SanLuisObispo.com: Bob Cuddy

Bob Cuddy: Back off, state, we’ve got some clarkia to tend

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 23:37 PDT

Here’s something I’ll bet you didn’t know: Pismo clarkia is often mistaken for oenothera.

Who wouldn’t get them mixed up? I mean, both are showy, after all.

Pismo clarkia has other interesting characteristics. It is an erect annual herb in the evening primrose family, flowers between May and July, and grows between Edna Valley and Arroyo Grande.

Bob Cuddy: Atascadero moves at glacial pace

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:36 PDT

If things don’t work out for John McCain in November, he might think of moving to Atascadero. They don’t call it mud hole for nothing.

McCain, who has, shall we say, a leisurely approach to the march of history—he has famously said we might have a presence in Iraq for 100 years — would fit right in with the torpid pace of development in the city that never sleeps but always creeps.

I mention this because the City Council on Tuesday night voted to put an initiative about superstores (read: Wal-Mart) on the November ballot.

Bob Cuddy: Let’s get the word out on Grover Beach

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 22:36 PDT

The way Linda Mc- Clure figures it, visitors to the Central Coast see Grover Beach as a place to pass through to get to someplace else — if they even know Grover Beach exists.

If you talk to out-of-towners about the city, they ask, “Grover what? What’s that?” she says.

“I’m tired of Arroyo Grande and Pismo Beach taking the business we should be getting,” McClure says.

Bob Cuddy: School clothes probably don’t make the adult

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 03:02 PDT

When you first glance at the time and effort Paso Robles schools have put into telling kids how to dress, it’s hard not to think of it as a tad off the subject.

I mean, it’s a school: Shouldn’t our future leaders (and the rest of the students) be learning about the Allegory of the Cave, or why the Brazilian Rain Forest matters, or the legacy of President Franklin Pierce?

OK, forget that last one. Some things are unknowable.

Bob Cuddy: Help out your neighbors and donate a buck

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 09:04 PDT

Bobbie Stainbrook would like to set the record straight about the Food Bank Coalition of San Luis Obispo County.

It helps feed the homeless, true. But it also is there for others who are down on their luck and can’t feed their families.

“It’s the people in the middle” who increasingly need help, she said, “the people who work their (rear ends) off and still can’t make ends meet.”

Bob Cuddy: Ruling on gay marriage spurs trivial coverage

Sun, 25 May 2008 07:17 PDT

Gay folks reacted with great joy recently when the California Supreme Court said gay marriage is legal. They quickly organized a rally at the courthouse in San Luis Obispo.

“We’re proud of California today,” said Michael Beck, president of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance of the Central Coast. “The decision isn’t only victory for the gay and lesbian community but for all people seeking equality.”

But the gay community’s joy is nothing compared to the rapture of the chattering classes—aka the punditocracy—that chronicles and influences our elections.

Bob Cuddy: Girl’s call for help shows 911 classes work

Sun, 18 May 2008 08:48 PDT

The little girl’s trembling voice was both riveting and frightening as she spoke to the dispatcher. “My dad’s having a seizure!” she said in a tiny tremor that stopped just this side of hysteria.

Lily Hawkins had stayed home sick from Harloe Elementary School, and she was in what must have seemed the most terrifying moment of her young life: Her father was down, and his health and perhaps survival had climbed onto her 9-year-old shoulders.

But she contained her panic as sheriff’s dispatcher Nikki Lipanovich talked her through the crisis until deputies arrived.

Bob Cuddy: In Downtown Brew, we see a model business

Sat, 03 May 2008 23:31 PDT

Up in Paso Robles, we have yet another example of the plague of small communities: class struggle.

In this case, the proletariat are the regular folks who want to unwind at the local bar-restaurant Friday and Saturday night. They are facing off against the horsey set.

I say the horsey set because the folks complaining about the noise those fun-loving folks make are registered at the Hotel Cheval.

Nipomo adobe needs county’s help

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:34 PDT

Kathy Kubiak gazed at the vista behind the old Dana Adobe in Nipomo and took in the green hills to the east.

Her eyes swept over the creeks, the willows and the mustard fields to the south.

No doubt about it, the views in Central California are spectacular. But Kubiak has a broader vision.

Bob Cuddy: Skateboarding (near graves) is not a crime

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:39 PDT

I’ll grant you that skateboarders are not the quietest people you can have in the neighborhood. But do they really make enough noise to disturb the dead?

Some folks on the North Coast think so. They are objecting to a proposed skateboard park at the Cayucos Morro Bay Cemetery.

Their chief complaint: All those skinny, long-haired kids doing thunderous high ollies and crooked grinds on their rumbling boards would run counter to the decorum of a cemetery.