Jerry RobertsBy Jerry Roberts of Newsmakers
Nick Welsh, the Independent’s executive editor and Santa Barbara’s top columnist (you could look it up) drops by for an in-depth conversation about some big stories he’s been covering — starting with UCLA ‘s under-the-radar incursion into the local health care market.
“It’s like people from the moon landing on Earth,” is how Welsh describes the quiet shake-up of the local health care industry by behemoth medical provider UCLA Health.
Author of the Indy’s iconic Angry Poodle column, Nick has scooped the world on the UCLA Health invasion: having opened a cardio clinic on Coast Village Road last summer, the regional health provider just poached several top doctors from Santa Barbara’s beloved Ridley-Tree Cancer Center to begin treating patients at a new Westside oncology clinic — and plans to launch a new operation in Goleta in August.
It all portends headaches for Sansum Clinic, which depends on the Cancer Center for substantial revenue, and which finds itself increasingly vulnerable as one of the few such major independent non-profits not financially partnered with a hospital.
Nick breaks down the details, and also offers analysis and insights on other top local stories
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Nobody’s talking about it publicly yet, but behind-the-scenes, elected officials are discussing a Big Fix for the chronic problem of homelessness that might include proposals for a new sales or bed tax increase; with more than $40 million annually being spent on government and non-profit services, county and city officials are looking at ways to better focus resources on a problem that has defied solution for more than three decades — and that has gotten more serious in the pandemic.
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There’s plenty of loud discussion and conflict over the new independent commission approved by voters in 2018 to take over the politically fraught task of redrawing district lines for the five Board of Supervisors seats, based on 2020 census data; with the balance of power on the supes at stake, the commission was set up to reduce partisan brawling over redistricting but is off to a contentious start, with the latest skirmish over conservative objections to alleged liberal bias by the chief counsel commission members want to hire.
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Traditionalists, historians and some architects are screaming bloody murder about the new garish green bike lane markers that suddenly appeared on the State Street promenade, an effort by city officials to adjudicate clashes between pedestrians and over-enthusiastic bike enthusiasts; a widely-known champion of the biker brigade, Nick breaks down the situation, amid mounting unintended consequences of the city council’s pandemic-driven closure of downtown State Street.
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The SBPD remains tight-lipped about its investigation of a double murder on the Eastside in early January, as the grieving mother of one of the victims described in an anguished interview her search for answers to the killing of her boy, 17-year old Angel Castillo, along with 18-year old Omar Montiel-Hernandez and the wounding of two other teenagers in the incident; she told Nick she wants to “set the record straight” that her son was not a gang member.
The Poodle, who a year ago was the very first guest on Newsmaker’s “Journal of the Plague Year” series, also offers an update on how the Independent is navigating the pandemic — and puts out the word that Santa Barbara’s top newspaper is looking for new office space.
It’s all here right now – if it’s Friday (or for some viewers, even Thursday) it’s Newsmakers TV.
Watch our conversation with Nick Welsh via YouTube below, or by clicking through this link. The podcast version is here.
So is the responsibility of those who work and pay taxes already to come up with even more taxes to support those who do not contribute to their own keep. I know the arguments about many of them not being able to help themselves. But the problem being chronic for better than three decades now may mean the problem is not solvable. So much money has been thrown at it and yet it is worse than ever. City and county officials perhaps need to recognize that perhaps money is not the solution since it has not worked to date. And that workers like myself are being taxed beyond our ability to pay. If we want to pay at all–and I for one do not.
Does that make me a meanie? Maybe. But after so much time and after so much money and after so much support and sympathy the fact that homelessness is worse than ever should tell us that, alas, there is a portion of society that just isn’t going to make it. I refuse to support any agency that supports the homeless. What I do believe in doing is assisting those who help themselves: those who work minimum wage or low-paying jobs. This are the portion of society so often overlooked and who, in my opinion, need help. I’d far rather subsidize with rental or food or utility assistance those who are willing to go out and work hard but who could use help too.
UCLA moving in? Sansum needs a big shakeup, because it’s doing very poorly and is capable of much better healthcare delivery. Survival of the fittest.
Homeless tax? Wow, I’m very thankful I don’t live in the city limits of SB. Halllelujah! Sorry to those who may have to pay for this stupid idea from out city leaders.
Giant green stripe on state? Looks ridiculous. Bad move.
The “Big Fix” is just that. Whenever public employees decide that government needs to get bigger, the taxpayers, who really do not have any input to these types of decisions, have to bend over and crap out more money. Think subsidized housing: saving people who can’t afford to live here by building up the management structure to generate even more public servants. These types of decisions should be voted on by the people, not installed by the current party in charge. We need better control of how government actually works.
Obviously spending money on this homeless situation has only increased the number of homeless. Perhaps we should try spending less, or none at all. The homeless then will go to someplace else that supports them more or, heaven forbid, get a job.
I have been a patient of Sansum Clinic for over 50 years and thank heavens every time I have had to call upon the doctors and nurses there for medical help. I am amazed and saddened at the cheap shots I have read here . Santa Barbara is fortunate to have the services of these dedicated medical practitioners. To those naysayers and their inexplicable criticism I offer this advice: grow up and get real!
No cheap shots here – I’ve seen healthcare models in action elsewhere, not just in SB for decades, and I’m a physician so I think I know what I’m talking about. I’m not ragging personally on your or anyone else’s physician. It’s the DELIVERY of healthcare that should be much improved, in my opinion.
No matter the redistricting commission ends up with, sure hope the result is a 3-2 conservative majority. This county has suffered too long under the liberal ilk and their looney agenda.