Central Coast - Sierra2theSea

Nautical Bean plans to take over Baywood cafe

-October 29,2021-

More changes in Baywood this week as Nautical Bean coffee shop owner Brett Jones announced the family-owned company will take over the operation of the Back Bay Cafe that has been closed for some time.

The bayside coffee shop has been part of Lee family enterprises in Baywood and a favorite hangout for locals for the past few years for early morning fare. Since the passing of founder Bill Lee earlier this year, several of the family enterprises have, understandingly, been shuttered.

The cafe is now owned by Bill’s daughter Katie Lee.

Asked about a time line,Nautical Bean owner Brett Jones says while all terms have been agreed to – no lease is yet signed. But he expects it will take just over 2 months to do tenant improvements at the small cafe on 2nd St, located right in front of the Baywood Pier. The place has lots of outdoor and sheltered bistro tables overlooking the back bay.

The cafe is “too small to offer our full menu” explains Brett. But they plan to open around the first of the year with a more limited menu including breakfast items until about 2PM.

”After that there are plenty of choices in Baywood for food and drink” he explains.”They’ve checked all the boxes.” That includes the new High St Deli that is packing them in for lunch and popular Beerwood ,2nd St Cafe and Nardone’s

Nautical Bean has two locations in San Luis Obispo and a strong following around town.”We’ve been doing this for 19 years” he adds that includes the whole family who works at the stores – even mom , dad and 3 kids.

It’s clear that Baywood/Los Osos is excited about the new coffee place in town.Already 215 comments on Facebook were seen today after Brett’s early morning posting on the social media site. Unlike plenty of other postings, none were negative.

Besides the opening of this shuttered coffee shop another group from La Palapa in Baywood just reopened another watering hole – the Merrimaker bar also owned by the Lee family. The bar has been closed since Covid hit.

Locals still wonder what will happen to Lee’s flagship fine dining restaurant -Blue Heron – that has also been closed since Bill’s death
Attachments area

Monarch Butterflies Return to California after 2020 historic lows

Who says species can’t come back from the brink?

-October 23,2021-

Migratory western monarchs are being reported at their overwintering sites in coastal California in greater numbers than last year, with hundreds at some sites and thousands at others, giving hope for the struggling population. These reports are particularly welcome after the population reached an all-time low of 1,914 butterflies last year. So says the Portland based Xerces Society.

This year’s official count has not yet begun. That will take place with the help of over 100 community scientists during the 25th annual Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count, beginning on November 13. Yet these early reports signal the possibility of a rebound in numbers—at least compared to last year’s historic low.

On October 16th, 2021, over 1,300 monarchs were counted at the Pacific Grove overwintering site; this site did not have a single monarch butterfly during last year’s count. Pismo State Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove and an adjacent site tallied roughly 8,000 monarchs on October 20th, 2021; last year, these sites hosted less than 300 butterflies.

Additional smaller estimates and observations from volunteers and the public have started to pour in from the Bay Area, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Big Sur, Ventura, Los Angeles and elsewhere, with numbers ranging from a few to dozens to hundreds, of monarchs. Altogether, there appear to be over 10,000 monarchs easily accounted for at the overwintering sites.

The low count of fewer than 2,000 monarchs in 2020 followed two years of record lows of under 30,000 butterflies each year. The number counted last year represents a 99.9% decline from the millions of western monarchs that overwintered in California in the 1980s.

“We are overjoyed that migratory monarch butterflies have not disappeared from the western U.S.,” said Emma Pelton, a senior conservation biologist and western monarch lead for the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. “These early counts give us hope that, if we all work together, we can still bring western monarchs back.”

Finally some good news

Late October storms expected to reverse reservoir decline, put out Sierra fires, and clear the air

Atmospheric River could wet Central California

October 20,2021

A parade of 5 to 7 storms are blowing into northern and central California over the next 6 days ending the state’s 200-day dry spell, calming those dust storms and hopefully snuffing out the smoke and dousing those wildfires. It’s enough to cheer about although it clearly does not mean an end to the two-year”exceptional” drought in California.

But it’s a start.

