SBCAN editorials

By Deborah Brasket/Looking Forward

Last month, SB CAN was privileged to co-host a highly topical panel discussion called the “Future of Journalism: Keeping the Watchdog Alive in Santa Barbara and the Nation.”

The discussion focused on two primary themes — the decline of the traditional newspaper business and the potential benefits and challenges of new online trends, including blogs, Web sites and online newspaper editions.

The high-powered panel, moderated by popular local blogger Craig Smith, featured Jim Rainey, a journalist with the Los Angeles Times; Susan Paterno, journalism professor and director of the journalism program at Chapman University; Jerry Roberts, co-founder of Calbuzz and former editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and Santa Barbara News-Press; Nick Welsh, Santa Barbara Independent columnist and news editor; and Dick Flacks, community activist and sociology professor emeritus.

The panelists agreed that journalism faces a perfect storm of problems — declining readership, declining advertising support and competition from new online news sources. Print newspapers have high costs and depend upon subscriptions, and even more heavily on advertising.

By Deborah Brasket/Looking Forward

It’s exciting to see new movements springing up on all sides to preserve agriculture and promote local farms. More and more people are becoming aware of the importance of supporting local farming in creating a sustainable future.

Too often, however, efforts to preserve agriculture have been co-opted by neighborhood preservationist groups more interested in preserving the views from their back yards than in preserving farmland. Their aim is to preserve the status quo and oppose efforts to build affordable housing anywhere near them.

By Deborah Brasket/Looking Forward

On May 19, the California Legislature is asking the voters of California to help them do what they failed to do themselves — balance the state budget.

Sounds good, right? But they are asking us to do this by defunding programs that help the most needy and vulnerable among us — at-risk children and people with mental health problems.

It’s worth remembering that we are the ones who created these funding sources to begin with. In 1998 and 2004, Californians realized the state had failed to provide adequate funding for at-risk children and people suffering from mental illness.

Ballot initiatives were passed to remedy the situation, and since then, these programs have been saving the state millions of dollars every year in preventive care.

By preventing child abuse and providing health care for young children, we keep them out of hospitals and family courts. By treating mental illness in the early stages, we keep people off the street, out of institutions, and out of jails.

Neighborhood resistance to affordable housing is based on outmoded misconceptions

By Deborah Brasket 

Santa Barbara County is losing the affordable housing battle. More than 5,000 families are still waiting for help from the county Housing Authority. With an annual turnaround of about 1,600 openings, most will not find relief anytime soon. And with more homes in foreclosure, and growing unemployment, this situation is bound to get worse before it gets better.