and “failure to keep up with consumer trends.”
The closures made up nearly a third of their locations with California, Texas and Florida hardest hit. Some 19 affected stores were in California. While permanent workers lost their jobs at the store, ironically, locals were hired on through Easter to boost staffing for the sale.

The South Chorro Street Neighborhood was smack in the middle of a 6-month experiment to test the effectiveness of traffic circles — not roundabouts — in three Chorro Street intersections. A City announcement said that 66-percent of residents surveyed supported the idea of traffic circles as opposed to other “calming” devices commonly employed. The circles differ from the more commonly understood roundabouts, as they are not designed to ease transit from all four directions but slow it down in two. Transportation planner Jennifer Rice added that residents were given the option of speed “humps” and bulb-outs as well but the circles were more popular. The speed limit on the residential stretch is continues to be 25 mph but average speeds are closer to 33 mph.

In case anyone missed the end of the April 5 SLO City Council meeting — which wasn’t hard as the main hearing item of the night wasn’t addressed until well after many folks’ bedtime — the body gave the OK for a new Los Osos Valley Road (LOVR) Area Specific Plan. Some supporters of the project had toddled off before the requisite public comment period following staff presentations. However, developer John Madonna was given the tentative go-ahead to proceed with an annexation and building plan for 111 acres off LOVR, near Home Depot. Bob Richmond of Villagio Senior Living was listed as co-applicant. The facility would offer independent and assisted living, as well as nursing, to allow residents to stay in the same home indefinitely.

Tiger Fest, an “Open Air” Open House, at the San Luis Obispo High School was held the evening of April 14 for parents, community members and local eighth graders.
Each department of the school hosted a booth and the art studios; science labs and workshops were opened for tours. A stage area highlighted student guitarists; the SLOHS band and choir singers while the school’s clubs took over the lawn in front of the administration building for various displays. The SLO district’s recently passed $177 million capital improvement bond was slated for use to execute campus improvements. Among the labs toured were the school computer science classroom, unbeknownst at the time to be it’s last public showing before being destroyed in an arson fire in December.

May

In a rare unanimous decision against taskforce recommendations, the SLO City Council opted not to pursue a new program that would have mandated registration of beer kegs sold in the City. The suggestion to enact such a program was presented in 2015 in the “Neighborhood Wellness Community Civility Report,” as one of the recommendations from a community taskforce subcommittee. Neighborhood Outreach Manager, Christine Wallace, recommended against the program in her staff report. The State of California is already one of 29 states that requires some type of registration through its Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

The Federal Aviation Administration started to enact new rules in 2016 for civilian drone operators; an effort to get everyone who’s bought the flying contraptions to treat their responsibilities as a pilot seriously. But a group of academics and military administrators set their sights higher during a gathering at Cal Poly. The Annual CubeSat Conference was held April 20-22 in SLO where the miniature satellites were discussed along with their impact on public access to low earth orbit in the coming decades. CubeSats are small satellites built in units of 4 inches. More than 400 have been sent into space since Cal Poly and Stanford developed the standards in 1999, explained Jay Thompson, a spokesman with the University’s College of Engineering. With the smartphone boom, the technology keeps packing more ability into the small container.

For the first time in a generation, the local Congressional seat was wide open, and nine candidates started off in the running for California’s 24th Congressional District, which spans Northern Ventura County and all of Santa Barbara and SLO Counties. The eight men and one woman running to replace Congresswoman Lois Capps were a mix of political leanings — four declared Democrats, three Republicans and two with no stated political party. The Top-2 finishers in the June 7 Primary Election went on to run in November’s General Election with the eventual winner then-Santa Barbara County Supervisor, Democrat Salud Carbajal, against Donald Trump supporter, Republican Justin Fareed.