The state’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Shasta and Oroville (pictured) are at record lows, just 21% full for Shasta and 22% at Oroville. For the first time in a long time, the Shasta watershed could receive 5 to 8 inches of precip. Last year the region received just 25 inches all year. One source says the drought has dropped Lake Shasta to its second worst level since the last bucket of concrete was poured for Shasta Dam in December 1945. Lake Oroville, the state’s second-largest reservoir, this summer deactivated its hydroelectric power plant because of the low water levels for the first time in history. The drought has led to low hydroelectric power supply in the state.

For both fish and farmers the lack of water has meant devastation and real concern that both these important economies are collapsing. As a farmer told me,” if it doesn’t rain, all these nut trees are just firewood.”

Not enough, then too much?

The storms coming in through Tuesday are so vigorous there is worry that the deluge could be enough to cause slides in the Dixie and Caldor burn scar areas, says Dan McEvoy, the regional climatologist with the Western Regional Climate Center. The good news – this could end the fire season” adds McEvoy. Plus,“we will see our reservoirs filling back up.”

Some forecast models suggest rainfall up to 12 inches over the next 6 days in parts of northern California. This could be the wettest October since 2016.

California recorded its hottest summer this year, and the extreme heat has parched the landscape. Up and down the Sierra, wildfires have killed off millions of trees and caused billions of dollars in damages to structures, wildlife and tourism. Drought enhanced dust storms have caused big rigs to topple over and close highways.Idle farmland -fallow because of the drought- are seeing their topsoil blow away in the wind, reminiscent of the infamous Dust Bowl. California communities, adjacent to the Sierra wildfires, have choked on high amounts of air pollution lasting for days over the past two months.

It’s been no fun at all.

Then there are the farmers, forced to pull their trees out of the ground to save enough for another field. Perhaps hardest hit is the westside of the Valley with its low and sinking groundwater levels.Farmers, small communities and the farmworkers who live there count on some north state water here each year to make up the difference and there is a multi-billion conveyance system in place to bring the supply south- but not enough H20 in key reservoirs like Shasta and Oroville.

“After a dry 2020 water year, a critically dry 2021, and beginning the 2022 water year with one of the lowest carryover storage amounts in recent years, Reclamation remains all hands on deck and fully committed to planning for another dry year,” said Regional Director Ernest Conant. Farmers here hope this wet start could mean a better year with some allocation of surface water. But these storms are going to have to continue.

So it’s no exaggeration that many of us have been praying for rain in the Golden State. Now, it appears we will get it in spades and suddenly -like a light switch being turned on- including an Atmospheric River (AR) expected to point its fire hose into Central California his coming Sunday and Monday.There may be enough coming from that hose to douse those devastating Sequoia wildfires.ARs are relatively long, narrow regions in the atmosphere that transport most of the water vapor outside of the tropics.Last year, a January AR contributed to half the season’s snowpack, says Friant Water.

Forecasts

Forecaster John Lindsey of San Luis Obispo says It’s early, but the #ECMWF & #GFS models indicate an Atmospheric River (AR) with heavy rain and moderate gale-force to fresh gale-force (32 to 46 w/g to 55 mph) southerly winds and between 2 and 6+ inches of rain along Central Coast on Sunday into Monday.

NWS Hanford says Total rainfall accumulations around 1 inch are probable in the SJ Valley, with up to 3 inches in the foothills, and 5 inches or more at the higher elevations. Snow levels will be quite high with this event, running around 8 to 9 thousand feet, but where there is snow, accumulations up to a couple of feet will be probable.

NWS published a forecast map that says the Giant Forest area where the KNP fire is, should get 2 to 4 inches of precipitation (light snow already fell as of Oct 19). Hanford can expect 1 to 1.5 inches. Yosmite’s Tioga Pass could see up to 4 feet of snow.

The forecast through next Monday shows most of the state getting wet – finally some good news for California farmers and workers, our cities and towns and all of us.

