[mediaman]

Developer Rick Caruso, owner of the Miramar Hotel, and his staff are in the midst of emergency meetings with the Montecito Water District (MWD), just days before his renovation project for the Montecito hotel is slated to go in front of the Montecito Planning Commission on Wednesday, July 16. The reason for the meeting: a water district mishap that could potentially derail Caruso’s project, at least temporarily.

According to a Friday, July 11 letter from MWD General Manager Tom Mosby to County Planning and Development Deputy Director David Ward, the district erred when it informed Caruso’s team that his project wasn’t subject to Ordinance 89, which, because of a severe water shortage, had been freshly passed to restrict water distribution throughout the service district and to approach future water expansion with caution. The project was “already in receipt of a Certificate of Water Service Availability for the existing five District water meters that currently service the Miramar property,” Mosby wrote. A March 14 email from Mosby to former county planner Michelle Gibbs indicated the same thing: Mosby told her the ordinance wouldn’t affect the district’s ability to serve the Miramar.
Rick Caruso's proposed Miramar project is up for review: How should decisions on this development be handled?

Yeah, fair is fair -- play by the rules. No amount of time should produce a project below community standards.

What ever it takes to clean up this eyesore! Come on. It's been approved already.

Time to get a Land Trust involved and buy this bad boy.

I miss Ian Schrager.

See the results without voting.

But it turns out the April letter was issued in error, and the ordinance does in fact apply to the Miramar project, Mosby wrote on July 11, posing problems for Caruso. The ordinance would usually require a base allotment be established after looking at historical usage over a two-year period. But the historical usage on the property—the usage when the property was last run as a hotel—is thought to be only 50-acre-feet annually, less than half of the requested 117 acre-feet.

An acre-foot of water is about twice as much as an average Goleta household uses annually, and about two-thirds as much as an average Montecito household uses. It’s the equivalent of roughly 325,850 gallons of water, meaning Caruso is planning to use approximately 104,450 gallons of water per day at the Miramar.

Caruso is believed to be negotiating with MWD—which is required to provide services to residents, but not necessarily everything requested—right now to see what allocation he could receive for his project. The results of those negotiations aren’t yet known—Mosby hasn’t returned phone calls to his office placed Monday evening and Tuesday morning, and Caruso spokesman Matt Middlebrook also didn’t respond immediately to phone calls and an email seeking comment—but the water negotiation could have dramatic effects on the project. Depending on how much water Caruso is allotted, plans for his project, which calls for a 202-room hotel, multiple restaurants and pools, bungalows, a beach club, and lush landscaping, might have to be changed. County staff could also be forced to reanalyze its Subsequent Environmental Impact Report (an abbreviated environmental analysis, as opposed to a full EIR) and recirculate that document.

County Planner Anne Almy said she wasn’t sure what would result from the recent letter, but said there are a number of directions the trail could head from here, including a redesign to accommodate a lower water usage amount.

The issue is the latest in a line of concerns opponents have to Caruso’s plans, with their encompassing argument being that a full EIR should be done. They contend—with county staff emails to back up their statements—that the project is being rushed through the system because of demands from CEO Mike Brown and Caruso. Marco Gonzalez, a Coast Law Group attorney representing the Citizens Planning Association, said he believes the recent water situation makes the project infeasible. “This is a significant, unmitigable impact,” he said. “They have to do an EIR.”

Supervisor Salud Carbajal, whose 1st District contains Montecito, said this Monday evening that he first heard about the problem earlier in the day from his staffers, but didn’t know what the implications might be.

As of now, the Montecito Planning Commission will still hear the project presentation tomorrow, but any action could be delayed if the problem isn’t solved. Even so, any decision made by the Planning Commission is expected to be appealed to the Board of Supervisors. Onlookers also expect that board’s decision to eventually be litigated in court by either side.