Bill ‘The Science Guy’ Nye made a second visit to San Luis Obispo and distinguished himself as the only esteemed visitor to Cal Poly that gets a theme tune stuck in the heads of the throng of undergraduates jockeying for a chance at a selfie.
For a member of the Millennial generation on a campus known for engineering though, just try and be in the same building as Bill Nye without hearing the low chant somewhere in the subconscious, ‘Bill-Bill-Bill, Bill………’
As the CEO of the Planetary Society, a nonprofit body advocating civilian space exploration, Nye was in town as the man that will write the check for LightSail 2, a collaborative mission with hardware being tested in Cal Poly’s CubeSat lab before it was carted across the quad for a big reveal in the Bonderson Building.

June

A water main break directly under Higuera Street during the Downtown Thursday Farmers’ Market on June 2, busted through asphalt near the corner with Nipomo Street.
With reports coming in just as the market got set up, containment and mop up started at 10 p.m. Usual food service on that end of the market moved to the sidewalks making for an interesting summer spectacle…actual water in the streets in drought stricken California.

On June 20 a landmark agreement between seven very different organizations was signed planning an end of the Atomic Era in the world’s sixth largest economy by 2025. Representatives for Pacific Gas & Electric Co., said they would no longer seek to renew operating licenses for its two nuclear reactors at Diablo Canyon Power Plant and will phase out energy production by the end of their current license.
As proposed, Unit 2 at Diablo Canyon will be the State of California’s last civilian nuclear reactor, operating for a year after the shutdown of Unit 1 in 2024.
The stage was set for legal challenges and negotiations between affected public agencies, the utility and signatories that would last almost through the end of the year.

Members of the Rotary Club of San Luis Obispo got their hands dirty alongside Cal Poly construction management students over at the Historic Dallidet Adobe and Gardens in SLO, building a brand new stage and canopy for weddings and public events. Construction was finished shortly before a ribbon cutting ceremony on June 20. Based on a design by Chuck Crotser of the Cal Poly Architecture Department, and a former History Center president, the stage fits the Adobe’s motif with redwood beams that will age in place before vines eventually fill in the lattice.
Former SLO Mayor, Dave Romero, was in attendance along with then-Mayor Jan Marx and City Manager, Katie Lichtig.

July

Local activist, and surprisingly soon-to-be Mayor, Heidi Harmon, led a protest march starting at SLO’s Mitchell Park on July 9, against proposed development of a Phillips 66 oil train line on the Nipomo Mesa.

With the state and national primaries out of the way, it was also time to get serious about SLO’s municipal election. Two new candidates, Aaron Gomez, Downtown business owner, and Mila Vujovich-La Barre, a local middle school teacher, filed papers to run for SLO’s two open City Council seats, which brought the total for the moment to five for Council, with Mayor Jan Marx unopposed at the time. Already in the running for Council were Brett Strickland, Michael Clark, and Andy Pease.

San Luis Obispo County’s Civil Grand Jury issued two reports examining the procedures for the County’s issuance of minor use permits and at bail procedures out at the County slammer. Predictably, the recommendation that police officers and Sherriff’s deputies across SLO County should be well versed in requesting higher bail amounts for people arrested on suspicion of serious crimes, drew the most public attention.
The scrutiny and recommendations in the grand jury report, “Keeping Suspects in Custody: When is Scheduled Bail not Enough?” stemmed from a 2015 case involving an undocumented immigrant arrested in North County on suspicion of felony child abuse — a hot topic in an election year.

Officials concerned with economic development in SLO County were rewarded for years of effort to get a route to Portland, Ore., from the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport. At the end of June, they announced that they’ve gone the extra mile, literally, by securing a non-stop flight to Seattle, Wash., to start in April 2017.
For those looking to book a trip on Priceline, the new flight will be run by Alaska Airlines with non-stop service between San Luis Obispo (SBP) and Seattle (SEA).
Although it’s one of the longest trips to leave the airport, the flight clocks in at a manageable 2 hours and 35 minutes, enough time to watch a movie and do a little typing without jet lag.
Airport Director, Kevin Bumen, allowed that the route acquisition was something of a coup for the organization if not a major victory. In addition to allowing local travelers a straight shot to the Pacific Northwest, the route connects into Alaska Airline’s network.
“Seattle is their main hub,” Bumen explained, “They have 130 connections across their entire network and about 25 that couldn’t have been reached with any other stop.”