California State Climatologist Michael Anderson said this wet storm, if it is followed by additional storms in the next month, “the precipitation would provide much-needed moisture to our very dry soils.” The lack of moisture in the soil last winter and spring contributed to the decrease in runoff from snowmelt because it was absorbed by the very dry soils, he told California Farm Bureau.

City may limit Hanford Chamber contribution

This week the Hanford City Council will weigh a limit on Chamber of Commerce funding.

The City of Hanford has already approved $20,000 of the $40,000 annual contract amount for Fiscal Year 2021/22. This action will limit the City’s contribution to the $20,000 contribution for this contract year and keep the terms of the Agreement in place until year end, including allowing the Chamber to occupy their current space rent free until December 31, 2021.

Beginning January 1, 2022 the Chamber will operate without any City funding and be free to pursue any programs that they believe best serve the business community, without oversight from the City.

The termination of the Chamber contract will result in a savings of $20,000 for FY 21/22 and $40,000 per year thereafter, says a staff report.

Another bank closure – Chase on Madonna Rd

-September 15,2021-

Add the JP Morgan Chase Bank branch on Madonna Road in San Luis Obispo to the list of brick and mortar financial institutions who are shutting their doors -at least to in-person customers.

An announcement that the branch would close at 445 Madonna Rd was published this week. The location is “temporarily closed”’ now, says the company website. The Ohio-based bank still has a branch in Downtown San Luis Obispo.

The Chase location in the Promenade Shopping Center is newsworthy is well with several other businesses in the center that have closed recently. They include the Dollar Tree and Tahoe Joe’s, now added to the empty Home Town Buffet and Applebee’s among others. Think of it as one more vacant space added to the inventory.

Banks have been permanently shutting down branches for years, but the pace of closures hit a record in 2020 with the pandemic accelerating the move to online banking.

Earlier this month this newspaper reported a planned closure of the Mechanics Bank (former Rabobank) branch in Cayucos – the only bank in town.

Banks closed 3,324 branches last year, according to a list published by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Lights Out at Tahoe Joe’s

-September 9,2021-

The lights are on at Tahoe Joe’s San Luis Obispo location but there is nobody home. The Promenade Shopping Center steakhouse on Madonna Rd closed August 26. A note taped to the door says it all – and offers thanks to the customers for their business – hoping “to serve you at another location very soon.”

The restaurant has apparently suffered the same fate as the HomeTown Buffet eatery that shares the 15,000sf building with Tahoe Joe’s. The once popular all-you-can eat buffet turned off their lights in early 2016 and has not been replaced by any new tenant since.

Both restaurants were owned by the same parent company who has declared bankruptcy.

Earlier this year, Fresh Acquisitions LLC, the parent company of six restaurant chains with locations across 27 states, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

CNN reported in April “Prior to the pandemic, Fresh Acquisitions had about 100 locations across the United States of all of its brands. However, the company was all but wiped out with just six Tahoe Joe’s steakhouses remaining open in California.”

Once with 10 locations,Tahoe Joe’s is now down to five restaurants this month. Besides SLO, Tahoe Joe’s has now closed in Modesto and Chino. The Bakersfield, Visalia, Fresno, Roseville and Vacaville spots remain open as of this writing. Despite the name, they never had a Tahoe location.The original restaurant – built in 1996 was in Fresno – now closed.

More empty spaces

The westside of the SLO shopping center now has the building housing the former HomeTown Buffet and Tahoe Joe’s for lease along with the recent departure of the Dollar Tree where there is now another 9000sf available.

In the past few years the center was able to draw new strong anchor tenants in REI, Sprouts and now Hobby Lobby, under construction. It has one major 24,000sf retail space open.

In the front of the center, the former Applebee’s space is empty. All three vacant eateries are sit-down restaurants having been hurt by the Covid pandemic going on now for a second year.

Sit-down restaurants owned by Tahoe Joe’s parent company have been particularly hard hit with once popular Ryan’s Place having had more than 400 locations- now shuttered and HomeTown Buffet closing all of its 250 locations.

Steakhouses have been among those full service restaurants that may be suffering under America’s changing cuisine choices as well as the shuttering of the economy that includes the closure of many Golden Corral eateries although they just opened in Santa Maria- and some high-end Ruth Chris steakhouses.

