Rice Mercado Depot project leads Santa Maria
ColumnsIn keeping with its push towards mixed-use, Santa Maria has plans in the works for a six-acre commercial, residential and manufacturing site at the northwest corner of Depot Street and Morrison Avenue. Developers say the ambitious Rice Depot Mercado project will be a mixed-use hub, drawing pedestrian residential traffic from the densely populated area around Read More →
Foundations combine administrative forces
UncategorizedTwo of the largest foundations in the tri-counties are joining philanthropic forces. Effective April 1, the Santa Barbara Foundation, the second largest foundation in the region with more than $200 million in assets at the beginning of March, and the Hutton Foundation, the 10th largest foundation with $80 million, will combine some of their grant-processing Read More →
Recovery may mean the old is new again
ColumnsMeet the new economy. Same as the old economy. It may just be that the rest of the country looks a lot more like the Tri-Counties as we bid farewell to the Great Recession. By that I mean slow growth, more government, a wider gap between haves and have-nots and a financial system that Read More →
Three steps to state solvency
OpinionOrange County Register small-business columnist Jan Norman has put California’s budget woes into some facts and figures anybody can understand. Quoting from U.S. Census Bureau figures, she says the state’s individual income tax collections fell 20.4 percent or more than $10 billion from 2008 to 2009 and corporate income tax collections fell about $2 billion Read More →
Drug lord crackdown may be Oxnard
OpinionVentura County District Attorney Greg Totten made a splash in the newspapers on March 30 when he announced plans to extradite a jailed Mexican drug lord known as “Don Pepe” for trial on charges related to drug trafficking. If the extradition proceeds as planned, Jose Antonio Medina, 36, will face numerous charges in a Ventura Read More →
Hwy 101 improvement project kicks off
UncategorizedA $50 million project to replace an important link on the Highway 101 trade corridor is underway. Reps. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, and Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley, were on hand for the groundbreaking for an eight-lane interchange at the 101 and Rice Avenue. When completed in 2012, the interchange will complete a series of improvements Read More →