August

Exactly two years after folks were left standing in the middle of Laguna Lake taking panorama shots from the bottom of a dust bowl, the lake was beautiful again, but the issues around history of neglect and sediment buildup took awhile to be addressed. The City of SLO’s Natural Resource Manager, Bob Hill, led a public meeting Aug. 4 to hear what staff has come up with regarding the Laguna Lake Dredging and Sediment Management Project. Assistant City Manager, Derek Johnson, and members of the hired consultant team from MNS Engineering, gave a brief rundown and former SLO Mayor, Dave Romero, also got involved, with his history of the area going back to the mid-1950s.

Throw your corncobs and eggshells in a closed container with some other offal and you’ve got the start of soil for the next generation of crops.
Of course in a city, not everyone can mulch his or her, usually nonexistent, garden with kitchen debris. Most of that material, not to mention perfectly edible but expired packaged food, is sloshed into a plastic garbage bag and sent to a landfill.
No longer in the City of SLO however, as the Integrated Waste Management Authority passed out kitchen counter compost bins to collect that material for transport in their normal green waste bins for anaerobic composting.

Donald Hedrick, the eccentric and widely recognized SLO Downtown figure who’s run for office in every local election for the past decade, had his streak broken and was not on the ballot in November. Hedrick was in usual form at the Aug. 16 meeting of the SLO City Council, taking the public speaking opportunity to decry fluoridation of drinking water and aluminum nanoparticles that he alleges are in aviation condensation trails. But he failed to get enough signatures verified to place him once again, in the running for Mayor, and he wasn’t happy about it. We’re sure he’ll check not to submit his own signature twice in 2018.

The City of SLO also officially welcomed a new City Clerk just in time for council candidate nomination papers to be processed Aug. 17. Carrie Gallagher, formerly of Arcadia and Glendale, Calif., — both in the Los Angeles area — was introduced by City Manager, Katie Lichtig. Gallagher was on hand through certification of the election results and swearings-in later in the year.

September

Revelers who showed up a little early to the weekly Concerts in the Plaza on Aug. 26 heard a crash and boom that wasn’t part of the performance. One of the City’s pride and joy ficus trees split in two, blocking Monterey Street at the corner of Chorro.
Employees from Moondoggies Beach Club board shop who witnessed the event through the their street side picture windows, said a large pickup truck narrowly avoided the “strike zone.” No injuries or property damage were reported. The rest of the tree wasn’t so lucky, being pulped and replaced with a sapling by October.

Sheriff’s Narcotics Detectives cut down a marijuana grow on the east side of Hwy 101 approximately halfway up the Cuesta Grade, removing thousands of plants being grown by a suspected Mexican gang. According to Sheriff’s Spokesman, Tony Cipolla, on Aug. 25, “Detectives discovered 5,880 marijuana plants on private land bordering national forest land near a tributary of San Luis Creek. Investigators say evidence at the scene indicates this was part of a Mexican National cultivation operation.”
Amongst the weed, investigators found lots of trash and chemicals, too.
“This type of operation,” Cipolla said, “besides being illegal, produces many environmental hazards and generates large amounts of trash.”
Environmental Health Services were brought on site to determine the extent of the damage.

The City of SLO joined up with five other incorporated cities on the Central Coast to make sure they all got a fair deal in the closure of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. Aside from SLO the Cities of Arroyo Grande, Atascadero, Morro Bay, Paso Robles, and Pismo Beach combined with representation by 30-some council members, six mayors and city managers and their staff, in the loop. SLO City Manager Katie Lichtig and City Attorney Christine Dietrick spoke for the group.
“The Coalition of Cities took this strong and historic action to protect the health and safety of our residents, support the economic vitality of our communities in the aftermath of the plant’s closure and defend the quality of life in our communities.” said Lichtig in an initial press statement.

