SanLuisObispo.com: Sunday stories

Housing pain ripples through economy

Sun, 11 May 2008 17:22 PDT

A s the branch manager of Big Creek Lumber Co. in Paso Robles for more than 20 years, Ken Wall is no stranger to the booms and busts in the housing market. He’s seen the business cycle rise and then falter, only to pick up again at a brisk pace.

“Business has declined somewhat from 2006 to 2007, and it’s continuing to not be as busy, obviously with home building down,” he said. “We’re focusing on customer service, and we’re trying to maintain the kind of products that appeal to a wide variety of customers.”

In San Luis Obispo County, new-home construction is in the midst of a significant downturn. With credit tightening, making it more difficult for even qualified people to get loans, some individuals and developers are putting their projects on hold, or like Texas-based Centex Homes, have pulled out of the area.

Lure of a deal starts to bring buyers back

Sun, 04 May 2008 00:07 PDT

Kathy Hilstein watched the housing market carefully last year, waiting for prices to fall.

In November, she decided to buy an investment property— a foreclosed condominium in Santa Maria. In March, she closed escrow on a second foreclosed property, a two-story home on an acre off Los Berros Road in Arroyo Grande. Hilstein, the owner of a cleaning service, liked it so much that it’s now her permanent residence.

“I kind of knew the market would slow down,’’ said Hilstein, who found the properties during four foreclosure home tours. “I wasn’t necessarily looking at foreclosures. I was just looking for an in-

For some, the dream slips away

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:36 PDT

Mike Melvin remembers the thrill of moving into his Atascadero home. Three years ago, he and his then-girlfriend had fallen in love with the cozy three-bedroom and its wood-burning stove and weatherbeaten white picket fence.

“It was our first home purchase,” said Melvin, who bought the house with no money down on an interest-only, fixed-rate mortgage that switched to a variable rate two months ago. “It’s like my life suddenly had meaning. It wasn’t the answer to all of my dreams, but it was a step in the right direction.”

Today, Melvin is behind on his loan payments and on the brink of losing the house. He said he’s contacted his lender for help, but so far the efforts have not been fruitful.

Confronting Cancer: The battle begins

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:45 PDT

Chemotherapy drugs slowly dripped through a tiny tube inserted just below Ruth Ann Angus’ right biceps.

As the toxic chemicals seeped into her bloodstream to kill the cancer cells threatening her body, Angus reclined in a chair at a San Luis Obispo oncologist’s office and looked out the window at the sun hitting Cerro San Luis.

The 67-year-old Morro Bay woman thought about how she got there and worried about what would come next.

8 days they’ll never forget

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 23:53 PDT

Autograph pens scribbled on bare skin. Children scrambled for souvenir photos and clutched sweaty scraps of clothing freshly tossed by their virtual celebrities.

The scene was a South African township, and the focus of attention was 11 Central Coast high school basketball players on a goodwill journey. Their mission was to teach the game to young South Africans—and thus offer them something positive in the midst of their otherwise bleak lives.

By the end of their tour as American idols of a different kind, however, it was the San Luis Obispo County players who returned changed for life.

Mystery of the oaks

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 06:25 PDT

Despite a banner acorn crop last fall, California’s native oak trees

are at risk.

Their tender, leafy sprouts face daunting odds against survival. Most will never grow up to become the giant gnarled oak trees that provide California’s iconic foothill and valley landscapes, as well as valuable habitat for a host of birds and mammals.

All kids need good dose of the outdoors

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 23:47 PDT

Participating in a team sport, playing in a safe place and splashing in the water are three of the 10 ‘rights’ California kids should have experienced before they turn 15.

Telling children they have a formal right to play outdoors seems superfluous, almost silly. After all, they need merely scurry to the door, turn the knob, push it open, and there they are in the great outdoors.

The problem is, not enough youngsters are doing that.

The Easter spotlight

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 01:05 PDT

A s fresh-scrubbed families in spring dresses and suits crowd into church today, pastors throughout San Luis Obispo County are readying their Easter A-game.

For those of the Christian faith, the holiday that marks the resurrection of Jesus is the spiritual equivalent of the Super Bowl, March Madness and the World Series, one of two days in the year when pastors are expected to hit a holy home run.

“It’s always a wonderful challenge at Christmas and Easter,” said the Rev. Jane Voigts, pastor of the United Methodist Church in San Luis Obispo, referring to the bigger-than- average crowds and high-pressure services that accompany those holidays.

Up from the ashes

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 08:16 PDT

Seven years after an arson fire destroyed the sanctuary of the San Luis Obispo United Methodist Church on Easter Sunday, the church is celebrating its own resurrection.

The new sanctuary, born of the congregation’s intense desire to move forward, will be unveiled at next Sunday’s Easter celebration.

“This is an amazing marker for this building,” said Pastor Jane Voigts. “This is not just a religious holiday; the celebration of Easter is about the most impossible new life rising up.

‘I live for them, nothing more’

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 07:10 PDT

On a recent rainy afternoon, a dozen or so children jumped off a school bus in San Simeon and scurried toward their homes in a nearby motel.

Normally at 4 p. m., Erminia is still at work cleaning hotel rooms when her son, 10, and daughter, 7, get home from school. But on this day during the slow tourism season, she met them at the door.

While the children began their homework, Erminia made chilies rellenos for dinner on a two-burner camp stove. The smell of charred green peppers filled the cramped motel room—the family’s home for a year. Before that, they shared a house in Cambria with two other families.

Oil exploration may shake up Carrizo

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:05 PST

Just as managers of the Carrizo Plain National Monument in eastern San Luis Obispo County are moving toward agreement on the future of cattle grazing there, oil and gas exploration is emerging as a new battleground on the 250,000-acre grasslands preserve.

Vintage Production, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, owns 30,000 acres of mineral rights in the heart of the monument’s valley floor and, with oil now topping $100 a barrel, it has notified the Bureau of Land Management that it wants to find out what’s there.

John Dearing, a BLM spokesman, said the agency can do nothing to stop the testing because the mineral rights pre-exist the monument’s creation by President Bill Clinton as he left office in 2001.

For surfing daredevils, it’s an ‘Endless Winter’

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 17:52 PST

“Get in and wrestle with the sea; wing your heels with the skill and power that reside in you; bit the sea’s breakers, master them, and ride upon their backs as a king should.”

— from Jack London’s

1907 surf essay titled “A Royal Sport”