| TIMELINE Around the County 6/1 Downtown <strong>SLO</strong> announces its <strong>2020</strong> 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 <strong>SLO</strong> 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 <strong>SLO</strong>” 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 Open<strong>SLO</strong>.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 <strong>2020</strong> 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 <strong>SLO</strong>Vote.com. 7/16 San Luis Obispo Coastal Unified School District announces it will begin the <strong>2020</strong>-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 <strong>SLO</strong> 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. <strong>SLO</strong> <strong>LIFE</strong> 20 | <strong>SLO</strong> <strong>LIFE</strong> MAGAZINE | AUG/SEP <strong>2020</strong>
LEARN BY DOING WAS BORN HERE CAL POLY AND LEARN BY DOING HAVE BEEN RESIDENTS OF THE CENTRAL COAST SINCE 1901. Cal Poly engineering students work on a CubeSat in PolySat, the student-run campus research lab. Pioneered at Cal Poly, this small satellite technology has been used with a NASA project to Mars and The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2, where Cal Poly and San Luis Obispo served as the mission control site for the orbiter’s solar sail deployment. LightSail 2 is an international endeavor with collaborators from over 20 countries and with supporters from over 100 countries donating to the $7 million project. AD DESIGN BY CAL POLY STUDENT LAUREN WENSTAD (FOURTH-YEAR GRAPHIC COMMUNICATION MAJOR) PHOTOGRAPH BY BRITTANY APP See more Learn by Doing stories at GIVING.CALPOLY.EDU AUG/SEP <strong>2020</strong> | <strong>SLO</strong> <strong>LIFE</strong> MAGAZINE | 21
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