What Were We Thinking?

“Mom forced to live in car with dogs,” reads a headline on today’s CNN.com website. It’s about a 67-year-old Santa Barbara woman who has recently become homeless and who sleeps in her car at New Beginnings Counseling Center, the only parking lot for women to sleep in overnight in Santa Barbara.

Isn’t it ironic that our new upper-scale shopping choices coincide with the rise of middle-class homelessness and home foreclosures.

In Ojai there is now a city ordinance regulating chain stores. The ordinance bans fast food chains and chains over 10,000 square feet in the city. And all other so-called “formula businesses” (aka – chains) must go to the Planning Commission and ask for a conditional use permit.

Boy was this city asleep at the wheel. Our opportunity to preserve our unique charm—and at least a semi-affordable lifestyle—passed us by.

The arrival of Tiffany’s, Louis Vuitton, et al did not, of course, cause the woman’s homelessness. But it sure is symptomatic of our skewed priorities, isn’t it?

When Duty Calls

I’ve been picked to serve on a jury. It couldn’t have come at a worse time, but then again, anytime would be a bad time. I’m busy! I have way too much to do business-wise, and this will mean I have to work at night (or at 4:30 in the morning, as I am right now).

I have very strong feelings about serving on a jury. It’s not just the luxurious pay scale that lures me to serve: 32 cents a mile (times 5 miles—$1.60 each way) and $15 per day. And while I hate having to pay for parking while I sit on that jury (they really need to do something about that), I believe everyone deserves fair and impartial judgment from their peers if they desire it.

If, heaven forbid, I ever find myself in a situation where I need a jury to hear my case, I don’t want it to be full of people with nothing better to do than sit on a jury. I want that jury to be made up of people who are engaged in my community, who are too busy participating in life to serve but who do it anyway.

I have been on three juries prior to this and find the whole process interesting and sobering and my duty as a citizen. But many of my friends have told me about the excuses they use to “get off” serving because they just have better things to do. Well, so do I; running a company comes to mind.

What I don’t understand is why I am called every single year. That is not hyperbole. I know people who have lived here all their lives and they have never been asked to serve on a jury. I would like to know how I can remove my name from the “preferred” list of potential jurors. It seems I do my part and then some. My husband has been called once. My daughters have never been called to serve. But I, on the other hand, can set my watch to the arrival of that annual summons (I’ll now get to wait two years because of this jury service).

Yes, it is beyond inconvenient to have to put my life on hold while I sit on this jury. Yes, I hate having to pay $10 a day for parking. And yes, I wish the county would please find some way to ask all the other nice people in the county to serve on a jury. But the bottom line for me is that sitting in that courtroom is someone who’s future is in my hands. That person deserves my undivided attention, even if I am peeved at being called—AGAIN—and sleep deprived from having to work at 4:30 in the morning.

Barbara Lanz-Mateo
Publisher

Chain Gang

When I wrote about the lack of places to shop in Santa Barbara—or more specifically, the lack of affordable places to shop—I didn’t realize what a sensitive subject this had become. I have received telephone calls and emails from many women bemoaning the fact that the chain stores have not only left us with very few places to shop, but they are ruining our city’s economy as well. (Hey! Instead of calling or emailing me, please share your thoughts here with others! Just click the “comments” link below.)

These chain stores don’t support our local nonprofits. They sure don’t advertise. They don’t pay their workers much. And they don’t take the money they make and deposit it in our community banks. They bank at—of course—larger banks such as Wells Fargo and Bank of America.

Let’s take a look at those banking practices. Small business drives our local economy (and the rest of the nation, as well). The community banks make loans to small businesses, not the big banks. And they can’t make those loans unless they have the deposits on hand from the people and businesses in the very community they were created to serve.

We are quickly becoming the very thing we all moved here—or stayed here—to avoid: just another place to shop that looks like any other place to shop. When I saw that Louis Vuitton was opening soon in LaCumbre Plaza, I knew we had finally sold out. The LuCumbre Plaza owners don’t live here. We know they certainly don’t bank here, either.

Sigh.

Barbara Lanz-Mateo
Publisher, Coastal Woman

Register This

Tomorrow night we have an interesting social obligation—a wedding shower for the bride and groom. OK. But this is the second marriage for both of them. And he is 65 (at least) and she is 45ish.

What? They don’t own a blender or crock pot? They even registered at Bed, Bath & Beyond. I think this is tasteless and a way of getting all new towels, plates and other assorted “essentials” for their new life together. Plus, we have to bring our own hors d’oeuvres and wine to go along with the pre-selected gift.

So, to sum up the invitation: Old people who have complete households and who are in no way lacking funds are asking for new things, and we must give them those things during a party to which we must bring our own food and drink. I can’t believe we are going. My husband is insisting; they are really his friends.

My girlfriend told me we should start registering for things we want, you know, like for our birthdays or for Mother’s Day. Just get me something from my registry at Tiffany’s. And bring it to me with some kind of food and drink to go along with it.

Aren’t wedding showers supposed to be for young people to help them get a start in life? I can understand having a party to wish the couple well in their new life together. But to register for gifts? Nothing says greed quite like a registry for people who really just want to replace the old stuff with new stuff.

Amazing.

Barbara Lanz-Mateo
Publisher, Coastal Woman