Even during the pandemic there has been a boom in new drive-thru restaurants in California – a trend that has passed-by the city of San Luis Obispo where drive-thrus are banned.

Besides the job losses hurting the local economy, the owners of the center face an uphill fight to fill these darkened restaurant-apponited spaces. A typical Tahoe Joe’s has about 25 employees.

Dems gain in SLO County voter registration

-August 26,2021-

Democratic registration continues to outpace new GOP voters in Central California, based on the latest state numbers comparing the voter rolls to 1 and 3 years back.

Voters now registered as of July 16, 2021 will be eligible for the September Governor Recall vote.

The latest statewide numbers, as of July, show Democrat voter registration is 46.5% of all voters compared to 43.8% in September 2018. GOP registration over the same time, has declined to 24.1% of the electorate in 2021 compared to 24.5% in Sept 2018.

In California, the blue wave is still getting larger – Dems now outnumber Republicans 10.2 million to 5.3 million. No Party voters add up another 5.1 million this year.

San Luis Obispo trend

In San Luis Obispo the trend is the same. In 2018 the GOP had an edge 59,000 to 57,000 Dems with 39,000 No Party. Since 2018, No Party shrunk by 2000, Demos gained 17,500 compared to 12,300 new GOP voters,

In 2021, Democrats are now near 70,000 while the GOP has 63,500 with No Party 37,000.

In September 2020- for the general election – Democrats in SLO County numbered around 67,000 — or 37.5% of the electorate — while Republicans numbered 62,500 — or 35% of all voters.

In 2020, that spread in SLO favored Dems by about 4,600 voters.This year the spread is about 6,400 voters- an 1800 vote gain for the Dems in one year.

San Luis Obispo County percentages

This year Democrats number 69,936 or 37.96%.GOP number 63,526 or 34.48%. NP number 37,418 or 20.31%.

In 2020, Dems numbered 68,853 or 37.47%. Republicans numbered 64,199 or 34.94% while NP numbered 38,379 or 20.89%.

So in one year, Dems gained about 1100 voters, the GOP shrunk by 700 as did No Party who are now about 1000 fewer.

Five year blue wave

In 2016, SLO County saw a September count of 55,500 Democrats vs. 61,000 Republicans in San Luis Obispo County — or a spread of around 5,500 in favor of Republicans. From that time to today – 5 years later- the GOP gained a few thousand voters here while the Democrats surged by 14,500.

Nearby Santa Barbara County – we share a congressional district – Dems now have a 52,000 vote advantage. Since 2020, Dems gained 2700 voters while the GOP gained 100. Since 2018, Dems gained 20,000 while the GOP signed up 4000 new voters in the county.

Scout Coffee coming to Morro Bay

Couple buys Bank of America building

Cal Poly location to open

-August 12,2021-

Jon & Sara Peterson, owners of Scout Coffee, have purchased the shuttered Bank of America building in the heart of Morro Bay at 390 Morro Bay Blvd. The bank closed this branch in February 2018 and put the property up for sale early this year. If there are fewer customers using brick and mortar bank branches these days – there seems to be more of us drinking coffee.

The British Coffee Assn says coffee is the most popular drink worldwide with around two billion cups consumed every day.

Sara says she “loved the idea of owning a coffee shop when I was in high school, before it became part of daily life for most people.” She worked at coffee shops and in hospitality most of her adult life along with Jon. The couple met in 1999 when they were 18 and got married in 2005.

After a couple years at Starbucks, Sara says she worked for a Mom and Pop coffee place back east where she gained experience in many different facets of the business. In Santa Cruz, the couple worked together in the early days at Verve Coffee Roasters, where Sara became the Retail Operations Director and Jon the Marketing Director. They furthered their experience by helping open 2 new locations there in Santa Cruz over 5 years.

Learning many aspects of the business, the couple came visiting in San Luis Obispo, looking for a spot where they could start their own place. ”We happened to park right in front of a 1400sf building on Garden St that had a for lease sign in the window” says Sara. The cozy store opened in January of 2014. They opened their coffee roasting company, HoneyCo Coffee, in January of 2015.