With much ado about the Kristen Smart case being rekindled by specially trained human remains detection dogs ahead of students’ return to campus, the Cal Poly Police Department welcomed some more traditional canines into its ranks.
German shepherds, Xello and Brisan, joined the force, announced Brenda Trobaugh, Cal Poly’s deputy chief of police.
Specialty trained pups — not to mention handler courses for their human partners — don’t come cheap. In 2016-17 fundraising efforts are ongoing to help support the K-9 program.

September was National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. With that in mind, the California Men’s Colony Suicide Prevention Awareness Week kicked off Sept. 12, and culminated on the 16th, with a walkathon in support of the national effort. It was a time set aside for national, state and local mental health agencies to get the word out about resources available to those thinking about taking their own lives.
Efforts at CMC gained attention from State bosses and were successful enough to anticipate a repeat next year.

October

The City/County Library closed most of its building to visitors on Oct. 1. Assistant Director of Libraries, Chase McMunn, promised all three floors would reopen to the public, with the first floor featuring new automation, in January 2017.

Slow Money SLO, a locally-based offshoot of the nation-wide nonprofit, Slow Money, brought the founder and chairman of the Slow Money Institute, Woody Tasch to SLO on Oct. 6. The author of Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered, Tasch has popularized a form of local investing in businesses that add value to the supply chain. In 2015, the SLO Natural Foods Co-op was among the first businesses to pay off its peer-to-peer loan.
“We’ve been a working nonprofit in the community for four years,” explained Jeff Wade, director of the SLO branch. “The idea, simply, is to take money out of Wall Street and to use it directly with local investment in food and farming.”

Opponents of SLO’s Rental Inspection Program made good on threats to sue after inspectors visited more than 500 homes. The program was voted in 3-2 with Councilmen Dan Carpenter and Dan Rivoire dissenting. On Oct. 13, City Attorney Christine Dietrick said she came back from lunch to find the City had been served with a suit from the SLO Property and Business Owners Association (SLOPBOA). Also listed as plaintiffs were one-time SLO mayoral candidate, Steve Barasch and former Congressional candidate, Matt Kokkonen, along with their respective family trusts. At virtually the same time that Dietrick was first reading the details of the complaint, Barasch was across town presenting his case to members at as SLOPBOA luncheon.

SLO Noor Foundation opened its doors 5-years ago to serve under-insured and uninsured residents on the Central Coast. On Oct. 9, Noor’s annual fundraising reception paid founder, Dr. Ahmad Nooristani, special recognition with an award crafted by a local artist and a presentation from a member of Congresswoman Lois Capps’ staff. Attendees, including a SLO City Council member and a council candidate — paid $50 a plate to attend the event, which supports the over $15 million in free medical services provided to locals since 2011.

November

Municipal officials, including City Manager, Katie Lichtig, Cal Poly staffers including University President Jeff Armstrong, and local elected officials joined property developer, Jim Copeland, for a ribbon cutting Oct. 21. They were there to open Cal Poly Lofts, “a residential community for junior and senior-level Cal Poly students who have an entrepreneurial perspective,” in the newly renovated Blackstone-Sauer Building at the intersection of Monterey and Chorro Streets, directly across from Mission Plaza. The development in the heart of SLO’s Downtown includes apartments for 35 students in collaboration with the adjacent SLO HotHouse just down Monterey Street.
However, said Cal Poly spokesman, Jay Thompson, the idea of forming off-campus housing units for students with similar interest areas is not a new one and the units are not directly tied to the university’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which has been heavily promoted by the City.

If there’s one thing residents of San Luis Obispo know how to argue about, it’s land use and housing policy. That was especially true 2-years previous, when residents got together to weigh-in on a revamping of SLO’s Land Use and Circulation Element, but it continued through 2016, as long-dormant projects roared back to life. After the years-long process, City Council members had hoped their meeting would no longer push towards 11 p.m., but on Oct. 18, their decision to allow a 4-story mixed-use project on Foothill Boulevard set old arguments going again and challenged political alliances.
The infill development, on three parcels of currently fenced off commercial-zoned property was given dispensation for a 40-percent parking reduction, with the use of mechanical parking lifts, along with a height exception of 8 feet, from the normal 35 to 43 feet that was classed as an “affordable housing incentive.”