[Ljunki]

King Arthur and the "roots of troubles"

The traditional treatment of women in the Arthurian saga is interesting to note in its severity. Guinevere is an adulteress, Morgan Le Fay is a witch, Morgause is an incestuous schemer, and the Lady of the Lake is the leader of a terrible, backward pagan religion. This is, of course, the treatment that has been handed down to us from the medieval writers who gave us the Christian infusion that spawned the story of the Holy Grail. ffxi gil

　　But if we go back to the historical writers——the writers who were treating Arthur as a historical character, not a target for pious retribution or moral sermonizing; we find that women do, more or less, have quite an important role to play in the overall health and well-being of Arthur the King.

　　Inherent in this last statement is this feature of earlier stories: Arthur's story did not end badly. In the earliest of stories about Arthur the King, he wasn't even the Once and Future King. He was a great warrior and won many great victories. He was a great king who had a great queen, and they both ruled a great kingdom.

　　 maple story mesos,Arthur's queen didn't even have a name in the earliest of stories. She was simply the queen. But she didn't, as so many modern stories tell us, have a part in the downfall of the kingdom. Even Geoffrey of Monmouth, in the happier parts of his story, has Arthur and Ganhumara (his name for the queen) holding court in a great castle in a great city called the City of the Legions. (Geoffrey later gives Guinevere a bad name, but she is all that glitters when the story opens.)

　　Also showered with the light of good in earlier stories is Morgan Le Fay. In the earliest of the Cornwall stories, Morgan is the Queen of Lyonesse, where Arthur is taken after his final battle. Morgan is the leader of a group of healers, all women, who will undoubtedly heal Arthur. It is perhaps out of this part of the story that William of Malmesbury crafted his vision that Arthur would come again. (William, you will remember, is the first one to mention that Arthur's grave has not been found; even though he says nothing more, he gives a strong hint that the Once and Future King part of the legend has begun.) wow gold

　　The Lady of the Lake as well fares rather better in the older stories. She it was who gave Arthur his first sword. She it is who is guardian of the old ways, the ways from which comes much of the magic of the original Arthurian stories. The Christian writers wanted to make Arthur a Christian king, and they didn't want any other religions getting in the way of this. Naturally, they made the Lady of the Lake a questionable character solely because of her "religious" ways.

　　The question then becomes one of why. Why do the women come off so bad in medieval stories? What happened to make the writers change their image of people who were so vital to the story? The answer probably lies in the spiritual realm and its resulting scriptures. The same writers who were reading the Bible and discovering that Eve was responsible for all the world's problems probably thought that they should blame Guinevere for all of Arthur's problems. Why did Arthur have a bastard son in the first place? wow gold, Because the scheming Morgause tricked him into it. Why did Morgan Le Fay hate Arthur so? Because she was jealous of the magic wielded by Merlin, Arthur's advisor. Why was the Lady of the Lake suddenly to be reviled, not revered? Because she was the head of a religion that medieval writers didn't understand or want to understand. The teachings of the Bible were such that one religion was possible (in the minds of these writers); anything else was unacceptable. (It must be said here that Arthur, Lancelot, and all the rest of the male characters take quite a beating at the hands of the medievalists as well. The whole story becomes a morality play from which only Galahad, the purse and chaste, emerges unscathed. Arthur and Lancelot, the perfect king and the perfect knight, are undone by their shared imperfect morality.)

　　ffxi gil, The result is that in the modern tales, women are still pretty much blamed for Arthur's troubles. Arthur's dallying with Morgause has come to be seen as something akin to the Adam and Eve story. Lancelot's love for the queen has come to be seen as equal in its devastation to the queen's own adulterous actions (that is to say, it's the woman's fault). Morgan Le Fay is reviled as a witch who wants nothing more than to ruin the kingdom of the wonderful Arthur. And the Lady of the Lake recedes ever further into the background. (Some traditions hold that she is Nimue, whose claim to "fame" is that she enchants Merlin into submission and takes him from Arthur when Arthur needs him most.)

　　If you want to role-play in Arthur's world, you'd better choose a male character. At least people will feel sorry for you. aion gold