With lines out the door at the Garden St shop, the couple decided to open a second location off Foothill in 2016 after some encouragement from the landlord there. As of now, the company has two locations in San Luis Obispo at 1130 Garden Street and at 880 Foothill Blvd.

In the early days, Jon sourced, roasted and bagged all the coffee, in addition to managing their online coffee business and the back-end needs like accounting, while Sara ran the cafes, bakery, buying and merchandising, and all things relating to the customer experience.

Fast forward to 2021 and the couple – now with decades of experience and business still booming – signed a deal with Cal Poly to open a third location near the dorms, a 2500sf store next to the Welcome Center that is slated to open this Fall.

Still, Jon knew he needed to find a bigger building to house the roasting business and have room for a full-size commercial kitchen, with the additional demand between Cal Poly and the online business. “That kind of space is hard to find in SLO” says Jon.

Coffee weather

As he started to monitor potential spaces outside of San Luis Obispo, they focused on Morro Bay as an area that could make a lot of sense, with its beach town feel and “perfect coffee weather.” Within just a few months of looking there, the BofA hit the market.

Enter the Bank of America deal where Jon says he got a call from his banker who had heard about it from an investor. It was 7pm and offers on the property were due the next day. After a whirlwind of phone calls with brokers, and a preliminary go-ahead from the MB planning department, they worked with their lender to figure out financing options and sent in their offer just minutes before the 5pm deadline the next day.

Nosing out several rival bidders, the escrow on the bank building closed a few weeks ago.Now there will be four Scout locations.

With the help of an architect and contractor the couple is working on plans to remodel the building focusing on customer experience, where they will showcase the new state of the art roasting facility and scratch made approach, along with warm and welcoming service. Already the city is helping with the process and the chamber is introducing the couple around to Morro Bay merchants.

Glass wall

The building has two levels and they will likely use the second floor for storage. But the downstairs is plenty big at 6451sf and will house a new roaster and commercial kitchen that will feature a glass wall, so customers will be able to watch the beehive of activity while sipping their java in the coffee shop. There will be space for merchandise as in their other shops as well.

Altogether, Sara expects there will be around 25-30 working at the new Morro Bay Scout location.

The coffee shop will offer take-out but the place is designed to sit and savor the product and even have some light breakfast.

Morro Bay has plenty of coffee places including Starbucks and the new Human Bean drive-thru. But Starbucks is sandwiched inside Albertsons grocery store with not much space for savoring.

There are other places in town for coffee but the Scout location will be the largest considering the old bank building is 8451sf including a 2000sf second floor. The property sits on most of a block with a large parking lot behind.

“We don’t spend time thinking about competition – our efforts are really focused on how to provide the best possible customer experience day in and day out, and that’s what seems to work best for us” says Sara.

It may take some months before remodeling of the building is done and they are ready to open.

Pot #2 crop in Santa Barbara County/ Cannabis tops lettuce in Monterey County

-August 1,2021-

In trends we will likely see when the San Luis Obispo crop report is published, Santa Barbara County’s crop production in 2020 climbed to $1.8 billion – surpassing the gross production value for the prior year by $219 million. Strawberries again are the top crop.

Also in the past few weeks, neighbor Monterey County published their 2020 crop report with strawberries up in value and reaching number one in value.Overall the value of all crops in Monterey County dropped 11% from 2019 to $3.2 billion. Strawberries had a value of $922 million – a 26% increase from 2019.

For the first time, both counties included a special section on cannabis cultivation in their county although not including the values in their gross production figures despite their impressive values.

Pot valued at nearly $500 Million

In Monterey County, the value of cannabis cultivation reached $484 million, more valuable than the county’s world famous head lettuce crop ranked number 2 in the listing that did not include pot numbers. The 2020 lettuce crop dropped in value from 2019 by 16.6%.

SB County strawberry values

In Santa Barbara County, the cannabis crop appears to be the second most valuable crop in the county – valued at just under $200 million. That number is only eclipsed by strawberries at $727 million on increased acreage – mostly in the Santa Maria area.