After years of fundraising, as well as shoring up political capital, not to mention the deal to actually find a suitable site, construction was slated for a new regional Homeless Services Center. The groundbreaking was held Nov. 6 at 40 Prado Rd.
Construction on the $5.4 million project — designed to include 100 beds for home- less individuals and families — is set to start in January 2017 and last throughout the year.
As with the current Prado Day Center and Maxine Lewis Memorial Shelter, 40 Prado will be operated by the Community Action Partnership of SLO County (CAPSLO). Timing of the groundbreaking came as CAPSLO celebrated its 50th Anniversary.

The Senior Nutrition Program, an organization founded in 1965 and incorporated as a nonprofit in 1991, was given a 21st Century facelift in the 2016 Verdin 24-Hour Give Rebrand. The nonprofit was singled out for a total rebrand from the local PR agency after being nominated and selected in an Internet vote. Starting off 2017 with its new moniker, “Meals That Connect” the organization still serves daily nutritious lunches to seniors in 10 community centers around the county.

Eleven local artists worked on 10 street corner utility boxes scattered around town from Nov. 7-20. They had to submit plans to the Box Art Program for review and selection, but there was still a degree of spontaneity in their process. Back in August the City of SLO announced an expansion of its Public Art Program with newly approved murals to cover utility boxes around town. Originally, they had intended to have the set aside funds go to repainting the designs that have been a fixture of the Downtown core for the last three years, but members of the public, and the artists themselves, weren’t pleased with that idea. Melissa Mudgett, public art program manager, said that far from having older works removed, several of the boxes commissioned for painting in this round are repairs to older designs that were detrimentally modified with new junction box additions.


December

A tentative agreement announced on Nov. 28 was designed to ease the tension over the planned closure of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in 2025. The Coalition of Cities, the County itself, and San Luis Coastal Unified School District (SLCUSD) reached an agreement with PG&E for a significant increase over the $49.5 million originally proposed to defray the economic impacts of the plant’s closure.
According to the County, which served as lead agency in negotiations, “under the first part of the agreement between PG&E, the County and SLCUSD, a $75 million Essential Services Mitigation Fund will be created to offset the potential negative impacts to essential services provided to the community by the SLCUSD and the County.”

The long decrepit former Sunny Acres children’s home and sanitarium that dominates a hillside overlooking Johnson Avenue, will finally be allowed a transformation into Bishop Street Studios. Plans of Transitions Mental Health Association’s to turn the superstructure of the old brick building into part of a housing complex for the nonprofit’s mentally ill clients, hit an unexpected bump when area resident Ray Righetti appealed the Architectural Review Commission’s September approval. That was resolved Nov. 15 during the last regular meeting of the current City Council before new members were sworn in Dec. 9.
Only two members of the public got up to speak against the project, but the positive comments and discussion period went on for hours. The Council was unanimous, with 4-0 with then Councilman Dan Carpenter on vacation in Hawaii.

Speaking of all that swearing in; in case anyone missed the actual local election results SLO got a new Mayor, Heidi Harmon. The “Lady in Red” was a last minute entry into the race and pulled off the upset by just 47 votes. New Councilman, Aaron Gomez and Councilwoman, Andy Pease, took office with larger margins of victory.

The year topped off with a little post-election introduction to the personal politics of “Alt-right.” The uproar started early over a scheduled Jan. 31, 2017, Cal Poly speaking engagement by Milo Yiannopoulos, hosted by the Cal Poly Republicans student club. The technology editor at The Breitbart News website, Yiannopoulos comes under fire for targeting members of the LGBT community at venues where he speaks, as well as repeated misogynistic and xenophobic statements.

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