Santa Barbara 2020: What a Year in Pictures!

The Camera Captures the Times We Lived

Photos by Daniel Dreifuss | December 31, 2020

Gelson’s employees wipe down carts for people 65 years old and older early in the morning. Gelson’s is one of many grocery stores that have opened early for seniors. | Credit: Daniel Dreifuss

What can anyone really hope to say about 2020?

Maybe nothing.

Or not much. This, after all, is our annual Year in Pictures issue. Perhaps the less said, the better.

We could designate 2020 the Year of the Bat and leave it at that. Bats, it turns out, are the only mammals capable of flight. To get airborne — and stay that way — bat bodies must withstand sudden internal caloric explosions. Imagine being able to burn 16 times more energy than normal. That’s what bats do. By accomplishing this without blowing up also accounts for why they are uniquely capable of absorbing — and transmitting — the deadliest viruses on the planet without being killed in the process.

This qualifies as one of the mysterious miracles of modern evolution. It also is responsible for the deadly global pandemic that now has us cowering in our makeshift bunkers waiting for it to be over. That so many Homo sapiens — allegedly the most intelligent animal on the planet — choose not to accept this reality qualifies as another one of the great mysteries of modern evolution.

The good news, of course, is that things could be much worse. We do have vaccines, after all. And in less than a month, Donald Trump will no longer occupy the White House, no matter how much kicking and screaming we’re forced to endure in the meantime. Trump governed exactly as he campaigned — by prolonged temper tantrum. Should we expect anything more from his defeat? A dignified exit?

As we batten down the hatches in hopes of weathering the coming storms, all I can say is thank God for the small absurdities surrounding us.

Why did the City of Santa Barbara, for example, provoke an international incident by dissing the City of Dingle, unceremoniously stripping that picturesque Irish seaport town of its sister city status? Since that transpired, Fungie, the only dolphin swimming in Dingle Bay, has mysteriously disappeared. Was it really worth it?

And how is it that the equally picturesque town of Solvang has been seized by two years of nonstop civil strife, culminating in the recall of a city councilmember who was such a caustic and contemptuous character that 92 percent of the townspeople voted to give him the heave-ho?

The good news is that the Santa Barbara City Council decided to convert State Street, from Haley to Sola, into a pedestrian boulevard — still open to bicycles, electric bikes, skateboards, electric skateboards, and of course dogs, and all the businesses along the way.

This, of course, has been talked about since the 1980s. But desperate times call for obvious remedies. Surprisingly, we chose not to ignore something merely because it was, well, so obvious.

Government agencies and the people who would lead them tend to be long on fallibility, making them easy sport, especially for reporters like me. Every now and then, however, thanks must be given.

As our community struggled to navigate through the deadly minefield of COVID-19, County Supervisor Gregg Hart, this year’s titular head of the board, began convening regular press events where our medical professionals could answer questions and transparently explain to the public what was happening. As of last counting, Hart convened 75 such events. December 22 would be his last.

The plot, of course, keeps shifting, as do the rules. Remember the early days when we were still arguing whether it was necessary to ban cruise ships from the Santa Barbara harbor? How sweetly naïve. We had no clue.

Hart, being the good son that he is, encouraged us all to be sure to call our mothers. Maybe that’s the real message of 2020. Call your mothers.

