STATUS: Off-Leash Public Affairs

Take Your Leash Off !!
The videos often can be accessed by clicking on the Title text for access via Vimeo.
The embedded images for the vids have disappeared since 2012.
The older Google Video files also have disappeared, to be revived and posted eventually from the archive DVDs.
Use the email link on the right side here to contact David Pritchett.

Our show is in hiatus!
David and Cathy (especially Cathy) have been a bit busy since 2011 with the ultimate in local public affairs....
.....

30 June 2007

Episode 001... U Plan SB: A New Hope

This first episode of Off-Leash Public Affairs debuted on Monday, 02 July 2007 !!
UPDATE: This episode also was an encore replay starting Saturday, 22 Dec. 2007, as background to the Santa Barbara City Planning Commission meeting about the status of the Plan Santa Barbara (General Plan Update), meeting held 03 January 2008. Full video below or link above as the title. The replay started 22Dec.2007 and ended 07Jan.2008
MORE: A second video about other of these community input meetings also will be forthcoming in early 2008 as a future episode entitled U Plan SB: the Listening Tour.

Synopsis

This OLPA debut episode is about the Santa Barbara City General Plan Update. Called Plan Santa Barbara, the public outreach and review process should be completed during nearly a year of various public meetings, with a final General Plan Update to be adopted by the City Council by 2009 (more or less, probably more). Expect more episodes on this topic as the public review process continues.

This OLPA episode highlights the second in a series of 4 public workshop meetings, where all City residents are encouraged to state their vision and suggestions on how Santa Barbara can be a better place to live, work, play, etc. The meeting featured in this video was held on 16 June 2007 at La Casa de la Raza, a community facility in the City's Eastside neighborhood. Approximately 50 people were present, including City staff and consultants, along with Mayor Marty Blum and City Councilmember Helene Schneider.

Editorial Notes


The public comments and remarks in this video and the other 2 public workshop meetings attended reveal a deep understanding by many participants about the highly complex issues the City is facing in its land use and other planning during the upcoming decades. Many people are quite worried and feeling pain about the price of housing and myriad social challenges growing in Santa Barbara. Gangs and conspicuous homelessness were mentioned frequently.

An understanding about global climate change and sea level rise also is steadily becoming a concern of people of all stripes, who wonder about how the City will adjust and how by much. Those topics and more will be explored in future OLPA episodes in the U Plan SB saga.

Production Notes

The video recording was by David (as usual), who had not run the camera for several months prior. Accordingly, the audio was a bit inconsistent and often was overblown as too loud until the manual adjustment with the left finger on the camera became more proficient after a few minutes of recording. Fortunately, in the post-production editing Cathy was able to boost or diminish the audio where needed.

Editing this was the first time Cathy had produced a full video using Apple Final Cut Pro video editing application. Skills are growing, and for this episode the graphic inserts of names and labels etc., called lower thirds (even though really a fifth), were inserted for the first time on a video timeline. Naturally, the colours are the blue and gold motif that is most soothing and trustworthy.

City planning staffer Beatriz Ramirez was leading the Spanish-speaking small group discussion depicted in this video, and she should have been identified by name in the lower third label.

OLPA episode 002... Douglas Family Preserve: People, Dogs, Birds, and Bees will debut on cable channel 17 on Monday, 16 July 2007, per the schedule atop this blog.


Full video above for this OLPA episode
U Plan SB: A New Hope.
Following the outtro and closing credits, this video also includes 5 bonus video segments that could not fit into the TV show time, 28:30 minutes.
For a FULL SCREEN option, link on the Google label and also be sure to select arrow icon there for the Smooth Video option.