When I started my Neighborhood Safety Program one year ago I never imagined that it would be needed so soon! On July 1st when the Gap fire began, the San Antonio Creek/Park Highland Neighborhood Safety group jumped into action. There were constant updates to the neighbors via Walkie-Talkie and email. We were communicating regarding the location of the fire and our evacuation status. Many of us could see it from out our windows and with no electricity the Walkie-Talkies were very helpful. We were under evacuation warning, which, thanks to our extensive preparation, was very calm and organized. Thankfully we were never forced to evacuate but we were certainly prepared to do so. We live in an area where we should always be prepared for a possible fire, I encourage every neighborhood to join together and create a neighborhood safety program.

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If you or someone you know has a home being threatened by fire you may want to learn more about this product or something similar.  For people living in a high risk fire area, which seems to be almost anywhere in CA or the Western United State, it might be worth investing in and keeping it on hand. What I am talking about is a fire retardant gel that can be sprayed on your house if it is in eminent danger. This company says it protects for a matter of hours up to 3 days.
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This year Village Properties is proud to be the Title Sponsor for the 2008 Santa Barbara Triathlon! Even better, the beneficiaries for this year are Computer for Families and the Teacher’s Fund.

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Our San Antonio Creek neighborhood safety program started out with the goal of collectively preparing for a possible emergency/natural disaster. In doing so we accomplished something equally important, a closer community.

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I was asked by my friend and past client Denise Stevens, to be a guest speaker at the Santa Barbara Newcomer’s Club, Girls Night Out Event.  The evening was hosted at a gorgeous house in Hope Ranch overlooking the ocean and open fields for the horses.

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DeAnn and I had a Village Properties/EcoBroker® Booth at the Santa Barbara Courthouse’s Sunken Garden on Sunday, April 20th. The weather was just perfect and we heard that between 14,000-16,000 people attended the celebration.

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With all the bad news printed today it’s hard to find the positive things that are happening in the world let alone in our community. Here is some good news! I attended an annual celebration for our education system in connection with Computers for Families. As our State budget shifts the focus from educating our youngsters our local community develops new programs that sustain themselves for the future.

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The Granada Theater invited the general public to visit its newly restored, nearly 50 million dollar theatre last week on First Thursday. You must go to see it. The building’s restoration is unlike anything we have in Santa Barbara; made possible by so many wonderfully talented artists, architects, engineers, craftsmen, tradespersons, donors and passionate Santa Barbarans.

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While sitting on the tarmac at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport in a snowstorm this past week, it once again dawned on me how fortunate and grateful I am to be living in Santa Barbara; paradise of the West…and if I needed any reinforcement to solidify this notion, all I needed to do was to look out the window to see the blizzard in progress and the de-icing trucks working tirelessly on our plane.

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We may all have different reasons why we love Santa Barbara and one of mine is the excellent theatre that this town provides.  The moving performance this evening, at the Ensemble Theatre Company, was extraordinary.

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