Adam Driver at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
Brad Pitt at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
Sammy Miller and the Congregation play at UCSB’s Campbell Hall.
Macy Jackson participates in a protest demanding higher wages for UCSB graduate students.
First District Supervisor Das Williams celebrates a March primary election-night win.
Signs promote social distancing at a COVID-19 press conference.
A health-care worker administers a COVID-19 test at Sansum Clinic.
People age 65 and older wait to enter Gelson’s. During the pandemic, several grocery stores designated special shopping times for seniors.
People age 65 and older form a line outside Gelson’s.
The Walker family poses for the Independent’s “Windows on Our World” portrait series.
A rooftop parking lot sits totally empty at the start of the pandemic.
Dune Coffee’s Jackson Nemitz takes a customer’s order from six feet away in April, a month before the county’s mask mandate.
Mayor Cathy Murillo runs the City Council meeting alone from the council chambers.
Sheriff Bill Brown holds a sign posted throughout Santa Barbara County encouraging people to stay six feet apart.
Dr. Van Do-Reynoso, director of the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department.
Dr. Rob Wright, head of Cottage Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit.
Laura Gross Shaffer sews a mask at her art studio.
On May Day, demonstrators demand COVID financial relief for the working class.
Tent Merchant owner John Leenhouwer removes the business’s “Closed” sign and replaces it with one offering curbside pickup.
Santa Barbara Foodbank volunteers and National Guard troops fill boxes at the organization’s emergency warehouse in Goleta.
Blue lights honoring Santa Barbara’s health-care workers illuminate the Sea Center on Stearns Wharf.
Harry’s Restaurant server Adrienne Perry stands on State Street.
CALM therapist Jill McGonigle
Jay Schwartz works on a 12′ x 50′ street painting, part of this year’s online I Madonnari Festival.
Customers enjoy a meal at Holdren’s Steak & Seafood in a parklet on State Street.
Santa Barbarans take to the streets to protest the killing of George Floyd.
Black Lives Matter protesters lay on the street for eight minutes and 46 seconds, the same length of time a Minneapolis police officer knelt on George Floyd’s neck as he slowly died.
Santa Barbara High School graduate Jacob Barrios has his photo taken by a family member during the school’s drive-through graduation ceremony.
A plane drops flame retardant on the Drum Fire just west of Buellton.
The Foodbank’s Michelle Conran (left) and Jesse Aguilar, along with a member of the National Guard, move a cart of fresh food.
Detail of a flamingo at the Santa Barbara Zoo
Martha Santos and other employees of the still-closed Four Seasons Biltmore Resort protest the company’s lack of communication with its workers
Bike riders head down State Street during the annual Fiesta Cruiser Ride.
Harding Elementary School teacher Emily Williams demonstrates online instruction for Superintendent Hilda Maldonado and Harding Principal Veronica Binkley.
Jason Harka and Erin Adamic embrace during an event marking the one-year anniversary of the Conception boat fire.
Suzanne Michaud drops off her ballot outside the County Elections Office.
Lakers fans celebrate the final seconds of the 2020 NBA Championship outside Sharkeez on State Street.
Kaitland Ely-Sweet (left) announces a federal lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Office over the deaths of her mother and brother.
Ivy Meyers holds up a practice ballot during a poll worker training session at Santa Barbara City College.
Marymount School students take part in an outdoor class.
Voters fill out their ballots at a downtown polling station.
School boardmembers (from left) Rose Muñoz, Jacqueline Reid, and Wendy Sims-Moten attend the board’s first partially in-person meeting.
An anti-shutdown protester holds a sign outside Tre Lune in Montecito.
Best of Santa Barbara® winner for Columnist, our very own Nick Welsh
State Assembly candidate Charles Cole celebrates election-night results during the March primary. He would go on to lose to Steve Bennett in November’s runoff election.
Gelson’s employees wipe down carts for people 65 years old and older early in the morning. Gelson’s is one of many grocery stores that have opened early for seniors.
Sammie Atkinson-Nicolls packs up food orders at the Black Sheep, one of many Santa Barbara restaurants that responded to pandemic restrictions by switching to takeout only.
Two men enjoy Hana Kitchen on the sidewalk in May, when restaurants were allowed to offer outdoor seating.
The West Wind Drive-In movie theater in Goleta was a popular place for arts organizations to host films and fundraisers.
Pat Trusela, a resident of Mariposa at Ellwood Shores
Dr. Beth Prinz tests a patient in a car outside of an S.B. Neighborhood Clinic in Goleta in August.
Angelica Falcon and James Fuller learn to set up the electronic voting machine during poll worker training at Santa Barbara City College in October.
Dylan Escobar (left) and Maddy Smith cast their ballots an Isla Vista voting site on October 31, the first day the polls opened in Santa Barbara County.
The May family poses as part of the Independent’s “Windows on Our World” portrait series.
Clients practice social distancing as they line up outside the Unity Shoppe in downtown Santa Barbara.
Cars drive through to pick up boxes of food at Carpinteria Children’s Project, one of the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County’s 54 pickup locations. Since the pandemic, the Foodbank has distributed between 65,000 and 85,000 pounds of food each day.
Volunteers for the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County load up cars with food to be delivered to community members who cannot leave their homes due to COVID-19. The Foodbank has made more than 21,000 deliveries since the beginning of March.
UCSB students, grad students, and faculty protest at UCSB, demanding higher wages for grad students.
Protesters march against police brutality and for racial justice in May.
Iration plays songs from their new album during their album release live stream at SOhO in Santa Barbara.
Nika Babaie holds up a drawing at the table where she’s attending kindergarten in James and Tanya Fenkner’s backyard, where the group will hold kindergarten lessons in-person as an alternative to the mandatory distance-learning offered by public schools. The trend, growing in popularity among parents unhappy with distance learning, is dubbed as a “pandemic pod.”
Dahlia Alvarez takes her 1st grade class online during the first day of school at Harding Elementary in Santa Barbara. Alvarez is the daughter of a teacher and is able to do her online class at the school.
Sophie Ninja Blair plays in a backyard where she’s part of a pandemic pod for kindergarten.