SB flower values drop by half

In a nutshell, SB County’s strawberries were up, wine grapes down and flowers apparently wilting- way down in both acreage and value – half of what they were in 2019. The decline in value is often attributed to the fact that many greenhouses on the Central Coast have been converted to cannabis over a several year period. The flower and nursery crops in Monterey County in 2020 also took a hit,dropping in value on demand for cannabis greenhouses, says the ag commissioner.

The SB report also offers a comparison of the 2019 year vs 2018 for the county’s fishing industry. In 2019, commercial fishing operations working from Santa Barbara Harbor and Gaviota Beach landed more than 135 different species , valued at almost $11 million- a decline of around $1 million.

Los Osos to get Dollar Tree store

-August 1,2021-

They are just about everywhere else and now the popular bargain retailer will open in Los Osos. Dollar Tree is getting a 9200sf store at the Los Osos shopping center according to a county building permit.

The new variety store will be in-line in the center between Miner’s Hardware and the pizza restaurant on the west side of the center.Construction of the improvements is underway now, remodeling several small spaces in the center into the larger venue.

The company also operates under the Family Dollar banner.In Morro Bay last year, the company opened both a Dollar Tree and Family Dollar side-by side reflecting what is clearly strong demand for everyday discount products often sold at the $1 price level.

In fact, Dollar Tree was formerly known as “Only $1.00.” Headquartered in Chesapeake, Virginia, it is a Fortune 500 company and operates 15,115 stores throughout the 48. states and Canada. The company’s stock has done well in the past few years including in the pandemic months.

Products offered in a Dollar Tree store include health and beauty, food and snacks, party, seasonal décor, housewares, glassware, dinnerware, household cleaning supplies, candy, toys, gifts, gift bags and wrap, stationery, craft supplies, teaching supplies, automotive, electronics, pet supplies, and books. Most Dollar Tree stores also sell frozen foods and dairy items such as milk, eggs, pizza, ice cream, frozen dinners, and pre-made baked goods. In August 2012, the company began accepting manufacturer’s coupons at all of its store locations.

In Los Osos, the new anchor tenant will mean mostly all the spaces at the shopping center will be filled for the first time in years. Other anchors at the complex include Grocery Outlet, Rite-Aid, Miner’s and Starbucks.

When Los Osos Fitness closed during the Covid 19 pandemic, Miner’s expanded into that space,and will now have a retail neighbor.

Owners of the center, the Gambril family, were not available for comment.

PG&E pays $5.9 million settlement for once-through cooling water discharges from Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant

-June 21,2021-

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY – The Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board and the Pacific Gas and Electric Company have reached a $5.9 million settlement to resolve alleged violations of PG&E’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit from discharges of once-through cooling water into the Pacific Ocean from its Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The settlement funds will be used for water quality projects that benefit the region.

The settlement was filed with the San Luis Obispo Superior Court on May 25, 2021 following the Central Coast Water Board’s investigation of alleged permit violations associated with the thermal component of the plant’s discharge since it first began releasing once-through cooling water in 1985. The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant is located approximately 12 miles southwest of San Luis Obispo.

“We take protecting water quality and marine habitat very seriously,” said Dr. Jean-Pierre Wolff, chair of the board. “This settlement demonstrates our commitment to safeguard and restore our region’s waters, and the board intends to apply the settlement funds toward high priority water quality projects in alignment with statewide priorities associated with environmental justice, public health, climate change, water supply resiliency or watershed functions that support healthy ecosystems.”

The public will be solicited for comments on the funding implementation plan prior to its consideration by the board during a public meeting.

In addition to the $5.9 million settlement entered on May 25 that will be used for regional water quality projects, PG&E has been making annual payments to mitigate the impacts of its discharges and is expected to pay approximately $38 million in total for the plant’s operating years 2015 through 2025. The Diablo Canyon power plant will cease operation in August 2025.

These mitigation payments comply with the State Water Resources Control Board’s Once-Through Cooling Water Policy and are being used to support Marine Protected Areas on the Central Coast.