INSIDE THIS ISSUE

5 Editorial – Gwyn Lurie’s response to Amy Larocca’s recent piece on our fair village in The New York Times

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Montecito Miscellany – National YMCA Chairman George Leis; Music Academy’s summer fest; and more

Valorous Village – Montecito Fire Chief David Neels and his team are our friends, neighbors, and smiling sentries

Community Voices – Jeff Giordano delves into the maddening in-custody death of a woman named KC, while Gail Osherenko peels back the layers of SB County jails

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Letters – Readers sound off about the demise of newspapers, including the defunct Santa Barbara News-Press

Village Beat – Montecito Association discusses future of ring nets and Four Seasons Biltmore to reopen next fall

Montecito Moms – Kristen d’Offay becomes clothes-minded and finds her mid-40s passion in fashion with a collection known as “Montecito”

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On Entertainment –Tribute concert for David Crosby on August 20 at Lobero; concert series Roar & Pour; MA’s Summer Festival ends

In Passing – Philanthropist and intellectual Don Bushnell – a former radio Quiz Kid who helped lay the groundwork for the computer age

Ernie’s World – For fragile Ernie Witham, a visit to the sky-high Space Needle was a windswept pain in the glass

Our Town – Camerata Pacifica hands the reins of executive director to Music Academy stalwart Ana Papakhian

Society Invites – It’s flamenco, food, and fun at the annual La Merienda gala

Reel Fun – Monica, follows the intimate path of a woman whose family disowns her for transitioning

Body Wise – Author Karen Roberts explores New Mexico and Northern California, then emerges with The Blossoming of Women

Village Vibe – Ed Carty of Carty & Carty Antiques speaks about his family’s origins

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Brilliant Thoughts – Take a trip through Ashleigh’s past and the act of coming back to where we’ve been before On Education – Annika Wagner earned the Merci Award for community service five times, a 4.85 GPA, and college credits

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Far Flung Travel – Ready “oar” not, here comes Chuck Graham working his way down the Russian River

On Fashion – The Webster X Nahmias clothing collection sets up shop at Rosewood Miramar

Your Westmont – The college hosts an education and technology conference and the women’s soccer season kicks off

The Giving List – The Granada presents a new Synergy Series and relaunches Roar & Pour

Calendar of Events – Out of This World film series; Moneluv performs for Music at the Ranch; Mighty Cash Cats; and more

Classifieds – Our own “Craigslist”

47 Mini Meta Crossword Puzzles Local Business Directory fundamental nature of the things the Times got wrong about us. When it comes to reporting on Montecito, the Times reporter literally couldn’t get her bearings.

At the end of the piece, the Times asks if they got the story right and if they didn’t, please send a correction. I have so many corrections I have decided to print them here. Because I’m pessimistic the Gray Lady (as the NYT refers to itself and my kids sometimes refer to me) would give me more space for my corrections than they used for their anything-but-pithy reportage.

One of my biggest problems with the Times’ piece on Montecito is the prism through which they chose to look at our riviera – the prism of celebrity. No one I know came here to be near celebs, who are far better viewed free range in their natural habitats, in places like Malibu, Calabasas, and the Not-So Hidden Hills. People come here to avoid tabloid culture. But not Larocca. She was combing our shores for celebs like a beachcomber with a metal detector looking for dropped change.

If you haven’t read the Times’ piece, even though all your friends and relatives have sent it to you by now, the reporter, whose main hustle is as a “fashion editor-at-large” for New York Magazine, focuses so much on the famous who live in this town, one can only assume her story mostly reflects her own personal obsession with celebrity culture. Clearly Larocca understands that today, celebrity mentions are clickbait gold.

Larocca mentions a litany of local celebs, including “Katy Perry’s dad,” whom she mockingly describes more like a cartoon than as a person, “endlessly bopping around town dressed in a psychedelic mashup of Chrome Hearts and Ed Hardy, an aesthetic that borrows equally from ‘90s O.C. skaters, Elton John, and Flavor Flav.” Poor Katy Perry’s dad. The NY Times didn’t even give him a name other than “Katy Perry’s dad.” For the record his name is Maurice Hudson (but known by locals as Keith).

“The New York Times reporter was combing our shores for celebs like a beachcomber with a metal detector looking for dropped change.”

Larocca says “a driving tour of Montecito’s elaborate and forbidding gates and lined driveways suggests that only Madame Tussauds has more celebrities per square foot.” Really? So, a driveway with a gate means Casa Celebrity? Live and learn, I suppose. Larocca makes driveways sound like castle moats stocked with alligators. And I suppose she leaves her door in NYC open to anyone who’d like to come by and kibbitz? We happen to keep our moat stocked with ducklings and mermaids.

The Times’ piece does its darndest to tie everything here to one famous person or another with language like: “More than a third of Montecito residents are over 65 and this tally includes Carol Burnett.” I’m surprised Larocca didn’t say she enjoyed breathing the air here knowing that even a microscopic amount of it may have once been exhaled by Gwyneth Paltrow. Maybe this was the breath she used to blow out one of her signature candles!

In all seriousness, however, in addition to the article reading more like Deadline Hollywood or TMZ than what I used to know as the paper of record, lost in Larocca’s celebrity-packed prose, the real omission from “What Is It About Montecito,” is what is truly special about this place: its people (famous and unfamous alike), its culture, its human capital, and most of all its spirit.

When our family first moved here, we were surprised by the warm welcome we received by locals. My husband joked that this place seemed filled with people who had never been hurt. I think it was our second day here when someone in a giant Mercedes SUV drove up to our home and returned a wallet I had left at the Coffee Bean. “I saw your address on your driver’s license so I figured I’d just drive it over.” And that was far from the last time something like that happened.

We so appreciated that conversations here included topics other than someone’s next movie deal. It was refreshing that folks here hailed from diverse professional backgrounds, countries, artistic and intellectual endeavors. Though 400 times the population of Montecito, the L.A. we lived in was much more of a monoculture.

When our kids attended Montecito Union School, we were surprised to