SLO LIFE Magazine AugSep 2020

| TIMELINE
Around the County
6/1
Downtown SLO announces its 2020 Beautification Awards honoring
businesses making physical and/or aesthetic improvements. Top
honors include the Mayor’s Award, given this year to the Gateway
to Downtown—1085 Higuera Redevelopment project at the corner
of Santa Rosa and Higuera streets. From a record number of eligible
projects, made possible because of the uptick in new downtown
businesses in 2019, the organization’s Cultural Arts Committee also
singled out Hotel San Luis Obispo with the Chairperson’s Award,
and the City of SLO Promotional Coordinating Committee with
the CEO’s Surprise and Delight Award for its cultural icon flags and
parking kiosks.
6/10
A unique sailplane with ninety-three-foot wings designed by Cal Poly
aerospace engineering professor Paulo Iscold breaks three national
soaring records in Nevada. The glider, named Nixus (“pushing forward”
in Latin), soars without the benefit of engine power. It has attracted
considerable attention from aviation media because of its innovative
wings that are controlled through a fly-by-wire computer system.
What’s next? Iscold and his two pilots, with the support of his Cal Poly
students helping out on research, are eyeing the longest distance covered
by a sailplane. The record is 1,864 miles.
6/18
The City of San Luis Obispo kicks off its “Open SLO” program,
opening downtown streets and plazas for outdoor dining on specific
dates and at specific times in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Designed to expand the use of city streets and other public spaces
to support physical distancing, it allows the temporary use of the
city right-of-way, including sidewalks, parking spaces, and streets
for expansion of outdoor dining, retail displays, and casual strolling.
Temporarily suspending enforcement of private parking requirements,
the city also allows businesses to expand their footprints, including table
service, within private parking lots. Updates and guidelines for public
health and safety are posted at OpenSLO.org.
6/30
The last day of the 2019 rain year makes it official: the most
recent rainfall season (which runs July 1 to June 30) produced
much less rain for San Luis Obispo than the previous year.
According to PG&E Meteorologist John Lindsey, the 2018
rainfall season that ended June 30, 2019, produced 29.48 inches
of rain in the City of San Luis Obispo, or 132 percent of normal.
In comparison, the 2019 season produced only 15.88 inches for
the city, coming in at just 71 percent of average. What will the
2020 rain year bring? Lindsey says many of the forecast models
are venturing into La Niña territory, which typically produces
lower-than-average winter rainfall.
7/8
The California Coastal Commission and officials with the California
Department of State Parks at the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular
Recreation Area announce an agreement to keep the area closed to
vehicles and to camping through the end of September, in order to
protect western snowy plovers and California least terns. State Parks has
agreed to cease activities that could disrupt nesting as well. Nearly half
of the active snowy plover nests in the Oceano Dunes this spring were
outside of fenced protected areas.
7/9
For the first time ever, a Titan Arum, also known as a corpse flower
because it smells like rotting flesh, blooms at Cal Poly, attracting
hundreds of visitors over the two days the bloom lasts, as well as
thousands of viewers via livestream. The plant, which grows from a
large underground stem, sends up one leaf a year. After ten years or so,
instead of making a leaf, the plant sends up a huge maroon funnel with
tiny flowers on a large spike. Cal Poly students have been growing the
Amorphophallus titanium, nicknamed “Musty,” for several years, and this
is the plant’s first flower.
7/13
The nomination period for the November 3 General Election in San
Luis Obispo County opens for anyone interested in running for office.
Seats are open in all of the county’s school, community service, and
special districts, as well as all cities. A complete listing of the contests
on the ballot, as well as qualifications and important dates, can be found
at SLOVote.com.
7/16
San Luis Obispo Coastal Unified School District announces it will
begin the 2020-21 school year on August 24 in distance learning mode
through the winter break, with daily attendance online required for all
students Monday through Friday. The district plans to coordinate with
the cities of Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo, as well as the YMCA and
other nonprofit organizations, to provide options for families and staff
who require childcare. Lucia Mar Unified School District had already
announced plans to require distance learning at the start of the school
year for all South County students.
7/25
A virtual workshop on the Community Plan for Avila, an integral part of
SLO County’s General Plan that will guide land use decisions in the region
for the next twenty years, provides residents an opportunity to comment
on the future of coastal resources and tourism in Avila. The workshop is
part of “Envision Avila,” a community engagement process. The plan, when
completed in 2021, will provide the basis for local government decision
making and ground rules to guide development. SLO LIFE
20 | SLO LIFE MAGAZINE | AUG/SEP 2020